tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80014026133240674752024-02-17T09:53:42.232-08:00Anti- Imperialist UHugo Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12229123097438571385noreply@blogger.comBlogger174125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8001402613324067475.post-60098384008345565472024-02-17T09:52:00.000-08:002024-02-17T09:52:40.332-08:00History of Fascism in Ukraine Part 4 V.2<p><span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">History of Fascism in Ukraine Part 4 1962-1992: The Global OUN Network in Exile, ABN The Fascist International, The Destabilization of the USSR and the Rebirth of Fascism in Ukraine</span></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> With Special Thanks to Dr. T.P. Wilkinson</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> A brief scandal erupted in Canada on 22 September 2023 when, during Ukrainian President Zelensky’s visit to Canada’s House of Commons, Anthony Rota, Speaker of the House, praised a 98-year-old veteran of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Waffen SS</span> “Galicia” division Yaroslav Hunka to the applause of Zelensky and the entire House as a hero who had fought Russia during World War 2 as a member of the Ukrainian National Army. Ukrainian Canadian scholar Ivan Kochanavoski quickly uncovered Hunka’s back story since it is well known that the Ukrainian National Army was in fact the Ukrainian 14th <span style="font-style: italic;">Waffen SS</span> “Galicia” division, renamed a couple weeks before the end of World War 2. A Jewish Ukrainian-American journalist, Lev Golinkin, who had been trying to expose the monuments the Ukrainian diaspora had erected to the <span style="font-style: italic;">Waffen SS</span> “Galicia”, the OUN/B and the UPA in Canada and the U.S. picked up the story and unpredictably it actually received a couple of days of mainstream coverage. The Speaker of Canada’s lower house was forced to resign, although the HM Canadian Government dismissed the negative reactions. Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, only responded by affirming that his government and Canada stood solidly behind Ukraine. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Trudeau’s hawkish Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland who has often praised her Nazi collaborator Ukrainian grandfather Michael Chomiak and been photographed waving the red and black flag of the genocidal OUN-UPA remained untouched. Canada’s powerful Ukraine lobby had briefly been a victim of its own success. It was used to being immune to criticism of its glorification of fascist war criminals. In the wake of the “Nazigate” scandal it was revealed that the Canadian government had given over USD 2 million to OUN front groups and the University of Alberta and its Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies had a dozen endowments named after <span style="font-style: italic;">Waffen SS</span> veterans and other Ukrainian fascists and collaborators including Yaroslav Hunka. Edmonton Canada home to University of Alberta is also a home to monuments to the <span style="font-style: italic;">Waffen SS</span> “Galicia” and the mythical “Holodomor.” It has been the site of many celebrations of Stepan Bandera, the OUN/B, the UPA and the <span style="font-style: italic;">Waffen SS</span> “Galicia”. Canada’s Nazi monuments are built at taxpayer expense and perversely justified as celebrating Canada’s multicultural heritage. Vandalizing these monuments is considered a hate crime.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> 40 years ago in the United States there had also been a series of scandals related to the Ukraine lobby that were quickly forgotten as the Cold War ended. The <span style="font-style: italic;">Village Voice</span> exposed fascist war criminal Mykola Lebed Stepan Bandera’s former head of intelligence a notorious torturer who ran the OUN/B’s assassination programs living happily in New York under CIA protection. Journalists exposed the World Anti-Communist League which united drug dealing fascist mass murderers in Asia and Latin America with former Nazi collaborators lead by Yaroslav Stetsko’s ABN, along with conservative politicians in the U.S. and Europe. Yaroslav Stetsko and his wife Slava had been invited to meet with Congress, President Reagan and Vice President George Bush in July 1983. The year before, in 1982, Congress had flown the red and black OUN-UPA flag over the U.S. Capitol building. Then in 1988 journalist Russ Bellant who had spent a few years infiltrating the meetings of the ABN, the OUN/B controlled Ukraine lobby, and the remnants of the Romanian Iron Guard exposed the Republican Party’s decades long alliance with fascist émigrés as part of its Republican Heritage Groups Council. Eight members of Bush’s Presidential campaign were forced to resign including Ukrainian-American OUN/B members Bohdan Fedorak and Ignatius M. Billinsky. Fedorak had received visits from both Reagan in 1984 and Bush in 1988. Bush had nodded approvingly when Fedorak had ranted about the need to stop the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations halfhearted campaign to hunt down Nazi war criminals. After Stetsko’s death Fedorak became head of the OUN/B’s government in exile. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> This was the era when Christopher Simpson’s book <span style="font-style: italic;">Blowback</span> came out on U.S. intelligence use of former Nazis including the Ukrainian fascists. Such shocking revelations were suppressed by the mainstream press and then largely forgotten with the end of the “Cold War”. Meanwhile before President Bush had left office the OUN/B had moved its headquarters from Munich to Kiev and Ukrainian presses were busy churning out OUN propaganda. Ukraine was soon home to a number of fascist movements inspired by the legacy of the OUN. In 2004, the “Orange Revolution” brought Viktor Yuschenko to power. His wife Kateryna (her maiden name was Chumachenko) was a member of the OUN/B dominated Ukrainian American diaspora and had served in the Reagan administration. She had been mentored by Lev Dobriansky who dominated the Ukraine Lobby, the Captive Nations Movement, and co-created the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. After the 2014 coup in Ukraine, when neo-Nazi paramilitary groups provided the muscle to overthrow President Yanukovych, the shocking truths exposed back in the 1980s became more relevant than ever. New generations of researchers began tracking down old books to understand the hidden history of fascism in Ukraine. The seeds of the 2014 coup were already being planted in the early 1990s.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> The Ukraine lobby’s tentacles stretch around the world. The OUN/B have been able to retain a high degree of influence over the lobby and in many cases total control of it. I have compiled a partial list which is bound to be incomplete. On the international level there is the Ukrainian World Congress originally called World Congress of Free Ukrainians founded in 1967, the same year as the World Anti-Communist League or WACL. There is also the International Council in Support of Ukraine originally the World Ukrainian Liberation Front. In Britain there is the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain, an OUN/B front that created a secret Stepan Bandera museum in Nottingham that was later moved to London. There is also the Federation of Ukrainians in Great Britain. In Australia there is the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organizations headed by the former worldwide head of the OUN/B Stefan Romaniw. In Canada there is the UCC the Ukrainian Canadian Congress which is influenced by the OUN as well as the League of Ukrainian Canadians, an OUN/B front. The CYM, the Ukrainian Youth Association, is the youth branch of the UCC. Youth branches have long played a vital role in preserving the OUN/B. The Bandera generation had been indoctrinated from an early age in the youth group SUM and the scouting organization Plast and they recreated these groups in exile. Without the youth groups the OUN/B movement would have died out from old age long ago. Instead they have managed to indoctrinate their children and grandchildren. In Ukraine itself children receive not just indoctrination but paramilitary training in summer camps. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> In the U.S. there is the UCCA the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America which was strongly influenced by the OUN/B until 1980 when the OUN/B staged a complete takeover, masterminded by Askold Lozynskyj. The UCCA has a propaganda branch, the Ukrainian National Information Service. The OUN/B also operate the front group ODFFU, the Organization for the Defense of the Four Freedoms of Ukraine, founded in 1946. The Ukraine lobby’s youth group is the Ukrainian American Youth Association. There are at least five OUN/B run summer camps in the U.S. In the U.S. the Ukraine lobby was and is part of a vast network of right wing lobbies and think tanks like the Heritage foundation, the Coalition for Peace Through Strength, the Council on National Policy, and the Atlantic Council. It is also allied with all the fascist émigré groups (Croatian Ustashe, Hungarian Arrow Cross, Romanian Iron Guard etc.) both globally and domestically through the ABN, the Captive Nations Movement, and the Republican Heritage Groups Council. In the years since Bellant’s exposé the Ukraine lobby has also built close ties to the Democratic Party. In each country where the OUN/B operates its lobby group is an umbrella group made up of dozens of member organizations like <span style="font-style: italic;">Waffen SS</span> “Galicia” and UPA veterans groups. They operate cultural centers in various cities that glorify OUN/B leaders like Stepan Bandera, and Roman Shukhevych. They are allied to Greek Catholic Church and elements of the Ukrainian Orthodox churches. They have their own musical groups, theatrical companies, and literary societies. The Ukrainian nationalists have their own calendar of holidays to bring them together semi-regularly. There is Stepan Bandera’s birthday 1 January and the anniversary of his death 15 October. On 30 June 1941 they celebrate the OUN/B declaration of Ukrainian Independence, the third week in July is Captive Nations week, they also celebrate the anniversary of the founding of the UPA. They dress in Ukrainian folk costumes or in their Hitler youth style youth group uniforms sing, read poems and put on plays to celebrate.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> A key figure in both the UCCA and the National Captive Nations Committee or NCNC was Lev Dobriansky, whom I introduced at the end of part 3 of this series where he attended the unveiling of the Stepan Bandera monument in Ellenville, New York home to an OUN/B summer camp. Dobriansky was a veteran of military intelligence and was born in America. It is unclear (none of my sources discussed his childhood or parents) but seems likely that his parents were part of the pro-OUN diaspora in the U.S. before the war. In any case by 1948 Dobriansky became a political adviser to the UCCA and would gradually move into the orbit of the OUN/B. He remained a reserve member of military intelligence while serving as an economics professor at Georgetown University a school that played a key role in training U.S. “cold warriors” for future work at the CIA or state department. Dobrianksy was also a member of Young Americans for Freedom a right wing group that laid the seeds for the later Reagan counter-revolution. Dobriansky is believed to have played a key role in helping the Moonies, a cult backed by the Korean CIA that was a key player in WACL. The Moonies used bribery and sex trafficking to exert tremendous influence over Congress in what became known as the Koreagate scandal. Originally Dobriansky had been neutral on the split between the OUN/B headed by Bandera and Stetsko and the CIA backed UHVR (Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council) headed by Mykola Lebed, a notorious sadist and Nazi collaborator according to American intelligence. Lebed had recommended that Dobriansky and another military intelligence veteran and OUN member Walter Dushnyk head the Voice of America’s Ukrainian section. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Dobriansky attracted the attention of the CIA when he bragged that the UCCA was in direct contact with “resistance movements” behind the Iron Curtain which he compared to an ideological atom bomb. In 1952 the CIA sent Dobriansky and Dushnyk on a fact finding mission to Europe to see if there was any way to unite the Russian fascist émigrés who had joined Vlasov’s armies and the Ukrainian OUN/B émigrés for CIA operations director Frank Wisner’s AMCOMLIB. Dobriansky gave up in disgust deciding that the CIA was full of “Russia Firsters.” From 1957-1958 Dobriansky taught at the National War College. In January 1958, Dobriansky was commissioned a lieutenant colonel in the US Army Reserve, assigned to the 352 Civil Affairs Command whose job it was contingency planning for installation of American puppet states in the wake of mid-east invasions. Meanwhile Dobriansky also kept busy on Capitol Hill as a consultant to the House Committee to Investigate Soviet Aggression and testifying on the Communist menace to the House UnAmerican Activities Committee. In 1962 Allen Dulles and host of luminaries listened to Dobriansky’s lectures on Psywar at Fort Meade.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Dobriansky’s greatest triumph was to write and get passed the Captive Nations resolution which President Eisenhower signed into law on 17 July 1959. Captive Nations was a reference to the socialist world. Working for the benefit of society instead of to line the pockets of multinational corporations was, according to Cold War propaganda, the worst form of slavery imaginable and the entire communist world was viewed as one giant prison camp. Fascist émigrés who had helped the Nazis enslave their own people and carry out genocide were considered freedom fighters and heroes. In Ukraine for example the Nazis had captured 2.5 million people to be used as forced laborers and killed more then a million civilians. They had deliberately starved 3.5 million Red Army prisoners to death, many of whom were Ukrainians. Ukrainian nationalists portray themselves as a national liberation movement but they are willing to turn Ukraine into a colony for any empire to exploit and ultimately destroy so long as the imperialists are westerners Germans, British or American and not Russians.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> The Captive Nations resolution institutionalized this Cold War mythology that demonized the communist world and whitewashed the histories of the former Nazi collaborators turned “freedom fighters.” Even a “Cold warrior” like Dean Rusk thought it was “one of the wildest kinds of Cold War things you’ve ever seen in your life.” Every year the Captive Nations movement would call for not just the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact but also the dismantling of the Soviet Union itself. Even that was not enough they also wanted to dismember Russia, “liberating” countries that only existed in the unrealized plans of Alfred Rosenberg, chief of Hitler’s Ostministerium, like the “Idal Urals” and “Cossackia”. In 1960 the National Captive Nations Committee was created with Lev Dobriansky serving as its head. His co-founder was Lee Edwards a very influential player on the right wing political scene. Also in 1960 Dobriansky got Eisenhower to sign into law a plan to build a monument to Taras Shevchenko, the 19th century Ukrainian poet who made Ukrainian a literary language, inspiring the birth of Ukrainian nationalism. The monument lead to a feud between Lebed and Dobriansky over whether the OUN/B or the UHVR would get to deposit Ukrainian soil at the monument.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> By 1965 Dobriansky was openly exposing the CIA’s backing of Prolog while Lebed was demanding the CIA pressure Dobriansky to shut up. The year before Dobriansky had served as vice chair of the Republican Party’s Nationalities Division for the Goldwater presidential campaign. Dobriansky would remain a key figure in the Republican Heritage Groups Council which used fascist émigrés to get out the vote in their ethnic communities. The program had been set up during the 1952 Eisenhower campaign and would be fully institutionalized by Nixon’s 1968 campaign victory. Dobriansky would be a key member of the U.S. branches of the World Anti-Communist League the ACWF and the USCWF. He was close to Stefan Possony, who claimed he was responsible for Reagan’s infamous SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative) or “Star Wars”, in retrospect an expensive way to line the pockets of the military industrial complex working on super weapons that 40 years later are still impossible. Viewed as a psyop against the Soviet Union, it may have succeeded in terrorizing the spineless Mikhail Gorbachev. Possony was also an expert on Pan-Turkism and the Promethean League who doubtless played a behind the scenes role in the U.S. weaponization of fundamentalist Islam. For decades Dobriansky was the OUN/B’s most important lobbyist in the U.S. For example, Dobriansky finally managed to get Yaroslav Stetsko a visa in 1958. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> President Reagan began his presidential campaign at an ethnic Labor Day festival with close ties to the captive nations movement. Once he was elected he rewarded Lev Dobriansky by making him Ambassador to the Bahamas where he blocked a number of drug enforcement cases that could have interfered with his WACL allies drug smuggling during the Iran/Contra era. Dobriansky’s career is an example of deep politics Ukrainian-American style connecting the worlds of military, intelligence, academia, NGO’s, political lobbying, fascism and drugs. His daughter Paula Dobriansky who served on Reagan’s National Security Council became a powerful State Department official serving as George W. Bush’s Undersecretary for Global affairs at the time of her father’s death in 2008. She was also a member of PNAC (Project for a New American Century). She was one of a number of Ukrainian Americans with close ties to the Ukraine lobby who were given influential positions in government during the Reagan and Bush years. Today Paula Dobriansky serves on the Atlantic Council.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> In addition to working as spies and setting up lobbies the OUN friendly Ukrainian diaspora also managed to gain control of the academic study of Ukraine. By the 1980s their distorted view of history had become the accepted mainstream version. Those Ukrainian scholars that refused to whitewash the history of the OUN/B, the UPA and the <span style="font-style: italic;">Waffen SS</span> “Galicia” division like John-Paul Himka and Per Anders Rudling would later become pariahs among their fellow Ukrainians for exposing the OUN/B role in the Holocaust during the 1990s. The whole field of area studies was to some extent a CIA brainchild to fight the Cold War. Like the British before them the American Empire would need an army of experts. Harvard and Yale are notorious for their CIA ties. Harvard is home to HURI the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute founded in 1973. HURI promoted Ukrainian nationalist narratives and demonizes the Soviet Union. Mykola Lebed spent a lifetime retyping and falsifying the records of the OUN/B and the UPA and when Lebed died he donated his papers to HURI. In the 1990s HURI invited Volodymyr Viatrovych to study this whitewashed history. He has since become infamous back in Ukraine as a “holocaust distorter” and glorifier of the OUN-UPA. He headed the infamous UINP the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory and wrote Ukraine’s laws dismantling communist institutions and introducing provisions such as those that made it illegal to criticize the OUN-UPA or the <span style="font-style: italic;">Waffen SS</span> division or to praise the Soviet Union. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">In Canada there is the University of Alberta’s Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) founded in 1976. It churns out books that whitewash the role of the OUN-UPA in Ukraine. CIUS teamed up with the Shevchenko Scientific Society to create a Ukrainian encyclopedia edited by the top Ukrainian Nazi collaborator during the war, Volodymyr Kubiiovych, who played a major role in the creation of the 14th <span style="font-style: italic;">Waffen SS</span> “Galicia” division. The encyclopedia presented a pro-OUN/B version of Ukrainian history and did not even have an entry on the organized mass murders perpetrated also in Ukraine. As I mentioned in the introduction CIUS has over USD 2 million in endowments named in honor of a dozen Ukrainian fascists including Kubiiovych. More extreme then either HURI or CIUS is the OUN/B dominated Free University of Ukraine (UVU) which was located in Munich with a branch in New York City. Many of its professors were OUN leaders, UPA veterans and <span style="font-style: italic;">Waffen SS</span> “Galicia” veterans. Shockingly many Ukrainian war criminals ended up as University professors at prestigious American or Canadian Universities.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> In the 1980s the Ukrainian nationalist dominance of academia was used to launch a campaign to recognize the Ukrainian famine as a deliberate genocide carried out by the Soviet Union. They dubbed it the Holodomor in order to counter the popularity of the term the Holocaust. The OUN it will be remembered were living in what was then Poland during the famine which took place across the Soviet Union during collectivization. They did not experience it themselves and it was a cynical ploy to use it to justify their crimes during the war. In order to dramatize the Holodomor they relied on photos used in the Hearst press anti-Soviet propaganda campaign that echoed the earlier Nazi German Propaganda campaign in the 1930s. By the time the Hearst press covered the famine it was already over and the photos they used were actually from the much earlier famine during the Russian civil war. The photos were credited to journalist Thomas Walker who was in reality the escaped convict and forger Robert Green. His reporting on the famine was exposed as equally fraudulent by other Americans who had been in the Soviet Union at the time. There was no way the Soviets would have let an American journalist wander freely about Ukraine at the time. The U.S. press exposed the fraud back in the 1930s yet Harvard and the University of Alberta still used the fraudulent photos and fake accounts in their campaign to get the Holodomor recognized as genocide in the 1980s. They put together the documentary “Harvest of Despair” using these discredited photos. They churned out books on the topic. They hoped to make the Holodomor part of the Canadian school curriculum. Sadly 40 years later the Holodomor myth lives on propagated by unscrupulous academics like Timothy Snyder. Canada has recently announced plans to add the Holodomor to the school curriculum and has a USD 400,000 Holodomor bus project to travel the country propagandizing the public.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> The CIA front Prolog Research Corporation headed by Mykola Lebed the former head of the OUN/B’s intelligence branch the SB. Prolog was the most prestigious Ukrainian intellectual and cultural institution during the Cold War. All the top Ukrainian poets, intellectuals, and academics were published by Prolog and few realized it was a CIA front. During the war Lebed had trained his men at the Gestapo school by kidnapping random Jews and torturing them until they made false confessions before killing them. He also ran the OUN/B assassination program targeting political rivals and suspected traitors. In 1949 the CIA had illegally smuggled him into to the U.S. so he could run his CIA backed UHVR faction of the OUN/B. Lebed’s old ally Ivan Hrn’okh stayed behind in Munich to run the Prolog branch there which had a huge press churning out CIA propaganda. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Starting in 1960 the CIA trained Anatol Kaminsky to spot potential informants. Kaminsky was soon operating a network of informants who interviewed travelers from Soviet Ukraine to gather information and recruit agents. By 1966 Kaminsky was Prolog’s chief operations officer. Prolog provided the CIA detailed intelligence on Ukrainian artists, politicians, and dissidents. In late 1960s Ukraine, a generation of dissidents arose who would be called in Ukrainian the Shistdesiatnyky, “the 60s Generation”. Influenced by Prolog and by prior nationalists strains in Ukrainian culture some of them would become sympathetic to the OUN-UPA. Dissident Valentyn Moroz was inspired by Dmytro Dontsov and became an ardent admirer of the OUN-UPA. The Soviets deported Moroz to the West where he participated in OUN/B marches memorializing Stepan Bandera. Many dissidents were sent to prison where they mingled with UPA veterans and began to admire them, although remaining liberals. This crackdown was in part due to concern over Prolog’s influence. The “60s Gen”, for convenience, would lead one of the two main dissident factions in Ukraine responsible for dissolving the Soviet Union, during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The other was Rukh. Both were liberal groups that sympathized with and had ties to fascists. It was an alliance that would bear fruit in the 2004 and 2014 coups in Ukraine. 1960s Ukraine also saw the revival of an OUN inspired fascist movement the Ukrainian National Front. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> In addition to influencing and keeping track of Ukraine’s dissident movement Prolog provided intelligence on the KGB, as well as Soviet missile and airbases. Thus it provided information to the U.S. that might have been used to destroy Ukraine in a nuclear war, just as the UPA had done during the 1940s and 1950s. In 1975 Mykola Lebed retired as head of Prolog although he remained an adviser and a consultant. In 1978 Roman Kupinsky, a Ukrainian journalist who had only been one year old at the end of the war, became Chief of Prolog. In 1977 President Carter’s National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski approved an expansion of Prolog. Brzezinski a Pole from Galicia drew inspiration from the Pilsudski backed Promethean League which aimed to use Soviet minorities (with particular focus on Ukrainians and Pan-Turkists in Central Asia) to destroy the Soviet Union. Appropriately it was Brzezinski who funded the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan to provoke a Soviet Invasion, a strategy that helped lead to the fall of the Soviet Union and the birth of Al Qaeda. In the 1990s Brzezinski would write of the need to get Ukraine into the Western orbit which he felt would prevent Russia from ever becoming a world power again.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> In the 1980s Prolog was expanded to target other Soviet minorities including ironically Soviet Jews. By at least as early as the mid 1970s the Ukraine lobby, the Israel lobby and the neo-conservatives had formed an alliance to oppose Detente with the Soviet Union. The Ukraine Lobby and the Neo-cons were united by membership in hawkish think tanks like the American Security Council. The Israel Lobby hoped to destroy the USSR so that Soviet Jews would move to Israel. This explains why many Jewish organizations have remained silent while monuments to the <span style="font-style: italic;">SS</span> were being built. It is also partly why Paula Dobriansky joined PNAC and why Neo-con Victoria Nuland supervised a neo-Nazi coup in Ukraine in 2014. It would require a separate article to do justice to the topic of Zionist ties to Nazis and other fascists including Ukrainian fascists. However I will at least mention that Benjamin Netanyahu’s father was the secretary to Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the fascist founder of revisionist Zionism, who formed an alliance with Ukrainian nationalist Simon Petliura, whose forces were infamous for slaughtering Jews during the Russian civil war. This is only the tip of the iceberg of connections between Israel and Ukraine.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> It would be interesting to know what role Prolog had in destabilizing the Eastern bloc during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The Ukrainian dissidents of this era modeled themselves on and maintained close ties to Polish <span style="font-style: italic;">Solidarity</span>, the Lithuanian and other Baltic independence groups. At least Polish <span style="font-style: italic;">Solidarity</span> was heavily funded by the CIA via Vatican cut outs. In 1985 the General Accounting Office mentioned Lebed and the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations, which had been created to hunt down Nazi War criminals living in the U.S., began an investigation of Lebed. The CIA denied that Lebed had any connection to the Nazis and blocked the OSI investigation which was quietly dropped in 1991. In 1990 the CIA gave Prolog USD 1.75 million and supposedly gave up control of it. Prolog was privatized and would operate independently although realistically the CIA would have maintained secret ties after this. Lebed would make frequent trips to Ukraine after it gained independence working to revive fascism there. In 1998 Lebed died and his papers (which he had heavily falsified) were donated to the Harvard Ukrainian Research institute.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> In 1966 the World Anti-Communist League or WACL was formed. It was the most sinister and scandalous organization in the Cold War (other then the CIA). It united fascists, terrorists, death squads, drug dealers, organized crime and mind control cults with “respectable” politicians under the banner of Anti-Communism. I’ve been obsessed with it for a decade but it’s received remarkably little attention. It ties all the CIA’s dirty wars, terrorism and drug smuggling together. The most powerful WACL sections were the Ukrainian controlled ABN (Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations) founded in 1946 and the Taiwanese and South Korean controlled APACL (Asian People’s Anti-Communist League.) The ABN was headed by Yaroslav Stetsko Bandera’s right hand man who had declared Ukrainian “Independence” on 30 June 1941 in the hopes of founding a Nazi Puppet state like Croatia or Slovakia and then unleashed the horrific Lviv Pogroms which massacred 10,000 Jews in sadistic fashion in a couple days. Stetsko had founded the ABN on instructions of MI6 in 1946 although it traced its roots to the earlier Nazi-backed version created in 1943. The ABN then absorbed both the Intermarium and the Promethean League. The ABN united all the Nazi collaborators from central and Eastern Europe except the Russians. Each nation had its own fascist movement and <span style="font-style: italic;">Waffen SS</span> branch that recruited from it. In Hungary there was the Arrow Cross, in Romania the Iron Guard, in Slovakia the Hlinka Guard in Croatia the Ustashi, in Bulgaria the Bulgarian Legion. During the Cold War these escaped war criminals claimed to be legitimate governments in exile. And the Ukrainian OUN/B led the ABN. This was also an interesting time for the OUN/B’s old allies the Croatian Ustashi who during the 1970s would carry out bombings, plane hijackings, and assassinations. There was a great deal of overlap between the Captive Nations, the ABN, Coalition for Peace through Strength’s ethnic Affiliates and the Republican Heritage Groups Councils.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> APACL was founded in 1954 in the aftermath of the Korean War. Stetsko and other ABN leaders would make frequent trips to Taiwan to attend APACL meetings. Taiwan was created by the retreating nationalist KMT forces who fled China before Mao’s victory, ferried by elements of the US Navy. In 1947 the KMT massacred 10,000 native Taiwanese (Formosans) who tried to rise up against what they considered occupation. The KMT had also controlled the global heroin trade since before World War 2. KMT guerrillas set up shop in Laos and Burma controlling the “golden triangle” heroin trade. Taiwan’s powerful “China Lobby” used their drug money to bankroll Joe McCarthy and the Red Scare of the 1950s which targeted critics of the KMT. South Korea was a brutal fascist dictatorship set up by the Americans after World War 2. With the support of the USMIGK, it massacred tens of thousands of suspected communists before the Korean War even began. The biggest backer of APACL in South Korea, Park Chung Hee, seized power in a coup in 1961. During the Korean War the U.S. would kill an estimated three million Koreans, mainly civilians, in the most ferocious saturation bombing campaign in history until that time. In addition U.S. Forces waged biological warfare, primarily in the Yalu Valley, against Korean and Chinese people. Other APACL members included the notorious Japanese war criminals and Yakuza members Ryoichi Sasakawa and Yoshio Kodama. Sasakawa and Kodama were major backers of the South Korean CIA’s (KCIA) pet project the Unification Church better known as the Moonie cult. Reverend Sun Myun Moon hoped to become dictator of global theocracy and elevated himself above Jesus Christ in the Moonies’ theology. Moon’s drug money laundering empire was used to bankroll the Christian right, set up anti-communist think tanks, bribe politicians, and helped launch the Bolivian cocaine coup. APACL also included Laos, Cambodia, and South Vietnam where the U.S. would slaughter more millions during the 1960s and early 1970s. The Laotian WACL delegate was arrested with a suitcase full of heroin precursor in France.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> The Latin American branch went through several name changes but was most infamous as CAL (Latin American anti-communist confederation) dominated by the bizarre Mexican secret society the Tecos. The Tecos were a pro-Nazi group that dominated the Autonomous University of Guadalajara. The Tecos caused WACL’s first major public scandal when they handed out deranged semi-pornographic propaganda leaflets attacking the Vatican as dominated by Jews and freemasons. This offended the U.S. WACL branch, the ACWF, which would eventually disband over the controversy. Yet these same ACWF members who claimed to be horrified by the Tecos had no problem with the Ukrainian fascists or the ABN. More importantly CAL included the most notorious fascist death squad leaders in Latin America, members of Operation Condor in South America, and the notorious fascist killers Roberto D’Aubuisson in El Salvador and Mario Sandoval Alarcon in Guatemala. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Every part of the world had its WACL branch as well as many countries. For the sake of brevity all I will say about Western Europe is that WACL included Greek, Italian, Spanish, and other fascists as well Gladio terrorists from across NATO. The OUN/B also set up a European support group the European Freedom Council. Nor will I discuss the Middle East except to point out that many of WACL’s most active members were close Israeli allies (Argentina, Taiwan etc.) Apartheid South Africa was a major WACL backer and WACL was very interested in supporting U.S./South African proxy wars against (or in) Zimbabwe, Namibia, Angola and Mozambique.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> The U.S. WACL branch was originally the ACWF the American Council for World Freedom. It included Lee Edwards and Lev Dobriansky among others. When it disbanded, the Council on American Affairs, headed by Roger Pearson, replaced it in 1976. Pearson was a British Nazi, white supremacist who had headed the fascist Northern League and yet remained a respectable member of the American Right, editing a number of journals. Pearson was expelled from WACL for being too fascist after briefly heading WACL worldwide and recruiting a bunch of <span style="font-style: italic;">SS</span> veterans into the group. Even after Pearson had been expelled from WACL for being too fascist President Reagan felt compelled to write him a letter praising his life work, which Pearson then used for fundraising.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> A new U.S. branch was created by General John Singlaub, the USCWF the U.S. Council on World Freedom. Singlaub was a former OSS/CIA/and military Special Forces veteran who would run WACL during its “golden age” under Ronald Reagan. Singlaub was an early OSS “China Cowboy” working with the KMT. He headed SOG the Special Operations Group in Vietnam where he helped the CIA carry out tens of thousands of Phoenix program assassinations. He was forced to resign as head of U.S. Forces in South Korea for publicly criticizing Carter’s plans to reduce U.S. troop strength there. He became a hero for right wing Americans. He joined the American Security Council with his friend General Daniel Graham former head of the DIA. The two took an infamous trip to Central America where they raised illegal campaign donations for Reagan and encouraged El Salvadoran and Guatemalan death squads to go on a rampage of mass murder. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Singlaub spoke at the 1980 APACL conference in 1980 where he met the Stetskos. In 1982 Singlaub visited OUN/B headquarters in Munich. By 1983 Singlaub was promoting the idea of the “holodomor.” In July 1983 Singlaub had arranged for the Stetsko’s to meet with President Reagan who told them “Your struggle is our struggle. Your dream is our dream.” They also met with Congress, Vice President Bush and U.N. Ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick. Under Singlaub’s leadership WACL would become actively involved in all the covert wars of the Reagan era. Singlaub became a key figure, exposed in the Iran/Contra scandal, managing arms sales and illegal supplies worth USD 20 – 30 million to the so-called Contras, the CIA’s terrorist surrogates attempting to overthrow the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. According to journalist Daniel Hopsicker, Singlaub owned the umbrella corporation that leased the drugs/arms smuggling planes used during Iran/Contra. WACL would reach its pinnacle in the 1984 conference in San Diego and its 1985 Dallas, Texas. There the stage was shared with drug smuggling Nicaraguan Contra death squad members and drug smuggling Afghan Mujahedeen terrorists. Yaroslav Stetsko was too ill to attend so his wife Slava “The Iron Lady” of the ABN/OUN/B went in his place. CMA, a bunch of mercenaries involved in aiding the Contras, provided security for the Dallas WACL conference. WACL vowed to supply support to “freedom fighters” (counter-revolutionary terrorists and death squads) in Angola, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Nicaragua, and Afghanistan. After the end of the Cold War Singlaub would be recruited to head the rebranded version of WACL the World League For Freedom and Democracy. Singlaub lived to the ripe old age of 98, only dying 29 January 2022. ABN head Yaroslav Stetsko would die in Munich on 5 July 1986. His wife Slava would succeed him. She was elected to the Ukrainian Rada (parliament) in the 1990s.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> The Reagan years in addition to being the golden age of WACL were also a golden age for the OUN/B diaspora in the U.S. One anonymous OUN/B member bragged to Russ Bellant, “You have to understand we are an Underground Organization. We have spent years quietly penetrating positions of influence.” Russ Bellant shows in his book that this was no idle boast. Lev Dobriansky’s daughter Paula Dobriansky was on the National Security Council. George Nesterczuk of the UCCA’s propaganda arm the UNIS (Ukrainian National Information Service) was appointed deputy director of the Office of Personnel Management and then in 1984 he was appointed deputy director of the U.S. Information Agency. Bohdan Futey was appointed head of the U.S. Foreign Claims Commission. Both Futey and Nesterczuk had close ties to Bohdan Fedorak who ran the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Warren, Michigan that Reagan visited for Captive Nations week during the 1984 election. Bush visited the same center in 1988 accompanied by Katherine Chumachenko former director of the UCCA’S National Captive Nations Committee, who would later marry Viktor Yushchenko and become first lady of Ukraine after the 2004 Orange Revolution (coup.) Yushchenko would have both Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych declared “Heroes of Ukraine.” Katherine Chumachenko was appointed Deputy Director for Public Liaison at the White House.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> When then Vice President George H. W. Bush ran for the presidency in 1988 his campaign suffered a brief Nazi-Gate scandal. Bush’s father Prescott Bush had been part of the same group of American businessmen who had illegally done business with the Nazis during the war, as had the Dulles brothers. In fact Prescott Bush had narrowly escaped having his assets seized by the U.S. government. Prescott Bush was a close friend with Allen Dulles. The CIA had secretly recruited George H.W. Bush in the 1950s, a fact he managed to hide when he became CIA director in 1976. 1976 was the year the Cuban exile terrorist group Alpha 66, also a member of the WACL, conducted a series of bombings including blowing up a Cuban airliner. It was the year when CIA director Bush looked the other way as Chilean intelligence orchestrated the car bombing which killed Chilean exile Orlando Letelier and a U.S. citizen Ronni Moffitt in the heart of the U.S. capital. It was the year when British Nazi Roger Pearson was put in charge of WACL.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Bush had also been elected to head the RNC in the mid 1970s so he was intimately informed about their infamous Ethnic Outreach program the Republican Heritage Groups Councils. It was the brainchild of President Eisenhower and the Dulles brothers. Eisenhower had run on a platform of “Rollback” i.e. covert war to “roll back” communism and “liberate” Eastern Europe. The Truman Administration’s overt foreign policy was containment but it had already adopted Rollback as its secret policy and had backed covert wars to destabilize the Eastern Bloc including of course the UPA in Ukraine. The Dulles brothers and Eisenhower were well aware of this since Allen Dulles ran the operations division at CIA, while the CIA director was Eisenhower’s old right hand man, General W.B. “Beedle” Smith. Furthermore the Soviets had had time to restore order and crush CIA-backed resistance movements. Yet Eisenhower hoped that the Rollback could be used to get votes from Americans of Eastern European dissent.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> This plan was carried out in the most sinister manner possible. The influx of fascist émigrés was encouraged to seize control of their ethnic communities and then get them to vote Republican. Many of them were escaped war criminals responsible as individuals for thousands of deaths. This was the GOP strategy to counter the Jewish support for democrats, to create a Nazi-voting bloc. It was also useful for institutionalizing the Cold War as these fascist émigrés were called upon to block any relaxation of Cold War tensions. Once Eisenhower was elected he opened the floodgates allowing a massive increase in the amount of former Nazi collaborators in the U.S. From 1952-1968 this was an informal arrangement. The fascist émigrés were mobilized only during Presidential elections. In 1968 Richard Nixon promised Laszlo Pasztor to make the arrangement permanent if he won. Nixon had been Eisenhower’s Vice President.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> The Republican Heritage Groups Council (RHGC) formed in 1969 after Nixon’s election victory and Laszlo Pasztor was made the Chairman. Pasztor had been a leader in the fascist Hungarian Arrow Cross’s youth branch and had then been appointed the Arrow Cross’s personal liaison to Adolf Hitler. Already by 1971 columnist Jack Anderson had exposed the Nazis on the RHGC but his expose was ignored and subsequently forgotten. By 1988 the RHGC consisted of 34 nationality federations and 25 state councils. It included fascists from Hungary, Romania, Belarus, Slovakia, Croatia, and of course Ukraine. Lev Dobriansky led the Ukrainians in the early years. It included former members of the Romanian Iron Guard, The Croatian Ustashi etc. When he was Governor of California Ronald Reagan had once endorsed 30 April 1941 as Croatian Independence Day. It was the day the Ustashi Nazi puppet state had been established before launching its genocidal campaign against Jews and Serbs that killed 750,000 people in the most brutal manner imaginable. Reagan was forced to backpedal. Journalist Russ Bellant spent years infiltrating the RHGC and the ABN. This was made easier by the fact that his hometown of Detroit was a hotbed of fascist émigré activity. In 1988 during the election he finally went public with his research and mailed copies of his forthcoming book <span style="font-style: italic;">The Old Nazis, and the New Right</span> to 20 media organizations. There were literal Nazis involved in the Bush campaign. Many were wanted war criminals who had killed thousands during the war. Only a couple of papers were courageous enough to pursue the story. The <span style="font-style: italic;">New York Times</span>, the <span style="font-style: italic;">Washington Post</span>, AP, Reuters and the T.V. refused to cover the story. Yet there was enough of a scandal for the Bush campaign to force eight of its members including the Ukrainian-American Bohdan Fedorak to resign. Or so the Bush campaign claimed. Often journalists discovered that Bush campaign whenever asked about RHGC members would say they had resigned but when they asked the RHGC members about it they were still working on the campaign. The RNC promised to do a full investigation which they never carried out. Bush was elected anyway, despite the Nazis in his campaign or his deep involvement in the Iran-Contra Scandal.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> President George H.W. Bush would oversee the final destruction of the Soviet Union a process that had begun during the Reagan Administration. Mainstream history claims that the Soviet Union merely collapsed because “socialism doesn’t work”. Communist historians place the blame on Gorbachev and his disastrous brand of “Prague spring” inspired revisionism. The process of decay began with Khrushchev. Under Andropov plans for market reforms and KGB control of the black markets were established. It culminated with Gorbachev’s succession and his market centered reforms that unleashed total chaos in the Soviet economy. Certainly Gorbachev is among the most incompetent rulers in human history. There are no other examples of someone coming to power and dismantling almost an entire state, especially one as vast as the Soviet Union, practically overnight.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> However the destruction of the Soviet Union was also due to a successful campaign of economic warfare and destabilization waged by the U.S. and its allies. The same techniques would later be applied to the post-Soviet republics like Ukraine. These became known as “color revolutions”. Under Ronald Reagan the NED (National Endowment for Democracy) was created as part of “Project Democracy” to do in public what was previously part of the CIA’s covert operations. Obviously it would require a whole article or a book to do this topic justice. However relying on Sean Gervasi’s classic article “A Full Court Press: The Destabilization of the Soviet Union” from <span style="font-style: italic;">Covert Action Information Bulletin #35</span> I can offer a brief summary of the Reagan era strategy as laid out by UN ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick and rephrased by me. </span></p>
<ol>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">A massive U.S. arms buildup</span></li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">New Defenses” (SDI/Star Wars</span></li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Develop and deploy advanced weapons in Europe and the U.S.</span></li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Withhold advanced technology from the Soviets</span></li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Support for “Freedom Fighters” i.e. wage World War 3 across the Third World, targeting left wing or non-aligned governments</span></li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Propaganda</span></li>
</ol>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">7. Provide assistance to expand Freedom (a veiled reference to the NED)</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">8. Gervasi points out that what she doesn’t mention is the destabilization of Eastern Europe </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">9. or Denial of economic resources, </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">10. or the Use of arms negotiations (and human rights) to moderate Soviet response to the U.S. arms buildup.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Gervasi explains that the U.S. destabilizes governments through a combination of external pressure and internal manipulation. In 1983 U.S. “external pressure” in the form of the Able Archer war games exercises nearly lead to a nuclear war. The Soviet Union truly believed that the U.S. was preparing to launch a nuclear first strike (which the U.S had in fact been planning since 1946) and was strongly considering a preemptive attack in defense. As for internal manipulation there is of course the CIA, the NED, and a host of front groups and NGO’s. According to Douglas Valentine, William Casey, Reagan’s CIA director, was running a successful program to recruit KGB and GRU officers onto its payroll. They would have targeted the military for recruitment as well. It is also likely that some of Gorbachev’s economic advisers were either intelligence assets or had been manipulated via other U.S. methods of soft power. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> In the case of the Soviet Union one of the more dramatic examples of an NGO’s impact, as detailed in another article in <span style="font-style: italic;">Covert Action #35</span> by Russ Bellant and Louis Wolf, was the little known Free Congress Foundation (FCF) created by Paul Weyrich back in 1974 as Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress. Weyrich had also created the highly influential Heritage Foundation. The FCF lobbied for right wing causes and was part of the vast network of right wing NGOs that brought Reagan to power. In 1989 the FCF turned its attention to Eastern Europe at the urging of one of its directors, Robert Krieble (who also ran the Krieble Foundation.) Weyrich and four associates visited Hungary and the Soviet Union. The FCF would later appoint RHGC chairman and Hungarian Arrow Cross member Laszlo Pasztor to head its Eastern European operations. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> In the Soviet Union the FCF met with Boris Yeltsin and his faction, the IRG or Inter-Regional Group of Governors. They returned from the Soviet Union full of enthusiasm. The Soviet leadership were on board with the reintroduction of capitalism i.e. a “Free Market economy.” In the Soviet Union which had no experience with American style politics, PR, or advertising the FCF were able to have a huge impact. Recruiting and training Soviet officials on how to win elections and what to do once elected. Yeltsin was elected head of the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic. He would use his position to dissolve the USSR at a meeting of the Leaders of the Ukrainian and Belorussian Soviet Republics. The Soviet Union which Gorbachev claimed would be transformed into a “socialist democracy” ceased to exist. President Bush, who never relied on Gorbachev, backed the coup. Earlier in August 1991 there had been a coup attempt aimed at ousting Gorbachev and halting the dissolution of the Soviet Union. According to journalist Patrick Cockburn the NSA provided Yeltsin with minute by intelligence to foil the coup and come out looking like a hero. He then became a drunken U.S. puppet who allowed his country to be looted. Russia became a poverty stricken, crime ridden, chaotic, neo-liberal hellhole. The “End of History” had arrived.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> The FCF had its own Ukrainian ties as well. The FCF treasurer, Charles Moser, was on the advisory board of the UCCA’s Ukrainian Quarterly. In 1989 the FCF sent a top U.S. OUN/B member Askold Lozynkyj to Ukraine to advise on the March 1990 election there. More needs to be learned about the role of the NED & Prolog in Ukraine during the breakup of the Soviet Union. I had to give myself a crash course on the history of Ukraine in the late 1980s and early 1990s and my sources Taras Kuzio and Andrew Wilson were not the type to peek into CIA/MI6 operations in Ukraine, preferring employment in foreign policy think tanks.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Gene Sharp’s Albert Einstein Institute was another NED-backed NGO that was heavily involved in the destabilization of the USSR. Marcie Smith did a brilliant expose of Gene Sharp. The AEI has become infamous after the color revolutions that continue to rock Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East. It was also involved in the failed attempt to overthrow the Venezuelan government. Sharp was one of the stranger individuals in the Cold War. Sharp was a pacifist who offered his services to the American Empire during the Vietnam War. For decades he carried out his research as part of the Harvard Center for International Affairs or HCIA which did indeed have ties to the CIA. HCIA included figures like the notorious war criminals Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and Samuel “Clash of Civilizations” Huntington, National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy and a future CIA deputy director Robert Bowie. Sharp had been recruited by the economist and nuclear war planner Thomas Schelling to join HCIA. There he spent decades developing the techniques that would be used in color revolutions. In his “Politics of Non-Violent Action” he laid out the elements of his strategy. </span></p>
<ol>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Target the pillars of a society like the media, universities, police and military. Topple or subvert the pillars and you can topple a government.</span></li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">He compiled a list of 198 techniques of non-violent struggle which included tactics used by prior protest movements but also techniques corporations use to crush labor movements.</span></li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">He devised a system of political ju-jitsu by resisting non-violently protests maintain moral legitimacy. When the state attempted to use force it would lose it’s legitimacy. (And be demonized in the western press)</span></li>
</ol>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Sharp had a very useful ideological blind spot he completely ignored economic issues and in fact opposed not just socialism but any attempt to regulate the economy. In 1983 the HCFIA created a new branch for Sharp the Program of non-violent Sanctions in Conflict and Defense. (HCIA was forced to add an F to it’s acronym in 1971 after being repeatedly occupied by antiwar protestors) 1983 the same year the NED was created Sharp created the Albert Einstein Institute (AEI). On the board was Sharp’s cynical partner Peter Ackerman who worked for the notorious junk bond king Michael Milken at Drexel Burnham and Lambert. Ackerman was also a part of the CATO institute, the Atlantic Council and later ran the CIA front Freedom House. AEI also included DIA Col. Robert Helvey who often supervised on the ground training. In 1985 Sharp published a book aimed at NATO “Making Europe Unconquerable.” It naively hoped to convince NATO to adopt non-violent resistance to thwart a hypothetical Soviet attack. However it also offered the suggestion that his non-violent techniques could be used offensively i.e. to overthrow governments in the Soviet Bloc. In the late 1980s AEI was busy destabilizing Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Activists in Lithuania bragged that Sharp’s book was better then the atom bomb. In the final months of the Soviet Union November through early December 1991 the AEI were busy coaching Yeltsin. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> HCFIA had another branch the Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID) It got a contract from the CIA front USAID to supervise Russia’s privatization process. As former Soviet state assets were being auctioned off HIID only allowed the Harvard Management Company and George Soros to bid. HIID was so wildly corrupt that the Department of Justice and the FBI investigated them. Earlier during the destabilization of the USSR HIID was also involved in a scheme to deliberately crash the Ruble, destabilize the Soviet economy and topple Gorbachev. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Ukraine went through three leaders during the breakup of the Soviet Union. The first Volodymyr Shcherbyts’kyi was opposed to Ukrainization and the revival of fascism/nationalism. The second was Volodymyr Ivashko, a Gorbachev flunky who set the ball rolling on independence, before being called to Moscow as Gorbachev’s second in command. Finally there was Leonid Kravchuk the “National Communist” who allied with the Ukrainian fascists of the UNA and became the first President of independent Ukraine. Then there were the “National Democrats” which consisted of the 60s gen who had been freed from prison in 1987-1988 and Rukh. The 60s gen had created the Ukrainian Helsinki Group (UHG) back in 1976. As part of its attempt to pursue detente with the West, the Soviet Union succumbed to the propaganda which produced the Helsinki protocols on human rights. Although ostensibly a general and universal accord, the Helsinki process was applied almost exclusively to the Soviet Union. Soviet dissidents then formed Helsinki groups to pressure the USSR to meet their demands. The UHG was later renamed the Ukrainian Helsinki Union. Again the overlap between Ukrainian liberals and Ukrainian fascists was demonstrated in the application of the “human rights” cudgel against a common enemy. Nonetheless many later left the UHU and formed fascist (Ultranationalist) groups.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Rukh was originally formed to back Gorbachev’s <span style="font-style: italic;">perestroika</span> reforms in February 1990. Originally it was called the All Ukrainian Movement for Perestroika. <span style="font-style: italic;">Perestroika</span> meant “restructuring” i.e. Gorbachev’s disastrous market reforms. <span style="font-style: italic;">Glasnost,</span> Gorbachev’s other buzzword, meant openness or transparency i.e. free speech. In practice it meant turning Soviet media over to fanatical anti-communists so they could bombard people with anti-Soviet propaganda. Rukh underwent a rapid radicalization in 1990 with its head Ivan Drach backing full independence. At the second Rukh congress, the reference to <span style="font-style: italic;">perestroika</span> was dropped. They accused Gorbachev of planning a Tiananmen Square style crackdown in Ukraine. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Rukh had a right wing faction from Western Ukraine who were strong supporters of the OUN-UPA. Future leader of Svoboda Oleh Tyahnybok got his start in the intelligence section of Rukh called <span style="font-style: italic;">Varta Ruha</span>. Plus a leader of Rukh Chornovil addressed the OUN/B created KUN at their first conference and claimed, “I do not feel a single ideological divergence between [Rukh and KUN].” In 1990 Rukh staged a series of mass protests in favor of Ukrainian independence. In January 1990 Rukh organized a human chain of 300,000 people and used the blue and yellow flag of Ukraine for the first time. Blue and yellow had been the colors of the Galician coat of arms and then of the short-lived Ukrainian National Republic during the Russian civil war. Blue symbolizes the sky, yellow symbolizes fields of grain. In September 1990 Rukh organized protests of 100,000 against resigning the Union treaty which would have preserved the Soviet Union albeit in a looser form. Yet the next year, on 17 March 1991, over 75% of Soviet citizens including in Ukraine voted in favor of the Union treaty preserving the Soviet Union. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Most significant for the future was the Rukh protests and hunger strikes of 2-17 October 1990 that became known as the “Granite Revolution” or “Revolution on Granite.” Protestors from Lvov, Kiev and Kharkov took over Maidan Square then known as “October Revolution Square.” set up tents and staged a 157-person hunger strike. They were protected by thousands of supporting protestors. As with the later “Orange Revolution” and “Maidan Revolution” they also set up a stage to provide entertainment and cultural propaganda. The Government ended up granting most of their demands including the resignation of the chairman of the Council of Ministers Vitaliy Mosol and a later agreement that the Ukrainian military would serve only in Ukraine. This would form a blueprint for the later “Orange Revolution” and “Maidan Revolution” coups. The Granite Revolution or “Revolution on Granite” is a little known event and of the two articles I could find on it one was from RFE/RL, a CIA front, and the other by a Ukrainian liberal academic who wrote glowingly of Maidan and the Orange Revolution. Unsurprisingly neither made mention of any CIA or NED ties to Rukh or the Granite Revolution. Perhaps the Ukrainians invented the color revolution on their own or perhaps they were receiving outside advice from NED funded advisers. Rukh was receiving advice and support from the Ukrainian diaspora and their Ukraine lobbies. Rukh also maintained close ties with dissident movements in Lithuania and the Baltics who were being trained in the tactics of color revolution by Gene Sharp’s Albert Einstein Institute and other NED-tied NGOs. In January of 1991 Gorbachev attempted a military crackdown on the NED-trained Lithuanian independence movement which left 14 dead and further radicalized the Ukrainian dissidents. The NED became active in the Soviet Union as early as 1984. Veterans of the Granite Revolution would later train the protestors who carried out the 2004 “Orange Revolution” and the earlier protest movement against President Kuchma.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> In the end it was Leonid Kravchuk and the panicked reaction in Ukraine to the failed August 91 coup attempt in Moscow that led to Ukrainian independence. Days after the failed coup the Ukrainian Rada declared independence on 25 August 1991. They also banned the Communist Party. On 1 December 1991, Ukraine voted for independence in a referendum 90% of voters voted yes. Leonid Kravchuk was elected President and on 8 December 1991 signed the Belavezha accords with Yeltsin and Belarussian President Stanislav Shuskevich dissolving the Soviet Union.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Before Ukraine became independent the OUN/B had already returned. In fact in June of 1991 they had even held an ABN conference in Kiev. The rebirth of fascism in Ukraine had two elements. First with censorship loosened Ukrainian’s began to form their own fascist parties. Second the OUN/B Diaspora began to work with these groups as well as with liberal dissidents. The four most important fascist <span style="font-style: italic;">aka</span> ultranationalists were UNA-UNSO, KUN, DSU, and SNPU. The UNA-UNSO was the Ukrainian National Assembly and its Paramilitary branch UNSO. UNA grew out of the UNP (Ukrainian Nationalism Party) established October 1989, the UNS (Ukrainian National Union) established November 1990 and UMPA or UIA (Ukrainian Interparty Assembly) established 1 July 1990. UNA modeled itself on the OUN/B. UNA launched a campaign to have Ukrainian citizens register as citizens of the UNR (the short lived Ukrainian state backed by Germany and then Poland during World War 1 and the Russian Civil War 1917-1921.) When that scheme failed it allied itself with Leonid Kravchuk. Its members were told to vote for him in the December 1991 elections. Elements of the Kravchuk administration began financially backing UNA-UNSO and having it do their dirty work. UNA was led by the head of the UPA Roman Shukhevych’s son, Yurii Shukhevych, who had spent years in Soviet prisons for refusing to denounce the OUN-UPA. After the failed coup in Moscow in August 1991, UNA created a paramilitary branch UNSO (Ukrainian People’s Self Defense Forces) in September 1991 to resist a possible Soviet invasion in Ukraine. To circumvent the law they disguised themselves as a sports club. After the collapse of the Soviet Union UNA-UNSO would fight a number of proxy wars against Russian backed separatists in Transistria, a breakaway part of Moldova. They also fought on the side of Georgia in ethnic cleansing operations in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, for which they were decorated. They also fought in Chechnya on the side of the terrorists in the Shamil Basayev faction where they became infamous for their sadistic tortures of Russian POWS. UNA-UNSO veterans would provide some of the most infamous members of Right Sector during the 2014 Maidan coup. Until summer of 1991 the OUN/B émigrés worked closely with UNA. In March of 1992 hundreds of UNA-UNSO members descended on Crimea. They were denied entry to Sebastopol so they began blocking railway lines forcing the local government to relent. Once inside the city they began tearing down Russian flags, shouting angry slogans and alienating the population. In May of 1992 Crimea voted to declare independence from Ukraine. The UNA announced that Crimea would either be Ukrainian or depopulated.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> KUN was the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists. It was created after the OUN/B moved their headquarters from Munich to Kiev. Slava Stetsko the head of the ABN had returned to Ukraine in July of 1991. KUN was an OUN/B front created to unite the fascist parties and even the liberal national democrats. It was founded by Slava Stetsko herself on 28-29 March 1992. It held its inaugural congress October 1992 in Kiev. The returning OUN/B émigrés also created the TsDVR the Institute for the Study of Liberation Movement which would have a major role in promoting the glorification of the OUN-UPA and the whitewashing of their history. With its vast resources KUN proved to be an enduring influence in Ukraine reprinting the works of Dontsov, Bandera and Stetsko. However KUN would fail to achieve its goal of unifying the Ukrainian nationalists. The Ukrainian fascists constantly rebelled at KUN attempts to rein in their open fascism and thus become respectable to get votes. Slava Stetsko managed to get elected to the Ukrainian Rada along with other KUN candidates.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> The DSU (The Nationalist Union Ukrainian State Independence) was the most successful of the openly fascist parties. UNA-UNSO tried to avoid being openly anti-Jewish and Anti-Russian talking points. It adopted a kind of Pan-Slavic ideology in attempt to appeal to Eastern Ukrainians, even allowing Russian speakers to join, as the Azov Battalion does. This was also part of UNA-UNSO’s geopolitical strategy to continue to ally with the OUN/B’s allies in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. DSU was open only to ethnic Ukrainians who spoke Ukrainian. It modeled itself on the OUN-UPA and blamed all of Ukraine’s problems on Russians and Jews. Several of its leaders had served in the earlier Ukrainian National Front during the 1960s.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> The SNPU was the Social National Party of Ukraine i.e. it was a play on National Socialism (Nazism). The party was created in Lviv in 1991 as shock troops for Valentyn Moroz’s Nationalist block. Moroz was the dissident who had been expelled from the Soviet Union in the 1970s for his fascist pro Dontsov and pro OUN/B views. The SNPU would later become better known when it changed its named to Svoboda in 2002 and began achieving electoral success. The SNPU’s armed wing Patriot of Ukraine would later give birth to the Azov Battalion. In the 1990s the SNPU became notorious for its army of black clad neo-Nazi skinheads.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Ukrainian fascists were still a tiny minority in the early 1990s. They were popular mostly in Western Ukraine especially Lvov. Still before the Soviet Union was even dissolved monuments were being erected to Stepan Bandera and museums were being built to glorify him. In Staryi Uhryniv the youth group SNUM constructed a Stepan Bandera monument it was unveiled for a crowd of 10,000 people on 14 October 1990, the day before the anniversary of Bandera’s assassination. It was then blown up by Soviet security forces on 30 December 1990, to prevent the celebration of Bandera’s birthday on 1 January. However the monument was rebuilt bigger and better and unveiled on 30 June 1991 (The anniversary of the OUN/B puppet state in Lviv 50 years earlier). Again Soviet security forces demolished it. A SNUM member guarding it was shot and wounded. Finally on 17 August 1992, in Kravchuk’s newly independent Ukraine, a third Stepan Bandera monument was unveiled. This full effigy of Bandera had been made from a melted down Lenin monument. This time the monument was guarded by the Ukrainian police. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">It would take two CIA backed coups <span style="font-style: italic;">aka</span> color revolutions, the Orange Revolution in 2004 and the Maidan revolution in 2014, for Ukrainian fascists to attain their present power and political influence. In the process they would provoke a civil war and set the stage for a Russian military intervention. The rise of fascism in Ukraine in the post Cold War era will be the topic of future articles in this series. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> History of Fascism in Ukraine Part 1</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/11/04/the-history-of-fascism-in-ukraine-part-i-the-origins-of-the-oun-1917-1941/"><span style="font-size: large;">https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/11/04/the-history-of-fascism-in-ukraine-part-i-the-origins-of-the-oun-1917-1941/</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">History of Fascism in Ukraine Part 2</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/11/05/history-of-fascism-in-ukraine-part-ii-the-oun-during-world-war-2-1941-1945/"><span style="font-size: large;">https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/11/05/history-of-fascism-in-ukraine-part-ii-the-oun-during-world-war-2-1941-1945/</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">History of Fascism in Ukraine Part 3</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://libya360.wordpress.com/2023/09/23/history-of-fascism-in-ukraine-part-iii-1944-1963-upa-war-ratlines-and-the-assassination-of-stepan-bandera/"><span style="font-size: large;">https://libya360.wordpress.com/2023/09/23/history-of-fascism-in-ukraine-part-iii-1944-1963-upa-war-ratlines-and-the-assassination-of-stepan-bandera/</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Sources</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Stepan Bandera The Life and Afterlife of a Ukrainian Nationalist: Fascism, Genocide and Cult</span> by Grzegorz Rossolinski-Liebe is the definitive book on the history of the OUN.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Marcie Smith’s article on Gene Sharp’s Neo-Liberal Non-Violence is one of the most important pieces of research in the last 30 years.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://nonsite.org/change-agent-gene-sharps-neoliberal-nonviolence-part-one/"><span style="font-size: large;">https://nonsite.org/change-agent-gene-sharps-neoliberal-nonviolence-part-one/</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Old Nazis, the New Right, and the Republican Party: Domestic fascist networks and their effect on U.S. cold war politics by Russ Bellant is a must read. It’s available as a free PDF in the link below</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ivm_AubCCTCJCT4duCjadHTI6jgE1T5j/view"><span style="font-size: large;">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ivm_AubCCTCJCT4duCjadHTI6jgE1T5j/view</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Also check out the Coors Connection by Russ Bellant for more on the vast network of right wing NGO’s in the Reagan/Bush era</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PaYtJSBNJrdw6G1KAQdDb4_SqkpC5LmK/view"><span style="font-size: large;">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PaYtJSBNJrdw6G1KAQdDb4_SqkpC5LmK/view</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">“Fraud, Famine and Fascism: The Ukrainian Genocide Myth from Hitler to Harvard” by Douglas Tottle explains the origins of the Holodomor Myth and thoroughly debunks it. He also exposes the Ukraine lobby and the domination of the Pro-OUN diaspora over the study of Ukrainian history, and the role of Waffen SS Galicia veterans in Canada.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.garethjones.org/tottlefraud.pdf"><span style="font-size: large;">https://www.garethjones.org/tottlefraud.pdf</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">“Ukrainian Nationalism in the 1990’s: A Minority Faith” by Andrew Wilson gives a detailed account of Ukraine during the destruction of the USSR and the rebirth of OUN inspired fascists (or ultra-nationalists) in a very dry mildly pro-nationalist manner.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Socialism Betrayed: Behind the Collapse of the Soviet Union</span> By Roger Keeran and Thomas Kenny explains how Gorbachev’s disastrous reforms destroyed the Soviet Union.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">“Inside the League” by Scott Anderson and Jon Lee Anderson provides a great portrait of the World Anti-Communist League.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Neo-Nazis & Euromaidan: From Democracy to Dictatorship</span> by Stanislav Byshok and Alexey Kochetkov is a history of Right Sector and the Svoboda party from a pro-Russian perspective. Although focused on 2014 the book does cover the early 90’s. The link to the PDF is below.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/33258630/_EN_Neonazis_and_Euromaidan_From_Democracy_to_Dictatorship"><span style="font-size: large;">https://www.academia.edu/33258630/_EN_Neonazis_and_Euromaidan_From_Democracy_to_Dictatorship</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I also relied on sections from <span style="font-style: italic;">Covert Action Information Bulletin</span> issues 25, 33, and 35</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://covertactionmagazine.com"><span style="font-size: large;">https://covertactionmagazine.com</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">“Hitler’s Shadow” by Richard Breitman and Norman J.W. Goda covers Mykola Lebed and Prolog in chapter 5</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">You can get a great overview of the history of the OUN by watching these 5 lectures on youtube 2 from the aforementioned HURI. And 3 from a recent conference in Germany dedicated to the Bandera Complex.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Author Trevor Erlacher’s biography of Dymytro Dontsov the man who inspired the OUN and Stepan Bandera</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/rahoqqySttg?si=xnN3zgePHGJdh9T8"><span style="font-size: large;">https://www.youtube.com/live/rahoqqySttg?si=xnN3zgePHGJdh9T8</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Erlacher discusses Dontsov’s feuds, views on gender, and the women in his circle with Ukrainian academics note their ambiguous attitude to fascism.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/yAlwWmh_K5M?si=kTqkp_rqEs_Gep4w"><span style="font-size: large;">https://www.youtube.com/live/yAlwWmh_K5M?si=kTqkp_rqEs_Gep4w</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Moss Robeson lecture at the Bandera Complex Conference on the history of the OUN</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/zQKkbUp72iM?si=Ruo4RnhMcbFo9Xdx"><span style="font-size: large;">https://youtu.be/zQKkbUp72iM?si=Ruo4RnhMcbFo9Xdx</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Moss Robeson lecture at the Bandera Complex Conference on the Ukraine Lobby</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/_3qAEGAxCUU?si=VqhJYkElsExw8iK-"><span style="font-size: large;">https://youtu.be/_3qAEGAxCUU?si=VqhJYkElsExw8iK-</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Russ Bellant Lecture at the Bandera Complex Conference on the ABN and Republican Heritage Groups Councils </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/mJN4usUsk6M?si=niEssMBuKSTqgt3M"><span style="font-size: large;">https://youtu.be/mJN4usUsk6M?si=niEssMBuKSTqgt3M</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Moss Robeson interviews Russ Bellant on his book Old Nazis, the New Right and the Republican Party and his experience infiltrating WACL and the RHGC. Subscribe to Moss Robeson’s youtube channel for more great interviews and documentaries on the OUN and the Ukraine lobby.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/TmacR8H8tDw?si=l-iTIm0iFRV92LFf"><span style="font-size: large;">https://youtu.be/TmacR8H8tDw?si=l-iTIm0iFRV92LFf</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Moss Robeson on Canada’s Nazigate scandal</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://banderalobby.substack.com/p/nazigate-and-the-bandera-lobby"><span style="font-size: large;">https://banderalobby.substack.com/p/nazigate-and-the-bandera-lobby</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Russ Bellant interview from 2014 on his book “Old Nazis, New Right” and the revival of fascism in Ukraine after the cold war</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://fpif.org/seven-decades-nazi-collaboration-americas-dirty-little-ukraine-secret/"><span style="font-size: large;">https://fpif.org/seven-decades-nazi-collaboration-americas-dirty-little-ukraine-secret/</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Taras Kuzio on Radical Nationalist parties in post-soviet Ukraine 1989-1994 provides a detailed account of the revival of fascism (Radical Nationalism) in Ukraine from a pro-Ukrainian perspective. (Kuzio has done work for a number of sinister think tanks and CIA fronts)</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://shron1.chtyvo.org.ua/Taras_Kuzio/Radical_nationalist_parties_and_movements_in_contemporary_Ukraine_before_and_after_independence_The.pdf?PHPSESSID=na94gbscbqos60oac1dlorgp45"><span style="font-size: large;">https://shron1.chtyvo.org.ua/Taras_Kuzio/Radical_nationalist_parties_and_movements_in_contemporary_Ukraine_before_and_after_independence_The.pdf?PHPSESSID=na94gbscbqos60oac1dlorgp45</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Moss Robeson on Lev Dobriansky</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://vocinfo.substack.com/p/mr-captive-nations-vs-the-cia"><span style="font-size: large;">https://vocinfo.substack.com/p/mr-captive-nations-vs-the-cia</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Moss Robeson on John Singlaub</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://vocinfo.substack.com/p/john-singlaub"><span style="font-size: large;">https://vocinfo.substack.com/p/john-singlaub</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Moss Robeson’s Bandera Lobby Blog</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://banderalobby.substack.com"><span style="font-size: large;">https://banderalobby.substack.com</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Moss Robeson’s Blog on the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and the Captive Nations Movement</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://vocinfo.substack.com"><span style="font-size: large;">https://vocinfo.substack.com</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Moss Robeson’s blog on Ukraine</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://mossrobeson.medium.com"><span style="font-size: large;">https://mossrobeson.medium.com</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">CIA front RFE/RL on the Revolution on Granite</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/the-revolution-on-granite-ukraine-s-first-maidan-kyiv/30892599.html"><span style="font-size: large;">https://www.rferl.org/a/the-revolution-on-granite-ukraine-s-first-maidan-kyiv/30892599.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Olga Onuch on the Granite Revolution</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/36179915/The_Legacy_Of_The_Revolution_On_Granite"><span style="font-size: large;">https://www.academia.edu/36179915/The_Legacy_Of_The_Revolution_On_Granite</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Harvard’s role in looting Russia</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/world/harvard-boys-do-russia/"><span style="font-size: large;">https://www.thenation.com/article/world/harvard-boys-do-russia/</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bush orders NSA to help Yeltsin during failed August Coup</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/us-agents-helped-yeltsin-break-coup-1436470.html"><span style="font-size: large;">https://www.independent.co.uk/news/us-agents-helped-yeltsin-break-coup-1436470.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Our Hidden History</span> sent me this link to search the Ukrainian weekly archive which was very helpful in researching the Ukrainian diaspora’s ties to Rukh and other topics</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://ourhiddenhistory.org/docsearch/ukrweeklycom/ukrweeklycom-The_Ukrainian_Weekly_1992-51_12.txt?search=rukh&collection=/ukrweeklycom"><span style="font-size: large;">https://ourhiddenhistory.org/docsearch/ukrweeklycom/ukrweeklycom-The_Ukrainian_Weekly_1992-51_12.txt?search=rukh&collection=/ukrweeklycom</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Sean Gervasi lecture on the destabilization of the USSR</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12.1px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Video</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/b9_aYcpxClA?si=GMqPI6hPxpsOaXC8"><span style="font-size: large;">https://youtu.be/b9_aYcpxClA?si=GMqPI6hPxpsOaXC8</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12.1px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Transcript</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12.1px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://dennisriches.wordpress.com/2017/11/15/sean-gervasi-1992-lecture-the-us-strategy-to-dismantle-the-ussr/#_edn5"><span style="font-size: large;">https://dennisriches.wordpress.com/2017/11/15/sean-gervasi-1992-lecture-the-us-strategy-to-dismantle-the-ussr/#_edn5</span></a></span></p><div><br /></div>Hugo Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12229123097438571385noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8001402613324067475.post-36031509314095176212024-02-09T13:39:00.000-08:002024-02-09T13:39:38.537-08:00History of Fascism in Ukraine Part 4<p><span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">History of Fascism in Ukraine Part 4 1962-1992: The Global OUN Network in Exile, ABN The Fascist International, The Destabilization of the USSR and the Rebirth of Fascism in Ukraine</span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> With Special Thanks to Dr. T.P. Wilkinson</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> A brief scandal erupted in Canada September 22, 2023 when during Ukrainian President Zelensky’s visit to Canada’s House of Commons. Anthony Rota Speaker of the House praised a 98 Year old veteran of the Waffen SS Galicia division Yaroslav Hunka to the applause of Zelensky and the House of Commons as a hero who had fought Russia during World War 2 as part of the Ukrainian National Army. Ukrainian Canadian scholar Ivan Kochanavoski quickly uncovered Hunka’s back story since it is well known that the Ukrainian National Army is what the Ukrainian 14th Waffen SS Galicia division was renamed a couple weeks before the end of World War 2. A jewish Ukrainian American journalist Lev Golinkin who had been trying to expose the monuments the Ukrainian diaspora had erected to the Waffen SS Galicia, the OUN/B and the UPA in Canada and the U.S. picked up the story and for some strange reason it actually received mainstream coverage for a couple of days. Canada’s speaker of the House was forced to resign in embarrassment. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Trudeau’s hawkish Deputy Prime Minister Chrsytia Freeland who has often praised her Nazi collaborator Ukrainian grandfather Michael Chomiak and been photographed waving the red and black flag of the genocidal OUN-UPA remained untouched. Canada’s powerful Ukraine lobby had briefly been a victim of it’s own success. It was used to being immune to criticism of it’s glorification of fascist war criminals. In the wake of the “Nazigate” scandal it was revealed that the Canadian government had given over 2 million dollars to OUN front groups and the University of Alberta and it’s Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies had a dozen endowments named after Waffen SS veterans and other Ukrainian fascists and collaborators including Yaroslav Hunka. Edmonton Canada home to University of Alberta is also a home to monuments to the Waffen SS Galicia and the mythical “Holodomor.” It has been the site of many celebrations of Stepan Bandera, the OUN/B, the UPA and the Waffen SS Galicia. Canada’s nazi monuments are built at tax payer expense and perversely justified as celebrating Canada’s multicultural heritage. Vandalizing these monuments is considered a hate crime.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> 40 years ago in the United States there had also been a series of scandals related to the Ukraine lobby that were quickly forgotten as the Cold War ended. The Village Voice exposed fascist war criminal Mykola Lebed Stepan Bandera’s former head of intelligence a notorious torturer who ran the OUN/B’s assassination programs living happily in New York under CIA protection. Journalists exposed the World Anti-Communist League which united drug dealing fascist mass murderers in Asia and Latin America with former nazi collaborators lead by Yaroslav Stetsko’s ABN, along with conservative politicians in the U.S. and Europe. Yaroslav Stetsko and his wife Slava had been invited to meet with Congress, President Reagan and Vice President George Bush in July 1983. The year before in 1982 congress had flown the red and black OUN-UPA flag over the U.S. Capitol building. Then in 1988 journalist Russ Bellant who had spent a few years infiltrating the meetings of the ABN, the OUN/B controlled Ukraine lobby, and the remnants of the Romanian Iron Guard exposed the Republican parties decades long alliance with fascist emigres as part of it’s Republican Heritage Groups Council. 8 members of Bush’s Presidential campaign were forced to resign including Ukrainian-American OUN/B members Bohdan Fedorak and Ignatius M. Billinsky. Fedorak had received visits from both Reagan in 1984 and Bush in 1988. Bush had nodded approvingly when Fedorak had ranted about the need to stop the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations halfhearted campaign to hunt down Nazi war criminals. After Stetsko’s death Fedorak became head of the OUN/B’s government in exile. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> This was the era when Christopher Simpson’s book Blowback came out on U.S. intelligence use of former Nazis including the Ukrainian fascists. Such shocking revelations were suppressed by the mainstream press and then largely forgotten with the end of the “Cold War”. Meanwhile before President Bush had left office the OUN/B had moved it’s headquarters from Munich to Kiev and Ukrainian presses were busy churning out OUN propaganda. Ukraine was soon home to a number of fascist movements inspired by the legacy of the OUN. In 2004 the “Orange Revolution” brought Viktor Yuschenko to power his wife Kateryna (her maiden name was Chumachenko) was a member of the OUN/B dominated Ukrainian American diaspora and had served in the Reagan administration. She had been mentored by Lev Dobriansky who dominated the Ukraine Lobby, the Captive Nations Movement, and co-created the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. After the 2014 coup in Ukraine when neo-nazi paramilitary groups provided the muscle to overthrow President Yanukovych the shocking truths exposed back in the 1980’s became more relevant then ever as new generations of researchers began tracking down old books to understand the hidden history of fascism in Ukraine. The seeds of the 2014 coup were already being planted in the early 1990’s.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> The Ukraine lobby’s tentacles stretch around the world and the OUN/B have been able to retain a high degree of influence over the lobby and in many cases total control of it. I’ve compiled a partial list which is bound to be incomplete. On the international level there is the Ukrainian World Congress originally called World Congress of Free Ukrainian founded in 1967 the same year as the World Anti-Communist League or WACL. There is also the International Council in Support of Ukraine originally the World Ukrainian Liberation Front. In Britain there is the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain an OUN/B front that created a secret Stepan Bandera museum in Nottingham that was later moved to London. There is also the Federation of Ukrainians in Great Britain. In Australia there is the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organizations headed by the former worldwide head of the OUN/B Stefan Romaniw. In Canada there is the UCC the Ukrainian Canadian Congress which is influenced by the OUN as well as the League of Ukrainian Canadians which is an OUN/B front. The CYM the Ukrainian Youth Association is the youth branch of the UCC. Youth branches have long played a vital role in preserving the OUN/B. The Bandera generation had been indoctrinated from an early age in the youth group SUM and the scouting organization Plast and they recreated these groups in exile. Without the youth groups the OUN/B movement would have died out from old age long ago instead they have managed to indoctrinate their children and grandchildren. In Ukraine itself children receive not just indoctrination but paramilitary training in summer camps. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> In the U.S. there is the UCCA the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America which was strongly influenced by the OUN/B until 1980 when the OUN/B staged a complete takeover masterminded by Askold Lozynskyj. The UCCA has a propaganda branch the Ukrainian National Information Service. The OUN/B also operate the front group ODFFU the Organization for the Defense of the Four Freedoms of Ukraine founded in 1946. The Ukraine lobby’s youth group is the Ukrainian American Youth Association. There are at least 5 OUN/B run summer camps in the U.S. In the U.S. the Ukraine lobby was and is part of a vast network of right wing lobbies and think tanks like the Heritage foundation, the Coalition of Peace Through Strength, the Council on National Policy, and the Atlantic Council. It is also allied with all the fascist emigre groups (Croatian Ustashe, Hungarian Arrow Cross, Romanian Iron Guard etc) both globally and domestically through the ABN, the Captive Nations Movement, and the Republican Heritage Groups Council. In the years since Bellant’s expose the Ukraine lobby has also built close ties to the democratic party. In each country the OUN/B operates it’s lobby group is an umbrella group made up of dozens of member organizations like Waffen SS Galicia and UPA veterans groups. They operate cultural centers in various cities that glorify OUN/B leaders like Stepan Bandera, and Roman Shukhevych. They are allied to Greek Catholic Church and elements of the Ukrainian Orthodox churches. They have their own musical groups, theatrical companies, and literary societies. The Ukrainian nationalists have their own calendar of holidays to bring them together semi-regularly. There is Stepan Bandera’s birthday January 1st and the anniversary of his death October 15, On June 30,1941 they celebrate the OUN/B declaration of Ukrainian Independence, the third week in July is Captive Nations week, they also celebrate the anniversary of the founding of the UPA. They dress in Ukrainian folk costumes or in their Hitler youth style youth group uniforms sing, read poems and put on plays to celebrate.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> A key figure in both the UCCA and the National Captive Nations Committee or NCNC was Lev Dobriansky who I introduced at the end of part 3 of this series where he attended the unveiling of the Stepan Bandera monument in Ellenville, New York home to an OUN/B summer camp. Dobriansky was a veteran of military intelligence and was born in America. It’s unclear (none of my sources discussed his childhood or parents) but seems likely that his parents were part of the pro-OUN diaspora in the U.S. before the war. In any case by 1948 Dobriansky became a political adviser to the UCCA and would gradually move into the orbit of the OUN/B. He remained a reserve member of military intelligence while serving as an economics professor at Georgetown University a school that played a key role in training U.S. cold warriors for future work at the CIA or state department. Dobrianksy was also a member of Young Americans for Freedom a right wing group that laid the seeds for the later Reagan counter-revolution. Dobriansky is believed to have played a key role in helping the Moonies a cult backed by the Korean CIA that was a key player in WACL. The Moonies used bribery and sex trafficking to exert tremendous influence over congress in what became known as the Koreagate scandal. Originally Dobriansky had been neutral on the split between the OUN/B headed by Bandera and Stetsko and the CIA backed UHVR (Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council) headed by Mykola Lebed a notorious sadist and nazi collaborator according to American intelligence. Lebed had recommended that Dobriansky and another Military intelligence veteran and OUN member Walter Dushnyk head the Voice of America’s Ukrainian section. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Dobriansky attracted the attention of the CIA when he bragged that the UCCA was in direct contact with “resistance movements” behind the Iron curtain which he compared to an ideological atom bomb. In 1952 the CIA sent Dobriansky and Dushnyk on a fact finding mission to Europe to see if there was any way to unite the Russian fascist emigres who had joined Vlasov’s armies and the Ukrainian OUN/B emigres for CIA operations director Frank Wisner’s AMCOMLIB. Dobriansky gave up in disgust deciding that the CIA was full of “Russia Firsters.” From 1957-1958 Dobriansky taught at the National War College. in January 1958 Dobriansky became Lt Col. in the 352 Civil Affairs Unit reserve who’s job it was to do contingency planning on setting up American puppet states in the wake of mid-east invasions. Meanwhile Dobriansky also kept busy on Capitol hill as a consultant to the House Committee to Investigate Soviet Aggression and testifying on the Communist menace to the House UnAmerican Activities Committee. In 1962 Allen Dulles and host of luminaries listened to Dobriansky’s lectures on Psywar at Fort Meade.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Dobriansky’s greatest triumph was to write and get passed the Captive Nations resolution which President Eisenhower signed into law on July 17, 1959. Captive Nations was a reference to the socialist world. Working for the benefit of society instead of to line the pockets of multinational corporations was according to cold war propaganda the worst form of slavery imaginable and the entire communist world was viewed as one giant prison camp. Fascist emigres who had helped the nazis enslave their own people and carry out genocide were considered freedom fighters and heroes. In Ukraine for example the Nazis had captured 2.5 million people to be used as forced Laborers and killed more then a million civilians. They had deliberately starved 3.5 million Red army prisoners to death many of whom were Ukrainians. Ukrainian nationalists portray themselves as a national liberation movement but they are willing to turn Ukraine into a colony for any empire to exploit and ultimately destroy so long as the imperialists are westerners Germans, British or American and not Russians.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> The Captive Nations resolution institutionalized this cold war mythology that demonized the communist world and whitewashed the histories of the former Nazi collaborators turned “freedom fighters.” Even a cold warrior like Dean Rusk thought it was “one of the wildest kinds of Cold War things you’ve ever seen in your life.” Every year the Captive Nations movement would call for not just the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact but the dismantling of the Soviet Union itself. Even that was not enough they also wanted to dismember Russia liberating countries that only existed in the unrealized plans of Hitler’s head of the Ostministerium Alfred Rosenberg like the “Idal Urals” and “Cossackia” In 1960 the National Captive Nations Committee was created with Lev Dobriansky serving as it’s head. His co-founder was Lee Edwards a very influential player on the right wing political scene. Also in 1960 Dobriansky got Eisenhower to sign into law a plan to build a monument to Taras Shevchenko the 19th century Ukrainian poet who made Ukrainian a literary language inspiring the birth of Ukrainian nationalism. The monument lead to a feud between Lebed and Dobriansky over whether the OUN/B or the UHVR would get to deposit Ukrainian soil at the monument.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> By 1965 Dobriansky was openly exposing the CIA’s backing of Prolog while Lebed was demanding the CIA pressure Dobriansky to shut up. The year before Dobriansky had served as vice chair of the Republican parties Nationalities Division for the Goldwater presidential campaign. Dobriansky would remain a key figure in the Republican heritage groups council which used fascist emigres to get out the vote in their ethnic communities. The program had been set up during the 1952 Eisenhower campaign and would be fully institutionalized by Nixon’s 1968 campaign victory. Dobriansky would be a key member of the U.S. branches of the World Anti-Communist League the ACWF and the USCWF. He was close to Stefan Possony who claimed he was responsible for Reagan’s infamous SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative) or “Star Wars” in retrospect an expensive way to line the pockets of the military industrial complex working on super weapons that are 40 years later still impossible and a psyop against the Soviet Union which may have succeeded in terrorizing the spineless Mikhail Gorbachev. Possony was also an expert on Pan-turkism and the Promethean League who doubtless played a behind the scenes role in the U.S. weaponization of fundamentalist Islam. For decades Dobriansky was the OUN/B’s most important lobbyist in the U.S. In 1958 Dobriansky finally managed to get Yaroslav Stetsko a visa for example. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> President Reagan began his presidential campaign at an ethnic labor day festival with close ties to the captive nations movement. Once he was elected he rewarded Lev Dobriansky by making him Ambassador to the Bahamas where he blocked a number of drug enforcement cases that could have interfered with his WACL allies drug smuggling during the Iran/Contra era. Dobriansky’s career is an example of deep politics Ukrainian-American style connecting the worlds of military, intelligence, academia, NGO’s, political lobbying, fascism and drugs. His daughter Paula Dobriansky who served on Reagan’s National Security Council became a powerful State Department official serving as George W. Bush’s Undersecretary for Global affairs at the time of her fathers death in 2008. She was also a member of PNAC(Project for a New American Century). She was one of a number of Ukrainian Americans with close ties to the Ukraine lobby who were given influential positions in Government. during the Reagan and Bush years. Today Paula Dobriansky serves on the Atlantic Council.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> In addition to working as spies and setting up lobbies the OUN friendly Ukrainian diaspora also managed to gain control of the academic study of Ukraine. By the 1980’s their distorted view of history had become the accepted mainstream version. Those Ukrainian scholars that refused to whitewash the history of the OUN/B, the UPA and the Waffen SS Galicia division like John-Paul Himka and Per Anders Rudling would later become pariahs among their fellow Ukrainians for exposing the OUN/B role in the Holocaust during the 1990’s. The whole field of area studies was to some extent a CIA brainchild to fight the Cold War the empire would need an army of experts. Harvard and Yale are notorious for their CIA ties. Harvard is home to HURI the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute founded in 1973. HURI promoted Ukrainian nationalist narratives and demonizes the Soviet Union. Mykola Lebed spent a lifetime retyping and falsifying the records of of the OUN/B and the UPA and when Lebed died he donated his papers to HURI. In the 1990’s HURI invited Volodymyr Viatrovych to study this whitewashed history. He has since become infamous back in Ukraine as a “holocaust distorter” and glorifier of the OUN-UPA. He headed the infamous UINP the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory and wrote Ukraine’s decommunization laws which make it illegal to criticize the OUN-UPA or the Waffen SS Division or to praise the Soviet Union. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> In Canada there is the University of Alberta’s Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) founded in 1976. It churns out books that whitewash the role of the OUN-UPA in Ukraine. CIUS teemed up with the Shevchenko Scientific Society to create a Ukrainian encyclopedia edited by the top Ukrainian nazi collaborator during the war Volodymyr Kubiiovych who played a major role in the creation of the 14th Waffen SS Galicia division. The encyclopedia presented a pro-OUN/B version of Ukrainian history and did not even have an entry on the holocaust. As I mentioned in the introduction CIUS has over 2 million dollars in endowments named in honor of a dozen Ukrainian fascists including Kubiiovych. More extreme then either HURI or CIUS is the OUN/B dominated Free University of Ukraine (UVU) which was located in Munich with a branch in New York City. Many of it’s professors were OUN leaders, UPA veterans and Waffen SS Galicia veterans. Shockingly many Ukrainian war criminals ended up as University professors at prestigious American or Canadian Universities.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> In the 1980’s the Ukrainian nationalist dominance of academia was used to launch a campaign to recognize the Ukrainian famine as a deliberate genocide carried out by the Soviet Union. They dubbed it the Holodomor in order to counter the popularity of the term the Holocaust. The OUN it will be remembered were living in what was then Poland during the famine which took place across the Soviet Union during collectivization. They did not experience it themselves and it was a cynical ploy to use it to justify their crimes during the war. In order to dramatize the Holodomor they relied on photos used in the hearst press anti-soviet propaganda campaign that echoed the earlier Nazi German Propaganda campaign in the 1930”s. By the time the Hearst press covered the famine it was already over and the photos they used were actually from the much earlier famine during the Russian civil war. The photos were credited to journalist Thomas Walker who was in reality the escaped convict and forger Robert Green. His reporting on the famine was exposed as equally fraudulent by other Americans who had been in the Soviet Union at the time. There was no way the Soviets would have let an American journalist wander freely about Ukraine at the time. The fraud was exposed by the U.S. press back in the 1930’s yet Harvard and the University of Alberta still used the fraudulent photos and fake accounts in their campaign to get the Holodomor recognized as a genocide in the 1980’s. They put together the documentary “Harvest of Despair” using these discredited photos. They churned out books on the topic. They hoped to make the Holodomor part of the Canadian school curriculum. Sadly 40 years later the Holodomor myth lives on propagated by unscrupulous academics like Timothy Snyder. Canada has recently announced plans to add the Holodomor to the school curriculum and has a $400,000 Holodomor bus project to travel the country propagandizing the public.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> The CIA front Prolog Research Corporation headed by Mykola Lebed the former head of the OUN/B’s intelligence branch the SB. Prolog was the most prestigious Ukrainian intellectual and cultural institution during the Cold War. All the top Ukrainian poets, intellectuals, and academics were published by Prolog and few realized it was a CIA front. During the war Lebed had trained his men at the Gestapo school by kidnapping random jews and torturing them until they made false confessions before killing them. He also ran the OUN/B assassination program targeting political rivals and suspected traitors. In 1949 the CIA had illegally smuggled him into to the U.S. so he could run his CIA backed UHVR faction of the OUN/B. Lebed’s old ally Ivan Hrn’okh stayed behind in Munich to run the Prolog branch there which had a huge press churning out CIA propaganda. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Starting in 1960 the CIA trained Anatol Kaminsky to spot potential informants. Kaminsky was soon operating a network of informants who interviewed travelers from Soviet Ukraine to gather information and recruit agents. By 1966 Kaminsky was Prolog’s chief operations officer. Prolog provided the CIA detailed intelligence on Ukrainian artists, politicians, and dissidents. In late 1960’s Ukraine a generation of dissidents who would be called in Ukrainian the Shistdesiatnyky “the 60’s Generation” influenced by Prolog and by prior nationalists strains in Ukrainian culture some of them would become sympathetic to the OUN-UPA. Dissident Valentyn Moroz was inspired by Dmytro Dontsov and became an ardent admirer of the OUN-UPA the Soviets deported Moroz to the west where he participated in OUN/B marches memorializing Stepan Bandera. Many dissidents were sent to prison where they mingled with UPA veterans and began to admire them although remaining liberals. This crackdown was in part due to concern over Prolog’s influence. The “60’s Gen” as I’ll call them for convenience would lead one of the two main dissident factions in Ukraine responsible for dissolving the Soviet Union the other being Rukh during the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. Both were liberal groups that sympathized with and had ties to fascists. An alliance that would bear fruit in the 2004 and 2014 coups in Ukraine. 1960’s Ukraine also saw the revival of an OUN inspired fascist movement the Ukrainian National Front. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> In addition to influencing and keeping track of Ukraine’s dissident movement Prolog provided intelligence on the KGB, as well as Soviet Missile and airbases providing information to the U.S. that might have been used to destroy Ukraine in a nuclear war as the UPA had done during the 1940’s and 1950’s. In 1975 Mykola Lebed retired as head of Prolog although he remained an adviser and a consultant. In 1978 Roman Kupinsky a Ukrainian journalist who had only been one year old at the end of the war became Chief of Prolog. In 1977 President Carter’s National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski approved an expansion of Prolog. Brzezinski a Pole from Galicia drew inspiration from the Pilsudski backed Promethean League which aimed to use soviet minorities (With particular focus on Ukrainians and Pan-Turkists in Central Asia) to destroy the Soviet Union. Appropriately it was Brzezinski who funded the Mujahideen in Afghanistan to provoke a Soviet Invasion a strategy that helped lead to the fall of the Soviet Union and the birth of Al Qaeda. In the 1990’s Brzezinski would write of the need to get Ukraine into the western orbit which he felt would prevent Russia from ever becoming a world power again.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> In the 1980’s Prolog was expanded to target other Soviet minorities including ironically soviet jews. By at least as early as the mid 1970’s the Ukraine lobby, the Israel lobby and the neo-conservatives had formed an alliance to oppose Detente with the Soviet Union. The Ukraine Lobby and the Neo-cons were united by membership in hawkish think tanks like the American Security Council. The Israel Lobby hoped to destroy the USSR so that Soviet Jews would move to Israel. This explains why many jewish organizations have remained silent while monuments to the SS were being built. Why Paula Dobriansky joined PNAC and why Neo-con Victoria Nuland supervised a neo-nazi coup in Ukraine in 2014. It would require a separate article to do justice to the topic of zionist ties to nazis and other fascists including Ukrainan fascists. However I’ll at least mention that Benjamin Netanyahu’s father was the secretary to Ze’ev Jabotinsky the fascist founder of revisionist Zionism who formed an alliance with Ukrainian nationalist Simon Petliura whose forces were infamous for slaughtering Jews during the Russian civil war. This is only the tip of the iceberg on the connections between Israel and Ukraine.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> It would be interesting to know what role Prolog had in destabilizing the eastern bloc during the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. The Ukrainian dissidents of this era modeled themselves on and maintained close ties to Polish Solidarity, the Lithuanian and other other Baltic independence groups. Polish Solidarity at least was heavily funded by the CIA via Vatican cut outs. In 1985 the General Accounting Office mentioned Lebed and the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations which had been created to hunt down Nazi War criminals living in the U.S. began an investigation of Lebed. The CIA denied that Lebed had any connection to the Nazis and blocked the OSI investigation which was quietly dropped in 1991. In 1990 the CIA gave Prolog 1.75 million dollars and supposedly gave up control of it. Prolog was privatized and would operate independently although realistically the CIA would have maintained secret ties after this. Lebed would make frequent trips to Ukraine after it gained independence working to revive fascism there. In 1998 Lebed died and his papers (which he had heavily falsified) were donated to the Harvard Ukrainian Research institute.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> In 1966 the World Anti-Communist League or WACL was formed. It was the most sinister and scandalous organization in the Cold War (other then the CIA). It united fascists, terrorists, death squads, drug dealers, organized crime and mind control cults with “respectable” politicians under the banner of Anti-Communism. I’ve been obsessed with it for a decade but it’s received remarkably little attention. It ties all the CIA’s dirty wars, terrorism and drug smuggling together. The most powerful WACL sections were the Ukrainian controlled ABN (Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations) founded in 1946 and the Taiwanese and South Korean controlled APACL (Asian People’s Anti-Communist League.) The ABN was headed by Yaroslav Stetsko Bandera’s right hand man who had declared Ukrainian “Independence” on June 30, 1941 in the hopes of founding a Nazi Puppet state like Croatia or Slovakia and then unleashed the horrific Lviv Pogroms which massacred 10,000 jews in sadistic fashion in a couple days. Stetsko had founded the ABN on instructions of MI6 in 1946 although it traced it’s roots to the earlier nazi backed version created in 1943. The ABN then absorbed both the Intermarium and the Promethean League. The ABN united all the nazi collaborators from central and eastern Europe except the Russians. Each nation had it’s own fascist movement and Waffen SS branch that recruited from it. In Hungary there was the Arrow Cross, in Romania the Iron Guard, in Slovakia the Hlinka Guard in Croatia the Ustashi, in Bulgaria the Bulgarian Legion. During the Cold war these escaped war criminals claimed to be legitimate governments in exile. And the Ukrainian OUN/B lead the ABN. This was also an interesting time for the OUN/B’s old allies the Croatian Ustashi who during the 1970’s would carry out bombings, plane hijackings, and assassinations. There was a great deal of overlap between the Captive Nations, the ABN, Coalition of Peace Through Strength’s ethnic Affiliates and the Republican Heritage Groups Councils.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> APACL was founded in 1954 in the aftermath of the Korean War. Stetsko and other ABN leaders would make frequent trips to Taiwan to attend APACL meetings. Taiwan was created by the retreating nationalist KMT forces who fled China before Mao’s victory. In 1947 the KMT had massacred 10,000 native Taiwanese (Formosans) who tried to rise up. The KMT had also controlled the global heroin trade since before World War 2. KMT guerrillas set up shop in Laos and Burma controlling the golden triangle heroin trade. Taiwan’s powerful “China Lobby” used their drug money to bankroll Joe McCarthy and the Red Scare of the 1950’s which targeted critics of the KMT. South Korea was a brutal fascist dictatorship set up by the Americans after World War 2 that massacred tens of thousands of suspected communists before the Korean War even began. The biggest backer of APACL in South Korea Park Chung Hee seized power in a coup in 1961 During the Korean war the U.S. would kill millions of Korean civilians and engaged in biological warfare. Other APACL members included the notorious Japanese War criminals and Yakuza members Ryoichi Sasakawa and Yoshio Kodama. Sasakawa and Kodama were major backers of the South Korean CIA’S (KCIA) pet project the Unification Church better known as the Moonie cult. Reverend Sun Myun Moon hoped to become dictator of global theocracy and elevated himself above Jesus Christ in the moonies’ theology. Moon’s drug money laundering empire was used to bankroll the christian right, set up anti-communist think tanks, bribe politicians, and helped launch the Bolivian cocaine coup. APACL also included Laos, Cambodia, and South Vietnam where the U.S. would slaughter millions during the 1960’s and early 1970’s. The Laotian WACL delegate was arrested with a suitcase full of heroin precursor in France.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> The Latin American branch went through several name changes but was most infamous as CAL (Latin American anti-communist confederation) dominated by the bizarre Mexican secret society the Tecos. The Tecos were a pro-nazi group that dominated the Autonomous University of Guadalajara. The Tecos caused WACL’S 1st major scandal when they handed out deranged semi-pornographic propaganda leaflets attacking the Vatican as dominated by jews and free-masons. This offended the U.S. WACL branch the ACWF which would eventually disband over the controversy. Yet these same ACWF members who claimed to be horrified by the Tecos had no problem with the Ukrainian fascists or the ABN. More importantly CAL included the most notorious fascist death squad leaders in Latin America members of Operation Condor in South America, and the notorious fascist killers Roberto D’Aubuisson in El Salvador and Mario Sandoval Alarcon in Guatemala. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Every part of the world had it’s WACL branch as well as many countries. for the sake of brevity I won’t go into Western Europe except to say that WACL included Greek, Italian, Spanish, and other fascists as well Gladio terrorists from across NATO. The OUN/B also set up a european support group the European Freedom Council. Nor will I discuss the Middle East except to point out that many of WACL’S most active members were close Israeli allies (Argentina, Taiwan etc.) Apartheid South Africa was a major WACL backer and WACL was very interested in supporting U.S./South African proxy wars against (or in) Zimbabwe, Namibia, Angola and Mozambique.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> The U.S. WACL branch was originally the ACWF the American Council for World Freedom. It included Lee Edwards and Lev Dobriansky among others. When it disbanded it was replaced by the Council on American Affairs headed by Roger Pearson in 1976. Pearson was a British nazi white supremacist who had headed the fascist Northern League and yet remained a respectable member of the American Right editing a number of journals. Pearson was expelled from WACL for being too fascist after briefly heading WACL world wide and recruiting a bunch of SS veterans into the group. Even after Pearson had been expelled from WACL for being too fascist President Reagan felt compelled to write him a letter praising his life work which Pearson used for fundraising.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> A new U.S. branch was created by General John Singlaub the USCWF the U.S. Council on World Freedom. Singlaub was a former OSS/CIA/and military special forces veteran who would run WACL in it’s golden age during the Reagan Era. Singlaub was an early OSS “China Cowboy” working with the KMT. He headed SOG the Special Operations Group in Vietnam where he helped the CIA carry out tens of thousands of Phoenix program assassinations. He was forced to resign as head of U.S. forces in South Korea for publicly criticizing Carter’s plans to reduce U.S. troops there. He became a hero for right wing Americans. He joined the American Security Council with his friend General Daniel Graham former head of the DIA. The two took an infamous trip to Central America where they raised illegal campaign donations for Reagan and encouraged El Salvadoran and Guatemalan death squads to go on a rampage of mass murder. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Singlaub spoke at the 1980 APACL conference in 1980 where he met the Stetskos. In 1982 Singlaub visited OUN/B headquarters in Munich. In1983 Singlaub was promoting the idea of the “holodomor.” In July 1983 Singlaub had arranged for the Stetsko’s to meet with President Reagan who told them “Your struggle is our struggle, Your dream is Our Dream.” They also met with Congress, Vice President Bush and U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick. Under Singlaub’s leadership WACL would become actively involved in all the covert wars of the Reagan era with Singlaub ending up a key figure in the Iran/Contra scandal selling arms and donating supplies to the Contras worth $20-30 million dollars. According to journalist Daniel Hopsicker Singlaub owned the umbrella corporation that leased the drugs/arms smuggling planes used during Iran/Contra. WACL would reach it’s height at it’s 1984 conference in San Diego and it’s 1985 Conference in Dallas Texas where drug smuggling Nicaraguan Contra death squad members shared the stage with drug smuggling Afghan Mujahideen terrorists. Yaroslav Stetsko was too ill to attend so his wife Slava “The Iron Lady” of the ABN/OUN/B went in his place. CMA a bunch of mercenaries involved in aiding the Contras provided security for the Dallas WACL conference. WACL vowed to supply support to “freedom fighters” (counter-revolutionary terrorists and death squads) in Angola, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Nicaragua, and Afghanistan. After the end of the Cold War Singlaub would be brought in to head the rebranded version of WACL the World League For Freedom and Democracy. Singlaub would live to be 98 only dying January 29, 2022. ABN head Yaroslav Stetsko would die in Munich July 5, 1986. His wife Slava would succeed him and was elected to the Ukrainian Rada (parliament) in the 1990’s.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> The Reagan years in addition to being the golden age of WACL were also a golden age for the OUN/B diaspora in the U.S. One anonymous OUN/B member bragged to Russ Bellant “You have to understand we are an Underground Organization. We have spent years quietly penetrating positions of influence.” Russ Bellant shows in his book that this was no idle boast. Lev Dobriansky’s daughter Paula Dobriansky was on the National Security Council. George Nesterczuk of the UCCA’s propaganda arm the UNIS (Ukrainian National Information Service) was appointed deputy director of the Office of Personnel Management and then in 1984 he was appointed deputy director of the U.S. Information Agency. Bohdan Futey was appointed head of the U.S. Foreign Claims Commission. Both Futey and Nesterczuk had close ties to Bohdan Fedorak who ran the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Warren Michigan that Reagan visited for Captive Nations week during the 1984 election and Bush visited in 1988 accompanied by Katherine Chumachenko former director of the UCCA’S National Captive Nations Committee who would later marry Viktor Yushchenko and become first lady of Ukraine after the 2004 Orange Revolution (coup.) Yushchenko would have both Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych declared “Heroes of Ukraine.” Katherine Chumachenko was appointed Deputy Director for Public Liaison at the White House.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> When then Vice President George H. W. Bush ran for the presidency in 1988 his campaign suffered a brief Nazi-Gate scandal. Bush’s father Prescott Bush had been part of the same group of American businessmen who had illegally done business with the Nazis during the war as the Dulles brothers. In fact Prescott Bush had narrowly escaped having his assets seized by the U.S. government. Prescott Bush was close friends with Allen Dulles and George H.W. Bush had been secretly recruited by the CIA in the 1950’s a fact he managed to hide when he became CIA director in 1976. 1976 was the year the Cuban exile terrorist group Alpha 66 who also belonged to WACL conducted a series of bombings including blowing up a Cuban airliner. It was the year when CIA director Bush looked the other way as Chilean intelligence orchestrated the car bombing which killed Chilean exile Orlando Letelier and a U.S. Citizen Ronni Moffitt in the heart of the U.S. Capitol. It was the year when British Nazi Roger Pearson was put in charge of WACL.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Bush had also been elected to head the RNC in the mid 1970’s so he was intimately informed about their infamous Ethnic Outreach program the Republican Heritage Groups Councils. It was the brainchild of President Eisenhower and the Dulles Brothers. Eisenhower had run on a platform of “Rollback” ie covert war to Roll Back communism and “Liberate” Eastern Europe. The Truman Administration’s overt foreign policy was containment but it had already adopted Rollback as it’s secret policy and had backed covert wars to destabilize the eastern Bloc including of course the UPA in Ukraine. The Dulles Brothers and Eisenhower were well aware of this since Allen Dulles ran the operations division at CIA while the CIA director was Eisenhower’s old right hand man W.B. Smith. Furthermore the Soviet’s had had time to restore order and crush CIA backed resistance movements. Yet Eisenhower hoped that the Rollback could be used to get votes from Americans of Eastern European dissent.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> This plan was carried out in the most sinister manner possible. The influx of fascist Emigres were encouraged to seize control of their ethnic communities and then get them to vote republican. Many of them were escaped war criminals responsible as individuals for thousands of deaths. This was the GOP strategy to counter the Jewish support for democrats, to create a Nazi voting bloc. It was also useful for institutionalizing the Cold War as these fascist emigres were called upon to block any relaxation of cold war tensions. Once Eisenhower was elected he opened the floodgates allowing a massive increase in the amount of former Nazi collaborators in the U.S. From 1952-1968 this was an informal arrangement and the fascist emigres were mobilized only during Presidential elections. In 1968 Richard Nixon promised Laszlo Pasztor to make the arrangement permanent if he won. Nixon had been Eisenhower’s Vice President.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> The Republican Heritage Groups Council (RHGC) formed in 1969 after Nixon’s election victory and Laszlo Pasztor was made the Chairman. Pasztor had been a leader in the Fascist Hungarian Arrow Cross’s youth branch and had then been appointed the Arrow Cross’s personal liaison to Adolf Hitler. Already by 1971 columnist Jack Anderson had exposed the Nazis on the RHGC but his expose was ignored then forgotten. By 1988 the RHGC consisted of 34 Nationality federations and 25 State Councils. It included fascists from Hungary, Romania, Belarus, Slovakia, Croatia, and of course Ukraine. Lev Dobriansky led the Ukrainians in the early years. It included former members of the Romanian Iron Guard, The Croatian Ustashi etc. When he was Governor of California Ronald Reagan had once endorsed April 30, 1941 as Croatian independence day. It was the day the Ustashi Nazi puppet state had been established before launching it’s genocidal campaign against Jews and Serbs that killed 750,000 people in the most brutal manner imaginable. Reagan was forced to backpedal. Journalist Russ Bellant spent years infiltrating the RHGC and the ABN. This was made easier by the fact that his hometown of Detroit was a hotbed of fascist emigre activity. In 1988 during the election he finally went public with his research and mailed copies of his forthcoming book “The Old Nazis, and the New Right” to 20 media organizations. There were literal Nazis involved in the Bush campaign. Many were wanted war criminals who had killed thousands during the war. Only a couple of papers were courageous enough to pursue the story. The New York Times, The Washington Post, AP, Reuters and the T.V. refused to cover the story. Yet there was enough of a scandal for the Bush campaign to force 8 of it’s members including the Ukrainian-American Bohdan Fedorak to resign. Or so the Bush campaign claimed often journalists discovered that Bush campaign whenever asked about RHGC members would say they had resigned but when they asked the RHGC members about it they were still working on the campaign. The RNC promised to do a full investigation which they never carried out. Bush was elected anyways despite the Nazis in his campaign or his deep involvement in the Iran-Contra Scandal.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> President George H.W. Bush would oversee the final destruction of the Soviet Union a process that had begun during the Reagan Administration. Mainstream history claims that the Soviet Union merely collapsed because socialism doesn’t work. Communist historians place the blame on Gorbachev and his disastrous brand of Prague spring inspired revisionism. The process of decay began with Khruschev, under Andropov plans for market reforms and KGB control of the black markets were established. It culminated with Gorbachev’s who’s market centered reforms unleashed total chaos in the soviet economy. Certainly Gorbachev is undoubtedly the most incompetent ruler in human history because there are no other examples of someone coming to power and in a few years letting everything unravel to such an extent over so vast a territory.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> However the destruction of the Soviet Union was also due to to a successful campaign by the U.S. and it’s allies to wage economic warfare and to destabilize the Soviet Union with the same techniques it would later use in Post-Soviet countries like Ukraine in it’s “Color Revolutions.” It was under Reagan that the NED (National Endowment for Democracy) was created as part of “Project Democracy.”Obviously it would require a whole article or a book to do this topic justice. However relying on Sean Gervasi’s classic article “A Full Court Press: The Destabilization of the Soviet Union” from Covert Action Information Bulletin #35 I can offer a brief summary of the Reagan era strategy as laid out by UN ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick and rephrased by me. </span></p>
<ol>
<li style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">A massive U.S. Arms Buildup</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">New Defenses” (SDI/Star Wars</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Develop and deploy advanced weapons in Europe and the U.S.</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Withhold advanced technology from the Soviets</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Support for “Freedom Fighters” ie wage World War 3 across the 3rd world targeting left wing or non-aligned governments</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Propaganda</span></li>
</ol>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">7. Provide assistance to expand Freedom (a veiled reference to the NED)</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">8. Gervasi points out that what she doesn’t mention is the destabilization of Eastern Europe </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">9. or Denial of economic resources, </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">10. or the Use of arms negotiations to moderate soviet response to the U.S. arms buildup.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Gervasi explains that the U.S. destabilizes governments through a combination of external pressure and internal manipulation. In 1983 U.S. “external pressure” in the form of the Able Archer war games exercises nearly lead to a nuclear war as the Soviet’s truly believed that the U.S. was preparing to launch a nuclear 1st strike and was strongly considering launching a preemptive attack on the west. As for internal manipulation there is of course the CIA, the NED, and a host of front groups and NGO’s. According to Doug Valentine Bill Casey the CIA director was running a successful program to recruit KGB and GRU officers onto it’s payroll. They would have targeted the military for recruitment as well. It is also likely that some of Gorbachev’s economic advisers were either intelligence assets or had been manipulated via other U.S. methods of soft power. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> In the case of the Soviet Union one of the more dramatic examples of an NGO’S impact as detailed in another article in Covert Action #35 by Russ Bellant and Louis wolf was the little known Free Congress Foundation (FCF) which had been created by Paul Weyrich back in 1974 as Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress. Weyrich had also created the highly influential Heritage Foundation. The FCF lobbied for right wing causes and was part of the vast network of right wing NGO’s that brought Reagan to power. In 1989 the FCF turned it’s attention to Eastern Europe at the urging of one of it’s directors Robert Krieble (who also ran the Krieble Foundation.) Weyrich and four associates visited Hungary and the Soviet Union. The FCF would later appoint RHGC chairman and Hungarian Arrow Cross member Laszlo Pasztor to head it’s Eastern European operations. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> In the Soviet Union the FCF met with Boris Yeltsin and his faction the IRG the Inter-Regional Group of Governors. They returned from the Soviet Union full of enthusiasm. The Soviet leadership were on board with the reintroduction of capitalism ie a “Free Market economy.” In the Soviet Union which had no experience with American style politics, PR, or advertising the FCF were able to have a huge impact. Recruiting and training soviet officials on how to win elections and what to do once elected. Yeltsin was elected head of the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic. He would use his position to dissolve the USSR at a meeting of the Leaders of the Ukrainian and Belorussian Soviet republics. The Soviet Union which Gorbachev hoped to transform into a Socialist democracy ceased to exist. President Bush never trusted Gorbachev and backed the coup. Earlier in August 1991 there had been a coup attempt aimed at ousting Gorbachev and halting the dissolution of the Soviet Union. According to journalist Patrick Cockburn the NSA provided Yeltsin with minute by intelligence to foil the coup and come out looking like a hero. He then became a drunken U.S. puppet who allowed his country to be looted. Russia became a poverty stricken, crime ridden, chaotic, neo-liberal hellhole. The “End of History” had arrived.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> The FCF had it’s own Ukrainian ties as well. The FCF treasurer Charles Moser was on the advisory board of the UCCA’s Ukrainian Quarterly. In 1989 the FCF sent a top U.S. OUN/B member Askold Lozynkyj to Ukraine to advise on the March 1990 election there. More needs to be learned about the role of the NED & Prolog in Ukraine during the breakup of the Soviet Union. I had to give myself a crash course on the history of Ukraine in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s and my sources Taras Kuzio and Andrew Wilson weren’t the type to go looking into CIA/MI6 operations in Ukraine but rather to go to work for foreign policy think tanks.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Gene Sharp’s Albert Einstein Institute was another NED backed NGO that was highly involved in the destabilization of the USSR. Marcie Smith did a brilliant expose of Gene Sharp. The AEI has become infamous after the color revolutions that have rocked Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the middle east. It was also involved in the failed attempt to overthrow the Venezuelan government. Sharp was one of the stranger individuals in the Cold War. Sharp was a pacifist who offered his services to the American Empire during the Vietnam war. For decades he carried out his research as part of the Harvard Center for International Affairs or HCIA which did indeed have ties to the CIA. HCIA included figures like the notorious war criminal Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and Samuel “Clash of Civilizations” Huntington, National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy and a future CIA deputy director Robert Bowie. Sharp had been recruited by the economist and nuclear war planner Thomas Schelling to join HCIA. There he spent decades developing the techniques that would be used in Color Revolutions. In his “Politics of Non-Violent Action” he laid out the elements of his strategy. </span></p>
<ol>
<li style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Target the pillars of a society like the media, universities, police and military. Topple or subvert the pillars and you can topple a government.</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">He compiled a list of 198 techniques of non-violent struggle which included tactics used by prior protest movements but also techniques corporations use to crush labor movements.</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">He devised a system of political ju-jitsu by resisting non-violently protests maintain moral legitimacy. When the state attempted to use force it would lose it’s legitimacy. (And be demonized in the western press)</span></li>
</ol>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Sharp had a very useful ideological blindspot he completely ignored economic issues and in fact opposed not just socialism but any attempt to regulate the economy. In 1983 the HCFIA created a new branch for Sharp the Program of non-violent Sanctions in Conflict and Defense. (HCIA was forced to add an F to it’s acronym in 1971 after being repeatedly occupied by antiwar protestors) 1983 the same year the NED was created Sharp created the Albert Einstein Institute (AEI). On the board was Sharp’s cynical partner Peter Ackerman who worked for the notorious junk bond king Michael Milken at Drexel Burnham and Lambert. Ackerman was also a part of the CATO institute, the Atlantic Council and later ran the CIA front Freedom House. AEI also included DIA Col. Robert Helvey who often supervised on the ground training. In 1985 Sharp published a book aimed at NATO “Making Europe Unconquerable.” it naively hoped to convince NATO to adopt non-violent resistance to thwart a hypothetical Soviet attack. However it also offered the suggestion that his non-violent techniques could be used offensively ie to overthrow governments in the Soviet Bloc. In the late 1980’s AEI was busy destabilizing Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Activists in Lithuania bragged that Sharp’s book was better then the atom bomb. In the final months of the Soviet Union November through early December 1991 the AEI were busy coaching Yeltsin. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> HCFIA had another branch the Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID) It got a contract from the CIA front USAID to supervise Russia’s privatization process. As former Soviet state assets were being auctioned off HIID only allowed the Harvard Management Company and George Soros to bid. HIID was so wildly corrupt that the Department of Justice and the FBI investigated them. Earlier during the destabilization of the USSR HIID was also involved in a scheme to deliberately crash the Ruble, destabilize the Soviet economy and topple Gorbachev. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Ukraine went through 3 leaders during the breakup of the Soviet Union. The first Volodymyr Shcherbyts’kyi was opposed to Ukrainization and the revival of fascism/nationalism. The second was Volodymyr Ivashko a Gorbachev flunky who set the ball rolling on independence before being called to Moscow as Gorbachev’s second in command. Finally there was Leonid Kravchuk the “National Communist” who allied with the Ukrainian fascists of the UNA and became the first President of independent Ukraine. Then there were the “National Democrats” which consisted of the 60’s gen who had been freed from prison in 1987-1988 and Rukh. The 60’s gen had created the Ukrainian Helsinki Group (UHG) back in 1976. As part of it’s detente with the west the Soviet Union had signed the Helsinki protocols on human rights. Soviet dissidents then formed Helsinki groups to pressure the USSR to meet their demands. The UHG was later renamed the Ukrainian Helsinki Union again revealing the overlap between Ukrainian liberals and Ukrainian fascists many later left the UHU and formed fascist (Ultranationalist) groups.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Rukh was originally formed to back Gorbachev’s Perestroika reforms in February 1990. Originally it was called the All Ukrainian Movement for Perestroika. Perestroika meant restructuring ie Gorbachev’s disastrous market reforms. Glasnost Gorbachev’s other buzzword meant openness or transparency ie free speech in practice it meant turning soviet media over to fanatical anti-communists so they could bombard people with anti-soviet propaganda. Rukh underwent a rapid radicalization in 1990 with it’s head Ivan Drach backing full independence. At the 2nd Rukh congress the reference to Perestroika was dropped and they accused Gorbachev of planning a Tianamen square style crackdown in Ukraine. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Rukh had a right wing faction from Western Ukraine who were strong supporters of the OUN-UPA. Future leader of Svoboda Oleh Tyahnybok got his start in the intelligence section of Rukh called Varta Ruha. Plus a leader of Rukh Chornovil addressed the OUN/B created KUN at their first conference and claimed “I do not feel a single ideological divergence between [ Rukh and KUN].” In 1990 Rukh staged a series of mass protests in favor of Ukrainian independence. In January 1990 Rukh organized a human chain of 300,000 people and used the blue and yellow flag of Ukraine for the first time. Blue and yellow had been the colors of the Galician coat of arms and then of the short lived Ukrainian National Republic during the Russian civil war. Blue symbolizes the sky, yellow symbolizes fields of grain. In September 1990 Rukh organized protests of 100,000 against resigning the Union treaty which would have preserved the Soviet Union albeit in a looser form. Yet the next year on March 17 1991 over 75% of Soviet citizens including in Ukraine voted in favor of the Union treaty preserving the Soviet Union. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Most significant for the future was the Rukh protests and hunger strikes of October 2-17 1990 that became known as the “Granite Revolution” or “Revolution on Granite.” Protestors from Lvov, Kiev and Kharkov took over Maidan square then known as “October Revolution Square.” set up tents and staged a 157 person hunger strike. They were protected by thousands of supporting protestors. As with the later “Orange Revolution” and “Maidan Revolution” they also set up a stage to provide entertainment and cultural propaganda. The Government ended up granting most of their demands including the resignation of the chairman of the Council of Ministers Vitaliy Mosol and a later agreement that the Ukrainian military would serve only in Ukraine. This would form a blue print for the later “Orange Revolution” and “Maidan Revolution” coups. The Granite Revolution or “Revolution on Granite” is a little known event and of the two articles I could find on it one was from RFE/RL a CIA front the other by a Ukrainian liberal academic who wrote glowingly of Maidan and the Orange Revolution. Unsurprisingly neither made mention of any CIA or NED ties to Rukh or the Granite Revolution. Perhaps the Ukrainians invented the color revolution on their own or perhaps they were receiving outside advice from NED funded advisers. Rukh was receiving advice and support from the Ukrainian diaspora and their Ukraine lobbies. Rukh also maintained close ties with dissident movements in Lithuania and the Baltics who were being trained by Gene Sharp’s Albert Einstein Institute and other NED tied NGO’S in the tactics of color revolution. In January of 1991 Gorbachev attempted a military crackdown on the NED trained Lithuanian independence movement which left 14 dead and further radicalized the Ukrainian dissidents. The NED became active in the Soviet Union as early as 1984. Veterans of the Granite Revolution would later train the protestors who carried out the 2004 “Orange Revolution” and the earlier protest movement against President Kuchma.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> In the end it was Leonid Kravchuk and the panicked reaction in Ukraine to the failed August 91 coup attempt in Moscow that lead to Ukrainian independence. Days after the failed coup the Ukrainian Rada declared independence on August 24, 1991. They also banned the Communist party. On December 1, 1991 Ukraine voted for independence in a referendum 90% of voters voted yes. Leonid Kravchuk was elected President and on December 8, 1991 signed the Belavezha accords with Yeltsin and Belarussian President Stanislav Shuskevich Shushkevich dissolving the Soviet Union.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Before Ukraine had become independent the OUN/B had already returned. In fact in June of 1991 they had even held an ABN conference in Kiev. The rebirth of fascism in Ukraine had two elements. First with censorship loosened Ukrainian’s began to form their own fascist parties. Second the OUN/B Diaspora began to work with these groups as well as with liberal dissidents. The four most important fascist aka ultranationalists were UNA-UNSO, KUN, DSU, and SNPU. The UNA-UNSO was the Ukrainian National Assembly and it’s Paramilitary branch UNSO. UNA grew out of the UNP (Ukrainian Nationalism Party) established October 1989, the UNS (Ukrainian National Union) established November 1990 and UMPA or UIA (Ukrainian Interparty Assembly) established July 1, 1990. UNA modeled itself on the OUN/B. UNA launched a campaign to have Ukrainian citizens register as citizens of the UNR (the short lived Ukrainian state backed by Germany and then Poland during World War 1 and the Russian Civil War 1917-1921.)When that scheme failed it allied itself with Leonid Kravchuk it had it’s members vote for him in the December 1991 elections. Elements of the Kravchuk administration began financially backing UNA-UNSO and having it do their dirty work. UNA was headed by the head of the UPA Roman Shukhevych’s son Yurii Shukhevych who had spent years in soviet prisons for refusing to denounce the OUN-UPA. After the failed coup in Moscow in August 1991. UNA created a paramilitary branch UNSO (Ukrainian People’s Self Defense Forces) in September 1991 to resist a possible Soviet invasion in Ukraine. To circumvent the law they disguised themselves as a sports club. After the collapse of the Soviet Union UNA-UNSO would fight a number of proxy wars against Russian backed separatists in Transistria, which is a breakaway part of Moldova, they fought on the side of Georgia as they tried to ethnically cleanse Abkhazia and South Ossetia receiving medals. They also fought in Chechnya on the side of the terrorists in the Shamil Basayev faction where they became infamous for their sadistic tortures of Russian POWS. UNA-UNSO veterans would provide some of the most infamous members of Right Sector during the 2014 Maidan coup. Until summer of 1991 the OUN/B emigres worked closely with UNA. In March of 1992 hundreds of UNA-UNSO members descended on Crimea they were denied entry to Sebastopol so they began blocking railway lines forcing the local government to relent. Once inside the city they began tearing down Russian flags, shouting angry slogans and alienating the population. In May of 1992 Crimea voted to declare independence from Ukraine. The UNA announced that Crimea would either be Ukrainian or depopulated.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> KUN was the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists it was created after the OUN/B moved their headquarters from Munich to Kiev. Slava Stetsko the head of the ABN had returned to Ukraine in July of 1991. KUN was an OUN/B front created to unite the fascist parties and even the liberal national democrats. It was founded by Slava Stetsko herself on March 28-29, 1992. It held it’s inaugural congress October 1992 in Kiev. The returning OUN/B emigres also created the TsDVR the Institute for the Study of Liberation Movement which would have a major role in promoting the glorification of the OUN-UPA and the whitewashing of their history. With it’s vast resources KUN proved to be an enduring influence in Ukraine reprinting the works of Dontsov, Bandera and Stetsko. However KUN would fail to achieve it’s goal of unifying the Ukrainian nationalists because the Ukrainian fascists constantly rebelled at KUN attempts to have them rein in their open fascism in order to become respectable and get votes. Slava Stetsko managed to get elected to the Ukrainian Rada along with other KUN candidates.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> The DSU (The Nationalist Union Ukrainian State Independence) was the most successful of the openly fascist parties. UNA-UNSO tried to avoid being openly anti-Jewish and Anti-Russian talking points adopting a pan-slavic ideology in the attempt to appeal to Eastern Ukrainians even allowing Russian speakers to join as the Azov Battalion does. This was also part of UNA-UNSO’s geopolitical strategy to continue to ally with the OUN/B’s allies in eastern europe and Central Asia. DSU was open only to ethnic Ukrainians who spoke Ukrainian. It modeled itself on the OUN-UPA It blamed all of Ukraine’s problems on Russians and Jews. Several of it’s leaders had served in the earlier Ukrainian National Front during the 1960’s.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> The SNPU was the Social National Party of Ukraine ie it was a play on National Socialism (Nazism) it was created in Lviv in 1991 as shock troops for Valentyn Moroz’s Nationalist block. Moroz was the dissident who had been expelled from the Soviet Union in the 1970’s for his fascist pro Dontsov and pro OUN/B views. The SNPU would later become better known when it changed it’s named to Svoboda in 2002 and began achieving electoral success. The SNPU’s armed wing Patriot of Ukraine would later give birth to the Azov Battalion. In the 1990’s the SNPU became notorious for it’s army of black clad neo-nazi skinheads.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Ukrainian fascists were still a tiny minority in the early 1990’s. They were popular mostly in Western Ukraine especially Lvov. Still before the Soviet Union was even dissolved monuments were being erected to Stepan Bandera and museums were being built to glorify him. In Staryi Uhryniv the youth group SNUM constructed a Stepan Bandera monument it was unveiled for a crowd of 10,000 people on October 14, 1990, the day before the anniversary of Bandera’s assassination. It was then blown up by Soviet security forces on Dec 30, 1990 to prevent the celebration of Bandera’s birthday on January 1st. However the monument was rebuilt bigger and better and unveiled June 30, 1991 (The anniversary of the OUN/B puppet state in Lviv 50 years earlier) Again it was blown up by Soviet security forces who also shot and wounded a SNUM member guarding it. Finally on August 17, 1992 in Kravchuk’s newly independent Ukraine a third Stepan Bandera monument was unveiled this one had a full statue of Bandera made from a melted down Lenin monument. The monument was now guarded by the Ukrainian police </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> It would take 2 CIA backed coups AKA Color Revolutions the Orange Revolution in 2004 and the Maidan revolution in 2014 for Ukrainian fascists to attain their present power and political influence. In the process they would provoke a civil war and set the stage for a Russian invasion. The rise of fascism in Ukraine in the post cold war era will be the topic of future articles in this series. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> History of Fascism in Ukraine Part 1</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/11/04/the-history-of-fascism-in-ukraine-part-i-the-origins-of-the-oun-1917-1941/"><span style="font-size: large;">https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/11/04/the-history-of-fascism-in-ukraine-part-i-the-origins-of-the-oun-1917-1941/</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">History of Fascism in Ukraine Part 2</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/11/05/history-of-fascism-in-ukraine-part-ii-the-oun-during-world-war-2-1941-1945/"><span style="font-size: large;">https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/11/05/history-of-fascism-in-ukraine-part-ii-the-oun-during-world-war-2-1941-1945/</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">History of Fascism in Ukraine Part 3</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://libya360.wordpress.com/2023/09/23/history-of-fascism-in-ukraine-part-iii-1944-1963-upa-war-ratlines-and-the-assassination-of-stepan-bandera/"><span style="font-size: large;">https://libya360.wordpress.com/2023/09/23/history-of-fascism-in-ukraine-part-iii-1944-1963-upa-war-ratlines-and-the-assassination-of-stepan-bandera/</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Sources</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Stepan Bandera The Life and Afterlife of a Ukrainian Nationalist: Fascism, Genocide and Cult by Grzegorz Rossolinski-Liebe is the definitive book on the history of the OUN.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Marcie Smith’s article on Gene Sharp’s Neo-Liberal Non-Violence is one of the most important pieces of research in the last 30 years.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://nonsite.org/change-agent-gene-sharps-neoliberal-nonviolence-part-one/"><span style="font-size: large;">https://nonsite.org/change-agent-gene-sharps-neoliberal-nonviolence-part-one/</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Old Nazis, the New Right, and the Republican Party: Domestic fascist networks and their effect on U.S. cold war politics by Russ Bellant is a must read. It’s available as a free PDF in the link below</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ivm_AubCCTCJCT4duCjadHTI6jgE1T5j/view"><span style="font-size: large;">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ivm_AubCCTCJCT4duCjadHTI6jgE1T5j/view</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Also check out the Coors Connection by Russ Bellant for more on the vast network of right wing NGO’s in the Reagan/Bush era</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PaYtJSBNJrdw6G1KAQdDb4_SqkpC5LmK/view"><span style="font-size: large;">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PaYtJSBNJrdw6G1KAQdDb4_SqkpC5LmK/view</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">“Fraud, Famine and Fascism: The Ukrainian Genocide Myth from Hitler to Harvard” by Douglas Tottle explains the origins of the Holodmor Myth and thoroughly debunks it. He also exposes the Ukraine lobby and the domination of the Pro-OUN diaspora over the study of Ukrainian history, and the role of Waffen SS Galicia veterans in Canada.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.garethjones.org/tottlefraud.pdf"><span style="font-size: large;">https://www.garethjones.org/tottlefraud.pdf</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">“Ukrainian Nationalism in the 1990’s: A Minority Faith” by Andrew Wilson gives a detailed account of Ukraine during the destruction of the USSR and the rebirth of OUN inspired fascists (or ultra-nationalists) in a a vey dry mildly pro-nationalist manner.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Socialism Betrayed: Behind the Collapse of the Soviet Union By Roger Keeran and Thomas Kenny explains how Gorbachev’s disastrous reforms destroyed the Soviet Union.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">“Inside the League” by Scott Anderson and Jon Lee Anderson provides a great portrait of The World Anti-Communist League.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Neo-Nazis & Euromaidan: From Democracy to Dictatorship by Stanislav Byshok and Alexey Kochetkov. Is a history of Right Sector and the Svoboda party from a pro-Russian perspective. Although focused on 2014 the book does cover the early 90’s. The link to the PDF is below.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/33258630/_EN_Neonazis_and_Euromaidan_From_Democracy_to_Dictatorship"><span style="font-size: large;">https://www.academia.edu/33258630/_EN_Neonazis_and_Euromaidan_From_Democracy_to_Dictatorship</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I also relied on sections from Covert Action Information Bulletin issues 25, 33, and 35</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://covertactionmagazine.com"><span style="font-size: large;">https://covertactionmagazine.com</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">“Hitler’s Shadow” by Richard Breitman and Norman J.W. Goda covers Mykola Lebed and Prolog in chapter 5</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">You can get a great overview of the history of the OUN by watching these 5 lectures on youtube 2 from the aforementioned HURI. And 3 from a recent conference in Germany dedicated to the Bandera Complex.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Author Trevor Erlacher’s biography of Dymytro Dontsov the man who inspired the OUN and Stepan Bandera</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/rahoqqySttg?si=xnN3zgePHGJdh9T8"><span style="font-size: large;">https://www.youtube.com/live/rahoqqySttg?si=xnN3zgePHGJdh9T8</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Erlacher discusses’s Dontsov’s feuds, views on gender, and the women in his circle with Ukrainian academics note their ambiguous attitude to fascism.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/yAlwWmh_K5M?si=kTqkp_rqEs_Gep4w"><span style="font-size: large;">https://www.youtube.com/live/yAlwWmh_K5M?si=kTqkp_rqEs_Gep4w</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Moss Robeson lecture at the Bandera Complex Conference on the history of the OUN</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/zQKkbUp72iM?si=Ruo4RnhMcbFo9Xdx"><span style="font-size: large;">https://youtu.be/zQKkbUp72iM?si=Ruo4RnhMcbFo9Xdx</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Moss Robeson lecture at the Bandera Complex Conference on the Ukraine Lobby</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/_3qAEGAxCUU?si=VqhJYkElsExw8iK-"><span style="font-size: large;">https://youtu.be/_3qAEGAxCUU?si=VqhJYkElsExw8iK-</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Russ Bellant Lecture at the Bandera Complex Conference on the ABN and Republican Heritage Groups Councils </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/mJN4usUsk6M?si=niEssMBuKSTqgt3M"><span style="font-size: large;">https://youtu.be/mJN4usUsk6M?si=niEssMBuKSTqgt3M</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Moss Robeson interviews Russ Bellant on his book Old Nazis, the New Right and the Republican Party and his experience infiltrating WACL and the RHGC. Subscribe to Moss Robeson’s youtube channel for more great interviews and documentaries on the OUN and the Ukraine lobby.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/TmacR8H8tDw?si=l-iTIm0iFRV92LFf"><span style="font-size: large;">https://youtu.be/TmacR8H8tDw?si=l-iTIm0iFRV92LFf</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Sean Gervasi on the destabilization of the USSR</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Video</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/b9_aYcpxClA?si=Luncf8vrDNjvpMgY"><span style="font-size: large;">https://youtu.be/b9_aYcpxClA?si=Luncf8vrDNjvpMgY</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Transcript</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://dennisriches.wordpress.com/2017/11/15/sean-gervasi-1992-lecture-the-us-strategy-to-dismantle-the-ussr/#_edn5"><span style="font-size: large;">https://dennisriches.wordpress.com/2017/11/15/sean-gervasi-1992-lecture-the-us-strategy-to-dismantle-the-ussr/#_edn5</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Moss Robeson on Canada’s Nazigate scandal</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://banderalobby.substack.com/p/nazigate-and-the-bandera-lobby"><span style="font-size: large;">https://banderalobby.substack.com/p/nazigate-and-the-bandera-lobby</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Russ Bellant interview from 2014 on his book “Old Nazis, New Right” and the revival of fascism in Ukraine after the cold war</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://fpif.org/seven-decades-nazi-collaboration-americas-dirty-little-ukraine-secret/"><span style="font-size: large;">https://fpif.org/seven-decades-nazi-collaboration-americas-dirty-little-ukraine-secret/</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Taras Kuzio on Radical Nationalist parties in post-soviet Ukraine 1989-1994 provides a detailed account of the revival of fascism (Radical Nationalism) in Ukraine from a pro-Ukrainian perspective. (Kuzio has done work for a number of sinister think tanks and CIA fronts)</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://shron1.chtyvo.org.ua/Taras_Kuzio/Radical_nationalist_parties_and_movements_in_contemporary_Ukraine_before_and_after_independence_The.pdf?PHPSESSID=na94gbscbqos60oac1dlorgp45"><span style="font-size: large;">https://shron1.chtyvo.org.ua/Taras_Kuzio/Radical_nationalist_parties_and_movements_in_contemporary_Ukraine_before_and_after_independence_The.pdf?PHPSESSID=na94gbscbqos60oac1dlorgp45</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Moss Robeson on Lev Dobriansky</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://vocinfo.substack.com/p/mr-captive-nations-vs-the-cia"><span style="font-size: large;">https://vocinfo.substack.com/p/mr-captive-nations-vs-the-cia</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Moss Robeson on John Singlaub</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://vocinfo.substack.com/p/john-singlaub"><span style="font-size: large;">https://vocinfo.substack.com/p/john-singlaub</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Moss Robeson’s Bandera Lobby Blog</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://banderalobby.substack.com"><span style="font-size: large;">https://banderalobby.substack.com</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Moss Robeson’s Blog on the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and the Captive Nations Movement</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://vocinfo.substack.com"><span style="font-size: large;">https://vocinfo.substack.com</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Moss Robeson’s blog on Ukraine</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://mossrobeson.medium.com"><span style="font-size: large;">https://mossrobeson.medium.com</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">CIA front RFE/RL on the Revolution on Granite</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/the-revolution-on-granite-ukraine-s-first-maidan-kyiv/30892599.html"><span style="font-size: large;">https://www.rferl.org/a/the-revolution-on-granite-ukraine-s-first-maidan-kyiv/30892599.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Olga Onuch on the Granite Revolution</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/36179915/The_Legacy_Of_The_Revolution_On_Granite"><span style="font-size: large;">https://www.academia.edu/36179915/The_Legacy_Of_The_Revolution_On_Granite</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Harvard’s role in looting Russia</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/world/harvard-boys-do-russia/"><span style="font-size: large;">https://www.thenation.com/article/world/harvard-boys-do-russia/</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bush orders NSA to help Yeltsin during failed August Coup</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/us-agents-helped-yeltsin-break-coup-1436470.html"><span style="font-size: large;">https://www.independent.co.uk/news/us-agents-helped-yeltsin-break-coup-1436470.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Our Hidden History sent me this link to search the Ukrainian weekly archive which was very helpful in researching the Ukrainian diaspora’s ties to Rukh and other topics</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://ourhiddenhistory.org/docsearch/ukrweeklycom/ukrweeklycom-The_Ukrainian_Weekly_1992-51_12.txt?search=rukh&collection=/ukrweeklycom"><span style="font-size: large;">https://ourhiddenhistory.org/docsearch/ukrweeklycom/ukrweeklycom-The_Ukrainian_Weekly_1992-51_12.txt?search=rukh&collection=/ukrweeklycom</span></a></span></p><div><br /></div>Hugo Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12229123097438571385noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8001402613324067475.post-47423536359657871922023-09-23T12:24:00.000-07:002023-09-23T12:24:06.671-07:00History of Fascism in Ukraine Part 3<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"> </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">History of Fascism in Ukraine Part 3: 1944-1963 UPA War, Ratlines, and the Assassination of Stepan Bandera</span></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Dedicated to the memory of Luciana Bohne.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">With special thanks to T.P. Wilkinson. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Just prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, stories began to appear in the Western press on American plans to set up a GLADIO style stay behind network in Ukraine that would resist the Russian invasion from behind enemy lines. It would be an underground army equipped with hidden arms caches. Unsurprisingly this meant that such a Gladio terror network had already been set up. However in the context of the bloody stalemate that the war has become it has been so far only a minor annoyance for the Russians, assassinating officials in Russian controlled areas and helping to target Ukrainian attacks. These plans were history repeating themselves for as the Nazis prepared to retreat from Ukraine back in 1944 they made a deal with the UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army) to act as a stay behind army to continue to wage war on the Soviets from behind enemy lines. The UPA had been created to ethnically cleanse eastern Poland of Poles and the few remaining Jews who had survived the mass killings throughout the occupied territories. It pretended to fight the Nazis while secretly working for German military intelligence. Yet the UPA and their OUN/B (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists/Bandera) masters knew that Germany was losing the war and in mid-1944 the head of OUN/B intelligence the SB Mykola Lebed made a secret deal with the British. Soon the Americans were also in on the act. In Ukraine World War 2 would go on for another eight years after the defeat of Nazi Germany. The campaign against the Soviet Union would continue to be waged by OPC, MI6, Gehlen Org, and the CIA who secretly backed the doomed UPA. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> And Ukraine was merely the biggest of these Western backed covert wars that are usually completely ignored by mainstream accounts of the Cold War. The UPA war itself took place in Poland, Belarus, and Czechoslovakia as well as Western Ukraine. There were also covert wars in Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Albania, Yugoslavia and other countries in the Eastern Bloc. In the Baltics remnants of the Waffen SS, known as “The Forest Brotherhood”, continued the war with the backing of combined Western intelligence services. The UPA campaign in Ukraine was fundamental in the start of the Cold War. OUN-UPA propaganda promised that World War 3 was just around the corner and that Britain and America would arrive to “liberate” Ukraine and deliver it to the OUN/B—a bunch of genocidal fascists. In exchange for Western arms, the UPA were spying for the West. Their information was being used to pick targets inside Ukraine for the planned U.S. atomic “Doomsday” strikes. Living in Western exile, future OUN/B head Yaroslav Stetsko was actively lobbying for atomic war at the expense of millions of Ukrainian dead. He considered this a small price to pay for the “liberation” of Ukraine from Communism.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> This article will tell the story of these early Cold War years. It will cover the UPA war, the ratlines and the resettling of 120,000 Ukrainian fascists around the globe. It will discuss riots, torture and assassination the OUN/B conducted in displaced person camps and prisons. It will discuss the OUN/B in exile and its split into two factions: the MI6 and Gehlen backed Zch OUN led by Stepan Bandera and Stetsko and the CIA backed ZP UHVR led by Mykola Lebed. It will cover the OUN/B and MI6 creation of the largest fascist umbrella group of the postwar years the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations or ABN which united escaped fascist war criminals from across Eastern and Central Europe. The ABN would form close ties with the Asian People’s Anti-Communist League and the two would eventually launch the World Anti-Communist League. Finally it will discuss the assassination of Stepan Bandera.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> You should read parts one and two for a detailed account of the origins of the OUN and its role in helping the Nazis murder masses of Slavs and Jews during World War 2. However I will attempt a recap along with a couple of new details discovered in my many months of research since last year. For much of its history Ukraine has been a battleground between East and West. In the nineteenth century, a Ukrainian national identity began to emerge in a small group of artists and intellectuals. The stereotypical early Ukrainian nationalist had a book of Ukrainian poetry in one pocket and a copy of Marx in the other. In the years leading up to World War 1 however Ukrainian nationalism increasingly became a form of proto-fascism inspired by scientific racism and social Darwinism. Its key figure would become Dmytro Dontsov who fled Russian Ukraine for Galicia, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. (It may be worth mentioning that the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire released the flood of reactionary intellectuals that also built the atomic bomb, the so-called Chicago School, neo-conservatism, and neo-liberalism.) Donstov would become a propagandist for Germany during World War 1. Ukraine would become a major battleground in World War 1, the Russian Civil War, the Polish-Soviet War, and the Polish-Ukrainian war. In the end most of Ukraine would be incorporated into the Soviet Union as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic while what is today Western Ukraine became part of Poland. Historians have come to realize that the German (and Czech) wartime experience fighting in Ukraine and the Baltic in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution played a key role in the birth of Nazi ideology and methodology. This is known as “Brutalization theory” anti-communism and anti-Semitism became linked and led to genocidal pogroms. German veterans of the wars in the Ukraine and the Baltic would join the <span style="font-style: italic;">Freikorps</span> right wing mercenary and paramilitary bands. The <span style="font-style: italic;">Freikorps</span> popularized the swastika, fought wars in Eastern Europe, were brought in to massacre German communists and joined the Nazi Party.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists or OUN had its origins in what was Eastern Poland after World War 1. During World War 1 the OUN’s founders had fought for the Austro-Hungarian Empire as the Sich Riflemen serving under a Habsburg prince Wilhelm von Habsburg. They became the core of the military for the short-lived Western Ukrainian People’s Republic, which was eventually crushed by the newly reborn Poland. They then went into exile and formed the terrorist group, the UVO, which stood for the Ukrainian Military Organization. The UVO carried out terror attacks in Poland and spied for German military intelligence. The UVO was headed by Levhen Konovalets who had commanded the Sich Riflemen and then fought for Western Ukraine against Poland. Defeated he and the other leaders ran the UVO from exile. In 1929 the UVO decided it needed a mass organization to carry out its goals and created the OUN. Konovalets was the first head of the OUN.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Meanwhile in Western Ukraine a new generation of Ukrainian nationalists had come of age inspired by the work of Dmitry Dontsov who popularized fascism. Dontsov was surrounded by a group of fascist avant-garde poets and intellectuals known as the Vistnykites. Donstov popularized a bastardized form of Nietzsche, which he combined with extreme Ukrainian nationalism. He inspired a ruthless young generation of Ukrainian fascists who worshipped violence and were ready to commit any crime for the sake of the cause. Historians call them the “Bandera Generation” which included Stepan Bandera, Yaroslav Stetsko, and Mykola Lebed. They grew up in nationalist youth groups and scouting organizations before joining the UVO and then the OUN. They managed to radicalize much of the Ukrainian population of Poland launching a movement of mass resistance, propaganda, fanatical indoctrination, terror and assassination. Eventually after plotting the assassination of the interior minister of Poland Bronislaw Pieracki the OUN leaders were tried and imprisoned. The actual assassin escaped to Argentina where the FBI later uncovered a German plot to have him assassinate President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Meanwhile Levhen Konovalets, the leader and founder of the OUN/B, was assassinated by Pavel Sudoplatov, a Soviet agent using an exploding box of chocolates. The OUN leadership in exile picked Andrii Melnyk to replace Konovalets. When Germany invaded Poland, sparking World War 2, Bandera and his friends escaped from prison. Bandera’s trial had made him a superstar among the Ukrainian nationalists and he felt he should be made OUN leader. The OUN was soon split into an old generation in exile the OUN/M loyal to Melnyk and the younger OUN/B living under Polish rule and loyal to Bandera. The OUN/M vs. OUN/B rivalry would turn murderous. Both competed for the Nazis favour and both would play their role in helping to carry out the Nazis genocidal policies. The OUN/B would create Ukrainian militias that would become the auxiliary police hunting, guarding, transporting to execution, Ukraine’s Jews and other enemies of the Nazis. The OUN/M would supply recruits for the 14<sup>th</sup> <span style="font-style: italic;">Waffen SS</span> division “<span style="font-style: italic;">Galizia”</span>. In 1943 the OUN/B ordered its members in the police to desert and form the UPA the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. The UPA launched genocidal massacres of Polish villagers. They reportedly delighted in murdering their victims with horrifying sadism using axes, clubs and saws to save bullets, terrify the Poles, and amusing themselves. The UPA killed 80-100,000 poles in Galicia and Volhynia. The UPA also helped the Nazis battle the Soviet partisans. After the war the OUN/B in exile would popularize the myth that the UPA fought both the Nazis and the Soviets. In reality the UPA only attacked Germans when they needed arms and they were secretly working for the German <span style="font-style: italic;">Abwehr</span> (military intelligence) the entire time. The <span style="font-style: italic;">Abwehr</span> had been working with the UVO and the OUN throughout their history. MI6 had also been backing the OUN before the war. MI6 head Admiral Hugh “Quex” Sinclair began backing the OUN in the mid 1930s. The man in charge was MI6 officer Harry Carr stationed in Finland. Carr was also apparently working with the <span style="font-style: italic;">Abwehr</span>. Carr would be the MI6 point man for Ukrainian operations after the war, meeting frequently with Stepan Bandera.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Early in 1944 the Red Army was on the verge of liberating Western Ukraine. The UPA and the <span style="font-style: italic;">Abwehr</span> made a deal. Huge German arms caches were turned over to the UPA in exchange for providing intelligence on Soviet forces and fighting to tie down as many Red Army troops as they could. It was called Operation Sunflower. Shortly before the Red Army captured Lvov, the OUN/B held a major conference adopting a more democratic facade in hopes of winning Western support. This process of adopting a democratic facade had begun the year before in the OUN/B’s third Extraordinary Conference held 21-25 August 1943. After the spring 1944 conference, the OUN/B decided to send a delegation led by Mykola Lebed to the West to contact the Allies. Lebed would become a key Cold War figure leading the CIA backed branch of the OUN/B. The UHVR, the Supreme Ukrainian Liberation Council, was created to give a democratic facade to the OUN/B in July 1944. Lebed later admitted to historian Christopher Simpson that he had made contact with Western intelligence in the summer of 1944. Lebed was described by the American CIC (Counter-Intelligence Corps) as “A well known sadist and Nazi collaborator”. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In the 1930s Lebed masterminded a number of assassinations, he had gone on to the Gestapo school outside of Cracow, Poland where he trained his men in torture, by kidnapping Jews and torturing them until they made false confessions and then killing them (an approach for which USAID/ CIA contractor Dan Mitrione became infamous in Latin America). Lebed headed the OUN’s intelligence branch the Sluzhba Bezpeky (Security Service) or SB, which was also tasked with killing, suspected traitors within the OUN/B or the UPA. Lebed masterminded the assassinations of OUN/M members that got Bandera and Stetsko sent to the cosy section of the concentration camp for high value political prisoners. Unlike Bandera Lebed was thus able to participate directly in the OUN/B’s horrific war crimes during the war. Lebed ordered the ethnic cleansing campaign against Poles. After the Cold War Lebed and his CIA front Prolog would be credited with helping to destabilize and destroy the Soviet Union. Most historians claimed that Lebed’s initial mission to contact the Western allies in 1944 was a failure. However historian Jeffrey Burds discovered that according to German intelligence it was a success and by fall of 1944 Lebed had made a deal with the British. Lebed also found a willing ally in the Vatican through the Ukrainian-American archbishop Ivan Buchko, a prelate in the Greek Catholic church and a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Buchko would later intercede with Pope Pius XII to protect the Ukrainian 14<sup>th</sup> <span style="font-style: italic;">Waffen SS “Galizia”</span> division. Another key Lebed ally in the clergy was Father Ivan Hryn’okh who had been the chaplain to the <span style="font-style: italic;">Galizia</span> division.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Meanwhile the Soviets had succeeded in liberating Ukraine in May 1944 and the UPA war had begun. The Red Army still had to liberate the rest of Eastern Europe and eventually Germany. The bulk of Red Army forces left Ukraine after drafting 700,000 West Ukrainians. Still at one point the UPA managed to tie down about 200,000 Red Army troops. It even managed to kill General Nikolai Vatutin of the 1st Ukrainian Front in February 1944. Between February 1944 and December 1946 the UPA managed to kill 11,725 Soviet officers, agents, and collaborators. The UPA wounded 3,914 more and 2,401 were disappeared (kidnapped), probably tortured and then killed. Soviet officials were afraid to leave their offices. Meanwhile being elected to head a village soviet usually meant a death sentence for whoever won. The UPA ruled the countryside. The UPA foolishly tried to fight the Red Army and the NKVD head on in the first year of the war and suffered huge casualties. To avoid confusion I should mention that the Soviets changed the name of their security services three times in the period this article covers. The NKVD (People’s Commissariat For Internal Affairs), which was responsible for Internal security, became the MVD (Ministry of Internal Affairs) in 1946, a name it kept until 1991. The NKGB (People’s Commissariat of State Security) responsible for external threats became the MGB (Ministry of State Security) in 1946 and the KGB in 1954. In 1947 the Soviets became concerned by the failure of the MVD to root out the UPA and transferred responsibility for the UPA war to the MGB. The MGB and the MVD were bitter rivals involved in a constant power struggle. Khrushchev was also removed from power for several months because of his brutality and incompetence.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The UPA had prepared for the arrival of the Soviets by launching a massive propaganda campaign to get the populace to resist the draft. Rumour and disinformation were among the UPA’s weapons of choice. They claimed that the Soviets were planning to kill the entire population or deport them to Siberia. They claimed that Stalin was dead. They claimed that the U.S. were rearming Germany and Japan to launch an attack on the Soviet Union (actually true) or that the United States and Britain were about to invade on their behalf (more than unlikely). They claimed that an army of Ukrainians from Canada or the US or made up of Ukrainians in displaced persons camps was about to come to the rescue. Some UPA rumours betrayed an inside knowledge of secret Western plans with a little exaggeration thrown in. The UPA plan to promote draft avoidance/ evasion was very successful and the forests were full of draft dodgers, potential UPA recruits. Some of these fugitives became bandits to survive. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The UPA had the peasants dig bunkers and hideouts. Some were only big enough to hide a single person while others were huge multi-room affairs. The bunkers were used to create a literal underground parallel government with hidden hospitals, printing presses and even police stations as well as hiding arms, weapons, and food. The NKVD was faced with a huge well-armed and trained UPA force that outnumbered them 6 to 1. The UPA would assassinate anyone that the Soviet government tried to put in charge of a local village and eventually anyone who obeyed the Soviets. The NKVD decided to create destruction battalions to battle the UPA. However since all the able bodied men were already serving in the Red Army or hiding out with the UPA in the forests the NKVD had to rely on the old, the disabled, women and children to serve in the destruction battalions. Many joined to avenge family members killed by the UPA. They were often poorly trained. The UPA also sent its own members to infiltrate the destruction battalions, setting them up for ambushes so the UPA could steal their arms, or trying to convince them to desert to the UPA. Eventually however in mid 1946 the MVD would purge the destruction battalions and give them better training. The NKVD/MVD also enjoyed an advantage in raw firepower against the UPA. The UPA strategy of forming large 600 man battalions made them easy to track down. The UPA staged reckless and suicidal attacks on the NKVD units and suffered heavy casualties. By 1945 the UPA was forced to completely change their strategy they formed small units that would carry out attacks and then disappear into bunkers or melt into the local population.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In November 1944 the Soviet-backed Polish government and Soviet Ukraine agreed on population transfers and a new border. Poles in what was once Eastern Poland and was now once again Western Ukraine were sent to Western Poland which had been carved out of Eastern Germany while Poland would send all of its Ukrainians to Ukraine. The UPA launched a war inside Poland to stop the deportation of Ukrainians. In March 1947 the UPA ambushed and killed Poland’s deputy Minister for Defence General Karol Swierczewski. In revenge Poland would launch a brutal Operation Vistula to kick the Ukrainians out and take revenge for the UPA’s wartime massacres of Poles. Poland was already involved in a civil war between Poles loyal to the London-controlled government in exile and Poles loyal to the Soviet-backed Polish government. It would evolve into one of the more humiliating chapters in the Cold War for the west when Soviet Intelligence gained control of the anti-Soviet Polish resistance group WIN and convinced Western intelligence to continue supplying WIN with money, arms and supplies. Eventually WIN announced on the radio that it had been Soviet-controlled the entire time. This was humiliating for both the CIA and MI6. Back in Ukraine the population transfers meant that that the NKVD lost most of their informants, who were often Poles, as well as many of their Polish recruits in the destruction battalion. The UPA was also freed from their war with the AK (Polish partisans loyal to the exile government) and could concentrate on fighting the Soviets. Ironically once again the Soviets had accomplished a major goal of the Ukrainian nationalists by creating a homogenous Ukraine. After the Russian Civil War the Soviets had promoted the Ukrainian language and culture through their Ukrainization program. The Soviets had also given Ukraine huge chunks of Russian territories. Khrushchev would even give Ukraine Crimea. Then they had finally re-united Russian Central and Eastern Ukraine with Polish Western Ukraine after their invasion of Poland in 1939. Now to end the war between the UPA and the Poles they had removed the Poles from western Ukraine. They were unknowingly creating the conditions that would later allow for the triumph of OUN ideology in the post-Cold War Ukraine. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany on 9 May 1945 was a major blow to UPA morale. Many in Western Ukraine were sympathetic to the UPA after decades of OUN propaganda and agitation. However many civilians did not want to be doomed by a losing cause. The Soviets knew from experience during the Russian Civil War that the key to winning the war was forcing people to choose sides. UPA’s fanatical fascism actually helped defeat them because with the Poles gone the UPA’s main target became the Ukrainian people themselves. They considered anyone who complied with Soviet orders a traitor who should be killed along with their family. The Soviets launched a collectivization drive. They held town meetings and asked for a show of hands on who would agree to join the collectives. The UPA would arrive that night and slice off the hands of any peasant who had raised their hands at the meeting. The UPA announced that anyone who joined a collective farm or who met the grain requisition would be killed “like dogs” and their families butchered. Failure to comply with the Soviet government could mean imprisonment, deportation or death. The UPA brutally killed peasants for paying their taxes and burned down homes of peasants who joined collective farms. Soon the peasants who had formerly been UPA sympathizers were now informing the government on where the UPA were hiding to avoid retribution from the UPA. The UPA brutally killed suspected informants and their entire families further alienating the public. The Soviets also announced that anyone whose family was in the UPA or had family members in hiding would be deported unless their family members turned them in. They promised amnesty to those who surrendered and convinced thousands of UPA members and draft dodgers to surrender for the sake of their families. The Soviets deported 200,000 suspected OUN sympathizers and gave their lands to loyalists and veterans of the destruction battalions. The Soviets repeatedly offered amnesties to UPA members who were willing to surrender by July 1946 over 112,000 UPA members and draft dodgers surrendered. The SB founded by Mykola Lebed was responsible for killing hundreds of UPA members who surrendered, were suspected of being informants, or who were “defeatists” who doubted the war could be won. The SB had also managed to infiltrate Soviet intelligence most Soviet raids on the UPA came up empty handed the UPA simply disappeared into the forests and bunkers.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> After it’s huge losses in the first year of the war and increasingly unpopular with the people of western Ukraine UPA morale was plummeting. Then came Winston Churchill’s 4 March 1946 “Iron Curtain” speech in Fulton, Missouri, reviving UPA’s hopes. Churchill claimed, “War was inevitable”. The UPA had been trying to convince people that the Americans and British would soon intervene. Churchill’s speech galvanized the UPA and the number of attacks they carried out increased by 300%. Initially the Soviet’s dismissed UPA claims of Western backing. After Churchill’s speech they began to pay attention to evidence of Western backing for the UPA. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The OUN/B had relocated to Munich, Germany, which the NSDAP had called the “<span style="font-style: italic;">Stadt der Bewegung</span>” (city of the movement) because of the failed plot that had launched Hitler’s career there. Stepan Bandera was in hiding. Moving from place to place, he had multiple addresses and aliases. By fall of 1945 he was running a spy school near Munich for Western intelligence, where the Gehlen organisation (later the <span style="font-style: italic;">Bundesnachrichtendienst</span>- BND) would be stationed until 1990. The US kept a safe house for Bandera in Munich. Bandera was constantly guarded by 10 ruthless bodyguards known as the “Black Hand” who killed an unknown number of people suspected of being Soviet agents. US intelligence kept Bandera informed in advance of Soviet attempts to arrest kidnap or assassinate him. In 1945 Munich was home not only to the Gehlen Org, but nascent operations of US anti-Soviet covert action agencies, e.g. OPC’s radio stations. The infamous mosque used to foment new Pan-Turkism and the <span style="font-style: italic;">al Qaeda</span> operation were located in Munich, too. The city became the domicile of the ABN (Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations), the Ukrainian Red Cross, the Plast scouting organization, and the League of Political Prisoners all run out of the same OUN/B headquarters. Technically the OUN/B in Munich was called the <span style="font-style: italic;">ZCh OUN</span> (Foreign Units of the OUN). It was run by Stepan Bandera and Yaroslav Stetsko. Stetsko was the brains behind Bandera, according to researcher Moss Robeson. Stetsko had declared himself Prime Minister of Ukraine back on 30 June 1941 since Bandera had been barred from entering Ukraine. Stetsko would head the ABN, created in 1946, although the OUN/B preferred to date its origins to 1943 when Alfred Rosenberg had organized the Conference of the Enslaved Peoples of Asia and Europe. The conference was a disaster. The OUN/B burned the records and assassinated several attendees. The ABN still preferred the 1943 origin date. In 1983 Yaroslav Stetsko and his wife Slava were invited to the White House to shake hands with President Reagan, Vice President Bush and UN Ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick for the 40th anniversary of the ABN’s founding. Slava Stetsko would take over the ABN and OUN/B after her husband’s death and was elected to the Ukrainian Rada. The ABN was the largest fascist umbrella group in the world. Both the OUN/B and the UHVR claimed to represent the UPA back in Ukraine.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In 1947, because of the failure of the MVD to crush the UPA, responsibility for the war was shifted to the MGB. The MVD turned over control of it<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">s</span> 1,920 agents and 15,345 agents to MGB. The shift was also caused by Soviet discovery of Western backing as early as 1946 when it seized a huge cache of UPA documents. The UPA were a foreign-backed threat and therefore subject to foreign intelligence jurisdiction. 1947 was also the year in which the CIA was created. Prior to that there was a dizzying array of intelligence agencies. The OSS had met with Lebed in Berne. There was the highly secretive military DDU recruiting Nazis and scientists seizing rockets and nuclear materials. The CIC, officially tasked with hunting Nazi war criminals, were mainly engaged in recruiting and protecting them. It was the CIC that protected Bandera. The SSU, and finally the CIG were the two forerunners of the CIA. Alongside the CIA was Allen Dulles<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">’</span>s other brainchild the OPC or Office of Policy Coordination run by Frank Wisner, which using State Department cover performed the dirty work of the early CIA, before covert action was concentrated in the agency. Wisner’s OPC would play a major role in backing the UPA war and in utilizing Ukrainian exiles. The OPC would later be merged into the CIA. The role of MI6, CIA and OPC in backing the UPA war will be discussed later. Here it is important to note conventional wisdom holds that Western backing for the UPA came too late and continued after the situation had become totally hopeless. There can be little truth to this since even the scanty record available shows that the UPA enjoyed Western support from its very inception. Yet as with many aspects of covert action the record is distorted. OPC records are unavailable. MI6 does not release its records. Moreover the CIA deliberately conceals the exact point when its support began. Jeffrey Burds discovered, while in communication with Harry Rositzke (who ran the CIA station in Munich, the UPA war and was Lebed’s case officer), that the CIA uses a legal loophole, revealing when it began “running” the UPA war and infiltration missions into Ukraine in 1949, while covering up the fact that it began “assisting” the UPA in 1947. Interestingly in 1947 UPA head Roman Shukhevych sent a letter to the Ukrainians in exile endorsing the CIA controlled UHVR as the official representatives of the UPA while admitting that the OUN/B had founded the UPA and hoping they would reunite. Bandera was outraged and declared it to be a Soviet forgery.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> So to return to Western Ukraine during the first phase of the UPA war: The UPA had operated in large bands of 600 men that recklessly fought the Red Army and the NKVD/MVD head on. However they suffered heavy losses and went underground. One in every four homes in Western Ukraine had hidden bunkers where the UPA could hide during Soviet raids. There were also hidden bunkers in the forests. The Soviets were forced to switch to a more surgical approach relying on networks of informants and all manner of trickery. For example they would publicly display the corpses of dead UPA members then spy on the reaction of the villagers to find out who was upset. The Soviets sowed division by releasing some early from questioning and others late to trick the UPA into believing loyal members were informants and informants were loyal members. To get the most stubborn UPA captives to talk they staged fake prison breaks by fake UPA units who would then trick the prisoner into revealing everything they knew. The UPA countered by infiltrating the Soviet agent networks feeding them misinformation. Eventually however the MGB would win this counter-intelligence game. Gradually through a mix of successfully capturing and forcing the UPA to turn on their comrades and by periodically offering amnesties to UPA members, who lived a miserable life hiding out in lice-infected bunkers; the UPA ranks began to shrink. Many UPA members committed suicide using hand grenades to destroy their faces to protect their families. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The Soviets struck a major blow in November 1948 when they killed 3 UPA Commanders and in a separate raid killed the head of the SB “Myron” who was responsible for the infiltration of Soviet intelligence. Finally on 5 March 1950 the MGB managed to kill UPA head Roman Shukhevych. According to one version he was killed or according to another version he was surrounded and committed suicide to avoid capture. Shukhevych had joined the UVO in the 1920s and attended an <span style="font-style: italic;">Abwehr</span> school in 1925. He then joined the OUN/B and had been part of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Nachtigall</span> Battalion that arrived with the German army in Lviv and took part in the massacres of Jews. Shukhevych then joined the notorious Battalion 201 responsible for destroying villages in Ukraine and Belarus massacring the inhabitants. Shukhevych went on to head the UPA until his death. Today Roman Shukhevych is idolized as one of the heroes of Ukraine along with Petliura, Konovalets, and Bandera. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> By 1952 there were only 647 UPA members left in Ukraine. On 24 May 24 1954, Vasyl Kuk, the last UPA commander was arrested. In 1960 the last UPA unit, comprising only three people, was caught. The UPA war was a costly and pointless one for the people of Western Ukraine. Soviet Forces killed 153,000 “UPA or bandits”, including people who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, arrested 134,000 people and deported 203,000 suspected UPA sympathizers or their family members. The UPA killed 20,000 Ukrainian civilians and 10,000 Soviet soldiers, security service members and destruction battalion members. The UPA killed 1,200 people in Belarus from 1944-47 and thousands more in Poland.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> There were 2.5 million Ukrainian displaced persons or DP’s at the end of the war in Germany and in Austria. Most were forced labourers who had been tricked or press ganged by the Nazis, becoming slave labour back in Germany, where a system of apartheid was set up to keep them segregated from the Germans. Of these 1,850,000 returned to the Soviet Union from 1945-1947. During the Cold War it was claimed that they were all sent off to gulags in Siberia. In reality most returned to their homes. This left only 200,000 Ukrainians in Germany and 50,000 in Austria. Over 120,000 of them had retreated with the Nazi armies when they left Ukraine and were Nazi collaborators, OUN members, and escaped war criminals. They lived in huge displaced persons camps and the OUN/B quickly gained control of them with the backing of the British and the Americans. In the camps the OUN/B recreated their old front groups, youth groups, scouting groups that had been used to indoctrinate the Bandera generation and would now be used to help the OUN/B and OUN/M ideologies to survive their decades in exile. In 1948 the British quietly ordered a halt to all war crimes trials and investigations and began importing thousands of fascist émigrés. That same year the U.S. Congress passed the <span style="font-style: italic;">Displaced Persons Act</span> which along with the later <span style="font-style: italic;">Refugee Relief Act</span> allowed over 500,000 refugees from Eastern Europe to enter the U.S. Many were innocent victims of the war but others were fascist collaborators that the U.S. felt would be useful during the Cold War. Tens of thousands of OUN members, UPA vets, and Ukrainian <span style="font-style: italic;">SS</span> veterans were brought into the U.S., Britain, Australia and Canada. The CIA also pushed through a secret agreement called the <span style="font-style: italic;">100 Persons Act</span> which allowed the CIA to bring in 100 people and their families every year and give them citizenship regardless of whatever crimes they had committed in the past that would bar their entry. It was a deal between the CIA, the Justice Department and the INS allowing the CIA to bring in 100 notorious Nazi war criminals every year “In the interests of National Security.” This was used to shield the worst of the worst like Mykola Lebed and Pavlo Shandruk the former leader of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Waffen SS </span>division<span style="font-style: italic;"> “Galizia”</span>.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> U.S. Intelligence recruited the OUN/B to wage a reign of terror in the displaced persons camps in what was called Operation Ohio. The OUN/B were used as torturers and assassins in an attempt to root out Soviet agents. Mykola Lebed was in charge. Although Lebed would head the rival faction UHVR, and the rivalry between Lebed and Bandera would turn murderous by 1947. Lebed was initially a member of both the <span style="font-style: italic;">Zch OUN</span> (or OUN/B) and UHVR until 1948. The OUN/B gave a list of a 100 suspected Soviet spies to the U.S. and the U.S. military arrested them. Then the OUN/B dressed in American military uniforms tortured the prisoners. Also as part of Operation Ohio the OUN/B operated torture sites at each of the displaced persons camps. The OUN/B were given a license to kill anyone they suspected of being a spy and were used by the Americans as assassins and kidnappers in its battles with Soviet agents. (Rhee’s police and KMT agents were used in the POW camps for the same purpose during the war in Korea.) The OUN/B and the ABN created a huge anti-repatriation movement in the DP camps. They operated a massive forgery operation to create fake identities to avoid being deported as war criminals. The OUN/B also operated a huge counterfeiting ring that printed fake American money. The OUN/B and their allies in the ABN staged riots when Soviet officials attempted to visit the camps, pelting them with bricks. They even battled the German police and military when they tried to stop a mob from attacking a Soviet consulate. In the Soviet Union itself prisoners from the OUN/B and UPA were well organized and when they arrived in the gulags the murder rate began to skyrocket according to anti-Soviet novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. This OUN/B-UPA network in Soviet prisons survived well into the 1970s. When Ukrainian dissidents organizing around the Helsinki committee’s human rights platform were arrested during the 1970s, many became indoctrinated by the UPA veterans. Ukrainian liberalism became allied with Ukrainian fascism. The OUN-UPA are believed to have organized a number of riots and uprisings in Soviet prisons during the Cold war although the details are sketchy.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Perhaps the most shocking story of Ukrainian fascists in exile is the tale of the 14<sup>th</sup> <span style="font-style: italic;">Waffen SS</span> Division “<span style="font-style: italic;">Galizia</span>”, led by Pavlo Shandruk. In April 1945 they had been renamed the Ukrainian National Army. They “surrendered” to the British on 10 May 1945 yet were allowed to keep their weapons and officers and were even given more weapons by the British. They were resettled in Rimini and were not even classified as prisoners of war. They kept their guns and were allowed to leave whenever they wanted. The British had already made deals with Lebed and Bandera. Father Ivan Hryn’okh, their chaplain, had found a patron in Ukrainian American Archbishop Ivan Buchko, who lobbied Pope Pius XII on their behalf. Pope Pius XII was a Nazi sympathizer and a rabid anti-communist. Hryn’okh was also a key ally of Lebed in the UHVR and was on the CIC payroll. The UK and US saw the <span style="font-style: italic;">SS-Galizia</span> division as a fit, well-trained, ideologically reliable force that could be used against the Soviets. They refused to turn them over to the Soviets because Galicia had been part of Poland in 1939. In Britain, Canada, and the U.S. the Ukrainian diaspora lobbied ceaselessly on their behalf. In 1947 Italy was about to be given back control of its government, including the POW camps, and the British feared the <span style="font-style: italic;">Galizia</span> division might be sent back to the Soviet Union. They conducted a phony investigation run by Brigadier General Fitzroy Maclean to see if any of them were war criminals. Even those who proudly admitted their crimes were protected and given a clean record. Finally 8,000 of them were sent to Britain as part of the labour service program. From there many were sent to Canada and the U.S. joining the pro-OUN/B Ukrainian diaspora building monuments to the <span style="font-style: italic;">Waffen SS Galizia</span> division in both Canada and the U.S. Most of the populace was shocked when the media even dared to report it. Pavlo Shandruk was allowed to live happily in exile in New Jersey publishing his memoirs under his own name. In New Jersey there is a cemetery where many notorious OUN, UPA, and <span style="font-style: italic;">Waffen SS</span> veterans are buried and glorified as heroes by the OUN diaspora. In 1993 many <span style="font-style: italic;">Waffen SS</span> veterans held a reunion in Lvov Ukraine where they were hailed as heroes. Thus it was no oversight when Ronald Reagan appeared beside Chancellor Helmut Kohl to honour <span style="font-style: italic;">Waffen SS</span> dead at the war graves ceremony in Bitburg.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> At the end of World War 2 Reinhard Gehlen had buried a huge trove of intelligence documents and then made a deal with the U.S.. Soon Gehlen was running a huge network of ex-Nazis in a spy network known as the Gehlen Org, which would form the basis for the West German intelligence agency known as the BND. Gehlen got a lot of his intelligence from the OUN/B and the UPA. The Gehlen Org men in charge of operations with émigré groups like the OUN/UPA were both ex-<span style="font-style: italic;">SS</span> members deeply involved in planning and carrying out the mass murders under the so-called <span style="font-style: italic;">Gesamtplan Ost</span>, Franz Six (Amt VII – Ideology and Research) and Emil Augsburg, who had served in AMT VI of the RSHA (the NSDAP’s equivalent of DHS in the US), the Interior Ministry’s parallel to Gehlen’s department (in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Abwehr</span>, responsible for foreign intelligence operations. Augsburg had served directly under Adolf Eichmann. Franz Six was convicted later as a war criminal for ordering the death of hundreds of Jews at Smolensk. John J. McCloy, Standard Oil lawyer and War Department functionary, commuted his sentence while serving as US High Commissioner of Germany. Support for the UPA war was closely tied to the German Gladio element, the BDJ (League of German Youth). Despite its innocuous name (many post-war Nazi organisations in and out of government were given harmless sounding names) its membership comprised former SS and Wehrmacht veterans like Klaus Barbie, “the Butcher of Lyons”. Before Barbie was assigned to South America as a CIA asset he was deeply involved with managing the Ukrainians and helped recruit Mykola Lebed for the U.S. The BDJ included the Technical Services Unit (later the <span style="font-style: italic;">Technisches Hilfswerk</span>), which caused a scandal when it was discovered that it had an assassination list of 40 German Social Democrats. The THW was founded with a paramilitary, civil defence function not unlike that of the Civil Air Patrol in the US. Units of the latter were found to have harboured anti-Castro agents as well as people allegedly complicit in US assassinations. The CIC helped the Technical Service Unit hide members from the Western German Police. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> MI6 had also re-established its ties to the OUN/B and UPA supplying them with arms in exchange for intelligence. By 1946 the Americans Allen Dulles and George Kennan had already launched unofficially Operation Rollback, a plan to back anti-Soviet Resistance groups like the UPA in hopes of sparking counter-revolutionary uprisings or at least to disrupt and destabilize the Soviet bloc. By 1948 this had become official U.S. government policy with the NSC (National Security Council) authorizing the training and arming of underground resistance, guerrillas, and “refugee liberation groups” (fascist exiles) including the UPA. The UPA was in fact the largest and most successful anti-Soviet resistance group. Wisner’s right hand man for OPC operations in Eastern Europe was Frank Lindsay who had been OSS adviser to Tito’s partisans during the war. Doug Valentine told me that at the end of the Cold War Lindsay ran a program to send top Ukrainian intelligence officers to Harvard to be re-educated along pro-American lines. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> <span style="font-style: italic;">NSC Directive 10/2</span> authorized all out psychological warfare against the Soviet bloc and led to the creation of the National Committee for a Free Europe, which set up Government’s in exile and gave birth to Radio Free Europe by 1950. On its board were Cold War psywarriors like Allen Dulles and Frank Wisner along with a who’s who of corporate America. <span style="font-style: italic;">NSC 20</span> led to the creation of the Wisner controlled AMCOMLIB (American Committee for Liberation from Bolshevism, which attempted to unite all the Soviet exiles. It was a doomed mission because not only did the exiles feud with their own countrymen as in the case of the Ukrainians but they also hated foreigners especially Russians. The Russian fascists of the NTS and Vlasov’s army would spend decades feuding with the OUN/B and UHVR. Soviet moles in both groups also constantly fuelled the various factional rivalries. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Still Wisner now had 100 million dollars a year in Marshall funds to bankroll the Soviet exiles. The Ukrainians were among his favourites. AMCOMLIB would lead to the creation of Radio Liberation from Bolshevism later renamed Radio Liberty which began broadcasting in 1953. It employed many Ukrainian fascists who were allowed to propagandize their countrymen. To cover up the CIA/OPC funding for the National Committee for a Free Europe they created the front group CFF (Crusade For Freedom) which would pretend to fundraise and while fundraising it would illegally propagandize the American people to support the Cold War and support “the brave freedom fighters” which included OUN/UPA veterans in the CIA backed UHVR as well as many other former fascist collaborators. The CFF received USD 5 million from the CIA but it also made a deal with the Ad Council allowing it thousands of hours of free airtime. The CIA is technically forbidden from operating domestically (a rule it breaks constantly). In this case its USD 5 million dollars for the CFF was more then was spent on the Dewey and Truman campaigns in 1948 and was the most expensive advertising campaign of its time. OSS veteran and future CIA director Bill Casey was deeply involved in CFF. One of its key spokesmen was future President Ronald Reagan, who would grant the OUN and ABN unprecedented influence in his administration especially over the content of Radio Liberty. Initially Radio Liberty would turn many Ukrainians against the U.S. because it sounded so much like Nazi wartime propaganda. However by the 1980s Radio Liberty would play a key role in popularizing the revival of OUN/B ideology in Ukraine.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In November of 1949 Wisner made a deal with the military to supply him with a huge stockpile of explosives. Two months later the U.S. military supplied him with enough weapons and ammunition to supply several small armies. The U.S. built armies of Soviet exiles using Labour Service Units as cover. Many were recruited from <span style="font-style: italic;">Waffen SS</span> veterans including the Ukrainian <span style="font-style: italic;">SS Galizia</span> division. At the same time late in 1949 the U.S. and Britain began airdropping Ukrainian agents into Ukraine. Over the next four years they would drop 75 agents by parachute in attempts to contact the UPA. Other agents were sent by submarine, in hot air balloons or on foot. Unfortunately for Wisner 1949 was also the year Soviet undercover agent Kim Philby arrived in the U.S. as MI6 liaison to the OPC and CIA. Nearly every airdropped Ukrainian agent was captured and the seeming exceptions were recruited as Soviet Moles. The rest were arrested, interrogated and shot if they refused to co-operate. Even if Philby had not been involved the OUN/B and UHVR were riddled with Soviet moles keeping them well informed on everything the UK and US were planning. Long-time OSS/ CIA operative and head of the Berlin station, Peter Sichel, resigned reportedly because he could not support the futility of the agency’s Ukraine operations.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The CIA/OPC armies of exiles worked neatly into U.S. military plans for fighting World War 3 against the Soviet Union. In 1947 General Hoyt Vandenberg drew up an atomic war plan that called for a massive atomic strike against the Soviet Union, followed by airlift of a Soviet exile army to conquer the radioactive ruins. Vandenberg had been the first Chief of Staff in the newly created U.S. Air Force. He told his men World War 3 had already begun. He was also the former head of the CIG (Central Intelligence Group), replaced by the CIA in 1947. Late in 1948 the Joint Chiefs of Staff approved a plan by the US military’s paramilitary expert General Robert B. McClure to create an army of exiles that would be sent to take control of the Soviet Union after the atomic attack the U.S. launched. The men were to be recruited from among <span style="font-style: italic;">Waffen SS</span> veterans and veterans of Vlasov’s Army. This was a clear indication that the plan relied on expendable indoctrinated cadres. By 1949 the U.S. military strategic atomic war plan was to drop 70 atomic bombs on the Soviet Union over the course of a month. Then an army of exiles would be delivered with five B-29 bomber wings. By 1949 these plans and Wisner’s armies of exiles had merged. In 1950 Congress passed the <span style="font-style: italic;">Lodge Act,</span> allowing the U.S. military to recruit and train exiles from Eastern Europe. They would be granted US citizenship after five years service. This provided cover for the recruitment of fascist war criminals into the U.S. military, especially into the U.S. Special Forces, although many also became translators and language instructors. Many <span style="font-style: italic;">Lodge Act</span> Special Forces recruits were trained by Col. Aaron Bank, who had run operations with Mykola Lebed and Klaus Barbie in Munich, only months before transferring to Fort Bragg. The entire rationale for the creation of U.S. Special Forces was to create teams of advisers who would train an army behind Soviet lines after the U.S.S.R. had been bombed into submission. After the start of the Korean War there was a plan to drop 1,200 Special Forces advisers into Ukraine where they would train an army of 370,000 that would fight behind Soviet lines.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> To return to the story of the OUN/B in Munich: Stepan Bandera had fled to Austria and then to Germany before the war ended. Lebed had headed west back in 1944 he had met with the OSS in Berne, Switzerland—with Allen Dulles or one of his subordinates. Lebed ended up in Croatia after contact with the Vatican. In April 1945 Bandera ordered Levhen Stakhiv to find Lebed and bring him back. Stakhiv asked Bandera to look after his family but Bandera refused. Stakhiv found another OUN/B member to watch his family and went to contact Lebed. Eventually late in 1945 Lebed and Bandera met and began to argue over whether the UHVR should be subordinate to the OUN/B or the other way around. Bandera had already denounced the UHVR’s attempt at a democratic makeover. In Bandera’s view democracy was the first step on the road to communism. Bandera had not given up his dream of becoming a fascist dictator and wanted total obedience from all Ukrainian exiles. Lebed was more flexible and knew how to please his patrons. Lebed had convinced the Nazis to give him a free hand and now he planned to seduce the Americans. In 1946 Lebed wrote a 126-page history of the UPA, which denied that they had committed any war crimes and perpetrated the myth that the UPA fought both the Nazis and the Soviets. It was translated into English and reprinted in the U.S. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Like Gehlen, Lebed had brought a huge trove of intelligence with him. It included the lists of Soviet and OUN/B-UPA agents and enough information to blackmail thousands of Ukrainian exiles. Lebed’s deal with the CIA would not be fully cemented until 1947. However he was already working for British and American intelligence. Operation Ohio, the program to capture, torture and kill Soviet moles for example, had started in 1945. Tensions between Bandera and Lebed continued to rise and by March 1947 things got so heated that Lebed fired a pistol at Bandera or at least pulled it out and threatened to kill him. Bandera ordered the SB to kill Lebed and Lebed fled to Rome. That fall Lebed finalized his deal with the U.S. and they decided to smuggle him back into Munich from Rome. In 1948 Lebed was finally forced out of the OUN/B but remained the head of the UHVR. The two groups would battle for decades. In the early Cold War, until 1954, the MI6 backed Bandera and the <span style="font-style: italic;">ZCh OUN</span>. The U.S. would back Lebed and the UHVR. They both competed for the right to represent the UPA and so the British would parachute in OUN/B members while the U.S. would airdrop in UHVR members. However both factions had begun as part of the OUN/B. The CIA saw Bandera as a huge security risk since he refused to use codes and proper security and his group was riddled with Soviet undercover officers and double agents, including Bandera’s right hand man Myron Matviieko who had been turned by the KGB when Bandera sent him to infiltrate Ukraine. The British on the other hand pointed out the prestige of the Bandera name which had hundreds of thousands of followers while Lebed was hated by many Ukrainian exiles for his murders of rival politicians. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In October 1949 the CIA decided to smuggle Mykola Lebed into the U.S. illegally under a fake name. When the INS later discovered that the war criminal Mykola Lebed was publicly operating and that he was here illegally they decided to deport him. Allen Dulles at the CIA personally intervened telling the INS that Lebed was of “inestimable value” to the U.S. Frank Wisner of OPC also intervened bragging that the UPA had killed 35,000 Soviet officials, Red Army soldiers, and NKVD officers in the last year alone. The CIA decided to retroactively legalize Lebed’s presence using the secret <span style="font-style: italic;">100 Persons Act</span>. Decades later when the US Congress demanded information on Lebed the CIA refused to provide his file and denied he had committed any war crimes. After arriving in the U.S., Lebed went to work at the Pentagon, was featured in <span style="font-style: italic;">Newsweek</span> magazine, and spoke at Yale University. The age of mainstream acceptance of Ukrainian fascism had begun almost 65 years before the 2014 Maidan coup. Lebed’s main role was running Prolog Research Corporation a CIA front. Prolog was home to Lebed’s UHVR, which also managed to recruit another breakaway group of Bandera’s followers. Initially they had sided with Bandera but finally rebelled against his stubborn refusal to make peace with the UHVR (or were eager to get on the CIA payroll). They formed the OUN-Z (OUN abroad) Bandera’s group was now also known as the OUN-R the <span style="font-style: italic;">R</span> standing for Revolutionary.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Prolog Research Corporation was a massive psychological warfare project as well as a network for recruiting spies inside the Soviet Union. It published its own newspaper <span style="font-style: italic;">Ukraine Today</span> and its own journal <span style="font-style: italic;">The Present</span>. It operated a radio station that broadcast into Ukraine, and printed thousands of pamphlets. Prolog printed books and promoted Ukrainian culture. It used the inexpensive Soviet mail system to smuggle in pamphlets. It donated its publications to Ukrainian libraries. Many inside Ukraine were still secretly sympathetic to the OUN ideology and Ukrainian nationalism. The CIA was happy to discover that when it debriefed travellers to Ukraine they reported that many private homes and public libraries had Prolog publications. Prolog was also used to recruit spies. Anywhere in the world that Ukrainians travelled Prolog would send its agents to attempt to befriend them, pump them for information or possibly recruit them.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Back in Germany, Bandera and Stetsko remained in Munich with continued backing by MI6 and the Gehlen Org. Their followers managed to kill 20 OUN/M members in postwar Bavaria with impunity. In 1946 Stetsko, acting on MI6 orders, created the ABN. It recruited all the fascist collaborators into one organization bent on destroying the Soviet Union. The Croatian Ustashi, the Hungarian Arrow Cross, the Romanian Iron Guard, the Hlinka from Slovakia and many more. In 1947, MI6 also merged the other two huge exile umbrella groups into the ABN. First there was the Intermarium a brainchild of the Habsburg family, deprived of throne and titles in Austria after World War 1. Intermarium aimed to create a federation of states extending from the Baltic to the Black Sea. It was backed by the Vatican, Winston Churchill and MI6. Many OUN members were also Intermarium members. Second there was the Promethean League, a scheme backed by France and Poland prior to World War 2. It aimed to unite all the Soviet minorities against the Soviet Union. It also aimed to unite Poland, Ukraine and Lithuania in a federation. Ironically Pilsudski was backing his enemies the Ukrainian nationalists. In fact Polish intelligence had made a secret deal with Dmytro Dontsov, the man who had inspired the Bandera generation and then gone to work for the Nazis during the war. Pilsudski had also allied with the butcher Simon Petliura during the Polish Soviet war and promised to create an independent Ukraine. It was through the Promethean League that the OUN would form close ties with Pan Turkists and Islamists. Two of Bandera and the OUN/B’s German sponsors Theodore Oberlander and Gerhard von Mende had also had close ties to the Pan Turkists and Islamists. Thus the Promethean League is rather fascinating if little known. It helps explain why Ukrainian Nationalists went to fight in Chechnya during the 1990’s or why Chechen exiles are fighting for Ukraine today. The Promethean League is one of the threads tying the wars in Syria and Ukraine. In 1947 the Promethean League was merged with the ABN. Part four will give more attention to the ABN.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Now as to Stepan Bandera’s final years: In 1954, MI6 supposedly cut ties with the OUN/B for good. Canadian intelligence however continued to support the Bandera/Stetsko faction and the ABN. The German BND continued to back Bandera. Bandera’s BND case officer was Heinz-Danko Herre who had been chief of staff in Vlasov’s army during the war and Gehlen’s deputy in FHO (German military intelligence on the Eastern Front.) Bandera also had important sponsors Gerhard von Mende and Theodore Oberlander who was Minister for Displaced Persons in West Germany and had been in charge of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Nachtigall</span> battalion during the war. In 1956 the Bavarian police opened an investigation into the OUN/B’s kidnappings, murder and counterfeiting operation but von Mende intervened and got the investigation dropped. Von Mende is infamous because of his role in setting up the infamous “Mosque in Munich” which played a key role in weaponizing radical Islam and Pan-Turkism during the Cold War. The OUN/B also had other key allies. The OUN/B worked briefly for SIFAR (Italian intelligence.) Fascist dictator of Spain Francisco Franco was another key ally. Bandera was invited to move there but he decided against it as the OUN/B were heavily entrenched in Munich. However Franco allowed many <span style="font-style: italic;">Waffen SS Galizia</span> and UPA veterans to attend Spanish military academies. He also allowed the OUN/B to broadcast propaganda on Spanish radio stations and Bandera grew jealous of Stetsko’s warm relations with Franco who treated Stetsko as Premier of Ukraine. Bandera was also jealous of Stetsko’s close ties with the fascist drug-dealing dictator of Taiwan Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek, who Stetsko often visited. Bandera took revenge by cutting the ABN budget in half but Stetsko remained loyal to Bandera. Bandera attempted to run his own intelligence network into Ukraine financing it with his counterfeit American dollars. Eventually the Taiwanese dominated APACL and the Ukrainian dominated ABN would join forces and form the World Anti-Communist League.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The OUN/B idealized Bandera as a loving father and family man. In reality he beat his wife and children and cheated on his wife. Bandera attempted to rape the wife of one of his SB bodyguards while she was babysitting his children. He beat his children for attending events where there were Jews, Poles or Russian children present. Intellectually Bandera changed little after the war. Although he dropped his pro-Nazi rhetoric, he still hoped to become fascist dictator of Ukraine. For Bandera the struggle had become a holy war pitting “the forces of light”, Ukrainian Nationalists, against the “forces of darkness”, the Soviet Union. Bandera spent his days dreaming that World War 3 was just around the corner. He hoped for an atomic war and thought that even if millions of Ukrainians were killed it would be worth it. Bandera completely denied any connection between the OUN/B and the Nazis during the war or any war crimes committed by the OUN/B. He went so far as to claim that the OUN/B opposed any form of racism or violence. Bandera was a wealthy man thanks to MI6 pay offs, donations from supporters and his counterfeiting scheme. Bandera travelled the world, visiting Austria, Belgium, Canada, Britain, Holland and Italy. In Canada, Bandera met with his old idol Dmytro Donstov who was given a job as a professor teaching Ukrainian literature at the University of Montreal. Apparently inspiring a group of genocidal fascists and going to work for the infamous Wannsee institute where NS race and colonization policy was planned, as Dontsov did, were not considered crimes in Canada. Bandera offered to put Dontsov in charge of the OUN/B paper but Dontsov turned him down. In 1950 Bandera may have made a secret visit to Washington, DC but he was otherwise barred from the U.S. for fear he would stir up trouble for the CIA-backed, Lebed-controlled UHVR. In 1950 Bandera was also given a new car by MI6 for St. Nicholas Day. Ironically Bandera’s German sponsors finally got the CIA to agree to let Bandera travel to the U.S. in October 1959, just before Bandera was assassinated.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The Soviets had made many attempts to kidnap, arrest or kill Bandera after the war. After the war the Americans promised to extradite Bandera as soon as they found him. Instead when the Soviet authorities arrived to arrest Bandera the Americans sent them on a wild goose chase, hiding Bandera in the old I.G. Farben building. In 1947 the MGB tried to use one of its OUN/B undercover agents, the OUN/B courier Iarsoslav Moroz to kill Bandera and frame a rival group of Ukrainian nationalists. Instead the SB, possibly warned by the CIC, learned of the plot and killed Moroz. In 1949 the SB killed a suspected MGB agent in the Polish AK. There were at least eight more failed plots to kill Bandera. In October 1957 one of Bandera’s rivals, Lev Rebet, the head of the OUN-Z, was assassinated by Bohdan Stashynskyi, a KGB agent. However since Rebet was sprayed with cyanide gas he appeared to die of natural causes. In January of 1959 Stashynskyi was assigned to surveil and then assassinate Bandera. Stashynskyi had been a student in Lvov in 1950 where he had been arrested for not having valid papers. The MGB recruited him by warning him that if he did not agree to work for them they might go after his family, which had UPA ties. Stashynskyi was assigned to hunt down the killer of anti-fascist intellectual Iaroslav Halan, who the UPA had axe murdered. The MGB even arranged a fake manhunt for Stashynskyi to convince the UPA to trust him. Successful in finding Halan’s killer, Stashynskyi was then trained by the KGB in Kiev for two years. In 1956 he was assigned to target the Ukrainian nationalists in the West and was given a false identity as an ethnic German from Poland. By 1959 Stashynskyi was in Munich. He was reluctant to carry out his assignment, claiming that Bandera was too well guarded. Once armed with a cyanide gun he had found Bandera alone but instead of killing him he threw his gun in the trash. Finally on 15 October 1959, under pressure from his superiors, Stashynskyi killed Bandera with his cyanide gun on the steps to his apartment and escaped. Bandera was found gasping for breath by a Jewish neighbour but died in the ambulance. It appeared to be natural causes but the OUN/B demanded an autopsy and traces of cyanide were discovered. Stashynskyi had screwed up by firing at Bandera twice leaving enough residue to be detected. Around the world the Ukrainian diaspora held memorial services for Stepan Bandera in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, West Germany, New Zealand, Britain and the US. The largest of course was Bandera’s funeral in Munich, which featured 10 priests, 1,500 mourners and a stirring speech by Yaroslav Stetsko claiming that Bandera represented not just the OUN/B but also all of Ukraine. Many of the mourners wore Plast or SUM uniforms reminiscent of the Hitler Youth. Every year the Ukrainian diaspora would commemorate Bandera’s death and every fifth and tenth anniversary they would stage especially huge events. Around the world they erected statues and monuments to Bandera renamed streets in his honour and even built a secret museum dedicated to him in England. Bandera’s grave in Munich became a pilgrimage site with Ukrainian nationalists traveling around the world to visit it and huge crowds gathering there on various OUN holidays.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Still the police were not sure if it had been suicide or murder. Stetsko and the OUN/b declared it a murder. The Soviets attempted to blame Theodore Oberlander and Reinhard Gehlen for the murder while secretly awarding Stashynskyi the Order of the Red Banner. Stashynskyi was also rewarded by being allowed to marry his East German girlfriend. This turned out to be a mistake, as she hated communism and the Soviet Union. Eventually Stashynskyi decided to defect because he was sick of the KGB meddling in his marriage. After escaping his KGB surveillance team Stashynskyi and his wife escaped from East Berlin and he turned himself over to the German police on 12 August 1961. Within 45 minutes Stashynskyi was being debriefed by the CIA. Stashynskyi confessed to killing Rebet and Bandera. After two weeks the CIA turned him over to the West German Police. President Kennedy requested that the Adenauer government reveal the details of Stashynskyi’s confession. When the details emerged the OUN/B diaspora held hundreds of demonstrations against the Soviet Union around the world. Stashynskyi was tried from 8-15 October 1962. Although convicted, he received only eight years. It was a political show trial. The judge accepted the defence argument that Stashynskyi had merely been a tool of the KGB and ultimately of the Soviet leader Khrushchev who probably ordered the assassination. Stashynskyi only served part of his sentence. He was released in December 1966. After Stepan Bandera’s death the new head of the OUN/B became Stepan Lenkavs’kyi, who had stated at the beginning of the war “Regarding the Jews, we will adopt any methods that lead to their destruction.” Stetsko remained head of the ABN and would eventually replace Lenkavs’kyi as OUN/B head. The OUN/B organized a fund to resettle Bandera’s family in Toronto, Canada. His grandson is currently running a pro-Ukrainian TV-show there.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The summer before the trial in Ellenville, New York a huge monument to the UPA was unveiled on 22 July 1962. It was located at the SUM camp (The Ukrainian Youth Association an OUN/B front) in Ellenville, which had been started in 1955. This camp, along with five more in North America, is where Ukrainian exiles sent their children and later grandchildren to be indoctrinated in the OUN/B ideology. Built by a company owned by two UPA veterans the monument features a Ukrainian Trident surrounded by the busts of Simon Petliura, Levhen Konovalets, Roman Shukhevych and Stepan Bandera. 5,000 people attended the unveiling. A drama group from Philadelphia put on a play glorifying the UPA. Religious services were held and a UPA flag was blessed. Lev Dobriansky, the Ukrainian American of the UCCA (The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America), the National Captive Nations Committee and a key ally of the ABN and UPA gave a speech at the event. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Dobriansky had been born in the U.S., the child of the pre-OUN Ukrainian diaspora, but had increasingly become the key ally of the OUN/B and the ABN in the U.S. during the Cold War. More will be said about him in part four of this series, which will cover the network of OUN/B fronts that would give birth to the powerful Ukraine lobby in the West. Dobriasnky’s daughter Paula would serve on Reagan’s National Security Council and later joined the Project for a New American Century (PNAC). As the Soviet Union was being destroyed by Gorbachev’s disastrous reforms, the OUN/B exiles would gain increasing influence in Ukraine. Nearly 25 years after the fall of the USSR the participants at the Maidan coup would gather under a huge portrait of Stephen Bandera. Crowds would carry Bandera’s portrait in torchlight marches. Museums would be created to whitewash the history of the OUN-UPA. Alive Stepan Bandera had often been his own worst enemy alienating his sponsors and allies. In death he became an immortal Icon treated as a martyr, worshipped by his followers. Bandera was dead but his cult would live on into our own times. For decades Ukrainian American children would gather at the UPA monument in Ellenville sing songs, hold banquets, and recite poems dedicated to the Ukrainian nationalist cause. Across Canada and the U.S. more such monuments to the UPA and Bandera would be built. Today Bandera’s legacy has brought the world to the brink of atomic war.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: medium;">History of Fascism in Ukraine Part 1</span></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/11/04/the-history-of-fascism-in-ukraine-part-i-the-origins-of-the-oun-1917-1941/"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/11/04/the-history-of-fascism-in-ukraine-part-i-the-origins-of-the-oun-1917-1941/</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: medium;">History of Fascism in Ukraine Part 2</span></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/11/05/history-of-fascism-in-ukraine-part-ii-the-oun-during-world-war-2-1941-1945/"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/11/05/history-of-fascism-in-ukraine-part-ii-the-oun-during-world-war-2-1941-1945/</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Sources</span></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In my research this year I read nearly everything I could find that was relevant to the OUN even though much of it dealt with the time periods I covered in Parts one and two.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The definitive book on the OUN remains “<span style="font-style: italic;">Stepan Bandera: The Life and Afterlife of a Ukrainian Nationalist, Fascism, Genocide, and Cult</span>.” by Grzegorz Rossolinski-Liebe. A huge highly detailed book that begins in the 19th century and ends in 2014.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A PDF of a long article by Grzegorz Rossolinski-Liebe on the OUN</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://carlbeckpapers.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/cbp/article/download/204/213"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://carlbeckpapers.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/cbp/article/download/204/213</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Another must-read is “<span style="font-style: italic;">Blowback: America’s Recruitment of Nazis and Its Effects on the Cold War</span>” By Christopher Simpson. All three of Simpson’s books are must-reads.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“<span style="font-style: italic;">MI6: Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty’s Secret Intelligence Service</span>” by Stephen Dorril is a great book with valuable information on MI6 backing the OUN/B, the ABN, the Promethean League, and the Intermarium among many other topics. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The final chapter of “<span style="font-style: italic;">Hitler’s Shadow: Nazis War Criminals, U.S. Intelligence, and the Cold War</span>” by Richard Breitman and Norman J.W. Goda is an in depth article on the CIA career of Mykola Lebed although it is to some extent a “limited hangout.”</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“<span style="font-style: italic;">Ukrainian Nationalism</span>” by John A. Armstrong was considered the definitive book on the OUN for many decades. It completely whitewashes the history of the OUN omitting mention of their war crimes and convinced generations of scholars to call them “Integral Nationalists” instead of fascists. He wrote it for the CIA backed Russia Institute at Columbia University and interviewed hundreds of German and Ukrainian war criminals. Armstrong used code names for them in his notes to protect them. In the 90’s Armstrong bragged that the OUN leaders were his personal heroes. Still it may be worth reading if you are truly obsessed as it provides a great deal of info on the OUN/M.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“<span style="font-style: italic;">Ukrainian Nationalism in the Age of Extremes: An Intellectual Biography of Dmytro Dontsov</span>” by Trevor Erlacher provides an in depth study of Dontsov the thinker that inspired Stepan Bandera and the OUN/B. The author bends over backwards to avoid calling the OUN fascists but the book is still pretty damning. It is a product of the sinister Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The UPA war is covered in detail in “<span style="font-style: italic;">The Soviet Counterinsurgency in the Western Borderlands</span>” By Alexander Statiev. Unfortunately it dismisses the involvement of Western intelligence and is also highly critical of the Soviet Union containing many horrifying scenes from the Soviet dirty war. On the other hand it debunks many anti-Soviet myths.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Old Nazis, the New Right and the Republican Party</span> by Russ Bellant is a must-read classic on the Republican party’s long alliance with fascist émigrés. It covers the Ukrainians, The ABN, and the vast network of right wing NGOs in the 1980’s and early 90’s. The Ukraine lobby interlocked closely with the weapons-making lobby. It covers the brief scandal when George H.W. Bush was discovered to have a number of fascist war criminals working on his campaign. The future president made sure to pay homage to the fascist Ukrainian diaspora living in Michigan.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A free PDF of “<span style="font-style: italic;">Old, Nazis, New Right</span>”</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ivm_AubCCTCJCT4duCjadHTI6jgE1T5j/view"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ivm_AubCCTCJCT4duCjadHTI6jgE1T5j/view</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“<span style="font-style: italic;">Inside the League</span>” by Scott Anderson and John Lee Anderson covers the World Anti-Communist League which by the 80’a united Nazi war criminals, The OUN/B, Latin American death squads, Gladio terrorists, the Moonies, the Yakuza, the drug dealing KMT, “respectable” conservative politicians, and American neo-Nazis. It was among the first books to publish a critical account of the OUN/B war crimes. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“<span style="font-style: italic;">Hitler’s Foreign Executioners: Europe’s Dirty Secret</span>” by Christopher Hale is a great book on Himmler and the SS. It reveals that Himmler was a key backer of Ukrainian nationalism. It also provides a study of fascism in many Eastern European countries like Ukraine, Hungary, Romania, Croatia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia. These fascist movements would join the <span style="font-style: italic;">Waffen SS</span> and later with the OUN/B join the ABN during the cold war. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“<span style="font-style: italic;">Unholy Trinity: The Vatican the Nazis, and the Swiss Banks</span>” by Mark Aarons and John Loftus covers the story of the ratlines and explains how 8,000 Ukrainian <span style="font-style: italic;">SS Galizia</span> division veterans were sent to Britain after the war.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: italic;">America’s Nazi Secret</span> by John Loftus is the uncensored new version of his classic Belarus Secret. It focuses mainly on Belarus but also has information on Frank Wisner’s backing of the UPA, the purging of CIA files on fascist émigrés and Mykola Lebed.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“The Old Boys: The American Elite and the Origins of the CIA.” by Burton Hersh is a classic covering the early cold war history of American intelligence the OSS, CIA, and OPC Allen Dulles’ business ties to the Nazis and many other topics.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Jeffrey Burds must-read article “The Early Cold War in Western Ukraine”. Burds discovered that the west began backing the UPA far earlier then most sources claim.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> <a href="https://carlbeckpapers.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/cbp/article/view/116">https://carlbeckpapers.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/cbp/article/view/116</a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Jeffrey Burds on the Soviet Agentura network and the UPA war</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/3420138/Agentura_Soviet_Informants_Networks_and_the_Ukrainian_Underground_in_Galicia_1944-48"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://www.academia.edu/3420138/Agentura_Soviet_Informants_Networks_and_the_Ukrainian_Underground_in_Galicia_1944-48</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In the first episode of their long landmark series on WACL The Farm Podcast interviews Moss Robeson on the history of the OUN/B and the ABN. Moss Robeson is the leading American researcher on the OUN/B and the Ukraine lobby.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://shows.acast.com/exclusive-subscribers-shows/episodes/6244c5e855c1aa00131c058c"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://shows.acast.com/exclusive-subscribers-shows/episodes/6244c5e855c1aa00131c058c</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Another great interview with Moss Robeson on the history of the OUN/B and the Ukraine Lobby.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/izf7XjVJUSk?si=LB4x5jijOFI19tSe"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/izf7XjVJUSk?si=LB4x5jijOFI19tSe</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Moss Robeson blog on the OUN/B and the Ukraine Lobby</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://banderalobby.substack.com"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://banderalobby.substack.com</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Moss Robeson Blog Ukes, Kooks, and Spooks</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://mossrobeson.medium.com"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://mossrobeson.medium.com</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Moss Robeson blog on the Victims of Communism foundation the successor to the Captive Nations movement</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://vocinfo.substack.com/archive?sort=new"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://vocinfo.substack.com/archive?sort=new</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Village Voice did an expose on Mykola Lebed the OUN/B and the CIA in the 1980’s</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/essays/conasoncatchnazi86.pdf"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/essays/conasoncatchnazi86.pdf</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The SS in Britain covers the story of how 8,000 Ukrainian Waffen SS Galicia members avoided punishment and ended up in Britain. This documentary was supposed to air on British television more then 20 years ago but was cancelled last minute. Notice the sinister way that Ukrainian scholars and activists like Michael Melnyk try to cover for the division.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/kjj__aya4BA?si=cz-_jQtyVXfg9PD2"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/kjj__aya4BA?si=cz-_jQtyVXfg9PD2</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A newer shorter video on the SS Galicia from the same director</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/UB_Gs-0dhOo?si=aVnTRh5kPbW_J8Op"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/UB_Gs-0dhOo?si=aVnTRh5kPbW_J8Op</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Jesse Alexander of The Great War YouTube channel discusses “Brutalization theory” and the role of Ukraine in the origins of Nazi ideology.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/X0kRRGnE4UA?si=rYzBTY9YKyiS-0R1"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/X0kRRGnE4UA?si=rYzBTY9YKyiS-0R1</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My article Nazis and the CIA based on Christopher Simpson’s “Blowback”</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2014/06/nazis-and-cia.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2014/06/nazis-and-cia.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My article on Russ Bellant’s “Old Nazis, the New Right.” and “The Coors Connection” </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2017/10/old-nazis-new-right.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2017/10/old-nazis-new-right.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My article on the Nazi ratlines, the Vatican and the CIA</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2019/07/ratline-vatican-nazis-cia-v2.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2019/07/ratline-vatican-nazis-cia-v2.html</span></a></span></p>Hugo Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12229123097438571385noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8001402613324067475.post-43644520607732824092023-06-02T11:36:00.000-07:002023-06-02T11:36:14.793-07:00Pisces Moon: The Dark Arts of Empire<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Review of Pisces Moon: The Dark Arts of Empire</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Doug Valentine’s new book “Pisces Moon: The Dark Arts of Empire” takes the reader on a voyage into the dark and hidden history of the world. It forces the reader to confront the horrors unleashed by the American Empire. A memoir that reads like a great novel, you won’t be able to put it down till you’ve finished it. Then you’ll have to read it again to take detailed notes on the intricate history of the CIA in South East Asia. Doug Valentine is the greatest living CIA expert. He is well known to the tiny audience of connoisseurs with interest in topics as CIA dirty wars, psychological warfare, state-sponsored drug smuggling, deep politics and political assassinations. </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">He managed to con his way into the trust of CIA men, Special Forces veterans and the DEA. Then he wrote shocking exposes that were completely marginalized and ignored by the mainstream media and academia. His book </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999px;">The Phoenix Program</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> is the definitive book on the topic, work on which was even facilitated by former director, William Colby. It must be read by anyone who wants to understand the blueprint of terror the American empire has used the same blueprint repeatedly with refinement from Latin America, to Iraq, Afghanistan and today in Ukraine. This counter-insurgency blueprint lies primarily in the coordination of military, police, and intelligence operations. Massive campaigns of kidnapping, torture and assassination are then implemented through a comprehensive bureaucratic system involving all the “security” forces. </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">He followed that up with </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999px;">The Strength of the Wolf</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> and the </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999px;">Strength of the Pack</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> a history of America’s phony war on drugs told by many of its most original warriors. More recently, he wrote </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999px;">The CIA as Organized Crime</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">, a digest of Valentine’s research on a wide range of topics including the partnership of the CIA and the mainstream media, the assassination of Martin Luther King </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">Jr</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">, and the origins of current CIA operations in Ukraine. </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">Doug Valentine is also a poet and novelist who has worked tirelessly behind the scenes for years helping fellow authors and researchers to cut through the jungle of lies and find the trails leading to the truth. </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999px;">Pisces Moon</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> his newest book, is great because it works equally well as either an introduction or as an epilogue to his works. New readers will get a crash course in the secret history of the world. Long time fans will enjoy getting to peek behind the curtain of how he got the information for his books. This book is one of his most personal. The reader will get to know Doug Valentine, the man. Even the most experienced researcher will find many new gems. </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> No country in history has ever possessed such a sophisticated propaganda apparatus as the United States: a system that not only indoctrinates its own citizens but much of the world. Those within the propaganda bubble live in the eternal present with no history, no understanding, jumping from one distraction to the next. They are eternal children and the perfect consumers. They believe in the benevolence of the American Empire and have already forgotten that country after country has been destroyed in the name of freedom and democracy. During the so-called Cold War after 1945, they never noticed that much of the “Free world” was a collection of fascist police states waging dirty wars on their own people. They seldom question why a country founded on genocide and slavery can be the embodiment of freedom and democracy. Why the “freest country” practices total surveillance and has the world’s largest prison population. To break out of this propaganda bubble can take years of study and questioning. </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999px;">Pisces Moon</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> is a book written to burst the propaganda bubble, to awaken the reader to understanding, reviving the reader’s humanity and compassion. It is a timely b</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">ook about fascism</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> at home</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> and America’s unabashed provocations against Russia and China—as if atomic war were “winnable”</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">.</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999px;">Pisces Moon</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> is a travel memoir taking the author from the U.S. to Britain and t</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">hen to Vietnam and Thailand. The story starts in</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">1992 just after the end of </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">that so-called</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">“</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">Cold War” or as I prefer to call it World War 3, and the start of what I call World War 4 (also known as the war on drugs, the war on terror and now Cold War 2.0) The US is leading an international coalition to wage war on Iraq</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">—</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">a war that continues to this day. The President George H. W. Bush is a former CIA director. Valentine has been working on a book with the President’s former Iran/Contra co-conspirator Richard Secord. </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">Valentine had been recommended to Secord by the infamous CIA officer Theodore </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">Shackley</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">. </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">Shackley</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> ran the Miami CIA station</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> waging a terror campaign on Cu</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">ba after the Bay of Pigs, serving</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> as CIA station chief in the drug fueled war on Laos, </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">then as </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">CIA station chief in</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> Saigon after the </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">Tet</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> offensive. He</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> was in charge of the Latin America division when Allende was overthrown in Chile and replaced by the fascist dictator </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">Augusto Pinochet. </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">Shackley</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> was also </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">suspected of masterminding the Iran/Contra affair. </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">This enigmatic career officer </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">makes</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> only</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> a brief cameo in the book but his career demonstrates</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">like so many biographies in the book</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> the dark secrets one learns by studying the lives of CIA officers. </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">At the start of the book Valentine meets with fellow members of the “research underground” like author Jim </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">Hougan</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> who wrote the excellent “Spooks” and documentary film maker Alan </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">Frankovich</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> who made </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">the film adaptation of Philip Agee’s </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999px;">CIA Diary</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> (</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999px;">On Company Business</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">)</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">as well as a documentary about the</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> infamous </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999px;">Gladio</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> stay behind networks </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">started after 1945, ostensibly to counter potential Red Army invasion but in fact to support the policy of “tension” with terror actions to discredit the Left and move European domestic politics to the right. He meets with John </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">Pilger’</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">s</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">film making partner David Munro</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> who is attempting to prove that the British Special forces have been training the infamous </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">Khemer</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> Rouge in Cambodia. </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">Valentine had been </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">offered the role of an adviser to a BBC documentary on the CIA’s Phoenix Program. Ignoring the warnings of his friends Valentine accepts and even agrees to illegally smuggle $10,000 into Vietnam for the BBC. In exchange they agree</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">d</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> to cover his travel expenses.</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> The war in Vietnam had supposedly ended 17 years before</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">. Yet</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> the v</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">engeful American empire was</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> waging a proxy war with Vietnam in Cambodia, had gotten China to invade Vietnam and was strangling the country with sanctions. When Valentine arrives President Bush is busy bragging that America has finally beaten the “Vietnam Syndrome” which is what American politicians called the public</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">’</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">s reluctance to invade and occupy foreign countries after the American defeat in </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">Vietnam.</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> Ironically the Gulf War seemed at the time to be a short decisive victory. </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">Years of sanctions would follow (</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">and periodic bombings) that would transform Iraq into a poverty stricken hellhole and leave a million Iraqis dead. CIA coup plots would fail to topple Saddam Hussein and in the wake of 9</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">/11 (carried out by CIA backed </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">terrorists) the U.</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">S. would invade and occupy Iraq. Despite a supposed drawback in 2011, it would never actually leave the country it had so brutally invaded. </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">2011 was the year Osama Bin Laden was</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> allegedly</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> assassinated</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">. By</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> then the U.S. was openly supporting </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">“</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">al Qaeda</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">”</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> in Libya and Syria</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">. This is the sort of </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">fact that </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">should shock </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">people</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">. However</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> w</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">ithin the propaganda bubble shocks are absorbed</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">and facts rarely penetrate</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">. In the propaganda version peddled by the mainstream media </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">“</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">al Qaeda</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">”</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> had turned on the U.S. during the Gulf War</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">. In reality the U.S. had used created and trained these forces</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> to destabilize Yugoslavia</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> Chechny</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">a and the Central Asian former S</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">oviet republics</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">—wherever there was a significant Muslim population. D</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">uring t</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">he 1990</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">s and even after 9/11 they were used to spark a sectarian civil war in Iraq during the occupation. </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">Three years later the U.S. (annoyed by Russian interference</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">- </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">i.e. Russia’s</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">legal assistance to long-standing ally based on treaties of friendship and commerce dating from the Soviet Union—i</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">n their attempt to overthrow the Syrian Government</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> and expel the Russians from their </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">Latakia</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> naval base</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">) w</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">ould use Ukrainian N</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">azis to topple the elected government</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">. This ignited</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">a Ukrainian civil war/NATO proxy war with Russia. The CIA h</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">ad been working with Ukrainian N</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">azis since it was created in 1947. This proxy war in Ukraine </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">would provoke Russian recognition of secessionist Russian-speaking regions and subsequent Russian military operations to defend those regions</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> 8 years later</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">. W</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">e are told again and again</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> that all those actions were</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> unprovoked. For 8 years Ukraine shelled the breakaway Russian speaking regions Donetsk and </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">Lugansk</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> in violation of the </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">so-called Minsk agreement between the Russian Federation, the Russian-speaking regions and the Ukrainian government in Kiev</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">. The American media claimed that they were shelling themselves. </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">By the end of 2022 leaders of the guarantor states, like Germany’s Angela Merkel, were on record saying that neither the guarantors nor the Kiev government had any intention of complying with the Minsk conditions. However those facts too are ignored.</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> Forgive the tangent</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">.</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">Doug </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">Valentine’s </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">book </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">focus</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">es mostly on Asia</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">. However Vietnam and Iraq are linked in my mind because Vietnam is what shocked many out of their propaganda bubbles launching the generation of researchers Valentine meets with at the start of his tale. For my generation born post Vietnam and Watergate it was 9/11 and the Iraq war</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">that rattled us. Now I ha</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">ve </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">lived long enough that for a 20-</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">something of today 9/11 and the Iraq war are all ancient history</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">. T</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">he </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">“</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">Cold War</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">”</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> seems as distant to them as World War 2 seemed to me as a child. Those outside the propaganda bubble are forced to suffer tremendous alienation</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">. The more they learn the less the public surrounding them seems to grasp. New generations are born with new Hollywood war myths to replace the World War II myths in the films their parents watched—films in which the US single handedly defeated the Axis and the Soviet Union’s Red Army are completely invisible. </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">The role of this trashy pop culture in propagandizing for the American empire is a major theme of Valentine</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">’</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">s book. How is one to explain the Ukraine war to someone who doesn’t know anything about World War 2 or the </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">so-called Cold War and its successor</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> the </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">so-called Global War on T</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">error</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">—for which the US military even issues campaign ribbons</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">. Within the propaganda bubble history is irrelevant. Bad things happen in foreign countries because Asians, Africans, Muslims, Russians, or whoever else are the current targets are backwards savages who naturally do bad things while Americans are naturally good because they have freedom and democracy</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">. Thus as the perennial victims, North Americans </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">must wage endless wars </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">of self-defense </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">to stop these evil foreigners from </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">“taking their freedom”</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">. One day we will successfully bring them freedom and democracy (like they did by overthrowing the Ukrainian government or invading Iraq) and the barbaric foreigners will become happy and good like </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">us. If things don’t work out it can only be </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">their ow</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">n fault. Valentine’s book attributes</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> the origins of this American </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999px;">excep</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999px;">tionalism</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> to white supremacy and C</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">hristian fundamentalism. </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">This spirit was inherited or learned from British imperial mentors. </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">Valentin</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">e also places</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> Briti</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">sh and French crimes in this historical context</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">.</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> The whitewashed version of history taught in the</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> class</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">room is so</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">(intentionally?)</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> boring that few have any desire to learn more about it. The topic of American foreign policy post 1945 is mysteriously absent not only in high schools but in universities. The millions of people killed by the U.S. empire in Greece, Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Congo, Angola, Mozambique, Somalia Iraq, Yugoslavia, Libya, Syria, Yemen etc. are not considered worthy of study or remembrance. As Valentine</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">’</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">s book shows</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">, u</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">niversities do not merely cover up the crimes of America and Western Europe they are actively invol</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">ved in committing them</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">. The men of the CIA who c</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">arried out so many crimes were </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">mostly highly educated and cultured. They </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">weaponized</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> cultural understanding using ethnic and sectarian tensions to rip apart societies</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">. They applied their</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> knowledge of religion to manipulate and terrorize people. CIA atrocities played on people’s superstitions</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">. B</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">odies were mutilated to play on fears that the victims would be denied entrance into the afterlife. </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">A major theme of Valentine’s book is the recruitment of missionaries by intelligence agencies. Christian missionaries became CIA warlords. Once again the same blue print would be used </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">for recruiting I</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">slamic fund</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">amentalists to destabilize the Middle E</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">ast, the Balkans and Central Asia as well as Russia (Chechnya) and China (Xinjiang). </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> In Vietnam the reader will get a vivid picture of life in a country that is being strangled by U.S. sanctions today</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">.</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">U.S. sanctions—a form of warfare—are applied </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">to</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> much of the world</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">, unknown to American citizens</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">. Valentine decided to take his BBC funded trip to Vietnam just as the CIA was ramping up a campaign behind the scenes to destroy his career. Thus he suffers a series of misadventures as the BBC decides to disavow him</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">.</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">Valenti</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">ne nearly ends</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> up in prison as a suspected spy. One gets to look behind the scenes as the BBC documentary on the Phoenix Program shifts from a hard hitting expose based on Valentine’s book to a pro-CIA limited hangout </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">when the producers hire a p</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">ro-CIA hi</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">storian and</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> recruit CIA advisers for interviews.</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> Next Valentine heads for Thailand to i</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">nterview a few former CIA men about</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> the CIA’s role in the global drug traffic. He arrives in the middle of a coup and is coincidentally staying at the same hotel where the deposed Prime Minister </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">Chatichai</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> is being held by the military. He discusses the rampant sexual exploitation of the local (often under</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">-</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">aged) population by wealthy foreigners. He discusses the out of control sex lives of CIA officers in South East Asia. He meets with the infamous Tony </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">Poshpenny</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> the inspiration for Marlon Brando’s character in </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999px;">Apocalypse Now</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">. He then </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">hears horrifying details of the brutality and mass murder that was standard policy in America’s wars in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. He meets with William Young part of the infamous Young family of </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">B</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">aptist missionaries who were worshipped by their converts as living gods and decided to go to work for the OSS and then the CIA turning their converts into an anti-communist paramilitary force. By way of exposition Valentine lays out the entire history of OSS/CIA operations in China, Japan, Burma, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand. He explains the intricate history of the CIA role in the drug traffic in South East Asia. He details origins and structure of the Phoenix </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">Program. He explains the dirty </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">wars in Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia. He explains the role of cults and secret societies. He goes into the world of international art theft and smuggling, the vandalism of the world</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">’</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">s cultural heritage and how it ends up in the hands of wealthy Americans. Even those well versed in the works of Alfred McCoy or Peter Dale Scott are bound to learn somethi</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">ng new. To do it all justice I would</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> have to reread it a couple times</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> take </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">a hundred</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> pages of notes and spend a month trying to summarize it</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> in a very long article. Yet I am sure I would</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> still fail to do it justice since his account interweaves the careers of CIA officers with the histories of the countries he discusses. There is a reason Valentine is a legend in the field of deep politics (the intersection of intelligence, organized crime, politic</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">s, and corporate business.) He has</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"> been working on this for nearly 40 years. So just buy his book, drop whatever your researching and read it immediately and perhaps get a copy for a friend or family member that you hope may be capable of escaping the propaganda bubble.</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Links</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> You can order Pisces Moon here</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="https://www.trineday.com/products/pisces-moon-the-dark-arts-of-empire?fbclid=IwAR3gFBVyGthX-E8e4HnWQpp7u0ptxtXBOps4l-UWbabA55mJqzMwyvGsnog"><span class="s4" style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://www.trineday.com/products/pisces-moon-the-dark-arts-of-empire?fbclid=IwAR3gFBVyGthX-E8e4HnWQpp7u0ptxtXBOps4l-UWbabA55mJqzMwyvGsnog</span></span></a></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Doug Valentine’s website</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="https://www.douglasvalentine.com/bio.htm"><span class="s4" style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://www.douglasvalentine.com/bio.htm</span></span></a></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">More on the Phoenix Program</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="https://www.douglasvalentine.com/index.htm"><span class="s4" style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://www.douglasvalentine.com/index.htm</span></span></a></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">A Doug Valentine interview on the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;">.</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2017/11/doug-valentine-on-assassination-of.html"><span class="s4" style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2017/11/doug-valentine-on-assassination-of.html</span></span></a></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Doug Valentine on the CIA Drugs and Media</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2017/02/doug-valentine-on-cia-drugs-media.html"><span class="s4" style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2017/02/doug-valentine-on-cia-drugs-media.html</span></span></a></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Doug Valentine on the CIA as Organized Crime</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="https://www.sott.net/article/338324-The-Truth-Perspective-Interview-with-Douglas-Valentine-The-CIA-As-Organized-Crime"><span class="s4" style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://www.sott.net/article/338324-The-Truth-Perspective-Interview-with-Douglas-Valentine-The-CIA-As-Organized-Crime</span></span></a></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Doug Valentine interviews the CIA on the Phoenix program</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://www.cryptocomb.org/Phoenix Tapes.html</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My article based on Doug Valentine’s book “The Phoenix Program”</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-phoenix-program.html"><span class="s4" style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; line-height: 16.799999px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-phoenix-program.html</span></span></a></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 21.6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p>Hugo Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12229123097438571385noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8001402613324067475.post-18664466189933072552022-11-05T14:06:00.000-07:002022-11-05T14:06:05.254-07:00History of Fascism in Ukraine Part 2<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">History of Fascism in Ukraine Part 2: The OUN during World War 2 1941-1945</span></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">With Special Thanks to T.P. Wilkinson </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists or OUN is the most successful post-war fascist group. During the war the OUN played a major role in helping the Germans carry out the Holocaust, which claimed 1.2 million Jewish lives. They also attempted genocide against the Polish population in Volhynia and Galicia in what is today Western Ukraine. These mass murders were carried out in the most brutal manner imaginable. Jews were beaten to death with iron bars. Poles were chopped up with axes or cut in half with saws. The OUN took a sadistic delight in humiliating their victims and torturing them to death. Russians were sometimes skinned alive. The 2014 CIA coup in Ukraine made the OUN ideology the official ideology of the Ukrainian state. Even Ukraine’s current Jewish president Zelensky, whose family were victims of the mass murder in Ukraine, said of Stepan Bandera “He is a hero for a certain percentage of Ukrainians, and it<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">’</span>s normal, and it<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">’</span>s cool.” Ukrainian history has been falsified to portray the OUN as heroes who battled both the Nazis and the Soviets. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Yet it is not only in the madhouse that is post-Maidan Ukraine that the history of Ukraine has been falsified. Because of the close ties of the OUN to the American, British, German, Polish and other governments the OUN have also been able to make their twisted mythology into the accepted mainstream version of events. The OUN were considered too valuable by the CIA and other intelligence agencies to have their wartime crimes exposed. Equally importantly the OUN became a major source for anti-Soviet propaganda, which then became mainstream history. During the Cold War academia became a major weapon in the battle between capitalism and communism. Today nothing has changed and in the new cold war with Russia Ukraine is currently the most important battleground. Shielding Western publics from the truth about the insanity and cruelty of the Ukrainian fascists the West are supporting is the main goal of the media and academia when it comes to Ukraine. Ukraine is only the most extreme example of the “memory wars” being waged across the former Soviet Union and the former Warsaw pact countries of Eastern Europe where pro-western governments seek to turn Nazi collaborators into heroes, demonize the Soviet Union, and destroy all monuments to the role the Soviet Union played in defeating fascism. I will be relying mainly on the brilliant work <span style="font-style: italic;">Stepan Bandera: The Life and Afterlife of a Ukrainian Nationalist Fascism, Genocide and Cult</span> by Grzegorz Rossolinski-Liebe, the first critical and scholarly account of the history of the OUN. Ironically his book was released just before the start of the 2014 civil war and Ukrainian nationalists did everything they could to prevent the book from being published, waging a public campaign against the author.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In part one of this series I described the origins of Ukrainian nationalism and its transformation into a fascist movement. I explained how present day Ukraine had long been divided with Central and Eastern Ukraine controlled by Russia. Western Ukraine, which was originally part of Poland, became part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire when Poland was dismembered in the 18th century. After World War One it became part of a reborn Poland known as the Second Republic, which had absorbed the short, lived Republic of Western Ukraine. I traced the origins of the OUN and its terrorist campaign within Poland. The OUN engaged in assassinations, massacres, arson and other crimes. This landed the leader of the OUN’s Homeland executive Stepan Bandera in prison although his two trials made him famous. The OUN was controlled by its leaders in exile. After Stepan Bandera escaped from prison, thanks to the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, he tried to seize the leadership of the OUN. This led the organization to split into an OUN/M answering to Andrei Melnyk and an OUN/B answering to Bandera. During the brief two-week window after the German invasion of Poland, but prior to the Soviet invasion, the OUN massacred thousands of Jews and also murdered many of the defeated Polish army who were trying to escape or return home. The OUN leaders then headed for Western Poland. Eastern Poland became Western Ukraine. Once the Soviets arrived they reunified Ukraine and cracked down hard on Polish nationalists as well as on the OUN. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The exiled OUN leaders in German-occupied Poland, known as the General Government, along with tens of thousands of their supporters who had fled the Soviets, were busy working closely with the Germans, who had been their sponsors for decades, to plan the invasion of the Soviet Union. Stepan Bandera and the other OUN/B leaders wrote down their plans in the months before the German invasion of the Soviet Union. It was known as the “Struggles and Activities” plan. It called for the OUN/B to activate its networks to give a welcome the Nazis and form militias for elimination of Jews, Poles, and all non-Ukrainians as well as any Ukrainians who opposed the OUN. The OUN/B came up with a bunch of fascist anti-communist and anti-Semitic slogans with which to blanket the country. The OUN/B and OUN/M were both working closely with the Abwehr, German military intelligence, who provided military training, police training, and political training. 800 OUN/B members joined special task forces who were to follow the Wehrmacht into the Soviet Union and mobilize Ukrainians to support their planned Nazi puppet Government. 800 other OUN/B members joined the Nachtigall battalion, which was controlled by the Abwehr. The OUN/B also had a network of 20,000 active members in Soviet western Ukraine along with 1.5 million supporters that could be mobilized. The OUN/B planned to declare an “independent” Ukrainian state with Stepan Bandera as its Providnyk or fascist dictator. Hitler however had other plans for Ukraine. Hitler viewed Ukrainians as sub-human Slavs, like the Russians, who would have to be massacred or enslaved to make way for German settlers. Ukraine’s rich black soil would feed the German Reich. Hitler thought Ukraine would be for Germany what India was for the British or America was for the U.S. who wiped out the Native Americans. The OUN did have a major Nazi ally in the form of Alfred Rosenberg, Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories. Rosenberg saw the potential of an OUN-controlled Ukraine as a valuable ally. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> This was the situation on the eve of Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union, which began on 22 June 1941. The war would lead to the death of 27 million people in the Soviet Union. 5.2 million civilians would die in Ukraine. 2.3 Million Ukrainians would be deported to German slave labour camps. Of Ukraine’s 2.7 million Jews 1.6 million would be killed. 700 cities and town were destroyed in Ukraine along with 28,000 villages. The impact of the OUN on the success of the Nazi plans to exterminate the Jews was dramatic. In areas that had been long subjected to OUN propaganda in Western Ukraine local Jews had much less chance of survival. In Ternopil in Western Ukraine 97% of the Jews were killed. In contrast, in Kharkov in eastern Ukraine 91% of the Jews managed to survive. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The OUN/B had been warned in advance of the invasion date and had smuggled the “Struggles and Activities” plan into Ukraine with its blueprint for the coming genocide. OUN activists spread out across the countryside setting up militias, and local governments. On 25 June 1941, the OUN/B tried to stage an uprising in Lvov but it was crushed by the Soviets. Sometimes the OUN/B forces would attack the retreating Red Army. However they usually waited until after the Red Army retreated before entering an area. On 30 June 1941, the Wehrmacht entered the city including the Ukrainian Nachtigall battalion whom locals greeted with flowers, calling them the Stepan Bandera battalion. The Nachtigall battalion seized control of the radio station and began broadcasting Nazi and OUN propaganda. That morning the Germans and the OUN discovered that the Soviet secret police the NKVD had massacred its political prisoners when the German invasion began to prevent them from collaborating with the Germans. Many were doubtless OUN members killed before they could carry out horrific crimes, like Roman Shukhevych’s brother. This happened in a number of areas and was used by the OUN to scapegoat the Jewish population for the killings. They were falsely accused of being NKVD informants and blamed for the victims’ deaths. This would be the pattern across western Ukraine and where there had been no recent executions those executed in the terror years earlier were dug up to enflame the masses. Thus already on 30 June 1941 small-scale massacres of the Jews of Lvov began. That night at 8 PM Yaroslav Stetsko held a ceremony in which he declared a new Ukrainian state under the leadership of Stepan Bandera. The day would be celebrated by OUN exiles until today as a national holiday. With Stetsko were the Metropolitan of the Greek Catholic Church in Lvov Andrei Sheptyts’kyi, clergyman and Nachtigall battalion member Ivan Hryn’okh and two officers in the German Abwehr Hans Koch and Wilhelm Ernst zu Eikern. Metropolitan Sheptys’kyi endorsed the idea of a Ukrainian state led by Bandera but paid lip service to the idea of tolerance for minorities. His church would later be implicated in inciting genocide against both the Jews and Polish Catholics. The German Abwehr officers welcomed the celebration but warned that it was not time to declare independence and that only Hitler could decide. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Hitler had already decided against an “independent” Ukraine, which was why Stepan Bandera had been forbidden from returning to Ukraine. According to OUN mythology and to the OUN’s western apologists Stepan Bandera was immediately sent to a concentration camp because of Stetsko’s premature declaration of independence. Actually he and Stetsko were placed in “honourable confinement” which initially meant simply that he was confined to Berlin where he could roam freely and was even allowed to carry a pistol for self-defence. It was the later OUN/B murders of leaders of the OUN/M carried out in broad daylight that then provoked a mild German crackdown on the OUN/B. I will return to this topic later. Even when Bandera was sent to a concentration camp he was incarcerated in a special section reserved for prisoners who might prove useful later, like the leader of the Romanian Iron Guard or Stalin’s son. Bandera was given special privileges and needless to say was not treated like the other inmates in a concentration camp. He was not gassed, enslaved, shot, tortured, experimented on or starved to death. On the contrary he was allowed conjugal visits from his wife who served as his go between to the OUN. Bandera received weekly care packages, and was not even confined to a cell. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> To return to Lvov by 1 July 1941 the OUN/B and the Germans had whipped the populace up into a fury directed at the city’s Jews. An angry mob rounded up thousands of Jews and brought them to the prisons where the NKVD’s victims had been found. The Jewish men were made to move the rotting corpses while they were brutally beaten to death. Jewish women were made to wash the rotting corpses and kiss their hands before being beaten to death, often after being raped. Others were shot by German military units. The OUN/B had formed a Ukrainian militia to conduct the executions on the day they arrived. They would soon be transformed into the Ukrainian police on the orders of Heinrich Himmler, the leader of the SS. They would answer to the SS but remained loyal to Stetsko. It was in their role as auxiliary police recruits that the OUN/B would play a major part in the Holocaust. It was their role to round up the victims, to enforce all the anti-Jewish laws. They often also acted as executioners. Much of the killing in Lvov was carried out by angry mobs fired up by OUN propaganda. They loved to humiliate their victims before killing them. Women were stripped naked and often raped in the streets. Jews were forced to clean up broken glass, with their bare hands and clean streets in front of jeering crowds, whipping them with steel cables. Jews were forced to sing communist songs before being shot or they were forced to shout Slava Ukraini before being beaten to death. Everywhere there were Nazi and Ukrainian flags and the walls were plastered with genocidal OUN slogans. The pogrom would last until 3 July 1941. On 2 July, the Germans took thousands of Jews out to the forest for a mass execution. Ukrainian peasants streamed in from the countryside with carts to carry the loot they planned to steal from their victims. Greed is often a major motivator in genocide. At the high end it involved German corporate takeovers of Jewish-owned business, often financed by American investors. In the Soviet Union there were no big businesses. Yet genocidal Ukrainians and other collaborators or German soldiers were able to loot their victims’ personal property. Robbery and extortion were a constant in these Ukrainian pogroms. Always the victims were threatened into turning over their valuables then murdered anyway. Banderites became synonymous with bandits in the view of their potential victims. Around 8,000 Jews were killed in a couple days during the first Lvov Pogrom but the Nazis and the OUN were just getting started. During the Lvov Pogrom the OUN/B also supplied a death list of Polish professors, their families and hundreds of their students. The professors were shot along with some of their family members and 100 Polish students. A month later to please the OUN/B, angry about Germany’s refusal to recognize Ukraine’s independence and the arrests of Bandera and Stetsko, the Germans gave them permission to hold a second Lvov Pogrom from 25-28 July 1941, known as the Petliura days in honour of the mass murdering Symon Petliura. Petliura was infamous for his army’s massacres of Jews during the Russian Civil War, which I discussed in Part 1.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> All across the countryside the same pattern was repeated. The OUN/B held Independence Day ceremonies, destroyed all communist symbols, put up Ukrainian flags and Nazi Swastikas and then launched pogroms. There were up to 140 Pogroms in Western Ukraine in July 1941 and they claimed 35,000 to 39,000 victims. The biggest pogroms besides Lvov were in Ternopil and Zolochiv. During this period the OUN/B were not merely carrying out German orders but were enthusiastically carrying out genocide in line with their own ideology. They conducted massacres of Jews in places where there was no German presence. When the Hungarian forces forbade the OUN from carrying out a big pogrom, they defiantly carried out a little one and then complained to the Germans. Across the countryside the OUN erected triumphal arches welcoming the Nazis and praising Stepan Bandera and Adolf Hitler. The Nazis were greeted by adoring crowds and their invasion was blessed by the Greek Catholic clergy. OUN/B activists had the crowds sign “plenipotentiary letters” which praised Hitler and the German Army while also asking for the release of Stepan Bandera and Yaroslav Stetsko.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> During the early days of the German invasion, Stepan Bandera had set up his headquarters close to Ukraine and used couriers to communicate his orders to the OUN/B. He had ordered and approved of the massacres of Jews. Stetsko’s 30 June 1941 declaration of independence had angered the Germans. Bandera did his best to repair relations with the Nazis. On 3 July 1941, Bandera attended a meeting in Cracow with the Undersecretary of State for the General Government Ernst Kundt (German occupied Poland). Bandera argued that as leader of the OUN it was the will of the people that he head Ukraine. Kundt countered that only Hitler could decide such matters. Bandera conceded that he could only create a Ukrainian state with German permission. On 5 July 1941, Bandera was sent to Berlin and placed in “Honourable Captivity”. On 8 July 1941, someone tried to assassinate Yarsolav Stetsko and on 9 July 1941, Stetsko was arrested and escorted by the Abwehr to Berlin. On 12 July 1941 Stetsko was freed. On 14 July 1941 Bandera was freed. They were confined to Berlin and lived together in an apartment. Bandera was allowed to carry a gun and held an ID issued by the RSHA (Heidrich’s “Homeland Security” department). These two networked with the Lithuanian fascists in exile and the Japanese ambassador. Stetsko kept busy writing his autobiography for his German handlers: writing that, while he considered Moscow his main enemy, he fully endorsed exterminating the Jews since he considered them tools of Moscow. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> On 19 July 1941, Hitler decided to incorporate Eastern Galicia into the General Government. This offended the OUN/B who wanted to rule a united Ukraine. Now their territory was being absorbed back into German-occupied Poland. Actually it turned out to be beneficial to the OUN/B’s interests as Ukrainians in Galicia were favoured over the Poles and Jews and they were allowed to continue to carry out Ukrainization of Polish educational institutions. Ukrainians in East Galicia were treated like fascist allies Slovakia and Croatia. The Nazis set up UTSK in the Ukrainian Central Committee run by Volodymyr Kubiiovych in the General Government area. Kubiiovych had been a close ally of the OUN in the 1930s and shared their ideology while being more flexible. He lobbied for the creation of a Ukrainian National Army to fight alongside the Nazis and argued that all Jewish property should be turned over to Ukrainians. In 1943 he would get his wish with the creation of the Waffen-SS <span style="font-style: italic;">Galizia</span> division, composed of Ukrainians. Ukrainians in the former Soviet Ukraine on the other hand were mercilessly exploited. All education beyond the 4th grade was banned. The Germans modelled their behaviour in Soviet Ukraine on American plantation owners treating Ukrainian peasants like Black slaves who could only be kept in check with whips and clubs. The main goal was to loot Ukraine’s grain. The result would be very different attitudes towards the memory of the Nazis in Western and Eastern Ukraine.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> On 30 August 1941, the OUN/B assassinated the OUN/M leaders Melina Senyk and Mykola Stibors’kyi in broad daylight on the streets in Zhytomyr. This outraged the Germans and other Ukrainian nationalists. The Germans were further outraged when the OUN/B tried to blame Germany for the killings. The OUN/M provided the Germans with names and addressees of OUN/B leaders who were then arrested. The Germans also shot some OUN/B members as looters and closed their offices in Berlin and Vienna. They tried and failed to purge the administration and police of OUN/B members. On 13 September 1941, Bandera and Stetsko were arrested again. Despite this both continued efforts to repair relations with the Germans. Both sent orders to the OUN/B not to resist the Germans and to continue to supply recruits for the police and the puppet government. Even after being sent to a cushy concentration camp and even after two of his brothers died in a concentration camp, Bandera never ceased attempts at reconciliation with the Germans. Even when it became clear the Germans were losing in 1944, Bandera was more committed then ever to allying the OUN/B with the Nazis. The German purge was totally ineffective. The OUN/B was continually flooded with new recruits and continued to grow in power. The head of the Ukrainian police simply ignored orders to get rid of OUN/B members. In other words even when the Nazis turned on the OUN/B the organization continued to supply recruits for the police, which would play a major role in carrying out the holocaust. Many Ukrainian police would also go on to join the Waffen SS Galizia division. Others would later join the UPA, using their experience in mass murder to massacre Poles.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The Ukrainian police were formed from the Ukrainian militias that the OUN/B had recruited in the wake of the German invasion. They were known as the Schutzmannschaften or auxiliary police. In March 1942, despite the Nazi’s earlier crackdown, the OUN/B ordered its members to join the police <span style="font-style: italic;">en masse</span>. The Ukrainian police answered ultimately to Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, overall commander of the SS. It was ordered that they be given two hours of Nazi indoctrination every day. In the cities the Ukrainian police assisted in raids, deportations, and shootings. They also patrolled the ghettoes. They enforced the anti-Jewish laws, forced Jews to wear identifying arm bands, created death lists by interviewing locals, rounded up the victims, guarded the prisoners, escorted them to the site of the execution and often shot the victims, especially if they were children. The Nazis had their own killing squads, the Einsatzgruppe C that also carried out many of the mass executions. In the countryside there were few German forces or German police and the Ukrainian Police played the leading role in destroying the Jews and then spent years hunting down the survivors. The Ukrainian police often displayed the same sadistic brutality the OUN/B had shown in the Lvov pogroms. One survivor recounted being locked in a bathhouse with dozens of victims who were forced to desecrate their holy books. Some had had their beards set aflame. The fire then spread to their clothes and they were burned alive. Others were beaten to death. Throughout it all the victims were forced to sing to entertain their Ukrainian tormentors. The Ukrainian police were used not only to terrorize Ukraine but also to terrorize Belarus, Poland, Slovakia and other areas. Particularly infamous was Battalion 201, which included Roman Shukhevych. He would also join the Waffen-SS Galizia division and become leader of the UPA. Shukhevych, a monster like Bandera, is now widely promoted as a “Hero of Ukraine.” In addition to carrying out mass murders of Jews, Byelorussians and Poles; Shukhevych loved to have Eastern Ukrainian’s shot for little or no reason and privately contemplated exterminating them all. Many recruits to Battalion 201 like Shukhevych had been part of the Abwehr’s Nachtigall and Roland battalions and carried out mass murders of Byelorussian civilians as part of their anti-partisan warfare in 1942.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Early in 1943 Heinrich Himmler created the Waffen-SS <span style="font-style: italic;">Galizia</span> division, also known as the 14th Grenadier Division of the Waffen-SS. It was called Galician instead of Ukrainian to pander to Hitler. Hitler, born in Austria-Hungary, felt that since Galicia had once been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, there was probably some German blood in them. Over 80,000 Ukrainians volunteered to join the SS <span style="font-style: italic;">Galizia</span> but only 8,000 were accepted. It soon expanded to 14,000 men by recruiting members of the Ukrainian police. The Ukrainian general commanding the SS Galicia was Pavlo Shandruk. The SS Galicia was established to battle the Red Army. It was also deployed to crush the Slovakian national uprising and played a major role in the destruction of Warsaw after the Warsaw uprising. On 22 July 1944 the Waffen SS Galicia division, by then much larger, was encircled and destroyed by the 1st Ukrainian Front of the Red Army under the command of Pavel Rybalko. They were decimated by the Soviet artillery and Katyusha rocket batteries. However the Germans were able to replace the units by recruiting more members and the SS Galicia division went on to wage dirty wars against partisans and civilians in Italy, Yugoslavia, France and Czechoslovakia. They surrendered to the British two days after the war ended and with the help of the Vatican were able to avoid deportation back to the Soviet Union by claiming to be Polish citizens. Eventually they would end up in Britain before being resettled in Canada and America strengthening the OUN diaspora during the Cold War. Unknown to most citizens of Canada and the US there are public monuments to these Waffen SS veterans in both countries.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In 1943 at the same time that the OUN/B were joining the Waffen SS <span style="font-style: italic;">en masse</span>, and while they were setting up the UPA to exterminate the Poles, the OUN/B was publicly distancing themselves from the Nazis and secretly trying to forge an alliance with the western allies for a future struggle with the Soviet Union. Here the considerations were the Soviet victory at Stalingrad foreboding Germany’s ultimate defeat. The more farsighted Nazis were already planning their escapes, and their deals with Western intelligence agencies. The hardliners in American and British Intelligence like Allen Dulles were already gearing up for a covert war against the Soviet Union using committed anti-communists and anti-Russians among their current fascist “enemies” (for men like Dulles they were friends and business partners).</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">When Poland was investigating the Pieracki assassination in the mid-1930s, it discovered that the OUN had ties to MI6 as well as the German Abwehr. When it comes to such matters the historical evidence is always a sanitized version or some sort of limited hang out. The CIA spent decades destroying incriminating records and declassifying misleading or altered records. Which is my way of saying we will never know the early history of the ties of the OUN with MI6 and the OSS and US military intelligence during the war.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The OUN/B was already trying to improve their image in the west in April 1942. At their second OUN/B conference they claimed that they would no longer take part in anti-Jewish actions. At the same conference they still condemned Jews as “a tool of Russian Bolshevik Imperialism. In addition the OUN/B did not quit the police and so continued to be a vital element in carrying out the mass murder of Jews. By 1943 the Jews had largely been eliminated in western Ukraine. The survivors were being hunted by the Ukrainian police, which was full of OUN/B members. At their third Conference from 17-21 February, the OUN/B was now claiming that it would fight both Germany and the USSR and that they were now democrats ruled by a triumvirate, led by the (war criminal) Roman Shukhevych. In July 1944 the OUN sent emissaries to attempt to make a deal with the Western allies, including Mykola Lebed, head of the OUN internal security branch or SB, known for its bloodthirsty assassinations of alleged OUN traitors. Lebed would later receive decades of backing from the CIA. In July of 1944 the OUN/B furthered their “Democratic” rebranding, creating the front group UHVR, the Supreme Liberation Council of Ukraine. It would later provide many recruits for the CIA and MI6.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> A few months before the February 1943 OUN conference, the OUN started what was to become the UPA. Contrary to myth the UPA only attacked Germans when it needed to steal arms. It made a secret deal with the German military to avoid confrontations. The UPA was formed for the purpose of exterminating the Poles and despite the OUN’s public statements that it would fight the Germans, the UPA was secretly funded by the Abwehr (German military intelligence). When the Germans retreated the Abwehr secretly turned over the Wehrmacht’s huge arms stockpiles to the UPA. Still the OUN’s two-faced strategy to win Western support would be very useful later for muddying the historical record and creating the myth that the OUN had battled both the Nazis and the Soviet Union. The UPA would later become a CIA proxy army run with the help of war criminal Reinhard Gehlen. It would wage an anti-Soviet war for five more years after the end of World War 2. Seventy years later the return of Ukrainian fascism to power via the Maidan coup would be universally celebrated as the triumph of “Democracy.”</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The UPA was founded at the November 1942 OUN conference although it originally was called the UVV the Ukraine Liberation Army. The OUN/B stole the name UPA or Ukrainian Insurgent Army from a rival group of Ukrainian fascists lead by Taras Bulba-Borovets who led his own armed group in Ukraine with a similar ideology and methodology to the OUN/B. It too shared responsibility for mass murders of Jews and other Ukrainians. The OUN/B waged war on this rival group assassinating Bulba-Borovets’ wife and many of his top officers. When he went to the Germans for help they instead sent him to the same cushy concentration camp as Bandera and Stetsko. In March and April of 1943 OUN/B sent out word that its many members in the Ukrainian police should quit and join the UPA. Of 12,000 police, 5000 quit to join the UPA. Other Ukrainian police joined the Waffen-SS Galizia division. The new UPA recruits brought their experience in mass murder of Jews to the new plan for ethnic cleansing of Volhynia and Galicia of Poles. Poles were given the ultimatum leave or die. Often the threat was posted on a murdered Pole who had been unspeakably tortured and mutilated.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In February and March of 1943 the UPA began experimental massacres that claimed hundreds of lives. Whole Polish villages were wiped out. Soon Mykola Lebed ordered the complete cleansing to begin. The UPA would arrive in carts to carry away the loot and often recruited local Ukrainian peasants to join their massacres. The massacres were often carried out in the most horrific way possible with axes, pitchforks and saws. The UPA would sometimes spend hours sadistically torturing their victims to death. The aim was both to save bullets and to terrorize the Poles into fleeing. Another of their favourite methods was to attack churches with hand grenades or set them on fire when the whole town was attending. They also liked to gather all their victims up for a town hall meeting and burn them alive. The UPA would usually return again a couple days after their massacre so that they could kill all the survivors. They even slaughtered nuns who were caring for Polish orphans. On 11 July 1943, the UPA launched attacks on 96 different Polish villages in a single day killing 10,000 Poles. The UPA killed between 100,000 and 250,000 Poles during this genocidal campaign. The UPA would often pretend to be Soviet partisans and in addition to carrying out false flag attacks that could be blamed on the partisans they were probably playing their role for German intelligence, gathering information on which villages were sympathetic to the partisans. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The UPA also continued to hunt the few remaining Jews who were hiding out in the forests or in Polish villages. The UPA had learned from the Germans how to exploit their Jewish victims. Some were kept as slave labour working the farmlands of massacred Poles and then killed before they could be liberated by the Red Army. Others Jews who were doctors, dentists, nurses or tailors were conscripted into the UPA and then murdered when the Red Army was approaching. Later these facts would be spun by OUN apologists into the myth that the UPA wasn’t allied to the Nazis because it had Jewish members or that the UPA had acted to “save” the Jews. By 1944 the UPA had grown to 25,000-30,000 members. With Soviet forces advancing the UPA was now openly allied with Nazi Germany. The UPA attacks on the Jews hiding in the forests were so terrible that some Jews actually fled to German concentration camps believing their chances of survival would be better as slave labourers. In the summer of 1944 the Red Army would liberate Western Ukraine. The UPA would continue to kill Poles and increasingly began to target any Ukrainians who submitted to Soviet authority. Anyone who paid their taxes or joined a collective farm could be killed or have their home burnt down by the UPA. The UPA would become a sort of proto-Gladio, a stay-behind network behind enemy lines, created first by the Nazis and then absorbed by MI6 and the CIA. The UPA war with the Soviet Union would continue until 1950. Their network would survive into the 1960s. The UPA war was not only waged in Ukraine but also in Poland, Byelorussia, and Czechoslovakia. The story of the UPA will be continued in Part 3 of this series dealing with the Cold War.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> As the war turned in favour of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany faced defeat, the Germans increasingly realized that they needed the OUN/B. The Nazis granted an OUN/B request to be allowed to meet with Stepan Bandera. The details of Bandera’s imprisonment are clouded in mystery. It is not clear when exactly he was transferred from Gestapo custody following the OUN/M murders to his cushy Sachenhausen concentration camp, where he received care packages and visits from his wife. Stetsko claimed it was in January 1942. Bandera claimed it was in 1943. Records claim it was October 1943. On 28 September 1944, the Germans released Stepan Bandera and soon thereafter also released Stetsko, Melnyk, Bulba-Borovets and 300 more OUN/B prisoners. Melnyk had been arrested when the OUN/M tried to contact Western intelligence in 1944. The OUN/M had had much better relations with the Nazis and was appointed to serve in the puppet government. It had supplied many recruits to the Waffen SS Galicia division. Bandera would spend the rest of the war working with the Nazis to recruit Ukrainian support to their cause. However Bandera would refuse to merge OUN forces with the Vlasov army’s KONR- the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia- created 14 November 1944. Bandera claimed they were “Russian Imperialists.” Instead Rosenberg set up the separate Ukrainian National Committee (UNK), which included Bandera, Melnyk, Kubiiovych and was headed by Shandruk, the general commanding the Waffen SS Galicia division on 23 February 1945. Prior to this, in December 1944, Bandera and Stetsko helped train the Abwehr Commando’s unit of Ukrainian paratroopers who were to be dropped into Lvov with one million rubles for UPA head Roman Shukhevych to continue the fight against the Soviet Union. Bandera sent the message that he would return soon, a promise he never kept. Stetsko claimed that he was still Prime Minister of Ukraine because of his earlier declaration back in 30 June 1941; the one that had unleashed a wave of OUN/B massacres.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Bandera’s next stop, after celebrating Greek Catholic Christmas with his family, was Weimar, Germany. Bandera argued that the OUN/B must give its “Full Support” to Nazi Germany until the end. He was busy recruiting for the soon to be created Ukrainian National Army (UNA). Bandera spent three weeks in Berlin. He then headed for Vienna where he was elected head of the Foreign Units of the OUN (ZCh OUN). On 5-6 February 1945, the OUN in Ukraine elected Bandera as their leader but decided he should remain in exile. On 17 March 1945, the Germans announced the creation of the Ukrainian National Army (UNA). The Waffen SS Galicia division was rebranded the 1st division of the UNA and its commander, Shandruk, was named commander of the UNA. Meanwhile Bandera fled Vienna as the Red Army approached, escaping to Czechoslovakia and then Innsbruck in Austria. Eventually Bandera would end up under the protection of the infamous Reinhard Gehlen, the first president of the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), the espionage service founded by the US Forces in the American occupation zone. Gehlen had been recruited by the US intelligence services because he had been responsible for occupied Eastern Europe in the Abwehr. When German forces fled the Red Army back in the first half of 1944 over 120,000 Ukrainian collaborators and war criminals fled west with them. During the Cold War many of these escaped Ukrainian war criminals would work for Western intelligence services. Many would eventually be resettled in the US and Canada. Ukrainian fascism would live on in exile for decades. Eventually with the help of its Western sponsors it would seize power in Ukraine yet again sparking a new covert war and triggering the on-going proxy war between NATO and Russia.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> For Ukraine the war would not truly end until 1950. However that is the subject for Part 3. This is only a scratch to the surface of the history of Ukraine during the war. The crimes of the Nazi Germany would require their own articles or books. The Nazis created massive machinery for genocide. However they relied on Ukrainian collaborators every step of the way. An article also needs to be written just about the German conquest of Ukraine and the Soviet liberation of Ukraine. These were huge battles between millions of men. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> However the crimes of the OUN are clear. They propagandized the Ukrainians to carry out mass murder. The OUN/B created militias that carried out genocide in 1941 and again in 1943. They supplied recruits to the Ukrainian police, which played a major role in the Holocaust. They joined the Waffen SS Galicia division along with the OUN/M. They formed the UPA to carry out genocide and ethnic cleansing against the Poles. Bandera was unable to supervise this directly but he came up with the plans before being imprisoned and after his release he worked enthusiastically for the Nazis. Bandera never admitted to the OUN/B’s crimes, let alone apologizing or condemning them. His OUN followers took an active role carrying out unspeakable atrocities. Banderite became a synonym for murderous bandits. There has been shamefully little written about the history of the OUN and much of what was written was from a pro-OUN perspective. Sadly due to the nature of academia the more relevant the story of the OUN becomes the fewer people will dare to tell it for fear of being labelled “Russian propagandists.”</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> After the Orange revolution of 2004 Stepan Bandera was declared a “Hero of Ukraine”. Even a postage stamp was issued commemorating him. During the 2014 Maidan coup, a huge poster of Stepan Bandera hung on the stage. Few in the west had ever heard of Stepan Bandera or the OUN back in 2014. Now in 2022 the world is on the brink of nuclear war and the global economy is collapsing all because CIA and other western intelligence agencies have been using Ukrainian fascists as proxies for nearly 80 years. In Parts 3 and 4, I intend to trace the history of the OUN and its ideological heirs through the Cold War and post-Cold War eras up to the Maidan coup and the Ukrainian civil war.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Sources</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> My main source is <span style="font-style: italic;">Stepan Bandera: The Life and Afterlife of a Ukrainian Nationalist: Fascism, Genocide and Cult</span>, an in depth history of Stepan Bandera and the OUN. It is a must read although written with the standard academic anti-Soviet bias.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> I also read “Children of the Borderlands” by Lucyna Kulinska, a collection of survivors’ testimonies from the Polish victims of the UPA genocide. An English translation is available on EBay. It gives a vivid and horrifying picture of events. However it is edited from a strongly anti-Soviet perspective. Still the author should be applauded for exposing a forgotten genocide, which the strongly pro-Ukrainian Polish government is intent on covering up.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> <span style="font-style: italic;">Hitler’s Shadow Nazi, War Criminals, U.S. Intelligence and the Cold War</span> by Richard Breitman and Norman J.W. Goda has a chapter on Mykola Lebed and the CIA ties to the OUN. Based on declassified U.S. intelligence files, it provides a limited hangout version of events.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> <span style="font-style: italic;">Nazi Empire Building and the Holocaust in Ukraine</span> by Wendy Lower provides a horrifying picture of the German occupation and the complex machinery that carried out the genocide. However it is extremely misleading whenever discussing the OUN/B, always portraying it as hostile to the Nazis. Perhaps that is because the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute funded her work. Worse still, she worked closely with the archetypical Cold War propagandist/historian Timothy Snyder, who helped her edit the book. Generally if you want to uncover an author’s shady connections look in the acknowledgments section which most people skip.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Moss Robeson on the history of the OUN</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/izf7XjVJUSk"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/izf7XjVJUSk</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">One of my favourite documentary series the Unknown War had an episode on Ukraine while it doesn’t mention the OUN/B it does describe the epic battle to liberate Ukraine</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/5l81l2JNs2Y"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/5l81l2JNs2Y</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Evan Reif on the history of the OUN</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Part 1</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/10/how-pre-ww-ii-ukrainian-fascists-pioneered-brutal-terror-techniques-later-improved-by-cia-now-ironically-taught-to-descendants/"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/10/how-pre-ww-ii-ukrainian-fascists-pioneered-brutal-terror-techniques-later-improved-by-cia-now-ironically-taught-to-descendants/</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Part 2</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/10/how-monsters-who-beat-jews-to-death-in-1944-became-americas-favorite-freedom-fighters-in-1945-with-a-little-help-from-their-friends-at-cia/</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Evan Reif on the true heroes of Ukraine the Soviet Partisans</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/07/08/glory-to-the-heroes-sidor-kovpak-and-the-war-for-ukraines-memory/"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/07/08/glory-to-the-heroes-sidor-kovpak-and-the-war-for-ukraines-memory/</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Gerald Sussman on the OUN and the CIA</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/09/12/ukraine-the-cias-75-year-old-proxy/"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/09/12/ukraine-the-cias-75-year-old-proxy/</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I’ve done a number of articles that intersect with the story of the OUN during the Cold War</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Nazis and the CIA</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2014/06/nazis-and-cia.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2014/06/nazis-and-cia.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Operation Gladio</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2014/06/operation-gladio_23.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2014/06/operation-gladio_23.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The World Anti-Communist League Part 1</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/07/irancontra-pt-3-wacl.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/07/irancontra-pt-3-wacl.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The World Anti-Communist League Part 2</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/08/irancontra-pt-4-wacl-2.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/08/irancontra-pt-4-wacl-2.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Ratline: the Vatican, The Nazis, and the CIA</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2019/07/ratline-vatican-nazis-cia-v2.html</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Old Nazis, New Right</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2017/10/old-nazis-new-right.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2017/10/old-nazis-new-right.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Zelensky quote is from</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/lawmakers-ask-zelensky-to-return-hero-of-ukraine-title-to-bandera-shukhevych.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/lawmakers-ask-zelensky-to-return-hero-of-ukraine-title-to-bandera-shukhevych.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>Hugo Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12229123097438571385noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8001402613324067475.post-73761381954534670202022-11-04T12:00:00.001-07:002022-11-04T12:00:55.950-07:00History of Fascism in Ukraine : Part 1<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">The History of Fascism in Ukraine Part 1:</span></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The Origins of the OUN Ukraine 1917-1941</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> With the war in Ukraine raging, it is time to trace the history of fascism in Ukraine. Once believed to be an anachronistic Cold War relic, the OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists) has emerged as the most successful post-war fascist group. Politicians around the globe shout its fascist slogan “Slava Ukraini” a phrase that originated with the League of Ukrainian Fascists, was adopted by the OUN and popularized by Stepan Bandera while he and the OUN were on trial for the assassination campaign the OUN were waging in Poland. In Ukraine, the United States, Canada and Britain, monuments are built to the Ukrainian SS veterans who killed over a million Jews, hundreds of thousands of Poles, and countless Ukrainians, Russians, Byelorussians. Today Israel and Poland are among Ukraine’s biggest sponsors. In Ukraine itself it is illegal to criticize these mass murderers. In the West their history has been whitewashed for decades by Cold War academics who allowed escaped Ukrainian war criminals to shape the history of Ukraine and the Soviet Union. Most importantly thanks to two CIA backed coups or “colour revolutions” the first in 2004 and the second in 2014 the heirs of the OUN were given almost total control of Ukraine. OUN ideology has become the official ideology of Ukraine and Nazi thugs are given total impunity to terrorize anyone who complains. Fascist paramilitaries have been incorporated into the police and military while others like the Azov battalion have retained a certain autonomy answering only to Ukrainian Intelligence the SBU or the Interior Ministry. Even Ukrainian presidents have difficulty reining in these fascist groups who openly defy them when the presidents are not busy pandering to them.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> This article will trace the origins of the OUN and explain its history up to the eve of Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union. By then the OUN, working closely with both German military intelligence (the Abwehr) and the SS, had begun to plan their genocidal takeover of Ukraine. From Nazi occupied Poland the OUN/B controlled over 20,000 underground activists ready to take up arms to exterminate Jews, Poles, and Russians and organize a warm welcome for the Nazis in Soviet Ukraine. Part two will cover the horrific war crimes the OUN carried out during the war. In part one I will be relying mostly on the definitive “Stepan Bandera The Life and Afterlife of a Ukrainian Nationalist: Fascism, Genocide, and Cult” by Grzegorz Rossolinski-Liebe, which I recommend to anyone looking to do an in-depth study of the history of the OUN. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The early Ukrainian nationalists were socialist leaning moderates. They were poets, romantics and intellectuals who drew inspiration from the peasants and Cossacks and their unique Russian dialect, which was also spoken in Southern Russia. The name Ukraine simply meant borderland and its people were known as Malorussians, which meant “little Russians”. Yet as the craze for nationalism swept Europe some intellectuals began to think of Ukraine as a separate nation. Of these the main influence on the later fascist Ukrainian nationalists was the historian Mykhailo Hrushev’sky his monumental history of Ukraine portrayed Ukrainians as a completely separate race from Poles or Russians and attempted to sever the historical ties between the closely interlinked Russia and Ukraine. Russians traced their origins to the Kievan Russ (centred in modern day Kiev, Ukraine) and viewed Ukrainians and Byelorussians as close cousins to the Russians. Many Ukrainians viewed themselves as Russians. Also many Russians moved to Ukraine during the 18th and 19th centuries. Even today most Ukrainians speak Russian. The Russian empire encouraged this merging of the two identities and tried to discourage the use of Ukrainian. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Hrushevs’ky’s work would inspire another far more extreme Ukrainian nationalist in Russian-controlled Ukraine, Mykola Mikhnovs’kyi, who would preach a worldview that saw a Ukrainian race surrounded by enemies that needed to be eliminated. He inserted 19th century Social Darwinism and scientific racism into Ukrainian nationalism, writing in the majority Russian city of Kharkov. He labelled “Russians, Poles, Magyars, Romanians and Jews as enemies of Ukraine” (as long as they ruled or exploited Ukrainians) and hoped to create a Ukrainian state stretching from the Caucuses to the Carpathian Mountains. His Ten Commandments of the UNP (Ukrainian National Party) founded in 1904 would be a major influence on the OUN. It included such memorable lines as “Do not marry a foreign woman because your children will become your enemies.” Elsewhere Mikhnovs’kyi wrote “Ukraine for Ukrainians, and as long as even one alien enemy remains on our territory, we are not allowed to lay down our arms.”</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> 80% of Ukrainians lived within the Russian empire. The other 20% lived in an area that had once been controlled by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and, after Poland was dismembered and ceased to exist in the late 18th century, were ruled by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They were known as Ruthenians and their language was closer to Polish than to the dialect spoken in Russian Ukraine. The Austro-Hungarian Empire encouraged extreme Ukrainian nationalism seeing Ukrainians as a vital counterbalance to the rebellious Poles. The area the Ukrainians or Ruthenians lived in was known as Eastern Galicia. This was the situation when Stepan Bandera was born in 1909. The OUN had its origins entirely in this western controlled part of Ukraine. In the wake of World War 1 and the Russian Civil War this territory would be controlled by a reborn Poland once again in the form of Poland’s Second Republic. The Second Republic also included the Western Ukrainians in Volhnyia part of Russian Ukraine conquered in its war against the Soviets. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Over the centuries Ukrainian aristocrats in Poland had decided to assimilate and become Polish nobles. Thus most of the Ukrainians were peasants. Poland also encouraged the creation of the Greek Catholic Church, which continued to follow the Orthodox Christian rite while subordinate to the Roman Pope instead of the Orthodox Patriarch. By Bandera’s time the Greek Catholic Church was an important element of Western Ukrainian identity and many OUN leaders like Stepan Bandera were the children of Greek Catholic priests, who were also hard-core Ukrainian nationalists. While swearing loyalty to the Polish state the Greek Catholic Church would enrage the Polish government by acting to support the OUN ringing church bells when OUN members were executed, or as a warning when police were on the way to disrupt Ukrainian nationalist events and holding memorial services, called Panakhydas, for various “heroes of Ukraine”. They were adopted as nationalist martyrs in the OUN cult. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Ukrainians in western Ukraine were mostly peasants (until 1848 they were serfs) working for Polish landlords and their Jewish managers. West Ukraine thus gave birth to a nationalism that was full of hatred for Jews and Poles. The OUN would target both for extermination. The OUN would combine traditional Ukrainian anti-Semitism with Nazi “racial science.” However Poland was an authoritarian military dictatorship. This was another major influence on the OUN who lived in Poland. Dmytro Dontsov found it much safer to vilify the Russians and the Soviet Union who were enemies of Poland then to risk the wrath of the Polish state. Dontsov was a former Marxist who argued that Ukrainian nationalism should purge itself of all elements of socialism or democracy both of which he blamed for the failure to establish a Ukrainian state. By 1922 Dontsov had found his model in Mussolini’s fascist Italy. He was even more impressed by Hitler and the Nazis. Dontsov translated these fascist thinkers into Ukrainian. He also wrote the introductions for fawning biographies glorifying Mussolini and Hitler. He popularized fascism, anti-Semitism and Russophobia among the students of Bandera’s generation. His vulgarized version of the philosophy of Nietzsche, Fichte, and Rousseau argued that Ukrainians must cast aside conventional morality and be willing to commit any crime if it meant the birth of a Ukrainian state. Dontsov praised fanaticism as a virtue. However he resisted numerous invitations to join the OUN for fear of being arrested by the Polish government. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Having introduced some of the intellectuals who developed or inspired Ukrainian fascism, let us go back in time to World War 1 and the Russian Revolution to introduce the historical origins of the OUN. The OUN were made up of two generations. The older generation had fought on the side of the Austro-Hungarian Empire during World War 1. Some formed the Sich Riflemen, which included future OUN leader Levhen Konovalets. They were from Western Ukraine. During World War 1, Galicia would be a battleground between Russia and the Austrian and German forces. Russia captured Galicia only to be forced back out again. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> When in 1917, the February Revolution overthrew the Tsar and installed a mildly left wing “democracy” ruled by Kerensky, Ukrainian Nationalists in Russian Ukraine created a Rada and declared their autonomy within the Russian Empire. It was headed by the left wing Vinnichenko as Prime Minister. Later that year the October Revolution overthrew the Kerensky government in Russia. The Rada decided to take advantage of the chaos and declare a Ukrainian People’s Republic (UNR) on 20 November 1917. The head of military affairs was Symon Petliura who would become infamous for his mass murders of Jews during the civil war, killing 50-60,000 of them. The OUN would adopt him as a hero of Ukraine. In 1926 Petlura would be assassinated by a Jewish survivor who had lost his family, anarchist Sholom Schwartz. Exposing the horrific crimes of Petliura’s forces at the trial Schwartz was declared not guilty by the sympathetic jury. Today Petliura has once again been declared a hero of Ukraine. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The Soviets were desperate to end the war with Germany and had been negotiating what would be known as the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The Ukrainian People’s Republic had sent envoys to the negotiations and the Germans and Austrians recognized their claims, as did the Soviet negotiators. The Soviet Union was also backing a self-proclaimed Soviet Ukrainian republic. When this Soviet Ukraine sent envoys the Germans refused to let them participate. Tensions were rising between the Soviets and the Ukrainian People’s Republic or UNR. The UNR were allowing the white Russian army (the Counter-Revolutionaries), led by General Kornilov, and their allies among the Don Cossacks, lead by Hetman Kaledin, to operate on their territory while disarming Red Army troops and forces loyal to the Ukrainian Soviets and urging Ukrainian troops serving in the Red Army to return to Ukraine. On 15 December 1917 the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed giving Germany and Austria control of huge swaths of Russian territory in exchange for peace. Freed from the German threat on 17 December 1917, the Soviet Government sent the Ukrainian People’s Republic an ultimatum demanding that the UNR cease shielding the white army, disarming Soviet troops, and blocking the passage of the Red Army. British and French envoys promised to aid the Rada if it resisted the Soviet ultimatum. The Soviets were backing Ukrainian communists attempt to set up a communist parallel government in Kharkov while officially recognizing the Ukrainian People’s Republic. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The detail is too complicated to discuss here. However Ukraine became a battleground between the Red Army, the Germans, the Polish, and the white Russian counter-revolutionary forces. Also fighting were the West Ukrainian army, Petlura’s forces, the forces of the Ukrainian Anarchist Makhno, and various bandit warlords and Cossacks. Kiev would change hands more then a dozen times. Initially the Ukrainian People’s Republic rejected the Soviet ultimatum to allow the Red Army to pass through to attack the white forces. However war was avoided for a couple months. Soon the Red Army was occupying Kiev as the Rada lacked popular support. People wanted land reform not Ukrainization, something viewed as annoyance by many Russian speakers. The Rada forces had deserted to the Red Army. However the Soviets would control Kiev for only three weeks. The Rada turned to the Germany and Austria who recognized the UNR. The Germans invaded Ukraine forcing the Red army to withdraw. Symon Petliura’s forces took power. In April 1918, the Germans disbanded the Rada and installed a puppet Government under Hetman Skorpadsky. Germany was under an economic blockade with its people facing starvation. The Germans proceeded to loot Ukraine’s grain, angering the peasants. In November 1918 the German military collapsed and they abandoned Ukraine. Skorpadsky retreated with them. Petliura and the new Rada government called “The Directorate” seized power in Kiev yet again before being forced out by the Red Army. As Petliura’s forces retreated they carried out massive pogroms against the Jews. Petliura’s forces often dressed up as communist forces to carry out these Pogroms murdering the communist sympathizers who came to greet them first, and then spending days robbing, raping, and murdering the rest of the Jews. With Germany out of the war, Britain and France were free to back the even more bloodthirsty white General Denikin in his attempt to destroy the Soviet Union. Ironically Denikin was a Russian nationalist who viewed Ukraine as inseparable from Russia. Denikin’s forces carried out equally horrific pogroms. Petliura allied with Denikin and then with Poland.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In western Ukraine they declared their own Ukrainian republic the ZUNR on 1 November 1918 in Lvov. The backbone of its military (the UHA) was veterans of the Sich Rifleman. At the same time Poland proclaimed the independent Second Republic The war began in Lvov as Ukrainian and Polish militias battled for control of the city. A Polish Ukrainian war began for control of Galicia. Poland eventually would crush and absorb the West Ukrainian republic. The ZUNR leaders would go into exile and form the UVO. Ironically many of the men from its army would desert to the Red Army. This was because the Red Army was waging war against Poland and the Ukrainian People’s Republic (in Russian Ukraine), which had signed a deal with Poland surrendering Polish control of Western Ukraine. The complex story of the Russian civil war in Ukraine would need its own article or book to do it justice. However there are a couple of lessons that can be learned. Ukrainian nationalists were happy to become tools of foreign powers while supposedly seeking independence. Ukrainian nationalists were willing to see their country exploited economically by foreign powers. Ukrainization had little appeal in Russian Ukraine. The Soviets won because the Ukrainian people were more concerned with their economic situation. Although briefly united by treaty on 22 January 1919, the Western Ukrainian ZUNR and the Russian Ukrainian UNR ended as bitter enemies. Ironically the OUN, with their dreams of genocide, still considered the mass murderer Petliura a hero although he had sold out to Poland, recognising the Polish claim to eastern Galicia in exchange for Polish support. Ten years after Petliura’s assassination, the OUN issued a pamphlet urging Ukrainians to beat or kill a Jew to avenge Petliura. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Finally the Polish-Soviet War ended on 18 March 1921. Poland and the Soviet Union signed the Treaty of Riga awarding Poland control over Eastern Galicia and Volhynia with around 5 million Ukrainians. Ukrainians were Poland’s largest minority making up 16% of the population. In Galicia, which the OUN would plot to turn into a Ukrainian state, the population was 47% Polish, 42% Ukrainian and 11% Jewish. In Eastern Galicia, Ukrainians comprised 62% of the population along, with 25% Poles and 12% Jews. The rest of Ukraine became a Soviet republic within the USSR with 26 Million Ukrainians (or Russians) living there. Around 500,000 Ukrainians would live in Czechoslovakia and 800,000 in Romania. Czechoslovakia was supportive of Ukrainian nationalism allowing Ukrainian schools and universities. Ukraine was home to many other ethnic groups including Hungarians, Romanians, and Germans. After the civil war ended, Soviet Ukraine was relatively stable. During the 1920s, the NEP (New Economic Policy), a rollback of socialism, favoured the peasants. Lenin gave the Soviet republic of Ukraine a huge swath of Russian territory along the Black Sea coast called Novorossiya along with the industrial areas of Donetsk and Lugansk. To this day, Lenin is still condemned by Russian nationalists for the decision; one Russia appears intent on reversing in the current war. Lenin strongly promoted Ukrainization, forcing government officials to learn Ukrainian and building Ukrainian schools and universities. In 1923 the Soviets even convinced the nationalist Ukrainian historian Hrushevs’kyi to serve in the new government as head of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In the 1930s, collectivization would lead to a famine and a low level civil war throughout the Soviet Union including Ukraine. Western historians love to demonize the Soviet Union for collectivizing agriculture ignoring the fact that it was collectivization that finally ended the periodic famines that had rocked Russia for centuries. Collectivization was necessary in order for the Soviet Union to industrialize and establish the military strength it would need to resist the coming genocidal German invasion. The OUN diaspora has mythologized the famine during collectivization as an attempted genocide “The Holodomor” and used it to justify their horrific crimes during World War 2. The OUN claim that the famine was deliberately engineered to wipe out Ukrainians. This ignores the fact that Russia and Kazakstan were equally hard hit. Moreover it overlooks the role of grain speculation and export of masses of grain to the West by Ukrainian merchants, offered high prices by Western buyers. The famine was the result of bad weather and economic warfare waged by the West. Mainstream historians, especially in the English language literature, continue to promote the view that the economic troubles in the Soviet Union and their consequences were always and entirely of the government’s own making.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Today the OUN justify their crimes by vilifying the Soviet Union but in reality they had no presence in Soviet Ukraine and operated only in Poland and from exile in Europe. It was only after the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, when the Soviets would occupy Western Ukraine as part of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, was Ukraine briefly united. The Soviets would launch a crackdown on the OUN, a fascist terrorist group spying for Nazi Germany, arresting thousands of suspected members and executing hundreds. This would continue until the German invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> It was in Poland’s Second Republic that the OUN would have its origins. In 1920 the veterans of the Sich Riflemen who had fought for the ZUNR in western Ukraine founded the UVO an underground terrorist army. UVO stood for Ukrainian Military Organization in Ukrainian. Its founders were Levhen Konavalets, Andrii Melnyk and Roman Sushko. Konavalets would head the UVO and later the OUN until his death. Melnyk would head the OUN after Konavalets. The UVO was not a mass political organization but instead a terrorist group that funded itself by spying for the German Abwehr (Military Intelligence). Initially the main political party of the Ukrainian nationalists were the UNDO who sought to win independence through legal and democratic means and initially were opposed to fascism and terrorism. By the 1930s however, the right wing of UNDO secretly worked closely with the OUN. The UVO founded the OUN the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists at the 1st Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists in Vienna held between 28 January and 3 February 1929. The OUN were to be a mass political organization recruited from Ukrainian nationalist youth groups that were popular in Poland. The OUN were to indoctrinate the public and wage a terror war against the Polish authorities. The older generation of OUN leaders in exile formed the PUN while young recruits like Stepan Bandera worked for the Homeland Executive back in Poland. The PUN tried and failed to unite all Ukrainian political parties but they did manage to infiltrate and gain control of many Ukrainian youth groups. The younger generation of OUN were even more radical then their elders and their elders were openly fascist. The younger generation had joined nationalist youth groups at age 8 and at age 15 graduated to groups for teenagers. As teenagers they had devoured the works of Dontsov and other fascists. The younger generation included names that would later become infamous for their crimes like Stepan Bandera, Yaroslav Stetsko, and Roman Shukhevych. At the beginning of the 1930s, the younger generation of OUN were highly motivated, fanatical, reckless youth. Historians call them the “Bandera Generation.”</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Stepan Bandera was born on 1 January 1909 to Andrii and Myroslava Bandera. His father Andrii Bandera was a Greek Catholic priest and an ardent Ukrainian nationalist who had served as a deputy in the short-lived ZUNR (West Ukraine) had helped raise armed units of Ukrainian nationalists and had served as a chaplain in the ZUNR’s army the UHA. Stepan’s mother Myroslava was the daughter of a Greek Catholic priest. The Bandera family had four sons and 3 daughters. Stepan Bandera didn’t attend elementary school because the village teacher had been drafted. Instead his parents home-schooled him, raising him to be a fanatical nationalist and a devout Greek Catholic. However, unlike his father, Stepan would value his nation even more than religion. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Young Stepan Bandera joined the nationalist scout group Plast where he befriended the future head of the OUN Homeland Executive Vasyl Okhrymovich. That friendship would lead Bandera’s quick rise through the ranks of the OUN. Bandera joined the nationalist youth group OVKUH where he met future infamous OUN members Roman Shukhevych and Yaroslav Stetsko. By his teen years Bandera and other young future OUN leaders were fanatical fascists who spent their time reading the works of Dontsov and Mykhnovs’kyi. Bandera’s hobbies included singing, hiking, doing impressions, sticking pins under his fingernails, whipping himself, burning himself, and smashing his fingers in door jambs. He was attempting to train himself to resist torture. For young Ukrainian nationalists the Polish high schools were a battleground. Poland was determined to teach them loyalty to the new Polish state. Ukrainians like Bandera were determined to resist by destroying symbols of Polish nationalism and disrupting class as much as possible. For Bandera education was secondary. The cause was everything. Once he became head of the Homeland executive Bandera would have one of his former high school teachers Ivan Babii assassinated for being a Ukrainian who followed Polish government orders. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> By 1927 Bandera had joined the UVO and was doing reconnaissance work for them. In the fall of 1928 Bandera headed for University in Lviv a hotbed of Ukrainian nationalism. Bandera would never graduate because his studies were constantly interrupted by arrests for nationalist agitation and ties to murders. Bandera had a sort of split personality. He was deadly serious when it came to organizing. Yet when his work was done loved to joke and play pranks with his fellow OUN members. Physically unimpressive he was a captivating speaker. In the Spring of 1929, Bandera joined the OUN. He was a talented organizer and rose quickly through the ranks. By 1930 Stepan Bandera was in charge of distributing OUN propaganda. He was nicknamed “Baba” which meant woman because he often cross-dressed as a woman while carrying out his OUN missions. In 1931 Bandera was put in charge of smuggling OUN propaganda in from Czechoslovakia and Gdansk. That was also the year his best friend and the head of the OUN’s Homeland Executive Okhymovich died after being arrested and possibly tortured by the Polish authorities. Ivan Habrosevych would became the new head of the Homeland Executive and when he was forced to flee wanted Bandera to replace him. However Bandera was in prison until June of 1932 and had to settle for being deputy leader upon his release. By January of 1933 Bandera was the de facto head of the OUN Homeland Executive and he became the official head during the OUN conference in Berlin in June of 1933. Bandera’s leadership would see a massive escalation in OUN activity and high profile assassinations. He was acting on the orders of the PUN the OUN leadership in exile. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The PUN needed Bandera to stage spectacular attacks that would help their fundraising efforts among Ukraine’s diaspora in the United States and Canada. OUN power and influence in the form of the Ukrainian lobby would continue to grow in the United States and Canada in the decades that followed. Originally Canada’s Ukrainian population had been notoriously left wing and after the Russian October revolution were considered a serious national security risk because of their widespread support for the new communist regime. However at the end of the Russian civil war many white Russians and Ukrainian nationalists would relocate to Canada and the US. Veterans of the west Ukrainian UHA army formed the Ukrainian War Veterans Association, which along with the Ukrainian National Federation raised over $40,000 for the OUN. In the US Henry Ford used a group of Ukrainian fascist thugs to terrorize labour organizers.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The main sponsors of the OUN were Germany, Lithuania, and Italy. Germany and Lithuania provided funding, military training and passports. In the border wars that followed World War 1, Poland had captured an important chunk of Lithuania including its main city. Lithuania funded the OUN in revenge. Italy provided OUN training bases and Stepan Bandera’s brother Oleksandr spent years in fascist Italy studying for a degree in political science and engaging in fascist activism. Italy was a major backer of the Croatian Ustashi. The OUN were close allies with the Croatian Ustashi and the two groups trained and conspired together. Both groups would later have the distinction of carrying out atrocities that were so horrible that even the Nazis were shocked. During the Cold War both groups would be among the most influential fascist émigré groups. Both groups would also return to power at the end of the Cold War. A revived Ustashi in Croatia, under Franjo Tudjman in the early 1990s, and the OUN in 2004 and 2014 both incited civil wars and NATO interventions. The former would be instrumental again in the destruction of Yugoslavia, while the latter would re-ignite war against Russia. Nazi Germany would become the OUN’s most important sponsor. The UVO/ OUN’s espionage no doubt helped the Germans when they invaded Poland. We will return to the Nazi-OUN alliance later. It is interesting to note that Poland also discovered that the OUN were being backed by Britain’s MI6.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Before turning to the OUN terror campaign in Poland let us examine the OUN ideology. The OUN would later spend decades trying to rationalize or deny their collaboration with the Nazis. Yet in reality they carried out their crimes not just to please their German masters but because it was also fully in accord with their own ideology. The OUN were openly fascist, although there was some debate in their early years whether fascism was possible without control of a state. Eventually they decided that they would need a fascist movement in order to create a state. This movement would have to be like those Hitler and Mussolini had created to seize control of pre-existing states. The OUN believed in two types of revolution. The first was a “permanent revolution”, what the OUN called their endless war to indoctrinate the masses with their version of Ukrainian nationalism. Ukrainians were to be constantly mobilized in the struggle with the Polish government in the process becoming ever more radicalized. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The second revolution was to be a “national revolution”. Unified by the OUN the Ukrainian people would found a fascist dictatorship and create a Ukrainian state. The OUN despised democracy even more than communism. They wanted a dictator known as a Providnyk or a Vozhd the Ukrainian version of a <span style="font-style: italic;">Führer</span>. Once a national revolution had been succeeded, the OUN would proceed to eliminate all their enemies: Jews, Poles, Russians and the rest of the ethnic minorities. The cities where Jews often outnumbered Ukrainians would be cleansed. Intermarriage between Ukrainians and other ethnicities would be banned. Every area of life sports, culture, religion, and economics would be reorganized in support of the OUN goals. All other political parties were to be banned. The OUN ideology had become interchangeable with the Nazi ideology. Their plans had been inspired by the Nuremberg racial laws of Nazi Germany. By the late 1930s Hitler was considered a hero in west Ukraine and the OUN hoped Germany would invade Poland and allow the Ukrainians to establish their own fascist dictatorship. Hitler however had other plans for Ukraine.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In order to wage their permanent revolution, Bandera and the homeland executive waged a terror campaign that became a low intensity civil war. The OUN correctly predicted their terror campaign would lead to mass imprisonment of Ukrainians. Bandera was ordered to set up an OUN stay behind network that would operate from the forests. The UVO had tried to assassinate the future Polish dictator Pilsudski back in 1921. It was the OUN assassination campaign that would launch Stepan Bandera into fame or infamy. During the 1930s the OUN would claim hundreds of victims. Poles who mocked Ukrainian nationalists would often end up dead. So would Ukrainians who dared to criticize the OUN. Bandera was also obsessed with killing suspected traitors within the OUN. Bandera was especially skilled at setting up mass propaganda campaigns. Any OUN member killed was turned into a martyr and a whole cult was set up around the person with the aid of the Greek Catholic Church. This had begun before Bandera’s time but he was very successful at popularizing it. In addition to foreign financing the OUN relied on armed robbery to raise cash. Their favourite targets were banks and post offices. If one of the robbers happened to be killed he was turned into a hero of Ukraine. Every OUN trial or arrest was also used to gain publicity for the cause. The Ukrainian nationalists had built mounds to honour the fallen UHA soldiers of the short-lived ZUNR government of Western Ukraine. Bandera ordered all Ukrainian villages to build mounds whether or not there were any soldiers buried there so that they could gather for OUN events. The Polish government in turn ordered the mounds destroyed. Soon all over Galicia Ukrainian villagers were battling police with hoes and pitchforks in defence of the mounds. The OUN also began destroying the tombs of Polish soldiers and police. If the government succeeded in destroying the mounds they were often quickly rebuilt. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Bandera neither smoked nor drank. In the Summer of 1933 Bandera decided to launch a national boycott of alcohol and tobacco. However his goals went beyond health concerns. His real targets were the Jewish merchants who sold alcohol and tobacco, and the Polish Government that got a cut of the sales. Bandera ordered any Ukrainian caught drinking during the boycott beaten and also ordered a campaign of arson to burn down Jewish-owned taverns. The OUN launched another anti-Semitic campaign where gangs of OUN thugs would go around and break all the windows in Jewish neighbourhoods. They also went around burning down Jewish houses and destroying Polish farms. The OUN also tried to destroy Polish rail lines and telecommunications infrastructure. Bandera launched a massive campaign to destroy Polish nationalist symbols in schools and ordered the assassination of teachers. The OUN bombed a newspaper they thought was pro-communist. Most of the hundreds of OUN victims killed during this period were thus ordinary people whose names are lost to history.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> It was the OUN’s high profile assassinations that would make the OUN infamous and nearly end Bandera’s career. On 22 October 1933, the OUN attempted to kill the Soviet Consul in Lvov to protest the famine in Ukraine. However in a case of mistaken identity the assassin killed the secretary to the consulate Aleksei Mailov instead, also wounding a Polish janitor. The assassin Mykola Lemyk received a life sentence for his crime. On 31 March 1934, Bandera ordered the assassination of OUN member Bachyns’kyi whom he suspected had ties to Polish intelligence. The assassins were close friends with the victim; so they all got drunk together and then killed their friend. On 15 June 1934, the OUN carried out their most successful assassination, killing Polish Interior Minister Bronislaw Pieracki in Warsaw. The assassin Hryhorii Matseiko first tried to kill Pieracki in a suicide bombing. However he failed to press the trigger hard enough to detonate the bomb. Instead Maitseko followed Pieracki and shot him twice in the back of the head. He then opened fire on his pursuers, wounding a policeman. Managing to escape with the help of the OUN, he was smuggled into Czechoslovakia and then fled to Argentina with a Lithuanian passport. The morning of his death Pieracki had met with Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, raising awkward questions after Germany offered refuge to some of the escaped OUN plotters. Initially the police suspected the Polish fascist group UNR was responsible. However the sloppy assassin had left clues like the unexploded bomb and his clothes with a yellow and blue Ukrainian flag sewn into them. Stepan Bandera had actually been arrested the day before the assassination in a raid that captured 20 other OUN members, including the bomb maker. Apparently the Poles did not yet realize that Bandera was the head of the OUN Homeland Executive. Bandera denied everything including being an OUN member. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> By 17 June 1934, the police had solved the Pieracki case. However they kept quiet. Instead Pilsudski turned Pieracki into a national martyr with all the pomp and circumstance that America uses to bury an assassinated president. A state of national mourning was declared in Poland. All theatres were closed and festivities cancelled while the coffin was carried around the country by train to be greeted everywhere by mourning crowds. Thus Poland was at a fever pitch when the government announced that the OUN were responsible on 10 July 1934. Two weeks later the OUN would carry out another assassination on Bandera’s orders, killing a Ukrainian high school director and teacher Ivan Babii. Babii had once punished Bandera for helping a fellow student cheat on an exam. The assassin, Mykhailo Tsar, shot himself in the head when he realized escape was impossible. The murder enraged even the Ukrainian nationalist press, which denounced the OUN as terrorists. On 9 October 1934, the OUN were accomplices in the Ustashi assassination of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia and the French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou in Marseilles, France. Mussolini was so embarrassed when his ties to both groups were exposed that he ordered the Ustashi and the OUN confined to two small separate villages in Sicily. The trial of the Ustashi assassins would take place in 1935, at the same time as the OUN trials in Poland. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Poland held two big trials of the OUN leadership. The Warsaw trial dealt with the assassination of Pieracki and lasted from 18 November 1935 until 13 January 1936. The Lvov trials dealt with the OUN’s other murders and crimes and lasted from 25 May 1936 until 27 June 1936. Together some 20 defendants were tried. Czechoslovakian intelligence had raided an OUN leaders home, seizing thousands of pages of OUN documents to which they gave the Polish government access. This “Senyk archive” revealed a great deal about the OUN’s goals and structure. Stepan Bandera and many OUN members continued to deny everything. However a few OUN members turned on the group and as state’s evidence agreed to testify, knowing the OUN would no doubt seek revenge by killing them. Some OUN defectors felt guilty for the murders of fellow Ukrainians especially fellow OUN members. Others caved in under interrogation. The Polish prosecutor, Zelenski, performed well in proving the state’s case against the OUN. At the Warsaw trial Bandera and other defendants refused to testify in Polish (in which they were all fluent) while the court refused to hear testimony in Ukrainian. Bandera was dragged out of the courtroom kicking and screaming for his contempt of court. It was at the Warsaw trial that the OUN first started using the slogan “Slava Ukraini” publicly in combination with the Roman (Nazi) salute. Vira Svientsitska was the first to shout the slogan with salute in court as she was being dragged from the courtroom for refusing to testify in Polish. Bandera and Mykola Lebed would shout the slogan at their sentencing. Lebed would later be the main OUN figure backed by the CIA, after carrying out horrific crimes for the Germans during the war. Stepan Bandera, Mykola Lebed and the bomb maker Iaroslav Karpynets’ would all receive death sentences when the Warsaw trial ended on 13 June 1936. The other defendants received long prison sentences of between 8 and 15 years. Luckily for the OUN the Polish Parliament had abolished the death penalty on 2 January 1936. This act spared the lives of the leaders of a movement that would go on to murder hundreds of thousands of Poles. Instead they were sentenced to life imprisonment. Poland used the Pieracki murder as a pretext to build a prison camp for Ukrainians. Many low level OUN members were given local trials. By 1938 when Ukrainian owned agricultural firms were refusing to supply the cities—in the wake of a Polish police crackdown on nationalist demonstrators—Poland gaoled some 30,000 Ukrainians.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The Lvov trials were more relaxed. The defendants were allowed to testify in Ukrainian and instead of denying their crimes the OUN sought to justify them. Bandera was allowed to give a long courtroom speech where he portrayed himself as a Robin Hood figure helping the poor Ukrainian peasants against the evil Poles and Russians. He put himself forward as the OUN’s Providnyk or Führer ignoring the OUN leader in exile Konavelets. In his speech Bandera argued the true measure of the OUN was not their willingness to die but their willingness to kill and that not hundreds but thousands of people needed to die to in order to fulfil their goals. Full of self-serving lies Bandera’s legendary Lvov courtroom speech is still read and reread by fascists in Ukraine today. The Lvov trial made Bandera a superstar among Ukrainians in Poland and the diaspora. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Arrested the day before the Pieracki assassination Bandera would remain in Polish prisons until his eventual escape in September 1939. Bandera and other OUN prisoners used their time in prison to study and organize. They taught some of their fellow Ukrainian prisoners to read and write and each OUN leader gave lectures on a different academic topic. In prison Bandera and the OUN mentored Hryorii Perehinak, who would go on to play a major role in the mass murder of Poles in Volhynia during the war. Bandera and the OUN waged three hunger strikes which the Polish prison guards ended by force-feeding them through their noses. The OUN also plotted to free Bandera. One plot involved impersonating monks to help Bandera escape. The Polish authorities however were reading the OUN’s mail and arrested the plotters. Another scheme involved bribing his prison guards to release him with money raised from overseas Ukrainians. The OUN cancelled the plan either because they feared it was a trick to kill Bandera while escaping or they feared reprisals against other OUN prisoners if Bandera escaped. The authorities were so concerned about these OUN plots that they built guard towers at one prison and also kept moving Bandera around. The Bandera escape plans became even more intense after the OUN head Konavalets was assassinated in Rotterdam on 22 May 1938. Bandera’s supporters wanted him free so he could gain control of the OUN. Poland had him transferred to a prison in Brest. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Finally on 1 September 1939 Nazi Germany invaded Poland and World War 2 began. In the chaos Bandera was finally able to escape on 13 September 1939. Bandera headed for Lvov. A small part of the German military was occupying Galicia. The OUN had risen up and begun by massacring 3,000 Poles and an unknown number of Jews. The remnants of the Polish military were massacring Ukrainians and Jews. However Bandera quickly realized that the time was net yet right for the OUN to seize power because western Ukraine was about to become part of the Soviet sphere of influence as part of the Molotov and Ribbentrop Pact. Bandera and many of the OUN headed for the German occupied portion of Western Poland called the General Government. On 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland and despite years of OUN propaganda many West Ukrainian’s welcomed them as liberators. Bandera’s family would eventually get caught up in the Soviet crackdown on the OUN in western Ukraine. In March 1941, a couple months before the German invasion of the USSR, they arrested Stepan’s father Andrii and two of Stepan’s sisters for harbouring an OUN member. His sisters were deported to Siberia while his father was sentenced to be shot.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Bandera headed for Cracow, which was to become home to 30,000 OUN members and their sympathizers. Along the way Bandera stopped in the town of Iavoriv where the OUN and the German military engaged in a brutal massacre of local Jews and burned down the local synagogue. Bandera never mentioned the incident or other OUN mass murders. Arriving in Cracow, Bandera soon met his future wife, OUN member Iaroslava Oparivska. They would marry in June of 1940. Bandera had more than romance on his mind. He wanted to seize control of the OUN. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In November 1939 Bandera headed for a spa in Slovakia for an OUN meeting. Then he headed for Vienna where he met up with the current head of the Homeland Executive Lopatyns’kyi. They decided to head to Rome to confront the new OUN head Andrii Melnyk. Melnyk had been a founding member of the UVO and OUN but was not as well known in Western Ukraine as Bandera. Melnyk had been made the OUN head at the 2nd congress of Ukrainian Nationalists held in Rome in August 1939. The assassinated OUN head Konovalets had named Melnyk as a successor in his will. Bandera’s followers claimed the will was a forgery. Bandera considered Melnyk’s top advisers to be traitors. Bandera and Lopatyns’kyi arrived in Rome mid January 1940. Stepan reunited with his brother Oleksandr, who had earned a PhD in political economy since arriving in Rome in 1933. They then met with Melnyk and demanded that he fire his advisers, appoint Bandera’s picks to OUN leadership and then go into exile in Switzerland. Melnyk in return offered to make Bandera one of his advisers but demanded the obedience of the Homeland Executive. Bandera believed that Melnyk also ordered his assassination so Bandera went into hiding. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The OUN was moving towards its split into the OUN/M headed by Melnyk and the OUN/B headed by Bandera. On 10 February 1940 Bandera and his supporters like Roman Shukhevych declared a revolutionary leadership in the OUN. Soon each side was expelling the other from the OUN. Each side was accusing the other side of being married to Jews and being secretly controlled by the Soviet Union. It became a bit of a comedy that would turn dark. During the war Bandera would have many of his OUN/M rivals assassinated including Melnyk’s advisers whom he had labelled as traitors. Today the Ukrainian nationalist obsession with traitors in high places remains a defining characteristic of post-Maidan Ukraine. Bandera’s OUN/B would ultimately win the power struggle since they enjoyed better connections to OUN activists in Soviet-controlled Western Ukraine, were more popular among Ukrainians in German-controlled Poland and with the young. The Nazis would work closely with both the OUN/M and the OUN/B. They seemed to favour the OUN/M as more easy to control. Ideologically there was little difference between the two and the OUN/B and OUN/M fought over who was the more pro-Nazi. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> From 31 March until 3 April 1941, the OUN/B held their own second Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists at Cracow, deliberately ignoring the Second Congress convened in Rome that had appointed Melnyk head of the OUN. Bandera was declared Providnyk of the OUN. The OUN/B published a pamphlet expressing their ideology. In the months leading up to the invasion of the Soviet Union they were planning with their German handlers in the Abwehr. The OUN/B claimed “Jews in the USSR are the main pillars of the Bolshevik Regime, and the avant-garde of the Moscow imperialism in Ukraine.” They announced that they were planning to ally with Byelorussians, Finns, Lithuanians, Estonians, and Latvians and other “enslaved nations” to destroy the USSR. They announced that they would destroy the collective farms and replace them with a free enterprise system. They created a red and black OUN/B flag symbolizing blood and soil. They announced their policy as “one people, one Party, and one Leader”. On 10 April 1941, the OUN expressed elation when the Nazis allowed the Ustashi to carve a Croatian puppet state out of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. That clerical-fascist state, to which the first Croatian president in 1991, Franjo Tudjman, belonged, waged a genocidal campaign against Jews, Gypsies, and Serbs and Orthodoxy. The OUN/B sent Croatian dictator Ante Pavelic their personal congratulations by telegram. The Nazis had already created a fascist puppet state in Slovakia. Hence the OUN/B were convinced that the Nazis would allow Bandera to rule Ukraine as dictator after the German invasion.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Throughout 1939-1941 both factions of the OUN were working closely with Germany’s military intelligence the Abwehr headed by Wilhelm Canaris, as well as with the SS. Their Abwehr handlers were Wilhelm Canaris, Theodor Oberlander, Hans Koch, and Alfred Bisasz. Oberlander would become infamous for his role with Ukrainian and Pan-Turkist SS units. The Abwehr provided resources for the OUN to train and arm it’s forces in German-occupied Poland and Soviet-controlled West Ukraine. The Abwehr recruited 350 OUN members into the Nachtigal Battalion and 330 OUN members into the Roland Battalion. A further 800 OUN/B members were trained at the Ievhen Konovalets Military School in Cracow to form task forces that would seize control of local governments and raise Ukrainian militias to carry out genocide. The Abwehr recruited OUN members as spies, translators and soldiers. The Abwehr also trained refugees from west Ukraine and sent them back to infiltrate the Soviet Union. The Soviets managed to capture 486 of them as they crossed the border. The Abwehr planned to have the OUN attack Soviet forces from the rear.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In May of 1941, after weeks of work, the OUN/B finalized plans for their role in the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa), which would begin 22 June that year. The Germans would tell the OUN the exact date of the invasion so the OUN underground in the Soviet Union could be ready. Their plan was recorded in the “Struggles and Activities of the OUN in Wartime.” or Struggles and Activities plan for short. It was written by Stepan Bandera, future war criminal Roman Shukhevych, Lenkavs’kyi and Yaroslav Stetsko (later head of the World Anti-Communist League’s Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations, who would be invited to the Reagan White House). Its goal was to “establish the totalitarian power of the Ukrainian Nation in all Ukrainian territories.” It listed the OUN/B’s future allies, other minorities in the Soviet Union like the Baltic States, Belarus, plus the Finns. Of course their key ally was the Nazi Germans themselves. OUN activists were to travel the countryside proclaiming an independent Ukraine and welcoming the Germans in the name of Stepan Bandera. They would avoid combat with the Red Army leaving that for the German Wehrmacht. Instead they would organize the countryside. The plan identified its enemies clearly as Poles, Russians, Jews, and Ukrainians who failed to support the OUN. These enemies were to be liquidated. The plan called for forming militias in the countryside comprising all males aged 18-50. These gangs would drag off their enemies to forests and other desolate places to be massacred. All Jews were to be registered and then eliminated. The OUN/B was to compile a death list of Poles and NKVD informers. The OUN/B planned to recruit the countryside to purge the cities that were full of Jews, Russians, and Poles. The OUN/B would seize control of all local government; remake the education system along Ukrainian fascist lines. The plan called for the creation of youth groups that would indoctrinate children starting at age 6. At age 10 they would join the next group and at 18 the next group until at 21 they would join either the OUN, one of its paramilitary formations, cultural or sporting fronts. The plan provided for a huge list of OUN/B fascist slogans to mobilize the masses like “death to Muscovite Jewish Communism.” and “Ukraine for Ukrainians.” In other words the OUN/B were planning on creating a fascist dictatorship lead by Stepan Bandera that would then eliminate Jews, Poles, and Russians as well as anyone in Ukraine who was an obstacle to their plans.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Hitler however had his own plans for Ukraine and the Soviet Union. In Hitler’s insane dreams Ukraine was destined to become Germany’s version of America’s Wild West or British India. He envisioned German settlers hardened and transformed by the colonization of Ukraine. Hitler was a big fan of Westerns and cowboys. Ukrainians were in his view just like the Russians inferior Slavs who were to be massacred and enslaved. Ukraine would become part of Greater Germany. He planned to enslave the populace. The more pragmatic Nazi view was championed by Alfred Rosenberg and by the Waffen SS who saw many useful allies in Eastern Europe like the Ukrainians and championed an international view of fascism. During the war, as the tide turned against the Nazis, they would increasingly adopt this more pragmatic view; relying increasingly on their Ukrainian fascist allies.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> On 22 June 1941, Germany would invade the Soviet Union and the OUN would follow the Wehrmacht into Ukraine. The next years would bring untold suffering and horror to the Soviet people. The history of the OUN would enter its bloodiest phase. They would play a vital role in helping the Germans commit mass murders and other crimes throughout Ukraine and the other occupied territories. These I will discuss in Part 2 of this series.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Sources </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> My main source is the highly detailed <span style="font-style: italic;">Stepan Bandera The Life and Afterlife of a Ukrainian Nationalist Fascism, Genocide, and Cult</span> by Grzegorz Rossolinski-Liebe. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the history of fascism in Ukraine.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The section on Ukraine during the Russian civil war relies on Edward Hallet Carr’s classic <span style="font-style: italic;">The Bolshevik Revolution 1917-1923,</span> Volume 1. Pages 289-307. Part of a 3 volume series I recommend if you want an in-depth study of the political, economic, and diplomatic history of the Russian revolution.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The section on Hitler’s plans for Ukraine relies on Wendy Lower’s “Nazi Empire Building and the Holocaust in Ukraine.” which tells the horrifying story of the German occupation of Ukraine.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> For a discussion of fascism in Ukraine after the 2014 Maidan coup I recommend <span style="font-style: italic;">Ukraine in the Crossfire</span> by Chris Kaspar de Ploeg.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> A PDF version of <span style="font-style: italic;">Fraud, Famine and Fascism: The Ukrainian Genocide Myth from Hitler to Harvard</span> by Douglas Tottle, debunks the “Holodomor” myth.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.garethjones.org/tottlefraud.pdf"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://www.garethjones.org/tottlefraud.pdf</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Additional details on massacres of Jews during the Russian civil war in Ukraine can be found in Yasha Levine’s recent articles.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Yasha Levine on Petliura</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://yasha.substack.com/p/my-ukrainian-grandma-and-our-lost"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://yasha.substack.com/p/my-ukrainian-grandma-and-our-lost</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Yasha Levine on Denikin</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://yasha.substack.com/p/white-russian-saviors"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://yasha.substack.com/p/white-russian-saviors</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Yasha Levine on the Holodomor</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://yasha.substack.com/p/holodomor-and-the-erasure-of-jewish?r=45jbs&s=r&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://yasha.substack.com/p/holodomor-and-the-erasure-of-jewish?r=45jbs&s=r&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Cynthia Chung on the History of the OUN Part 1</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/03/22/why-does-ukraine-seem-to-have-so-many-nazis-nowadays/"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/03/22/why-does-ukraine-seem-to-have-so-many-nazis-nowadays/</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Cynthia Chung on the History of the OUN Part 2</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/04/06/how-the-ukrainian-nationalist-movement-post-wwii-was-bought-and-paid-for-by-the-cia/"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/04/06/how-the-ukrainian-nationalist-movement-post-wwii-was-bought-and-paid-for-by-the-cia/</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Evan Reif on the History of the OUN Part 1</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/10/how-pre-ww-ii-ukrainian-fascists-pioneered-brutal-terror-techniques-later-improved-by-cia-now-ironically-taught-to-descendants/"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/10/how-pre-ww-ii-ukrainian-fascists-pioneered-brutal-terror-techniques-later-improved-by-cia-now-ironically-taught-to-descendants/</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Evan Reif on the History of the OUN Part 2</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/10/how-monsters-who-beat-jews-to-death-in-1944-became-americas-favorite-freedom-fighters-in-1945-with-a-little-help-from-their-friends-at-cia/"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/10/how-monsters-who-beat-jews-to-death-in-1944-became-americas-favorite-freedom-fighters-in-1945-with-a-little-help-from-their-friends-at-cia/</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Evan Reif on the History of the OUN Part 3</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/23/the-bloody-peacemakers/"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/23/the-bloody-peacemakers/</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A short mainstream documentary on Ukraine during the Russian Civil war</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/9Gwuu7TXPwI"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/9Gwuu7TXPwI</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A short documentary on the Polish-Ukrainian War</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/zk0IZsshET0"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/zk0IZsshET0</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My history of the Soviet Union under Stalin discusses the necessity of the collectivization of agriculture.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2019/03/understanding-stalin-v-2.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2019/03/understanding-stalin-v-2.html</span></a></span></p><div><br /></div>Hugo Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12229123097438571385noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8001402613324067475.post-45990049012313769552022-05-30T11:09:00.000-07:002022-05-30T11:09:00.919-07:00The Battle For the Donbass v.2<p><span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">The Battle for the Donbass</span></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> The war in Ukraine has reached another decisive moment. Russia and the Lugansk and Donetsk republics are poised to deliver a crushing defeat to Ukrainian forces in the Donbass. Ukraine has already suffered a major psychological defeat with the surrender of the Azov Battalion at the Azovstal steel plant. In truth the battle for Mariupul ended long ago and Azov had no chance to break the siege of Azovstal but the fate of the Azov battalion had become an international cause with millions of ignorant people glorifying this gang of Nazi war criminals. The farce ended as the comedian Zelensky announced that they had been evacuated in a joint special operation of Ukraine’s military and intelligence while the western press politely lied saying that their military mission had ended. But no amount of lies could conceal the fact that they had surrendered and been shipped off to POW camps where they face possible trials for war crimes.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> For months the fighting has dragged on in the Donbass with Russian allied forces making slow progress in terms of territorial gains but inflicting heavy casualties on Ukrainian forces with rockets and artillery fire. Ukraine has had 8 years to turn the entire area into a massive World War 1-style fortress of trenches, strongpoints, and bunkers. Thus progress was initially slow. However in recent weeks Russian forces have captured key parts of the Ukrainians defensive lines and Ukrainian defenses have been collapsing. In some areas the Ukrainians are retreating while in others they are on the verge of being encircled and destroyed.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> For months western media have been claiming that Ukraine is winning the war. Russia and its allies have suffered some setbacks that have been blown out of proportion or misinterpreted. First Russia abandoned the siege of Kiev. With only 60,000 troops in the North Russia never really intended to take Kiev. Some say it was a diversion others that it was meant to force Zelensky to the bargaining table, or that they were sent in the hopes that Ukraine would collapse early in the war. In any case once it became clear that it would be a long war they withdrew some to rest; others to be sent to the Donbass for phase 2 of the war. This gave a tremendous morale boost to Kiev and the West who pretended that they had inflicted a decisive defeat on Russian forces. Ukrainian forces certainly carried out successful ambushes and harassment of Russian forces, but Ukraine regained their territory because Russian forces withdrew not because Ukraine defeated Russia in battle. Nonetheless the West and Ukraine pretended to have won a great victory and began to brag that they would not only retake Lugansk, Donetsk and Crimea but also march in and invade and dismember Russia itself. Supporters of Russia could only be consoled with the hopes that the withdrawal would lead to a later victory in the Donbass. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Ukraine has the second largest army in Europe and no shortage of brave and talented fanatics that with the help of the CIA and other NATO countries’ intelligence agencies are willing to carry out daring attacks on Russian targets. Supplied with US intelligence, Ukraine was able to sink the <span style="font-style: italic;">Moskva</span> most likely with a missile and drones. Thankfully most of the crew survived but it was a major blow to Russian morale. The US is planning to send more anti-ship missiles to Ukraine and openly brags about the role it played in the attack on the <span style="font-style: italic;">Moskva</span>, the sort of dangerous games that could lead to a nuclear war. Using helicopters and drones Ukraine was able to blow up fuel storage tankers within Russia itself. More recently however Russia has been successfully preventing these helicopter and drone attacks although Ukrainian saboteurs are probably still operating in Russia. Ukraine has also been firing artillery across the border shelling Russian civilians and a number of mysterious fires have been breaking out at sites related to Russia’s defense industry and logistics. Ukraine also continues to target civilians in Donetsk and Lugansk firing artillery and rockets packed with cluster munitions at civilian targets. Only when the battle of the Donbass is won will the people of Donetsk and Lugansk finally see an end to the nearly decade of hell they have suffered at the hands of the Ukrainian military.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Some of these daring Ukrainian attacks however have bordered on the pointless and suicidal like the ill fated attempt to retake Snake Island in time to ruin Moscow’s victory day parade. An early psy-op involved the claim that Ukraine’s Snake Island defenders had told the Russians to “fuck off” and then heroically fought to the last man. In reality they surrendered but Ukrainians prefer the legend to the reality. Zelensky personally ordered a series of raids to retake the island. Instead of scoring a symbolic victory Ukrainian forces and their NATO advisers were slaughtered trying to take the island. Near Kharkov Ukrainian forces launched a counter attack Russian forces withdrew to avoid them and Ukraine moved their small force up to the Russian border. Ukraine recaptured some villages and the Kraken battalion terrorized the locals who might be kidnapped or killed if they had accepted humanitarian aid from Russia. Ukraine already controls a large stretch of its border with Russia. Hence their offensive was pointless except as a means to distract Russia from advancing in the Donbass. However the media played up the episode as if Ukraine was now ready to advance to the gates of Moscow in a transparent attempt to distract the world’s attention from the impending disaster Ukraine was facing in the Donbass. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Ukraine is excellent at propaganda and psychological warfare with its CIA advisers, its Western PR firms, and the decades of training in media warfare that Ukrainians have received from the US NED. The NED is the National Endowment For Democracy. The CIA front manipulates elections, turns foreign political parties into American puppets, and stages coups and color revolutions. The NED has funded NGOs to train Ukrainians in journalism and social media activism for over 20 years. Thus Ukraine excels at propaganda. Even if the Ukrainian regime’s propaganda were terrible, this would not matter. Western corporate media unquestioningly repeat whatever claims Ukrainian government officials make, while dismissing Russian statements. Mainstream media dishonesty, already terrible to start, has reached a new low in this war. Fertile ground has been provided for false flag attacks and other forms of black propaganda. For example when Russian forces abandoned the siege of Kiev and withdrew Ukrainian forces staged the Bucha massacre in their wake. Ukrainian forces slaughtered a bunch of civilians they accused of being traitors and then blamed the Russians. Then while people were busy trying to debunk the Bucha massacre, Ukraine fired a missile at the Kramatorsk railway station and again blamed Russia. Next President Biden and US intelligence basically invited Ukraine to stage a chemical weapons attack and to blame Russia; falsely claiming that they had intelligence a Russian chemical attack was imminent. Biden warned that any such attack would be a red line that could provoke direct US involvement. The administration later admitted that the story was a fabrication. There is a danger that the whole world could be dragged into a nuclear war over some false flag chemical, nuclear or biological attack in Ukraine. The whole world would be turned to atomic ash before the truth could ever be exposed. Thankfully one can reasonably doubt that the US want to get directly involved in Ukraine in a conventional war with Russia where both sides would suffer heavy casualties, let alone a nuclear war in which the world would be destroyed. Still with America fighting a proxy war against Russia, while busily provoking a war with China, it would be unwise to underestimate the insanity of the US ruling class.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Russia has suffered some setbacks. Ukraine and the US are winning the propaganda war. However propaganda can only carry you so far before the realities on the battlefield expose your claims as absurd lies. The Western triumphalist narrative on Ukraine is about to come crashing down at least temporarily. Russia is winning the battle of the Donbass. This is a simplified account as the fighting covers dozens of tiny villages with long names that can be spelled completely differently depending on which system of transliteration you use, or whether it is the Russian or Ukrainian spelling. To follow the war closely you need to follow the action daily on the various war maps available on social media via various amateur military analysts. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">First Russia launched an offensive out of Izyum. Ukraine kept pouring forces into the meat grinder to stop the slow Russian advance. Ukrainian forces put up fierce resistance but the Russians are using the tactic of relying on their artillery and rockets to soften up targets for weeks and months before sending forces in with probing attacks. If they are repelled, then Russian forces continue shelling. On a map it may look like Russian forces were making no progress but Ukraine was suffering heavy casualties and their morale is plummeting. In Popasnaya Russia pursued the same strategy. Popasnaya was a cornerstone of Ukraine’s defenses in Lugansk where the fighting to take the town lasted months. However once it fell Ukraine’s defenses began to collapse. Russia massed forces in the town with its commanding heights and is advancing in multiple directions out of Popasnaya. So far Russian successes have mostly been in the North of the Donbass near Lugansk. Ukrainian military are being encircled in Severodonetsk, are close to being encircled in Lisichansk, and are in danger of being encircled in Avdeevka. Ukraine has abandoned its stronghold Svetlodarsk Donetsk. Russia has captured the town of Lyman another major part of Ukraine’s defensive lines. Currently things are moving so fast that this article will be outdated before it can appear. Initially Russia’s victories were in the North of Donbass in Lugansk but now they are also making progress in the South in Donetsk where Russia will probably turn its attention once it has captured or destroyed Ukrainian forces in Lugansk. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> A key symbolic victory will be the liberation of Slavyansk, once the heart of the rebellion against the Maidan coup. The rebels had been forced to abandon the town rather than be encircled. The defense of Slavyansk had given Donetsk and Lugansk time to prepare their defenses and inspired thousands of volunteers to join the struggle. Slavyansk’s battle hardened defenders would form the backbone of the Donetsk and Lugansk forces. Ukraine has transformed Slavyansk into another military stronghold. Things always take longer then expected in this war. Hence there is no telling how long the battle for the Donbass will last. Yet clearly things are not going well for Ukraine. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> If Russia wins the battle for the Donbass, the West may decide to let Ukraine negotiate rather then risk losing the rest of Ukraine. If Ukraine won’t make a deal after losing, Russia may decide to take the rest of Ukraine’s coastline. That would mean occupying Nikolaev and Odessa, above all to prevent Ukraine from firing more missiles at Russia’s Black Sea fleet. Other likely targets for phase 3 would include Dnipetrovesk where Ukraine is already desperately trying to build up their defenses in central Ukraine or the city of Kharkov in the North. Back in 2014 Kharkov was to have been the capital of Novorossiya. However Ukraine crushed the rebellion there and turned the city into its main base for the war on Donbass. It will be difficult to capture. The city was designed during the Soviet Union to resist a full scale NATO invasion. Ironically this is another reason the war is taking so long. Having lost Ukraine to the Germans during World War 2 the Soviets rebuilt the entire country to resist a western invasion and even a nuclear war, adopting a strategy of fortress cities. In places like Azovstal Soviet construction has proven more effective then the latest defective American weapons sent to Ukraine, e.g. the Javelin anti-tank missile.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Now to turn to the economic war against Russia, which predictably has turned into a major disaster for the West: Energy prices are skyrocketing, food prices are rising and there are shortages in the West. Meanwhile Russia is forcing the west to pay for energy in Rubles. As the US knows full well skyrocketing energy prices benefit the Russian economy. But perhaps there is method to this madness and the true target of this economic war are America’s “allies” in Europe and Asia. The regime represented by President Biden has pretty much destroyed the global economy and people are beginning to naively wonder why the US is sending 40 billion to Ukraine while there is a shortage of infant formula. Such wondering is naïve and ahistorical since the US has always had money for weapons and never money to improve the lives of people. In fact the US regime has spent trillions since 1945 to keep the rest of the planet poor. Actually much of the USD 40 billion is actually going to the US military industrial complex to replace all the weapons the US and its allies have already sent. Another huge chunk is going to NATO. Ukraine, with its economy destroyed by the neo-liberal reforms imposed after the 2014 coup is expected to repay that USD 40 billion.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> I’ve been reading a lot about Ukraine recently including “Ukraine in the Crossfire” by Chris Kaspar de Ploeg, which I definitely recommend. With “Bidenomics” destroying the global economy it is a good time to revisit the now mostly forgotten role then Vice President Joe Biden played in Ukraine. In other words some of the scandalous details of “Ukrainegate” Joe Biden played a key role in events in Ukraine. He spent more then 2-3 hours a week on the phone with then President Poroshenko, who was waging a brutal war on the Donbass that would kill at least 14,000 civilians. Biden publicly backed Poroshenko’s refusal to implement the Minsk protocols. Biden joked that he spoke to Poroshenko “more than my wife” Biden was the main proponent of “Ukrainian energy independence” which translates into a scheme for Ukraine to start fracking oil and natural gas. The main beneficiary was Igor Kolmoisky who gratefully put Hunter Biden on the board of Burisma holdings along with John Kerry’s former chief of staff David Leiter and Kerry’s former adviser Devon Archer. This is the same Igor Kolmoisky who was the patron of current Ukrainian president Zelensky. Kolmoisky was also the patron of the Neo-Nazi Dmitry Yarosh and what would become Right Sector as well as a key funder of the Azov Battalion. Thanks to the 2014 coup Komoisky was able to steal billions of dollars. He laundered the money in the US, buying and looting American factories and putting the American workers out of work. His protege Zelensky also stole nearly half a billion dollars and moved it offshore. Although this detail had been exposed in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Panama papers</span> and the Western press has conveniently forgotten it, along with such information as the Nazi affiliation of the Azov battalion. Let us connect the dots: Joe Biden and Hunter Biden are tied to Igor Kolmoisky who has a leash on Zelensky and the Azov battalion. Joe Biden also had the corrupt Natalie Jaresko named Ukraine’s finance minister. A US citizen, who illegally became a dual Ukrainian citizen, before becoming the country’s finance, Ms Jaresko had already “mismanaged” a USAID investment scheme called WNISEF. WNISEF was intended to “foster investment” in Moldova and Ukraine. Her salary was capped at $150,000 but she managed to pay herself millions. Meanwhile she managed an investment portfolio that lost tens of millions of dollars. The late Robert Parry exposed the scandal. Joe Biden also backed the appointment of Yuriy Lutsenko as Ukraine’s prosecutor general despite Lutsenko’s complete lack of legal experience. Lutsenko then had two officials at NABU (Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau) arrested and beaten and cut off NABU’s access to the state’s crime database. To summarize, Biden was blatantly corrupt, openly encouraged corruption, and supported a crackdown on Ukraine’s pathetic attempt to rein in corruption. While Biden’s family and the oligarchs were getting richer, Biden was pushing hard for Ukraine to adopt austerity policies that would decimate Ukrainians’ already low standard of living. Now Biden is imposing neo-liberal shock therapy on the entire planet, creating runaway inflation and an economic depression at the same time. Doubtless Biden is merely serving the interests of the ultra-rich who by impoverishing the planet hope to widen their profit margins.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> The economic disaster is already dampening the obnoxious Ukraine-mania fad that swept the West at the start of the war. Russia’s impending military victory in the battle for the Donbass will destroy the fantasy that Ukraine can be used to destroy Russia. Unfortunately the war will most likely continue and the West will continue to flood Ukraine with weapons, advisers, intelligence officers and mercenaries. Russia is ready for a long war and has been holding most of its forces in reserve. Hopefully the American empire will suffer a disastrous defeat in Ukraine and the country will be fully denazified and demilitarized. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Sources</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">My earlier article on the Russia-Ukraine War</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/03/24/the-russia-ukraine-war/"><span style="font-size: large;">https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/03/24/the-russia-ukraine-war/</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Zelensky stole hundreds of millions of dollars</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/oct/03/revealed-anti-oligarch-ukrainian-president-offshore-connections-volodymyr-zelenskiy"><span style="font-size: large;">https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/oct/03/revealed-anti-oligarch-ukrainian-president-offshore-connections-volodymyr-zelenskiy</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Igor Kolmoisky’s offshore money laundering damages US economy</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article258399503.html"><span style="font-size: large;">https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article258399503.html</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Pepe Escobar on NATO vs Russia</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/05/24/nato-vs-russia-what-happens-next/"><span style="font-size: large;">https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/05/24/nato-vs-russia-what-happens-next/</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Christopher Black’s puts the Ukraine War in proper historical context</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://christopher-black.com/fascism-our-common-enemy/?fbclid=IwAR0A8cOZMjz1jwTNH1r5vQzxtOZYGlYQdxwK6eMW5W8xua5F7RRChUUv3R4&fs=e&s=cl"><span style="font-size: large;">https://christopher-black.com/fascism-our-common-enemy/?fbclid=IwAR0A8cOZMjz1jwTNH1r5vQzxtOZYGlYQdxwK6eMW5W8xua5F7RRChUUv3R4&fs=e&s=cl</span></a></span></p><div><br /></div>Hugo Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12229123097438571385noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8001402613324067475.post-15863465011895431982022-05-26T21:57:00.003-07:002022-05-26T21:57:39.227-07:00The Battle for the Donbass<p><span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">The Battle for the Donbass</span></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> The war in Ukraine has reached another decisive moment. Russia and the Lugansk and Donetsk republics are poised to deliver a crushing defeat to Ukrainian forces in the Donbass. Ukraine has already suffered a major psychological defeat with the surrender of the Azov Battalion at the Azovstal steel plant. In truth the battle for Mariupul ended long ago and Azov had no chance to break the siege of Azovstal but the fate of the Azov battalion had become an international cause with millions of ignorant people glorifying this gang of Nazi war criminals. The farce ended as the comedian Zelensky announced that they had been evacuated in a joint special operation of Ukraine’s military and intelligence while the western press politely lied saying that their military mission had ended. But no amount of lies could conceal the fact that they had surrendered and been shipped off to POW camps where they face possible trials for war crimes.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> For months the fighting has dragged on in the Donbass with Russian allied forces making slow progress in terms of territorial gains but inflicting heavy casualties on Ukrainian forces with rockets and artillery fire. Ukraine has had 8 years to turn the entire area into a massive world war 1 style fortress of trenches, strongpoints, and bunkers. Thus progress was initially slow. However in recent weeks Russian forces have captured key parts of the Ukrainians defensive lines and Ukrainian defenses have been collapsing. In some areas the Ukrainians are retreating while in others they are on the verge of being encircled and destroyed.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> For months western media have been claiming that Ukraine is winning the war. Russia and it’s allies have suffered some setbacks that have been blown out of proportion or misinterpreted. First Russia abandoned the siege of Kiev. With only 60,000 troops in the North Russia never really intended to take Kiev. Some say it was a diversion others that it was meant to force Zelensky to the bargaining table, or that they were sent in the hopes that Ukraine would collapse early in the war. In any case once it became clear that it would be a long war they withdrew some to rest others to be sent to the Donbass for phase 2 of the war. This gave a tremendous morale boost to Kiev and the west who pretended that they had inflicted a decisive defeat on Russian forces. Ukrainian forces certainly carried out successful ambushes and harassment of Russian forces, but Ukraine regained their territory because Russian forces withdrew not because Ukraine defeated Russia in battle. Nonetheless the west and Ukraine pretended to have won a great victory and began to brag that they would not only retake Lugansk, Donetsk and Crimea but march in and invade and dismember Russia itself. Supporters of Russia could only console ourselves with the hopes that the withdrawal would lead to a later victory in the Donbass. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Ukraine has the second largest army in Europe and no shortage of brave and talented fanatics that with the help of the CIA and other NATO countries intelligence agencies are willing to carry out daring attacks on Russian targets. Supplied with US intelligence Ukraine was able to sink the Moskva most likely with a missile and drones. Thankfully most of the crew survived but it was a major blow to Russian morale. The US is planning on sending more anti-ship missiles to Ukraine and openly brags about the role it played in the attack on the Moskva the sort of dangerous games that could lead to a nuclear war. Using helicopters and drones Ukraine was able to blow up fuel storage tankers within Russia itself. More recently however Russia has been successfully preventing these helicopter and drone attacks although Ukrainian saboteurs are probably still operating in Russia. Ukraine has also been firing artillery across the border shelling Russian civilians and a number of mysterious fires have been breaking out at sites related to Russia’s defense industry and logistics. Ukraine also continues to target civilians in Donetsk and Lugansk firing artillery and rockets packed with cluster munitions at civilian targets. Only when the battle of the Donbass is won will the people of Donetsk and Lugansk finally see an end to the nearly decade of hell they have suffered at the hands of the Ukrainian military.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Some of these daring Ukrainian attacks however have bordered on the pointless and suicidal like the ill fated attempt to retake snake island in time to ruin Moscow’s victory day parade. An early psyop involved the claim that Ukraines snake island defenders had told the Russians to “fuck off” and then heroically fought to the last man. In reality they surrendered but Ukrainians prefer the legend to the reality. Zelensky personally ordered a series of raids to retake the island. Instead of scoring a symbolic victory Ukrainian forces and their NATO advisers were slaughtered trying to take the island. Near Kharkov Ukrainian forces launched a counter attack Russian forces withdrew to avoid them and Ukraine moved their small force up to the Russian border. Ukraine recaptured some villages and the Kraken battalion terrorized the locals who might be kidnapped or killed if they had accepted humanitarian aid from Russia. Ukraine already controls a large stretch of it’s border with Russia that so their offensive was pointless except as a means to distract Russia from advancing in the Donbass. However the media played up the episode as if Ukraine was now ready to advance to the gates of Moscow in a transparent attempt to distract the world’s attention from the impending disaster Ukraine was facing in the Donbass. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Ukraine is excellent at propaganda and psychological warfare with it’s CIA advisers, it’s western PR firms, and the decades of training in media warfare that Ukrainians have received from the US NED. The NED is the National Endowment For Democracy the CIA front that manipulates elections, turns foreign political parties into American puppets, and stages coups and color revolutions. The NED has funded NGO’s to train Ukrainian’s in journalism and social media activism for over 20 years. Thus Ukraine excels at propaganda. Even if Ukraine were terrible at it wouldn’t matter however as the corporate media unquestioningly repeat whatever claims Ukrainian government officials make while dismissing anything the Russians say. Mainstream media dishonesty already terrible to begin with, has reached a new low in Ukraine. This has provided fertile ground for false flag attacks and other forms of black propaganda. For example when Russian forces abandoned the siege of Kiev and withdrew Ukrainian forces staged the Bucha massacre in their wake. Ukrainian forces slaughtered a bunch of civilians they suspected of being traitors and then blamed the Russians. Then while people were busy trying to debunk the Bucha massacre Ukraine fired a missile at the Kramatorsk railway station and again blamed Russia. Next President Biden and US intelligence basically invited Ukraine to stage a chemical weapons attack and to blame Russia falsely claiming that they had intelligence a Russian chemical attack was imminent. Biden warned that any such attack would be a red line that could provoke direct US involvement. The administration later admitting they made the whole thing up. There is a danger that the whole world could be dragged into a nuclear war over some false flag chemical, nuclear or biological attack in Ukraine. The whole world would be turned to atomic ash before the truth could ever be exposed. Thankfully it is doubtful if the US want to get directly involved in Ukraine in a conventional war with Russia where both sides would suffer heavy casualties let alone a nuclear war in which the world would be destroyed. Still with America fighting a proxy war with Russia while busily provoking a war with China it would be unwise to underestimate the insanity of the US ruling class.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Russia has suffered some setbacks and Ukraine and the US are winning the propaganda war. However propaganda can only carry you so far before the realities on the battlefield expose your claims as absurd lies. The western triumphalist narrative on Ukraine is about to come crashing down at least temporarily. Russia is winning the battle of the Donbass. This is a simplified account as the fighting covers dozens of tiny villages with long names that can be spelled completely differently depending on which system of transliteration you use, or whether it is the Russian or Ukrainian spelling. To follow the war closely you need to follow the action daily on the various war maps available on social media via various amateur military analysts. First Russia launched an offensive out of Izyum. Ukraine kept poring forces into the meat grinder to stop the slow Russian advance. Ukrainian forces put up fierce resistance but the Russians are using the tactic of relying on their artillery and rockets to soften up targets for weeks and months before sending forces in with probing attacks. If they are repelled then Russian forces go back to shelling. On a map it may look like Russian forces were making no progress but Ukraine was suffering heavy casualties and their morale is plummeting. In Popasnaya Russia pursued the same strategy. Popasnaya was a cornerstone of Ukraine’s defenses in Lugansk fighting to take the town lasted months. However once it fell Ukraine’s defenses began to collapse. Russia massed forces in the town which commands the heights and is advancing in multiple directions out of Popasnaya. So far Russian successes have mostly been in the North of the Donbass near Lugansk. Ukrainian military are being encircled in Severodonetsk, are close to being encircled in Lisichansk, and are in danger of being encircled in Avdeevka. Ukraine has abandoned it’s stronghold Svetlodarsk Donetsk. Russia has captured the town of Lyman another major part of Ukraine’s defensive lines. Currently things are moving so fast that this article will be outdated before it can appear. Initially Russia’s victories were in the North of Donbass in Lugansk but now they are also making progress in the South in Donetsk where Russia will probably turn it’s attention after capturing or destroying Ukrainian forces in Lugansk. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> A key symbolic victory will be the liberation of Slavyansk which was once the heart of the rebellion against the Maidan coup but the rebels were forced to abandon the town rather then be encircled. The defense of Slavyansk had given Donetsk and Lugansk time to prepare their defenses and inspired thousands of volunteers to join the struggle. Slavyansk’s battle hardened defenders would form the backbone of the Donetsk and Lugansk forces. Ukraine has transformed Slavyansk into another military stronghold. Things always take longer then expected in this war so there is no telling how long the battle for the Donbass will last but clearly things are not going well for Ukraine. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> If Russia wins the battle for the Donbass the west may decide to let Ukraine negotiate rather then risk losing the rest of Ukraine. If Ukraine won’t make a deal after losing Russia may decide to take the rest of Ukraine’s coastline taking Nikolaev and Odessa preventing Ukraine from firing more missiles at Russia’s black sea fleet. Other likely targets for phase 3 would include Dnipetrovesk where Ukraine is already desperately trying to build up their defenses in central Ukraine or the city of Kharkov in the North. Back in 2014 Kharkov was to have been the capital of Novorossiya but Ukraine crushed the rebellion there and turned the city into it’s main base for the war on Donbass. It will be difficult to capture as it was designed in Soviet times to resist a full scale NATO invasion. Ironically this is another reason the war is taking so long having lost Ukraine to the Germans during World War 2 the Soviets rebuilt the entire country to resist a western invasion and even a nuclear war adopting a strategy of fortress cities. In places like Azovstal Soviet construction has proven more effective then the latest defective American weapons sent to Ukraine like the Javelin anti-tank missile.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Now to turn to the economic war against Russia which predictably has turned into a major disaster for the west. Energy prices are skyrocketing, food prices are rising and there are shortages in the west. Meanwhile Russia is forcing the west to pay for energy in Rubles. As the US knows full well skyrocketing energy prices benefit the Russian economy. But perhaps there is method to this madness and the true target of this economic war are America’s “allies” in Europe and Asia. President Biden has pretty much destroyed the global economy and people are beginning to naively wonder why the US is sending 40 billion to Ukraine while there is a shortage of infant formula. Naive in that the US always has money for weapons and never has money to improve the lives of their people and in fact spent trillions in the cold war to keep the rest of the planet poor. Actually much of the 40 billion is actually going to the US military industrial complex to replace all the weapons the US and it’s allies have already sent. Another huge chunk is going to NATO. Ukraine with it’s economy in tatters due to the neo-liberal reforms imposed after the 2014 coup is expected to pay back the 40 billion.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> I’ve been reading a lot about Ukraine recently including “Ukraine in the Crossfire” by Chris Kaspar de Ploeg which I definitely recommend. With “Bidenomics” destroying the global economy it’s a good time to revisit the now mostly forgotten role of then Vice President Joe Biden played in Ukraine. In other words some of the scandalous details of “Ukrainegate” Joe Biden played a key role in events in Ukraine he spent more then 2-3 hours a week on the phone with then President Poroshenko who was waging a brutal war on the Donbass that would kill at least 14,000 civilians. Biden publicly backed Poroshenko’s refusal to implement the Minsk protocols. Biden joked that he spoke to Poroshenko “more then my wife” Biden was the main proponent of “Ukrainian energy independence” which translates into a scheme for Ukraine to start fracking oil and natural gas. The main beneficiary was Igor Kolmoisky who gratefully put Hunter Biden on the board of Burisma holdings along with John Kerry’s former chief of staff David Leiter and Kerry’s former adviser Devon Archer. This is the same Igor Kolmoisky who was the patron of current Ukrainian president Zelensky. Kolmoisky was also the patron of the Neo-Nazi Dmitry Yarosh and what would become Right Sector and a key funder of the Azov Battalion. Thanks to the 2014 coup Komoisky was able to steal billions of dollars. He laundered the money in the US buying and looting American factories and putting the American workers out of work. His protege Zelensky also stole nearly half a billion dollars and moved it offshore a fact exposed in the Panama papers and the western press but since conveniently forgotten along with such information as the Nazi affiliation of the Azov battalion. Lets connect the dots Joe Biden and Hunter Biden connect with Igor Kolmoisky who connects with Zelensky and the Azov battalion. Joe Biden also had the corrupt Natalie Jaresko named Ukraine’s finance minister. A US citizen who illegally became a dual Ukrainian citizen. Before becoming Finance Minister she had mismanaged a USAID investment scheme WNISEF meant to “foster investment” in Moldova and Ukraine. Her salary was capped at $150,000 but she managed to pay herself millions while managing an investment portfolio that lost tens of millions of dollars a scandal exposed by the late Robert Parry. Joe Biden also backed the appointment of Yuriy Lutsenko as Ukraine’s prosecutor general despite him lacking any legal experience. Lutsenko then had two officials at NABU (Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau) arrested and beaten and cut off NABU’s access to the criminal database. To summarize Biden was blatantly corrupt, openly encouraged corruption, and supported a crackdown on Ukraine’s pathetic attempt to rein in corruption. While Biden’s family and the oligarch’s were getting richer Biden was pushing hard for Ukraine to adopt austerity policies that would decimate Ukrainians already low standard of living creating untold misery. Now Biden is imposing neo-liberal shock therapy on the entire planet creating runaway inflation and an economic depression at the same time. Doubtless Biden is merely serving the interests of the ultra-rich who by impoverishing the planet hope to widen their profit margins.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> The economic disaster is already dampening the obnoxious Ukraine-mania fad that swept the west at the start of the war. Russia’s impending military victory in the battle for the Donbass will destroy the fantasy that Ukraine can be used to destroy Russia. Unfortunately the war will most likely continue and the west will continue to flood Ukraine with weapons, advisers, intelligence officers. Russia is ready for a long war and has been holding most of it’s forces in reserve. Hopefully the American empire will suffer a disastrous defeat in Ukraine and the country will be fully denazified and demilitarized. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Sources</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">My earlier article on the Russia-Ukraine War</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/03/24/the-russia-ukraine-war/"><span style="font-size: large;">https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/03/24/the-russia-ukraine-war/</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Zelensky stole hundreds of millions of dollars</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/oct/03/revealed-anti-oligarch-ukrainian-president-offshore-connections-volodymyr-zelenskiy"><span style="font-size: large;">https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/oct/03/revealed-anti-oligarch-ukrainian-president-offshore-connections-volodymyr-zelenskiy</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Igor Kolmoisky’s offshore money laundering damages US economy</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article258399503.html"><span style="font-size: large;">https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article258399503.html</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Pepe Escobar on NATO vs Russia</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/05/24/nato-vs-russia-what-happens-next/"><span style="font-size: large;">https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/05/24/nato-vs-russia-what-happens-next/</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Christopher Black’s puts the Ukraine War in proper historical context</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://christopher-black.com/fascism-our-common-enemy/?fbclid=IwAR0A8cOZMjz1jwTNH1r5vQzxtOZYGlYQdxwK6eMW5W8xua5F7RRChUUv3R4&fs=e&s=cl"><span style="font-size: large;">https://christopher-black.com/fascism-our-common-enemy/?fbclid=IwAR0A8cOZMjz1jwTNH1r5vQzxtOZYGlYQdxwK6eMW5W8xua5F7RRChUUv3R4&fs=e&s=cl</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><br /></p>Hugo Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12229123097438571385noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8001402613324067475.post-86452728584852780992022-03-23T22:08:00.000-07:002022-03-23T22:08:46.274-07:00The Russia-Ukraine War <p><span style="font-size: large;"> The <span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Russia-Ukraine War </span></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> For more then 70 years America has been predicting an imminent invasion by first the USSR and then Russia. Now with it’s 9 years of anti-Russian hysteria the west has finally created a self fulfilling prophecy. Putin has decided to intervene in Ukraine. Back in December 2021 Russia asked NATO for security guarantees on Ukraine and reminded them that NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia was a red line. The US and NATO refused to make any concessions. On February 16 Ukraine began a massive escalation in shelling in Donetsk and Lugansk. On February 21, 2022 Russia finally recognized the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. Putin soon announced that he was launching a special operation in Ukraine with the aim of denazifying and demilitarizing Ukraine. It has since become known as “Operation Z.” On February 24th 2022 Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine with 150,000 troops wreaking havoc with 160 cruise missiles on Ukraine’s air defenses, command and control, communications, supply depots and other targets. Suddenly Russian troops arrived in helicopters attempting to seize Kiev’s airport (Ukraine quickly retook it) and in the confusion Russian forces were seemingly everywhere. However it soon became clear that Russia had only established control on the perimeter of Ukraine’s North, South, East and West on a map it looks like a sideways U. Instead of racing to capture Kiev Russia is concentrating on controlling Ukraine’s southern coast. However they are close enough to Kiev to pin down Ukrainian forces. Ukraine is stuck on the defensive and can’t counter attack or reinforce it’s troops. However Ukrainian forces are still able to offer fierce resistance and so Russia’s day to day progress is slow. It’s a pattern familiar to those who followed the earlier war in Ukraine or the war in Syria long periods of indecisive clashes followed by decisive victories and mop up operations. Russia has managed to take Kherson and restored Crimea’s supply of fresh water which Ukraine had cut off in revenge for it voting to rejoin Russia. Currently Russia is focused on liberating the city of Mariupul which rose up in rebellion back in 2014. Back then Ukraine crushed the pro-Russian uprising and gave the city to the Azov battalion. For 8 years they have terrorized the populace, running a secret prison at the local airbase where they kidnapped, tortured, raped, and murdered their victims. Once Mariupul is liberated Russia may shift it’s attention to destroying the 120,000 Ukrainian troops occupying the Donbass who have massively increased their shelling and missile attacks on the civilian population there. In the last 4 years the Ukrainian military and fascist paramilitaries have killed over 13,000 people in the Donbass with their constant shelling while the world remained silent. That’s more 4 times the number of civilians that the west claim have been killed in the Russian invasion so far 2,500. Both sides conceal their own casualties and give exaggerated accounts of enemy casualties. However isn’t it interesting that the west claims Russia is exclusively targeting civilians and also claims that Russia has lost 12-15,000 troops. When has America ever had a lower civilian body count then the number of troops it has lost? In Iraq the US officially lost 4,431 troops while 1-2 million Iraqis were killed. Also how many of those 2,500 civilians killed were killed by the Ukrainian military shelling of the Donbas? how many were killed by fascist paramilitaries? How many were killed as a result of Zelensky handing out 10,000 automatic weapons to drunken mobs in Kiev who have been using them to rob, loot, and execute suspected traitors. In impotent rage fascist Ukrainians are targeting ethnic minorities like the Roma beating them and tying them to lampposts before posting pictures of their victims on social media. African immigrants trying to flee were beaten for trying to get on the same buses or trains as white Ukrainians a brief scandal that was quickly hushed up. If you “Stand with Ukraine” you are standing with fascism.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> The west has rushed to condemn this as an unprovoked attack on a sovereign nation. America the ultimate rogue state now poses as the champion of international law. However Russia’s attack was not unprovoked. The war in Ukraine began in 2014 with the Maidan coup installing a fascist government. The new regime was founded on hatred of ethnic Russians and in response Crimea voted to rejoin Russia and the people of Donetsk and Lugansk declared their independence. Ukraine then launched a major offensive to retake Lugansk and Donetsk. Ukraine passed laws forbidding people to criticize Ukrainian Nazis or to praise the Soviet Union. However with Russia’s covert assistance the heroic people of Donetsk and Lugansk inflicted two crushing defeats on the Ukrainian armed forces and the Nazi paramilitary groups. Ukraine was forced to sign a first and second Minsk agreement to end the war. The US also agreed to the terms of the Minsk agreement which would have granted Donetsk and Lugansk autonomy while forcing them to remain part of Ukraine but neither Ukraine or the US ever honored it. Instead for 8 years Ukraine continued to shell the people of the Donbass and since 2018 have killed at least 13,000 people. America and Ukraine started this war hopefully Russia will be able to end it.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> While condemning Russia the corporate media remain silent on the fact that the US is still illegally occupying Iraq and Syria, and is waging a genocidal war on Yemen via it’s Saudi proxies. In the 30 years since the destruction of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war the US and often NATO 30 years have been destroying country after country Panama, Iraq, Yugoslavia, Rwanda, the Congo, Afghanistan, Iraq again, Libya, and Syria Yemen and Ukraine. In Rwanda and Congo alone 7-13 million people died. This is not even going into the coups and failed coups, the sanctions, the economic warfare and the billions who live in poverty to enrich American corporations. Imperialism evolves over time and takes different forms. Today there is only one empire America and it’s network of allies countries like England, and France who’s empires plundered, massacred, and destroyed everywhere they went in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. America’s empire absorbed fascist countries like Germany and Japan who between them slaughtered 50 million people Jews, Russians, Chinese, Roma and many more peoples. The American empire absorbed the sinister old European empires, and the short lived fascist empires as it launched it’s cold war. It was a master of soft power training ruling classes around the world and gaining control of their opposition. Thanks to Hollywood it was able to brainwash the planet to believe in American benevolence. It’s advertising created a worldwide consumer culture. It’s music shaped teenage rebellion around the globe. Only those who were the victims of American imperialism were able to see the monstrous empire for what it was. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> When the US recruited Reinhard Gehlen and hundreds of thousands of fascists after (and during) World War 2 they also absorbed Gehlen’s Ukrainian lackeys in the OUN. The OUN began as a terrorist group after World War 1 assassinating Polish government officials. They then formed an alliance with Nazi Germany the OUN provided recruits for the territorial police and the Waffen SS after Germany invaded the Soviet Union. The OUN murdered millions of victims Jews, Poles, Ukrainians and Russians. They loved to uses axes or saws to slaughter their victims in the goriest manner possible and to save bullets. The US launched it’s first covert war in Ukraine back in the 1940’s using these SS veterans Frank Wisner bragged that his guerrilla army of Ukrainian Nazis killed 30,000 people. Ukraine was only one of many covert wars the US waged on the Soviet republics and the socialist eastern bloc countries. Although initially defeated in Ukraine the fascist emigres of the OUN would be supported by the US, the UK, and West Germany throughout the cold war and they dominated the umbrella group of former fascist collaborators from within the USSR the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations or ABN. Yaroslav Stetsko former Ukrainian ruler of the Nazi puppet state would spend the entire cold war demanding the US and NATO launch a nuclear war to destroy the Soviet Union. Reagan and his Vice President Bush invited Stetsko to the White House for a photo op. Today thanks to the recklessness of the Biden administration Stestko’s apocalyptic dream of a nuclear war may yet come to pass. A hard core of Ukrainian fascists indoctrinated their children and their children’s children in the ideology of the OUN. Every summer they send their kids to Ukrainian fascist summer camps where they are indoctrinated in the OUN ideology. When the Soviet Union was destroyed by a combination of Gorbachev’s treachery and incompetence and a series of NED/CIA Color revolution style coups and destabilizations the OUN were able to return to Ukraine. Color Revolutions utilize NED and corporate foundations to build networks of NGO’s capable of mobilizing 1 or 2% of the population in mass protests while the CIA and other intelligence agencies work behind the scenes to organize a coup. For decades the Ukrainian fascists had been recruited to run the CIA’s propaganda campaign targeting the Soviet Union Radio Liberty’s Ukrainian broadcasts (Radio liberty is half of RFE/RL). In the 1990’s with the help of the west the Ukrainian fascists began their campaign to revive fascism in Ukraine. Like in Russia the end of Socialism brought poverty and chaos. In this chaos Ukrainian Nazi Paramilitaries began to prosper doing dirty work for various Ukrainian Oligarchs. In 2004 the US would launch a “Color Revolution” the Orange Revolution in Ukraine to install a pro western government run by Viktor Yuschenko overturning the election victory of Viktor Yanukovych. The new government began to glorify the Ukrainian Nazi collaborators. Soon discredited by it’s unchecked corruption Ukraine elected the also corrupt but neutral Yanukovych. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> In early 2014 Yanukovych was overthrown by a much uglier color revolution in which the fascist paramilitary groups provided the muscle. In hindsight it is clear that in overthrowing the deeply flawed Yanukovych the US destroyed any chance for an independent or democratic Ukraine. The new government outlawed the opposition parties, purged the parliament, and allowed fascist paramilitary groups to terrorize anyone calling for moderation. They banned Russian provoking a rebellion in Eastern Ukraine. Many in eastern Ukraine also rose up in opposition to the corrupt capitalist system in Ukraine. Then came the Odessa massacre when a mob of Ukrainian fascists chased a crowd of anti-war protestors (protesting the impending civil war on ethnic Russians) into a trade union building then setting it alight killing 39 people officially as many 150 unofficially. The fascist Kiev regime celebrated openly while the US Secretary of State John Kerry claimed that they had burned themselves alive despite the whole horrific episode being captured on video. The people of Donetsk and Lugansk realized that they were facing genocide and ethnic cleansing. The war followed and thanks to the covert assistance of Russia, Donetsk and Lugansk were able to inflict two major humiliating defeats on the Ukrainian army. Their strategy was to slowly encircle the Ukrainian forces trapping them in “Cauldrons” where surrounded by artillery and cut-off from resupply they were completely decimated. Russia, Donetsk, and Lugansk are applying the same strategy today. Thus while western military experts are currently bragging about Ukraine’s success and Russia’s impending defeat eventually the Ukrainian forces will likely be encircled and destroyed. It is the same strategy that the Soviet Union used to destroy the German army during WW2. A major difference between the fighting now and in 2014-2015 (or during World War 2) is that Russia now has air superiority and thus is slowly destroying Ukraine’s supplies of fuel and weapons. It will be a long and ugly war but hopefully Russia will emerge victorious.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Russia must win this war it’s very survival is at stake. Putin has made a dangerous gamble but ultimately he had no choice. NATO and the US have turned Ukraine into a fascist puppet state that was never going to give up it’s dream of conquering the Donbass and eventually retaking Crimea. Despite being involved in an ongoing conflict with Russia, Ukraine had altered it’s constitution to permanently pursue NATO membership. And the Biden administration recklessly pushed to admit Ukraine into NATO. Perhaps they never intended to let Ukraine become a full NATO member some would argue. This is equally insane they were willing to provoke a Russian invasion rather then assure Russia that Ukraine would not be admitted into NATO despite not actually planning to allow Ukraine to join. And despite Ukraine not being a NATO member NATO runs the Ukrainian army and holds massive war games in Ukraine where 20,000 NATO advisers train the Ukrainian Army and practice declaring nuclear war on Russia. Putin worried NATO planned to install intermediate range nuclear missiles in Ukraine. President Zelensky announced the week before the invasion that Ukraine planned to start it’s own nuclear program. Since Ukraine already has the nuclear power plants and the technical know how from the soviet era the threat was very real. Ukraine also hosts more then a dozen US biowarfare laboratories. Russia was faced with the choice of fighting a conventional war now or a nuclear war later. If the west doesn’t come to it’s senses and insists on installing a No Fly Zone over Ukraine as Zelensky and his American speechwriters demand the whole world could be destroyed in a nuclear apocalypse.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Who is this President Zelensky who has become the idol of millions? Zelensky is a Eurovision winner turned comedian. His patron is the oligarch Igor Kolmoisky who was also patron to the Nazi Right Sector prior to the Maidan coup. Kolmoisky is jewish like Zelensky which didn’t stop him from hiring the Nazi right sector to act as muscle in the Ukrainian version of a “hostile takeover” where they acted as his private mercenaries seizing assets of his business rivals. I mention it merely because people claim that Ukraine can’t be a fascist country because it has a jewish president. Israel has provided major funding and advisers to the Ukrainian Nazi Aidar Battalion alliances are often paradoxical. Israel made it’s own secret deal with Gehlen at the start of the cold war. Kolmoisky gave Zelensky a job playing an ordinary guy elected to the presidency on his TV channel and then Zelensky ran for the presidency on the peace platform and beat Petro Poroshenko. Poroshenko had won Ukraine’s undemocratic post Maidan elections. Since losing to Zelensky Poroshenko has gone on to ally himself with the hardcore nazis. However Ukraine was rapidly becoming a failed state and it’s western economic advisers had plunged the nation into poverty. Zelensky’s popularity began to fall to 25%. The post-maidan version of the Yanukovych’s former party of regions now called the Opposition Party for life run by Viktor Medvechuk was gaining in popularity. Luckily for Zelensky and unluckily for Ukraine Biden had been elected and the new administration was determined to take a harder line on Russia then Trump. Trump had been framed as a Russian agent but had sent arms to Ukraine that Obama had delayed. Biden as Vice President had been in charge of Ukraine. Biden appointed Victoria Nuland to the number three spot in the State Department Nuland had supervised the Maidan coup and had handpicked the new government. Anyways the Biden administration encouraged Zelensky to take a more hawkish turn. Zelensky banned the opposition parties charging Medvechuk and Poroshenko for illegal deals with the Donbass and placing them under house arrest. Zelensky clamped down on the media. He announced he would take back the Donbass. This was back in 2021. This is why Putin began to move forces closer to Russia’s border with Ukraine both to pressure Zelensky and to respond to an attempt to take back the Donbass. Russia claims Ukraine planned to launch an attack on the Donbass in March 2022. Zelensky had already built up the already massive force stationed on the border of the separatist republics. When it appeared that Russia would back down Ukraine launched a massive artillery attack on the Donbass leading Putin to recognize the republics. Now Zelensky’s star continues to rise he’s been given the role of the lifetime and he shouts his heroic defiance from in front of a green screen knowing that the Ukrainian people will be forced to pay the price. If Ukraine looses the war he’ll go on a world tour before settling down to a luxurious retirement as head of the government in exile. On the other hand if he tries to surrender he may be killed or overthrown by one of Ukraine’s fascist paramilitaries. Recently Zelensky banned 11 more opposition parties and seized all private media putting it under state control. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> So far Biden has shown enough restraint to avoid a nuclear war. Instead he’s decided to nuke the global economy with his sanctions on Russia. These sanctions have sent food and energy costs skyrocketing and will cause untold misery and chaos worldwide. For the first time Americans themselves will suffer from the sanctions it so heartlessly puts on other countries. The global economy is already in tatters due to the disastrous strategies employed to combat the COVID epidemic. Europe will be even harder hit while the third world will suffer starvation and death. Ironically by sending energy prices soaring the sanctions will help Russia survive the economic embargo the west has launched on their country. Russia is now the most heavily sanctioned country on the planet surpassing North Korea and Iran. More sanctions are on the way. The US is destroying one of the key tools it uses to control the world the petrodollar. Biden’s disastrous strategy is pressing the fast forward button on the decline and fall of the US empire. Meanwhile ordinary people will pay the price. The media is of course blaming the Russian invasion rather then sanctions for the price hikes.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Returning to the war it is certain to be a long and bloody war. Yet while the western media cry crocodile tears for Ukraine, America and it’s allies are doing all they can to insure that the war leaves Ukraine in complete ruin. NATO hopes that as many Ukrainian civilians die as possible so that it can terrify it’s member states and demonize Russia for years to come. In fact they are so full of hubris that they are already boasting of what they call their “Afghanistan Option” and their plans to set up a Ukrainian GLADIO in the event of a Russian victory. Hillary Clinton has been given the job of publicly promoting the Afghanistan option and promising that the war will be as long and bloody as possible to bleed Russia. The fact that Ukraine like Afghanistan could suffer decades of war poverty and chaos in the aftermath does not concern her. NATO quite openly brag that they are setting up a stay behind network that will continue to launch terror attacks and create an insurgency that will continue long after the Russian victory. The strategy for now could more accurately be called “Plan Syria.” Ukrainian forces are preventing civilians from evacuating their cities so that they will die in the crossfire. They are stationing their military equipment in vital civilian infrastructure like hospitals, schools, and shopping malls then firing on Russian forces from these positions. When Russia fires back they then publicize the attack on the hospital or school (schools are thankfully empty at the moment ). In Syria it was the same story the terrorists turned hospitals into military bases and secret prisons. While the western press repeatedly claimed that Assad had destroyed “The last Hospital in Syria” Often Ukrainian forces, abandon fortifications outside of the city and move their military into civilian areas. There have been numerous reports of the Ukrainian military massacring civilians who try to flee the warzone. They plan to turn Kiev into a hellhole of urban combat handing out molotov cocktails and guns to untrained volunteers who will get themselves slaughtered. The reappearance of the same tactics used in Syria in the war in Ukraine reveals that NATO, the CIA, and western intelligence masterminded the Syrian terrorists criminal strategy all along and now they are giving the same disastrous advice to Ukraine. Syria meanwhile is suffering from the “Gaza option” harsh sanctions prevent Syria from rebuilding while the west is deliberately trying to starve the population into submission. In the case of Ukraine luckily the Russian military is already very experienced in foiling the strategies NATO employed to wreck Syria. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> The west has also rushed thousands of fascists, mercenaries, and veterans to fight in the war in Ukraine however this strategy backfired when Russia fired a missile on March 13, 2022 at their training camp near Lviv the International Peace Keeping and Security Center.” killing 35 and sending the rest into a panic some of the survivors took to social media warning everyone not to come to Ukraine to die as canon fodder. The west has also been funneling billions in arms to Ukraine much of which Russia managed to blow up with more missiles. Russian, Donetsk, and Lugansk ground forces have also seized huge stockpiles of American weapons. Every day another Ukrainian arms stockpile, logistics hub, or military barracks is destroyed by Russian air power. Short of starting a nuclear war by trying to enforce a No-Fly zone their is little the US and NATO can do to negate Russia’s advantage in the air. Still Russia will probably have to expand the size of their ground force if it wants to achieve victory.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Russia has declared it’s goal to denazify and demilitarize Ukraine. If Russia wins two main scenarios are possible. Either the US will have Zelensky sign a peace deal and Ukraine will be divided into a pro-western part and a Russian controlled part. If the US refuses to make a deal Russia will takeover the entire country and install a pro-Russian government. Ukraine and Belarus will then become Russia’s buffer to the west. At this point there is no way to predict how long the war will last it could take months or it could take years. And even if Russia gains a victory it will face a NATO supplied Ukrainian insurgency for years after that. Thanks to the Maidan coup Ukraine has become a permanent battleground between Russia and NATO. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Sources</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">A must read! a Spanish volunteer in the Donbass writes on the sickening hypocrisy of those condemning the Russian invasion who have ignored the suffering of the Donbass for 8 years. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/02/28/the-hypocrisy-of-a-leftist-no-to-war-that-comes-too-late/"><span style="font-size: large;">https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/02/28/the-hypocrisy-of-a-leftist-no-to-war-that-comes-too-late/</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">A very detailed account of NATO’s arming and training of Ukraine and plans to turn Ukraine into the next Afghanistan</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/03/20/us-and-nato-allies-arm-neo-nazi-units-in-ukraine-as-foreign-policy-elites-yearn-for-afghan-style-insurgency/"><span style="font-size: large;">https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/03/20/us-and-nato-allies-arm-neo-nazi-units-in-ukraine-as-foreign-policy-elites-yearn-for-afghan-style-insurgency/</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">A guide to Ukraine’s Nazis</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/03/16/under-the-wolfsangel-the-truth-about-radical-ideologies-in-ukraine/"><span style="font-size: large;">https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/03/16/under-the-wolfsangel-the-truth-about-radical-ideologies-in-ukraine/</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">A history of the diplomatic background that led to the Russian invasion</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://multipolarista.com/2022/02/27/us-nato-expansion-ukraine-russia-intervene/"><span style="font-size: large;">https://multipolarista.com/2022/02/27/us-nato-expansion-ukraine-russia-intervene/</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Debunking the Mariupul theater bombing story</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/03/19/was-the-bombing-of-mariupol-theater-staged-by-ukrainian-azov-extremists-to-trigger-nato-intervention/"><span style="font-size: large;">https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/03/19/was-the-bombing-of-mariupol-theater-staged-by-ukrainian-azov-extremists-to-trigger-nato-intervention/</span></a></span></p><div><br /></div>Hugo Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12229123097438571385noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8001402613324067475.post-25393422185746352552022-02-02T13:57:00.002-08:002022-02-02T13:57:36.383-08:00Iran-Contra Pt 3: Arms Deals With Iran V.2<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Iran Contra Scandal: Arms for Hostages Deals with Iran</span></span></p>
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<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The second element in the Iran-Contra scandal was the “arms for hostages” deals. At the time they were the most controversial aspect of the scandal. Iran and its ally Hezbollah had inflicted a series of humiliations on the US that began during the Iranian Revolution and escalated during the war on Lebanon. The Iran Hostage Crisis, the US embassy bombing in Beirut, the kidnapping of CIA Chief of Station William Buckley and most dramatically the Marine barracks bombing in Beirut. The US had branded Iran a state terror sponsor and the State Department and CIA had launched Operation Staunch to pressure the whole world to stop selling arms to Iran. The US was allied with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchs in backing Iraq in the Iran/Iraq war. Reagan had publicly called Iran “Murder Incorporated” and claimed the US would never negotiate or make concessions with terrorists. Yet at the same time as Reagan was publicly condemning Iran the US was supplying them with thousands of anti-tank missiles, helping Iran rebuild its air defences and providing it with intelligence that managed to shift the balance in the Iran/Iraq war in Iran’s favour. This was all in an effort to free seven American hostages in Beirut. Of course the deeper geopolitical purpose was to prolong the Iran/Iraq war making it as bloody and destructive as possible, a goal the Israeli Mossad veteran David Kimche openly admitted. President Ronald Reagan overruled objections from his own cabinet to carry the deal out. Even when warned that he could face impeachment and prison Reagan pushed for the deals to continue. Among Reagan’s cabinet only Vice President George H. W. Bush and CIA Director Bill Casey consistently supported the continuation of the arms for hostages deals. At a lower level North and Secord, once they were brought in on the deals, also consistently backed the plans as they benefited “The Enterprise.” Secord was able to turn a profit while North was able to funnel money to the Contras in Nicaragua.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The Iran-Contra investigations failed to investigate the true origins of the Iran arms for hostages deal. First, Iran under the rule of Shah Pahlavi had been one of the top customers for America’s military industrial complex. In the final years of the Shah’s reign, Richard Secord had headed the Military Assistance program in Iran, helping his arms dealing friends generate vast profits. When the Iranian revolution overthrew the Shah, the Rockefeller family interests in the form of Chase Manhattan bank were worried the new Iranian government might withdraw the hundreds of millions Iran had deposited in their bank. They had helped to launch the career of President Carter’s National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski. Brzezinski convinced Carter to allow the exiled Shah into the US for cancer treatment. Back in Iran many thought the US was preparing to launch another coup like the one by which CIA officer Kermit Roosevelt had toppled Mossadegh and restored the Shah back in 1953. In protest against the US admission of the Shah and in hopes of finding out what the US was plotting, a group of Iranian students seized the embassy. They captured 52 Americans on the embassy staff: State department officials, the CIA, and the military. They also seized all the files documenting decades of US support for the Shah’s dirty war on the Iranian people. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Hostage Crisis began on 4 November 1979. President Carter retaliated by freezing Iran’s overseas accounts, allowing Chase-Manhattan to keep Iran’s money. This at least is one simplified version of events. The Iranian revolution was far more complex than most realize and in fact went through two stages. First there was the initial overthrow of the Shah by a broader movement that included left wing forces and nationalists. Second came the triumph of Ayatollah Khomeini and the Islamic revolution. Also there is evidence that the rise of Khomeini and the whole hostage crisis were manipulated by western intelligence. Iran’s mullahs had long been on the CIA payroll since the days of the 1953 coup. Iran is by no means a puppet of the US or its allies. Iran remains one of the few countries willing to stand up to the US and Israel. However despite the hostile rhetoric from both sides secret deals were made between the US and Iran.</span></p>
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<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> President Jimmy Carter began a year of efforts to rescue or negotiate the release of the hostages. However unknown to Carter or his administration he was being targeted for a soft coup by the GOP, disgruntled elements of the CIA, and Big Business in the form of David Rockefeller and his allies. It became known as the “October Surprise” a term for last minute manipulations in October aiming to alter the election results in November. The GOP were obsessed with the idea Carter would free the hostages in October 1980 swinging the election in his favour. Yet the GOP began to manipulate events far earlier then October 1980. The first secret deals between the GOP and the Khomeini faction took place at least as early as March 1980. Reagan’s campaign manager was OSS veteran Bill Casey. Casey set up an October Surprise group to monitor Carter’s efforts to free the hostages. Elements within the Carter administration like Donald Gregg at the NSC and Robert Gates at the CIA were leaking information to Casey. Bush had his own CIA agents for Bush contingent, which included Robert Gambino. Many CIA agents for Bush would join Casey’s October surprise group once Reagan picked Bush as Vice Presidential candidate.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> To negotiate with Iran Carter’s administration had picked Cyrus Hashemi. Cyrus and his brother Jamshid Hashemi had close ties to Mehdi and Hassan Karrubi in Iran. (Hassan Karrubi and Cyrus Hashemi would both be deeply involved in the Iran-Contra scandal.) The Hashemi brothers were also close to Admiral Madani who was the main rival of Iran’s President Bani Sadr. Unknown to Carter, Cyrus Hashemi had close ties to Bill Casey through Lebanese-American businessman John Shaheen. Casey had done legal work for them and had known Shaheen for decades. Cyrus Hashemi became a double agent for the Reagan campaign initially providing them intelligence on Carter’s negotiations and then acting as a middleman to set up negotiations between Casey and the Iranians. Cyrus Hashemi’s First Gulf and Trust bank had been used by the CIA, the Shah’s family, and the new Iranian government to move money. It had close ties to BCCI, an infamous CIA-backed bank whose clients included drug cartels and terrorists. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> A series of meetings were held. In March 1980 Reagan crony Earl Brian (who served as Secretary of Health under Governor Reagan) and Robert “Bud” McFarlane (who would later set the Iran-Contra arms for hostage deals in motion) along with Bill Casey met in Madrid with Iranian Mehdi Bazargan (close to Hashemi’s contact Mehdi Karrubbi) to arrange a deal whereby Iran would refuse to release the hostages until after the election in exchange for massive shipments of arms and other concessions. The Israelis were also in on the deal. Israel had begun selling arms to Iran back in September 1979 and would act as middleman in the October Surprise arms deals. After the Madrid meet Israel supplied Iran with 300 tyres for Iran’s F4 fighter jets in March 1980. Iranian born Israeli Ari Ben Menashe would play a major role in the arms deals and in later exposing the October Surprise. In return the Reagan Administration would turn a blind eye as Israel sold nearly a billion dollars in arms to Iran in the early 1980s. Bush’s man, ex-CIA Ted Shackley, would later meet with the Iranians in London and Hamburg. He was Bush’s point man on October Surprise. A Bush memo was uncovered revealing that Bush later told Richard Allen (who would go on to be Reagan’s first National Security Adviser) to contact Shackley with any last minute details on Carter’s hostage negotiations. Shackley was also close to Michael Ledeen who was involved in the October surprise and the “BillyGate” scandal targeting Carter’s brother. In July 1980 Hashemi would begin a series of secret meetings with Iranian representatives including Mehdi Karrubi in Madrid. After meeting with Khomeini, Karrubi requested another meeting with Casey, held in August 1980.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Meanwhile the Carter administration was working from a hard bargaining stance completely unaware that the Iranians had already gotten a better offer from the GOP. On 24 April 1980, the US mounted a disastrous rescue attempt “Operation Eagle Claw”. Either through bad luck, incompetence, or sabotage it ended in complete disaster when two of the helicopters crashed at the Iranian desert landing zone called Desert One. Eight men from the US military died in the crash. The others were forced to flee since they no longer had enough helicopters to carry out the rescue. The corpses of the dead Americans were paraded through Teheran, enraging the US public and humiliating Carter. Richard Secord, Robert Dutton, and Richard Gadd future members of “The Enterprise” were all involved in the hostage rescue plans. The failure would lead to a massive re-expansion of the Special Forces that began under Carter; accelerating under Reagan and continuing into our own time.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In September 1980 Carter’s luck was finally poised to change. Iran’s President Bani Sadr had learned of the GOP’s secret deal with Khomeini and planned to go public on 8 September 1980. To keep him quiet Khomeini agreed to reopen negotiations with the US. Iran was also worried about an increasingly hostile Iraq. Khomeini sent Sadegh Tatabani to make a deal and Carter’s negotiators seized on the opportunity. Yet once again Brzezinski’s machinations would sabotage Carter. Brzezinski had convinced Saddam Hussein’s Iraq to invade Iran. The war began on 22 September 1980. Thus Tatabani was unable to return to Iran because Iraq was bombing the Teheran airport. In late September or early October the Iranians would meet with GOP representatives at the L’Enfant Plaza Hotel in Washington DC where Israeli Housang Lavi, Americans Richard Allen, Robert McFarlane, and Lawrence Silberman met with Iranian representatives. (President Reagan would later appoint Silberman a judge and Judge Silberman would overturn North and Poindexter’s Iran-Contra convictions.) The DC meeting was followed by a meeting at the Ritz Hotel in Paris from 17 – 18 October 1980, attended by Bill Casey and Vice Presidential Candidate George H. W. Bush along with Robert McFarlane, Robert Gates, Donald Gregg and George Cave. The Iranians agreed to hold the hostages until after the inauguration. It was bad enough the GOP was convincing the Iranians to hold onto the hostages until after the election. Now it wanted Iran to hold onto them even longer so that Reagan could come into office with a boost in popularity. To cement the deal a French Israeli arms shipment was sent to Iran on 23 October 1980, consisting of 250 F4 spare tyres and M6 tank spare parts. On 4 November 1980, the US general election was held. On the first anniversary of the start of the hostage crisis Carter lost to Reagan. On 20 January 1981, Reagan was inaugurated President and the hostages were released. The US was soon supplying Iran with arms worth hundreds of millions of dollars through Israel, South Korea and its NATO allies. Israel used its knowledge of the “October Surprise” secret to get away with selling Iran nearly a billion dollars in arms in 1981-1983. Naive Americans believed the strange coincidence of the hostages being released on the day of the inauguration was because of Reagan’s tough stance on terrorism. By massively expanding Carter’s war in Afghanistan, Reagan and Casey would play a major role in giving birth to <span style="font-style: italic;">Al Qaeda</span>. The Reagan years would also see the origins of the same rhetoric and tactics of the later “War on Terror.” Although Reagan did not personally take part in the October Surprise negotiations, he was almost certainly informed of the secret. It is the only way to explain his obsession with pursuing the Iran-Contra arms for hostages deals despite their quickly evolving into a farce filled with lies and broken promises. Congress and most of the media would cover up the October Surprise. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The October Surprise story has been confirmed by dozens of witnesses from around the world including former President Bani Sadr, Ari Ben Menashe, Ariel Sharon, Yasser Arafat, Alexandre DeMarenches (former head of French Intelligence and close Bush ally) Russian Intelligence, and the Iranian Government offered to send proof to Bill Clinton. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In the years that followed the bloody Iran-Iraq war would continue, eventually claiming over a million lives. The US was busy supplying Iraq with arms via Egypt. Meanwhile the CIA provided the Iraqis intelligence to plan their attacks. In 1982 Israel invaded Lebanon and installed a puppet government. The Israelis had sparked the Lebanese civil war back in 1975 encouraging their fascist Christian Phalange allies to try to seize control of the country. Southern Lebanon was being used as a base for Palestinian forces to shell Israel. The Israelis were even more annoyed with them when the Palestinians maintained a ceasefire. In 1978 Israel had invaded and occupied Southern Lebanon but Carter had forced them to withdraw. Now with Reagan in office in 1982 Israel invaded Lebanon eventually creating a puppet state in Southern Lebanon. Southern Lebanon was also home to a huge Shiite population and with the aid of Iran’s IRGC they formed Hezbollah in 1982. The US became increasingly involved in Lebanon siding with the Israelis and the Phalange while pretending to be neutral peacekeepers. It would take Hezbollah nearly 20 years to force Israel to withdraw from Lebanon. Hezbollah would force the US to withdraw in just one year. On 18 April 1983, Hezbollah detonated a van packed with explosives outside the US embassy, killing 63 people. A dozen high level CIA personnel, including their top Mid-East analyst, Robert Ames, whom Casey had sent to Beirut. Robert McFarlane was sent as a special emissary to Beirut. There he escalated US involvement in the war, shelling and bombing Lebanese civilians. Then on 23 October 1983, a huge truck bomb tore into the Marine Barracks in Beirut. 241 US military personnel were killed. The US claimed it would not pull out but quietly did. The American public was distracted from this withdrawal by US regime’s Invasion of Grenada, where it had already deposed the country’s leader, Maurice Bishop. Oliver North helped plan that invasion. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> On 7 March 1984, CNN journalist Jeremy Levin was kidnapped. Then on 16 March 1984, Hezbollah kidnapped the CIA station chief, William Buckley, on his way to work. He was later sent to Iran for questioning under torture. His capture and worry over what he might reveal was a major factor in motivating the US to trade arms for hostages. Buckley would tell all to the Iranians and they transcribed his confession into a 400-page book. Buckley would die before he could be freed. Six more American hostages would be kidnapped by Hezbollah or its front groups in Beirut between 8 May 1984 and 9 June 1985. They were Reverend Benjamin Weir, Peter Kilburn (librarian at American University) Father Lawrence Martin Jenco (Catholic relief services), Terry Anderson (AP journalist) David Jacobsen (Hospital Director at American University) and finally Thomas Southerland (Director of Agriculture at American University) They were kidnapped to gain leverage to free the Dawa prisoners being held in Kuwait after a series of attacks on American and French targets there. Their kidnappings would provide the motivations or the excuse for the US to carry out the arms for hostage deals. Only Jeremy Levin would seemingly escape after being ransomed.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> A key factor behind the Iran-Contra scandal that few delved into was a web of groups set up by Vice President George H.W. Bush that dealt with crisis management and counter-terrorism. It was thanks to the key role that North played in the counter-terror network or as Peter Dales Scott calls it “a Cabal” that North became not just the point man for the Contras but also in charge of counter-terrorism and eventually in charge of the Iran arms for hostages negotiations. The “Cabal” included Admiral John Poindexter (NSC), Oliver North (NSC), Duane “Dewey” Clarridge (CIA) Charles Allen (CIA), Robert Oakley (State Department), Noel Koch (DOD) Lt Gen John Moellering (Joint Chiefs of Staff) and Oliver “Buck” Revell (FBI). They communicated via “Flashboard” a secret email system. NSDD (National Security Directive) 3 had put Vice President Bush in charge of crisis management back in 1982. Bush recruited North and his secretary Fawn Hall to work on crisis management. This lead to North drawing up Continuity of Government plans calling for declaring martial law, suspending the constitution, total surveillance, and rounding up tens of thousands of dissidents and hundreds of thousands of refugees in the event of nuclear war, terror attacks, or even civil unrest. Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney would also be involved in these plans during the Clinton administration. They formed the blueprint for America’s post 9/11 response. Bush also created a Crisis Preplanning Group and a Special Situations Group. North worked on the creation of a Crisis Management Center. In April 1984 North Drafted an NSDD that created the TIWG (Terrorist Incident Working Group). Two TIWG members would work closely with North, Craig Coy and Robert Earl. In July 1985, President Reagan convened the Vice President’s Task Force on Combatting Terrorism. At the exact same time, the US suddenly reversed its Iran strategy, opening the door for the Iran arms for hostage deals Peter Dale Scott points out. On 20 January 1986, just as the US was preparing to make direct arms sales to Iran, NSDD 207 put North in charge of counter-terrorism and set up a secret Office to Combat Terrorism run by Oliver North and staffed by veterans of Bush’s counter-terror cabal. Michael Ledeen and the Israeli Amiram Nir were also part of this counter-terror network and like North would play major roles in the Iran-Contra scandal, along with Robert Oakley and Dewey Clarridge. Through the counter-terror network Bush and North became close. Thanks to this shadowy network within the government Bush became as deeply embroiled in the Iran side of the scandal as he had been in the Contra side. It was sort of the government equivalent of setting up a bunch of shell companies. The bloodiest incident in North’s war on terror was the attempt to assassinate a Hezbollah leader Muhammed Hussein Fadallah with a car bomb. 80 people were killed in the attack, but Fadallah survived. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Now it is time to introduce North’s bosses at the NSC, Robert “Bud” McFarlane and John Poindexter. “Bud” McFarlane was the son of a Democratic congressman in Texas. He graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1959 and was commissioned into the Marine Corps. McFarlane lead the first US combat unit in Vietnam. He studied in Switzerland and received a White House Fellowship. Alexander Haig, an Army general and Henry Kissinger’s deputy at the NSC, brought in McFarlane as his military assistant. McFarlane came to regard Kissinger as his mentor. McFarlane had even participated in Kissinger’s secret China negotiations. McFarlane would later hope that his Iran initiative would earn him a similar place in history. He retired from the Marine Corps as a lieutenant colonel and served two years on the Senate Armed Services Committee under Senator John Tower. Tower was also involved in the October Surprise and was picked by Reagan to investigate/ cover-up the scandals. Once Reagan was President he picked Alexander Haig as his Secretary of State. Haig brought McFarlane on as a counsellor to the State Department. Then, with Haig on the way out as Secretary of State, McFarlane returned to the NSC as National Security Adviser William Clark’s deputy. When Clark stepped down as National Security Adviser the Edwin Meese, Michael Deaver, and James Baker faction, called the “Troika”, which dominated the early Reagan Administration tried to appoint James Baker as the new National Security Adviser. Baker was a close friend of George H.W. Bush who became infamous as the Bush family “Fixer.” William Casey blocked the appointment and McFarlane was chosen as the National Security Adviser as a compromise. Since “Bud” McFarlane and Oliver North were both Marine lieutenant colonels serving on the NSC and both workaholics they developed a sort of father-son relationship. McFarlane came to rely ever more on North. McFarlane was also a long-time friend of Mossad veteran and director of the Israeli Foreign Ministry David Kimche. McFarlane put great trust in Casey’s advice. McFarlane’s trust in both Casey and Kimche would lead him to plunge into the disastrous Iranian arms for hostage deals.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Vice Admiral John Poindexter was McFarlane’s deputy at NSC and would succeed him as National Security Adviser in early December 1985. He was born in a small farming town in Indiana. He graduated top of his academy class at Annapolis then received a PhD in nuclear physics from the California Institute of Technology. He served under three Secretaries of the Navy and as executive assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations Admiral James Holloway. He also commanded a guided missile cruiser and a destroyer squadron. Poindexter was recruited to set up the computer network for Bush’s Crisis Management Center. He had IBM install a prototype version of the Internet at the NSC allowing North and the other Iran-Contra conspirators to email each other via PROF messages. The NSC crisis management network linked the NSC computer network to the computer networks of the State Department, the CIA, the Pentagon, numerous law enforcement agencies, military bases around the world and foreign intelligence services. This was a few years before anyone in the general public knew what an email was. This would come back to haunt Poindexter, North and others when they deleted all their PROF messages only to have some low level research assistant to the Tower Committee figure out how to recover them all. On the Internet nothing is ever really deleted. Poindexter was secretive and a bit more reckless then McFarlane. At the height of the Iran-Contra scandal Poindexter would save Reagan by testifying to Congress (almost certainly falsely) that Reagan had not been informed of the diversion of funds from the Iran arms sales to the Contras.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Adnan Khashoggi, the Saudi Billionaire who the press dubbed “the world’s wealthiest man”, had made a fortune as a CIA conduit for bribes to Middle Eastern officials to buy American weapons systems. He was famous for his yachts, lavish parties and high-class call girl ring. One of Khashoggi’s call girls would bring down presidential hopeful Senator Gary Hart. Khashoggi was close friends with Donald Trump and sold him a yacht. Adnan was the uncle of Jamal Khashoggi whose murder in the Saudi embassy in Ankara, on orders of King Muhammed bin Salman, made news back in 2018. Between 1983 and 1984 Khashoggi met frequently with “Bud” McFarlane at NSC trying to sell him on various schemes. In late 1984 Khashoggi would team up with Manucher Ghorbanifar on a scheme to sell arms to Iran in order to free the hostages. Iran was desperate for weapons. The Iraqi’s Soviet-supplied tanks were smashing them on the battlefield. Iraq was bombing Iran and Iran was running out of missiles and parts for its air defence system. It would later emerge during the Iraqgate investigations that Vice President Bush had provided intelligence and encouragement for Iraq to bomb Iran to pressure Iran during the arms for hostages scheme, but this was probably later.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Manucher Ghorbanifar, the middleman in the Iran arms deals, was an arms dealer who had served in Savak, become an Israeli agent, and supplied information to the CIA. That information was deemed so unreliable that the agency had issued a burn notice on him as a known fabricator after he failed too many lie detector tests. The Iranians were desperate enough for weapons that they were willing to use a known Israeli agent like Ghorbanifar. Ghorbanifar would become infamous for lying to both the Americans and the Iranians to get them to the bargaining table. Ghorbanifar’s Iranian contacts, Hassan Karrubi and Mohsen Kangarlou, had been involved in the earlier October Surprise negotiations. Ghorbanifar hoped to make millions of dollars off the arms deals. Oliver North was as big of a liar as Ghorbanifar practicing that special American brand of bullshitting necessary to the salesman or the sports coach. Desperate to gain the confidence of the Americans after the CIA had discarded him, Ghorbanifar met with Theodore Shackley in Hamburg Germany on 20 November 1984. Ghorbanifar warned (falsely) that Iran was in danger of becoming a Soviet satellite within 5 years. Ghorbanifar wanted to buy TOW anti-tank missiles and offered to free the kidnapped CIA station chief William Buckley and provide captured Soviet equipment to the US. Ted Shackley was running a risk management firm, Research Associates Inc., and was closely monitoring the Iran-Iraq war. Shackley had hired an Iranian named Razmara who introduced Shackley to the former head of the Savak’s counter-intelligence, General Manucher Hashemi, in October 1984. Then Hashemi had arranged the meeting with Ghorbanifar. According to veteran CIA Iran operative George Cave, Shackley was working for the NSC. Shackley was also working for Vice President George H.W. Bush while ostensibly in the private intelligence business. Shackley was close to both Secord and Clines, his “former” business partners. Shackley drafted a memo on 22 November 1984 and sent it to Vernon Walters Reagan’s ambassador at large and fellow CIA veteran— also infamous for his role in the 1964 Brazil coup. Walters forwarded the memo to Robert Oakley, the State Department’s point man on counter-terrorism (Part of the Bush/North Counter terror network) and to Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East Richard W. Murphy. Because of Ghorbanifar’s dubious reputation the offer was initially rejected. By March 1988 Shackley’s memo landed on the desk of NSC consultant Michael Ledeen who claimed (probably falsely) that he never read it, but forwarded it to Oliver North. Ledeen was another of Shackley’s friends from the October Surprise days.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Michael Ledeen would jump-start the languishing Iran arms for hostages deal. Ledeen was a CIA press asset and a contractor for Italy’s SISMI intelligence agency along with Shackley. In Italy, Ledeen would help cover up GLADIO and spread the myth of the Soviet Union being behind all the world’s terror attacks. Ledeen had close ties to Israeli intelligence, was a far right neo-con, and had earlier befriended Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, when Ledeen was sent to infiltrate the Socialist International, of which Peres’ Labour Party was a member. Currently Ledeen was a consultant on counter terrorism at the NSC. Ledeen got McFarlane’s permission to travel to Israel to explore using Israel’s contacts to gain intelligence on Iran. Once in Israel the Israelis introduced Ledeen to the Iranian Manucher Ghorbanifar, the Saudi Adnan Khashoggi, along with two Israeli arms dealers, Adolph Schwimmer and Yaacov Nimrodi. They had a pile of disinformation to sell Ledeen along with the promise to free the seven American hostages. The disinformation was that Iran was in danger of falling into the Soviet orbit, but that Ghorbanifar was in contact with a pro-Western faction that hoped to take power once Khomeini was dead. Supposedly Iran was divided into three factions: a pro-Soviet faction, a neutral faction, and a pro-Western faction. Ghorbanifar promised to put the US in contact with the “moderates.” In reality Iranian politics in the Islamic republic had nothing to do with such simple Cold War dynamics. There were no pro-Soviet factions and no pro-American factions. Back in 1983 a Soviet defector had supplied the CIA with a complete list of KGB assets and Casey decided to send the list to Iran. Khomeini had them killed or arrested. However, like most countries, Iran was ruled by ruthless pragmatists, who were willing to buy arms from Israel or the US because of the Iran-Iraq war. Arms procurement was controlled by Iran’s IRGC, the Revolutionary Guard. However they were used to operating through Iranian exiles and shady characters like Ghorbanifar. While in Israel Ledeen also met with Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres and David Kimche, the director general of the Israeli Foreign ministry and a Mossad veteran. Kimche would go on to advise the greatest mass murderer of recent times Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame in the 1990s. Kimche would fly to Washington DC to meet with McFarlane a couple weeks after Ledeen’s return. When Ledeen met with the Israeli prime minister, Peres vouched for Ghorbanifar, Khashoggi, Schwimmer, and Nimrodi and asked Ledeen to deliver a personal message to “Bud McFarlane.” Schwimmer was a major backer of Peres and the Iran deal was meant to reward him. The Labour party had been cut out of the lucrative arms market by the Likud party, the Mossad, and the Israeli defence department and Peres hoped that with US backing his cronies could get into the Iran arms sales business. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Returning to the US, Ledeen briefed McFarlane on the arms for hostages deal and passed on Peres’ message. McFarlane bought the cover story on Iranian moderates and hoped that by bringing Iran back into the US orbit he would earn his place in the history books alongside his mentor Kissinger. CIA director Bill Casey encouraged this delusion. He intentionally kept the CIA’s top Iranian analysts reports from reaching the NSC lest they discredit the cover story about selling arms to Iranian moderates. Instead Casey had Graham Fuller (later infamous for his role backing al Qaeda style groups in Central Asia) write a report calling for a complete reversal on US policy towards Iran. Soon the NSC had a draft finding on a new Iran policy that would enable the Iran arms for hostages deals to go forward. Now it was a decision for the President and his NSPG (National Security Planning Group, a modified NSC). The idea was strongly opposed by both Secretary of State George Schultz and Secretary of Defence Caspar Weinberger. Casey, McFarlane, and Vice President Bush supported the arms for hostages scheme. The idea got a boost in June 1985. Then Iran and Syria helped negotiate the release of the TWA 847 hostages being held in Beirut after their plane had been hijacked by a Hezbollah front Islamic Jihad. Israel freed hundreds of Shiite prisoners it was holding in exchange. The deal was brokered by Iranian speaker of the parliament Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani who was also a key player behind the scenes on the arms for hostages deals. The decisive voice belonged to President Ronald Reagan and he was in favour of going ahead. President Reagan gave the final green light to McFarlane on 13 July 1985, while in the hospital recovering from a polyp operation.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Manucher Ghorbanifar had promised to free all of the hostages once 100 TOW anti-tank missiles were delivered. Israel was to act as the middleman. It would ship TOWS from its own stocks and the US promised it would send replacements. To finance the deal Ghorbanifar borrowed USD 1 million from Khashoggi. Yaacov Nimrodi and Al Schwimmer charged Ghorbainfar USD 10,000 for each missile. The Israeli Defence Ministry sold them to the two Israeli arms dealers for only USD 6,000 each. Ghorbanifar charged Iran USD 12,000 for each TOW. On 20 August 1985 Israel delivered 96 TOW missiles to Iran, choosing the defective or obsolete TOWs from their own stockpile. (Apparently TOWs are shipped in 8 packs) On landing in Iran the IRGC immediately seized the TOWs. No hostages were released. Ghorbanifar used the excuse that since the IRGC not the “moderates” had gotten the missiles the moderates had not freed any hostages. However Ghorbanifar had a new deal for 400 more TOW missiles plus the four TOWs Israel still owed them from the first shipment. Iran would get a hostage freed. Amazingly the arrogant US agreed to this second deal after Ghorbanifar had failed to deliver the first time. On 15 September 1985, Israel delivered 408 TOWs to Iran. Within hours the hostage Reverend Benjamin Weir was released. The US had hoped to free CIA station chief William Buckley first; Casey had even played Reagan a video of Buckley being tortured. The Iranians claimed Buckley was too ill to travel. In reality he had died in June 1985.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Iran now hoped to rebuild its air defences with the next deal. The Iranians were now demanding HAWK surface to air missiles and Phoenix missiles. The US refused to sell the Phoenix missiles, which it did not even supply to most of its allies. It agreed to sell the HAWKs however. The deal was for 120 IHAWK missiles Iran would pay USD 18 million or USD 225,000 each. IHAWKS were the more advanced version. The plan was for Israel to ship them to Iran via Portugal. This is when Oliver North was recruited to run the Iran arms for hostages deals. At first McFarlane had put North in charge of replenishing Israeli stocks. McFarlane was busy preparing for the arms control summit in Geneva. However Portugal was refusing permission to allow the missiles shipment to land and take off from their country. On 17 November 1985, Israeli defence minister Yitzhak Rabin called North to fix the problem and McFarlane called soon after to confirm that he had referred Rabin to North. North brought in Secord whose partner Tom Clines had close contacts with the Portuguese arms company DEFEX. However DEFEX had strong ties to the party that had recently been voted out of office instead of the new government. The HAWK deal quickly turned into a fiasco. Secord’s attempt to hold an unscheduled meeting with the foreign minister at the airport only upset Portugal. The US embassy was ignorant of the deal and told Portugal not to approve it. North brought in Duane “Dewey” Clarridge serving as the CIA’s head of European operations to get the CIA’s help in pressuring Portugal. (It has been suggested that the officially unexplained death of Portugal’s prime minister Francisco de Sa Carneiro in an airplane crash on 4 December 1980 was not unrelated to such attempts to use Portugal for intermediary purposes.) Al Schwimmer lost patience and tried to send the plane in without clearance hoping the problem would be solved before it landed. The plane was forced to turn around and its lease ran out. The Israelis agreed to pay Secord’s “Enterprise” USD 1 million for transport. Dewey Clarridge called Langley to get the name of a CIA-controlled airline in St. Lucia. This would raise all sorts of legal problems once the scandal broke. To engage in a covert operation the CIA needed a Presidential finding. In any case, the St. Lucia plane was smaller than the one Schwimmer had rented and could carry fewer missiles. Secord arranged for the flight to be rerouted through Cyprus and then over Turkey to Iran. Cyprus gave no official permission but someone probably paid off the right people as no one interfered. On 25 November 1985, 18 HAWK missiles arrived in Iran. The Iranians were furious that these were not the IHAWKS they had been promised but the less advanced HAWKS. Nor had Israel bothered to scrape off the “David” stars on them. Ghorbanifar called North in a panic warning the Iranians were furious and the hostages lives were in danger. Back at the CIA Casey’s more cautious deputy director John McMahon demanded that a “retroactive” presidential finding be created to cover for the CIA. A retroactive finding was created and signed by President Reagan on 5 December 1985 and then thrown into an NSC safe. The whole point of a finding was to inform Congress. There was not supposed to be any such thing as a retroactive finding. On 4 December 1985, President Reagan had announced that McFarlane was resigning as National Security Adviser to be replaced by Admiral John Poindexter. McFarlane was getting increasingly frustrated with the Iran arms deals. He wanted all the hostages freed before any more weapons were sent. He was also beginning to realize that he had been duped about the possibility of installing a “moderate” government in Iran. After the scandal broke in November 1986, Poindexter would burn the retroactive finding because it was clear evidence of arms for hostages deals.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> North had another scheme to free the hostages alongside the Iran arms for hostages deal. Two DEA agents William Dweyer and Frank Tarallo had come to North with a scheme to use an informant they had in Beirut, a major drug trafficker, to act as middleman in arranging to ransom the hostages. North turned to Texas Billionaire H. Ross Perot to provide the ransom. Perot made his money in electronics and so had tight ties with the intelligence community. During the Iran hostage crisis he had managed to free four of his employees. There were a couple attempts to ransom a hostage in Beirut ending in failure. In the first try the informant claimed he had spent $300,000 in bribes and was suspected of pocketing some of the money. Another time North planned to treat the ransom with a chemical that would cause the money to disintegrate days later, a scheme which would have damaged all future hostage negotiations. Finally the deal fell through when the informant demanded a million dollars up front. The DEA men refused. Perot was very angry over the failure but was consoled with a personal letter from Reagan thanking him for his efforts. It is believed that during Perot’s involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal he developed a lasting grudge against George H. W. Bush. This is supposed to have inspired Perot to launch the third party campaign in 1992 that sabotaged President Bush’s re-election campaign.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Between December 1985 and January 1986, the Iran arms for hostages deals would undergo a major shift. North blamed the Israelis for the fiasco with the IHAWKS, Schwimmer, Nimrodi and Kimche were to be cut out of the deals and replaced with Peres’ counter-terrorism adviser Amiram Nir. North and Nir had worked closely together on the Achille Lauro hijacking back in October 1985. North’s plan to intercept the escaping Achille Lauro hijackers who had been offered safe passage by Egypt in exchange for releasing the hostages nearly provoked an armed clash between US Special Forces operatives and the Italian Carabinieri on an Italian runway where the US Air Force had been forced to land their plane. Nir had been in constant contact with North during the crisis, providing Israeli intelligence. Now Nir would replace Schwimmer and Nimrodi as the Israeli liaison to the operation. Then it was decided to cut the Israeli role as middlemen. The arms deals in 1985 had been illegal under the Arms Export Control Act. The Reagan Administration believed that a loophole in the Economy Act would make the deals legal. The new middleman would be Secord’s Enterprise. The Pentagon would sell the weapons to the CIA, the CIA would sell them to Secord, and then Secord would sell them to Iran. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> This scheme making the Secord’s Enterprise the middleman had the added bonus of allowing North to divert the profits to the Nicaraguan Contras. During the HAWKs deal, Israel had paid the Enterprise USD 1 million to cover transport. But since the deal had been aborted after only 18 HAWKs were delivered the Enterprise only spent USD 200,000 renting the CIA plane and other on costs leaving them with USD 800,000, which Israel allowed them to keep. North diverted some of this to the Contras. Now with the Defence department selling the TOW missiles for only $3,469 each and Ghorbanifar still paying $10,000 each, the Enterprise would make a hefty profit on each missile. The new plans that January envisioned a series of deals whereby the US would sell Iran 4,000 TOW missiles and Iran would free 4 hostages. In addition to diverting money to the Contras, North diverted some of the money to Nir’s scheme to train a 40-man team of Druze in Beirut that would carry out pre-emptive assassinations and perhaps even act as a hostage rescue force. On 17 January 1986, President Reagan signed a finding authorizing the scheme to supply arms to Iran via the DOD, CIA, and the Enterprise. The new finding was kept secret from Congress. On 17 February 1986, 500 TOWs was shipped to Iran on Enterprise planes rented from Southern Air Transport, the “former” CIA airline that was also being used to smuggle arms to the Contras. On 27 February 1986, another 500 TOW missiles were delivered. No hostages were freed.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> With the involvement of the Enterprise the deal had developed a momentum of it’s own. Even if no hostages were freed the Enterprise profited and the resources of North’s “off the shelf” Project Democracy were expanded. Ghorbanifar was now promising direct contacts with the highest levels of the Iranian government. McFarlane would act as special envoy on a trip to Iran. Originally the meeting was to take place on the Isle of Kish but the location was soon changed to Iran’s capital Teheran. Vice President Bush arranged to have the meeting delayed until after his planned visit to Saudi Arabia to avoid being asked awkward questions from an angry ally who hated Iran and was backing Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war. After a series of meetings with the Iranians in Europe to arrange the details, plans were finalized. The US was to arrive bringing HAWK spare parts and upon their arrival all the hostages were to be freed. At least that was what Ghorbanifar told them. He told the Iranians that the Americans were bringing all the HAWK spare parts, USD 15 million worth. Ghorbanifar had borrowed the money for the deal from Khashoggi. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> On 25 May 1986, the McFarlane delegation arrived for the infamous Teheran meetings. They flew in from Israel where they purchased a chocolate cake. They brought along a bunch of revolvers and a small amount of HAWK spare parts. They had left the rest in Israel to be delivered once the hostages were freed. The delegation included McFarlane, North, Secord, Secord’s partner and Iranian exile Albert Hakim, ex-CIA George Cave, Howard Teicher of the NSC and a CIA radioman. Casey had given them cyanide pills in case the Iranians decided to hold them hostage. The meeting was badly timed, taking place in the month of Ramadan when Muslims fast during the day. The Iranians were not ready to negotiate until after their evening meal. No one was there at the airport to meet the McFarlane delegation. Ghorbanifar arrived late and the delegation travelled to a hotel. Finally some low ranking Iranian officials arrived to negotiate. McFarlane was outraged at the slight. The Iranians were angry that the US hadn’t brought all the HAWK spare parts. The US realized that the Iranians had not even begun to bargain to free the hostages. Then after Iran contacted Hezbollah, Hezbollah demanded Israel abandon its occupation of Southern Lebanon, withdraw from the Golan heights and other just but costly demands. Gradually over the next couple of days the negotiations began to improve. Higher-level officials began to arrive. Hezbollah lowered its demands to freeing the Dawa prisoners. Reagan authorized the shipment of the remaining HAWK spares. Iran promised to free 2 hostages if they could be given a little more time. To North’s and Secord’s disappointment McFarlane and Poindexter convinced Reagan to cancel the deal. They wanted all the hostages freed first and McFarlane was tired of waiting. He wanted to leave Tehran. The Iranians begged him to stay for 6 more hours, offering to free 2 hostages in exchange for the HAWK spare parts. McFarlane refused and on 28 May 1986, the plane carried the delegation back to Israel. On returning to the US to brief the president McFarlane advised Reagan to abandon the arms for hostages deals. However President Reagan and Oliver North had not given up hope yet. North would work hard to convince his boss Poindexter to abandon the “all or nothing” approach and adopt the more realistic “sequential” release approach. The Iranians were not about to give up all their leverage by freeing all the hostages in advance. Yet sequential release would ultimately prove futile. From September through October 1986 Hezbollah would kidnap three more Americans: Joseph Cicippio, Frank Reed, and Edward Tracy, while the arms for hostage deals would only get 3 hostages released. That meant the total number of hostages would end up the same. It would take until 1992 for the last hostages to be freed.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In June 1986 after the failed Teheran meeting, the Reagan administration began to plan a hostage rescue mission using Secord, the CIA and the Pentagon. It proved too difficult to locate the hostages’ locations. North received a call from Nir and Ghorbanifar promising to free a hostage on the 4th of July. North excitedly told the Reagan and Bush. Expensive arrangements were made to escort the hostage home. Then on the 4th of July nothing happened. North was made to look like a fool and refused to speak to Nir for weeks, forcing Nir to go through Charles Allen at the CIA Allen would later be given the task of babysitting Ghorbanifar. On 25 July 1986, Ghorbanifar and Nir finally came through. The hostage Reverend Lawrence Jenco was freed. Ghorbanifar was desperate to restart the arms for hostages deals. He was millions in debt to Khashoggi because Iran refused to pay him for the HAWK parts that had never been delivered during the Teheran meeting. Ghorbanifar and Khashoggi had become ticking time bombs. Unless they were paid off they might go public. North considered paying off Ghorbanifar from the Enterprise’s coffers or convincing the Iranians to pay him off. On 29 July 1986 Vice President Bush flew to Israel to meet with Nir, who bragged that they were dealing with the most “radical elements” in Iran because they were the ones who could get things done. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Teheran had another disastrous result for Ghorbanifar. It had convinced the Americans that they should find a “second channel” into Iran, their term for a 2nd middleman. Secord assigned his Iranian partner Albert Hakim to find one. Through his exile contacts Hakim was introduced to Ali Hashemi Bahramani the young nephew of Iran’s speaker of the parliament Rafsanjani and also a member of the IRGC. Poindexter and North were so pleased with Bahramani that they had Secord smuggle him to Washington DC for a meeting at the NSC’s offices in the Old Executive building. The. North took Bahramani on a White House tour and arranged CIA approved call girls for him and his party.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">From 6 – 8 October, North, Secord, and Hakim met with Bahramani and other Iranians in Frankfurt to arrange the next arms deal. North brought a Bible signed by President Reagan. North had to leave early. Eugene Hasenfus was being paraded in front of international television after being shot down over Nicaragua. The Iran-Contra scandal was beginning to unravel but the Iran deals continued. The Iranians warned the Americans that five million pamphlets describing McFarlane’s visit had been printed in Teheran. Albert Hakim took over the negotiations agreeing on a 9-point plan with the Iranians to free all the hostages sequentially in exchange for HAWK parts, technical assistance, 1500 TOWS, intelligence on Iraq and the freeing of the Dawa prisoners in Kuwait. On 28 October 1986, 500 TOWs were shipped to Iran. On 2 November 1986, just in time for the midterm elections, hostage David Jacobsen was freed. The next day, 3 November 1986, the Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa published an expose on the McFarlane visit to Teheran. The American press picked up the story and the controversy over the Iran-Contra scandal exploded. Reagan went on TV and denied everything.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The cover up went into high gear. Actually back in the fall of 1985 after Congressman Michael Barnes began demanding to see NSC documents on North’s contra resupply; McFarlane had OK’d North’s plan to start altering NSC files to cover up violations of the Boland amendment. Then once Hasenfus was captured Casey had warned North to start shredding documents. Now the whole Reagan Administration was desperate to cover up Iran Contra. On 13 November 1986, Reagan held a disastrous press conference claiming that there had been no arms for hostages deal and that the arms sent could fit on one small plane—a blatant lie. On 19 November 1986, Reagan held another failed press conference where he claimed that no third country had been involved. Twenty minutes later his aides issued a correction that there had been a third country. Reagan was especially vulnerable on the Iran issue. His approval rating dropped from 67% to 46% during November 1986. Reagan had violated the <span style="font-style: italic;">Arms Export Control Act</span>, sold arms to a country designated a terror sponsor and also conducted covert operations without any presidential finding. However, violating the Boland amendment carried no legal penalty.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Long-time Reagan loyalist, Attorney General Edwin Meese, who had served under Reagan since his days as Governor of California, took charge of the cover up. On 21 November 1986, Meese launched a formal inquiry into the Iran-Contra affair. He failed to involve the DOJ Criminal division and failed to take notes at important meetings with Casey, McFarlane, and Poindexter. Even as he was being supposedly investigated North was allowed to continue to shred documents. While North was busy shredding Meese’s Assistant Attorney General William Bradford Reynolds discovered the so-called “diversion memo” North had written back in April 1986, summarizing the history of the Iran arms deal and containing North’s plans to divert USD 12 million to the Contras. Meese saw it as a perfect opportunity to divert attention from Reagan’s illegal arms deals in 1985 and onto North, the NSC and the diversion. North had long bragged that he was willing to take the fall for Iran-Contra if necessary to protect the President. Poindexter had already offered to resign and after interviewing him Meese was certain that he would deny having told Reagan about the diversion. Reagan’s chief of staff Donald Regan was Meese’s partner in the cover-up. He began to leak damaging info on McFarlane to the press. On 25 November 1986, Reagan announced that Meese had informed him of some shocking news. Meese then took the stage and revealed the diversion to the Press. He announced that Poindexter had resigned but North had been “relieved of his duties” meaning fired. North found out about it watching it live on TV. Then he received a call from President Reagan who told North he was an “American Hero” and that his life would make a great movie. North transferred back to the Marine Corps.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> It would take another article or even a book to do justice to the whole aftermath once the scandal was exposed and this article is long enough already. I dealt with the aftermath back in the first part of my Iran-Contra series. I also discuss it in an interview on Our Hidden History that either has come out or will come out soon depending on when this article is released. Before the scandal had broken the Christic Institute had filed a civil suit against North and the Iran contra conspirators. After the scandal broke there followed the Tower Commission, the Joint House and Senate Iran-Contra hearings and a 6-year long investigation by the Office of the Independent Counsel. Nearly a dozen people were convicted or signed plea deals. Bush pardoned them all. The one exception was Thomas Clines who was jailed for income tax invasion for failing to report his income from the Enterprise. Democracy and rule of law versus the national security state: it is sort of like Bambi vs Godzilla (a cartoon from the time) the outcome was never in doubt. There is the way things are “supposed” to work and the way they really work. On the international stage the aftermath of Iran-Contra lead directly to the wars in Panama and Iraq. The Iraq war in various forms continues 30 years later, a horrifying bloodbath that has cost millions of lives. Thanks to the efforts of the NED and a populace exhausted by Contra terror and sick of the economic blockade the Sandinistas were voted out of power in 1991. Thanks to the failure of America’s neoliberal puppets in Nicaragua the Sandinistas were voted back into power and the US is once again intent on overthrowing the Nicaraguan government. There has never been any serious official investigation into the CIA supplying arms cash and advisers to al Qaeda style terrorists through third country proxies like Saudi Arabia. Thanks to the stranglehold of the Israel lobby on US foreign policy, the US has yet to establish friendly relations with Iran. Yet Iran has grown too powerful for the US to invade and occupy. Hezbollah eventually decided to adopt the tactics of guerrilla warfare, targeting military targets and avoiding civilians. They have defeated Israel twice, forcing it to withdraw from Lebanon then halting a more recent Israeli invasion. Thus Hezbollah has earned respect and admiration around the world. In the West, Reagan’s legacy continues to dominate the ruling class, capitalism and imperialism continue to run rampant and fascism seems always to be just around the corner.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Sources</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Malcolm Byrne’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Iran-Contra: Reagan’s Scandal and the Unchecked Abuse of Presidential Power</span> is the definitive mainstream version of events. Byrne has been researching Iran-Contra for nearly 30 years.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, The Press & Project Truth</span> by Robert Parry gives many details left out of mainstream accounts. He has an in-depth discussion of the Contra drug connection as well as the role of drugs in Panama and Honduras. He also discusses the Reagan Administration Public Diplomacy campaign that destroyed investigative journalism in the US.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Robert Parry’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq</span> is another must read. It has a long section covering the “October Surprise” including the mass of evidence he discovered after writing <span style="font-style: italic;">Trick or Treason: The October Surprise Mystery</span>. It also contains lots of interesting dirt on George H. W. Bush and his son George W. Bush. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Theodore Draper wrote the earlier definitive mainstream account back in the 1990s <span style="font-style: italic;">A Very Thin Line: The Iran Contra Affairs</span> It is longer and more detailed than Byrne’s although the author has a sinister past (former communist turned anti-communist scholar for various CIA funded fronts) that makes him all too willing to trust the CIA and fail to dig deeply into the scandal. He never mentions drugs. Still it is worth reading for anyone interested in the Iran side of Iran-Contra.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Firewall: The Iran Contra Conspiracy and Cover-Up</span> by Lawrence E. Walsh the Independent Counsel in The Iran-Contra Investigation offers a long account of his office’s investigation and prosecution of Oliver North and other Iran-Contra conspirators. It is fun to see the case slowly unravel and Walsh’s investigation revealed a great deal that Congress failed to uncover and he gradually begins to have more evidence about the role of then President George H. W. Bush and former President Ronald Reagan in the scandal.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Guts and Glory: The Rise and Fall of Oliver North</span> by Ben Bradlee jr. is a detailed and entertaining account of the life of Oliver North and the Iran Contra scandal although it came out too early to contain some of the later evidence uncovered. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: italic;">The Iran Contra Scandal the Declassified History</span> Edited by Peter Kornbluh and Malcolm Byrne provides a valuable resource for studying the Iran-Contra scandal. It contains compact summaries of events as introductions to reprints of declassified documents released during the Congressional and Walsh investigations, plus a timeline of events and a list of key players.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A good book on the war in <span style="font-style: italic;">Lebanon is Beware of Small States: Lebanon, Battleground of the Middle East</span> by David Hirst. It covers the complex history of Lebanon from the 1940s to the 2006 war.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The section on Bush and North’s counter-terrorism network is based on Peter Dale Scott’s article “Bush and North: The Task Force on Combatting Terrorism” in <span style="font-style: italic;">Covert Action Information Bulletin</span> issue 33 Their classic special issue on Bush and the CIA which is packed full of Iran-Contra information and dirt on Bush. Also check out Peter Dale Scott’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Deep State</span> for an in depth account of continuity of government planning.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Subscribe here to gain access to <span style="font-style: italic;">Covert Action</span>’s archive</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://covertactionmagazine.com/archives/"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://covertactionmagazine.com/archives/</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Secret Warriors: Inside the Covert Military Operations of the Reagan Era</span> by Steve Emerson contains interesting information on the Special Operations role during the Iran-Contra era as well as Emerson’s own take on Iran-Contra. He was given access because he was aligned with the goals of the national security state. He also had close ties to Israel’s Likud party and played a major role in covering up the October Surprise. Emerson later became an insane neo-con war on terror hysteric.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Casey: From the OSS to the CIA</span> by Joseph Persico contains some interesting information but is generally a complete disappointment. Persico is too naive and inexperienced to write about the CIA; has no idea how they operate and no idea what to look into. It completely fails to provide a complete picture of the CIA in the 1980s. The author is also way too sympathetic to Bill Casey. That is why Casey befriended Persico and then Casey’s widow granted him access to her husband’s papers.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Dangerous Liaison: The Inside Story of the US-Israeli Covert Relationship</span> by Andrew and Leslie Cockburn is full of shocking details about the Israeli role around the world including their drug smuggling in Panama, Colombia, and Central America. It also provides many insights into the Israeli view of Iran-Contra.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Malcolm Byrne lecture about his Iran Contra Book</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/xUu8f9rBh_g"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/xUu8f9rBh_g</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A Robert Parry Interview</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/_X3v4Di8YyM"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/_X3v4Di8YyM</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Robert Parry’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Frontline</span> documentary on October Surprise</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://archive.org/details/InvestigatingtheOctoberSurprise"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://archive.org/details/InvestigatingtheOctoberSurprise</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A discussion of the October Surprise</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/2oTY7fQuieY"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/2oTY7fQuieY</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The first part of Dave Emory’s 4 part series on the “Deep October” surprise with Iranian researcher Fara Mansoor, who argues that the whole hostage crisis and the rise of Khomeini were engineered by a faction of the CIA loyal to Bush, with help from Thatcher and MI6.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-896-fara-mansoor-on-the-deep-october-surprise-part-1/"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-896-fara-mansoor-on-the-deep-october-surprise-part-1/</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Deep October Surprise Part 2 </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-897-fara-mansoor-on-the-deep-october-surprise-part-2/"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-897-fara-mansoor-on-the-deep-october-surprise-part-2/</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Deep October Surprise Part 3</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-898-fara-mansoor-on-the-deep-october-surprise-part-3/"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-898-fara-mansoor-on-the-deep-october-surprise-part-3/</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Deep October Surprise Part 4</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-899-fara-mansoor-on-the-deep-october-surprise/"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-899-fara-mansoor-on-the-deep-october-surprise/</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Documentary Cover-Up Behind the Iran Contra Affair</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/ZDdItm-PDeM"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/ZDdItm-PDeM</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">An Archival radio interview on Iraqgate, the flip side of the Iran arms sales was the much larger sales of arms by the US to Iraq. The Bush administration massively expanded arms sales to Iraq right until the moment Iraq invaded Kuwait and America launched its 30-year long series of wars on Iraq.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/MwEXdPzJKs4"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/MwEXdPzJKs4</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My earlier series on Iran Contra</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Part 1 The Secret Team</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/05/irancontra-pt-1-secret-team.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/05/irancontra-pt-1-secret-team.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Part 2 World War 3</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/06/irancontra-pt-2-world-war-3.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/06/irancontra-pt-2-world-war-3.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Part 3 The World Anti-Communist League Part 1</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/07/irancontra-pt-3-wacl.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/07/irancontra-pt-3-wacl.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Part 4 The World Anti-Communist League Part 2</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/08/irancontra-pt-4-wacl-2.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/08/irancontra-pt-4-wacl-2.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Ted Shackley a Life in the CIA</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/12/ted-shackley-life-in-cia.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/12/ted-shackley-life-in-cia.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Old Nazis, New Right (Also covers the Coors Connection)</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2017/10/old-nazis-new-right.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2017/10/old-nazis-new-right.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Subscribe to the Our Hidden History Youtube channel for dozens of Iran/Contra and CIA/Drugs related videos like my interview on Oliver North</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/7LXbeeVJVfs"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/7LXbeeVJVfs</span></a></span></p>Hugo Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12229123097438571385noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8001402613324067475.post-6723103786403727252022-02-02T13:54:00.003-08:002022-02-02T13:54:47.798-08:00Iran-Contra Pt 2: Illegal Contra War V.2<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">The Iran Contra Scandal: The Illegal Contra Resupply Operation</span></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">With Special Thanks to Dr T. P. Wilkinson</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The Iran/Contra scandal is so complex that I’ve decided to separate the Nicaragua and Iran parts into separate articles. Many of the cast of characters introduced in this article will reappear in the next. Names like National Security Advisers Robert McFarlane and John Poindexter, Oliver North, Richard Secord, Albert Hakim, Thomas Clines, and Duane “Dewey” Clarridge. Israel would play an important role in both Central America and the Middle East. And of course President Ronald Reagan, Vice President George Bush and CIA director William Casey would play major roles in both scandals. The CIA and National Security Council having assembled “the Enterprise” to wage an illegal war on Nicaragua in 1984-1986 employing private contractors who were ex-military or CIA’s Secord, Clines, Hakim. The NSC would employ the same enterprise to handle logistics in the Iran arms deals starting in the fall of 1985. This is the mainstream version. On the other hand the true origins of the “Enterprise” went back to much earlier Middle East arms deals. Secord had served in Iran back in the early 1960’s and returned in the late 1970’s supervising the Pentagon’s Military Assistance Program to the Shah’s Iran. Secord was also suspected of being a partner in EATSCO with Thomas Clines, Ted Shackley and Ed Wilson. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">By beginning the story in Nicaragua I am not implying that this is the true origin of the affair. However since this article is about the mainstream version of the Iran-Contra affair. I will not attempt to trace the history of the Iran-Contra players through the decades prior to the scandal’s exposure in 1986 as the Christic Institute attempted to do in their civil case against “The Secret Team”, which inspired my earlier series on the Iran/Contra scandal and my biography of Ted Shackley. I will merely comment that Secord and Clines had both been deeply involved in running covert operations with drug smuggling allies in places like Laos and Vietnam.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> I plan to do a whole series on the Contra drug connection next year so I will not deal with that aspect of the scandal in depth here. All the Contra leaders of every faction were deeply involved in drug smuggling. Moreover all of the US right wing military dictatorships like Guatemala, El Salvador, Argentina, and Chile as well as nominally democratic but brutally repressive countries like Colombia, Mexico and Honduras were involved in drug smuggling. All received tacit permission and CIA protection for this massive drug trade. It is a pattern that has continued long after the Cold War. Nor is it restricted to Latin America. South East Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East, Australia, Europe, and increasingly Africa all have their stories of CIA protected drug trades. The CIA is not unique. Intelligence agencies around the world are involved in the global drug trade. It is all so obvious that it would be widely known if not for the cowardice of most academics and journalists or more accurately their role in propagandizing the public on behalf of the empire. The war on drugs, like the war on terror, is a complete farce but few dare to point out this fact.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The United States invaded and occupied Nicaragua from 1912-1933 training a brutal national guard to keep order when they left. Anastasio Somoza was the head of this force and always eager to please his American sponsors. He seized power in 1936 and his family would rule the country until overthrown by the Sandinistas on 17 July 1979. This was during the Jimmy Carter presidency. Carter’s record in Central America was rather more sinister then the myth of his supposed obsession with human rights would suggest. He authorized a massive escalation in military aid to El Salvador in his final years in office for example. Carter had cut off military aid to Somoza because Somoza’s refusal to negotiate and the regime’s brutal war crimes endangered the US’s ability to manage the transition of power. Carter hoped to use the promise of aid to keep the Sandinistas in line. There were doubtless secret plans to undermine them at the same time. There is always a “Track 2.” Little aid was delivered but Carter’s policies were viewed as treacherous and weak by future President Ronald Reagan. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In the fantasy world of Reagan and the National Security State what had happened in Nicaragua was not a popular revolution but a sinister Soviet plot to dominate the western hemisphere. Destroying Nicaragua and preventing revolutions in El Salvador and Guatemala would become major priorities of the new administration. Reagan’s election in 1980 amounted to a soft coup. As I discussed in my introductory article, this also involved illegal campaign contributions from rich oligarchs in El Salvador and Guatemala who were given the green light to commit atrocities and mass murder. These schemes involved Michael Deaver, future Contra supplier Major General John K. Singlaub and Reagan’s first National Security Adviser Richard Allen. The Reagan campaign also sent emissaries to the Contras. Most importantly the Reagan campaign made a deal with Khomeini’s faction to prevent the release of the American hostages in Iran, the so-called “October surprise” which personally involved George H.W. Bush, Bill Casey, Richard Allen and future National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane among other key players in the Iran Contra scandal. I will expand on this in the Iran section.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> When Reagan came to power in 1981 he began plans to wage his war on Nicaragua. In the fall of 1981 the Contras were a tiny force of 250 men, mostly veterans of Somoza’s National Guard in exile in Guatemala under the protection of the “Godfather of the death squads” Mario Sandoval Alarcon. Others Contras were in exile in Honduras. Honduras would be the Contras main future base backed by the Honduran military, Argentine advisers fresh from their dirty war in Argentina and the Bolivian Cocaine coup, and Cuban Bay of Pigs veterans. Future Contras were also living in Miami where they had formed an alliance with the Cuban exiles. They engaged in terror attacks, drug dealing, bank robbery and kidnapping to finance their counter-revolution. Some survived by means of armed robbery and livestock rustling. They had named themselves the <span style="font-style: italic;">15th of September Legion</span>. This was the situation in fall of 1981, when the Reagan administration began its war on Nicaragua.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In August 1981, Duane “Dewey” Clarridge, the new head of the CIA’s Latin America division, was sent down to Honduras to meet with the Honduran military, who had been working with the Contras and their Argentine advisers. Clarridge was a veteran of <span style="font-style: italic;">Operation Gladio</span> in both Turkey and Italy. DCI Casey had picked him despite the fact that he did not speak Spanish because he was a reckless “cowboy” used to operating above the law doing whatever dirty work was necessary. Clarridge operated under the alias Maroni while the contras jokingly called him “GarCIA”. Clarridge would run the Contra war until mid-1984 when his harbour mining and assassination scandals would alienate Congress and eventually induce it to forbid further aid to the Contras. Instead of being fired Casey would promote him to the even more prestigious position of head of the European division.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In November 1981, Reagan signed NSDD 17 authorizing a full-scale covert war on Nicaragua. On 1 December 1981, Reagan would sign a Presidential Finding on Nicaragua meant to deceive congress as to the full scope of his intentions. In the wake of the CIA scandals in the 1970s and subsequent congressional investigations, a system of oversight was created. House and Senate Intelligence committees were set up. Before covert operations could be initiated, the President was required to sign a presidential finding and inform Congress (effectively the respective intelligence committees and usually no one other than the chair of each committee) within 30 days. Reagan and Bill Casey planned a massive expansion of the CIA and in order to get Congress to agree they had included oversight and the need for presidential findings in the bill. This would be an important legal detail later in the scandal. Casey despised the idea of congressional oversight, keeping Congress in the dark as much as possible. Casey even wanted to exempt the CIA from FOIA requests. Lying to Congress, he claimed that every day a CIA officer resigned over fear that an FOIA request would expose their name. Reagan would conduct covert operations without signing the proper findings. Such failures could have gotten him impeached. In this case Reagan’s finding on Nicaragua was a deceptive cover story. Knowing that Congress would not approve the administration’s plan to overthrow the Nicaraguan government, Reagan and Casey created the cover story that they merely wanted to raise a 500-man force to interdict arms going from Nicaragua to the El Salvadoran guerrillas. Congress was kept in the dark about the fact that they were already working to overthrow the Nicaraguan government.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Bill Casey was a key architect of the Iran-Contra affair and the mastermind of the Reagan doctrine that America must wage covert war on any socialist or independently minded country or as they put it “aid freedom fighters around the world.” Casey’s father worked in the sanitation department but was extremely well connected to the Irish political machine in New York. Casey became a lawyer and an expert on corporate law and tax evasion, publishing guides for corporations on tax loopholes. He joined the OSS during the war, running intelligence in the European theatre. He loved his job but decided to leave the government and make his fortune. Actually Casey was part of a network of old ex-OSS men who ran CIA front NGO’s such as—in Casey’s case—the International Rescue Committee and the Crusade for Freedom. These were covers for their work with fascist émigrés. Another group of ex-OSS men ran the media and Casey would later acquire huge media holdings. Thanks to Casey’s connections and his skills at tax evasion, including inventing the concept of the tax shelter, he got rich. He remained active in politics and was rewarded for his support of Nixon with the position of head of the SEC, The Export Import Bank, and the State Department’s economic division. He turned down the job of Deputy Director of Operations in the CIA; offended he had not been offered the Director spot. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Finally Reagan was convinced to hire Casey as his campaign manager. He ran the campaign like a covert op, stealing Carter’s debate book among other dirty tricks. He wanted to be rewarded with the position of Secretary of State or Defence but was rejected because he was a notorious slob and a mumbler. Instead he became CIA director, which was elevated to a cabinet post. He would oversee a massive expansion of the CIA and would also push for a massive expansion of the military’s special forces. He was impatient with the CIA’s bureaucracy and despised the analytical division for throwing cold water on the anti-Soviet hysteria the Reagan administration was drumming up. He purged the whole division replacing them with analysts who would toe the party line. Yet he fully realized how vulnerable the Soviet Union was and helped engineer its downfall. To get around CIA red tape Casey liked to rely on private businessmen and other cut outs. To be closer to the President Casey had took an office in the Executive Office Building close to Oliver North’s. North met with Casey regularly. Casey was a major influence on National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane. North would report to both Casey and McFarlane on his Iran-Contra project. Just as the Iran/Contra scandal was breaking Casey’s brain cancer incapacitated him. He was sent to a CIA approved hospital for radical brain surgery, which left him conveniently unable to communicate. He died a few months later.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The war on Nicaragua would escalate in a major way in spring 1982. Now renamed the FDN and having the full support of the CIA, the Contras launched 106 attacks between 14 March 1982 and 21 June 1982. They blew up the bridges connecting Honduras and Nicaragua, assassinated minor government officials and began sniper attacks on Nicaraguan troop convoys. Also in 1982 the CIA would recruit Eden Pastora who played a heroic role during the revolution but turned traitor. He would relocate to Costa Rica where his much smaller ARDE force would attempt to open a southern front. Late in 1982 the CIA would recruit 8 civilians with anti-Somoza reputations to serve as the FDN’s civilian directorate in an attempt to defuse criticism that the FDN was made up of entirely of Somoza’s National Guard, infamous for the horrific war crimes committed under Somoza and continuing equally horrific crimes against Nicaragua with CIA backing. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> This was only a small part of the psychological warfare strategy the Reagan administration was waging on the US public and the world at large. In 1982 Casey would transfer veteran CIA propagandist Walter Raymond Jr. to the NSC to run the Intelligence division and launch a Public Diplomacy campaign. Public Diplomacy (like the term public relations) was the latest euphemism for propaganda and psychological operations. Raymond led the campaign to ensure that Reagan’s delusional analysis of events in Central America would become the prevailing wisdom. Raymond and his lackey Otto Reich, who would be in charge of the State Departments office of Public Diplomacy for Latin American affairs or S/LPD, would wage war on investigative journalists. The press was used to “Following the State Department line.” Now if they failed to follow that script by exposing war crimes in Central America, Otto Reich might personally arrive to bully their editors or producers. Oliver North worked closely with Raymond and Reich attending over 70 meetings of the S/LPD. Many journalists were fired as a result. They also spread wild rumours about journalists critical of administration policy accusing female journalists of having Sandinista lovers and male journalists of being supplied by the Sandinistas with prostitutes of either sex. North went further, telling the FBI Robert Parry had poisoned his dog (that had actually died of old age). They also set up a network of journalists, who were actually secretly on the state payroll, to write opinion pieces for publication in the <span style="font-style: italic;">New York Times</span> or the <span style="font-style: italic;">Wall Street Journal</span>. Later they would also illegally fund the “Contra Lobby”: Carl “Spitz” Channell, Richard Miller, and Frank Gomez who were also working closely with Oliver North raising money to buy arms for the Contras and illegally lobby Congress. Raymond’s main goal was “to paint black hats on the Sandinistas and white hats on the Contras” in the process he managed to effectively kill investigative journalism by the end of the 1980’s, according to Robert Parry one of his victims. Raymond called it “Project Truth.”</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Perhaps it is time to fully introduce Oliver North, whose power was steadily growing at the NSC, while “Dewey” Clarridge was running the Contra war. In 8th grade he had been sent away for a year of military school, despite being a very well behaved kid. Later, after attending a Marine training camp in high school, he became obsessed with joining the Marines, attended the Naval Academy, was commissioned into the Marines and happily went to Vietnam. His one worry was that the war would end before he could get there. North was a true believer, never questioning the genocidal war in Vietnam. He led a platoon in Vietnam. After serving his tour returned to testify on behalf of a friend who had helped massacre a village in an incident the press dubbed “The Marine Corps’ My Lai”. While waiting to testify North joined a black ops Marine intelligence unit joining night missions to assassinate Vietnamese on what was basically his vacation. North got his first taste of fame when he and several Marines signed a letter claiming that in all their time in Vietnam they had never witnessed a single war crime or human rights violation by either American or South Vietnamese forces. This was an absolutely absurd lie but it got him invited onto <span style="font-style: italic;">Firing Line</span> the talk show moderated by ex-CIA media pundit William F. Buckley. (Not to be confused with the CIA station chief William Buckley, kidnapped in Beirut) North began training Marines in counter-insurgency, both stateside and in Okinawa. When his wife threatened to leave him he had a nervous breakdown in 1974. He threatened to commit suicide muttering, “I’m no good” and waving a pistol around. He was hospitalized and recovered. His wife did not leave him. The whole incident was covered up later allowing him to be picked for the NSC. In 1975 he was assigned to Headquarters US Marines in the manpower division where he befriended the top brass. He was promoted to major and then assigned to Camp Lejeune. In 1978, after a superior officer gave him a faith healing of his leg, North became an enthusiastic born again Christian. Raised Catholic he now joined a charismatic Episcopalian church. This would prove useful in the Reagan era since North would also work closely with the Christian Right to drum up support for the Contras. He also joined the influential Council on National Policy (CNP.) In 1980 he was sent to the Naval War College. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In 1981 National Security Adviser Richard Allen picked North to join the NSC. Allen would be replaced as National Security Advisor by William Clark, an old Reagan crony from his days as Governor of California. The NSC suddenly had a lot more access to Reagan. Clark would be replaced by his deputy Robert McFarlane, who had been an aide to Kissinger during his secret trips to China. McFarlane hoped to emulate his mentor Kissinger raising the power of the National Security Adviser. Like North McFarlane was a Marine and they soon formed a close father and son type relationship fuelling North’s meteoric rise. One of North’s first assignments was to lobby for the AWACS sale to Saudi Arabia when he met Richard Secord who was also deeply involved with the AWACS sale over at the Pentagon. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">North was assigned to work on Continuity of Government planning where he worked on contingency plans to suspend the Constitution, declare martial law and round up tens of thousands of anti-war activists and hundreds of thousands of Central American refugees in the event of civil unrest in response to the invasion of Nicaragua. Reagan had dreamed of instituting martial law back when he was Governor of California waging war on anti-war protestors, Black and Latino radicals and others. Luis Giuffrida as head of California Specialized Training Institute was a key mastermind of this plan called Cable Splicer. As president Reagan appointed Luis Giuffrida to run FEMA. In the Reagan era continuity of government plans would expand from post-nuclear war scenarios to terror attacks including even civil unrest. In 1984 Oliver North would use the Rex-84 exercise as part of a scheme to funnel “surplus” weapons to the Contras. The 1980s Continuity of Government plans would form the blueprint for the government response to 9/11. “Paranoia” over FEMA camps would continue for decades on the Far Right. Ironically back in the 1980s the plan was to recruit the militia movement to serve as State Defence Forces who would conduct these round ups of Central American refugees while right wing militias have been allowed to terrorize refugees at the borders for decades.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> North also began to take an increasing interest in Central America serving under Roger Fontaine at the NSC, eventually replacing him as the NSC point man in charge of Central America. North would serve on the Kissinger Commission, which drew up a blueprint for continuing Reagan’s dirty war in Central America. Soon North was serving as the NSC representative on the RIG the Restricted Interagency Group on Central America, where he worked closely with Dewey Clarridge, the CIA representative. Eventually the RIG, composed of Oliver North of the NSC, CIA Central America Task Force chief Alan Fiers, and Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Elliot Abrams, would run Central American policy while also supervising Walter Raymond’s Public Diplomacy campaign as the RIG triumvirate or RIGlet.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Having introduced North, let us return to “Dewey” Clarridge’s Contra war back in late 1982. In December 1982 in response to the massive expansion of the Contras, their aggressive attacks, reports of massacres, the expansion of the war to Costa Rica (which since it was south of Nicaragua did not fit the cover story of “interdicting arms heading for El Salvador”) Congress adopted “Boland I” forbidding the Reagan administration from using the Contras to overthrow the Nicaraguan Government. Reagan signed it and DCI Casey merely ignored it. In Casey’s view, he could deny that his goal was to overthrow the Nicaraguan government up until he actually succeeded in doing so. Instead his worry was that the war was behind schedule. In 1983 there was yet another escalation in the Contra war. In 1983 Dewey Clarridge commissioned the Contra handbook “Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare.” which the Press would later dub the “assassination manual” or “the murder manual”. It argued for selective terror against loyal Nicaraguans and assassinating contras to create martyrs. Ignoring Boland I, it called for the overthrow of the Nicaraguan government. It would cause a scandal when exposed by journalist Robert Parry. In May 1983 Reagan openly praised the Contras as freedom fighters for the first time and bragged that the US was funding them. He would later claim, “I am a Contra.” and compare them to the US Founding Fathers. He was serving as the mouthpiece for the public diplomacy campaign, which advised claiming that the Contras were freedom fighters fighting for democracy, when they might more accurately be described, judging them by their tactics and origins, as bloodthirsty death squads and terrorists pining for the days when Nicaragua was run by a fascist dictator. The Contras massacred peasants, raped, tortured, and killed in the grisly manner favoured by CIA-trained death squads, mutilating their victims with knives and machetes. The Contras blew up buildings and burned down hospitals and grain silos. They terrorized not just Nicaraguans but Hondurans, and Costa Ricans. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">By summer 1983 it had become clear that “Dewey” Clarridge would be unable to meet his deadline to topple the Sandinistas by Christmas 1983. Cuban and Soviet economic aid were preventing the US sanctions and economic warfare from collapsing the economy. Nicaragua was successfully repelling the Contra attacks. “Dewey” Clarridge came up with a plan to destroy Nicaragua’s economic infrastructure. Since the Contras were not up to the job he would have the CIA do it themselves utilizing UCLAs or Unilaterally Controlled Latino Assets Cuban-Americans, Mexican Americans, and Puerto Ricans who were military and probably special forces veterans but who, if killed, could be passed off as Nicaraguans. He purchased a huge mother ship as a base for a fleet of speedboats and starting in fall 1983 began trying to destroy Nicaragua’s oil infrastructure. On 8 September 1983, the UCLAs attacked an oil pipeline and docks at Puerto Sandino. On 10 October 1983, the UCLAs set fire to the oil storage facility in Corinto, forcing the entire town to evacuate. In December 1983, as a compromise between those who wanted to end all aid to Contras and those who wanted it to continue, Congress voted to cap Contra aid at USD 24 million in fiscal year 1984. Undeterred Dewey Clarridge presented a plan to Casey to mine Nicaraguan harbours, an act of open warfare under international law. Casey and Reagan gave Dewey Clarridge the green light. “Dewey” Clarridge convinced the Contra leadership to take responsibility although in reality it was the CIA’s UCLAs who carried out the mining. The mining began on 1 January and lasted until 24 April 1984. Casey claimed he had properly informed Congress but since he was a mumbler and it was buried in the middle of his testimony no one had noticed. While Casey had mentioned the mining he had lied and said the Contras had carried out the mining. In any case when the Press reported the mining in April 1984, it was a major scandal. Dewey Clarridge had spent nearly all the Contras’ USD 24 million 1984 budget on the mining and other attacks. When the scandal broke Clarridge was in South Africa begging for arms and cash to fund the Contras. South Africa was willing to send arms and money since it was working closely with the US running its own Contra-style wars in Angola and Mozambique. Nicaragua’s Cuban allies were aiding Angola’s MPLA government against what became a disastrous South African invasion. The Reagan administration decided that because of the mining scandal it should avoid further controversy that could arise by working with the South African apartheid regime—although Reagan was one of its strong supporters.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Eventually the harbour mining scandal and the assassination manual scandal would lead to the passage of Boland II in October 1984. In the meantime Reagan would order his National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane to find a way to keep the Contras together “Body and Soul” even if Congress cut off their funds. McFarlane picked his protégé Oliver North to run the operation. It had been planned to hand the Contra war over to the NSC back in 1983 when the 24 million dollar spending cap was imposed. In February 1984 McFarlane had asked Israel to take over the Contras. The Israelis had basically taken over for the US in Guatemala although the US was secretly still heavily involved there. McFarlane hoped they would play a similar role advising the Contras. Israel refused for fear of endangering their bipartisan stranglehold on the US Congress, but they would play a key role in arming the Contras. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Dewey Clarridge introduced North to the Contra leaders as the new point man on the Contra operation. Casey suggested North recruit Richard Secord to run the Contra resupply operation. North sent Secord down to meet with the Contras and obtain “a shopping list” of weapons and supplies they needed. Secord would be in charge of weapons procurement charging a 38% mark-up to the Contras. His partner Iranian exile Albert Hakim began setting up a network of shell companies like Energy Resources International, Lake Resources, Udall Corp, and Amalgamated Commercial Enterprises, adding to the shell companies and fronts they had already set up as part of their business, like Stanford Technology Group. They called it the Enterprise while North called it “Project Democracy”, the dark underbelly of the newly created National Endowment for Democracy. All this is standard operating procedure in the shadowy world of military contractors, arms dealers, offshore bankers, private intelligence firms, transport specialists, and crisis management populated by ex-spies, ex-military operating under the unofficial protection of the US and other governments. Soon Secord hired his old EATSCO partner Thomas Clines to handle the arms deal when his first deal involving Canada’s Transworld Arms and China faced delays over the fake Guatemalan end user certificates. These had made China hesitant because Guatemala was a close ally of Taiwan. Clines’ source was Defex of Portugal whose board had close ties to Clines. Clines would bring in CIA Cuban and assassin Rafael “Chi Chi” Quintero to run things on the ground in El Salvador. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Another key member of the Enterprise was Rob Owen supposedly a civilian. Owen’s brother was in the State Department (or possibly CIA) and was killed in Vietnam. Owen went to work for the International Rescue Committee, a CIA front, in Vietnam. He then joined future Vice President Dan Quayle’s staff. CIA rancher John Hull paid him a visit and Owen became obsessed with helping the Contras. He went to work for CIA-tied Gray & Co, a PR firm owned by Robert Keith Gray who had long worked with the CIA in looting Latin America. The Contras tried to hire Gray & Co to do their PR but the deal was vetoed by a former Kennedy aid. Owen quit and went to work for the FDN and soon became North’s courier to the Contras. Owen worshipped North whom he called “The Hammer” and “Old Blood and Guts.” Owen ran his own one-man pro-contra NGO IDEA.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In addition to setting up a privatized network to cope with reduced CIA involvement it was necessary to find a new source of funds. National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane turned to the Saudis, meeting with Ambassador Bandar Bin Sultan (aka “Bandar Bush”) in May 1984. Ambassador Bandar Bin Sultan agreed to supply USD 1 million a month to the Contras with the permission of King Fahd. In February 1985 the Saudi’s would double their donation after President Reagan met with King Fahd. The Saudis total contribution was USD 32 million. WACL head retired General John Singlaub and Oliver North eventually convinced Taiwan to donate USD 2.7 million. “Dewey” Clarridge had gotten the South Africans to provide arms money and advisers but the deal was cancelled or delayed due to the harbour mining scandal. South Africa did supply millions to the network of Cold War lobbyists and New Right propagandists the Reagan Administration relied on to sell their policies to the public and pressure or unseat congressional opponents critical of the Contras and other Reagan policies. In 1986 prior to the scandal breaking Elliot Abrams convinced the Sultan of Brunei to give USD 10 million to the Contras but due to a supposed clerical error by Fawn Hall, North’s secretary, the money ended up instead in the Swiss bank account of Israeli expat Bruce Rappaport a shadowy figure (i.e. connected to organized crime, big business, intelligence and the Israeli Labour Party) Rappaport was a key element in the Iraqgate schemes to build a Bechtel oil pipeline in Iraq. Rappaport had promised to pay tens of millions of dollars to Israeli politicians for the promise not to blow up the Iraqi pipeline. Abrams would almost land in prison for his blanket denials to Congress when questioned on whether the State Department was soliciting 3rd country donors saying, “We are not in the fundraising business”. The Reagan Administration would solicit aid from over two dozen countries on behalf of the Contras.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> It was also vital to keep Central American countries supportive of the Contras, a policy that was as unpopular in their countries as it was in the US. Their support was maintained via illegal quid pro quo deals. The Reagan administration could only ask for aid to the Contras if there were no strings attached, if congress was informed and if there was a presidential finding. President Reagan and Vice President Bush would personally violate the law intervening with heads of state in Central America offering quid pro quos and threatening aid cut offs. If the countries agreed to support the Contras they would get huge increases in military and economic aid. If they tried to interfere with the Contras they were threatened with aid cut offs. In El Salvador and Guatemala these arms shipments would be used in their US backed dirty wars on peasants and workers that would claim 300,000 lives. Mexico was home to Contra training camps under the protection of the infamous Guadalajara cartel that were considered so sensitive that DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena Salazar and Mexico’s top investigative journalist Manuel Buendia were both murdered to cover it up. Buendia was assassinated by Mexico’s CIA trained DFS. Bush’s man Felix Rodriguez was there to interrogate “Kiki” Camarena as the cartel tortured him to death. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Guatemala was used to supply fake end user certificates for the Enterprise’s Contra arms deals. El Salvador’s Ilopongo airbase would be the supply depot for the Contras as Honduras did not want direct supply flights from the US. Bush’s National Security Adviser Donald Gregg had sent Felix Rodriguez to El Salvador as an adviser on using helicopter strike teams in their dirty war in the countryside as well as to run the Contra resupply at Ilopongo. Rodriguez had run a similar program under Gregg in Vietnam when they were in the CIA. Rodriguez had formed a tight bond with the El Salvadoran Air Force General Juan Rafael Bustillo. Before leaving for El Salvador Rodriguez met with Bush and then SouthCom Commander in chief Paul Gorman who flew Rodriguez down to Ilopongo. Eventually Rodriguez would clash with the Enterprise. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Honduras was the Contras’ main base and the US was constantly forced to intervene whenever Honduras would threaten to withdraw support or jealously seize Contra weapon shipments of surface to air missiles that the US supplied to the Contras but not Honduras. Vice President Bush personally flew to Honduras as Reagan’s special envoy to offer a quid pro quo to Honduran President Suazo. Amusingly at an earlier National Security Planning Group meeting Bush had warned the cabinet that such quid pro quos were illegal. The Honduran military, who worked closely with the Contras, were also involved in a massive drug smuggling operation. Honduran General Jose Bueso-Rosa was busted in Florida and USD 40 million in cocaine was seized by the FBI. General Buso Rosa was planning to use this drug deal to finance the assassination of Honduras’ new President. Oliver North and Elliot Abrams lobbied on his behalf to get the charges dropped and when that failed to get him a lighter sentence in a minimum-security prison. They were worried General Bueso-Rosa might expose the illegal contra resupply operation. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Panama was a key Contra supporter General Noriega’s main adviser was Michael “Mad Mike” Harari a notorious Mossad veteran who was making a fortune supplying Panama’s air force with US parts and using that as a cover to smuggle cocaine to the US. A long-time CIA asset Noriega donated tens of millions to the Contras along with his business partner Harari in exchange for the US’s ignoring his involvement in drug smuggling and money laundering. Panama would supply an explosives expert to ex-SAS British mercenary David Walker for an attack that blew up an arms depot in downtown Nicaragua, also sparking a fire that destroyed a nearby military hospital. Just prior to the Iran/Contra scandal breaking Oliver North met personally with Noriega on a plan to pay Panama one million dollars and fix Noriega’s PR problems in exchange for Noriega’s help launching terror attacks on Nicaragua. Noriega offered to loan the US teams to carry out assassinations. The plan also called for setting up a Contra training base in Panama where Panamanian and Israeli advisers would create a western front in the Contra war targeting the capital Managua. Noriega was having PR problems because an article by Seymour Hersh had exposed Noriega’s drug empire in the <span style="font-style: italic;">New York Times</span> a couple months before. Casey and Bush had also held personal meetings with Noriega.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Costa Rica was host to a much smaller Contra force than Honduras but was even more resistant to supporting the Contras. It was home to secret airstrips used to supply the Contras. The most infamous was John Hull’s ranch where drugs were smuggled, mercenaries housed, and the La Penca bombing was allegedly planned. The La Penca bombing took place 30 May 1984. Eden Pastora had refused to merge his forces with the FDN, ignoring a CIA ultimatum. Eight people were killed, including three journalists, one of whom was an American, Linda Frazier. Seventeen were injured, including Tony Avirgan. Avirgan and his wife Martha Honey would investigate the bombing. The trail would lead to John Hull’s Ranch and a meeting attended by North’s courier Rob Owen and CIA station chief Joe Fernandez. For months Hull had been plotting the assassination of Pastora, whom he viewed as a “Commie.” Mercenaries who frequented Hull’s ranch claimed that there was also a plot to kill Ambassador Lewis Tambs and blame Nicaragua as a pretext for a US invasion. It would also allow the Contras to collect a million dollar bounty the Medellin Cartel had put on Tambs. Avirgan and Honey sought the aid of the Christic Institute when Hull sued them for libel and tried to frame them as drug traffickers. Eventually they became the plaintiffs in the Christic Institute civil lawsuit against the Iran Contra conspirators. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Costa Rica was also home to the Santa Elena airstrip which North had the Enterprise purchase through the dummy corporation, Udall Research Corporation, set up by North’s friend ex-Marine William Haskell under the fake name Robert Olmstead. North’s alias throughout the Iran Contra affair was “William Goode” Secord’s was Richard Copp. Copp Goode and Olmstead were listed as the board of directors of Udall Research Corporation. The airstrip was built through the efforts of Ambassador Lewis Tambs and CIA chief of Station Joe Fernandez. Costa Rica’s Minister for Public Security Benjamin Piza was on the CIA payroll and was the airstrip’s Costa Rican protector. His reward was a trip to DC for a personal photo op with Reagan. CIA chief of station Fernandez would blatantly violate the Boland amendment by serving as the Contra’s communications officer supervising arms drops. Charges were later dropped against Fernandez when the CIA refused to cooperate. When Oscar Arias was elected President of Costa he ordered Santa Elena shut down, but his government ignored him. Eventually in 1986 his government would raid Santa Elena and expose the Udall Corporation despite the panicked efforts of the Reagan Administration. Arias would later win the Nobel Prize for his Arias Peace plan, the blueprint for ending Central America’s bloody dirty wars.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In addition to seeking donations and support from other governments North partnered with a domestic fundraising network raising illegal tax-free donations for the Contras; funding a vast domestic propaganda campaign on behalf of Reagan’s Central American dirty wars and engaging in illegal meddling with congressional elections. Carl “Spitz” Channell was the key fundraiser setting up a network of NGO’s like the NEPL (The National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty) and ACT (The American Conservative Trust). His network was closely tied with that of Richard Miller and Frank Gomez who ran IBC (International Business Communications) and other shell companies funded by NEPL and the US State departments S/LPD (Latin American Public Diplomacy.) North would be his unofficial partner. North would give a sales pitch in the form of an intelligence briefing often at his NSC offices. North was a great salesman who could reduce donors to tears. Then after explaining what the Contras needed and what it cost he would exit the room and Channell would ask for a donation. The biggest funders were right wing widows like Ellen Garwood. The Contras named the helicopter she bought them the Lady Ellen in her honour and she donated millions to Channell. Hollywood had this elderly widow played by Julia Roberts in <span style="font-style: italic;">Charlie Wilson’s War</span> since she was also a key backer of the Afghan Mujahedeen. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The second biggest donors were infamous right wing billionaires like Nelson Bunker Hunt and Joseph Coors, who had been funding a vast network of warmongering, racist, sexist and homophobic NGO’s for decades. Hunt, Coors and other men gave hundreds of thousands to the NEPL. Donors who gave over $300,000 were rewarded with a personal meeting with President Reagan. North wrote them thank you notes on NSC stationary, and sent them commemorative souvenirs, while Channell would send the lonely widows gift baskets for the holidays. The NEPL raised USD 3.9 million in 1985 and USD 7 million in 1986. The NEPL spent half the money it raised on USD 5 million in consulting fees and salaries for Channell and his cronies. A quarter went to the Contras via Secord’s Lake Resources Swiss accounts USD 2.7 million. Another USD 2.3 million funded the “Contra Lobby” which bought attack ads in states with swing votes on Contra funding. They also funded a vast domestic propaganda campaign on behalf of the Contras. Although the public remained opposed in 1985 Congress gave in and voted for USD 27 million in “humanitarian assistance” to the Contras. In summer 1986 their lobbying campaign would convince Congress to vote USD 100 million in lethal aid to the Contras. However there was a 3-month delay before the funds became available so the illegal resupply operation continued, only to be exposed on 5 October 1986 when a plane carrying arms was shot down.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The Contras relied on three main arms dealers, “The Arms Supermarket”, Secord’s Enterprise, and Singlaub’s GeoMiliTech. As North and Secord’s affairs became more entangled and corrupt, North forced the Contras to buy solely from “The Enterprise” and even put “The Enterprise” in charge of all the Contras funds. The Arms Supermarket had been set up with the support of Vice President Bush, and his National Security Adviser Donald Gregg, who sent Felix Rodriguez to help supervise it. It was founded with USD 14 million in drug money (according to North) and was run by Ronald Martin, James McCoy, and Mario Dellamico another Cuban exile. It ran a massive warehouse with millions of dollars in weapons. It was closely allied to the Honduran Military via Colonel Hector Aplicano and the Israelis. The Arms Supermarket was implicated in the death of money launderer and Cuban exile John F. Molina, who was killed by a Colombian hit team in Panama.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> GeoMiliTech (GMT) was owned by Barbara Studley, a former beauty queen turned talk show host. GeoMiliTech was a strange company. It partnered with both China and Israel to supply Chinese and East Bloc weapons to “Contras” waging covert wars around the world in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Cambodia and of course Nicaragua. They also bought East Bloc arms from Austrian arms dealer Werner Glatt, who supplied the CIA with East Bloc weapons. GMT became an exclusive dealer for certain Israeli weapons systems and had offices in Israel. GMT supplied USD 5.3 million in weapons to the Contras. Behind Barbara Studley were General John K. Singlaub and General Daniel Graham the former head of the DIA. Singlaub had been forced to retire as head of US and Korean forces in South Korea after publicly criticizing President Carter’s troop reductions in South Korea. He had served in the OSS in China and Europe, the CIA and the military in Korea and had headed the Special Operations Group in Vietnam (SOG-MACV.) He had started the new US WACL branch the USCWF the US Council on World Freedom and would be elected to head WACL worldwide The World Communist League was an umbrella group combining fascist émigrés and former Nazis, right wing politicians, drug dealing Asian dictators, and Latin American death squad heads like Mario Sandoval Alrarcon and Roberto D’Aubuisson. In the 1980s WACL was a vehicle for implementing the Reagan doctrine of global “low intensity warfare”, generating solidarity among fascists worldwide and support for World War 3 as they called the “cold war”. The Ukrainians had actually long argued for the need to start a nuclear war to “liberate” Eastern Europe. WACL was used as a diversion from North’s enterprise funnelling private donations to the Contras. Singlaub sent millions in non-lethal aid to the Contras on behalf of WACL. Singlaub was very tight with Taiwan and South Korea who funded the US chapter of WACL and whom he would approach to solicit donations with North and McFarlane’s permission. When the Hasenfus flight was shot down, exposing the illegal contra resupply operation, Elliot Abrams tried to blame the whole thing on Singlaub, who angrily denied it. GeoMiliTech would later go bankrupt in the 1990’s as a result of embezzlement and fraud.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The Enterprise purchased its weapons from DEFEX in Portugal, arms bought with fake Guatemalan end user certificates. Around 28 June 1985, North called a meeting of Contra leaders in Miami including Adolfo Calero and Richard Secord. North set the stage by tearing into Adolfo Calero about corruption and incompetence in Contra ranks. Then he announced that from then on the Enterprise would be in charge of the Contras funds. He also announced The Enterprise would set up a system to airdrop arms to Contras in the field. Secord recruited Richard Gadd to run the Enterprise’s private air force, later replacing him with the more competent Robert Dutton. All three were involved in planning Carter’s failed hostage rescue back in 1980 that had ended in disaster. Gadd set up a shell company to rent planes from “former” CIA airline SAT Southern Air Transport, which had a long history of drug trafficking. It took a while to get going. Many of the air drops had to be cancelled because the Contras failed to signal or the pilots could not find the drop zones. Eventually weapons were being dropped airdropped or unloaded in Honduras, Costa Rica, and within Nicaragua itself. Soon the Contras had more arms than they could carry. It was all based in Ilopongo military airbase. The CIA owned one hangar while North’s Enterprise controlled the other. Felix Rodriguez, and Colonel James Steele, the head of US advisers in El Salvador (who would later set up death squads in Iraq), worked with the Salvadorans and the Enterprise pilots. Also there was Cuban exile terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, who had blown up a Cubana airliner in 1976 killing 73 people. Another CIA Cuban in Ilopongo was Rafael “Chi Chi” Quintero working for Tom Clines. Predictably Ilopongo became a major drug smuggling hub.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In 1985 Congress caved in and voted USD 27 million in “humanitarian assistance” to the Contras. The CIA and the military were barred from having anything to do with it so the State Department set up the NHAO Nicaraguan Humanitarian Assistance Office run by Robert Duemling. However unknown to Congress, Robert Duemling was forced to answer to North, Fiers and Elliot Abrams of the RIG. They forced him to hire Rob Owen and soon the NHAO was hiring the Enterprise as well as known drug traffickers to carry “humanitarian assistance.” NHAO flights were run out of Ilopongo and Felix Rodriguez did not bother to keep the NHAO operation separate from that of the Enterprise. By day they were NHAO flights by night the same planes and pilots were used to fly arms.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In late 1985 North got the idea to use the proceeds of the Iran arms sales to fund the Contras. Early in 1986 Reagan adopted North and Poindexter’s plan to cut the Israelis out of the Iran arms deals having the Enterprise act as the middleman. The diversion idea soon was put into place although Secord and Hakim did not send the Contras as much as North wanted, giving them around USD 3.5 million instead of the USD 12 million North had originally envisioned in the “Diversion Memo”. They had operating costs and of course wanted to make a hefty profit. North, the true believer, was not above a bit of petty corruption himself when he had funnelled the Saudi money to the Contras Cayman bank account controlled by Adolfo Calero. Calero had then sent North $100,000 in travellers’ checks North could use to cover expenses. North used this slush fund however he pleased, issuing travellers’ checks to Rob Owen and Fawn Hall as well as spending them on himself. North also had Secord buy him an electric gate installed by ex-CIA man Glen Robinette. Secord had also hired Robinette to dig up dirt on Tony Avirgan and Martha Honey down in Costa Rica. Finally Secord’s partner Albert Hakim set up a USD 200,000 trust for North’s children in the event of North’s death. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> By fall of 1986, USD 100 million in congressional funds were about to become available. Earlier in the year Reagan, North and Abrams had come up with a “Plan B”. If Contra aid failed to pass they would have had the Contras seize a strip of Nicaraguan territory defended by the Guatemalan and El Salvadoran militaries, which the US would then recognize as an independent state allowing Reagan to send tens of millions in emergency aid. Abrams would later adapt this scheme for Venezuela recognizing Juan Guiado as Venezuela’s president so they could seize all the countries assets. However Walter Raymonds Public Diplomacy and the NEPL Contra lobby managed to pressure congress into passing the USD 100 million in aid. North was relieved. He had only been sleeping 3 or 4 hours a night for years, he was so busy. He was starting to go a bit crazy. McFarlane and his replacement John Poindexter worried. North hoped the CIA would buy the Enterprise air force for a couple million and the Enterprise would be redeployed into a new theatre in the war perhaps Africa. The Reagan administration was on the verge of getting away with blatantly violating the Boland amendment. It had been exposed in the Press back in 1985 and again in 1986 but the Press backed off once Congress decided to accept North, McFarlane, and Poindexter’s lame denials. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> On 5 October 1986, one of the Enterprise planes flown by Buzz Sawyer and William Cooper flew from Ilopongo, down Nicaragua's coast into Costa Rica and into southern Nicaragua. A 14-year Sandinista shot the plane down with a Soviet surface to air missile launcher. Eugene Hasenfus “the kicker” was the only one wearing a parachute and managed to jump out of the crashing plane wandering the jungle before being captured the next morning and paraded around the capital and in front of international television. Felix Rodriguez had been the first to break the news of the missing flight, calling the Vice President’s office. Donald Gregg was out so he told Gregg’s aide Sam Wilson. North was in Frankfurt meeting with the Iranians when he got the news. The plane had once belonged to infamous CIA drug smuggler Barry Seal. Seal had been killed 19 February 1986 by a Colombian hit squad after threatening to expose the Contra resupply operation and Vice President George H.W. Bush. After their arrest the Colombian’s said they were taking orders from a lieutenant colonel they later identified as Oliver North. That story would be buried. The mainstream version was that Seal was killed by the Colombians after being exposed as a DEA informant and part of North’s scheme to frame the Sandinista’s for drug trafficking. Hasenfus’ testimony provoked a media firestorm by claiming he was working for the CIA and naming “Max Gomez”. The Press discovered the phone records of one of the Enterprise safe houses showing calls to the NSC. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Reagan, Secretary of State Schultz, and Elliot Abrams all went public denying any government connection to the Contra resupply operation. Abrams went on CNN and issued one of his trademark blanket denials even when asked specifically about a possible NSC connection. He told Congress he had no idea who “Max Gomez” was. So did the CIA’s Deputy Director of Operations Claire George, who held in his hands a briefing book identifying Max Gomez as Felix Rodriguez. Meanwhile the entire Enterprise air force was supposedly flown out of El Salvador to the US where it was buried with massive quantities of explosives, blown up, then set on fire. I find it a little hard to believe since usually these CIA drug planes are transferred from shell company to shell company no matter how notorious their history. Yet again many in the media and Congress choose to accept administration denials of involvement in supporting the Contras in violation of the Boland Amendment, ignoring the mountains of evidence implicating the Reagan Administration. It was only when the Iran deal was exposed the next month and Attorney General Edwin Meese exposed the “diversion” of profits to the Contras that the scandal would finally explode. Ed Meese had seized on the diversion memo to divert attention from Reagan’s involvement in the illegal Iran arms sales of 1985. Had these arms sales, conducted without a presidential finding and in violation of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Arms Export Control Act</span>, been exposed, President Reagan could have faced impeachment, with jail sentences for many of the Iran-Contra conspirators. At least that is what might have happened if American’s truly lived in a democracy rather then a national security state.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> I will deal with the Iran arms for hostage deals in part 3.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Sources</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Malcolm Byrne’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Iran-Contra: Reagan’s Scandal and the Unchecked Abuse of Presidential Power</span> is the definitive mainstream version of events.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, The Press & Project Truth</span> by Robert Parry gives many details left out of mainstream accounts. He has an in-depth discussion of the Contra drug connection as well as the role of drugs in Panama and Honduras. He also discusses the Reagan Administration’s Public Diplomacy campaign that destroyed investigative journalism in the US.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Theodore Draper wrote the earlier definitive mainstream account back in the 1990’s <span style="font-style: italic;">‘A Very Thin Line: The Iran Contra Affairs</span>” It is longer and more detailed than Byrne’s although the author has a sinister past (former communist turned anti-communist scholar for various CIA funded fronts) that makes him all too willing to trust the CIA and fail to dig deeply into the scandal. He never mentions drugs. Still it’s worth reading for anyone interested in the Iran side of Iran Contra.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Firewall: The Iran Contra Conspiracy and Cover-Up</span> by Lawrence E. Walsh the Independent Counsel in The Iran-Contra Investigation offers a long account of his office’s investigation and prosecution of Oliver North and other Iran-Contra conspirators. It is fun to see the case slowly unravel and Walsh’s investigation revealed a great deal that Congress failed to uncover. He gradually begins to have more evidence about the role of then President George H. W. Bush and former President Ronald Reagan in the scandal.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Guts and Glory: The Rise and Fall of Oliver North</span> by Ben Bradlee Jr. is a detailed and entertaining account of the life of Oliver North and the Iran Contra scandal although it came out too early to contain some of the later evidence uncovered. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: italic;">The Iran Contra Scandal the Declassified History</span> Edited by Peter Kornbluh and Malcolm Byrne provides a valuable resource for studying the Iran-Contra Scandal. It contains compact summaries of events as introductions to reprints of declassified documents released during the Congressional and Walsh investigations, plus a timeline of events and a list of key players.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Secret Warriors: Inside the Covert Military Operations of the Reagan Era</span> by Steve Emerson contains interesting information on the Special Operations role during the Iran-Contra era as well as Emerson’s own take on Iran-Contra. He was given access because he was aligned with the goals of the national security state. Emerson later became an insane neo-con war on terror hysteric.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Casey: From the OSS to the CIA</span> by Joseph Persico contains some interesting information but is generally a complete disappointment. Persico is too naive and inexperienced to write about the CIA, has no idea how they operate and no idea what to examine. It completely fails to provide a full picture of the CIA in the 1980s. The author is way too sympathetic to William Casey. That is why Casey befriended Persico and then his widow granted him access to Casey’s papers.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Dangerous Liaison: The Inside Story of the US-Israeli Covert Relationship</span> by Andrew and Leslie Cockburn is full of shocking details about the Israeli role around the world including their drug smuggling in Panama, Colombia, and Central America.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Malcolm Byrne lecture about his Iran Contra Book</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/xUu8f9rBh_g"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/xUu8f9rBh_g</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A Robert Parry Interview</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/_X3v4Di8YyM"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/_X3v4Di8YyM</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A discussion of the October Surprise</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/2oTY7fQuieY"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/2oTY7fQuieY</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Documentary Cover-Up Behind the Iran Contra Affair</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/ZDdItm-PDeM"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/ZDdItm-PDeM</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My earlier series on Iran Contra</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Part 1 The Secret Team</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/05/irancontra-pt-1-secret-team.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/05/irancontra-pt-1-secret-team.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Part 2 World War 3</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/06/irancontra-pt-2-world-war-3.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/06/irancontra-pt-2-world-war-3.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Part 3 The World Anti-Communist League Part 1</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/07/irancontra-pt-3-wacl.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/07/irancontra-pt-3-wacl.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Part 4 The World Anti-Communist League Part 2</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/08/irancontra-pt-4-wacl-2.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/08/irancontra-pt-4-wacl-2.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Ted Shackley a Life in the CIA</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/12/ted-shackley-life-in-cia.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/12/ted-shackley-life-in-cia.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Old Nazis, New Right (Also covers the Coors Connection)</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2017/10/old-nazis-new-right.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2017/10/old-nazis-new-right.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Subscribe to the Our Hidden History Youtube channel for dozens of Iran/Contra and CIA/Drugs related videos like my interview on Oliver North</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/7LXbeeVJVfs"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/7LXbeeVJVfs</span></a></span></p><div><br /></div>Hugo Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12229123097438571385noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8001402613324067475.post-85605675221379235492022-02-02T13:50:00.002-08:002022-02-02T13:51:16.903-08:00Iran-Contra: Pt 1: The Iran Contra Era V.2<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">The Iran-Contra Era: Global Counter-Revolution,</span></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> and the Triumph of the National Security State</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> My next article will deal in depth with the illegal Contra resupply operation and the Iran arms deal. This article is meant to serve as a brief introduction to the case followed by a much broader analysis of the whole Iran-Contra era. I thought it was best to get some tangents out of my system in this extended introduction. In following the threads that make up the tapestry of the Iran-Contra scandal one is quickly covered with a web of connections that cover the world. The globalization of the covert warfare apparatus, although it did not begin in this era, reached new heights. Faced with the threat of congressional oversight the national security state outsourced covert operations to allied and even enemy countries. It also increasingly privatized covert war, turning to networks of ex-spies and military men, arms dealers, mercenaries, NGO’s lobbyists, religious groups, and drug cartels. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The Iran Contra era stretches from late 1975-1992 covering the final third of the Cold War, which begins in the aftermath of the liberation and reunification of Vietnam, a humiliating defeat for the American Empire. The first post-war chapter of the Cold war had stretched from 1945 (secretly 1943) to 1959 with the Cuban Revolution marking the beginning of the second part of the Cold War. The Cold War had actually begun in 1917 with the Russian revolution and the failed invasion to crush the Soviet Union, followed by the attempt to isolate the USSR, while arming Nazi Germany for an attack on the USSR. World War 2 was only a minor interruption in this cold war. The post-war cold war began in Greece during WW2 as the British attempted to install the Greek fascist collaborators and death squads into power and to destroy the communist partisans that had already liberated Greece. The OSS and MI6 were already planning to recruit the Nazis and their allies to battle the Soviets. The post-war cold war had seen dissent crushed to make way for an anti-Soviet hysteria, the fixing of the Italian elections to prevent a communist victory, the victory of the Chinese Revolution, the US partition of Korea and its subsequent war to prevent national unification, the CIA creation of South Vietnam, coups in Iran and Guatemala and around the world. The Second third of the Cold War covered the Cuban Revolution, the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion, the export of US counter-insurgency advisers around the world to teach torture, and assassination to prevent “another Cuba” and the transformation of the Vietnam war from a covert counter-insurgency campaign to a genocidal military occupation. However the empire managed a major diplomatic success opening relations with the People’s Republic of China. In the Iran-Contra era, China would help the US arm and sometimes train counter-revolutionary forces around the world including UNITA in Angola, the Nicaraguan Contras, and the Afghan Mujahedeen. It also worked with the US backing the Khmer rouge in Cambodia and waging war on Vietnam. Domestically during this second phase of the cold war the civil rights movement and the anti-war movement had briefly awakened some awareness of the ugly realities of the empire. Watergate, the Pinochet coup in Chile, exposed an imperial presidency and the CIA’s role in replacing democratic socialism with fascism. The third chapter began with the post-independence war in Angola when Cuba intervened to foil a US-backed invasion from <span style="font-style: italic;">apartheid</span> South Africa. Congress passed the Clark amendment barring further US involvement but the CIA merely turned to its allies in the Safari club to continue the war, which would last until 1992. The Safari club would also play a key role in giving birth to Al Qaeda. The CIA was already meddling in Afghanistan by the late 70s, in part through the Shah of Iran. The Cuban victory in Angola would ultimately contribute to the fall of the South African apartheid regime in the early 90s. However at the same time American soft power (the NED) had infiltrated and destroyed the Soviet Union, thanks to the treachery and incompetence of Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev was himself overthrown and the Soviet Union disbanded. The Warsaw pact was absorbed into NATO. Russia was ruled by a drunken US puppet named Boris Yeltsin. Hundreds of millions were plunged into poverty and chaos as the country was looted.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Between 1975-1992 the US waged covert and overt dirty wars around the globe in Afghanistan, Libya, Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, Uganda, Congo, Chad, Ethiopia, Somalia, Lebanon, Syria, Grenada, Cambodia, East Timor, Guatemala, El Salvador, Argentina, Nicaragua, Panama, Uruguay, Ecuador, Chile and more. The US was supplying both sides in the Iran/Iraq war. It was backing Israel’s plans to dominate and balkanize the Middle East. It was backing South Africa’s efforts to dominate Southern Africa. These were the true crimes of the Iran/Contra era, the crimes of the American empire. It would take a team of historians to catalogue all the covert wars of the Iran-Contra era, which covered four presidencies, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Bush and to begin to assess the death count. The Clinton years, that strange period between the end of the Cold War and the beginning of the War on Terror, saw the US create chaos around the globe in order to justify the continued existence of the National Security State: the destruction of Yugoslavia, and the wars in Rwanda and the Congo which lead to millions of dead were examples of sophisticated psychological warfare. The US covertly instigated civil wars, fuelling ethnic and tribal strife, while pretending merely to be a concerned bystander and eventually “saviours” when they overtly intervened. The Clinton years, with the destruction of Yugoslavia and its massive NATO expansion, set the stage for the second cold war.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The conventional narrative of Iran-Contra Scandal was consciously created to narrow the focus in time and geography so as to expose as little as possible about the American Empire. It also narrowed the focus to avoid the domestic implications of the scandal. Congress only investigated activities between 1984-1986. Thus the soft coup that brought Reagan to power in 1980 could remain shrouded. Back in late 1975, CIA director William Colby had been fired and replaced with George H. W. Bush. Bush’s ties to the agency went back to the 1950’s when he was recruited into the CIA, a fact he successfully kept secret for decades. While Ambassador to China, Bush and the CIA chief of station James Lilley had recruited Deng Xiaoping who would later rule China and rollback socialism. Bush’s reign as CIA director in 1976 was brief but memorable. He was in charge when Cuban forces managed to halt the South African advance in Angola. He turned to the Safari Club to help the US wage war in Angola. He was in charge when the Argentine junta seized power and began their bloody dirty war. Bush was CIA director when the CIA Cubans formed CORU and launched an international terrorist campaign, including blowing up a Cuban airliner. The culprit Louis Posada Carrilles would later mysteriously “escape” (via CIA bribes) from a Venezuelan prison and end up as part of the Contra resupply operation. 1976 was also the year of the Orlando Letlier bombing when Chile’s former Ambassador was killed in a car bomb set by CIA Cubans working for DINA (Chilean Intelligence.) Bush had ignored the warnings he received that DINA assassins were trying to obtain fake passports for the assassination. After it took place he tried to blame left wing exiles for the Letelier assassination to protect fascist Chile.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> When President Carter won the 1976 election promising to reform the National Security State, Bush begged him to let him keep his job. Carter refused and Bush vowed revenge. Over 40 former and current CIA employees made up the CIA officers for Bush contingent during the Republican primary and the 1980 election. Reagan’s campaign manager was an old OSS hand Bill Casey who had also invented the tax shelter. He created his own team of spies that had moles inside the Carter Administration like Donald Gregg at the NSC, a Bush loyalist. They set out to destabilize Carter. Their friends in the oil industry launched a full-scale economic war on the US to create a phony oil shortage. Carter’s brother was lured into a Libyan arms deal and then exposed. Finally the Reagan campaign resorted to outright treason negotiating a deal with Iran for a huge amount of weapons in exchange for not freeing the hostages until after the election. This part of the scandal is so shocking (to most Americans) that media and academia have largely ignored all the evidence that has emerged over the years in support of it. It is known as the October Surprise. There is another theory called the deep October Surprise in which the US, the UK and France and their allies with Savak and the Shah’s government intentionally helped install Khomeini as preferable to a nationalist or socialist style government in Iran. The October surprise arms deal undermined the secular minded Iranian President Bani Sadr while elevating Khomeini’s faction. The whole world has been reshaped in Reagan’s image. Neo-liberalism has triumphed at home and abroad. Reagan can never be allowed to be exposed as a traitor. The fact that it is accepted that his policies lead to mass murder and genocide around the world show the minor importance most Westerners place on the lives of billions of Third World people. To get excited or angry about such things is bad form. No US president has ever been prosecuted for war crimes.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The Iran-Contra era can thus be seen from multiple angles. America’s War on the World. The National Security State vs the illusion of democracy. The triumph of capitalism, the slashing of the social safety net. The taming of the media. The triumphant return to impunity for the CIA. The rise of Bush from CIA director to President. The mobilization of the Christian right and far right voters. The rise of the imperial presidency. The triumph of the executive branch over any form of checks and balances. The birth of the NED. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Iran-Contra is part of an interlocking pattern of scandals, coups, wars and deep events that go back to the early years of the Cold War and before. Particularly relevant are the coups in Guatemala and Iran, the Bay of Pigs, the JFK, MLK, and RFK and Malcolm X assassinations, Vietnam, the secret war in Laos, Watergate, The Chilean coup of 1973, the Letelier bombing, GLADIO, Nugan Hand, Koreagate, the Ed Wilson affair, the EATSCO scandal, Iraqgate, WACL, BCCI, Inslaw. A rotating cast of characters making multiple appearances. People like E. Howard Hunt, Frank Sturgis, Ted Shackley, Thomas Clines, Richard Secord, and George H.W. Bush. The same names keep popping up. The never-ending scandal of the CIA drug connection. The way things “really work” money laundering, fraud, corruption as standard operating procedure in the alliance between politicians, organized crime, intelligence, and big business that form the basis for the study of “Deep Politics”</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> As I write it is the 35th anniversary of the unravelling of the Iran-Contra scandal. The Reagan administration was caught waging an illegal war on Nicaragua funded in part with profits from the sale to Iran of anti-tank and surface-to-air missiles in exchange for freeing American hostages. Back in 1984 Congress had passed the Second Boland Amendment forbidding any aid or advice to the Contras after the CIA was caught mining Nicaraguan harbours and supplying the Contras with what the Press had dubbed an “Assassination Manual”, a Phoenix program style guide to psychological warfare and armed propaganda. Congress was less offended by the Contras numerous war crimes than the constant lies the administration told them about what the CIA was doing in Nicaragua. Casey had gotten them to agree originally to a 500-man force whose purpose was solely to prevent Nicaragua from arming the Salvadoran guerrillas—the FMLN, who were attempting to overthrow the US-supported, mass-murdering regime in San Salvador. In a couple years they had grown to 12,000 men. Congress passed the first Boland amendment forbidding the Contras from being used to overthrow the Nicaraguan government, Reagan’s and Casey’s actual goal. Now by authorizing the harbour mining without properly informing them Casey had made Congress look like fools. The fact that the Contras operated like a death squad mutilating some village doctor for providing health care or a teacher for providing education were less important to Congress. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The story of the National Security Council and Oliver North’s role in waging an illegal war against Nicaragua had begun to leak in the Press in 1985 thanks to journalists Robert Parry, Brian Barger and Alfonso Chardy. However when Congress chose to accept administration denials, Parry’s editors at AP tried to kill the story. It was Lee Hamilton, head of the House Intelligence Committee and who later chaired the Iran/Contra hearings, who decided to trust North and ignore the investigative journalists. The media was secretly aware that Oliver North was negotiating the hostages release because some of the hostages were journalists. However the colluded in the cover up rather than risk sabotaging the deals. North was in fact in regular contact with Parry’s editors at AP on efforts to release AP journalist Terry Anderson. North was also a favourite source for journalists. North’s role at NSC was basically an open secret. There was also a civil suit filed by the Christic Institute in the wake of the La Penca bombing which hoped to expose a vast criminal conspiracy by ex-CIA and ex-military who were acting as private contractors in the illegal Contra resupply operation and an even more illegal drug importation operation. On 5 October 1986, a plane carrying arms to the Nicaraguan Contras was shot down by a 14-year-old Sandinista with a Soviet surface to air missile (SAM). The cargo kicker, a former Air America (the notorious drug smuggling CIA airline) employee Eugene Hasenfus, was wearing a parachute and managed to jump out of the plane and parachute to the ground. He was captured and began to talk, saying he was working for the CIA and naming “Max Gomez” and others working on the illegal contra resupply operation. Max Gomez turned out to be the notorious Felix Rodriguez, a drug dealing Cuban CIA man whose history went back to the Bay of Pigs invasion and who had helped capture and kill Che Guevara in Bolivia, reportedly keeping Guevara’s severed hands in a jar. He had served in the Phoenix program in Vietnam under Vice President George H.W. Bush’s National Security adviser Donald Gregg. President Ronald Reagan had personally ordered his National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane to find ways to circumvent the Boland Amendment and keep the Contras together “Body and Soul”. McFarlane had put Oliver North in charge of the illegal Contra resupply operation. The scandal went all the way to the top. Likewise by following the threads of the careers of men like Felix Rodriguez it was possible to unravel a great deal of secret history.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In summer 1986, Congress had ironically agreed to restore USD 100 million in lethal aid to the Contras. Hence the Reagan Administration was desperate to cover up their blatant violation of the Boland amendment in case congress decided to change its mind. There was a three-month delay before the funds became available so the illegal contra resupply operation had continued. Elliot Abrams who had been supervising the whole illegal Contra resupply as the State Department representative on the Restricted Interagency Group, along with the NSC’s Oliver North and the CIA’s Alan Fiers. Elliot Abrams was sent out to the Press and Congress to deny everything. Abrams was an expert in lies and denial. His prior role had been Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights when he pretended that El Salvador and Guatemala were showing progress on human rights while they were still waging a campaign of mass murder and genocide. His lies got honest reporters like Raymond Bonner reassigned for exposing massacres during the Central American dirty wars. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Once again many in the media fell for Elliot Abrams categorical denials of any connection between the Reagan administration and the Contra resupply operation that Hasenfus exposed. Generally the US media parrot the line put out by the US State Department, which is why a supposedly independent press are in practice government propagandists. Journalists may be interested in exposing the truth but their editors or producers prefer a cosy relationship with the national security state. They all go to the same dinners and cocktail parties. Luckily before the Contra resupply story could be killed news of the Iran arms for hostages deals were published in the Lebanese newspaper <span style="font-style: italic;">Al Shiras</span>. Once the Western press picked up on it, the story exploded. Reagan had publicly called Iran murder incorporated. Its ally, Hezbollah in Lebanon, had bombed the US embassy killing a dozen CIA Middle East operatives; kidnapped the CIA station chief William Buckley, then bombed the US Marine barracks killing 241. Iran had been officially labelled a terror sponsor by the US, which was waging an international campaign Operation Staunch to force its allies to stop selling arms to Iran. Unlike the illegal war on Nicaragua which was in line with Reagan’s public rhetoric, the Iran arms deals had the potential to alienate Reagan’s right wing base. Moreover if the facts had been known and if there had been the political will, President Reagan could have been impeached or even sent to prison for violation of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Arms Export Control Act</span>. At first the Reagan administration tried its usual strategy of denial but it soon became clear that scapegoats and limited hangouts would be required. The current Attorney General Edwin Meese, a key adviser to Reagan for decades, took charge of the cover-up. He conducted a brief investigation. Then his aides discovered a memo from Oliver North on plans to divert funds from the Iran arms sales to the Contras. Meese checked with North, CIA director Bill Casey, and National Security Adviser Admiral John Poindexter who all agreed that they would shield Reagan by pretending he did not know about the diversion. It became known as the “Diversion Memo” and Meese used it as a giant diversion from Reagan’s illegal authorization of arms sales from Israel to Iran in the fall of 1985. Instead the issue became did the President know about the diversion? “What did he know? and When did he Know it?” was the media refrain echoing Watergate coverage. North was all to happy to play the political fall guy taking full responsibility although when criminal charges loomed he would later reveal that Reagan knew everything he was doing. By then however the Press were again told to kill the story by their editors. Robert Parry at <span style="font-style: italic;">Newsweek</span> was told in 1989 the North trial was not newsworthy. George H.W. Bush was now president thanks to the inability of the Press, the legislative and judicial branches to get to the bottom of the Iran-Contra scandal in which Bush was deeply implicated. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Returning to late 1986: President Reagan appointed the Tower Commission to confirm Meese’s version of events, creating the myth of a rogue National Security Council that Reagan had failed to properly supervise. Then the House and Senate held a circus-like joint investigation of the Iran-Contra scandal broadcast nationwide, where the Democrats aimed to embarrass rather then destroy Reagan. Their strategy backfired when the telegenic Oliver North was embraced as a hero. The Republicans however decided that the only crime had been Congress’ passage of the Boland amendment and their attempt to meddle in the President’s control of foreign policy. That was the view of future Vice President Dick Cheney who was then a House Rep. for Wyoming serving on the Iran-Contra committee. In 2004 at the height of the war on terror he would cite the minority report on the Iran-Contra scandal and its argument for absolute executive power as a blueprint for the Bush Administration’s policies. The price of this failed spectacle which catapulted North to stardom was Congress’ grant of limited immunity to North and Poindexter for anything they might say. This would later sabotage the criminal investigation of the Iran-Contra scandal. The Christic Institute lawsuit was dismissed and they were forced to pay USD 1 million in damages. The Kerry Committee investigated the Contra drug connection but the media ignored or mocked him. An independent counsel was appointed in December 1986. A six-year investigation would gradually unravel the true story of Iran-Contra. However with non-stop obstruction from the intelligence community and the Department of Justice, the court of appeals would overturn the convictions of North and Poindexter. Finally President George Bush, whose Iran-Contra role was becoming ever more exposed, decided to pardon a dozen Iran-Contra figures after loosing the 1992 election to Bill Clinton. Clinton had been tied to CIA man Barry Seals while governor of Arkansas—where much of the gunrunning and drug trafficking was staged. Needless to say President Clinton did not want anyone digging into Iran-Contra either. The story was revived briefly by the heroic journalist Gary Webb. Webb’s career was destroyed. His life ended with apparent suicide. Ironically however thanks to his work the Contra drug connection, a part of the scandal many in the media and Congress wanted to suppress, is now the most well known aspect of the scandal.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Having laid out the basics of the scandal I will provide some historical background. Early in the 19th the US had proclaimed the so-called Monroe Doctrine. Framed as opposing European imperialism in the Americas, it was in reality the US laying claim to the entire hemisphere. As its power grew it began to enforce these claims with bribery, invasions and coups. In the 19th century Nicaragua was embroiled in a civil war between the liberals and conservatives. William Walker had attempted to conquer northern Mexico but failed. The Nicaraguan Liberal party hired American mercenary William Walker and his “Filibusters” to intervene but he decided to seize power and institute slavery. He ruled Nicaragua for a year as a dictator but was forced out when Nicaragua’s neighbours invaded to expel him. He died when he tried to invade and seize power again. Shortly before World War I, the US had invaded and occupied Nicaragua for nearly 20 years. Revolutionary general Augusto Sandino would fight a guerrilla war in the attempt to expel them. Nicaragua would become a laboratory for the use of air power in a counter-insurgency campaign. Sandino was able to survive the bombs and the endless manhunt by US Marines, outsmarting US forces. However once he had signed a peace deal he was assassinated. The US had trained the Nicaraguan National Guard to carry out the dirty war against the Nicaraguan people. They appointed their lackey Anastasio Somoza as its head. He would soon seize power with his family ruling Nicaragua for decades until the 1979 Nicaraguan Revolution. Somoza would be a key backer of the coup to overthrow Jacobo Arbenz in nearby Guatemala in 1954. The coup in Guatemala would form a blueprint for the later, failed Bay of Pigs invasion and later the attempt to overthrow the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> However the dirty war on Nicaragua would be far more brutal and last far longer then the earlier campaigns. After the Cuban Revolution the US had spent two decades training the militaries in Latin American countries to wage dirty wars on their people. In each country Intelligence agencies, the military, and the police waged a coordinated campaign of kidnapping torture and assassination. In the Southern cone countries Operation Condor would unite the regimes in one vast dirty war on the continent. This would occur in the wake of the CIA-backed Chilean coup of Augusto Pinochet, who overthrew elected president Salvador Allende in 1973. The roots went back to the beginnings of the Cold War and the chain of fascist coups that had started much earlier in Brazil in 1964. Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Ecuador, Uruguay, Bolivia, and Paraguay were the first seven members of a network of countries that carried out a coordinated campaign of assassination, torture, and kidnapping. In the 1970s this was increasingly combined with installing neoliberal shock therapy economic reforms in Chile and Argentina. Tiny Central America was home to even worse horrors as hundreds of thousands were killed in dirty wars in Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua under Somoza. Guatemala’s campaign of terror had begun when a wave of military uprisings swept the country in protest over the training of Cuban exiles for the upcoming Bay of Pigs invasion in camps in Guatemala. By the late 60s, it had evolved into a revolutionary armed struggle. Then Guatemala was flooded with CIA and Special Forces advisers to wage a scorched earth campaign to destroy the Guerrillas. In El Salvador after a huge massacre was conducted by the fascist dictator General Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez of Indians and suspected communists that killed 32,000, the government had faced little opposition. The US still sent in its advisers in the 1960s and by the 1970s their endless murder of political opponents and labour had forced the opposition to take up arms. In Nicaragua a revolution had begun in the mid-1970s and Somoza had waged a brutal scorched earth campaign in an attempt to hold onto power. But on 26 July 1979, he was forced to flee the country and for the first time since Cuba in 1959, a revolution had succeeded in overthrowing a brutal US-backed dictator. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The Carter administration had cut off aid to Somoza because of his outrageous war crimes and refusal to negotiate with the opposition. Somoza turned to Israel for arms. Israel was also playing key roles in the dirty wars in El Salvador and Guatemala providing arms and advisers, helping Guatemala carry out genocide against the Maya Indians. Five hundred of Somoza’s national guard, who had carried out numerous war crimes, relocated briefly to Guatemala taking shelter with the “Godfather of the Death Squads” Mario Sandoval Alarcon. They were determined to follow the example of the Cuban exiles and wage covert war on revolutionary Nicaragua. Soon they were joined by Argentine advisers fresh from their own dirty war. They arrived after having recently carried out the Bolivian cocaine coup and began to advise these Contras or counter-revolutionaries. The Carter administration hoped to use aid as leverage to control Nicaragua’s new government. The CIA was doubtless already backing the Contras, who named themselves the <span style="font-style: italic;">15 September Legion</span> and began carrying out kidnappings, terrorism, and drug smuggling. Reagan would be elected in part through illegal campaign donations from Central American oligarchs in Guatemala and El Salvador who had been promised full support in waging their dirty wars by former DIA director General Daniel Graham and General John Singlaub, a military/CIA man and future World Anti-Communist League head. Reagan would keep this promise, vastly escalating the wars in Central America. 300,000 would die in Guatemala and El Salvador in the name of preventing “another Nicaragua.” Torture rape and mass murder were standard operating procedures. Like in Nicaragua, the administration would lie to Congress to carry out the dirty wars in Guatemala and El Salvador and constantly find ways to circumvent any congressional limits to US support. This never became a scandal. In Nicaragua 35,000 would perish in attacks by the Contra death squads. Casey put Duane “Dewey” Clarridge in charge of Latin America and he ran the Contras until turning them over to Oliver North in the wake of Boland II. Clarridge was transferred to head the European Division, where he would help arm the Contras and facilitate the Iran arms deals.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> To summarize the Cold War history of the Middle East would be impossible in so short a space and would require months or years of extra research. The US’s backing of Israel alienated the entire region. The US scheme to create a Middle Eastern version of NATO and its constant coups to install pro-western regimes would backfire. In Iran in 1953 the CIA overthrew prime minister Mossadegh and restored Shah Pahlavi. Mossadegh, a fervent secular nationalist, had been branded a communist for nationalizing the British owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (British Petroleum). He had expelled all the British spies and diplomats after their failed coup plots and attempt to lay siege to the country and prevent it from selling oil. The British were forced to turn to the CIA and after the coup they turned over half of Iran’s oil over to US corporations. The CIA and Mossad trained the Shah’s secret police, the Savak, to torture and murder their opponents. Iran became a top customer of the American military industrial complex. Richard Secord would serve as an air force adviser in the 1960s and then after serving in Vietnam and Laos return in the late 1970s as head of the US military assistance program. He would meet various corrupt Iranian businessmen with intelligence ties that would later appear in the October surprise and Iran Contra scandals. Then he would supervise arms sales at the Pentagon. In Egypt the CIA recruited Nasser’s successor Sadat. He would sabotage the 1973 Arab Israeli war, expel the Soviet advisers from Egypt. President Carter then convinced Sadat to completely betray the Arab cause by signing a separate peace deal with Israel. His reward was a massive increase in weapons sales from the US. Secord at the Pentagon was a silent partner along with Ted Shackley in EATSCO, a transport company run by Ed Wilson and Thomas Clines, created to profit off the Egyptian arms sales. However Sadat’s peace deal was an obstacle to Israeli plans to invade Lebanon. His security personnel were trained by American advisers connected to EATSCO. The Muslim Brotherhood assassinated him. Mubarak who was also a key figure in the Egyptian side of skimming money from the arms sales was installed as Egypt’s new leader. In the late 1970s, Ed Wilson would be part of a scheme to supply huge amounts of C4 explosives and special forces advisers to Libya in order to gain intelligence on the revolutionaries and nationalists that Gaddafi allowed to train there and in the hopes of stealing Soviet weapons systems. Wilson was carrying out an off the books operation for the CIA but they denied any connection to him. His business partners Secord, Shackley, and Clines had grown envious of the vast wealth he had amassed running CIA front companies. Once Reagan became president, Libya was falsely blamed for a number of terrorist attacks like the La Belle disco attack in Berlin and the Lockerbie bombing. The US would wage a proxy war on Libya via Chad, and shoot down Libyan aircraft and boats attempting to defend their territorial waters during American war games. The campaign would culminate in a bombing raid aiming to assassinate Gaddafi, which would wound his wife and seven children and kill his adopted baby daughter. Dozens of civilians would also be killed. This occurred in 1986 during the height of the Iran-Contra scandal. Oliver North, who was also the terror czar, was a key planner of the attacks. Gaddafi would survive until the 2011 NATO war when Libya was bombed into submission while Al Qaeda terrorists seized the country. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Lebanon was another country that was key to understanding the Iran-Contra affair. Israel saw it as a key testing ground for its Oded Yinon style plans to balkanize the Middle East. Lebanon was divided along religious lines and its political parties each represented a different faction. The Christian minority held disproportionate power, the Sunnis were divided into pro-Western and pro-Arab nationalist factions, and the Shiite’s were under represented. At one point in the mid 1970s, left wing Arab nationalists were on the verge of seizing power. Kissinger had to convince Hafez Assad to prevent their victory in order to avoid an Israeli invasion. Lebanon was home to a huge number of Palestinian exiles, who had been forced to flee Jordan after the events of “Black September” after which Jordan had launched a brutal crackdown. The Israelis encouraged the Christian fascists to seize power and, failing that, break away and form their own country. This led to the Lebanese civil war. In 1978 Israel invaded southern Lebanon but the Carter administration convinced them to withdraw. In 1982 Israel would invade again this time with the support of the Reagan administration. They kidnapped a number of visiting Iranian officials and of course kidnapped imprisoned and tortured huge numbers of Lebanese just as it has arrested, imprisoned and tortured untold numbers of Palestinians over the decades. In 1982 Iran sent the IRGC into Lebanon to help train Hezbollah. Israel captured Beirut and installed the Christian Phalange leader as president. He was assassinated and in revenge thousands of Palestinians cordoned off by the Israeli army were massacred by the Christian Phalange in Sabra and Shatila. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The US pretended neutrality, but sided with Israel. The Marines were sent in and the US Navy began shelling Lebanese villages. In 1983 Hezbollah chased the US out with a series of bombings. In 1984 it began kidnapping Americans to use as leverage to free the 17 Da’awa prisoners in Kuwait who had attacked French and US targets there. They had also kidnapped the CIA station chief William Buckley, who was tortured into revealing decades of dirty secrets. The stage was set for the Iran arms for hostages deals. Of course the stage had already been set during the October surprise negotiations that got Reagan elected in the first place. Israel would be the middleman in the October surprise arms deals and the early Iran-Contra arms deals. Egypt would be the middleman in the Iraqgate arms deals. The course of the Iran-Iraq war would be prolonged, as the US supplied arms to both sides nearly one million Iraqis and Iranians would die. The US supplied Iraq Intelligence so it could use its chemical weapons to best effect against Iran. Then in 1986 the US began supplying Iran with intelligence that shifted the balance of the war. The fallout of the Iran-Contra affair would lead to the first Gulf War. President Bush had started authorizing huge loans and weapons shipments to Iraq while encouraging Kuwait to provoke Iraq. Bush had the State department give Iraq the green light to invade Kuwait, followed by sanctions which killed another million, followed by the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and the intentional creation of a sectarian civil war that would claim at least a million more lives.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The Iran-Contra era saw the seeds planted that would more recently bloom into many more recent wars. The invasion of Iraq, the destruction of Libya, the failed attempt to destroy Syria. In the case of Syria the US and Israel had helped launch a Muslim brotherhood uprising in 1983 with the aid of Iraq that would eerily mirror the Syrian war of 2011 to today. And then of course, there was Afghanistan where the US was again arming drug-dealing contras. Socialist Afghanistan was destroyed. Afghanistan was taken over by warlords who battled each other. Eventually the Clinton Administration and Pakistan had the Taliban seize control of the country. The Iran-Contra were a key period in the origins of the war on terror with Benjamin Netanyahu holding the Jerusalem Conference on anti-terrorism in 1979. Casey, North and even Secretary of State Schultz all backed plans to form counter-terror squads to carry out “pre-emptive strikes” on groups labelled “terrorists” (often legitimate resistance groups and left wing guerrillas) Theire were plans to declare martial law and round up hundreds of thousands of Central American refugees and tens of thousands of peace activists in the event that the US invaded Nicaragua. Of course the US has been waging war on Central American refugees for decades. However after 9/11 these Iran-Contra era plans were dusted off to form the basis of the <span style="font-style: italic;">USA Patriot Act</span>, the rounding up of thousands of innocent Muslims and the total surveillance of everyone on the planet. Not only that, but many key figures in Iran-Contra were put back into power in the George W Bush administrations. Plus of course the creation of a global Phoenix program or Operation Condor system of kidnap, assassination and torture that is applied worldwide. All in the name of battling an al Qaeda that within ten years it was quite openly supporting. Thanks to the Reagan era victory of “Public Diplomacy” over investigative journalism no one in the media dared point out this little fact. In truth US soft power proved more effective than covert war. It was soft power in the form of the NED interference in the Nicaraguan election of 1990 that brought down the Sandinistas. It was NED soft power not the war in Afghanistan that destroyed the Soviet Union and insured the electoral victory of neoliberalism. The era of the colour revolution had begun. The NED had been another of Bill Casey’s projects.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The victory of Reagan and Bush in the Cold War has led to our current dystopian age. American hyper power is free to rampage around the globe destroying country after country. Always we are reminded that there is no alternative to capitalism. That we should just let the market decide. If a country manages to resist US covert wars and coup plots it will have its economy throttled by sanctions like Venezuela and Syria. Today historians have begun to talk of the world having suffered a 50-year counter-revolution with seemingly no end in sight. This is the ultimate legacy of the Iran-Contra era.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Sources</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My next article will include an extensive list of Iran Contra books I used. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For now I would like to recommend just two.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Malcolm Byrne’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Iran-Contra: Reagan’s Scandal and the Unchecked Abuse of Presidential Power</span> is the definitive mainstream version of events.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, The Press & Project Truth</span> by Robert Parry gives many details left out of mainstream accounts. He has an in-depth discussion of the Contra drug connection as well as the role of drugs in Panama and Honduras. He also discusses the Reagan Administration Public Diplomacy campaign that destroyed investigative journalism in the US. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Malcolm Byrne lecture about his Iran Contra Book</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/xUu8f9rBh_g"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/xUu8f9rBh_g</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A Robert Parry Interview</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/_X3v4Di8YyM"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/_X3v4Di8YyM</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A discussion of the October Surprise</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/2oTY7fQuieY"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/2oTY7fQuieY</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My earlier series on Iran Contra</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Part 1 The Secret Team</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/05/irancontra-pt-1-secret-team.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/05/irancontra-pt-1-secret-team.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Part 2 World War 3</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/06/irancontra-pt-2-world-war-3.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/06/irancontra-pt-2-world-war-3.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Part 3 The World Anti-Communist League Part 1</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/07/irancontra-pt-3-wacl.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/07/irancontra-pt-3-wacl.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Part 4 The World Anti-Communist League Part 2</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/08/irancontra-pt-4-wacl-2.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/08/irancontra-pt-4-wacl-2.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Ted Shackley a Life in the CIA</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/12/ted-shackley-life-in-cia.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/12/ted-shackley-life-in-cia.html</span></a></span></p>Hugo Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12229123097438571385noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8001402613324067475.post-9502194375310291952022-01-28T14:43:00.002-08:002022-01-28T14:43:49.609-08:00Iran-Contra Pt 3: Arms Deals with Iran<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Iran Contra Scandal: Arms for Hostages Deals with Iran</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The second element in the Iran-Contra scandal were the arms for hostages deals. At the time they were the most controversial aspect of the scandal. Iran and it’s ally Hezbollah had inflicted a series of humiliations on the US that began during the Iranian Revolution and escalated during the war on Lebanon. The Iran Hostage Crisis, the US embassy bombing in Beiruit, the kidnapping of CIA Chief of Station William Buckley and most dramatically the Marine barracks bombing in Beirut. The US had branded Iran a state terror sponsor and the State Department and CIA had launched Operation Staunch to pressure the whole world to stop selling arms to Iran. The US was allied with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Monarchs in backing Iraq in the Iran/Iraq war. Reagan had publicly called Iran “Murder Incorporated” and claimed the US would never negotiate or make concessions with terrorists. Yet at the same time as Reagan was publicly condemning Iran the US was supplying them with thousands of anti-tank missiles, helping Iran rebuild it’s air defenses and providing it with intelligence that managed to shift the balance in the Iran/Iraq war in Iran’s favor. This was all in an effort to free seven American hostages in Beirut. Of course the deeper geopolitical purpose was to prolong the Iran/Iraq war making it as bloody and destructive as possible a goal the Israeli Mossad veteran David Kimche openly admitted. President Ronald Reagan over ruled objections from his own cabinet to carry the deal out. Even when warned that he could face impeachment and prison Reagan pushed for the deals to continue. Among Reagan’s cabinet only Vice President George H. W. Bush and CIA Director Bill Casey consistently supported the continuation of the arms for hostage deals. At a lower level North and Secord once they were brought in on the deals, also consistently backed the plans as they benefited “The Enterprise.” Secord was able to turn a profit while North was able to funnel money to the Contras in Nicaragua.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The Iran-Contra investigations failed to investigate the true origins of the Iran arms for hostages deal. First there had been the role of the Shah’s Iran as one of the top customers of America’s military industrial complex. In the final years of the Shah’s reign Richard Secord had headed the Military Assistance program in Iran helping his arms dealing friends generate vast profits. When the Iranian revolution overthrew the Shah the Rockefeller family interests in the form of Chase Manhattan bank were worried the new Iranian government might withdraw the hundreds of millions Iran had deposited in their bank. They had helped to launch the career of President Carter’s National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski. Brzezinski convinced Carter to allow the exiled Shah into the US for cancer treatment. Back in Iran many thought the US was preparing to launch another coup like the one that had toppled Mossadegh and installed the Shah back in 1953. In protest of the US admission of the Shah and in hopes of finding out what the US was plotting a group of Iranian students seized the embassy. They captured 52 Americans on the embassy staff officials of the state department, the CIA, and the military. They also seized all the files documenting decades of US support for the Shah’s dirty war on the Iranian people. The Hostage Crisis began on November 4 1979. President Carter retaliated by freezing Iran’s overseas accounts allowing Chase-Manhattan to keep Iran’s money. This at least is one simplified version of events the Iranian revolution was far more complex then most realize and in fact went through two stages. First the initial overthrow of the Shah by broader movement that included left wing forces and nationalists. Second the triumph of Ayatollah Khomeini and the Islamic revolution. Also there is evidence that the rise of Khomeini and the whole hostage crisis were manipulated by western intelligence. Iran’s mullahs had long been on the CIA payroll since the days of the 1953 coup. Iran is by no means a puppet of the US or it’s allies. Iran remains one of the few countries willing to stand up to the US and Israel. However despite the hostile rhetoric from both sides secret deals were made between the US and Iran.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> President Jimmy Carter began a year of efforts to rescue or negotiate the release of the hostages. However unknown to Carter or his administration he was being targeted for a soft coup by the GOP, disgruntled elements of the CIA, and big business in the form of David Rockefeller and his allies. It became known as the “October Surprise” a term for last minute manipulations in October aiming to alter the election results in November. The GOP were obsessed with the idea Carter would free the hostages in October 1980 swinging the election in his favor. Yet the GOP began to manipulate events far earlier then October 1980. The first secret deals between the GOP and the Khomeini faction took place at least as early as March 1980. Reagan’s campaign manager was OSS veteran Bill Casey. Casey set up an October Surprise group to monitor Carter’s efforts to free the hostages. Elements within the Carter administration like Donald Gregg at the NSC and Robert Gates at the CIA were leaking information to Casey. Bush had his own CIA agents for Bush contingent which included Robert Gambino. Many CIA agents for Bush would join Casey’s October surprise group once Reagan picked Bush as Vice Presidential candidate.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> To negotiate with Iran Carter’s administration had picked Cyrus Hashemi. Cyrus and his brother Jamshid Hashemi had close ties to Mehdi and Hassan Karrubi in Iran. (Hassan Karrubi and Cyrus Hashemi would both be deeply involved in the Iran Contra scandal.) The Hashemi brothers were also close to Admiral Madani who was the main rival of Iran’s President Bani Sadr. Unknown to Carter Cyrus Hashemi had close ties to Bill Casey through Lebanese American businessman John Shaheen. Casey had done legal work for them and had known Shaheen for decades. Cyrus Hashemi became a double agent for the Reagan campaign initially providing them intelligence on Carter’s negotiations and then acting as a middleman to set up negotiations between Casey and the Iranians. Cyrus Hashemi’s bank First Gulf and Trust had been used by the CIA, the Shah’s Family, and the new Iranian government to move money. It had close ties to BCCI an infamous CIA backed bank whose clients included drug cartels and terrorists. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> A series of meetings were held. In March 1980 Reagan crony Earl Brian (who served as Secretary of Health under Governor Reagan) and Robert “Bud” McFarlane (who would later set the Iran Contra arms for hostage deals in motion) along with Bill Casey met in Madrid with Iranian Mehdi Bazargan (Close to Hashemi’s contact Mehdi Karrubbi) to arrange a deal whereby Iran would refuse to release the hostages until after the election in exchange for massive shipments of arms and other concessions. The Israeli’s were also in on the deal. Israel had begun selling arms to Iran back in September of 1979 and would act as middleman in the October Surprise arms deals. After the Madrid meet Israel supplied Iran with 300 tires for Iran’s F4 fighter jets in March 1980. Iranian born Israeli Ari Ben Menashe would play a major role in the arms deals and in later exposing the October Surprise. In return the Reagan Administration would turn a blind eye as Israel sold nearly a billion dollars in arms to Iran in the early 1980’s. Bush’s man ex-CIA Ted Shackley would later meet with the Iranians in London and Hamburg and was Bush’s point man on October Surprise. A Bush memo was uncovered revealing Bush later told Richard Allen (who would go on to be Reagan’s first National Security Adviser) to contact Shackely with any last minute details on Carter’s hostage. negotiations. Shackley was also close to Michael Ledeen who was involved in the October surprise and the “BillyGate” scandal targeting Carter’s brother. In July of 1980 Hashemi would begin a series of secret meetings with Iranian representatives including Mehdi Karrubi in Madrid. After meeting with Khomeini Karrubi requested another meet with Casey that was held in August 1980.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Meanwhile the Carter administration was working from a hard bargaining stance completely unaware that the Iranians had already gotten a better offer from the GOP. On April 24 1980 the US mounted a disastrous rescue attempt “Operation Eagle Claw” either through bad luck, incompetence, or sabotage it ended in complete disaster when two of the helicopters crashed in the Iranian desert landing zone called Desert One. Eight men from the US military died in the crash the others were forced to flee as they no longer had enough helicopters to carry out the rescue. The corpses of the dead Americans were paraded through Tehran enraging the US public and humiliating Carter. Richard Secord, Robert Dutton, and Richard Gadd future members of “The Enterprise” were all involved in the hostage rescue plans. The failure would lead to a massive re-expansion of the Special Forces that began under Carter growing under Reagan and continuing to expand into our own time.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In September 1980 Carter’s luck was finally poised to change. Iran’s President Bani Sadr had learned of the GOP’s secret deal with Khomeini and planned to go public on September 8 1980. To keep him quiet Khomeini agreed to reopen negotiations with the US. Iran was also worried about an increasingly hostile Iraq. Khomeini sent Sadegh Tatabani to make a deal and Carter’s negotiators seized on the opportunity. Yet once again Brzezinski’s machinations would sabotage Carter. Brzezinski had convinced Saddam Hussein’s Iraq to invade Iran the war began on September 22 1980 and Tatabani was unable to return to Iran because Iraq was bombing the Tehran airport. In late September or early October the Iranians would meet with GOP representatives at the L’Enfant Plaza Hotel in Washington DC where Israeli Housang Lavi, Americans Richard Allen, Robert McFarlane, and Lawrence Silberman met with Iranian representatives. (President Reagan would later appoint Silberman a judge and Judge Silberman would overturn North and Poindexter’s Iran Contra convictions) The DC meeting was followed by a meeting at the Ritz Hotel in Paris October 17-18 1980 attended by Bill Casey and Vice Presidential Candidate George H. W. Bush along with Robert McFarlane, Robert Gates, Donald Gregg and George Cave . The Iranians agreed to hold the hostages until after the inauguration. It was bad enough the GOP was convincing the Iranians to hold onto the hostages until after the election. Now it wanted Iran to hold onto them even longer so that Reagan could come into office with a boost in popularity. To cement the deal a French Israeli arms shipment was sent to Iran on October 23 1980 consisting of 250 F4 spare tires and M6 tank spare parts. On November 4, 1980 the US election was held on the one year anniversary of the start of the hostage crisis Carter lost to Reagan. On January 20, 1981 Reagan was inaugurated President and the hostages were released. The US was soon supplying Iran with hundreds of millions in arms through Israel, South Korea and it’s NATO allies. Israel used it’s knowledge of the “October Surprise” secret to get away with selling Iran nearly a billion dollars in arms in 1981-1983. Naive Americans believed the strange coincidence of the hostages being released on the day of the inauguration was because of Reagan’s tough stance on terrorism. By massively expanding Carter’s war in Afghanistan Reagan and Casey would play a major role in giving birth to Al Qaeda. The Reagan years would also see the origins of the same rhetoric and tactics of the later “War on Terror.” Although Reagan did not personally take part in the October Surprise negotiations he was almost certainly let in on the secret. It is the only way to explain his obsession with pursuing the Iran-Contra arms for hostage deals despite their quickly evolving into a farce filled with lies and broken promises. The October Surprise would be covered up by Congress and most of the media. The October Surprise story has been confirmed by dozens of witnesses from around the world including former President Bani Sadr, Ari Ben Menashe, Ariel Sharon, Yasser Arafat, Alexandre DeMarenches (former head of French Intelligence and close Bush ally) Russian Intelligence, and the Iranian Government offered to send proof to Bill Clinton. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In the years that followed the bloody Iran-Iraq war would continue eventually claiming over a million lives. The US was busy supplying Iraq with arms via Egypt and the CIA provided the Iraqis intelligence to plan their attacks. In 1982 Israel invaded Lebanon and installed a puppet government. The Israeli’s had sparked the Lebanese civil war back in 1975 encouraging their fascist christian phalange allies to try to seize control of the country. Southern Lebanon was being used as a base for Palestinian forces to shell Israel. The Israelis were even more annoyed with them when the Palestinians maintained a ceasefire. In 1978 Israel had invaded and occupied Southern Lebanon but Carter had forced them to withdraw. Now with Reagan in office in 1982 Israel invaded Lebanon eventually creating a puppet state in Southern Lebanon. Southern Lebanon was also home to a huge Shiite population and with the aid of Iran’s IRGC they formed Hezbollah in 1982. The US became increasingly involved in Lebanon siding with the Israelis and the Phalange while pretending to be neutral peacekeepers. It would take Hezbollah nearly 20 years to force Israel to withdraw from Lebanon. Hezbollah would force the US to withdraw in just 1 year. On April 18 1983 Hezbollah set off a van packed with explosives outside the US embassy 63 were killed. A dozen high level CIA personnel including their top Mid-East analyst Robert Ames who Casey had sent to Beirut. Robert McFarlane was sent as a special emissary to Beirut and he escalated US involvement in the war shelling and bombing Lebanese civilians. Then on October 23 1983 the Marine Barracks were bombed in Beirut by a huge truck bomb. 241 members of the US military were killed. The US claimed it wouldn’t pull out but quietly did. To distract the US public the US launched the Invasion of Grenada where it had just carried out a coup. Oliver North helped plan the invasion. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> On March 7 1984 CNN journalist Jeremy Levin was kidnapped. Then on March 16 1984 the CIA station Chief William Buckley was kidnapped by Hezbollah on the way to work he was later sent to Iran for questioning under torture. His capture and worry over what he might reveal was a major factor in motivating the US to trade arms for hostages. Buckley would tell all to the Iranians and they transcribed his confession into a 400 page book. Buckley would die before he could be freed. Six more American hostages would be kidnapped by Hezbollah or it’s front groups in Beirut between May 8 1984 and June 9 1985. They were Reverend Benjamin Weir, Peter Kilburn (librarian at American University) Father Lawrence Martin Jenco (Catholic relief services), Terry Anderson (AP journalist) David Jacobsen (Hospital Director at American University) and finally Thomas Southerland (Director of Agriculture at American University) They were kidnapped to gain leverage to free the Dawa prisoners being held in Kuwait after a series of attacks on American and French targets there. Their kidnappings would provide the motivations or the excuse for the US to carry out the arms for hostage deals. Except for Jeremy Levin would seemingly escape after being ransomed.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> A key factor behind the Iran-Contra scandal that few delved into was a web of groups set up by Vice President George H.W. Bush that dealt with Crisis management and Counter-Terrorism. It was thanks to the key role that North played in the counter-terror network or as Peter Dales Scott calls it “a Cabal” that North became not just the point man for the Contras but also in charge of counter-terrorism and eventually in charge of the Iran arms for hostages negotiations. The “Cabal” included Admiral John Poindexter (NSC), Oliver North(NSC), Duane “Dewey” Clarridge (CIA) Charles Allen (CIA), Robert Oakley (State Department), Noel Koch (DOD) Lt Gen John Moellering (Joint Chiefs of Staff) and Oliver “Buck” Revell (FBI). They communicated via “Flashboard” a secret email system. NSDD (National Security Directive) 3 had put Vice President Bush in charge of crisis management back in 1982. Bush recruited North and his secretary Fawn Hall to work on crisis management. This lead to North drawing up Continuity of Government plans calling for declaring martial law, suspending the constitution, total surveillance, and rounding up tens of thousands of dissidents and hundreds of thousands of refugees in the event of nuclear war, terror attacks, or even civil unrest. Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney would also be involved in these plans during the Clinton administration. They formed the blueprint for America’s post 9/11 response. Bush also created a Crisis Preplanning group and a Special Situations Group. North worked on the creation of a Crisis Management Center. In April of 1984 North Drafted an NSDD that created the TIWG (Terrorist Incident Working Group) 2 TIWG members would work closely with North, Craig Coy and Robert Earl. In July of 1985 President Reagan convened the Vice President’s Task Force on Combatting Terrorism. At the exact same time the US suddenly reversed it’s Iran strategy opening the door for the Iran arms for hostage deals Peter Dale Scott points out. On January 20 86 just as the US was preparing to make direct arms sales to Iran NSDD 207 put North in charge of Counter-Terrorism and set up a secret Office to Combat Terrorism run by Oliver North staffed by veterans of Bush’s Counter-terror cabal. Michael Ledeen and the Israeli Amiram Nir were also part of this counter-terror network and like North would play major roles in the Iran Contra Scandal along with Robert Oakley and Dewey Clarridge. Through counter-terror network Bush and North became close. Thanks to this shadowy network within the government Bush became as deeply embroiled in the Iran side of the scandal as he had been in the contra side. It was sort of the government equivalent of setting up a bunch of shell companies. The bloodiest incident in North’s war on terror was the attempt to assassinate a Hezbollah leader Muhammed Hussein Fadallah with a car bomb 80 people were killed in the attack but Fadallah survived. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Now it’s time to introduce North’s bosses at the NSC Robert “Bud” McFarlane and John Poindexter. “Bud” McFarlane was the son of democratic congressman in Texas. He graduated from Annapolis Naval Academy in 1959, was commissioned as a marine officer. McFarlane lead the first US combat unit in Vietnam. He studied in Switzerland and received a White House Fellowship. Al Haig Henry Kissinger’s deputy at the NSC brought on McFarlane as his military assistant. McFarlane came to regard Kissinger as his mentor and McFarlane was involved in his secret negotiations with China. McFarlane would later hope that his Iran initiative would earn him a similar place in history. He retired from the marines as a Lt. Colonel and served two years on the Senate Arms Services Committee under Senator John Tower. Tower was also involved in the October Surprise and was picked by Reagan to investigate/Cover-up the Iran Contra scandal. Once Reagan was President he picked Al Haig as his Secretary of State. Haig brought McFarlane on as a Counselor to the State Department. Then with Haig on the way out as Secretary of State McFarlane returned to the NSC as National Security Advised Willam Clark’s deputy. When Clark stepped down as National Security Adviser the Ed Meese, Michael Deaver, and Jim Baker faction called the “Troika” which dominated the early Reagan Administration tried to appoint James Baker as the new National Security Adviser. Baker was a close friend of George H.W. Bush who has become infamous as the Bush family “Fixer.” Bill Casey blocked the appointment and McFarlane was chosen as the National Security adviser as a compromise. Since “Bud” McFarlane and Ollie North were both marine Lt. Colonels serving on the NSC and both workaholics they developed a sort of father son relationship and McFarlane came to rely ever more on North. McFarlane was also a longtime friend of Mossad veteran and director of the Israeli Foreign Ministry David Kimche. McFarlane put great trust in the advice of Bill Casey. McFarlane trust in both Casey and Kimche would lead him to plunge into the disastrous Iranian arms for hostage deals.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Vice Admiral John Poindexter was McFarlane’s deputy at NSC and would succeed him as National Security Adviser in early December 1985. He was born in a small farming town in Indiana. He graduated top of his class at Annapolis Naval Academy then received a PHD in nuclear physics from the California Institute of Technology. He served under three Secretaries of the Navy and as executive assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations Admiral James Holloway. He also commanded a guided missile cruiser and a destroyer squadron. Poindexter was recruited to set up the computer network for Bush’s Crisis Management Center. He had IBM install a prototype version of the Internet at the NSC allowing North and the other Iran Contra conspirators to email each other via PROF messages. The NSC crisis management network linked the NSC computer network to the computer networks of the State Department, The CIA, the Pentagon, numerous law enforcement agencies, military bases around the world and foreign intelligence services. This was a few years before anyone in the general public knew what an email was. This would come back to haunt Poindexter, North and others when they deleted all their PROF messages only to have some low level research assistant to the Tower Committee figure out how to recover them all. On the internet nothing is ever really deleted. Poindexter was secretive and a bit more reckless then McFarlane. At the height of the Iran Contra scandal Poindexter would save Reagan by testifying to Congress (almost certainly falsely) that Reagan had not been informed of the diversion of funds from the Iran arms sales to the Contras.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Adnan Khashoggi the Saudi Billionaire who the press dubbed “the world’s wealthiest man” had made a fortune being a CIA conduit for bribes to middle eastern officials to buy American weapons systems. He was famous for his yachts, lavish parties and high class call girl ring. One of Khashoggi’s call girls would bring down presidential hopeful Senator Gary Hart. Khashoggi was close friends with Donald Trump and sold him a yacht. Adnan was the uncle of Jamal Khashoggi who made news when he was murdered in a Saudi Embassy in Turkey on orders of King Muhammed bin Salman back in 2018. Between 1983 and 1984 Khashoggi met frequently with “Bud” McFarlane at NSC trying to sell him on various schemes. In late 1984 Khashoggi would team up with Manucher Ghorbanifar on a scheme to sell arms to Iran in order to free the hostages. Iran was desperate for weapons the Iraqis soviet supplied tanks were smashing them on the battlefield. Iraq was bombing Iran and Iran was running out of missiles and parts for it’s air defense system. It would later emerge during the Iraqgate investigations that Vice President Bush had provided intelligence and encouragement for Iraq to bomb Iran to pressure Iran during the arms for hostage scheme but this was probably later.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Manucher Ghorbanifar the middleman in the Iran arms deals was an arms dealer who had served in Savak, become an Israeli agent, and supplied information to the CIA that was so unreliable they issued a burn notice on him as a known fabricator after he failed too many lie detector tests. The Iranians were desperate enough for weapons that they were willing to use a known Israeli agent like Ghorbanifar. Ghorbanifar would become infamous for lying to both the Americans and the Iranians to get them to the bargaining table. Ghorbanifar’s Iranian contacts Hassan Karrubi and Mohsen Kangarlou had been involved in the earlier October Surprise negotiations. Ghorbanifar hoped to make millions off the Arms deals. Oliver North was as big of a liar as Ghorbanifar practicing that special American brand of bullshitting necessary to the salesman or the sports coach. Desperate to gain the confidence of the American’s after the CIA had discarded him Ghorbanifar met with Theodore Shackley in Hamburg Germany on November 20 1984. Ghorbanifar warned (falsely) that Iran was in danger of becoming a soviet satellite in 5 years. Ghorbanifar wanted to buy TOW anti-tank missiles and offered to free the kidnapped CIA station chief William Buckley and to provide captured soviet equipment to the US. Ted Shackley was running a risk management firm Research Associates Inc. and was closely monitoring the Iran-Iraq war. Shackley had hired an Iranian named Razmara who introduced Shackley to the former head of the Savak’s Counter-Intelligence General Manucher Hashemi in October 1984 and Hashemi had arranged the meet with Ghorbanifar. According to veteran CIA Iran operative George Cave Shackley was working for the NSC. Shackley was also working for Vice President George H.W. Bush while ostensibly in the private intelligence business. Shackley was close to both Secord and Clines his “former” business partners. Shackley wrote up a memo on November 22 1984 and sent it to Vernon Walters Reagan’s ambassador at large and fellow CIA veteran infamous for his role in the 1964 coup in Brazil. Walters forwarded the memo Robert Oakley the State Department’s point man on counter-terrorism (Part of the Bush/North Counter terror network) and to Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East Richard W. Murphy. Because of Ghorbanifar’s dubious reputation the offer was initially rejected. By March 1988 Shackley’s memo landed on NSC consultant Michael Ledeen who claimed (probably falsely) that he never read it but forwarded it to Oliver North. Ledeen was another of Shackley’s friends from the October Surprise days.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Michael Ledeen would jump start the languishing Iran arms for hostages deal. Ledeen was a CIA press asset, a contractor for Italy’s SISMI intelligence agency along with Shackley. In Italy Ledeen would help cover up GLADIO and spread the myth of the Soviet Union being behind all the world’s terror attacks. Ledeen had close ties to Israeli intelligence, was a far right neo-con, and had earlier befriended Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres when Ledeen was sent to infiltrate the socialist international of which Peres’s Labor Party was a member. Currently Ledeen was a consultant on counter terrorism at the NSC. Ledeen got McFarlane’s permission to travel to Israel to explore using Israel’s contacts to gain intelligence on Iran. Once in Israel the Israelis introduced Ledeen to the Iranian Manucher Ghorbanifar, the Saudi Adnan Khashoggi, along with two Israeli arms dealers Adolph Schwimmer and Yaacov Nimrodi. They had a pile of disinformation to sell Ledeen along with the promise to free the seven American hostages. The disinformation was that Iran was in danger of falling into the soviet orbit, but that Ghorbanifar was in contact with a pro-western faction that hoped to take power once Khomeini was dead. Supposedly Iran was divided into 3 factions a pro-soviet faction, a neutral faction, and a pro-western faction. Ghorbanifar promised to put the US in contact with the “Moderates.” In reality Iranian politics in the Islamic republic had nothing to do with such simple cold war dynamics. There were no pro-soviet factions and no pro-american factions. Back in 1983 a Soviet defector had supplied the CIA with a complete list of KGB assets and Casey decided to send the list to Iran. Khoemeini had them killed or arrested. However like most countries Iran was ruled by ruthless pragmatists who were willing to buy arms from Israel or the US because of the Iran-Iraq war. Arms procurement was controlled by Iran’s IRGC the revolutionary guard but they were used to operating through Iranian exiles and shady characters like Ghorbanifar. While in Israel Ledeen also met with Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres and David Kimche the director general of the Israeli Foreign ministry a Mossad veteran. Kimche would go on to advise the greatest mass murderer of recent times Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame in the 1990’s. Kimche would fly to Washington DC to meet with McFarlane a couple weeks after Ledeen’s return. When Ledeen met with the Israeli Prime Minister Peres vouched for Ghorbanifar, Khashoggi, Schwimmer, and Nimrodi and asked Ledeen to deliver a personal message to “Bud McFarlane.” Schwimmer was a major backer of Peres and the Iran deal was meant to reward him. The Labor party had been cut out of the lucrative arms market by the Likud party, the Mossad, and the Israeli defense department and Peres hoped that with US backing his cronies could get into the Iran arms sales business. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Returning to the US Ledeen briefed McFarlane on the arms for hostage deal and passed on Peres’s message. McFarlane bought the cover story on Iranian moderates and hoped that by bringing Iran back into the US orbit he would earn his place alongside his mentor Kissinger in the history books. CIA director Bill Casey encouraged this delusion he intentionally kept the CIA’s top Iranian analysts reports from reaching the NSC lest they discredit the cover story about selling arms to Iranian moderates. Instead Casey had Graham Fuller (later infamous for his role backing al Qaeda style groups in Central Asia) write a report calling for a complete reversal on US policy towards Iran. Soon the NSC had a draft finding on a new Iran policy that would enable the Iran arms for hostage deals to go forward. Now it was a decision for the President and his NSPG (National Security Planning Group a modified NSC.) The idea was strongly opposed by both Secretary of State George Schultz and Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger. Casey, McFarlane, and Vice President Bush supported the arms for hostages scheme. The idea got a boost in June 1985 when Iran and Syria helped negotiate the release of the TWA 847 hostages being held in Beirut after their plane was hijacked by a Hezbollah front Islamic Jihad. Israel freed hundreds of shiite prisoners it was holding in exchange. The deal was brokered by Iranian speaker of the parliament Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani who was also a key player behind the scenes on the arms for hostage deals. The decisive voice belonged to President Ronald Reagan and he was in favor of going ahead. President Reagan gave the final green light to McFarlane on July 13 1985 while in the hospital recovering from a polyp operation.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Manucher Ghorbanifar had promised to free all of the hostages once 100 TOW anti-tank missiles were delivered. Israel was to act as the middle man it would ship TOWS from it’s own stocks and the US promised to send replacements. To finance the deal Ghorbanifar borrowed $1 million from Khashoggi. Yaacov Nimrodi and Al Schwimmer charged Ghorbainfar $10,000 for each missile. The Israeli Defense Ministry sold them to the two Israeli arms dealers for only $6,000 each. Ghorbanifar charged Iran $12,000 for each TOW. On August 20 1985 Israel delivered 96 TOW missiles to Iran choosing the defective or obsolete TOWs from their stockpile. (apparently TOWs are shipped in 8 packs) On landing in Iran the IRGC immediately seized the TOWs. No hostages were released. Ghorbanifar used the excuse that since the IRGC not the “Moderates” had gotten the missiles the moderates hadn’t freed any hostages. However Ghorbanifar had a new deal for 400 more TOW missiles plus the 4 TOWs Israel owed them from the first shipment Iran would get a hostage freed. Amazingly the arrogant US agreed to this second deal after Ghorbanifar had failed to deliver the first time. On September 15, 1985 Israel delivered 408 TOWs to Iran. Within hours the hostage Reverend Benjamin Weir was released. The US had hoped to free CIA station chief William Buckley first, Casey had even played Reagan a video of Buckley being tortured. The Iranian’s claimed Buckley was to ill to travel in reality he had died in June of 1985.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Iran now hoped to rebuild it’s air defenses with the next deal. The Iranians were now demanding HAWK surface to air missiles and Phoenix missiles. The US refused to sell the Phoenix missiles which it didn’t even supply to most of it’s allies. It agreed to sell the HAWKs however. The deal was for 120 IHAWK missiles Iran would pay 18 million or $225,000 each. IHAWKS were the more advanced version. The plan was for Israel to ship them to Iran via Portugal. This is when Oliver North was recruited to run the Iran arms for hostages deals. At first McFarlane had put North in charge of replenishing Israeli stocks. McFarlane was busy preparing for the arms control summit in Geneva. However Portugal was refusing permission to allow the missiles to land and take off from their country. On November 17 1985 Israeli defense minister Yitzhak Rabin called North to fix the problem and McFarlane called soon after to confirm that he had referred Rabin to North. North brought in Secord who’s partner Tom Clines had close contacts with the Portuguese arms company DEFEX. However DEFEX had strong ties to the party that had recently been voted out of office instead of the new government. The HAWK deal quickly turned into a fiasco. Secord’s attempt to hold an unscheduled meeting with the foreign minister at the airport only upset Portugal. The US embassy was ignorant of the deal and told Portugal not to approve it. North brought in Duane “Dewey” Clarridge serving as the CIA’s head of European operations to get the CIA’s help in pressuring Portugal. Al Schwimmer lost patience and tried to send the plane in without clearance hoping the problem would be solved before it landed. The plane was forced to turn around and it’s lease ran out. The Israeli’s agreed to pay Secord’s “Enterprise” 1 million for transport. Dewey Clarridge called Langley to get the name of a CIA controlled airline St. Lucia. This would raise also sorts of legal problems once the scandal broke. To engage in a covert operation the CIA needed a Presidential finding. Anyways the St. Lucia plane was smaller then the one Schwimmer had rented and could carry fewer missiles. Secord arranged for the flight to be rerouted through Cyprus and then over Turkey to Iran. Cyprus didn’t give official permission but someone probably paid off the right people as no one interfered. On November 25, 1985 18 HAWK missiles arrived in Iran. The Iranians were furious they were not the IHAWKS they had been promised but the less advanced HAWKS and Israel hadn’t bothered to scrape off the “stars of David” on them. Ghorbanifar called North in a panic warning the Iranians were furious and the hostages lives were in danger. Back at the CIA Casey’s more cautious deputy director John McMahon demanded that a “retroactive” Presidential finding be created to cover for the CIA. A retroactive finding was created and signed by President Reagan December 5 1985 and then thrown into an NSC safe. The whole point of a finding was to inform congress and there was not supposed to be any such thing as a retroactive finding. On December 4 1985 President Reagan had announced that McFarlane was resigning as National Security Adviser to be replaced by Admiral John Poindexter. McFarlane was getting increasingly frustrated with the Iran arms deals he wanted all the hostages freed first before more weapons were sent and was beginning to realize that he had been duped about the possibility of installing a “moderate” government in Iran. After the scandal broke in November 1986 Poindexter would burn the retroactive finding because it clearly showed an arms for hostage deal.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> North had another scheme to free the hostages alongside the Iran arms for hostages deal. Two DEA agents William Dweyer and Frank Tarallo had come to North with a scheme to use an informant they had in Beirut a major drug trafficker to act as middle man in arranging to ransom the hostages. North turned to Texas Billionaire H. Ross Perot to provide the ransom. Perot made his money in electronics and so had tight ties with the intelligence community. During the Iran hostage crisis he had managed to free 4 of his employees. There were a couple attempts to ransom a hostage in Beirut ending in failure. The first try the informant claimed he had spent $300,000 in bribes and was suspected of pocketing some of the money. Another time North planned to treat the ransom with a chemical that would cause the money to disintegrate days later a scheme which would have damaged all future hostage negotiations. Finally the deal fell through when the informant demanded a million dollars up front. The DEA men refused. Perot was very angry over the failure but was consoled with a personal letter from Reagan thanking him for his efforts. It’s believed that during Perot’s involvement in the Iran Contra scandal he developed a lasting grudge against George H. W. Bush inspiring Perot to launch a third party campaign in 1992 that sabotaged President Bush’s re-election campaign.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Between December of 1985 and January of 1986 the Iran arms for hostages deals would undergo a major shift. North blamed the Israelis for the fiasco with the IHAWKS, Schwimmer, Nimrodi and Kimche were to be cut out of the deals and replaced with Peres’ counter-terrorism adviser Amiram Nir. North and Nir had worked closely together on the Achille Lauro Hijacking back in October 1985. North’s plan to intercept the escaping Achille Lauro hijackers who had been offered safe passage by Egypt in exchange for releasing the hostages nearly provoked an armed clash between US special forces and the Italian Carabinieri on an Italian runway that the US air force had forced their plane to land on. Nir had been in constant contact with North during the crisis providing Israeli intelligence. Now Nir would replace Schwimmer and Nimrodi as the Israeli liaison to the operation. Then it was decided to cut the Israeli role as middlemen. The arms deals in 1985 had been illegal under the Arms Export Control Act. The Reagan Administration believed that a loophole in the economy act would make the deals legal. The new middleman would be Secord’s enterprise. The Pentagon would sell the weapons to the CIA, the CIA would sell them to Secord, and then Secord would sell them to Iran. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> This scheme making the Secord’s Enterprise the middleman had the added bonus of allowing North to divert the profits to the Nicaraguan Contras. During the HAWKs deal Israel had paid the Enterprise $1 million to cover transport. But since the deal had been aborted after only 18 HAWKs were delivered the Enterprise only spent $200,000 renting the CIA plane and other on costs leaving them with $800,000 Israel allowed them to keep. North diverted some of this to the Contras. Now with the Defense department selling the TOW missiles for only $3,469 each and Ghorbanifar still paying $10,000 each the Enterprise would make a hefty profit on each missile. The new plans that January envisioned a series of deals whereby the US would sell Iran 4,000 TOW missiles and Iran would free 4 hostages. In addition to diverting money to the Contras North diverted some of the money to Nir’s scheme to train a 40 man team of Druze in Beirut that would carry out pre-emptive assassinations and perhaps even act as a hostage rescue force. On January 17 1986 President Reagan signed a finding authorizing the scheme to supply arms to Iran via the DOD, CIA, and the Enterprise. The new finding was kept secret from Congress. On February 17 1986 a shipment of 500 TOWs was shipped to Iran on Enterprise planes rented from Southern Air Transport the “former” CIA airline that was also being used to smuggle arms to the Contras. On February 27, 1986 another 500 TOW missiles were delivered. No hostages were freed.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> With the involvement of the Enterprise the deal had developed a momentum of it’s own. Even if no hostages were freed the Enterprise profited and the resources of North’s “off the Shelf” Project Democracy were expanded. Ghorbanifar was now promising direct contacts with the highest levels of the Iranian government. McFarlane would act as special envoy on a trip to Iran. Originally the meet was to take place on the Isle of Kish but the location was soon changed to Iran’s capital Tehran. Vice President Bush arranged to have the meeting delayed until after his planned visit to Saudi Arabia to avoid being asked awkward questions from an angry ally which hated Iran and was backing Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war. After a series of meetings in Europe with the Iranians to arrange the details plans were finalized. The US was to arrive bringing HAWK spare parts and upon their arrival all the hostages were to be freed. At least that was what Ghorbanifar told them. He told the Iranians that the Americans were bringing all the HAWK spare parts 15 million worth. Ghorbanifar had borrowed the money for the deal from Khashoggi. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> On May 25, 1986 the McFarlane delegation arrived for the infamous Tehran meetings. They flew in from Israel where they purchased a chocolate cake and they brought along a bunch of revolvers and a small amount of HAWK spare parts. They had left the rest in Israel to be delivered once the hostages were freed. The delegation included McFarlane, North, Secord, Secord’s partner and Iranian exile Albert Hakim, ex-CIA George Cave, Howard Teicher of the NSC and a CIA radio man. Casey had given them cyanide pills in case the Iranians decided to hold them hostage. The meeting was badly timed taking place in the month of Ramadan when muslims fast during the day. The Iranians weren’t up to negotiating till after their evening meal. No one was there at the airport to meet the McFarlane delegation. Ghorbanifar arrived late and the delegation traveled to a hotel. Finally some low ranking Iranian officials arrived to negotiate. McFarlane was outraged at the slight. The Iranians were angry that the US hadn’t brought all the HAWK spare parts. The US realized that the Iranians hadn’t even begun to bargain to free the hostages. Then after Iran contacted Hezbollah, Hezbollah demanded Israel abandon it’s occupation of Southern Lebanon withdraw from the Golan heights and other just but costly demands. Gradually over the next couple days the negotiations began to improve higher level officials began to arrive, Hezbollah lowered it’s demands to freeing the Dawa prisoners. Reagan authorized the shipment of the remaining HAWK spares and Iran was promising to free 2 hostages if they could be given a little more time. To North and Secord’s disappointment McFarlane and Poindexter convinced Reagan to cancel the deal. They wanted all the hostages freed first and McFarlane was tired of waiting he wanted to leave Tehran. The Iranians begged him to stay for 6 more hours offering to free 2 hostages in exchange for the HAWK spare parts. McFarlane refused and on May 28, 1986 the plane carried the delegation back to Israel. On returning to the US to brief the president McFarlane advised Reagan to abandon the arms for hostage deals. However President Reagan and Oliver North had not given up hope yet. North would work hard to convince his boss Poindexter to abandon the “All or Nothing” approach and adopt the more realistic “Sequential” release approach. The Iranians were not about to give up all their leverage by freeing all the hostages in advance. Yet sequential release would ultimately prove futile as in September through October of 1986 Hezbollah would kidnap 3 more Americans Joseph Cicippio, Frank Reed, and Edward Tracy, while the arms for hostage deals would only get 3 hostages released meaning the total number of hostages would end up the same. It would take until 1992 for the final hostages to be freed.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In June of 1986 after the failed Tehran meeting the Reagan administration began to plan a hostage rescue mission using Secord, the CIA and the pentagon. It proved too difficult to locate the hostages locations. North received a call from Nir and Ghorbanifar promising to free a hostage on the 4th of July. North excitedly told the Reagan and Bush. Expensive arrangements were made to escort the hostage home. Then on the 4th of July nothing happened North was made to look like a fool and refused to speak to Nir for weeks forcing Nir to go through Charles Allen at the CIA who would later be given the task of babysitting Ghorbanifar. On July, 25, 1986 Ghorbanifar and Nir finally came through and the hostage Reverend Lawrence Jenco was freed. Ghorbanifar was desperate to restart the arms for hostages deals. He was millions in debt to Khashoggi because Iran refused to pay him for the HAWK parts that had never been delivered during the Tehran meet. Ghorbanifar and Khashoggi had become ticking time bombs unless they were paid off they might go public. North considered paying off Ghorbanifar from the Enterprise’s coffers or convincing the Iranians to pay him off. On July 29 1986 Vice President Bush flew to Israel to meet with Nir who bragged that they were dealing with the most “radical elements” in Iran because they were the ones who could get things done. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Tehran had another disastrous result for Ghorbanifar it had convinced the Americans that they should find a “second Channel” into Iran their term for a 2nd middleman. Secord assigned his Iranian partner Albert Hakim to find one. Through his exile contacts Hakim was introduced to Ali Hashemi Bahramani the young nephew of Iran’s speaker of the parliament Rafsanjani and also a member of the IRGC. Poindexter and North were so pleased with Bahramani that they had Secord smuggle him to Washington DC for a meeting at the NSC’s offices in the Old Executive building. The. North took Bahramani on a white house tour and arranged CIA approved call girls for him and his party.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> On October 6-8 North Secord Hakim met with Bahramani and other Iranians in Frankfurt to arrange the next arms deal. North brought a bible signed by president Reagan. North had to leave early Eugene Hasenfus was being paraded in front of international television after being shot down over Nicaragua. The Iran-Contra scandal was beginning to unravel but the Iran deals continued. The Iranians warned the Americans that 5 million pamphlets describing McFarlane’s visit had been printed in Tehran. Albert Hakim took over the negotiations agreeing on a 9 point plan with the Iranians to free all the hostages sequentially in exchange for HAWK parts, technical assistance 1500 TOWS, intelligence on Iraq and the freeing of the Dawa prisoners in Kuwait. On October 28 1986 500 TOWs were shipped to Iran. On November 2, 1986 just in time for the midterm elections hostage David Jacobsen was freed. The next day November 3, 1986 the Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa published an expose on the McFarlane visit to Tehran. The American press picked up the story and the controversy over the Iran Contra scandal exploded. Reagan went on TV and denied everything.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The cover up went into high gear. Actually back in the fall of 1985 after Congressman Michael Barnes began demanding to see NSC documents on North’s contra resupply; McFarlane had OK’d North’s plan to start altering NSC files to cover up violations of the Boland amendment. Then once Hasenfus was captured Casey had warned North to start shredding documents. Now the whole Reagan Administration was desperate to cover up Iran Contra. On November 13, 1986 Reagan held a disastrous press conference claiming that there had been no arms for hostage deal and that the arms sent could fit on one small plane a blatant lie. On November 19, 1986 Reagan held another failed press conference where he claimed that no third country had been involved. 20 minutes later his aides issued a correction that there had been a 3rd country. Reagan was especially vulnerable on the Iran issue. His approval rating dropped from 67% to 46% during November 1986. Reagan had violated the Arms Export Control, sold arms to a country designated a terror sponsor and also conducted covert operations without any presidential finding. Violating the Boland amendment carried no legal penalty.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Longtime Reagan loyalist Attorney General Ed Meese who had served under Reagan since his days as Governor of California took charge of the cover up. On November 21, 1986 Meese launched a formal inquiry into the Iran Contra affair he failed to involve the DOJ Criminal division and failed to take notes at important meetings with Casey, McFarlane, and Poindexter. Even as he was being supposedly investigated North was allowed to continue to shred documents. While North was busy shredding Meese’s Assistant Attorney General William Bradford Reynolds discovered the so called “diversion memo” North had written back in April of 1986 summarizing the history of the Iran arms deal and containing North’s plans to divert 12 million to the Contras. Meese saw it as a perfect opportunity to divert attention from Reagan’s illegal arms deals in 1985 and onto North the NSC and the diversion. North had long bragged that he was willing to take the fall for Iran Contra if necessary to protect the President. Poindexter had already offered to resign and after interviewing him Meese was certain that he would deny having told Reagan about the diversion. Reagan’s Chief of Staff Donald Regan was Meese’s partner in the coverup. He began to leak damaging info on McFarlane to the press. On November 25, 1986 Reagan announced that Meese had informed him of some shocking news, Meese then took the stage and revealed the diversion to the Press. He announced that Poindexter had resigned but North had been “relieved of his duties” meaning fired. North found out about it watching it live on TV. Then he received a call from President Reagan who told North he was an “American Hero” and that his life would make a great movie. North transferred back to the Marine corps.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> It would take another article or even a book to do justice to the whole aftermath once the scandal was exposed and this article is long enough already. I dealt with the aftermath back in the first part of my Iran Contra series. I also discuss it in an interview on Our Hidden History that either has come out or will come out soon depending on when this article is released. Before the scandal had broken the Christic institute had filed a civil suit against North and the Iran contra conspirators. After the scandal broke there followed the Tower Commission, the Joint House and Senate Iran Contra hearings and a 6 year long investigation by the Office of the independent council. Nearly a dozen people were convicted or signed plea deals. Bush pardoned them all. The one exception was Thomas Clines who was jailed for income tax invasion for failing to report his income from the enterprise. Democracy and rule of law versus the national security state it’s sort of like Bambi vs Godzilla (a cartoon from the time) the outcome was never in doubt. There is the way things are “supposed” to work and the way they really work. On the international stage the aftermath of Iran-Contra lead directly to the wars in Panama and Iraq. The Iraq war in various forms continues 30 years later a horrifying bloodbath that has cost millions of lives. Thanks to the efforts of the NED and a populace exhausted by contra terror and sick of the economic blockade the Sandinistas were voted out of power in 1991. Thanks to the failure of America’s neoliberal puppets in Nicaragua the Sandinistas were voted back into power and the US is once again intent on overthrowing the Nicaraguan government. There has never been any serious official investigation into the CIA supplying arms cash and advisers to al Qaeda style terrorists through third country proxies like Saudi Arabia. Thanks to the stranglehold of the Israel lobby on US foreign policy the US has yet to establish friendly relations with Iran. Yet Iran has grown too powerful for the US to invade and occupy. Hezbollah eventually decided to adopt the tactics of guerrilla warfare targeting military targets and avoiding civilian targets. They have defeated Israel twice forcing it to withdraw from Lebanon then halting a more recent Israeli invasion earning Hezbollah respect and admiration around the world. In the west Reagan’s legacy continues to dominate the ruling class, capitalism and imperialism continue to run rampant and fascism seems always to be just around the corner.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Sources</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Malcolm Byrne’s Iran-Contra: Reagan’s Scandal and the Unchecked Abuse of Presidential Power is the definitive mainstream version of events. Byrne has been researching Iran-Contra for nearly 30 years.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, The Press & Project Truth by Robert Parry gives many details left out of mainstream accounts. He has an in depth discussion of the Contra drug connection as well as the role of drugs in Panama and Honduras. He also discusses the Reagan Administration Public Diplomacy campaign that destroyed investigative journalism in the US.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Robert Parry’s Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq is another must read. It has a long section covering the “October Surprise” including the mass of evidence he discovered after writing “Trick or Treason: The October Surprise Mystery. It also contains lots of interesting dirt on George H. W. Bush and his son George W. Bush. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Theodore Draper wrote the earlier definitive mainstream account back in the 1990’s ‘A Very Thin Line: The Iran Contra Affairs” It is longer and more detailed then Byrne’s although the author has a sinister past (former communist turned anti-communist scholar for various CIA funded fronts) that makes him all too willing to trust the CIA and fail to dig deeply into the scandal. He never mentions drugs. Still it’s worth reading for anyone interested in the Iran side of Iran Contra.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Firewall: The Iran Contra Conspiracy and Cover-Up by Lawrence E. Walsh the Independent Counsel in The Iran-Contra Investigation offers a long account of his offices investigation and prosecution of Oliver North and other Iran Contra Conspirators. It’s fun to see the case slowly unravel and Walsh’s investigation revealed a great deal that Congress failed to uncover and he gradually begins to have more evidence about the role of then President George H. W. Bush and former President Ronald Reagan in the scandal.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Guts and Glory: The Rise and Fall of Oliver North by Ben Bradlee jr. is a detailed and entertaining account of the life of Oliver North and the Iran Contra scandal although it came out to early to contain some of the later evidence uncovered. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Iran Contra Scandal the Declassified History Edited by Peter Kornbluh and Malcolm Byrne provides a valuable resource for studying the Iran Contra Scandal it contains compact summaries of events as introductions to reprints of declassified documents released during the Congressional and Walsh investigations, plus a timeline of events and a list of key players.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A good book on the war in Lebanon is Beware of Small States: Lebanon, Battleground of the Middle East by David Hirst it covers the complex history of Lebanon from the 1940’s to the 2006 war.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The section on Bush and North’s counter-terrorism network is based on Peter Dale Scott’s article “Bush and North: The Task Force on Combatting Terrorism” in Covert Action Information Bulletin issue 33 Their classic special issue on Bush and the CIA which is packed full of Iran Contra information and dirt on Bush. Also check out Peter Dale Scott’s Deep State for an in depth account of continuity of government planning.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Subscribe here to gain access to Covert Action’s archive</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://covertactionmagazine.com/archives/"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://covertactionmagazine.com/archives/</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Secret Warriors: Inside the Covert Military Operations of the Reagan Era by Steve Emerson contains interesting information on the Special Operations role during the Iran-Contra era as well as Emerson’s own take on Iran-Contra. He was given access because he was aligned with the goals of the national security state. He also had close ties to Israel’s Likud party and played a major role in covering up the October Surprise. Emerson later become an insane neo-con war on terror hysteric.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Casey: From the OSS to the CIA by Joseph Persico contains some interesting information but is generally a complete disappointment. Persico is too naive and inexperienced to write about the CIA has no idea how they operate and no idea what to look into. It completely fails to provide a complete picture of the CIA in the 1980’s and the author is way to sympathetic to Bill Casey. That’s why Casey befriended Persico and then his widow granted him access to Casey’s papers.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Dangerous Liaison: The Inside Story of the US-Israeli Covert Relationship by Andrew and Leslie Cockburn is full of shocking details about the Israeli role around the world including their drug smuggling in Panama, Colombia, and Central America. It also provides many insights into the Israeli view of Iran Contra.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Malcolm Byrne lecture about his Iran Contra Book</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/xUu8f9rBh_g"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/xUu8f9rBh_g</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A Robert Parry Interview</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/_X3v4Di8YyM"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/_X3v4Di8YyM</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Robert Parry’s Frontline documentary on October Surprise</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://archive.org/details/InvestigatingtheOctoberSurprise"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://archive.org/details/InvestigatingtheOctoberSurprise</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A discussion of the October Surprise</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/2oTY7fQuieY"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/2oTY7fQuieY</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The 1st part of Dave Emory’s 4 part series on the “Deep October” surprise with Iranian researcher Fara Mansoor who argues that the whole hostage crisis and the rise of Khomeini were engineered by a faction of the CIA loyal to Bush with help from Thatcher and MI6.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-896-fara-mansoor-on-the-deep-october-surprise-part-1/"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-896-fara-mansoor-on-the-deep-october-surprise-part-1/</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Deep October Surprise Part 2 </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-897-fara-mansoor-on-the-deep-october-surprise-part-2/"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-897-fara-mansoor-on-the-deep-october-surprise-part-2/</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Deep October Surprise Part 3</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-898-fara-mansoor-on-the-deep-october-surprise-part-3/"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-898-fara-mansoor-on-the-deep-october-surprise-part-3/</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Deep October Surprise Part 4</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-899-fara-mansoor-on-the-deep-october-surprise/"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-899-fara-mansoor-on-the-deep-october-surprise/</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Documentary Cover-Up Behind the Iran Contra Affair</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/ZDdItm-PDeM"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/ZDdItm-PDeM</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">An Archival radio interview on Iraqgate the flip side of the Iran arms sales the much larger sales of arms by the US to Iraq. The Bush administration massively expanded arms sales to Iraq right until the moment Iraq invaded Kuwait and America launched it’s 30 year long series of wars on Iraq.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/MwEXdPzJKs4"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/MwEXdPzJKs4</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My earlier series on Iran Contra</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Part 1 The Secret Team</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/05/irancontra-pt-1-secret-team.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/05/irancontra-pt-1-secret-team.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Part 2 World War 3</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/06/irancontra-pt-2-world-war-3.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/06/irancontra-pt-2-world-war-3.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Part 3 The World Anti-Communist League Part 1</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/07/irancontra-pt-3-wacl.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/07/irancontra-pt-3-wacl.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Part 4 The World Anti-Communist League Part 2</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/08/irancontra-pt-4-wacl-2.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/08/irancontra-pt-4-wacl-2.html</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Ted Shackley a Life in the CIA</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/12/ted-shackley-life-in-cia.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/12/ted-shackley-life-in-cia.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Old Nazis, New Right (Also covers the Coors Connection)</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2017/10/old-nazis-new-right.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2017/10/old-nazis-new-right.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Subscribe to the Our Hidden History Youtube channel for dozens of Iran/Contra and CIA/Drugs related videos like my interview on Oliver North</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/7LXbeeVJVfs"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/7LXbeeVJVfs</span></a></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"> </span> </span></p>Hugo Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12229123097438571385noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8001402613324067475.post-58790767042208245512022-01-20T16:00:00.001-08:002022-01-20T16:00:17.214-08:00Iran-Contra Pt 2: Illegal Contra War<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">The Iran Contra Scandal: The Illegal Contra Resupply Operation</span></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">With Special Thanks to Dr. T. P. Wilkinson</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The Iran/Contra scandal is so complex that I’ve decided to separate the Nicaragua and Iran parts into separate articles. Many of the cast of characters introduced in this article will reappear in the next. Names like National Security Advisers Robert McFarlane and John Poindexter, Oliver North, Richard Secord, Albert Hakim, Thomas Clines, and Duane “Dewey” Clarridge. Israel would play an important role in both Central America and the Middle East. And of course President Ronald Reagan, Vice President George Bush and CIA director William Casey would play major roles in both scandals. The CIA and National Security Council having assembled “the Enterprise” to wage an illegal war on Nicaragua in 1984-1986 employing private contractors who were ex-military or CIA Secord, Clines, Hakim. The NSC would employ the same enterprise to handle logistics in the Iran arms deals starting in the fall of 1985. This is the mainstream version. On the other hand the true origins of the “Enterprise” went back to much earlier middle east arms deals. Secord had served in Iran back in the early 1960’s and returned in the late 1970’s supervising the Pentagon’s Military Assistance Program to the Shah’s Iran. Secord was also suspected of being a partner in EATSCO with Thomas Clines, Ted Shackley and Ed Wilson. By beginning the story in Nicaragua I am not implying that this is the true origins of the affair. However since this article is on the mainstream version of the Iran-Contra affair I will not attempt to trace the history of the Iran Contra players through the decades prior the scandals exposure in 1986 as the Christic Institute attempted to do in their civil case against “The Secret Team” which inspired my earlier series on the Iran/Contra scandal and my biography of Ted Shackley. I will merely comment that Secord and Clines had both been deeply involved in running covert operations with drug smuggling allies in places like Laos and Vietnam.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> I plan to do a whole series on the Contra drug connection next year so I will not deal with that aspect of the scandal in depth here. All the contra leaders of every faction were deeply involved in drug smuggling. More all of the US right wing military dictatorships like Guatemala, El Salvador, Argentina, and Chile as well as nominally democratic but brutally repressive countries like Colombia, Mexico and Honduras were all involved in drug smuggling. All received tacit permission and CIA protection for this massive drug trade. It is a pattern that has continued long after the cold war nor is it restricted to Latin America. South East Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East, Australia, Europe, and increasingly Africa all have their stories of CIA protected drug trades and the CIA is not unique intelligence agencies around the world are involved in the global drug trade. It’s all so obvious that it would be widely known if not for the cowardice of most academics and journalists or more accurately their role in propagandizing the public on behalf of the empire. The war on drugs like the war on terror is a complete farce but few dare to point out this fact.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The United States invaded and occupied Nicaragua from 1912-1933 training a brutal national guard to keep order when they left. Anastasio Somoza was the head of this force and always eager to please his American sponsors. He seized power in 1936 and his family would rule till it was overthrown by the Sandinistas July 17 1979. This was during the Jimmy Carter presidency. Carter’s record in Central America was rather more sinister then the myth of his supposed obsession with human rights would suggest. He authorized a massive escalation in military aid to El Salvador in his final years in office for example. Carter had cut off military aid to Somoza however because his refusal to negotiate and brutal war crimes endangered the US’s ability to manage the transition of power. Carter hoped to use the promise of aid to keep the Sandinistas in line. Their were doubtless secret plans to undermine them at the same time there is always a “Track 2.” Little aid was delivered but Carter’s policies were viewed as treacherous and weak by future President Ronald Reagan. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In the fantasy world of Reagan and the National Security State what had happened in Nicaragua was not a popular revolution but a sinister soviet plot to dominate the western hemisphere. Destroying Nicaragua and preventing revolutions in El Salvador and Guatemala would become major priorities of the new administration. Reagan’s election in 1980 amounted to a soft coup as I discussed in my introductory article involving illegal campaign contributions from rich oligarchs in El Salvador and Guatemala who were given the green light to commit atrocities and mass murder. These schemes involved Michael Deaver future Contra supplier Major General John K. Singlaub and Reagan’s first National Security Adviser Richard Allen. The Reagan campaign also sent emissaries to the Contras. Most importantly the Reagan campaign made a deal with Khoemeini’s faction to prevent the release of the American hostages in Iran the so called “October surprise” which personally involved George. H.W. Bush, Bill Casey, Richard Allen and future National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane among other key players in the Iran Contra scandal. I’ll expand on this in the Iran Section.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> When Reagan came to power in 1981 he began plans to wage his war on Nicaragua. In the fall of 1981 the Contras were a tiny force of 250 men mostly veterans of Somoza’s National Guard in exile in Guatemala under the protection of the “Godfather of the death squads” Mario Sandoval Alarcon. Others Contras were in exile in Honduras. Honduras would be the Contras main future base backed by the Honduran military, Argentine advisers fresh from their dirty war in Argentina and the Bolivian Cocaine coup, and Cuban bay of pigs Veterans. The future contras were also living in Miami where they had formed an alliance with the Cuban exiles. They engaged in terror attacks, drug dealing bank robbery and kidnapping to finance their counter-revolution some survived by armed robbery and stealing livestock. They had named themselves the 15th of September Legion. This was the situation in fall of 1981 when the Reagan administration began it’s war on Nicaragua.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In August of 1981 Duane “Dewey” Clarridge the new head of the CIA’s Latin America division was sent down to Honduras to meet with the Honduran military who were working with the Contras and their Argentine Advisers. Clarridge was a veteran of Operation Gladio in both Turkey and Italy. DCI Casey had picked him despite the fact that he didn’t speak Spanish, because he was a reckless “cowboy” used to operating above the law doing whatever dirty work was necessary. Clarridge operated under the alias Maroni while the contras jokingly called him “GarCIA”. Clarridge would run the Contra war until mid 1984 when his harbor mining and assassination scandals would alienate congress and eventually get them to forbid further aid to the Contras. Instead of being fired Casey would promote him to the even more prestigious position of head of the European division.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In November of 1981 Reagan signed NSDD 17 authorizing a full scale covert war on Nicaragua. On December 1 1981 Reagan would sign a Presidential Finding on Nicaragua meant to deceive congress on the full scope of what he was up to. In the wake of the CIA scandals of the 1970’s and the congressional investigations a system of oversight was put into place, House and Senate Intelligence committee’s were set up and in order to conduct a covert operation a president had to sign a Presidential finding and inform congress within 30 days. Reagan and Bill Casey planned a massive expansion of the CIA and in order to get congress to agree they had included oversight and the need for presidential findings in the bill. This would be an important legal detail later in the scandal. Casey despised the idea of congressional oversight keeping congress in the dark as much as possible. Casey even wanted to exempt the CIA from FOIA requests lying to congress he claimed that every day a CIA officer resigned over fear their name might be revealed in a FOIA request. Reagan would conduct covert operations without signing the proper findings which could have gotten him impeached. In this case Reagan’s finding on Nicaragua was a deceptive cover story. Knowing that Congress wouldn’t approve their plan to overthrow the Nicaraguan Government Reagan and Casey created the cover story that they merely wanted to create a 500 man force to interdict arms going from Nicaragua to the El Salvadoran guerrillas. Congress was kept in the dark about the fact that they were already working to overthrow the Nicaraguan Government.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Bill Casey was a key architect of the Iran-Contra affair and the mastermind of the Reagan doctrine that America must wage covert war on any socialist or independent minded country or as they put it “aid freedom fighters around the world.” Casey’s father worked in the sanitation department but was extremely well connected to the Irish political machine in New York. Casey became a lawyer and an expert on corporate law and tax evasion publishing guides for corporations on tax loopholes. He joined the OSS during the war running intelligence in the European theater. He loved his job but decided to leave the government and make his fortune. Actually Casey was part of a network of old ex-OSS men who ran CIA front NGO’s like in Casey’s case the International Rescue Committee and the Crusade for Freedom covers for their work with fascist emigres. Another group of ex-OSS men ran the media and Casey would later acquire huge media holdings. Thanks to Casey’s connections and his skills at tax evasion including the creation of the concept of the tax shelter he got rich. He remained active in politics and was rewarded for his support for Nixon with the position of head of the SEC, The Export Import Bank, and the State Department’s economic division. He turned down the job Deputy Director of Operations for the CIA offended they hadn’t offered him the director spot. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Finally Reagan was convinced to hire Casey as his campaign manager and he ran the campaign like a covert op stealing Carter’s debate book among other dirty tricks. He wanted to be rewarded with the position of Secretary of State or Defense but was rejected because he was a notorious slob and a mumbler. Instead he became CIA director which was elevated to a cabinet post. He would oversee a massive expansion of the CIA and would also push for a massive expansion of the military’s special forces. He was impatient with the CIA’s bureaucracy and despised the analytical division for throwing cold water on the anti-soviet hysteria the Reagan administration was drumming up. He purged the whole division replacing them with analysts who would toe the party line. Yet he fully realized how vulnerable the Soviet Union was and helped engineer it’s downfall. To get around CIA red tape Casey like to rely on private businessmen and other cut outs. To be closer to the President Casey had opened office in the Executive Office Building close to Oliver North’s. North met with Casey regularly and Casey was a major influence over National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane. North would report to both Casey and McFarlane on his Iran Contra project. Just as the Iran/Contra scandal was breaking Casey’s brain cancer incapacitated him and he was sent to a CIA approved hospital for radical brain surgery which left him conveniently unable to communicate. He died a few months later.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The war on Nicaragua would escalate in a major way spring 1982. Now renamed the FDN and having the full support of the CIA the contras launched 106 attacks between March 14 1982 and June 21 1982. They blew up the bridges connecting Honduras and Nicaragua, assassinated minor government officials and began sniper attacks on Nicaraguan troop convoys. Also in 1982 the CIA would recruit Eden Pastora who played a heroic role during the revolution but turned traitor. He would relocate to Costa Rica where his much smaller force ARDE would attempt to open up a southern front. Late in 1982 the CIA would recruit 8 civilians with anti-Somoza reputations to serve as the FDN’s civilian directorate in an attempt to defuse criticism that the FDN were made up of entirely of Somoza’s National Guard who had committed horrific war crimes under Somoza and were carrying out equally horrific crimes against Nicaragua with CIA backing. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> This was only a small part of the psychological warfare strategy the Reagan administration was waging on the US public and the world at large. In 1982 Casey would transfer veteran CIA propagandist Walter Raymond Jr. to the NSC to run the Intelligence division and begin launch a Public Diplomacy campaign. Public Diplomacy (like the term public relations) was the latest euphemism for propaganda and psychological operations. Raymond led the campaign to ensure that Reagan’s delusional analysis of events in Central America would become the prevailing wisdom. Raymond and his lackey Otto Reich who would be in charge of the State Departments office of Public Diplomacy for Latin American affairs or S/LPD would wage war on investigative journalists. The press was used to “Following the State Department line.” Now if they failed to follow that script by exposing war crimes in Central America, Otto Reich might personally arrive to bully their editors or producers. Oliver North worked closely with Raymond and Reich attending over 70 meetings of the S/LPD. Many journalists were fired as a result. They also spread wild rumors about journalists critical of administration policy accusing female journalists of having Sandinista lovers and male journalists of being supplied by the Sandinistas with prostitutes of either sex. North went further telling the FBI Robert Parry had poisoned his dog which had died of old age. They also set up a network of journalists who were actually secretly on the state payroll to print opinion pieces in the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal. Later they would also illegally fund the “Contra Lobby” Carl “Spitz” Channell, Richard Miller, and Frank Gomez who were also working closely with Oliver North raising money to buy arms for the Contras and illegally lobby Congress. Raymond’s main goal was “to paint black hats on the Sandinistas and white hats on the Contras” in the process he managed to effectively kill investigative journalism by the end of the 1980’s according to Robert Parry one of his victims. Raymond called it “Project Truth.”</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Perhaps it is time to fully introduce Oliver North who's power was steadily growing over at the NSC while “Dewey” Dewey Clarridge was running the Contra war. In 8th grade he had been sent away for a year of military school despite being a very well behaved kid. Later after attending a marine training camp in High School he became obsessed with joining the marines, attended the Naval Academy, became an officer in the marines and happily went to Vietnam his one worry was that the war would end before he could get there. North was a true believer never questioning the genocidal war in Vietnam. He lead a platoon in Vietnam. After serving his tour returned to testify on behalf of a friend who had helped massacre a village in an incident the press dubbed “The Marine Corps’s My Lai”. While waiting to testify North joined a black ops marine intelligence unit on night time missions assassinating the Vietnamese on what was basically his vacation. North got his first taste of fame when he and several marines signed a letter claiming that in all their time in Vietnam they had never witnessed a single war crime or human rights violation by either American or South Vietnamese forces. This was an absolutely absurd lie but it got him invited onto ex-CIA media pundit William F. Buckley’s talk show. (Not to be confused with the CIA station chief William Buckley kidnapped in Beirut) North began training marines in Counter-Insurgency both in the States and in Okinawa. When his wife threatened to leave him he had a nervous breakdown in 1974 and threatened to commit suicide muttering “I’m no good” and waving a pistol around. He was hospitalized and recovered his wife didn’t leave him. The whole incident was covered up later allowing him to be picked for the NSC. In 1975 he was assigned to marine headquarters in the manpower division where he befriended the top brass. He was promoted to major and assigned to Camp Lejeune. In 1978 after a superior officer gave him a faith healing of his leg North became an enthusiastic born again Christian raised catholic he now joined a charismatic Episcopalian church. This would prove useful in the Reagan era as North would also work closely with the Christian Right to drum up support for the Contras and joining the influential Council on National Policy (CNP.) In 1980 he was sent to the Naval War College. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In1981 National Security Adviser Richard Allen picked North to join the NSC. Allen would be replaced by National Security Adviser William Clark an old Reagan crony from his days as Governor of California and the NSC suddenly had a lot more access to Reagan. Clark would be replaced by his deputy Robert McFarlane who had been an aide to Kissinger during his secret trips to China. McFarlane hoped to emulate his mentor Kissinger raising the power of the National Security Adviser. Like North McFarlane was a marine and they soon formed a close father and son type relationship fueling North’s meteoric rise. One of North’s first assignment was to lobby for the AWACS sale to Saudi Arabia when he met Richard Secord who was also deeply involved with the AWACS sale over at the Pentagon. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> North was assigned to work on Continuity of Government planning where he worked on contingency plans to suspend the constitution declare martial law and round up tens of thousands of anti war activists and hundreds of thousands of Central American refugees in the event of civil unrest in response to the invasion of Nicaragua. Reagan had dreamed of instituting martial law back when he was Governor of California waging war on Anti-war protestors, Black and Latino radicals and others. Luis Giuffrida as head of California Specialized Training Institute was a key mastermind of this plan called Cable Splicer. As president Reagan appointed Luis Giuffrida to run FEMA. In the Reagan era continuity of Government plans would expand from post-nuclear war scenarios to terror attacks or even civil unrest. In 1984 Oliver North would use the Rex-84 exercise as part of a scheme to funnel “surplus” weapons to the Contras. The 1980’s Continuity of Government plans would form the blueprint for the government response to 9/11. “Paranoia” over FEMA camps would continue for decades on the far right. Ironically back in the 1980’s the plan was to recruit the militia movement to serve as State Defense Forces who would conduct these round ups of Central American refugees and for decades right wing militias have been allowed to terrorize refugees at the borders.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> North also began to take an increasing interest in Central America serving under Roger Fontaine on the NSC eventually replacing him as the NSC point man in charge of Central America. North would serve on the Kissinger Commission which drew up a blueprint for continuing Reagan’s dirty war in Central America. Soon North was serving as the NSC representative on the RIG the Restricted Interagency Group on Central America where he worked closely with Dewey Clarridge the CIA representative. Eventually the RIG composed of Oliver North of the NSC, CIA Central America Task Force chief Alan Fiers, and Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Elliot Abrams would run Central American policy also supervising Walter Raymond’s Public Diplomacy campaign as the RIG triumvirate or RIGlet.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Having introduced North let’s return to “Dewey” Clarridge’s Contra war back in late 1982. In December 1982 in response to the massive expansion of the Contras, their aggressive attacks, reports of massacres, the expansion of the war to Costa Rica (which since it was to Nicaragua’s south could not play any role in the cover story of interdicting arms heading for El Salvador) Boland I was passed it forbade the Reagan administration from using the Contras to overthrow the Nicaraguan Government. Reagan signed it and DCI Casey merely ignored it since he could deny that his goal was to overthrow the Nicaraguan Government up until he actually succeeded in doing so. Instead his worry was that the war was behind schedule. In 1983 there was yet another escalation in the Contra war. In 1983 Dewey Clarridge commissioned the Contra handbook “Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare.” which the press would later dub the “assassination manual” or “the murder manual” it argued for selective terror against loyal Nicaraguans and assassinating contras to create martyrs. Ignoring Boland I it called for the overthrow of the Nicaraguan Government. It would cause a scandal when exposed by journalist Robert Parry. In May of 1983 Reagan for the first time openly praised the Contras as freedom fighters and bragged that the US was funding them. He would later claim “I am a Contra.” and compare them to the US founding fathers. He was serving as the mouthpiece for the public diplomacy campaign which advised claiming that the contras were freedom fighters fighting for democracy when they might more accurately described judging them by their tactics and origins as bloodthirsty death squads and terrorists pining for the days when Nicaragua was run by a fascist dictator. The Contras massacred peasants, raped, tortured, and killed in the grisly manner favored by CIA trained death squads mutilating their victims with knives an machetes. The Contras blew up buildings and burned down hospitals and grain silos. They terrorized not just Nicaraguans but Hondurans, and Costa Ricans. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> By summer 1983 it had become clear that “Dewey” Clarridge wouldn’t be able to meet his deadline to topple the Sandinistas by Christmas 1983. Cuban and Soviet economic aid were preventing the US sanctions and economic warfare from collapsing the economy. Nicaragua was successfully repelling the contra attacks. “Dewey” Clarridge came up with a plan to destroy Nicaragua’s economic infrastructure and since the Contras weren’t up to the job he would have the CIA do it themselves utilizing UCLAs or Unilaterally Controlled Latino Assets Cuban-Americans, Mexican Americans, and Puerto Ricans who were military and probably special forces veterans but who if killed could be passed off as Nicaraguans. He purchased a huge mothership as a base for a fleet of speedboats and starting in fall 1983 began trying to destroy Nicaragua’s oil infrastructure. On September 8 1983 the UCLAs attacked an oil pipeline and docks at Puerto Sandino. On October 10 1983 the UCLAs set fire to the oil storage facility in Corinto forcing the entire town to evacuate. In December of 1983 as a compromise between those who wanted to end all aid to Contras and those who wanted it to continue Congress voted to put a 24 million limit on aid to the Contras in Fiscal Year 1984. Undeterred Dewey Clarridge presented a plan to Casey to mine Nicaraguan harbors an act of open warfare under international law. Casey and Reagan gave Dewey Clarridge the green light. “Dewey” Clarridge convinced the Contra leadership to take responsibility although in reality it was the CIA’s UCLAs who carried out the mining. The mining began on January 1st and lasted till April 24 1984. Casey claimed he had properly informed Congress but since he was a mumbler and it was buried in the middle of his testimony no one had noticed. While Casey had mentioned the mining he had lied and said the Contras had carried out the mining. In any case when the press reported the mining in April of 1984 it was a major scandal. Dewey Clarridge had spent nearly all the Contras 24 million 1984 budget on the mining and other attacks and when the scandal broke Clarridge was in South Africa begging for arms and cash to fund the Contras. South Africa was willing to send arms and money since it was working closely with the US running it’s own Contra style wars against Angola and Mozambique against Nicaragua’s Cuban allies in the case of Angola. The Reagan administration decided that because of the mining scandal it should avoid further controversy by involving Apartheid South Africa of which Reagan was a strong supporter.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Eventually the Harbor mining scandal and the assassination manual scandal would lead to the passage of Boland II in October 1984. In the meantime Reagan would order his National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane to find a way to keep the Contras together “Body and Soul” even if Congress cut them off. McFarlane picked his protege Oliver North to run the operation. It had been planned to hand the contra war over to the NSC back in 1983 when the 24 million spending cap was imposed. In February 1984 McFarlane had asked Israel to take over the Contras. The Israelis had basically taken over for the US in Guatemala although the US was secretly still heavily involved there and McFarlane hoped they would play a similar role advising the Contras. Israel refused for fear of endangering their bipartisan stranglehold on the US congress but they would play a key role in arming the Contras. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Dewey Clarridge introduced North to the Contra leaders as the new point man on the Contra Operation. Casey suggested North recruit Richard Secord to run the Contra resupply operation. North sent Secord down to meet with the Contra’s and obtain “a shopping list” of weapons and supplies they needed. Secord would be in charge of weapons procurement charging a 38% markup to the Contras. His partner Iranian exile Albert Hakim began setting up a network of shell companies like Energy Resources International, Lake Resources, Udall corp, and Amalgamated Commercial Enterprises in addition to the shell companies and fronts they’d already set up as part of their business like Stanford Technology Group. They called it the Enterprise while North called it “Project Democracy” the dark underbelly of the newly created National Endowment for Democracy. Standard operating procedure in shadowy world of military contractors, arms dealers, offshore bankers, private intelligence firms, transport specialists, and crisis management populated by ex-spies, ex-military operating under the unofficial protection of the US and other governments. Soon Secord hired his old EATSCO partner Thomas Clines to handle the arms deal when his first deal involving Canada’s Transworld Arms and China faced delays over the fake Guatemalan end user certificates which made China hesitant because Guatemala was a close ally of Taiwan. Clines source was Defex of Portugal whose board had close ties to Clines. Clines would bring in CIA Cuban and assassin Rafael “Chi Chi” Quintero to run things on the ground in El Salvador. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Another key member of the Enterprise was Rob Owen supposedly a civilian. Owen’s brother was in the State Department (or possibly CIA) and was killed in Vietnam. Owen went to work for the International Rescue Committee a CIA front in Vietnam then joined future Vice President Dan Quayles staff. CIA rancher John Hull paid him a visit and Owen became obsessed with helping the Contras. He went to work for CIA tied Gray & Co a PR firm owned by Robert Keith Gray who had long worked with the CIA in looting Latin America. The Contras tried to hire Gray & Co to do their PR but the deal was vetoed by a former Kennedy aid. Owen quit and went to work for the FDN and soon became North’s courier to the Contras. Owen worshipped North who he called “The Hammer” and “Old Blood and Guts.” Owen ran his own one man pro-contra NGO IDEA.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In addition to setting up a privatized network to cope with reduced CIA involvement it was necessary to find a new source of funds. National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane turned to the Saudis meeting with Ambassador Bandar Bin Sultan (aka “Bandar Bush”) in May of 1984. Ambassador Bandar Bin Sultan agreed to supply 1 million a month to the Contras with the permission of King Fahd. In February 1985 the Saudi’s would double their donation after President Reagan met with King Fahd. The Saudi’s gave a total of 32 million. WACL head retired General John Singlaub and Oliver North eventually convinced Taiwan to donate 2.7 million. “Dewey” Clarridge had gotten the South Africans to provide arms money and advisers but the deal was canceled or delayed do to the harbor mining scandal. South Africa did supply millions to the network of cold war lobbyists and new right propagandists the Reagan Administration relied on to sell their policies to the public and pressure or unseat congressional opponents critical of the Contras and other Reagan policies. In 1986 prior to the scandal breaking Elliot Abrams convinced the Sultan of Brunei to give 10 million to the Contras but due to a supposed clerical error by Fawn Hall North’s secretary the money ended up instead in the Swiss bank account of Israeli expat Bruce Rappaport a shadowy figure (ie connected to organized crime, big business, intelligence and the Israeli labor party) who was a key element in the Iraqgate schemes to build a Bechtel oil pipeline in Iraq. Rappaport had promised to pay tens of millions to Israeli politicians for the promise not to blow up the Iraqi pipeline. Abrams blanket denials to congress when questioned on whether the State Department was soliciting 3rd country donors saying “We are not in the fundraising business” would almost land him in prison. The Reagan Administration would solicit aid from over two dozen countries on behalf of the Contras.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> It was also vital to keep Central American countries supportive of the Contras a policy that was as unpopular in their countries as it was in the US. Their support was maintained via illegal quid pro quo deals. The Reagan administration could only ask for aid to the Contras if there were no strings attached, if congress was informed and if there was a presidential finding. President Reagan and Vice President Bush would personally violate the law intervening with heads of state in Central America offering quid pro quos and threatening aid cut offs. If the countries agreed to support the Contras they would get huge increases in military and economic aid. If they tried to interfere with the Contras they were threatened with aid cut offs. In El Salvador and Guatemala these arms shipments would be used in their US backed dirty wars on peasants and workers that would claim 300,000 lives. Mexico was home to Contra training camps under the protection of the infamous Guadalajara cartel that were considered so sensitive that DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena Salazar and Mexico’s top investigative journalist Manuel Buendia were both murdered to cover it up. Buendia was assassinated by Mexico’s CIA trained DFS. Bush’s man Felix Rodriguez was there to interrogate “Kiki” Camarena as the cartel tortured him to death. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Guatemala was used to supply fake end user certificates for the Enterprise’s Contra arms deals. El Salvador’s Ilopongo airbase would be the supply depot for the Contras as Honduras didn’t want direct supply flights from the US. Bush’s National Security Adviser Donald Gregg had sent Felix Rodriguez to El Salvador as an adviser on using helicopter strike teams in their dirty war in the countryside as well as to run the Contra resupply at Ilopongo. Rodriguez had run a similar program under Gregg in Vietnam when they were in the CIA. Rodriguez had formed a tight bond with the El Salvadoran Air Force General Juan Rafael Bustillo. Before leaving for El Salvador Rodriguez met with Bush and then SouthCom Commander in chief Paul Gorman who flew Rodriguez down to Ilopongo. Eventually Rodriguez would clash with the Enterprise. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Honduras was the Contras main base and the US was constantly forced to intervene whenever Honduras would threaten to withdraw support or jealously seize Contra weapon shipments of surface to air missiles that the US supplied to the Contras but not Honduras. Vice President Bush personally flew to Honduras as Reagan’s special envoy to offer Honduras a quid pro quo to Honduran President Suazo. Amusingly at an earlier National Security Planning Group meeting Bush had warned the cabinet that such quid pro quos were illegal. The Honduran military who worked closely with the Contras were also involved in a massive drug smuggling operation. Honduran General Jose Bueso-Rosa was busted in Florida and $40 million dollars in cocaine was seized by the FBI. General Buso Rosa was planning to use this drug deal finance the assassination of Honduras’ new President. Oliver North and Elliot Abrams lobbied on his behalf to get the charges dropped and when that failed to get him a lighter sentence in a minimum security prison. They were worried General Bueso-Rosa might expose the illegal contra resupply operation. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Panama was a key Contra supporter General Noriega’s main adviser was Michael “Mad Mike” Harari a notorious Mossad veteran who was making a fortune supplying Panama’s air force with US parts and using that as a cover to smuggle cocaine to the US. A longtime CIA asset Noriega donated tens of millions to the Contras along with his bussiness partner Harari in exchange for the US’s ignoring his involvement in drug smuggling and money laundering. Panama would supply an explosives expert to ex-SAS British Mercenary David Walker for an attack that blew up an arms depot in downtown Nicaragua that sparked a fire destroying a nearby military hospital. Just prior to the Iran/Contra scandal breaking Oliver North met personally with Noriega on a plan to pay Panama one million dollars and fix Noriega’s PR problems in exchange for Noriega’s help launching terror attacks on Nicaragua. Noriega offered to loan the US teams to carry out assassinations. The plan also called for setting up a Contra training base in Panama where Panamanian and Israeli advisers would create a western front in the Contra war targeting the capital Managua. Noriega was having PR problems because Sy Hersh had exposed Noriega’s drug empire in the New York times a couple months before. Casey and Bush had also held personal meetings with Noriega.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Costa Rica was host to a much smaller Contra force then Honduras but was even more resistant to supporting the Contras. It was home to secret airstrips to supply the Contras the most infamous being John Hull’s Ranch where drugs were smuggled, mercenaries housed, and the La Penca bombing was allegedly planned. The La Penca bombing took place May 30 1984. Pastora had refused to merge his forces with the FDN ignoring a CIA ultimatum. 8 people were killed including 3 journalists one of them an American Linda Frazier. 17 were injured including Tony Avirgan. Avirgan and his wife Martha Honey would investigate the bombing and the trail lead to John Hull’s Ranch and meeting attended by North’s courier Rob Owen and CIA station chief Joe Fernandez. Hull had been plotting Pastora’s assassination for months who he viewed as a “Commie.” Mercenaries who frequented Hulls ranch claimed that there was also a plot to kill Ambassador Lewis Tambs and blame Nicaragua as a pretext for a US invasion. It would also allow the Contras to collect a million dollar bounty the Medellin Cartel had put on Tambs. Avirgan and Honey sought the aid of the Christic Institute when Hull sued them for Libel and tried to frame them as drug traffickers. Eventually they became the plaintiffs in the Christic Institute civil lawsuit of the Iran Contra conspirators. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Costa Rica was also home to the Santa Elena airstrip which North had the Enterprise purchase through the dummy corporation the Udall Research Corporation set up by North’s friend ex-marine William Haskell under the fake name Robert Olmstead. North’s alias throughout the Iran Contra affair was “William Goode” Secord’s was Richard Copp. Copp Goode and Olmstead were listed as the board of directors of Udall Research Corp. The Airstrip was built through the efforts of Ambassador Lewis Tambs and CIA chief of Station Joe Fernandez. The Costa Rica’s Minister for Public Security Benjamin Piza was on the CIA payroll and was the airstrips Costa Rican protector. His reward was a trip to DC for a personal photo op with Reagan. CIA chief of station Fernandez would blatantly violate the Boland amendment by serving as the Contras communications officers supervising arms drops. Charges were later dropped against Fernandez when the CIA refused to cooperate. When Oscar Arias was elected President of Costa he ordered Santa Elena shut down but his government ignored him. Eventually in 1986 his government would raid Santa Elena and expose the Udall corporation despite the panicked efforts of the Reagan Administration. Arias would later win the Nobel prize for his Arias Peace plan the blueprint for ending Central America’s bloody dirty wars.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In addition to seeking donations and support from other governments North partnered with a domestic fundraising network raising illegal tax free donations for the Contras, funding a vast domestic propaganda campaign on behalf of Reagan’s Central American dirty wars and engaged in illegal meddling with congressional elections. Carl “Spitz” Channell was the key fundraiser setting up a network of NGO’s like the NEPL (The National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty) and ACT (The American Conservative Trust. His network was closely tied with that of Richard Miller and Frank Gomez who ran IBC (International Business Communications) and other shell companies funded by NEPL and the US State departments S/LPD (Latin American Public Diplomacy.) North would be his unofficial partner North would give a sales pitch in the form of an intelligence briefing often at his NSC offices. North was a great salesman he could reduce donors to tears. Then after explaining what the Contras needed and what it cost he would exit the room and Channell would ask for a donation. The biggest funders were right wing widows like Ellen Garwood the Contras named the helicopter she bought them the Lady Ellen in her honor and she donated millions to Channell. Hollywood had this elderly widow played by Julia Roberts in Charlie Wilson’s war as she was also a key backer of the Afghan Mujahideen. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The second biggest donors were infamous right wing billionaires like Nelson Bunker Hunt and Joseph Coors who had been funding a vast network of warmongering, racist, sexist and homophobic NGO’s for decades. Hunt, Coors and other men gave hundreds of thousands to the NEPL. Donors who gave over $300,000 were rewarded with a personal meeting with President Reagan. North wrote them thank you notes on NSC stationary, and sent them commemorative souvenirs, while Channell would send the lonely widows gift baskets for the holidays. The NEPL raised $3.9 million in 1985 and $7 million in 1986. The NEPL spent half the money it raised on $5 million in consulting fees and salaries for Channell and his cronies. A quarter went to the Contras via Secord’s Lake Resources Swiss accounts $2.7 million. Another $ 2.3 million funded the “Contra Lobby” which bought attack ads in states with swing votes on Contra funding. They also funded a vast domestic propaganda campaign on behalf of the Contras. Although the public remained opposed in 1985 Congress gave in and voted for 27 million in “Humanitarian Assistance” to the Contras. In summer 1986 their lobbying campaign would convince congress to vote 100 million in lethal aid to the Contras. However there was a 3 month delay before the funds became available so the illegal resupply operation continued and was exposed on October 5 1986 when a plane carrying arms was shot down.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The Contras relied on 3 main arms dealers, “The Arms Supermarket”, Secord’s Enterprise, and Singlaub’s GeoMiliTech. As North and Secord’s affairs became more entangled and corrupt North forced the Contras to buy solely from “The Enterprise” and even put “The Enterprise” in charge of all the Contras funds. The Arms Supermarket had been set up with the support of Vice President Bush, and his National Security Adviser Donald Gregg who sent Felix Rodriguez to help supervise it. It was founded with 14 million in drug money (according to North) and was run by Ronald Martin, James McCoy Mario Dellamico another Cuban exile. It ran a massive warehouse with millions of dollars in weapons It was closely allied to the Honduran Military via Col. Hector Aplicano and the Israelis. The Arms Supermarket was implicated in the death of money launderer and cuban exile John F. Molina who was killed by a Colombian hit team in Panama.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> GeoMiliTech (GMT) was owned by Barbara Studley a former beauty queen turned talk show host. GeoMiliTech was a strange company it partnered with both China and Israel to supply Chinese and east bloc weapons to “Contras” waging covert wars around the world in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Cambodia and of course Nicaragua. They also bought East Bloc arms from Austrian arms dealer Werner Glatt who supplied the CIA with East Bloc Weapons. GMT became an exclusive dealer of certain Israeli weapons system and had offices in Israel. GMT supplied 5.3 million in weapons to the Contras. Behind Barbara Studley were General John K. Singlaub and General Daniel Graham the former head of the DIA. Singlaub had been forced to retire as head of US and Korean forces in South Korea after publicly criticizing President Carter’s troop reductions in South Korea. He had served in the OSS in China and Europe, the CIA and the military in Korea and had headed the Special Operations Group in Vietnam (SOG-MACV.) He had started the new US WACL branch the USCWF the US Council on World Freedom and would be elected to head WACL worldwide The World Communist League was an umbrella group combining fascist emigres and former nazis, right wing politicians, drug dealing asian dictators, and Latin American death squad heads like Mario Sandoval Alrarcon and Roberto D’Aubuisson. In the 1980’s WACL was a vehicle for implementing the Reagan doctrine of global “low intensity warfare” generating solidarity among fascists worldwide and support for World War 3 as they called the “cold war”. The Ukrainains had actually long argued for the need to start a nuclear war to “liberate” eastern europe. WACL was used as a diversion from North’s enterprise funneling private donations to the Contras. Singlaub sent millions in non-lethal aid to the Contras on behalf of WACL. Singlaub was very tight with Taiwan and South Korea who funded the US chapter of WACL and who he would approach to solicit donations with North and McFarlane’s permission. When the Hasenfus flight was shot down exposing the illegal contra resupply operation Elliot Abrams tried to blame the whole thing on Singlaub who angrily denied it. GeoMiliTech would later go bankrupt in the 1990’s as a result of embezzlement and fraud.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The Enterprise purchased it’s weapons from DEFEX in Portugal arms bought with fake Guatemalan end user certificates. Around June 28 1985 North called a meeting of Contra leaders in Miami including Adolfo Calero and Richard Secord. North set the stage by tearing into Adolfo Calero about corruption and incompetence in Contra ranks. Then he announced that from then on the Enterprise would be in charge of the Contras funds. He also announced The Enterprise would set up a system to airdrop arms to Contras in the field. Secord recruited Richard Gadd to run the Enterprise’s private air force later replacing him with the more competent Robert Dutton. All 3 had been involved in planning Carter’s failed hostage rescue back in 1980 that ended in disaster. Gadd set up a shell company to rent planes from “former” CIA airline SAT Southern Air Transport which had a long history of drug trafficking. It took a while to get going and many of the air drops had to be canceled because the Contras failed to signal or the pilots couldn’t find the drop zone but eventually weapons were being dropped airdropped or unloaded in Honduras, Costa Rica, and within Nicaragua itself. Soon the Contras had more arms then they could carry. It was all based in Ilopongo military airbase. The CIA owned one hangar while North’s Enterprise controlled the other. Felix Rodriguez, and Colonel James Steele the head of US advisers in El Salvador (who would later set up death squads in Iraq) worked with the Salvadorans and the Enterprise pilots. Also there was Cuban exile terrorist Luis Posada Carriles who blew up a Cubana airliner in 1976 killing 73 people. Another CIA Cuban in Ilopongo was Rafael “Chi Chi” Quintero working for Tom Clines. Predictably Ilopongo became a major drug smuggling hub.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In 1985 Congress had caved in and voted $27 million in “humanitarian assistance” to the Contras. The CIA and the military were barred from having anything to do with it so the State Department set up the NHAO Nicaraguan Humanitarian Assistance Office run by Robert Duemling. However unknown to Congress, Robert Duemling was forced to answer to North Fiers and Elliot Abrams of the RIG. They forced him to hire Rob Owen and soon the NHAO was hiring the enterprise as well as known drug traffickers to carry “humanitarian assistance.” NHAO flights were run out of Ilopongo and Felix Rodriguez did not bother to keep the NHAO operation separate from the enterprise. By day they were NHAO flights by night the same planes and pilots were used to fly arms.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> In late1985 North got the idea to use the proceeds of the Iran Arms sales to fund the Contras. Early in 1986 Reagan adopted North and Poindexter’s plan to cut the Israeli’s out of the Iran arms deals having the Enterprise act as the middleman. The diversion idea soon was put into place although Secord and Hakim didn’t send the Contras as much as North wanted giving them around $3.5 million instead of the $12 million North had originally envisioned in the “Diversion Memo”. They had operating costs and of course wanted to make a hefty profit. North the true believer was not above a bit of petty corruption himself when he had funneled the Saudi money to the Contras Cayman bank account controlled by Adolfo Calero, Calero had then sent North $100,000 in travelers checks North could use to cover expenses North used this slush fund however he pleased giving out travelers checks to Rob Owen and Fawn Hall and spending them on himself. North also had Secord buy him an electric gate installed by ex-CIA man Glen Robinette. Secord had also hired Robinette to dig up dirt on Tony Avirgan and Martha Honey down in Costa Rica. Finally Secord’s partner Albert Hakim set up a 200,000 dollar trust for North’s children in the event of North’s death. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> By fall of 1986 100 million in congressional funds were about to become available. Earlier in the year Reagan North and Abrams had come up with a “Plan B” if Contra aid failed to pass they would have had the Contras seize a strip of Nicaraguan territory defended by the Guatemalan and El Salvadoran militaries which the US would then recognize as an independent state allowing Reagan to send tens of millions in emergency aid. Abrams would later adapt this scheme for Venezuela recognizing Juan Guiado as Venezuela’s president so they could seize all the countries assets. However Walter Raymonds Public Diplomacy and the NEPL contra lobby managed to pressure congress into passing the 100 million in aid. North was relieved he had only been sleeping 3 or 4 hours a night for years he was so busy. He was starting to go a bit crazy McFarlane and his replacement John Poindexter worried. North hoped the CIA would buy the Enterprise air force for a couple million and the Enterprise would be redeployed into a new theater in the war perhaps Africa. The Reagan administration was on the verge of getting away with blatantly violating the Boland amendment. It had been exposed in the press back in 1985 and again in 1986 but the press backed off once Congress decided to accept North, McFarlane, and Poindexter’s lame denials. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> On October 5th 1986 one of the Enterprise planes flown by Buzz Sawyer and William Cooper flew from Ilopongo, down Nicaragua's coast into Costa Rica and into southern Nicaragua. A 14 year Sandinista with a soviet surface to air missile launcher shot the plane down. Eugene Hasenfus “the kicker” was the only one wearing a parachute and managed to jump out of the crashing plane wandering the jungle before being captured the next morning and paraded around the capital and in front of international television. Felix Rodriguez had been the 1st to break the news of the missing flight calling the Vice Presidents office Donald Gregg was out so he told Gregg’s aide Sam Wilson. North was in Frankfurt meeting with the Iranian’s when he got the news. The plane had once belonged to infamous CIA drug smuggler Barry Seal. Seal had been killed February 19, 1986 by a Colombian hit squad after threatening to expose the Contra resupply operation and Vice President George H.W. Bush . After their arrest the Colombian’s said they were taking orders from a Lt. Col. they later identified as Oliver North. That story would be buried. The mainstream version was that Seal was killed by the Colombians after being exposed as a DEA informant as part of North’s scheme to frame the Sandinista’s for drug trafficking. Hasenfus testimony provoked a media firestorm by claiming he was working for the CIA and naming “Max Gomez”. The press discovered the phone records of one of the enterprise safe houses showing calls to the NSC. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Reagan, Secretary of State Schultz, and Elliot Abrams all went public denying any government connection to the Contra resupply operation. Abrams went on CNN and issued one of his trademark blanket denials even when asked specifically about a possible NSC connection. He told Congress he had no idea who “Max Gomez” was so did the CIA’s Deputy Director of Operations Claire George who held in his hands a briefing book identifying Max Gomez as Felix Rodriguez. Meanwhile the entire Enterprise air force was supposedly flown out of El Salvador to the US where it was buried with massive quantities of explosives blown up then set on fire. I find it a little hard to believe since usually these CIA drug planes are transferred from shell company to shell company no matter how notorious their history. Yet again many in the media and Congress choose to accept administration denials of involvement in supporting the Contras in violation of the Boland Ammendment, ignoring the mountains of evidence implicating the Reagan Administration. It was only when the Iran deal was exposed the next month and Attorney General Ed Meese exposed the “diversion” of profits to the Contras that the scandal would finally explode. Ed Meese had seized on the diversion memo to divert attention from Reagan’s involvement in the illegal Iran arms sales of 1985. Arms sales conducted without a presidential finding and which violated the arms export control act which if exposed could potentially lead to President Reagan’s impeachment and jail time for many of the Iran-Contra conspirators. At least that’s what might have happened if American’s truly lived in a democracy rather then a national security state.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Sources</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Malcolm Byrne’s Iran-Contra: Reagan’s Scandal and the Unchecked Abuse of Presidential Power is the definitive mainstream version of events.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, The Press & Project Truth by Robert Parry gives many details left out of mainstream accounts. He has an in depth discussion of the Contra drug connection as well as the role of drugs in Panama and Honduras. He also discusses the Reagan Administration Public Diplomacy campaign that destroyed investigative journalism in the US.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Theodore Draper wrote the earlier definitive mainstream account back in the 1990’s ‘A Very Thin Line: The Iran Contra Affairs” It is longer and more detailed then Byrne’s although the author has a sinister past (former communist turned anti-communist scholar for various CIA funded fronts) that makes him all too willing to trust the CIA and fail to dig deeply into the scandal. He never mentions drugs. Still it’s worth reading for anyone interested in the Iran side of Iran Contra.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Firewall: The Iran Contra Conspiracy and Cover-Up by Lawrence E. Walsh the Independent Counsel in The Iran-Contra Investigation offers a long account of his offices investigation and prosecution of Oliver North and other Iran Contra Conspirators. It’s fun to see the case slowly unravel and Walsh’s investigation revealed a great deal that Congress failed to uncover and he gradually begins to have more evidence about the role of then President George H. W. Bush and former President Ronald Reagan in the scandal.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Guts and Glory: The Rise and Fall of Oliver North by Ben Bradlee jr. is a detailed and entertaining account of the life of Oliver North and the Iran Contra scandal although it came out to early to contain some of the later evidence uncovered. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Iran Contra Scandal the Declassified History Edited by Peter Kornbluh and Malcolm Byrne provides a valuable resource for studying the Iran Contra Scandal it contains compact summaries of events as introductions to reprints of declassified documents released during the Congressional and Walsh investigations, plus a timeline of events and a list of key players.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Secret Warriors: Inside the Covert Military Operations of the Reagan Era by Steve Emerson contains interesting information on the Special Operations role during the Iran-Contra era as well as Emerson’s own take on Iran-Contra. He was given access because he was aligned with the goals of the national security state. Emerson later become an insane neo-con war on terror hysteric.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Casey: From the OSS to the CIA by Joseph Persico contains some interesting information but is generally a complete disappointment. Persico is too naive and inexperienced to write about the CIA has no idea how they operate and no idea what to look into. It completely fails to provide a complete picture of the CIA in the 1980’s and the author is way to sympathetic to Bill Casey. That’s why Casey befriended Persico and then his widow granted him access to Casey’s papers.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Dangerous Liason: The Inside Story of the US-Israeli Covert Relationship by Andrew and Leslie Cockburn is full of shocking details about the Israeli role around the world including their drug smuggling in Panama, Colombia, and Central America.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Malcolm Byrne lecture about his Iran Contra Book</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/xUu8f9rBh_g"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/xUu8f9rBh_g</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A Robert Parry Interview</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/_X3v4Di8YyM"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/_X3v4Di8YyM</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A discussion of the October Surprise</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/2oTY7fQuieY"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/2oTY7fQuieY</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Documentary Cover-Up Behind the Iran Contra Affair</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/ZDdItm-PDeM"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/ZDdItm-PDeM</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My earlier series on Iran Contra</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Part 1 The Secret Team</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/05/irancontra-pt-1-secret-team.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/05/irancontra-pt-1-secret-team.html</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Part 2 World War 3</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/06/irancontra-pt-2-world-war-3.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/06/irancontra-pt-2-world-war-3.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Part 3 The World Anti-Communist League Part 1</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/07/irancontra-pt-3-wacl.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/07/irancontra-pt-3-wacl.html</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Part 4 The World Anti-Communist League Part 2</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/08/irancontra-pt-4-wacl-2.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/08/irancontra-pt-4-wacl-2.html</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Ted Shackley a Life in the CIA</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/12/ted-shackley-life-in-cia.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/12/ted-shackley-life-in-cia.html</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Old Nazis, New Right (Also covers the Coors Connection)</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2017/10/old-nazis-new-right.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2017/10/old-nazis-new-right.html</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Subscribe to the Our Hidden History Youtube channel for dozens of Iran/Contra and CIA/Drugs related videos like my interview on Oliver North</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/7LXbeeVJVfs"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/7LXbeeVJVfs</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><div><br /></div>Hugo Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12229123097438571385noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8001402613324067475.post-77837839388160957932022-01-13T16:38:00.002-08:002022-01-14T10:51:06.746-08:00Iran-Contra Pt1: The Iran Contra Era<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">The Iran-Contra Era: Global Counter-Revolution,</span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> and the Triumph of the National Security State</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> My next article will deal in depth with the illegal Contra resupply operation and the Iran arms deal. This article is meant to serve as a brief introduction to the case followed by a much broader analysis of the whole Iran Contra era. I thought it was best to get some tangents out of my system in this extended introduction. In following the threads that make up the tapestry of the Iran-Contra scandal one is quickly covered with a web of connections that cover the world. The globalization of the covert warfare apparatus although it did not begin in this era reached new heights. Faced with the threat of congressional oversight the national security state outsourced covert operations to allied and even enemy countries. It also increasingly privatized covert war turning to networks of ex spies and military men, arms dealers, mercenaries, NGO’s lobbyists, religious groups, and drug cartels. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The Iran Contra era stretches from late 1975-1992 covering the final third of the Cold War which begins in the aftermath of the liberation and reunification of Vietnam a humiliating defeat for the American empire. The first postwar chapter of the Cold war had stretched from 1945 (secretly 1943) to 1959 with the Cuban Revolution marking the beginning of the second part of the Cold War. The Cold War had actually begun in 1917 with the Russian revolution and the failed invasion to crush the soviet union, followed by the attempt to isolate the USSR while arming Nazi Germany for an attack on the USSR. World War 2 was only a minor interruption in this cold war. The postwar cold war began in Greece during WW2 as the British attempted to install the Greek fascist collaborators and death squads into power and to destroy the communist Partisans that had already liberated Greece. The OSS and MI6 were already planning to recruit the Nazis and their allies to battle the Soviets. The postwar cold war had seen dissent crushed to make way for an anti-soviet hysteria, the fixing of the Italian elections to prevent a communist victory the victory of the Chinese Revolution, the Korean war, the CIA creation of South Vietnam, coups in Iran and Guatemala and around the world. The Second third of the Cold War covered the Cuban Revolution, the failed bay of Pigs Invasion, the export of US counter-insurgency advisers around the world to teach torture, and assassination to prevent “another Cuba” and the transformation of the Vietnam war from a covert counter-insurgency campaign to a genocidal military occupation. However the empire managed a major diplomatic success opening relations with the People’s Republic of China. In the Iran-Contra era China would help the US arm and sometimes train counter-revolutionary forces around the world including UNITA in Angola, the Nicaraguan Contras, and the Afghan Mujahideen. It also worked with the US backing the Khemer rouge in Cambodia and waging war on Vietnam. Domestically during this second phase of the cold war the civil rights movement and the Anti-war movement had briefly awakened some awareness of the ugly realities of the empire. Watergate, the Coup in Chile, exposed an imperial presidency and the CIA’s role in replacing democratic socialism with fascism. The third chapter began with the post-independence war in Angola when Cuba intervened to foil a US backed invasion from Apartheid South Africa. Congress passed the Clark amendment barring further US involvement but the CIA merely turned to it’s allies in the Safari club to continue the war which would last until 1992. The Safari club would also play a key role in giving birth to Al Qaeda. The CIA was already meddling in Afghanistan by the late 70’s in part through the Shah of Iran. The Cuban victory in Angola would ultimately lead to the fall of Apartheid South Africa in the early 90’s . However at the same time American soft power (The NED) had infiltrated and destroyed the Soviet Union thanks to the treachery and incompetence of Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev was himself overthrown the Soviet Union disbanded. The Warsaw pact was absorbed into NATO. Russia was ruled by a drunken US puppet Boris Yeltsin hundreds of millions were plunged into poverty and chaos as the country was looted.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Between 1975-1992 the US waged covert and overt dirty wars around the globe in Afghanistan, Libya, Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, Uganda, Congo, Chad, Ethiopia, Somalia, Lebanon, Syria, Grenada, Cambodia, East Timor,Guatemala, El Salvador, Argentina, Nicaragua, Panama, Uruguay, Ecuador, Chile and more. The US was supplying both sides in the Iran/Iraq war it was backing Israel’s plans to dominate and balkanize the middle east. It was backing South Africa’s efforts to dominate Southern Africa. These were the true crimes of the Iran/Contra era the crimes of the American empire. It would take a team of historians to catalog all the covert wars of the Iran-Contra era which covered four presidencies Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Bush and to begin to assess the death count. The Clinton years that strange period between the end of the Cold War and the beginning of the War on Terror saw the US create chaos around the globe in order to justify the continued existence of the National Security State the destruction of Yugoslavia, and the wars in Rwanda and the Congo which lead to millions of dead were examples of sophisticated psychological warfare. The US covertly instigated civil wars fueling ethnic and tribal strife while pretending merely to be a concerned bystanders and eventually “saviors” when they overtly intervened. The Clinton years with the destruction of Yugoslavia and it’s massive NATO expansion set the stage for the second cold war.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The conventional narrative of Iran-Contra Scandal was consciously created to narrow the focus in time and geography so as to expose as little as possible about the American empire. It also narrowed the focus on the domestic implications of the scandal. Congress only investigated activities between 1984-1986 to avoid recognizing that Reagan had basically come to power in a soft coup in 1980. Back in late 1975 CIA director William Colby had been fired and replaced with George H. W. Bush. Bush’s ties to the agency went back to the 1950’s when he was recruited into the CIA a fact he successfully kept secret for decades. While Ambassador to China Bush and the CIA chief of station James Lilley had recruited Deng Xiaoping who would later rule China and rollback socialism. Bush’s reign as CIA director in 1976 was brief but memorable. He was in charge when Cuban forces managed to halt the South African advance in Angola. He turned to the Safari Club to help the US wage war in Angola He was in charge when the Argentine Junta seized power and began their bloody dirty war. Bush was CIA director when the CIA cubans formed CORU and launched an international terrorist campaign which included blowing up a Cuban airliner. The culprit Louis Posada Carrilles would later be mysteriously “escape” (via CIA bribes) a Venezuelan prison and ended up as part of the Contra resupply operation. 1976 was also the Year of the Orlando Letlier bombing when Chile’s former Ambassador was killed in a car bomb set by CIA cubans working for DINA (chilean Intelligence.) Bush had ignored the warnings he received that DINA assassins were trying to obtain fake passports for the assassination and then after it took place he tried to blame left wing exiles for the Letelier assassination to protect fascist Chile.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> When President Carter won the 1976 election promising to reform the National Security State Bush begged him to let him keep his job. Carter refused and Bush vowed revenge. Over 40 ex and current CIA employees made up the CIA agents for Bush contingent during the Republican primary and the 1980 election. Reagan’s campaign manager was an old OSS hand Bill Casey who had also invented the tax shelter. He created his own team of spies that had moles inside the Carter Administration like Donald Gregg at the NSC a Bush loyalist. They set out to destabilize Carter. Their friends in the oil industry launched a full scale economic war on the US to create a phony oil shortage. Carter’s brother was lured into a Libyan arms deal and then exposed. Finally the Reagan campaign resorted to outright treason negotiating a deal with Iran for a huge amount of weapons in exchange for not freeing the hostages until after the election. This part of the scandal is so shocking (to most Americans) that media and academia have largely ignored all the evidence that has emerged over the years in support of it. It is known as the October Surprise. There is another theory called the deep October Surprise in which the US the UK and France and their allies with Savak and the Shah’s government intentionally helped install Khoemeini as preferable to a nationalist or socialist style government in Iran. The October surprise arms deal undermined the secular minded Iranian President Bani Sadr while elevating Khoemeni’s faction. The whole world has been reshaped in Reagan’s image neo-liberalism has triumphed at home and abroad. Reagan can never be allowed to be exposed as a traitor. The fact that it is accepted that his policies lead to mass murder and genocide around the world show the minor importance most westerners place on the lives of billions of third world people. To get excited or angry about such things is bad form. No US president had ever been prosecuted for war crimes.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The Iran Contra era can thus be seen from multiple angles. America’s War on the World. The National Security State vs the illusion of democracy. The triumph of capitalism, the slashing of the social safety net. The taming of the media. The triumphant return to impunity for the CIA. The rise of Bush from CIA director to President. The mobilization of the Christian right and far right voters. The rise of the imperial presidency. The triumph of the executive branch over any form of checks and balances.The birth of the NED. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Iran Contra is part of an interlocking pattern of scandals, coups, wars and deep events that go back to the early years of the cold war and before. Particularly relevant are the coups in Guatemala and Iran, the Bay of Pigs, The JFK, MLK, and RFK assassinations, Vietnam, the secret war in Laos, Watergate, The Chilean coup of 73, The Letelier bombing, GLADIO, Nugan Hand, Koreagate, the Ed Wilson affair, the EATSCO scandal, Iraqgate, WACL, BCCI, Inslaw. A rotating cast of characters making multiple appearances. People like E. Howard Hunt, Frank Sturgis, Ted Shackley, Thomas Clines, Richard Secord, and George H.W. Bush. The same names keep popping up. The never ending scandal of the CIA drug connection. The way things “really work” money laundering, fraud, corruption as standard operating procedure in the alliance between politicians, organized crime, intelligence, and big business that form the basis for the study of “Deep Politics”</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> As I write it is the 35th anniversary of the unraveling of the Iran-Contra scandal. The Reagan administration was caught waging an illegal war on Nicaragua funded in part with profits from the sale of anti-tank and and anti-air missiles to Iran in exchange for freeing American hostages. Back in 1984 Congress had passed the Second Boland Amendment forbidding any aid or advice to the Contras after the CIA was caught mining Nicarguan Harbors and supplying the Contras with what the press dubbed an “Assassination Manual” a Phoenix program style guide to Psychological warfare. Congress was less offended by the Contras numerous war crimes then being consistently lied to about what the CIA were up to in Nicaragua. Casey had gotten them to agree originally to a 500 man force whose purpose was solely to prevent Nicaragua from arming the Salvadoran Guerrillas attempting to overthrow the mass mudering regime. In a couple years they had grown to 12,000 men. Congress passed the 1st Boland amendment forbidding the Contras from being used to overthrow the Nicaraguan government Reagan and Casey’s actual goal. Now by authorizing the Harbor mining without properly informing them Casey had made congress look like fools. The fact that the Contras operated like a death squad mutilating some village doctor for providing health care or a teacher for providing education were less important to congress. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The story of the National Security Council and Oliver North’s role in waging an illegal war on Nicaragua had begun to leak in the press in 1985 thanks to journalists Robert Parry, Brian Barger and Alfonso Chardy. However when Congress had chosen to accept administration denials Parry’s editors at AP tried to kill the story. It was Lee Hamilton head of the House Intelligence Committee and who later chaired the Iran/Contra hearings who decided to trust North and ignore the investigative journalists. The media was secretly aware that Oliver North was negotiating the hostages release because some of the hostages were journalists but covered it up rather then risking sabotaging the deals. North was in fact in regular contact with Parry’s editors at AP on efforts to release AP journalist Terry Anderson. North was also a favorite source for journalists. North’s role at NSC was basically an open secret. There was also a civil suit filed by the Christic Institute in the wake of the La Penca bombing which hoped to expose a vast criminal conspiracy by ex-CIA and ex-Military who were acting as private contractors in the illegal Contra resupply operation and an even more illegal drug importation operation. On October 5th 1986 a plane carrying arms to the Nicaraguan Contras was shot down by a 14 year old Sandinista with a soviet surface to air missile. The cargo kicker a former Air America (the notorious drug smuggling CIA airline) employee Eugene Hasenfus was wearing a parachute and managed to jump out of the plane and parachute to the ground. He was captured and began to talk saying he was working for the CIA and naming “Max Gomez” and others working on the illegal contra resupply operation. Max Gomez turned out to be the notorious Felix Rodriguez a drug dealing Cuban CIA man who’s history went back to the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba and who had helped capture and kill Che Guevara in Bolivia reportedly keeping Guevara’s severed hands in a jar. He had served in the Phoenix program in Vietnam under Vice President George H.W. Bush’s National Security adviser Donald Gregg. President Ronald Reagan had personally ordered his National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane to find ways to circumvent the Boland Amendment and keep the Contras together “Body and Soul”. McFarlane had put Oliver North in charge of the illegal Contra resupply operation The scandal went all the way to the top. Likewise by following the threads of the careers of men like Felix Rodriguez it was possible to unravel a great deal of secret history.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Congress had ironically agreed the summer of 1986 restore 100 million in lethal aid to the Contras and the Reagan Administration was desperate to cover up their blatant violation of the Boland amendment in case congress decided to change it’s mind. There was a 3 month delay before the funds became available so the illegal contra resupply operation had continued. Elliot Abrams who had been supervising the whole illegal contra resupply as the State Department representative on the Restricted Interagency Group along with the NSC’S Oliver North and the CIA’S Alan Fiers. Elliot Abrams was sent out to the press and Congress to deny everything. Abrams was an expert in lies and denial his prior role had been Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights when he pretended that El Salvador and Guatemala were showing progress on human rights when they were waging a campaign of mass murder and genocide. His lies got honest reporters like Raymond Bonner reassigned for exposing massacres diring the Central American dirty wars. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Once again many in the media fell for Elliot Abrams categorical denials of any connection between the Reagan administration and the contra resupply operation that Hasenfus exposed. Generally the US media parrot the line put out by the US state department which is why a supposedly independent press are in practice government propagandists. Journalists may be interested in exposing the truth but their editors or producers prefer a cozy relationship with the national security state. They all go to the same dinners and cocktail parties. Luckily before before contra resupply story story could be killed news of the Iran arms for hostages deals were published in the Lebanese newspaper Al Shiraa and once the western press picked up on it the story exploded. Reagan had publicly called Iran murder incorporated, it’s allies Hezbollah in Lebanon had bombed the US embassy killing a dozen CIA middle east operatives, kidnapped the CIA station chief William Buckley, then bombed the US marine barracks killing 241. Iran had been officially labeled a terror sponsor by the US which was waging an international campaign Operation Staunch to force it’s allies to stop selling arms to Iran. Unlike the illegal war on Nicaragua which was in line with Reagan’s public rhetoric, the Iran arms deals had the potential to alienate Reagan’s right wing base and if the facts had been known and if there had been the political will, President Reagan could have been impeached or even sent to prison for violation of the Arms Export Control Act. At first the Reagan administration tried it’s usual strategy of denial but it soon became clear that scapegoats and limited hangouts would be required. The current Attorney General Ed Meese a key adviser to Reagan for decades took charge of the coverup. He conducted a brief investigation and his aides discovered a memo from Oliver North on plans to divert funds from the Iran Arms Sales to the Contras. Meese checked with North, CIA director Bill Casey, and National Security Adviser Admiral John Poindexter who all agreed that they would shield Reagan by pretending he didn’t know about the diversion. It became known as the “Diversion Memo” and Meese used it as a giant diversion from Reagan’s illegal authorization of Arms sales from Israel to Iran in the fall of 1985. Instead the issue became did the President know about the diversion? “What did he know? and When did he Know it?” was the media refrain echoing Watergate coverage. North was all to happy to play the political fall guy taking full responsibility although when criminal charges loomed he would later reveal that Reagan knew everything he was doing. By then however the press were again told to kill the story by their editors. Robert Parry at Newsweek was told in 1989 the North trial wasn’t newsworthy. George H.W. Bush was now president thanks to the inability of the press, the legislative and Judicial Branches to get to the bottom of the Iran Contra scandal in which Bush was deeply implicated. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Returning to late 1986 President Reagan appointed the Tower Commission to confirm Meese’s version of events creating the myth of a rogue National Security Council which Reagan had failed to properly supervise. Then the House and Senate held a circus like joint investigation of the Iran Contra scandal held on nationwide television the democrats aimed to embarrass rather then destroy Reagan but their strategy backfired when the telegenic Oliver North was embraced as a hero. The republicans however decided that the only crime had been congress’s passage of the Boland amendment and their attempt to meddle in the President’s control of foreign policy. That was the view of future Vice President Dick Cheney who was then a House Rep. for Wyoming serving on the Iran Contra committee. In 2004 at the height of the war on terror he would cite the minority report on the Iran-Contra scandal and it’s argument for absolute executive power as a blueprint for the Bush Administrations policies. The price of this failed spectacle which catapulted North to stardom was congress grant of limited immunity to North and Poindexter for anything they might say. This would later sabotage the criminal investigation of the Iran Contra scandal. The Christic Institute lawsuit was dismissed and they were forced to pay 1 million dollars in damages. The Kerry Committee investigated the Contra drug connection but the media ignored or mocked him. An Independent Council was appointed in December of 1986 they would conduct a 6 year investigation they would gradually unravel the true story of Iran Contra but they faced non-stop obstruction from the intelligence community, Department of Justice, and the court of appeals which overturned the convictions of North and Poindexter. Finally President George Bush whose Iran/Contra role was becoming ever more exposed decided to pardon a dozen Iran Contra figures after loosing the 1992 election to Bill Clinton who as Governor of Arkansas was tied to CIA man Barry Seals contra resupply and drug smuggling operations. Needless to say President Clinton did not want anyone digging into Iran Contra either. The story was revived briefly by the heroic journalist Gary Webb his career was destroyed, and he committed suicide. Ironically however thanks to his work the Contra drug connection a part of the scandal many in the media and Congress wanted to suppress is now the most well known aspect of the scandal.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Having laid out the basics of the scandal I’ll provide some historical background. Early in the 19th the US had proclaimed the Monroe doctrine which while framed as opposing European imperialism in the Americas was in reality the US laying claim to the entire hemisphere. As it’s power grew it began to enforce these claims with bribery, invasions and coups. In the 19th century Nicaragua was embroiled in a civil war between the liberals and conservatives. William Walker had attempted to conquer northern Mexico but failed. The Nicaraguan Liberal party hired American mercenary William Walker and his “Fillibusters” to intervene but he decided to seize power and institute slavery he ruled Nicaragua for a year as a dictator but was forced out when Nicaragua’s neighbors invaded to expel him. He died when he tried to invade and seize power again. Shortly before World War 1 the US had invaded and occupied Nicaragua for nearly 20 years. Revolutionary General Augusto Sandino would fight a Guerrilla war to attempt to expel them. Nicaragua would become a laboratory for the use of air power in a counter-insurgency campaign. Sandino was able to survive the bombs and the endless manhunt by US marines outsmarting US forces. However once he signed a peace deal he was assassinated. The US had trained the Nicaraguan National Guard to carry out the dirty war against the Nicaraguan people. They appointed their lackey Anastasio Somoza as it’s head and he would soon seize power his family ruling Nicaragua for decades until the 1979 Nicaraguan Revolution. Somoza would be a key backer of the coup to overthrow Jacobo Arbenz in nearby Guatemala in 1954. The coup in Guatemala would form a blueprint for the later failed Bay of Pigs invasion and later the attempt to overthrow the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> However the Dirty war on Nicaragua would be far more brutal and last far longer then the earlier campaigns. After the Cuban Revolution the US had spent 2 decades training Latin American countries to wage dirty wars on their people. In each country Intelligence, agencies, the Military, and the police waged a coordinated campaign of kidnapping torture and assassination. In the Southern cone countries Operation Condor would unite the regimes in one vast dirty war on the continent. This would occur in the wake of the CIA backed Chilean coup of Pinochet against Allende in 1973. The roots went back to the beginnings of the cold war and the chain of fascist coups had started much earlier in Brazil in 1964. Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Ecuador, Uruguay, Bolivia, and Paraguay were the first 7 members of a network of countries that carried out a coordinated campaign of assassination, torture, and kidnapping. In the 1970’s this was increasingly combined with installing neoliberal shock therapy economic reforms in Chile and Argentina. Tiny Central America was home to even worse horrors as hundreds of thousands were killed in dirty wars in Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua under Somoza. Guatemala’s campaign of terror had begun when a wave of military uprisings swept the country in protest over the training of Cuban exiles for the upcoming bay of pigs invasion in camps in Guatemala. By the late 60’s it had evolved in a revolutionary armed struggle and Guatemala was flooded with CIA and special forced advisers to wage a scorched earth campaign to destroy the Guerrillas. In El Salvador after a huge massacre was conducted by the fascist dictator General Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez of Indians and suspected communists that killed 32,000 the government had faced little opposition. The US still sent in it’s advisers in the 1960’s and by the 1970’s their endless murder of political opponents and labor had forced the opposition to take up arms. In Nicaragua a revolution had begun in the mid 1970’s and Somoza had waged a brutal scorched earth campaign in an attempt to hold onto power. But on July 17, 1979 he was forced to flee the country and for the first time since Cuba in 1959 a revolution had succeeded in overthrowing a brutal US backed dictator. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The Carter administration had cut off aid to Somoza because of his outrageous war crimes and refusal to negotiate with the opposition. Somoza turned to Israel for arms. Israel was also playing key roles in the dirty wars in El Salvador and Guatemala providing arms and advisers helping Guatemala carry out genocide against the Maya Indians. 500 of Somoza’s national guard who had carried out numerous war crimes relocated briefly to Guatemala taking shelter with the “Godfather of the Death Squads” Mario Sandoval Alarcon. They were determined to follow the example of the Cuban exiles and wage covert war on revolutionary Nicaragua. Soon they were joined by Argentine advisers fresh from their dirty war and having recently carried out the Bolivian cocaine coup arrived to advise these contras or Counter Revolutionaries. The Carter administration hoped to use aid as leverage to control Nicaragua’s new government. The CIA was doubtless already backing the Contras who named themselves The September 15th Legion and began carrying out kidnappings, terrorism, and drug smuggling. Reagan would be elected in part through illegal campaign donations from Central American oligarchs in Guatemala and El Salvador who had been promised their full support in waging their dirty wars by former DIA dir General Daniel Graham and General John Singlaub a military/CIA man and future World Anti-Communist League head. Reagan would keep his promise vastly escalating the wars in Central America. 300,000 would die in Guatemala and El Salvador in the name of preventing “another Nicaragua.” Torture rape and mass murder were standard operating procedures. Like in Nicaragua the administration would lie to congress to carry out the dirty wars in Guatemala and El Salvador and constantly find ways to circumvent any limits they put on US support. This never became a scandal. In Nicaragua 35,000 would perish in attacks by the contra death squads. Casey put Duane “Dewey” Clarridge in charge of Latin America and he ran the Contras until turning them over to Oliver North in the wake of Boland II. Clarridge was transferred to head the European Division where he would help arm the Contras and facilitate the Iran arms deals.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> To summarize the cold war history of the middle east would be impossible in so short a space and would require months or years of extra research. The US’s backing of Israel alienated the entire region. The US scheme to create a middle eastern version of NATO and it’s constant coups to install pro-western regimes would backfire. In Iran in 1953 the CIA overthrew Prime minister Mossadegh and installed the shah. He had been branded a communist for nationalizing the British owned Anglo-Iranian oil company. He had expelled all the british spies and diplomats after their failed coup plots and attempt to lay siege to the country to prevent it’s selling oil. The British were forced to turn to the CIA and after the coup they turned over half of Iran’s oil over to US corporations. The CIA and Mossad trained the Shah’s secret police the Savak to torture and murder their opponents. Iran became a top customer of the American military industrial complex. Richard Secord would serve as an air force adviser in the 1960’s and then after serving in Vietnam and Laos return in the late 1970’s as head of the US military assistance program. He would meet various corrupt Iranian businessmen with intelligence ties that would later appear in the October surprise and Iran Contra scandals. Then he would supervise arms sales at the Pentagon. In Egypt the CIA recruited Nasser’s successor Sadat. He would sabotage the 1973 Arab Israeli war, expel the soviet advisers from Egypt and then President Carter convinced him to completely betray the Arab cause by signing a peace deal with Israel. His reward was a massive increase in weapons sales from the US. Secord at the Pentagon was a silent partner along with Ted Shackley in Ed Wilson and Thomas Clines EATSCO a transport company created to profit off the Egyptian arms sales. However Sadat’s peace deal was an obstacle to plans Israeli plans to invade Lebanon. His security were trained by American advisers connected to EATSCO and the Muslim Brotherhood assassinated him. Mubarak who was also a key figure in the egypyian side of skimming money from the arms sales was installed as Egypt’s new leader. Ed Wilson in the late 1970’s would be part of a scheme to supply huge amounts of C4 explosives and special forces advisers to Libya in order to gain intelligence to the revolutionaries and nationalists that Gaddafi allowed to train there and in the hopes of stealing soviet weapons systems. Wilson was carrying out an off the books operation for the CIA but they denied any connection to him. His business partners Secord, Shackley, and Clines had grown envious of the vast wealth he had amassed running CIA front companies. Once Reagan became president Libya was falsely blamed for a number of terrorist attacks like the Belle disco attack and the Lockerbie bombing. The US would wage a proxy war on Libya via Chad, and shoot down Libyan aircraft and boats attempting to defend their territorial waters during American war games. The campaign would culminate in a bombing raid aiming to assassinate Gaddafi which would wound his wife and 7 children and kill his adopted baby daughter. Dozens of civilians would also be killed. This occurred in 1986 during the height of the Iran Contra scandal and Oliver North who was also the terror Czar was a key planner of the attacks. Gaddafi would survive until the 2011 NATO war when Libya was bombed into submission while Al Qaeda contras seized the country. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Lebanon was another country that was key to understanding the Iran Contra affair. Israel saw it as a key testing ground for it’s Oded Yinon style plans to balkanize the middle east. Lebanon was divided along religious lines and it’s political parties each represented a different faction. The Christians minority held disproportionate power, the Sunnis were divided into pro-western and pro-arab nationalist factions, the Shiite’s were under represented. At one point in the mid 70’s left wing Arab Nationalists were on the verge of seizing power and Kissinger had convince Hafez Assad to prevent their victory in order to prevent an Israeli invasion. Lebanon was home to a huge number of Palestinian exiles who had been forced to flee Jordan after the events of “Black September” when Jordan had launched a brutal crackdown. The Israelis encouraged the Christian Fascists to seize power and failing that break away and form their own country. This lead to the Lebanese civil war. In 1978 Israel invaded southern Lebanon but the Carter administration convinced them to withdraw. In 1982 Israel would invade again this time with the support of the Reagan administration they kidnapped a number of visiting Iranian officials and of course kidnapped imprisoned and tortured huge numbers of Lebanese just as it has arrested imprisoned and tortured untold numbers of Palestinians over the decades. In 1982 Iran sent the IRGC into Lebanon to help train Hezbollah. Israel captured Beirut and installed the Christian Phalange as president. He was assassinated and in revenge thousands of Palestinians cordoned off by the Israeli army were massacred by the Christian Phalange in Sabra and Shatila. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The US pretended neutrality but sided with Israel. The marines were sent in and the US navy began shelling Lebanese villages. In 1983 Hezbollah chased the US out with a series of bombings. In 1984 it began kidnapping Americans to use as leverage to free the 17 Da’awa prisoners in Kuwait who had attacked French and US targets there. They had also kidnapped the CIA station chief William Buckley who was tortured into revealing decades of dirty secrets. The stage was set for the Iran arms for hostages deals. Of course the stage had already been set during the October surprise negotiations that got Reagan elected in the first place. Israel would be the middle man in the October surprise arms deals and the early Iran Contra arms deals. Egypt would be the middle man in the Iraqgate arms deals. The course of the Iran-Iraq war would be prolonged as the US supplied arms to both sides nearly 1 million Iraqis and Iranians would die. The US supplied Iraq Intelligence so it could use it’s chemical weapons to best effect against Iran. Then in 1986 the us began supplying Iran with intelligence that shifted the balance of the war. The fallout of the Iran Contra affair would lead to the first Gulf War. President Bush had started authorizing huge loans and weapons shipments to Iraq while encouraging Kuwait to provoke Iraq, Bush had the State department give Iraq the green light to invade Kuwait. followed by sanctions which killed another million, followed by the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and the intentional creation of a sectarian civil war that would claim at least a million more lives.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The Iran Contra era saw the seeds planted that would more recently bloom into many more recent wars. The invasion of Iraq, the destruction of Libya, the failed attempt to destroy Syria. In the case of Syria the US and Israel had helped launch a muslim brotherhood uprising in 1983 with the aid of Iraq that would eerily mirror the Syrian war of 2011 to today. And then of course their was Afghanistan where the US was again arming drug dealing contras. Socialists Afghanistan was destroyed Afghanistan was taken over by warlords who battled each other eventually the Clinton Administration and Pakistan had the Taliban seize control of the country. The Iran Contra were a key period in the origins of the war on terror with Benjamin Netanyahu holding the Jerusalem Conference on anti-terrorism in 1979. Casey North and even Secretary of State Schultz all backed plans to form counter-terror squads to carry out “preemptive strikes” on groups labeled “terrorists” (often legitimate resistance groups and left wing guerrillas) Their were plans to declare martial law and round up hundreds of thousands of Central American refugees and tens of thousands of peace activists in the event that the US invaded Nicaragua. Of course the US has been waging war on Central American refugees for decades. However after 9/11 these Iran/Contra era plans were dusted off to form the basis of the patriot act, the rounding up of thousands of innocent muslims and the total surveillance of everyone on the planet. Not only that but many key figures in Iran Contra were put back into power in the George W Bush administrations. Plus of course the creation of a global Phoenix program or Operation Condor a system of kidnap, assassination and torture that is applied worldwide. All in the name of battling an al Qaeda that within ten years it was quite openly supporting. Thanks to the Reagan era victory of “Public Diplomacy” over investigative journalism no one in the media dared point out this little fact. In truth US soft power proved more effective then covert war. It was soft power in the form of the NED interference in the Nicaraguan election of 1990 that brought down the Sandinistas. It was NED soft power not the war in Afghanistan that destroyed the Soviet Union and insured the electoral victory of neoliberalism. The era of the color revolution had begun. The NED had been another of Bill Casey’s projects.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The victory of Reagan and Bush in the cold war has lead to our current dystopian age. American hyper power is free to rampage around the globe destroying country after country. Always we are reminded that there is no alternative to capitalism. That we should just let the market decide. If a country manages to resist US covert wars and coup plots it will have it’s economy throttled by sanctions like Venezuela and Syria. Today historians have begun to talk of the world having suffered a 50 year counter revolution with seemingly no end in sight. This is the ultimate legacy of the Iran Contra era.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Sources</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My next article will include an extensive list of Iran Contra books I used. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For now I’d like to recommend just two.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Malcolm Byrne’s Iran-Contra: Reagan’s Scandal and the Unchecked Abuse of Presidential Power is the definitive mainstream version of events.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, The Press & Project Truth by Robert Parry gives many details left out of mainstream accounts. He has an in depth discussion of the Contra drug connection as well as the role of drugs in Panama and Honduras. He also discusses the Reagan Administration Public Diplomacy campaign that destroyed investigative journalism in the US. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Malcolm Byrne lecture about his Iran Contra Book</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/xUu8f9rBh_g"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/xUu8f9rBh_g</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A Robert Parry Interview</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/_X3v4Di8YyM"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/_X3v4Di8YyM</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A discussion of the October Surprise</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/2oTY7fQuieY"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/2oTY7fQuieY</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My earlier series on Iran Contra</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Part 1 The Secret Team</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/05/irancontra-pt-1-secret-team.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/05/irancontra-pt-1-secret-team.html</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Part 2 World War 3</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/06/irancontra-pt-2-world-war-3.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/06/irancontra-pt-2-world-war-3.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Part 3 The World Anti-Communist League Part 1</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/07/irancontra-pt-3-wacl.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/07/irancontra-pt-3-wacl.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.7px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Part 4 The World Anti-Communist League Part 2</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/08/irancontra-pt-4-wacl-2.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/08/irancontra-pt-4-wacl-2.html</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Ted Shackley a Life in the CIA</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/12/ted-shackley-life-in-cia.html"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/12/ted-shackley-life-in-cia.html</span></a></span></p><div><br /></div>Hugo Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12229123097438571385noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8001402613324067475.post-44959678443803497122021-12-20T17:46:00.002-08:002021-12-28T11:20:01.996-08:00Interview: The Iran Contra Affair<p> <a href="https://youtu.be/Pr9Q-tWd6eQ">https://youtu.be/Pr9Q-tWd6eQ</a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://youtu.be/Pr9Q-tWd6eQ"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Pr9Q-tWd6eQ" width="320" youtube-src-id="Pr9Q-tWd6eQ"></iframe></a></div><a href="https://youtu.be/Pr9Q-tWd6eQ"><br /></a><p></p><div><a href="https://youtu.be/Pr9Q-tWd6eQ">O</a>n Soundcloud</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-804841107/the-iran-contra-affair-with-hugo-turner-2021">https://soundcloud.com/user-804841107/the-iran-contra-affair-with-hugo-turner-2021</a></div><div><br /></div>Hugo Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12229123097438571385noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8001402613324067475.post-30030658065323478182021-08-23T10:49:00.002-07:002021-08-23T10:49:59.398-07:00The Nugan Hand Bank: CIA, Drugs, Guns & Fraud<p> <span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px;">The Nugan Hand Bank Scandal:</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Drugs, Guns, Fraud, Murder, and the CIA</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13.199999809265137px;"></span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> The Nugan Hand scandal is largely unknown today and was largely ignored by the press in the United States at the time. The honorable exception being Jonathan Kwitn</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">e</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">y who later wrote the definitive book on the bank “The Crimes of Patriots.” In Australia it was headline news, leading to a series of investigations that ended in cover-up. The story exploded and the bank collapsed when its co-founder Frank </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Nugan Australian</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> tax attorney turned merchant banker was found dead on an isolated highway, an apparent suicide. He had shot himself with a rifle and on his corpse were found a bible, a list of 21 suspected drug smugglers, former CIA director William Colby’s business card was in his wallet and Colby’s name was also scrawled on a piece of paper along with the head of the House Armed services committee Bob Wilson. Frank Nugan’s partner was Michael Hand a veteran of the US </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Special Forces</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> in Vietnam and Laos who had been recruited into the CIA. Hand would become one of the world’s most wanted men when he escaped Australia six months later. That didn’t stop the CIA from sending him to Honduras to train the elite 5th Puma </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Battalion</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> that helped the Contras terrorize Nicaragua. This was not so surprising since many of the key figures in the Iran-Contra scandal had been involved in the Nugan Hand scandal, including Richard Secord, Thomas Clines, and Theodore Shackley along with their former partner Ed Wilson. Wilson would later be framed as a rogue CIA agent so that his </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">partners could</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> gain control of his CIA front companies. A number of “former” CIA officers worked for the bank like William Colby, the bank’s Washington, DC lawyer. The bank also employed enough Admirals and Generals to launch a war including Admiral Earl Yates, General Edwin F. Black, General Leroy Manor, and more key </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">masterminds of the bloodbath carried out by the US </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">in </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">South East Asia. With such well-</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">respected war criminals as executives</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Nugan Hand found it easy to swindle American civilians and servicemen worldwide. In 2015 true crime writer Peter Butt managed to track Michael Hand down living under a new CIA supplied identity in Idaho while Butt was working on his book “Merchants of Menace.” It was briefly </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">front-page</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> news but Hand remained untouchable </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">for</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the authorities.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Nugan Hand was one of the more notorious examples of a CIA bank and all that entailed. A</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s Nugan Hand was on the rise it</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s infamous predecessor Paul Helliwell’s Castle Bank was finally being shut down after decade</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s of impunity serving the mafia and</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> corrupt politicians like Richard Nixon</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. It also served</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the CIA in a money laundering drug network reaching from South Ea</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">st Asia to Latin America as well as playing</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> a major role in covert wars in Vietnam and against Cuba. BCCI the next major CIA banking scandal (except </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">for the S&L debacle in the 1980</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> also CIA and drug fueled) was founded the year before Nugan Hand. Eventually BCCI was used to fund the birth of Al Qaeda, launder money for drug syndicates</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> and terrorists worldwide and support what became</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the Iran/Contra scandal. Of course the more </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">well-known</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> supposedly respectable banks</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> corporate banks</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> also do the CIA dirty work while laundering billions in drug money. Nor did the CIA invent the game</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">O</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ne of the </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">world’s</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> largest banks</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">, Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">(</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">HSBC</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">),</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> was founded by the British</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> in the 19</span><span class="s4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 9px; line-height: 10.800000190734863px; vertical-align: super;">th</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> century,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> using the massive profits from the opiu</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">m trade</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. Hong Kong</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> then </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">a</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> British c</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">rown colony, </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">remained a major hub in the global heroin traffic</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">.</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> 100 years later and Nugan Hand opened one of </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">its</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">more important branches there. In taking control of the South East </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Asian</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">heroin networks the CIA wa</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s merely following in the foot</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">steps of France. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Nugan Hand was a typical CIA bank</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. M</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">oney laundering for drug syndicates, bribery of politicians and police, arms dealing, coups, covert warfare, massive embezzlement, fraud, tax eva</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">sion, murder, spying, terrorism</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">comprised the range of</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> utility to the CIA</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. What made it unusual was that it was not really a bank at all and until 1979 none of </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">its</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> executives had any banking experience. It had helped topple Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam’s government in a soft coup in 1975. Founded in 1973 in a few short years it expanded worldwide with branches in Australia, the Philippines, the US, Thailand, Burma, Hong Kong, Panama, the Cayman I</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">slands and more. In Thailand it</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s office was in Chiang Mai</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">then the heroin capital of the world</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> opened solely to help launder drug money and finance drug deals</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Nugan</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Hand shared it</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s Chiang Mai office with the </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Drug Enforcement Administration (</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">DEA</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">)</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. It supplied weapons for </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">apartheid South</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Africa and its CIA backed allies in Angola;</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> armed apartheid Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe)</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> and</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> sold arms to Indones</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ia as it waged a genocidal war i</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">n East Timor. It helped Marcos in the Philippines, and the Shah of Iran m</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ove their money offshore. At it</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s height it appeared to be moving a bill</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ion dollars a year yet after it</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s collapse it seemed to have been bankrupt all along. Honest depositors lost their life savings, while drug syndicates received partial re-payment, and Nugan Hand executives managed to steal a fortune. To this day no one knows where all the money went.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Nugan Hand was named after it</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s two founders. Frank Nugan’s </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">parents</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">were both German Jewish refugees who met in Spain during the civil war after fleeing the </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Nazis</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. They married in Palestine and then moved to Australia preferring to tell people they were Spanish and concealing their </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Jewish</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> origins. They became fruit growers in Griffith Australia. Their sons Frank and Ken Nugan would later run their Nugan Fruit </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Group, which</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> by the 1960’s was entangled with the Calabrian Mafia who had turned Griffith into a major marijuana growing hotspot. The Nugan Hand bank would owe </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">its</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> downfall to an investigation of the Nugan Fruit Group’s fraud, intimidation, and ties to the murderers of an anti-drug politician who had been targeting local marijuana growers. Frank Nugan was an egomaniac from an early age constantly wanting to be the center of attention, loving to push people over the edge by antagonizing them until they lost control. He lied and manipulated people like a textbook sociopath but suffered severe mood swings. He could be a charmer or an arrogant bully, brilliant or a complete fool. He went to Law school in Australia then studied law getting arcane degrees in the US at UC Berkley and studying in Canada although failing to get his PHD. He returned to Australia and conned people into believing that he had helped rewrite the Canadian corporate tax code. He got a job at a major law firm but soon quit because he saw little chance of advancement since he wasn’t from one of Australia’s more elite families. He set up a mining company that went nowhere which soon was interlocked with Michael Hand’s land speculation scheme that also seemingly went nowhere. The two had met through the actual mastermind of the Nugan Hand scandal Bernie Houghton. At first glance Houghton was merely an American bar owner in the heart of Sydney Australia’s vice district King’s Cross</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> a mecca for drugs, gambling, and prostitution. Houghton was in reality a CIA officer equally at home and well connected in the underworld, politics, intelligence and the military and seemed to be Michael Hand</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">’</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s case officer.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Michae</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">l Hand was born in the Bronx, </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">New York on </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">8 December</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> 1941</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the day after Pearl Harbor. His mother died mysteriously when he was a child falling out of a </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">10-story</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> window in an apparent suicide. This left him extremely driven</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. H</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">e studied for a year to be a park ranger, </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">and then</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">managed a sports school before enlisting in the military in 1963. He was quickly selected for the Special Forces and trained at Fort Bragg befriending fellow recruit Douglas Sapper who would later be recruited into Nugan Hand providing muscle for couriers. In February 1965 both were sent to Vietnam. Hand was stationed at Dong </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Xoia</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> a Montagnard (Vietnamese hill tribes selected by the CIA as proxies and trained by special forces) camp built along the Ho Chi Minh Trail (the road troops and supplies traveled from North </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Vietnam into</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> South Vietnam.) It was typical ruthless cynicism to locate the camp of only 400 Montagnard troops and 19 American Special Forces advisers and </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Seabees</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> engineers where it was </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">certain to be attacked and over</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">run. After a couple months the inevitable occur</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">red 1,500 NLF attacked and over</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ran the camp. Michael Hand went into a </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">berserker</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> rage killing until his ammo ran out then gutting a man with his knife and ripping his head off with his bare hands. He also managed to rescue a few injured Americans and became an instant war hero in the press. He won the </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Distinguished Service Cross</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. Soon he was recruited into the CIA and sent to Laos to train the Hmong tribesmen who like the Montagnards had been selected by the CIA as proxies and trained by Special Forces operating under USAID cover. The US had agreed to leave Laos neutral and remove any US military presence</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. P</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">romises it broke</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">leading to the CIA’s secret war in Laos. The</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Hmong had traditionally grown o</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">pi</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">um and the CIA had installed it</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s man Vang Pao as their leader, helping him build a heroin factory to process the opium and flying the heroin out for him on their Air America flights even giving him his own airline. The Laotian military and Laotian politicians were equally involved in the heroin trade. A series of coups in Laos had just as much to do with transferring control of the drug trade as they did with the CIA goal to push the country into civil war by </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">overthrowing</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> neutralist governments and ultimately </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">provoking the</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> left Pathet Lao forces to fight back. Michael Hand was soon at home in the world of the deep politics of the global drug trade advising the Hmong and also working closely with the Air America pilots. He met Theodore Shackley and Thomas Clines who both served tours as Chief of Station in Laos. Clines taking over for Shackley when Shackley became Chief of Station in Vietnam. Hand and Houghton would both be spotted with C-</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">47’s full of heroin in various Southe</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ast</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Asian</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> locales long after they had supposedly retired. It was while in </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Southe</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ast Asia that Hand was recruited into an Australian real estate scheme eventually known as Ocean Shores</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">, one of whose backers was the s</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">inger Pat Boone. For my younger readers in the early days of Rock & Roll white radio stations refused to play black groups so Pat Boone would re-record their songs in his soulless manner epitomizing uncoolness for a generation. Boone was also a frequent guest on </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Christian</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> television. Thus it is amusing to discover him involved in Michael Hand’s shady land deals that were a cover for heroin smuggling. Michael Hand returned to America then mysteriously decided to move to Australia telling them he planned to become a simple farmer. Most likely it was merely his latest assignment for the CIA and he was being assigned to assist Bernie Houghton.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">A former military man and tough talking Texan Houghton was a CIA man operating </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">under civilian cover although this</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> has never been officially confirmed. After serving in the military he made his money in Korea and Vietnam selling war surplus and running bars and sex traffic for American troops. He was sent in advance to Australia to set up 3 bars and restaurants in Sydney Australia</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. H</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">e was already in on the secret decision to use Australia as a place to send troops on R&R (Rest & Relaxation.) Upon arriving in Australia he was instantly hired by one of the most wealthy and powerful men in </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Australia Sir</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Paul Strasser</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> a real estate tycoon. Sir </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Paul Strasser</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> was part of the same social circle as Rupert Murdoch. Another of this same circle Sir Peter Abeles</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the wealthy shipping </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">tycoon</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> would later act as one of Michael Hand’s patrons.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Apparently it was a matter of n</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ational security that the troops would party with proper supervision that the CIA or military would control the prostitutes because their was no telling what horrific or embarrassing secrets they might reveal whether about the industrial </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">scale mass murder, the massive P</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">hoenix program, the secret wars in Laos, Cambodia and Thailand or the massive drug trade that interconnected it all. Thus before the troops even arrived in </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Australia Houghton</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> would arrive introduced by the commanding officers and the troops would be told to head for Houghton’s Bourbon and Beefsteak. Once they were at the bar they could obtain anything from illegal drugs to prostitutes or sent to one of Houghton’s friend’s illegal casinos. </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">There</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> was a ping ball sex show upstairs. The food on the other hand was terrible. Houghton was gay and ran a network of young </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">spies former lovers and ex-room</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">mates. He had ties with politicians in Australia, the US and around the world. His bar was also a f</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">avorite hang out of Australian g</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">angsters, crooked cops and American m</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">afia-linked figures forced to flee the US. Mob l</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">awyer Harry Wainwright was one of Houghton’s cronies. Wainwright had been granted Australian citizenship despite the fact that the FBI was about to arrest him. </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">His request</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> was approved by the same immigration official who admitted Michael Hand. Houghton was a middleman, a fixer embodying the interconnections between, business, crime and intelligence. He was the bridge between the worlds of corrupt businessman Frank Nugan and drug world spy Michael Hand. Houghton had also been granted a security clearance by the ASIO</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the Australian version of MI5 or the FBI and was allowed to make secret trips w</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ithout a visa to various Southe</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ast </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Asian</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">locales. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Once in Australia</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Michael Hand began working on his land scheme selling worthless plots of</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> land to his military buddies, A</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ir America pilots and Australian customs officials. When Nugan Hand was at </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">its</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> height the legend was it was funded from the profits from Hand’s real estate schemes and Frank Nugan’s Mining scheme. Yet Hand’s Ocean Shores was mostly </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">worthless,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> as the land was never developed. The plots were sold for around ten thousand a piece then later bought back at a fraction of the cost and resold in Panama. Overtly it was small time but at least one of the buyers</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Michael Hand’s friend Kermit “Bud” King</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> built an airstrip that his Thai housekeeper informed police was used to smuggle heroin. Ironically it was King who brought Hand in on the Ocean Shores scheme to begin with. After coming to the attention of the crooked drug cops King quickly wound up dead</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. B</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">y then N</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ugan Hand had been founded and four</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> days later Michael Hand “resigned” from Nugan Hand claiming he was going to become a turkey farmer. In reality it was a cover for a year long mission to sell arms to South Africa and Rhodesia for the CIA’s covert wars in Ango</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">la, Namibia, Mozambique, and it</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s propping up of apartheid in violation of US arms embargoes and later of the Clark amendment. King and Hand had been part of a drug ring and King was probably murdered when word leaked that the FBN was onto him. Hand was out of the country when King died however just as he was when Nugan later died. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">It was via Ocean Shores</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> which repeatedly changed it</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s name like most of the Nugan Hand Shell Companies</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> that Nugan and Hand became intertwined</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">.</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Nugan’s secretary was on the board of directors. Soon Ocean shores loaned Frank Nugan money in exchange for shares in his mining company. These are some of the basic ingredients in </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">white-collar</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> crime, the creation of multiple shell companies, the transfer of worthless stock, the issuing of loans that are canceled and never repaid. </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Worthless</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> assets are traded from shell company to shell company creating the illusion of valuable </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">assets, which</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> are used as collateral for loans that are never repaid. A c</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">omplex web of transactions </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">boil</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> down to a sort of shell game or three card </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">monty</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. The whole thing is so complicated and boring that i</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">t is nearly impossible for the P</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ress to explain it to the public or for a prosecutor to explain to a jury</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. S</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">o the game goes on</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. B</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ank crash follows bank cr</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ash, real estate bubble follows</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> real estate bubble and people think it is all as natural as the change in seasons. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Nugan Hand was founded in July 1973. The lawyer and the Green Beret may have been selected in part to form the bank because their names gave the bank an </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Asian</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> sound. Neither had any banking experience but Frank Nugan was a brilliant financial conman. He claimed that his knowledge of money markets allowed the bank to offer an extra 2% of interest to depositors. Nugan was also able to convince the gullible that his tax evasion schemes were all perfectly legal. In reality the bank operated on two levels and depositors funds were used as a slush fund to </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">enable the bank to carry out it</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s real work of illegally moving money overseas for drug syndicates and tax evaders. Frank Nugan had created a simple strategy he called “The Contra”</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. A</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> drug dealer would make a deposit in Nugan Hand Sydney and then Nugan would call ahead to one of the </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Asian</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> branches and tell them to give the client an equal amount of money when he arrived in a couple days, minus the commission of up to 22%. The second transaction was off the record so it would appear no money had been moved. The dealer would use the cash to buy drugs and then smuggle them back to Australia perhaps for shipment on to the US or elsewhere. The same system was later used to fund assassinations or to bribe politicians. There were of course more complex schemes involving fake loans a</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">nd shell companies. In the 1970</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s most countries including Australia had strict </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">foreign exchange rules</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> forbidding export of capital overseas. Nugan came up with a number of schemes to both move money overseas and to create tax shelters to cheat on taxes. The CIA was very interested in c</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ontrolling the flow of this off</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">shore wealth since it would provide them with leverage over Nugan Hand clients which eventually included Thai generals, Laotian princes, dictators like the Shah of Iran and Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines as well as Saudi Princes.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">On </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">11 November</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> 1975</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> a soft coup toppled Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. For decades the CIA had worked with the </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ASIO that it had helped</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> set up to manipulate the Australian political scene. They funded the Liberal-Country Coalition. The CIA also manipulated the unions. Whitlam had dared to complain about CIA ties to his political opponents. He had already angered the US by opposing the war in Vietnam and withdrawing Australian troops. In March1973 Whitlam had taken the extraordinary step of having the Attorney General Lionel Murphy lead a raid on ASIO headquarters. The CIA was outraged that </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">its</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> secrets had been exposed in the process. Even more important to the CIA and the US national security state was the huge listening post it had built at Pine Gap. It was used to </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">monitor</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> electronic communications across the entire region, receive spy</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">satellite signals, and </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">rela</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">y orders to the US atomic</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> submarine fleet. It had been built under the false cover story that it was part of the space program. Whitlam worried that it could make</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Australia a target in </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">a</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> atomic</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">war and was outraged to discover his own intelligence agencies </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">had lied to him and told him it</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s head Michael Stalli</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ngs was with the Department of D</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">efense and not the CIA. Worse Stallings was renting a house from the right wing head of the Country Party Doug Anthony. Whitlam requested a list of all CIA agents operating in Australia but his own intelligence agencies were more interested in maintaining fri</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">endly relations with the CIA tha</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">n in obeying the head of Government. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Early in 1975 Whitlam further alienated both Australian and US intelligence when he fired to head of Overseas Intelligence for lying about Australia’s role in the genocidal war on East </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Timor, which</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> would eventually claim hundreds of thousands of lives. In December 1975 the Pine Gap treaty was up for renegotiation. Whitlam had to be removed before he could interfere further in the CIA’s schemes. The exact role of the Nugan Hand bank in the coup is unclear but Houghton was almost certainly involved. </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">The ASIO and the CIA chief of station, John Walker, had granted him a security clearance</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. I</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">n Australia</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> John Walker</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> who transferred to Israel shortly before the coup</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> and the new CIA </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">c</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">hief of </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">tation</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Milton Corley Wonus spent long hours at his bar</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the Bourbon and Beefsteak. Houghton also had close ties to people at the Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) that helpe</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">d frame members of the Whitlam g</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">overnment. The Whitlam Government </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">was destabilized</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> in a way eerily similar to the recent coup in Brazil. The CIA and ASIO leaked information to the press including a forged telex that implicated the </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Labo</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ur</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> g</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">overnment in the “Loans Scandal” that brought down first the treasury head and then the energy minister. Whitlam began to slide in the opinion polls and the opposition decided to force an early election by refusing to pass the budget. However Whitlam was able to mobilize opinion against this attempt to paralyze the government and it no longer appeared certain he would lose in an early election. Drastic measures were needed. On </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">8 November</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> 1975</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">, Theodore Shackley, by then CIA </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">assistant</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> deputy director for o</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">perations sent an ultimatum to ASIO on Whitlam claiming that he was endangering the CIA by daring to expose their activities in public. In CIA parlance Whitlam was exposing sources and methods and was a dangerous threat to national security and if he </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">weren’t</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> dealt with the CIA would cut ties to Australian intelligence. Shackley was backed in this ultimatum by</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Henry Kissinger himself. Only three</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> days later on </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">11 November</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> 1975, John Kerr th</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">e Australian Governor General (the</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> represent</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ative of the British crown), until</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">then a largely ceremonial post</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> removed Whitlam from office due to an obscure power that had never been used before. Kerr had close ties to the OSS</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the predecessor to the CIA</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> and had spent decades working for various CIA fronts like the Australian Association for Cultural Freedom</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">H</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">is work had</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> also</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> been subsidized by the CIA</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. Kerr appointed Liberal Party leader Malcolm Fraser as the new temporary Prime minister. Ironically Whitlam had appointed Kerr the year before the soft coup as a concession to his right wing critics. When Nugan Hand collapsed Shackley’s right hand man Thomas Clines would show up to help Bernie Houghton escape to Mexico by way of the Philippines.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">1975</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the year of the soft coup against Whitlam</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> was the same year Michael Hand had announced his sudden “retirement” from the bank </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">four</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">days after the death of his friend</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Air America pilot Bud King. He claimed he was going to become a turkey farmer. Instead he was heading to Africa along with hundreds of CIA men and mercenaries hired through CIA contractors. Hand had pretended to resign to distance himself from Nugan Hand’s American branch in Hawaii because he was going into the illegal arms business. Fascist Portugal had desperately hung onto </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">its</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> African colonies of Angola, Guinea Bissau, and Mozambique battling African revolutionaries intent on liberating their countries. However Portugal’s government had recently been overthrown by a left wing coup and the new government decided to end the costly African wars and grant the new countries independence. The American empire and the CIA which had ba</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">cked NATO member Portugal’s war</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s to keep African’s subjugated now faced the emergence of left leaning African governments in Angola and Mozambique. The US and the CIA decided to ally with </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">a</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">partheid South Africa and Mobut</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">u in Zaire to try to install it</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s proxies in Angola and Mozambique or at least to wage bloody dirty wars to destabilize the new governments. In Angola Cuba decided to send troops to counter a US backed South African invasion. Eventually not only would Cuba successfully defend Angola’s independence but </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">its</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> victory would lead to the liberation of South Africa and Namibia. Hand spent the year traveling from Angola to </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">a</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">partheid Rhodesia and South Africa setting up arms deals. The exact details are unknown but it is believed that Hand managed to carry out a major arms deal with the notorious Ed Wilson who ran profitable CIA arms dealing and consulting fronts. Wilson had known Bernie Houghton since before he supposedly resigned from the CIA in 1971. Wilson would later hire Houghton and Nugan Hand to help him with his Libyan arms deals and construction schemes and after Nugan Hand’s collapse Houghton would go to work for Wilson’s EATSCO in which his partners were Thomas Clines, Richard Secord, and Theodore Shackley. Houghton’s stolen Nugan Hand files would be stored in Ed Wilson’s Geneva Switzerland office. Even after Hand’s return from Africa to Australia in 1976 Nugan Hand would continue to supply arms illegally to South Africa and many other places including Indonesia, Burma, and Thailand.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">On his way back to Australia in 1976 Michael Hand opened a Nugan hand branch in Panama</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> a</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">nother</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> money laundering and drug smuggling hub. Then he arrived in Australia and was immediately reinstated at Nugan Hand. In 1977 Hand would travel to Hong Kong to open a Nugan Hand office and would send Neil Evans to open the Chiang Mai branch in Thailand to help drug dealing Thai Generals and warlords move their money overseas. Within two year</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s Nugan Hand would have more tha</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">n a dozen branches around the world, Chile, Argentina, the Philippines, Singapore, West Germany, London, and the Cayman Islands. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">It was during this global expansion that Nugan Hand recruited a half dozen American </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">g</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">enerals and </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">a</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">dmirals through Bernie Houghton. Hand was now bragging privately about the banks CIA backing. Admiral Earl “Buddy” Yates (Ret.) was recruited as the bank’s president. Admiral Yates was the former Comman</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">der of the USS John F. Kennedy a</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ircraft carrier and chief of staff for plans and policy for Pacific Command. Pacific Command had responsibility for all of Asia</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> including of course the wars in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">General Edwin Black had been in the OSS serving under Allen Dulles and above Richard Helms</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> both of who</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">m</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> went</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> on to</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> become infamous CIA directors. After serving Eisenhower’s Psychological Strategy Board as military assistant to the deputy he served on the military staff of the National Security C</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ouncil. He was in charge of US F</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">orces in Vietnam when it was still a covert war</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. He then headed US F</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">orces in Thailand before b</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ecoming</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> an assistant division commander in Vietnam and Assistant Army Chief of Staff for Pacific Command. He also headed the Freedom Foundation. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"></span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">General Leroy Manor</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> was</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> a fighter pilot in World War 2, Korea, and Vietnam</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">.</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> He commanded air bases at Clark Field and Subic Bay</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> in the Philippines. He had been Chief of Staff for Pacific Command and had negotiated a </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">USD </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">500 million military aid package for the Philippines and spent </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">seven m</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">onths with President Marcos renegotiating the leases for US bases in the Philippines. He </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">was an</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> expert on c</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ounter-Insurgency. He was recruited to run the Nugan Hand branch in the Philippines</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> sharing his office with the Marcos’ brother in law Ludwig Rocka. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">General </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Earle</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Cocke was a specialist in moving “black money” for various government agencies. He was very close to President Carter. During World War </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Two</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> he had survived an exe</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">cution by a German firing squad. He went on</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> to work at various shadowy jobs at the Department of Defense, was a former executive at Delta Airlines and </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">f</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ormer National Commander of the American Legion. Nugan Hand’s Washington DC branch was run by Cocke out of the offices of his Cocke and Philips International Consulting Firm.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Nugan Hand also recruited a number of CIA men. Former CIA director William Colby and his law firm Reid & Priest were hired as lawyers representing Nugan. Colby had helped set up Gladio in Scandinavian countries</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> serving as CIA chief of </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">tation in Vietnam during the formation of the Phoenix assassination program. Walter McDonald had headed the CIA’s economic division for 25 years </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">and </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">was no mere analyst. When Admiral Yates introduced him he noted that while many were unaware of the role of the CIA’s economic division it was “acknowledged in this world of grass politics, drug events and battles and it starts generally in the area Walt is heading.” McDonald was given the unenviable task of babysitting the drunk and out of control Frank Nugan. There was also Guy Pauker a CIA man under Rand cover he had arrived in Indonesia in 1958 during the CIA’s failed plot to overthrow Sukarno using a military uprising. He joked that by 1965 the friends he had made back in 1958 were now running the country. The CIA had successfully overthrown Sukarno and was helping Pauker’s “Friends” carry out one of the bloodiest massacres of the cold war with </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">one</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> million suspected communists and ethnic Chinese slaughtered by death squads. Pauker was still a fie</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">rce defender of the Indonesian j</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">unta</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> which had unleashed another blood bath after invading East Timor in 1975. Pauker was an adviser to both Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski. Nugan Hand Taiwan was run by former Civil Air Transport executive</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> CIA Dale Holmgren. Air America, </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">the CIA’s drug smuggling airline</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> had grown out of the CIA/Taiwan airline CAT Civil Air Transport </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">that</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> had been smuggling heroin since the early days of the cold war. Michael Hand and Admiral Yates recruited anothe</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">r infamous CIA figure Mitch Werb</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ell III the expert on silencers and the inventor of the Mac-10 machine gun. WerBell ran a mercenary training camp in Georgia and was recruited by Hand as a consultant on his project to resettle the Hmong and Montagnards in the Caribbean where they could be used as a proxy army to menace Cuba. The scheme fell through but they were eventually used as proxies in Reagan’s Central American wars. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> This array of </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">a</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">dmirals, </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">g</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">enerals, and CIA officers were executives at a bank that was deeply involved wi</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">th the Mr Asia syndicate and it</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s series of murders. </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Four</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Mr Asia </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">couriers</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> were arrested in separate incidents and they all talked to police. </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Three of the four</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> ended up dead </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">and </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">the fourth was beaten unconscious with baseball bats. They had talked and the cops were on Mr Asia’s payroll via Nugan Hand’s Australian law firm run by John Aston and Brian Alexander. The firm represented a number of drug dealers including the Mr Asia syndicate. Alexander ran a network of corrupt cops that extended through every level of Australian drug law enforcement. They immediately informed Alexander any time someone ratted out the Mr Asia syndicate. Their bribes were paid in some cases through opening accounts for them in Nugan Hand. When Nugan Hand first came</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> under suspicion for it</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s role in the drug trade the FBN (Federal Bureau of Narcotics) investigators discovered that Frank Nugan knew every </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">detail about</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> their investigation within hours of it occurring thanks to Alexander. In fact Frank Nugan boldly arrived at FBN headquarters on </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">14 February</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">1978 protesting</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> his complete innocence and boasting of his political connections. Within weeks higher ups in the FBN had killed the investigation into Nugan Hand. Aston’s law firm was used as a drop point by Nugan Hand clients Frank Nugan had helped launder $300,000 from a bank robbery for Mr Asia to finance these murders and Hand had personally </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">managed</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Asian</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> end of the operation. Finally the number 2 man in Mr Asia</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Terry Clark</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">, planned the murder of </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Mr Asia syndicate</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">’</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s head Christopher Martin Johnson who was getting too much press attention</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. H</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">is dismembered </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">corpse was buried in four</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> separate coun</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">tries. Again the money trail le</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">d through Nugan Hand. A year and a half after Nugan Hand’s collapse lawyer Brian Alexander “disappeared ” after having his feet tied to an antique stove before being tossed overboard from a police boat.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Another murderous disappearance would cause trouble for the Nugan Fruit Group. Donald Mackay was the Griffith Branch president of the Liberal Party who had launched an anti-drug crusade against the Calabria</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">n marijuana growers. On 15 July 1977, he</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> disappeared</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">.</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">P</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">olice found </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">bloodstains</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> in his van and shell casings at the scene so he was presumed murdered. Records showed that the Nugan Fruit Group had paid the gangster’s who were the main suspects in the killing Antonio Sergi and Robert Trimbole. Trimbole was also part of the Mr Asia syndicate. After Mackay’s death a Royal Commission was appointed to investigate his murder and the Griffith drug scene. Back in 1973 Ken Nugan had sold a 40% share in the Nugan Fruit Group to an insurance company and they were demanding an audit to discover why payment had been sent to gangsters and because they realized Ken Nugan was embezzling money. Ken called in his brother Frank for help and in the fall of 1977 they carried out a sort of “corporate coup.” First they hired corrupt cops infamous as </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">strong-arm</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> men and hired killers to terrorize the auditors. When that didn’t work the cops hired a bunch of thugs and unemployed drunks to become Nugan Fruit Group stockholders and at a stockholder’s meeting managed via threats to force the Insurance company off the board</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> and fire the auditors. This le</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">d to a corporate affairs commission investigation of the Nugan Brothers. Frank Nugan stole</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> one</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> million from Nugan Hand to pay the mounting legal costs. The scandal eventually began to damage Nugan Hand’s credibility although Admiral Yates and General Black both continued to publicly defend Frank Nugan in the press. In addition to intelligence backers Nugan Hand had been vouched for by top banks in Australia, Hong Kong a</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">nd the US. In the Cayman Island</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s Nugan Hand’s books had been vouched for by Price Waterhouse & Company. By 1979 they were no longer willing to continue endorsing the company as it became increasingly clear that the Nugan brothers would be convicted of fraud. The whole house of cards was on the verge of collapse.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> As the pressure mounted on Frank Nugan he began to drink heavily with an open bottle of whisky on his desk every morning. He also stole millions to buy expensive mansions and cars for himself. The more he stole to finance his expensive lifestyle the more respectable and trustworthy he appeared to the potential clients. He went around bragging that he was the richest man in Sydney. He tried to frame his political opponents for corruption and even put a bounty on their heads. Doug Sapper (Hand’s old special forces buddy) was set up in Nepal for smuggling watches after he’d turned down Houghton’s attempt to recruit him to assassinate Nugan’s enemies. Michael Hand increasingly began to </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">cut Nugan out of the loop. Six m</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">onths before his death Frank Nugan quit drinking and found religion apparently in the hopes that his business would be miraculously saved. His wife left him and headed back to America. He was also demanding that Nugan Hand stop laundering money for drug dealers and get out o</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">f the arms trade. Hand and the g</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">enerals merely ignored him and tried to isolate him. By fall of 1979 Hand and Houghton were already planning their escapes. At the same time they held a seemingly triumphant conference in October </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">1979 that</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> all the admirals, g</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">enerals, and CIA men flew in to attend to welcome Miami banker Donald Beazley as the bank</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">’</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s new president. The banks Beazley worked for would be implicated in drug money laundering scandals after he had left them. While the bank was unraveling in 1979</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Houghton was sent to the KSA where he managed to collect </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">USD </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">5-10 million dollars in deposits from American oil workers and military men while also engaging in all sorts of mysterious meetings with Arab princes. Given the timing Houghton may have been involved in efforts to escalate the covert war in Afghanistan. This is also when Houghton began doing business with Richard Secord, Thomas Clines, and Ed Wilson.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Frank Nugan’s death remains a mystery although apparently he actually did kill himself. Michael Hand claimed it was murder but he had taken out million dollar insurance police for Nugan and himself that wouldn’t pay. In any case the day after Bernie Houghton had visited Frank Nugan at the office Nugan had decided to kill himself. Nugan had underlined words in his bible that hinted that his family had been threatened with death if he didn’t kill himself. Frank Nugan’s body was found on January 27th at 4:20 AM with a rifle, a bible, and a list of drug smug</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">glers for whom he had laundered money</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. Perhaps he wanted to take Nugan Hand down with his death. The police notified his brother Ken Nugan and gave him the keys to the office. It was later discovered that Brian Alexander had already been purging evidence at Frank Nugan’s home. Ken Nugan arrived at the office to start shredding documents. Hand was in London when he learned of Nugan’s death</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. H</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">e complained that Nugan had left him to clean up the mess</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. He then flew</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> back to Australia by way of the US. He arrived with Admiral Yates on </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">29 January</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> 1980 to take charge of the file shredding. Soon Houghton and his lawyer Michael </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Maloney</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> were put in charge of the cover up. Nugan Hand employees were warned to keep quiet on what they knew or their wives would be chopped into little pieces and mailed to them in parcels. Doubtless because of Nugan Hand’s political connections and intelligence ties the authorities were extremely slow to take action. When Hand testified at the coroner’s inquest the authorities were completely in the dark about his intelligence ties and trust</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ed</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> his lying explanations of his role in the bank. While the bank was collapsing financial advisers were still telling their clients to deposit their money in Nugan Hand. The ordinary depositors would lose everything. Meanwhile Nugan Hand was trying to pay off </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">its</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> more dangerous clients. By the time the CAC finally arrived at Nugan Hand’s Sydney office all the records had either been shredded or moved to a butcher shop owned by Bob </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Gehring</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">an ex-marine and possible CIA agent. Gehring would later help Hand and Houghton escape the country. Amazingly Australian authorities allowed Gehring to physically push them around and bully them in order to block access to the files. No one at Nugan Hand was arrested. Early in June 1980 ex-CIA man Thomas Clines arrived to help Houghton escape to the Philippines from which he headed to a luxurious exile in Acapulco, Mexico. Ex-CIA man James Oswald Spencer</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> who was a TV actor appearing on </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Star Trek</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> and </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Gilligan’s Isle</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> arrived to provide Ha</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">nd with a ludicrous disguise.</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">H</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">and escaped two weeks later probably with the help of Australian intelligence. Hand had been staying with Gehring who provided Hand with one of his </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">employee’s</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> passports. Hand left behind $70 dollars and his lawyer managed to convince the press briefly that Hand may have been murdered and disappeared. The </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">b</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ank collapsed taking at least $50 million dollars of </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">depositors’</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> money with it. The real figure was probably much higher since many Nugan Hand clients didn’t want to reveal their losses in laundered drug money or tax evasion schemes. Houghton had a courier bring Michael Hand 1 million dollars in his </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">American</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> exile. As the bank was collapsing Nugan Hand executives gave themselves huge bonuses.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> In 1982 ASIO learned from the CIA or another American Intelligence agency that Michael Hand was stationed in Honduras training the elite 5th Puma Battalion along side American </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Special Forces</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. The ASIO refused to try and bring him to justice. It also emerged that the ASIO had been recording all Frank Nugan’s telephone calls in the two years prior to his death while telling Australian </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">l</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">aw enforcement it kn</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ew nothing about the bank or it</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s clients. In</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> 1991 an Australian journalist</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> tracked down Hand’s Australian wife Helene in France and discovered Michael Hand’s address in the US but a rival paper exposed the story and Hand disap</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">peared again. In the late 1990</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s Hand had changed his name to Michael Jon Fuller and was running a paramilitary training camp with </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">four</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> other ex-military officers. It trained </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Special Forces</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">, SWAT teams, and p</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">olice from around the world. </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">The strange paradox of o</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ne of the most wanted men in the world training police from around the world </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">is only conceivable only</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> with CIA protection. Next Hand started a prosperous knife making business TOPS knives. It sold knives to militaries around the globe. The elderly Hand was still running the company when journalist Peter Butt managed to track him down by scouring corporate records of people named Michael Jon. He spotted a familiar signature, found a photo of Michael Jon Fuller, and hired a private detective to track him down</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> then giving the story to 60 minutes Australia. When confronted Hand refused to say a word to the </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">P</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ress</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> resigning and disappearing yet again. Australian authorities refused to pursue his extradition not wishing to anger the US government or the CIA or to revive the scandal and the story of the soft coup against Whitlam. On </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">8 November</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> 2020 Michael Hand died a free man. After </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">his escape, Bernie</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Houghton </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">only had to wait a year for the heat to cool off. He returned to Sydney seemingly </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">completely untouchable and remained</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> a legendary figure in King’s </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Cross until</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> his death in the year 2000. Two years later King’s Cross built a statue in his memory. Ken Nugan served a short prison sentence but the Nugan Fruit Group survives to this day. General Edwin Black went to work for another CIA bank Bishop, Baldwin, Rewald, Dillingham, and Wong that collapsed in 1983 when it’s founder Richard Rewald attempted suicide. By 1980 when Nugan Hand collapsed the global heroin r</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">outes were shifting from Southe</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ast Asian Golden Triangle to the new Golden Crescent in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The CIA would use the Saudi/Pakistani bank BCCI to move this massive flow of cash around</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> giving birth to </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">al Qaeda</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> and laundering money for Colombian cocaine cartels. When the big US banks collapsed in 2008 it was discovered that drug money was the only thing keeping the whole financial system afloat. Nugan Hand was merely another chapter in the long interconnected history of corporations, intelligence and organized crime.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Sources</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Jonathan Kwitny’s </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">The Crimes of Patriot’s: A True tale of Dope, Dirty Money, and the CIA</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Is still the definitive book on the Nugan Hand scandal going into the bank’s history in minute detail. Kwitny was equally skilled in investigating the world’s of financial crime and intelligence.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Peter Butt’s </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Merchants of Menace: The True Story of the Nugan Hand Scandal</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> is also great containing details on Hand’s life in exile and being a lighter more entertaining read. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Peter Butt also released a </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">4 part</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> podcast called “Merchants o</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">f Menace” you can subscribe through</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> a podcast player or download the episodes here</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. I</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">t contains a very entertaining version of events from Michael Hand’s old </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">special forces</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> buddy Douglas Sapper.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="https://www.merchantsofmenace.net/podcast"><span class="s6" style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13.199999809265137px;">https://www.merchantsofmenace.net/podcast</span></a></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s5" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">60 minutes</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Australia did an episode on the discovery of Michael Hand</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="https://youtu.be/yDhsDU_Z2m8"><span class="s6" style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13.199999809265137px;">https://youtu.be/yDhsDU_Z2m8</span></a></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">A documentary on Australian organized crime during the Nugan Hand era</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="https://youtu.be/8j-tTpd-Nqk"><span class="s6" style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13.199999809265137px;">https://youtu.be/8j-tTpd-Nqk</span></a></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Dave Emory and Nip Tuck discussed Nugan Hand as part of their classic seri</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">es on the CIA the military and drugs, which</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> covers everything from t</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">he politics of heroin in Southe</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ast Asia to the CIA role in promoting LSD.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="https://spitfirelist.com/anti-fascist-archives/rfa-24-28-the-cia-the-military-drugs/"><span class="s6" style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13.199999809265137px;">https://spitfirelist.com/anti-fascist-archives/rfa-24-28-the-cia-the-military-drugs/</span></a></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">My Iran/Contra article on Shackley, Clines, Secord, and Wilson</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/05/irancontra-pt-1-secret-team.html"><span class="s6" style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13.199999809265137px;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/05/irancontra-pt-1-secret-team.html</span></a></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">My Biography of Ted Shackley</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/12/ted-shackley-life-in-cia.html"><span class="s6" style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13.199999809265137px;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/12/ted-shackley-life-in-cia.html</span></a></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">The war in Angola Part 1</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2014/09/castro-vs-kissinger-in-angola.html"><span class="s6" style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13.199999809265137px;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2014/09/castro-vs-kissinger-in-angola.html</span></a></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">The War in Angola part 2</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2015/02/cuba-fought-to-free-south-africa.html"><span class="s6" style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13.199999809265137px;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2015/02/cuba-fought-to-free-south-africa.html</span></a></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Pete Brewton on the CIA linked S & L scandal</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="https://youtu.be/vnBXawqUF3o"><span class="s6" style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13.199999809265137px;">https://youtu.be/vnBXawqUF3o</span></a></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p>Hugo Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12229123097438571385noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8001402613324067475.post-60596297707057895632021-07-01T10:58:00.003-07:002021-07-03T15:33:53.952-07:00Documentary: Guns, Drugs, & The CIA <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="278" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LWuRjaoaV5c" width="334" youtube-src-id="LWuRjaoaV5c"></iframe></div><br /><p></p><div><a href="https://youtu.be/LWuRjaoaV5c">https://youtu.be/LWuRjaoaV5c</a></div><div><br /></div>Hugo Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12229123097438571385noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8001402613324067475.post-952131962272467182021-02-27T13:36:00.003-08:002021-02-27T13:36:32.950-08:00Documentary: The Panama Deception<p> <a href="https://youtu.be/Zo6yVNWcGCo">https://youtu.be/Zo6yVNWcGCo</a></p><p><br /></p>Hugo Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12229123097438571385noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8001402613324067475.post-81458289513246896552020-12-12T14:30:00.001-08:002020-12-12T14:30:59.102-08:00Guatemala War and Revolution Part 2<p> <span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px;">Guatemala: War and Revolution Part 2</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">With Special Thanks to </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Dr</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> T. P. Wilkinson, J. Patrice McSherry and Isa Blumi</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> The CIA coup to overthrow Jacobo Arbenz in 1954 would put the nation of Guatemala on the path to a nightmare future of poverty, war, and genocide. The United States would reshape Guatemala’s intelligence military and police to fight a counterinsurgency war on the majority of the population. CIA, Special Forces, military advisers, and Office of Public Safety advisers would arrive in Guatemala to create a massive coordinated killing machine. The result was the introduction of death squads, wide scale torture, rape, mass murder, and genocide. Guatemala became the textbook example of the worst dirty war in 20th century Latin America outdoing the crimes of the countries under the boot of Operation Condor in South America as well as the crimes of </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">neighbouring</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> El Salvador and Somoza’s Nicaragua. Hundreds of millions of dollars in development aid only served to further impoverish and fragment Guatemala so that today Guatemala is now a textbook example of the poverty and chaos produced by neo-liberalism and globalization.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Castillo Armas, leader of the CIA proxy army that invaded Guatemala during the coup, was finally installed as a dictator after two short lived juntas were maneuvered into and out of power. He banned unions and political parties; burned and banned books; locked up 9,000 Arbenz supporters and communists and forced thousands to flee into exile. Hundreds of union leaders were killed while the CIA, operating under the cover of the Committee Against Communism, composed a massive black list of “subversives” that already had 70,000 names on it by the end of the year. Decades later the military and police would murder elderly, returning exiles who had ended up on the list because of union membership or other “subversive” activity during the Arbenz years. Armas confiscated all the lands that Arbenz had given to 100,000 peasant families returning them to wealthy landowners and the United Fruit Company. Corruption was rampant under Armas as the US flooded the country with development aid. Armas had risen to power thanks to United </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Fruit but he would be assassinated for cracking down on its rival Standard Fruit Company and its gambling interests, casinos controlled by Ted Lewin. Lewin was part of the Meyer Lansky Syndicate (He had also worked closely with the CIA in the Philippines) and was closely allied to Standard Fruit through its President Seymour Weiss. When Armas cracked down on Lewin, John Rosselli, a mobster who was a fixer for Standard Fruit, made a trip down to Guatemala and arranged for the military, who were being bribed by the casinos, to assassinate President Castillo Armas. Armas was killed by his own bodyguard</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> who immediately committed suicide </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">(</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">or at least it was made to look that way</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">)</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. The whole thing was conveniently blamed on the communists. Rosselli would later be contracted by the CIA to arrange the murder of Fidel Castro and was killed after testifying about the JFK case in front of the House Committee on Assassinations in the 1970’s. I can only hint at Roselli’s complex connections to the mafia and the CIA</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> which included people like Rip Robertson, John Martino, and William Pawley linked to covert wars coups and the assassination of JFK. Rosselli’s contact in the Guatemalan military Lt Col Enrique Trinidad Olivia was promoted to head the Guatemalan secret police after the assassination of Armas.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Back in 1953</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the year before the coup that overthrew Arbenz</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> when the CIA was looking for the man to lead it</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> they had asked Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes a suppo</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">rter of the dictator Ubico whose</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> handpicked successor Arbenz had overthrown. Ydigoras had run against Arbenz in 1950 and lost by a landslide fleeing the country to avoid harassment by Arbenz supporters. Ydigoras had turned down the CIA offer to lead the invasion but referred them to Armas. Ydigoras had a secret deal with Armas to offer his secret support in exchange for the promise that he would be allowed to run for president after Arbenz was overthrown. However Armas had broken the deal by </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">cancelling</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the presidential elections in 1956. With Armas dead the Government announced elections for </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">20 </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">October 1957</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">, </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Ydigoras saw his chance returning from his Ambassador’s post in Colombia to run (Colombia would also see decades of dirty war and death squads thanks to American advisers.) Armas</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">’</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> party the MLN</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> which in future would become infamous as the party of death squads</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> selected Armas former Interior Minister Miguel Ortiz Passarelli as their candidate. Ydigoras won the election but Ortiz</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> was declared the winner anyway</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. Ydigoras threatened to launch a coup and his supporters flooded the streets. The military attaches at the US embassy managed to negotiate a settlement between Ydigoras and the MLN for new elections for January of 1958. Despite the CIA giving his new MLN opponent Luis Cruz Salazar almost $100,000 dollars in campaign funds Ydigoras won again and Congress voted to confirm him. He took office </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">15 </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">March 1958. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Voters elected him as an alternative to Armas hated MLN ignoring Ydigoras record of support for Ubico, the 1954 coup, and his far right views. They foolishly believed Guatemala would return to democracy as in 1944-1954. Instead in what would become a recurring pattern things were about to get much worse. Things began amusingly</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. A</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> newspaperman called Ydigoras a feeble old man and Ydigoras appeared on national TV to skip rope and juggle Indian clubs. Of course most Guatemalans had no electricity let alone television sets. As a dar</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ker joke when Ydigoras visited W</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ashington the Americans demanded he pay them back 1.8 million dollars to cover the costs of the 1954 coup. Back in 1954 a young Argentinian named Ernesto “Che” Guevara had arrived in Guatemala to defend the country against the coming coup. After the coup he’d been forced to seek asylum in an embassy while John Foster Dulles tried desperately to have him and thousands of others hiding in embassies illegally arrested then either killed or deported to the Soviet Union. Armas had himself been forced to seek asylum in an embassy a couple years before plus he didn’t want to offend every countries diplomatic corps by carrying out Dulles plan and refused. So “Che” Guevara headed to exile in Mexico met Fidel Castro and helped him liberate Cuba after an initially disastrous beginning to their campaign. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> The victory of the Cuban revolution </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">on 1 January </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">1959 marked the beginning of the second of three phases of the “Cold War” culminating in the liberation of Vietnam in 1975. Both the goal </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">of </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">preventing another Cuba and the </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Empire’s </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ever deteri</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">orating situation </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">in Vietnam would shape the future of the third world in general, Latin America specifically, and especially Guatemala in the decades to come. US advisers CIA, Special Forces, and police would rotate from Vietnam</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Cambodia, Thailand and Laos to countries like Guatemala, Colombia, and El Salvador or vice versa. In each country a version of Vietnam’s P</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">hoenix Program would be created:</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Centralized control of Intelligence, military, and police. The creation of communications and computer networks to share information on “subversives.” They set up death squads, torture </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">centres</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> and disappearances followed. Eventually this massive killing machine would be coordinated across borders evolving into Operation Condor in South America in the 1970’s. In Central America this regional coordination began even earlier with the </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">creation of CONDECA in the 1960</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s. The US became obsessed with counterinsurgency although of course these techniques were a feature of the earlier dirty wars in places like Greece, Korea, and the Philippines in the 1940’s and 1950’s. The roots of counter-insurgency went back much further to the marine corps “small wars” in Latin America and the Caribbean, to the invasion and occupation of the Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico at the turn of the century and further back still to crushing slave revolts and committing genocide</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> against the Indians. American c</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ounterinsurgency theorists combined this long American experience with the lessons learned by the British and French in places like Malaysia, Kenya, Indochina, and Algeria. The United States also learned from the Nazi SS and other fascist death squads who battled partisans and carried out mass murder and genocide during World War 2. These fascists were recruited by the Americans after the war. Many were founding members of US </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Special Forces</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. War crimes were an extension of policy</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> part of the science of psychological warfare.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Cuba’s revolution inspired panic in Washington that other countries in Latin America might follow the Cuban example. Soon plans were under way to train a proxy army of Cuban exiles to invade. Training camps were built in Florida and Louisiana as well as in Nicaragua and Guatemala. The CIA went directly to President Ydigoras and he agreed to host the training camps without even asking the military high command. The military was cut out of it’s share of the bribe and the camps were built on the land of Robert Alejos who had worked for both the CIA and United Fruit in the past</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> later becoming part of a massive drug smuggling ring. These foreign bases in Guatemala offended the nationalist pride of the army. On </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">13 November</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> 1960 there was a military uprising involving 120 officers and 3,000 soldiers at Ft Matamaros in Guatemala City (Where Arbenz’s uprising had begun) and at Zacapa base and Puerto Barrios. Ydigoras asked the Americans to intervene and the CIA had the Cuban exiles repaint their planes with Guatemalan air force insignia and begin bombing the rebelling troops. Eisenhower also sent in the US navy to patrol the coasts. The uprising was quickly </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">crushed but it included future g</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">uerrilla leaders both US trained ironically Marco Aurelio Yon Sosa and Luis Turcios Lima who had attended ranger school at Ft Benning Georgia. In 1962 they would return from exile launching an unsuccessful offensive that inspired massive demonstra</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">tions and strikes in Guatemala C</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ity. In March of 1962</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">20 student demonstrators were killed further enraging the populace and soon 3 political parties including the far right MLN were demanding Ydigoras resign</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ation. The s</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ame month Ydig</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">oras replaced his entire cabine</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">t</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> except the Foreign Minister</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> with military officers. While all this was going on the CIA, the Pentagon and OPS (Office of Public Safety) were busy restructuring Guatemala’s intelligence, military, and police along COIN (Counterinsurgency) lines. Their Guatemalan point man for these changes was Ydigoras’ </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">d</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">efence</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> m</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">inister Colonel Enrique Peralta Azurdia who was a deep believer in COIN having served 2 years on the Inter-American Defense Board in Washington</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> DC. By the Summer of 1962 the g</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">uerrillas had been crushed while the US embassy was working on an Internal Defense Plan which called for increased centralization and coordinatio</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">n between intelligence, p</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">olice and military and the creation of an intelligence agency out of the president</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">’</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s office that would combine the powers of the CIA and NSA and run the dirty war. The same request had been made of the US Embassy in El Salvador (and embassies around the world) and they came up with nearly identical solutions leading to a similar bloodbath.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> The g</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">uerrillas had been crushed but Ydigoras was still wildly unpopular</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Moreover</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">, h</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">e had agreed to let ex-President Arevalo return from exile to run for president. In January 1963 a team of military advisers on a fact finding mission declared that the threat of insurgency was over. In January 1963 </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">the JFK administration authorised</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> a coup against Ydigoras. Arevalo returned from exile </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">on 29 March </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">1963 and the next day Ydigoras awoke to discover tanks on his lawn. He had been overthrown by his Defense Minister Peralta Azurdia who had been in charge of restructuring the security services along the lines suggested by his American advisers. In fact they had used this fact to help finance the coup and after the coup sent a massive increase in MAP (Military Assistance Program) funds and OP</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">S funds. After the coup the US State D</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">epartment even bragged that by preventing the election of Arevalo they had achieved the primary goal of the internal defense plan. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Peralta Azurdia was declared Chief of State instead of President and the constitution was immediately suspended. His main goal was to completely restructure intelligence agencies, military and police along the lines set forth by the latest in US counterinsurgency doctrine. Further Guatemala was integrated into CONDECA (founded in 1964 and part of the OAS) a Central American precursor to South America</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">’s Operation Condor of the 1970s and 1980</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s. A surveillance net cover</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ed the whole region with state-</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">owned (and military controlled) telecoms like Guatemala’s GUATEL listening in on every phone call, supplemented by American listening posts. Panama was the key US base of operations in Central America home to FT Gulick and the School of the Americas where countries like Guatemala and El Salvador sent their military to train COIN specialists. Panama was also where special forces like Guatemala’s Kaibiles were taught to carry out atrocities beginning like serial killers with torturing animals, </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">and then</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> witnessing torture of humans before carrying it out themselves. Panama was also home to US airbases whose planes would secretly bomb Guatemala and napalm villages during the dirty war.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Under the dictator Peralta Azurdia Guatemala’s security system was completely reshaped so that it could continue to carry on the dirty war no matter who was elected president. Nonetheless the military would only allow two civilian presidents over the next 25 years preferring to hand power to hand picked officers via fixed elections. Acting on US advice Peralta Azurdia created a Presidential Intelligence </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Agency, which combined the powers of the CIA and NSA directing the dirty war,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> and using a US supplied computer network to keep the entire country under surveillance. They were in charge of the most high profile political assassinations and cases of kidnapping, torture and murder of the disappeared. It would change names being known as the Estado Mayor, or “La Regional.” The National Police also had their own centralized intelligence </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">centre</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> known as the “Box.” This centralization of intelligence also made it easy for the CIA and US MILGRP (The US Military mission) to secretly help coordinate the coming decades of dirty war as they worked daily alongside the Presidential Intelligence Agency allowing them to control things from the top. Information from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Labour</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> was </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">funnelled</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> into this centralized intelligence hub and used to draw up death lists of teachers, union leaders, cooperatives members and others. Peralta Azurdia immediately brought back the black list of the Armas years with much more deadly results.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Since the role of the Military and Police would crystallize under Peralta Azurdia this is a good time to describe the structures that would remain in place well</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> into the 1990’s. The military’s</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> intelligence branch G2 or S2 operated out of every military region and reported directly back to their G2 superiors rather then base commanders. They ran networks of informants and organized kidnap torture and disappearances with extreme brutality. They were the brains behind the dirty war. They also supervised the torture. The military was responsible for the vast majority of the killing and conscripts were expected to execute anyone they deemed a “suspicious” character on sight. They underwent 3 months of abuse and brainwashing after being basically kidnapped. The system of military conscription operated through kidnapping raids the military would surround a market or a village and seize any male from ages 15 to 21. Anyone capable of paying a small bribe was exempt so it was poor Indian peasants who made up the majority of conscripts. After their 3 months of torture brainwashing and forced Ladinoization (</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">they were taught S</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">panish via beatings) they were always assigned away from their home regions so that their Indian victims</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">would speak a different Mayan </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">language. The tiny officer corps in contrast was made up of Ladino’s who had passed through a series of military academies. For them the military was a road to riches as the military gained increasing control of some sectors of the economy and were invited to serve as partners in enterprises owned by rich Guatema</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">lans. Special forces and other c</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ounter-Insurgency specialists like the Guatemalan rangers were increasingly the elite </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">of the military. Trained by US Special F</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">orces in Panama, the US or in Guatemala the special forces called Kaibiles were trained to commit unspeakable atrocities as part of psychological warfare, counter-terror, and counterinsurgency warfare. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> The military was sometimes resistant to giving the police a greater role in the dirty war because of old rivalries, as a result the US advised them to create a mobile military police the PMA who would play the role of special police during the dirty war. They would terrorize the countryside cordoning off areas and conducting sweeps for subversives. Peralta Azurdia transformed the role of military commissioners</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. N</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ow in addition to overseeing forced conscription raids they were armed and empowered to create auxiliary military commissioners. The military commissioners were responsible for being the eyes and ears of the military making up lists of subversives. Increasingly they used their network of auxiliary military commissioners as death squads in the countryside killing torturing and disappearing any peasant standing up for their rights. The military commissioners usually recruited MLN party members </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">of </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">the increasingly fascist party the CIA had created for Armas during the 1954 coup. To carry out death squad killings and high profile assassinations the military used “confidenciales”</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. These were troops</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> secretly requested from regional commanders who were sent to the capital for a couple of months to carry out assassinations requiring an extra layer of plausible deniability and then returned to their provinces. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> The National Police were the main Guatemalan police force. US OPS advisers helped them strengthen their investigative divisions so they could be used</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> to hunt down subversives. The d</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">etective corps of the </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">National P</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">olice carried out most of the torture and killings. The police had their own off the books force the rebajados</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. P</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">olice who got into trouble were forced to serve as rebajados paid out of the </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">informants’</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> budget</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. T</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">h</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ey carried out killings targeting</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> not just subversives but common criminals. Slum areas became dumping grounds for corpses of petty criminals and vigilantes were blamed for these police killings. Sometimes union leaders were killed by these “Vigilantes” and the police would manufacture a phony criminal record of the victim. Also murdered were people in jails, often buses transferring prisoners between prisons were stopped and prisoners were murdered or prisoners were murdered upon release. OPS advisers also helped set up a counter-terror strike team commando six aka SWAT that was used to raid Guerrilla safe houses as well as arresting subversives and policing demonstrations. They would later be responsible for the infamous massac</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">re of sit in protestors at the S</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">panish embassy in 1980. In addition to the National Police there were also the Treasury police and the Judicial Police both of whom served as political police and death squads renowned for their brutality</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> a role they had played since Ubico’s time.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> The final element in the new security structure was the creation of paramilitary death squads. Fascist MLN members were recruited into paramilitary death squads. However civilian death squads in Guatemala existed merely to provide plausible denial for the military and the police who were the ones actually responsible for vast majority of the killings and disappearances. Death squads were blamed even when the military and the police had quite openly arrested the victim wearing their uniforms and the victims had been taken to the nearby military base or police station for rape, torture and dismemberment. They were a tool of psychological warfare adding to the confusion and terror. The death squads were the brainchild of the CIA and American Special Forces who talked quite openly of the need to terrorize the populace while maintaining plausible denial through the creation of paramilitary forces. They appeared in Guatemala just prior to the election of 1966 publishing manifestos and death lists threatening to target anyone they considered subversive. MANO Blanca was the most infamous one</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">.</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">T</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">here was also CEDAG and host of other names for the same group that was secretly controlled by the military. The plausible denial provided by de</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ath squads</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> had a further advantage it allowed the Guatemalan press to magnify the terror felt by the populace by filling their papers and magazines with horrifying photos of the killings designed to terrorize even illiterate “readers” while at the same time hiding the role of the military and police in the killings. Any journalist, politician or activist who dared to point out the connection between the military and the police with the killings was likely to end up dea</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">d. The MLN political party was headed by</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Mario Sandoval Alarcon, </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">a former CIA stu</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">dent leader in CIA backed CEUA </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">(Committee of Anti-Com</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">munist University Students) </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">would later become infamous as the “Godfather of the Death Squads” mentoring Roberto D’Aubuisson in El Salvador and helping to create the Nicaraguan contras. Mario Sandoval Alarcon was also the head of the Guatemalan branch of the World Anti-Communist League with close ties to Taiwan. Many in the Guatemalan military would be sent to Taiwan to study political warfare. MLN bragged that it had a paramilitary force of 3000 men and was also happy to take the credit or the blame for the wave of death squad killings.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> In his three years in office Peralta Azurdia was able to reshape the military and police into an efficient killing machine, linked by modern communications thanks to American OPS advisers like Alfred Naurocki who set up the communications systems for the militaries throughout Central America as well as in the Dominican Republic and Jamaica. In 1965 Peralta Azurdia created a new constitution founded on anti-communism. In 1966 he decided to hold elections and restore the democratic facade. It was a complete farce the left wing backed candidate Mario Mendez Montenegro was assassinated. His brother Julio Cesar Mendez Montenegro ran in his place but wa</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s forced to sign a secret nine-</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">poi</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">nt pact with the military</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> terms </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">of which </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">included complete military independence from civilian control, no negotiations with “subversives” to end the war, and complete immunity for all crimes committed during Peralta Azurdia’s reign. All the candidates were forced to sign this agreement. The military took no chances on any negotiated settlement</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. S</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">hortly before the election over 28 of the top communist party and </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">labour</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">leaders were arrested and disappeared eliminating anyone in a position to negotiate an end to the war. It was called</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Operation Cleanup and owed its</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">success to OPS adviser John Longan. Longan a police adviser had been assigned to Guatemala back in 1957 as part of the first wave of advisers then rotated to various hotspots like Brazi</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">l and the Dominican Republic and</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> returned in 1965 to set up a police intelligence unit and strike force. He taught them the “frozen area” method cordoning off a few block radius and conducting </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">house-to-house</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> searches. This culminated in a series of raids where left wing leaders were arrested tortured and forced into giving the locations of their leaders. It became known as the “Case of the 28” although the actual n</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">umber of victims was higher. It</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s victims included Victor Manuel Gutierrez a former congressman and leading PGT leader in Arbenz’s time and Leonardo Castillo Flores who had founded Guatemala’s first peasant federation back in Arbenz’s time. Gutierrez died of a heart attack w</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">hile he was being tortured. All of them were</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> tortured</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> murdered and disappeared. Needless to say the American embassy helped mastermin</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">d this whole episode. When the u</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">niversity student Union AEU investigated their disappearance and exposed their perpetrators they were hunted down and forced to go underground.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> The left wing candidate Mendez </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Montenegro</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> won the election and was inaugurated July 1966. He was powerless to carry out his promises to end police torture or negotiate an end to the war. Instead he became completely silent on the ev</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">er-</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">escalating brutality that even targeted his political party. </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">The real power was held by his defense m</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">inister Colonel Arriaga Bosque Mendez. Bosque Mendez appointed Colonel Carlos Arana Osorio as commander of the Zacapa Izabal military zone. Col. Arana Osorio had served for 2 years in Was</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">hington DC as a military attaché</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> and was a COIN specialist. The Zacapa zone was to become the laboratory of counterinsurgency warfare</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. O</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ver 1,000 </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">American troops mostly Special F</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">orces arrived there to train Colonel Arana Osorio’s troops and secretly taking a direct role in the combat. American bombers also flew out of Panama napalming villages believed to be sympathetic to the guerrillas. This covert war occurred </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">at the height of the war against Vietnam</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> and so is almost completely unknown in the US</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. S</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">imilar wars were taking place around the same time in Colombia and Peru</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> which are still largely unknown. Colonel Arana became known as the Butcher of Zacapa and he and other officers who worked closely with CIA and Special Forces in Zacapa became known as the Zacapa group. The Zacapa group included Col Arana Osorio, Kjell Laugerud, Romeo Lucas Garcia, and Mejia Victores. They would dominate the presidency throughout the dirty war rotating through the post of Defense Minister to President. Zacapa was where the scorched earth tactics</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the massacres, the death squad killings, torture, rape and murder rapidly escalated and then spread across the country. The Zacapa campaign began in October of 1966. In November of 1966 a state of siege was declared nationwide all civil rights were suspended and strict press censorship of the Zacapa campaign and death squad killings were instituted.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> The Zacapa campaign was successful in crushing the FAR guerrillas in the countryside although their defeat</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> in the 1960</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s only lead to the creation of n</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ew Guerrilla groups in the 1970</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s like EGP (The Army of the Poor) and ORPA who established even broader popular support especially among the Maya Indians. The poverty and misery that the US had imposed on Guatemala by overthrowing Arbenz continuously lead to more revolutionary discontent. Guatemalan planters began to set up sugar and cotton plantations</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> dispossessing peasants of their lands and transforming them into seasonal </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">labourers</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> who lived a miserable existence in shacks poisoned with pesticides. Both crops destroyed the future fertility of</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the soil in exchange for short-</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">term profits for the planters while the real winners were hu</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ge American agribusinesses that</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> sold them fertilizer. The dirty war targeting unions, activists, and even church lay workers and priests made non-violent resistance more dangerous then ar</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">med resistance. It also </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">fuelled</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">a desire for revenge. In December of 1967 a former Miss Guatemala known for her left wing views</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Rogelia Cruz Martinez was kidnapped raped, tortured, and murdere</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">d her body dumped in Guatemala City. On 16 January </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">1967</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">, the g</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">uerrillas struck back machine gunning a truck carrying US military advisers</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">, killing the </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">head of the US military mission Colonel John D. Webber and Nava</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">l attaché</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Lieutenant Commander Ernest A. Munro. The attack was masterminded by the son of one</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> “The 28” Castillo Johnson</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> son of Castillo Flores. He also tossed a grenade at a military base before being gunned down. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Interestingly “Strategy of Tension” architect Yves Guerin Serac was also serving as an advise</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">r in Guatemala in the late 1960s. He was an ex-F</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">rench paratrooper and OAS terrorist part of Operation Gladio (He ran the Portuguese branch Aginter Press)</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. O</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ne definite and one possible “False Flag” attack took place in Guatemala although of course his presence could </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">have been</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> a coincidence</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. H</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">e may merely have been training death squads or advising on counterinsurgency. His partner in crime and fellow GLADIO terrorist Stefano Delle Chiaie would also serve as advise</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">r in Guatemala in the late 1970s and early 1980</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s while working for Argentine intelligence. In any case Guatemala did suffer a false flag attack</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. T</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">he military kidnapped right wing Archbishop Mario Casariego on </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">16 March</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">1968 and tried to blame FAR guerrillas. He escaped and exposed the military role and Col. Arana Osorio was sent into “exile” as Ambassador to Nicaragua. In August of 1968 Ambassador Gordon Mein was killed dur</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ing an attempted kidnapping by g</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">uerrillas. Later a </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">whistle-blower</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> came forward implicating the military. Ambassador Mein had warned his superiors that he felt the military was plotting to kill him and the Ge</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">rman ambassador Von Speti. The g</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">uerrillas did not deny involvement but they may have been tipped off to Mein’s location by the military. Von Sp</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">eti was later kidnapped on 31 March</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> 1970 and then killed when the government refused to negotiate. The Mein kidnapping served to justify an increase in US aid and a wave of death squad killings in the city soon followed.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> On 1 March</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> 1970</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Col Arana Osorio was elected president because no opposition candidate who had a popular following was allowed to run and in the countryside military commissioners threatened to burn villages that did not vote for the MLN. He was inaugurated in July 1970 and a wave of death squad killings swept the capital. He expanded the dirty war throughout the country</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. T</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">orture and murder were rampant. In 1973 he picked as his successor his defense minister Kjell Laugerud another veteran of the Zacapa campaign. His opponent General Rios Montt won the 1974 election but Laugerud stole the election. Rios Montt was forced to go into exil</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">e in Spain as a military attaché</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> when he complained. Laugerud’s </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">specialty was the civic action side of c</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ounterinsurgency the winning of hearts and minds. Thus he initially pret</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ended to support the </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">labour</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> and c</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ooperatives groups during the 1974 election and early in his term. In reality it was a sinister ploy to find out who the leaders were so they could be eliminated. While publicly supporting cooperatives the Laugerud regime murdered hundreds of their leaders at the same time. There was a slight decrease in the number of killings in Laugerud’s first two years in office at the same time the power of unions and social movements began to grow. Laugerud was forced to drop his tolerant facade and the number of killings began to rise. This coincided with the catastrophic earthquake of 1976</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">, dubbed an A-</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">class quake</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> as the rich emerged unscathed while 22,000 poor people died</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">, 77,000 were injured and</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> hundreds of thousands homeless</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> were made homeless. The poor lived in fragile </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">shantytowns that had been built on what little unoccupied land they could find in Guatemala city which was ever expanding as people were forced to flee the war in the countryside or driven to the city by the ever unfolding economic catastrophe. Laugerud responded to the natural disaster by unleashing the death squads while the people were increasingly radicalized and demanding action to provide food and housing. Foreign NGO’s and missionaries descended on the country like vultures in the wake of the disaster. An evangelical cult</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the Church of the Word based in Eureka, California arrived and in 1978 future president Rios Montt joined thei</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">r church. American Evangelical C</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">hristians would later play a key role in the dirty war</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. They were invited in</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">to war zones to convert the refugees from the massacres as a way to combat liberation theology. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Another dangerous legacy of the Laugerud years was the increasing alliance between fascist Guatemala and Israel. Laugerud had first visited Israel back in 1971. In 1974 upon coming to power he sent a delegation of military men to ask for counterinsurgency assistance. Soon Israel was sending weapons, mercenaries, and advisers to Guatemala and they would help design the plan for the coming genocide, help set up model villages turning them into cash crop exporters employing slave </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">labour</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. Israel’s security assistance o</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ften operated under cover of it</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s agricultural and development advisers and of course Counterinsurgency and development are always deeply entwined. Israel would update the Guatemalan intelligence computers in the 1970’s teaching the Guatemalans new tricks like monitoring utilities consumption to discover guerrilla safe houses. Israel provided planes, and guns and the Israeli Galil and Uzi became the standard weapon of the Guatemalan forces. Over half the victims of the genocide of 1981-1983 were killed with Israeli weapons. This relationship became even more important in 1977 when the Carter Administration announce</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">d it would begin enforcing the Foreign Assistance A</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ct of 1974</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> which meant that countries human rights records had to be assessed if they received US military assistance. Guatemala, El Salvador and other countries defiantly renounced aid rather then risk criticism of their horrifying human rights record. The Pentagon however used accounting tricks to continue to supply Guatemala in the Carter years</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">, a fact hidden from C</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ongress. Israel however was left with a leading role in Guatemala and a major role in El Salvador, Panama, and Colombia (training death squads and terrorists for drug cartels) and other Latin American countries.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> In 1978 Laugerud handed power via a fixed election to yet another member of the Zacapa group his defense minister General Romeo Lucas Garcia. On </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">29 October</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> 1978</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the Panzos Mass</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">a</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">cre occurred</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> in which</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> 78 peasants protesting for land rights and demanding an end to the killings by the military were massacred and 25 survivors were also machine gunned by helicopters as they fled. 6 Survivors managed</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> to make it to Guatemala C</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ity winning the support of the PGT, unions and activists leading to massive demonstrations in support. President Lucas Garcia would ruthlessly set about eliminating even the moderate opposition death squad killings skyrocketed. His brother General Benedicto Lucas Garcia would oversee the start of the genocidal extermination campaign launched against the Maya Indians in the highlands. In 1979 the American Security Council sent General John Singlaub (CIA/Special forces) and Daniel O. Graham former head of the DIA to Guatemala with a secret message from candidate Reagan that he would resume military aid to Guatemala. Wealthy Guatemalans </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">funnelled</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> illegal campaign funds that helped get Reagan elected along with a series of machinations i</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ncluding the October Surprise </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">by the CIA and ex-CIA loyal to former DCI an</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">d future President George H.W. </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Bush. Reagan was unable to overcome congressional opposition to a massive increase in military aid until 1985. However the Reagan Administration did find loopholes and technicalities allowing them to send weapons and advisers. More importantly his administration was </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">willing to constantly conceal</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> what w</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">as happening in Guatemala. US</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> moral support meant Guatemala was fr</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ee to carry out the genocide that </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">began in fall of 1981 and continued into 1983.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> The Reagan administration backed the coup in 1982 that would overthrow Lucas Garcia and inst</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">all Rios Montt, the evangelical C</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">hristian</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. That</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> made Montt very popular with Reagan’s Christian Right supporters</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">, </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">like Pat Robertson. They also provided a loophole to provide aid to fascist Guatemala</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. F</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ood and medica</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">l supplies were donated by the Christian R</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ight and transported free by the US military. It was part of a little known program that existed worldwide thanks to a law that had the military provide free transportat</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ion and logistical support for C</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">hristian right</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">-wing</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">NGOs. It</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> was one of many ways that the C</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">hristian right had made itself part of global counterinsurgency war the US was waging on the planet. The food along with UN food aid was then used as a weapon of war in Rios Montt’s “Beans or Bullets” campaign. Indians who surrendered to the military were fed living in virtual slavery</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> doing forced </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">labour</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> building roads so the military could massacre more villages and in constant danger of being tortured and killed. Every other Indian was to be killed. Televangelist Pat Robertson organized the massive project Love Lift</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> which raised millions for food “aid” to be used in this campaign of slavery and genocide. They were also encouraged to send mis</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">sionaries to the war zone many I</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ndians converted in hopes that they would be spared by the military and in exchange for food and medicine. Some missionaries actively participated in torture and acted as advisers in the dirty war. Yet again Guatemala had been the laboratory of imperialism</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. Back in the 1930</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s Ubico had welcomed SIL the Summer Institute of Linguistics to Guatemala where they first tested their strategy of learning Indian languages so that they could create a bible in that language and convert</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">the Indians. SIL soon joined</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> with Nelson Rockefeller and the CIA converting Indians and helping to control them as they were wiped out across Latin America. Ironically the SIL converts of th</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">e 1930</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s were also being w</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">iped out in the 1970s and 1980</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s because they were Maya Indi</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ans. Now in the 1970s and 1980</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> with </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">the need to wipe out left wing C</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">atholic activists</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">, American style fundamentalist C</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">hristianity was heavily promoted in Guatemala as an alternative to any social reform. By 1992 over 30% of the </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">country had become evangelical C</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">hristians.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> The genocide of 1981-1983 followed three stages. First there was selective terror</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">:</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the military and police would kill community leaders, lawyers, doc</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">tors, village elders, Maya spiritual leaders, C</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">atholic priests and lay members, </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">labour</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> leaders </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">and </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">mayors. The goal was to destroy any</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">traditional social cohesion that could rival</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> total military rule. In cities and Ladino areas things never moved beyond selective terror. 50,000 people were “disappeared” in Guatemala. Sometimes a victim would receive death threats for years before finally being disappeared. They were arrested at home, at work or at checkpoints. Women were often raped in front of their families before being taken off to the secret prisons set up in churches</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> schools and on every military base and in every police station. The victims were often kept in the Guatemalan version of Vietnamese “Tiger Cages” holes were dug</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> filled with water and sewage and covered in a tin roof that trapped the heat often they were forced to share these holes with other prisoners. They spent the first day starving in the sweltering heat constantly struggling to keep from drowning. Then they were pulled out of the hole for hours of torture usually wearing hoods filled with insecticide or lime. They were beaten, burned with cigarettes, raped, electric shocked, suffered, dental torture, drowned, and were mutilated with knives. Then they were killed or thrown back in the holes. Most were eventually killed but some were released so they could spread the story of the fate awaiting subversives. The survivors were often physically and psychologically crippled for life reliving the horror every night in nightmares. The mutilated corpses of the executed were dropped in public places or on their families doorsteps often with notes attached describing in detail the torture they suffered. Others were simply shot as the Guatemalan military conducted tens of thousands of extrajudicial executions. Other killings were far more gruesome as the Guatemalan military loved to slice people up with machetes and “Kill them slowly” was one of their </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">favourite</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> mottos. They had a dark sense of </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">humour</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> some victims were crucified</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">;</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> others impaled and buried the way one would barbecue a cow. In Indian areas the military loved to stage murders that wou</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ld desecrate Mayan shrines and C</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">hristian churches.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> The second phase of the genocide was mass terror</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> which meant massacres</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">:</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the phase when the genocide proper took place. Villages were bomb</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ed with napalm and then machine-</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">gunned</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. T</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">hen the troops arrived surrounding the village with orders to kill anything that moved. Residents were shot, chopped to pieces with machetes, </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">and burned</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> alive in their homes, tortured, raped and killed. Crops, were de</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">stroyed, livestock killed, and </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">wells poisoned. Often since the military knew it was dealing entirely with unarmed civilians they decided to take their time with the massacre and enjoy themselves. Upon arriving they would demand a cow to barbecue. They would separate the villagers into 3 groups men, women, and children. The children were killed first</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. T</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">he military seldom wanted to “waste bullets” so instead</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> they were picked up by their legs and had their brains bashed in, or had their heads bashed in with hammers or were thrown down wells. The rest of the village listened helplessly while they were slaughtered. Then the women were raped</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. Afterward they were</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">hacked up with machetes. Finally the men were killed with machetes, beaten to death or shot. The massacre often lasted for two days and the soldiers would get drunk and feast on the barbecue it was all a big party. They stole anything of value in the village</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> another perk. Between 200,000 and 300,000 people were killed in Guatemala’s dirty war and the massacres exclusively targeted the Indians. Hundreds of villages were destroyed and between 500,000 and 1.5 million people were turned into refugees. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> The third phase of the genocide was the reorganization. Israel helped design this strategy so it bore a certain resemblance to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Once one Indian village had been massacred the </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">neighbouring</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> villages would flee. The military would then arrive to burn their crops and destroy their homes. Fleeing </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">genocide</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> was considered a sign of disloyalty. Survivors of massacres as well as those who fled from nearby massacres were hunt</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ed with helicopters and machine-</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">gunned. Many were massacred as they tried to leave the country</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. E</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ven once they had fled the country the military sent secret missions to kill refugees in refugee camps across the borders. Those who tried to relocate to other parts of Guatemala were targeted because of their Indian dress and often killed. Many were forced to live in the wilderness foraging for food. Eventually starvation would force them to surrender themselves to the military in exchange for food. They were promised amnesty but it was a lie</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. O</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">nce they surrendered they were screened and the military would torture and execute some of them as subversives as an example to the rest. Often people were eliminated because their land had been stolen after they fled. They would spend months under the total power of the military subjected to constant threats and indoctrination forced to conduct forced </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">labour</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. They were completely at the mercy of the military for food, medicine or even blankets. Finally they would be resettled in model villages where the</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">y were subject to constant surveillance</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> and exploited to grow cash crops for wealthy planters.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> In addition to model villages the military created civilian defense patrols called PAC. This was the most sinister aspect of the reorganization phase. Every Indian male between 15 and 60 had to serve in PACs patrolling the countryside and villages for signs of the Guerrillas and recording the movements of every peasant. Villages either agreed to join the PAC or were massacred. Once in the PAC they were ordered to carry out their own genocide</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. T</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">he military might order them to execute village elders or even their own families and they were forced to kill their victims slowly with machetes. Other times PAC were ordered to massacre nearby villages. PAC members who disobeyed orders were tortured or killed. PAC members that failed to round up subversives could be tortured or killed. Often as punishment they were put in the same water filled holes used to soften up torture victims. The PAC system would be in place until the peace deal in 1996</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> keeping the survivors of the genocide under total military control. Today those who lost family at the hands of the PAC are forced to live side by side with the killers. The system of model villages and PACs had some scandalous side effects as the cash crops grown came to include opium poppies and marijuana fields guarded by armed PACs. Of course the intertwining of the dirty war and the drug trade had begun long before and would grow far worse</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. In future</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> torturers and mass murderers in the police and military joined the drug cartels. G2 Guatemalan military intelligence was deeply involved in the drug trade as was the brother of Guatemala’s first civi</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">lian president since the 1960s</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Vinicio Cerezo. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Rios Montt lasted in power only for a year. The Reagan administration had hoped that by putting in Montt they could mount a PR campaign that would fool congress into restoring aid to Guatemala. Reagan personally met with Rio</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s Montt and praised him in the P</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ress. Montt cooperated by calling a halt to death squad killings in the capital but soon replaced them with a system of arbitrary military executions. One of the goals of the scorched earth campaign had been to completely eliminate anyone living along the Mexican border and so news of the genocide soon leaked to the world press. Montt had also angered the Reagan administration by refusing to revive CONDECA and turn it into an alliance targeting the Sandinista’s in Nicaragua. Montt’s efforts to co</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">nvert Guatemala to evangelical Christianity angered the C</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">hurch. Montt had already alienated the original </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">coup backers by abolishing the j</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">unta</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> with</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> key MLN allies in it. The fascist MLN had been </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">a key backer</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> of Montt. The young officers who had launched the coup were immediat</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ely betrayed when he overruled </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">their demand for elections and an end to military rule. Montt was able to placate the coup plotters for a couple months by firing his economic advisers</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the “seven dwarfs” military technocrats</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> as</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> well as his advisers from the Church of the W</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ord. That was in June </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">19</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">83</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> when an open letter from the ex-head of military intelligence had provoked a military uprising. In August 1983 the top military commanders met and decided Montt had to go. His replacement was his defense minister General Oscar Humberto Mejia Victores.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> The new president continued the dirty war concentrating on the reorganization of the countryside and the violent suppression of dissent in the cities. He was yet another veteran of the Zacapa campaign and ruled like the many dictators who had preceded him</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. Since the 1960</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s death squads and disappearances </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">had </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">continued. Nonetheless the Reagan administration finally managed to restore military aid in 1985. However while the Guatemalan military had won the war the economy was on the verge of collapse and many countries refused to trade with the country because of it’s appalling human rights record. The Guatemalan military decided it was finally time to allow for another civil</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ian president. The CIA and the State D</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">epartment also wanted to restore civilian rule for PR purposes. On </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">14 January</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> 1986</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Christian Democrat Vinicio Cerezo was elected president thanks to behind the scenes support from the US. Cerezo had barely managed to survive the dirty war himself having survived multiple assassination attempts</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. However</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> once in office</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> he</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> broke his promises of reform. The military remained the true power operating with total impunity and the number of death squad killings actually rose instead of falling under Cerezo in his first two years. However the slow process of restoring civilian rule and ending the dirty war had begun. In reality the dirty war never truly ended but was simply waged with lower intensity.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> President Cerezo began the peace process contacting the URNG</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the joint group combining the 4 guerrilla groups FAR, EGP, ORPA and PGT. They demanded the end of PACs death squads and a purge of war criminals in the army before they would negotiate. Cerezo demanded they completely disarm before negotiations could begin. In August of 1987 a national reconciliation commission was set up which included church figures active in exposing the horrendous war crimes and human rights violations in the country. In 1990 American Michael Devine was arrested by the military and had his throat cut with a machete. The killers were CIA assets. The American Ambassador Thomas Stroock convinced his </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">long-time</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> friend President George H. W. Bush to suspend aid. Ambassador Stroock asked the CIA if they had any connection to the killing and they claiming they didn’t. In 1995 the truth would be exposed thanks to the valiant efforts of lawyer Jennifer Harbury who was married to guerrilla leader Efrain Bamaco who was “disappeared”. For years she lobbied and engaged in hunger strikes demanding answers. Finally in 1995 the government was forced to admit that her husband and Michael Devine had been killed by the same group of military officers and that they were CIA assets. Two former CIA chiefs of station in Guatemala were fired 8 members of the operations directorate were disciplined. None of them went to jail. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Back in 1990 Guatemala’s new President Jorge Serrano Elias (an evangelical) hired the PR </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">firm Patton Boggs and Blow to control the damage. E</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ventually they got House Foreign Affairs committee chair for Latin</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> America Robert G Torricelli, a Democrat,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> to meet with President Serrano who then sent him to meet with the </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">URNG. W</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">hen </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Bill </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Clinton was elected in 1992 Torricelli got the Clinton administration to back a peace deal in</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Guatemala. Having a communist </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">guerrilla</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> movement still fighting in Central America was a </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">threat to US plans to create a Central A</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">merican version of NAFTA called CAFTA that would all</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ow American corporations to loot</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the region and exploit it’s people. The URNG made the mistake of trusting the Americans who created a peace deal which enshrined the capitalist order. Serrano was forced to resign after launching his </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">self-coup</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">firing his cabinet and trying to seize sole power. He was replaced by President Ramiro De Leon Carpio as the peace process slowly went forward. Finally in 1996 newly elected President Alvaro Arzu fired 8 of 16 </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">generals and then</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> signed the peace deal on </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">29 December </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">1996. PACs were finally abolished but G2 and the Estado Mayor remained. As part of the peace deal the UN set up a truth commission to study the dirty war. Worried that the result would be a white wash the Church deci</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ded to create it</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">own report released in April </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">1998. Two</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> days after it was published, it</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s main author Bishop Juan Jose Gerrardi Contrera had his head bashed in. In 1999 Clinton apologized for the US role in Guatemala. Clinton meanwhile had already unleashed a far worse bloodbath in Rwanda and the Congo that would claim 10 </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">million lives. Less than one</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">year</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> later Rios Montt’s preferred candidate Alfonso Portillo Cabrera was elected in 2000 and the death squad killings began again. Rios Montt himself headed congress from 1996 through 2007. Neither he nor any other former Guatema</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">lan dictator was tried for his</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> crimes despite the terms of the peace deal</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> which had falsely promised justice for the victims.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Guatemala was never to know peace. During the same period 1986-1996 where the peace process was moving at torturously slow pace the destruction of the Soviet Union took place and the age of TINA began. TINA means “There is no alternative”</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. T</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">he forces of neo-liberali</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">sm </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">and globalization</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> unleash</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> chaos across the world. World War 3 “the Cold War” had become World War 4 aka “the War on Drugs”, the “War on Terror”, “the Long War”, and now “The New Cold War.” Poverty, terrorism, crime and chaos were unleashed by the triumph of capitalism leading to constant social</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> fragmentation. The solution has been</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> endless war on the planet, total surveillance, militarized police, private mercenaries, ultra sophisticated psychological warfare that weaponizes pop culture. An endless war on terror or war on drugs </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">is waged </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">using the same tactics that had created bloodbaths in Vietnam, Indones</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ia, El Salvador and Guatemala. It is a</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> phony war since the CIA controls the global drug trade and is secretly in control of the terror groups it pretends to hunt. Capitalism creates chaos and insecurity and inc</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">reasingly it</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s profits come from selling security in the form of weapons, mercenaries, security firms. “The haves” live in g</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ated communities while the have-</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">nots live in shantytowns </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">that are </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">often urban war zones. The same blueprint used in Guatemala</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">:</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> centralized intelligence, fusion </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">centres</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">, counter-terror assassination squads, militarized police, torture in secret prisons</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">, and paramilitary death squads</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> continue</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> to be used in Iraq and Afghanistan. In fact many tactics of the Central American dirty wars are being used on the streets of the US today with activists kidnapped and fascist paramilitaries working in conjunction with police to crush protests.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> It would require another article to do justice to the history of Guatemala in this new post cold war period. Guatemala became a poster child for what happens when a government follows the disastrous neoliberal advice of the Americans. The c</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ountry opened itself up for tax-</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">free foreign investment and was looted by foreign corporations. There was a massive expansion in the number of sweat shops where underage girls work 17 hour days</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> forbidden bathroom breaks</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">, and earn</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> $96 to $150 a month. They suffer systemic sexual abuse at the hands of their employers. 70% of Guatemalans work in the “informal sector” meaning they have no real jobs instead trying to survive by selling merchandise on the streets, carrying groceries, begging, dealing drugs, or selling their bodies. The poverty and dirty war forces millions to flee the country. The US war on immigrants has ex</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ported A</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">merican gang culture to Guatemala. Crime is rampant and many of the horrors of the dirty war continue</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. V</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">igilantes and gangs hack up or burn their victims alive. The torture, r</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ape, and murder of poor women are</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> rampant as is the murder of gays and transgender people. Of course it is equally dangerous to be a man or a boy. And the police and military are interchangeable with the higher levels of organized crime. G2 military intelligence in addition to trafficking drugs was caught running a kidnap ring. Indians are still being robbed of their land now in the name of mining and are being killed for resisting. On </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">5 October</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> 2012</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> 7 people were killed in the Alaska massacre. Last month Indian journalist Anastasia Mejia Tiriquiz was arrested for exposing corruption. Union leaders are assassinated. In 2018 Guatemala was the country where the most environmental activists were killed in the region. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Back in 2015 the US organized a </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">colour</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> revolution to overthrow President Otto Perez a former general who ironically was a US trained war criminal</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">having headed the notoriously brutal Kaibiles special forces during the dirty war. So much for civilian rule. Apparently despi</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">te his decade long ties to the P</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">entagon, CIA, and State Department</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> he was arrogantly refusing to follow orders and was toppled in an anti-corruption campaign masterminded by the future Colombian president Ivan Duque. He was replaced by Jimmy Morales</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> a staunch ally in Trump’s war on immigrants</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">who disbanded the anti-corruption agency. Now President Alejandro Giammatei has provoked an open revolt as he tried to slash health care and the zero hunger program that feeds poor children. An Angry mob burned down part of congress. Strangely though the left CODECA alliance of Indians and peasants are not part of these protests</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> which have more in common with the anti-corruption movement of 2015. The national police were able to crush the protests but Guatemala remains a powder keg. 60% of the country lives in poverty 60% of children go hungry and that was before Guatemala was hit by two hurricanes and the economic disaster brought by the COVID19 outbreak. Sadly Guatemala’s left was never able to recover from the dirty war or transform itself into a party capable of winning power. Unlike El Salvador or Nicaragua, Guatemala never joined the pink tide countries following the Venezuelan example. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> The struggle for Guatemala’s future continues. Guatemala might have known a very different future if the CIA had not overthrown Jacobo Arbenz destroying all hope of a better future. Instead Guatemala suffered a brutal dirty war that claimed 200,000 and possibly 300,000 lives with 50,000 people disappeared and 1.5 million people internally displaced. Their deaths were the inevitable result of the counterinsurgency strategy America continues to apply all over the world. Millions were kept in poverty to enrich a few. Chaos, misery and suffering were the inevitable result of the victory of capitalism in Guatemala, the victory of the American empire. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Sources</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Memory of Silence: The Guatemalan Truth Commission Report</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> edited by Daniel Rothenberg exposes the dirty war and genocide in all it’s horror based on interviews with thousands of survivors.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">The American Connection: State Terror and Popular Resistance in Guatemala</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> by Michael McClintock provides an in depth account of the construction of the Guatemalan security system, the dirty war, and the social movements and revolutionaries who resisted.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">The L</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ast Colonial Massacre: Latin America in the Cold War</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> by Greg Grandin provides a social history of Indian communities and activists in Alta Verapaz culminating in the 1978 Panzos massacre.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">The Mayan in the Mall: Globalization, Development, and the Making of Modern Guatemala</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> by J.T. Way is a history of Guatemala City up to 2012 showing how globalization and US backed development programs have transformed Guatemala into a neo-liberal nightmare of poverty, crime and chaos.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Israeli Foreign Policy: South Africa and Central America</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> by Jane Hunter exposes Israel’s role in providing weapons, advisers, and technical assistance to El Salvador, Guatemala and the Contras as role as their role backing apartheid South Africa and it’s wars on Angola, Mozambique, and in support o</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">f apartheid Namibia in the 1970s and 1980</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">(revised and expanded edition) </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">by Stephen Schlesinger and Stephen Kinzer while focused on the 1954 coup also provides details on the dirty war and the peace process.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Powderburns: Cocaine, Contras & the Drug War</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> by Celerino Castillo and Dave Harmon. A first person account by Celerino “Cele” Castillo of his career</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> which i</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ncluded being sent to Guatemala</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> and El Salvador where he witnessed incredible brutality and corruption. He </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">also conducted surveillance of</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the contra drug smuggling at Ilpongo airbase</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> destroying his career by trying to blow the whistle. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Thy Will be Done The Conquest of the Amazon: Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> by Gerard Colby with Charlotte Dennet. A masterpiece discussing the relationship between missionaries, the CIA, academia, and the corporations in 20th century Latin America, including the role of the Summer Institute of Linguistics in Guatemala and </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">its</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> role in genocide against Indians across the continent.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Spiritual Warfare: The Politics of the Christian Right</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> by Sara Diamond a must read book on the </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Christian</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> right in the US and it’s little discussed role in supporting US dirty wars around the world in Africa, Latin America, and the middle east the 1970’s and 1980’s including their massive support for genocidal evangelical convert Rios Montt who was praised and supported in millions in aid donations by Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and others. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Guatemala War and Revolution Part 1</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2020/10/guatemala-war-and-revolution-part-1.html"><span class="s4" style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2020/10/guatemala-war-and-revolution-part-1.html</span></a></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">My Interview on Guatemala’s dirty war and genocide</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2020/10/interview-guatemala-coup-dirty-war.html"><span class="s4" style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2020/10/interview-guatemala-coup-dirty-war.html</span></a></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">El Salvador War and Revolution Part 1</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2019/10/el-salvador-war-and-revolution.html"><span class="s4" style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2019/10/el-salvador-war-and-revolution.html</span></a></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Alt</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ernative views</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">produced</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> a shocking 2-</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">part e</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">pisode on Guatemala in the 1980</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s combining 2 short documentaries with interviews with a Mayan poet and genocide survivor and a Guatemalan professor living in exile in the US.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Part 1</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="https://youtu.be/LsuxXG4BL2M"><span class="s4" style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">https://youtu.be/LsuxXG4BL2M</span></a></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Part 2</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="https://youtu.be/lHlgXiYFMKs"><span class="s4" style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">https://youtu.be/lHlgXiYFMKs</span></a></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">An article on Israel’s role in the Guatemalan genocide</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="https://libya360.wordpress.com/2020/11/06/zionisms-bloody-history-in-guatemala/"><span class="s4" style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">https://libya360.wordpress.com/2020/11/06/zionisms-bloody-history-in-guatemala/</span></a></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">An analysis of the recent protests that lead to the burning of Guatemala’s congress</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="https://libya360.wordpress.com/2020/11/24/guatemala-why-do-social-protests-culminate-in-a-blind-spot/"><span class="s4" style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">https://libya360.wordpress.com/2020/11/24/guatemala-why-do-social-protests-culminate-in-a-blind-spot/</span></a></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">More on the protests in Guatemala</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="https://libya360.wordpress.com/2020/11/24/carlos-barrientos-there-is-rage-on-the-streets-of-guatemala/"><span class="s4" style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">https://libya360.wordpress.com/2020/11/24/carlos-barrientos-there-is-rage-on-the-streets-of-guatemala/</span></a></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Inequality and corruption in Guatemala </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="https://libya360.wordpress.com/2020/11/20/guatemala-congressmen-torture-an-already-dying-people/"><span class="s4" style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">https://libya360.wordpress.com/2020/11/20/guatemala-congressmen-torture-an-already-dying-people/</span></a></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Why people are fleeing Guatemala</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="https://libya360.wordpress.com/2019/12/26/families-fleeing-from-guatemala-a-case-of-corporate-and-state-aggression/"><span class="s4" style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">https://libya360.wordpress.com/2019/12/26/families-fleeing-from-guatemala-a-case-of-corporate-and-state-aggression/</span></a></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Guatemala’s Maya Indians face continuing repression including the recent arrest of community journalist Anastasia Mejia Tiriquiz</span><a name="_GoBack"></a></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="https://libya360.wordpress.com/2020/10/06/eternal-abuse-of-the-original-peoples-in-guatemala/"><span class="s4" style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">https://libya360.wordpress.com/2020/10/06/eternal-abuse-of-the-original-peoples-in-guatemala/</span></a></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p>Hugo Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12229123097438571385noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8001402613324067475.post-59080496907411078412020-10-19T11:06:00.002-07:002020-10-19T11:06:25.313-07:00Interview: Guatemala Coup & Dirty War<p> <a href="https://youtu.be/Fuyp0bmIZlI">https://youtu.be/Fuyp0bmIZlI</a></p><p><br /></p>Hugo Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12229123097438571385noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8001402613324067475.post-64246059084895900912020-10-07T14:32:00.001-07:002020-10-07T14:32:17.500-07:00Guatemala War and Revolution Part 1<p> <span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px;">Guatemala: War and Revolution Part One</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Guatemala could have become a beacon of hope for Latin America and the third world. In 1944 fascist dictator Jorge Ubico was forced to resign and his hand picked successor was overthrown by a popular mass movement backed by a reformist coup. The coup was carried out by Major Francisco Arana and Captain Jacobo Arbenz and the new Junta promised to restore democracy and carry out land reform. For the first time the people of Guatemala hoped that a new age had dawned. The masses of Guatemala had existed in a state of legalized slavery under Ubico and the dictators who preceded him. Now they were to be empowered to fight for a better world, free to organize to take back the lands that had been stolen from them during the 19th century. Unfortunately their dream of being lifted out of poverty conflicted with the interests of the United Fruit company which owned huge tracts of Guatemalan land, controlled the railways, the port, the telephone and telegraph</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> all obtained through bribes paid to Ubico and his predecessors. United Fruit Company born of the merger of corporate and mafia power had been able to install and remove Central American governments for decades through bribery and coups. Worse still for Guatemala the United States was secretly preparing for World War 3 (The Cold War) even before the end of World War 2 and would soon openly commit itself to destroying any movement seeking national liberation or socialism. The CIA would soon be created to carry out a secret war on the world and Guatemala would become one of </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">its</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> earliest victims. Instead of a beacon of hope Guatemala would become a nightmare of mass murder, genocide, rape and torture for decades to come</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. E</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ven today on a smaller scale the dirty war on the people of Guatemala continues.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Before the coming of the Spanish, Mexico and Central America were home </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">to </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">the wealthiest and most sophisticated civilizations in the Americas. One could spend a lifetime studying the Maya and the Aztecs their art, their complex religions, languages, medicines, agricul</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ture and world</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">views</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. T</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">heir cities </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">were </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">unrivalled</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> by anything their conquerors had back in Europe. In 1524 the conquistador Pedro de Alvarado arrived in Guatemala bringing </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">disease, war, slavery and untold destruction and misery. On the ruins was created the Captaincy General or Kingdom of Guatemala which included all of Central America as well as Chiapas Mexico and would last nearly 300 years until independence. At first the encomienda system made the surviving Indians into virtual serfs of the new landed elite. However to reduce the need to send more troops to constantly put down Indian revolts, in 1542 a reform package</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> called the new laws</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> w</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">as</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> passed and later implemented by Guatemala’s second Governor Alonso Lopez Cerrato who ruled from 1548-54. Indians were still part of a system of forced </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">labour</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> but now in the new repartimiento system received a tiny payment. More importantly Indian communities were granted </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">self-rule</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> as long as they paid their tribute, and performed their forced </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">labour</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> quota. T</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">hey </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">also </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">retained control of their communal lands. They appointed their own alcades (mayors) and police. For the next 300 years </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">there</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> were sporadic localized </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Indian</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> revolts provoked either by raising the tribute or arresting local leaders. The Guatemalan army began as city militias that could be sent out to crush these revolts</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> wreak a brief revenge murdering </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Indians</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> and burning houses</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> and then withdrawing. The Guatemalan military wou</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ld continue for centuries in it</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s role of terrorizing the countryside into submission</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. After the fall of Arbenz and it</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s retraining by American counterinsurgency advisers it would be used to wage a genocidal scorched earth campaign that would claim 200,000 lives.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Guatemala declared independence in 1821 and was replaced briefly by </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">the United</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Provinces of Central </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">America, which</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> dissolved in 183</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">8. It was dominated by Liberal w</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">arlords until 1838. Independence brought little change in the lives of the majority of the population who were still subject to forced </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">labour</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. The Maya had managed to preserve their language and culture. Central America was divided between the Liberal and Conservative parties. The Liberals were anti-clerical and wanted to transform the economy into an export based cash crop system. The Conservatives were pro-church and wanted to maintain the old colonial system. As far as the interests of the Indian majority were concerned the conservatives were the lesser evil since the liberal economic reforms meant the theft of Indian communal lands, and the Indians being turned into debt slaves of the plantations, and eventually of foreign corporations. Guatemala managed to delay this fate when in 1837 a cholera epidemic was blamed by the church on liberal politicians. This led to an Indian revolt that propelled the rise of the conservative General Rafael Carrera</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> an illiterate Indian military genius</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> who would rule Guatemala after defeating Honduran Liberal General Francisco. Carrera would rule as dictator until his death in 1865 serving the interests of the church and the big landowners.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> In 1871 two Liberal </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">g</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">enerals would defeat the conservative f</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">orces and seize power. Liberal g</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">eneral Miguel Garcia Granados would rule from 1871-1873 and Liberal </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">g</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">eneral Justo Rufino Barrios would rule from 1873-1885. They would create a modern national army (trained by a Spanish military mission</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">),</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> a modern police force (trained by Sergeant Pratt of the NYPD) and completely restructure the economy towards coffee exports. They would expropriate Indian and church lands to create a class of wealthy coffee growers. A new more exploitive and profitable form of slavery was created for the peasants. An 1877 law on farm workers created a system of debt slavery all peasants were required to carry a passbook with their debts and were forced to stay on the plantations until they were paid off which was never. An 1878 </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">v</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">agrancy law forced peasants to prove they were employed on plantations or face prison. The plantation owners had total power over their workers they could whip or imprison their workers and were free to rape any peasant woman on their estates. The military was used to enforce the new order</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. T</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">he police had actually been created initially more for show. President Rufino Barrios would die in battle while attempting to reunify Central America in 1885. His nephew Jose Reina Barrios became President in 1892 but was assassinated in 1898 bringing to an end the period of liberal “reform.”</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> In 1898 dictator Manuel Estrada Cabrera came to power and would rule </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ruthlessly </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">the country until 1920. The new police became absorbed by the secret police and became a major tool of oppression. His vast network of secret police terrorized the entire nation. Cabrera halted attempts at military modernization</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. H</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">e was paranoid that young officers might attempt to</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> overthrow him. In 1908 he was the</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> target of a bomb plot</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> which he blamed on the military academy the Escuela </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Politecnica</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. H</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">e imprisoned, exiled, and in some cases tortured and killed the cadets. In 1919 he forbade the newly arrived French military advisers from conducting any actual training. However he still managed to expand the military role in enforcing the new economic order in the countryside</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> crushing any revolts or </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">labour</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> unrest. It was Cabrera who laid the groundwork for the United Fruit Company (UFCO) takeover of the country. In 1902 he passed a tax exemption for bananas. In 1906 he signed his first agreement with the United Fruit Company giving it 170,000 acres in Bananera. In 1912 he granted control of all Guatemalan railways to IRCA Intercontinental Railways of Central </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">America, which</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> was run by UFCO co-founder Minor Keith and was to become a subsidiary of United Fruit in a merger masterminded by future </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">US Secretary of S</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">tate John Foster Dulles. In 1920 President Cabrera’s poor</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> relations with the military le</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">d to his overthrow in a military coup.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Jorge Ubico Castaneda the future dictator played a major role in the coup and was rewarded with the position of Minister of War. General Jose M. Orellana became the new President. The Rockefellers had brought Ubico to prominence when he was put in charge of an anti-malaria campaign. This </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">c</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ampaign had the dual purpose of increasing </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">labour</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> productivity by eliminating malaria and secretly to quarantine Guatemala from any influence of the Mexican revolution. It also gave Ubico an excuse to burn down Indian villages. Ubico had been trained in the United States and as Minister of War turned to America to provide training for the Guatemalan military. In 1925 the National Police and Judicial police would be created both destined to become brutal tools of oppression.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Jorge Ubico became president in 1931 ruling the country as a dictator until June 1944. According to Peter Dale Scott behind the scenes United Fruit may have maneuvered to install Ubico and other dictators like the brutal General Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez in El Salvador</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> around this time because of it</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s merger with the rival Cuyamel Banana Company run by future UFCO president Sam “The Banana man” Zemurray. In any case UFCO’s control of Guatemala would expand even further under Ubico. The Guatemalan military backed Ubico because they believed he would modernize the army but ironically by 1941 he had adopted Cabrera’s distrust of the army (with good reason)</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. I</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">t was once again as poorly trained and equipped as in Cabrera’s time. In 1932 in </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">neighbouring</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> El Salvador a brief peasant uprising lead the dictator Martinez to conduct a bloody massacre of 32,000 Indians and </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">labour</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> organizers known as the Matanza. Ubico seized the opportunity to launch his own red scare crushing the new communist party</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> executing ten union leaders and arresting hundreds of people. In 1934 he passed a new vagrancy law that reaffirmed the system of forced </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">labour</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> on plantations. He also revived a law forcing Indians to do 2 weeks forced </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">labour</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> on roadbuilding. In 1935 he passed a new municipal law that made all local government positions appointed by the central government. Mayors were replaced by Intendentes who reported to political chiefs. That same year he passed a military law making the military responsible for law and order in the countryside</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> appointing military commissioners who also worked as </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">labour</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> recruiters on plantations and had the power to draft peasants in</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">to</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the army if they refused to w</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ork for the plantations or attempted</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> to organize. He granted large </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">landowners</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> full police powers to crush their workers. He greatly expanded the role of the national police and the secret police keeping the entire country under constant surveillance. </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">The National Police read every piece of mail in the country</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> before it was delivered. He had his initials stamped into every government </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">bullet so</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> that “malcontents would carry his per</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">sonal emblem into eternity”. The G2, </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">American military intelligence</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">wrote admiringly of the tight control he exercised over Guatemala predicting that communism would never be allowed to enter the country. Politically Ubico was pro-</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">American</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> and pro-fascist</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. A</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">n admirer of Hitler and Franc</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">o</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> he allowed the Spanish Falange</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> and the </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">H</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">itler </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Y</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">outh to operate. In 1930 Ubico made a deal granting United Fruit huge tracts of land in exchange for the promise to build a port on the Pacific. He let them keep the land even though they never built the port. United Fruit owned 555,000 acres</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> 85% of it uncultivated. Meanwhile most Guatemalans had to make do with tiny plots of land provided by plantations in exchange for unpaid plantation work. Standards of living continued to decline throughout his time in office. Ubico became one of the biggest </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">landowners</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">in the country.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> 1944-1946 would see the fall of many dictatorships in Latin America. Although historians tend to view this as the last gasp of “New Deal” idealism in American foreign policy</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> I suspect it had more to do with giving Latin America a democratic facade ahead of the creation of the UN in 1945. The US control over the Latin American voting bloc would be a key weapon in the diplomatic warfare of the early cold war. The US had also made a deal with the </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Soviet Union</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> to bar pro-axis governments from joining the UN a promise it would soon break. By 1946 the surviving dictatorships like Somoza in Nicaragua and Trujillo in the Dominican Republic would be in the minority. This trend would soon be completely reversed as the US reinstalled dictators throughout Latin America training their military and police to carry out tortures massacres and “disappearances” on an industrial scale. Guatemala would become a textbook example.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Ubico had failed to modernize his army and his pro-fascist views were an embarrassment. In addition Ubico had turned down Assistant Secretary of State for </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">I</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">nter-American affairs Nelson Rockefeller’s offer of development loans a scheme to further increase the economic dependency of Latin America. Rockefeller was allowed to run Latin America as his own private fiefdom during World War 2. It was for these reasons that Ubico had outlived his usefulness to the US. In El Salvador the dictator Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez was overthrown in May 1944 leading to a brief relaxation of repression. This sparked hope in Guatemala for Ubico’s overthrow. Ironically it was Nelson Rockefellers massive Latin American propaganda apparatus the Council on Inter-American Affairs (CIAA) which helped pave the way by blanketing the country in FDR’s speeches about the four freedoms, the new deal and the fight against fascism. Guatemalan’s were also inspired by the example of President Cardenas in Mexico who had empowered unions and nationalized the property of Standard Oil.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> It was returning exiles and middle class teachers, lawyers, doctors, and small businessmen who made up the movement to overthrow Ubico. Protests began in May 1944</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">.</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> The teachers sparked off events by announcing in advance that they would refuse to march in an upcoming Teachers</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">’</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Day parade scheduled for </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">30 June</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> 1944. What </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">began</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> as a series of small</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> protests had grown by 29 June</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> into the most massive rally in Guatemalan history to date in Guatemala City. Ubico responded by sending in the </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">cavalry, which</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> killed or injured 200 protestors. A few days later 311 teachers, lawyers, doctors and small businessmen signed a petition in support of the </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">protests that</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> became known as the Petition of 311. Shocked that the middle class had turned on him and probably secretly under pressure from the US embassy</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Ubico decided to resign on </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">1 July</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> 1944. However he appointed a handpicked successor General Federico Ponce as the new President. Ponce would last only 108 days.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Ponce believed that Guatemalans merely wanted a new strongman and that things would soon return to normal. He raised teachers</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">’</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> salaries and instituted modest reforms to placate the protestors. At the same</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> time,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> he tightened control</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> increasing political surveillance and banning private meetings and public demonstrations. </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">However in late summer-</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">early fall journalist and politician Alejandro Cordova began to write a series of articles attacking Ponce that electrified the nation. Then Cordova made a fiery speech in the National Assembly attacking Ponce and was assassinated days later in early October</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> infuriating the nation. Earlier in the year Ponce had promised to hold a free election. The opposition decided to pick Dr Juan Jose Arevalo as their candidate. Arevalo had been living in exile in Argentina for 14 years as a professor of philosophy but was well known in Guatemala as the author of a number of textbooks. He was a familiar name to the teachers that had launched the protests. He was surprised to be chosen and didn’t even have the money for a ticket </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">to return</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. His supporters wired him the money for the ticket and assured him that they had already organized a political movement that could elect him. Arevalo returned on </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">2 September</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> 1944 to a hero’s welcome as massive crowds showed up to greet him. However Arevalo immediately had to go into hiding as Ponce ordered his arrest. What the results would have been of a “fair” election where one candidate was a wanted man would never be known. On </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">20 October</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> 1944 Major Francisco Arana and Captain Jacobo Arbenz launched a military uprising at Fort Matamoros</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> executed their superior officers and armed the cadets. They launched attacks on police stations and soon much of the army was revolting in support and civilians were also rising up. Ponce begged the American embassy to supply bombs for his air force but they refused. Instead on </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">22 October</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> 1944 the embassy mediated his resignation with the rebels and Ponce fled to the Mexican Embassy. As he headed into exile $16,000 dollars was confiscated from his luggage. Ubico</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> who had hoped to seize power again</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> was forced to flee to the British Embassy. This was Guatemala’s “October Revolution” in which less the 100 people died. The new Junta was run by Major Arana, Captain Arbenz, and </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">businessman Jorge</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Toriello and it announced </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">its</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> support for Arevalo. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Arevalo was elected with 85% of the vote in Guatemala’s first democratic election that December. The country adopted a new </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">constitution, which</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> included term limits, equal pay for women, a </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">40-hour</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"></span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">workweek</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">, a minimum of one day off a week</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> free speech and the right to organize but only in the cities. Arevalo was a “Spiritual Socialist” which basically meant a mild form of social democracy </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">modelled</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> on Roosevelt’s “New Deal”. He denounced communism and was pro-American. When he was inaugurated </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">on 15 March</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> 1945</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Roosevelt’s special envoy Spruille Braden initially praised him in the press. Braden would later be hired as a lobbyist for United Fruit</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> becoming one of Guatemala’s loudest critics. Arevalo appointed Major Arana as Army Chief of Staff and Captain Arbenz as his </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">defence</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> minister. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> When Arevalo became president the richest 2% of Guatemalans owned 72% of the land while 90% of Guatemalans owned only 15% of the land. 75% of Guatemalans were illiterate and 95% of Indians were illiterate. Life expectancy was only 50 years for </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Ladinos</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> and only 40 years for Indians. The average peasant made between 2 and 5 cents a day. The country was in desperate need of economic reforms. Arevalo was under constant pressure from the right and especially in danger of coup plots and threats by Major Arana. Thus he was able to carry out only </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">minor economic</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">reforms. He created a social security system in 1946. In 1947 he passed a new </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">labour</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> law that set a minimum wage and allowed for unions and strikes in the cities while still banning unions in the countryside except on very large plantations like those owned by United Fruit. However with Ubico’s repression lifted peasants formed </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">labour</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> confederations and syndicates anyways. Even under Ubico local Indian leaders had used patronage networks and informal legal knowledge to resist the plantation owners</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">’</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> forced </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">labour</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> and conscription. Now under Arevalo some Indian leaders were joining in alliance with the </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">labour</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> movement to demand reform. The new </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">labour</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> code enraged United Fruit who claimed it was being unfairly singled out. The Truman administration had the State Department begin to pressure Guatemala and in 1948 put Guatemala under an arms embargo for failure to sign the Rio Pact. The seeds of the coup were being planted with United Fruit launching a massive PR campaign demonizing Guatemala, lobbying congress, and launching a number of failed coup attempts. In 1948 Arevalo created a National Production Institute to supply credit, expertise, and supplies to small farmers. In 1949 he passed a law of forced rental allowing landless peasants to petition for the right to rent unused land from plantations at low prices. Arevalo also redistributed some lands that had been seized during the war from German planters. During the 19th century</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> while busy dispossessing the Indians</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the liberals also tried to lure in white immigrants from Europe with cheap deals on the stolen land and for a time German planters had dominated the coffee business</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> ruling over the Indians like feudal lords. During World War 2 the US pressured Ubico into seizing their </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">lands,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> as they were rabidly pro-</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Nazi</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. On the topic of fascists</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Arevalo the spiritual socialists lifted restrictions on foreign </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">priests, which</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Archbishop Mariano Rossell Arellano used to open up a Guatem</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">alan ratline for fascist</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">priests fleeing socialist countries</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> who would play a minor role in the coup against Arbenz. Arellano would play a major role.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Arevalo would survive over two dozen coup attempts thanks to Arbenz. Major Arana was suspected to be involved in many of </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">them,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> as he had become the </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">favoured</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> candidate of the rich who opposed reform. He openly threatened President Arevalo and the congress with a coup. Arevalo complained that in Guatemala there were two presidents and one (Arana) was always threatening the other with a machine gun. Arana had more influence in the military th</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">a</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">n Arbenz and was a better public speaker. Arbenz’s wife Maria Vilanova was the daughter of wealthy Salvadoran </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">planters</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> who rebelled</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> horrified at the inequality in Central </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">America</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> and flirted with communism</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. She turned</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the Arbenz home into a left wing salon. She was slowly radicalizing her husband. She was the unsung hero of the October Revolution having urged Arbenz to take part in the coup and plotting his rise to power. What role she and her husband played in the fate of Arana is still unknown but her chauffeur was widely believed to have killed him. Arbenz’s supporters had decided to arrest and exile Arana when he was inspecting an arms cache that had been discovered. As he left the town of Amatitlan he was stopped at a checkpoint set up by Arbenz supporters</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. I</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">nstead of surrendering he pulled his gun and died in the ensuing shoot out. There was a military uprising in Guatemala </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">City</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> for 3 days after they learned of Arana’s death</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. However,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> it was eventually put down. His death became a </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">favourite</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> rallying point for right wing Guatemalans. Arevalo declined to investigate his death. Arbenz would run in the 1950 election against Ubico supporter Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes and w</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">in</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> by a wide majority. To flash forward briefly to part two</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">:</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> in order to appreciate the irony of the 1950 election. After the coup of 1954 Ydigoras would later come to power in the late 50’s and provoke a military uprising by supplying bases to the CIA for the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. To quell the uprising the CIA bombed the rebels who after fleeing and returning became the leaders of a guerrilla movement. Ydigoras would be overthrown in a coup to prevent the possible re-election of Arevalo </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">by a US-</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">backed</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> counterinsurgency trained</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">military</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> junta</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. It would be </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">better</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">able to</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> carry out the dirty war that would claim 200,000 lives.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Arbenz was inaugurated </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">15 March</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> 1951. He immediately began trying to pass some ambitious reforms. He wanted to create a highway that would break the transportation strangle hold United Fruit had over the railways. He wanted to build a port on the Atlantic to compete with United Fruit’s port at Puerto Barrios. He also wanted to build a dam to supply electricity to compete with the Am</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">erican-</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">owned electric company. Most importantly he spent the first year getting a land reform program passed. On </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">27 June</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">1952</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> his land reform was passed. It was less extreme then the land reform that Mexico and the US had already carried out. Arbenz’s law expropriated uncultivated lands of farms larger then 670 acres. Farms that were at least two thirds cultivated and were between 223-670 acres were </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">exempted</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> as were all farms of less then 223 acres. The owners were compensated with bonds at the tax value of the lands. Since United Fruit had lied about the value of the lands for tax purposes it had in effect cheated itself. Arbenz gave the expropriated lands to 100,000 families who each received a maximum of 42.5 acres. Arbenz expropriated 1,700 acres of his own lands in the process as well as the lands of his Foreign Minister Guillermo Torriello. For the first time October Revolution reforms truly benefited the poor majority in the countryside. Local peasant </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">labour</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">leaders were often put in charge of implementing the land reform as they were recruited to head up land reform commissions. Two rival communist parties</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">one the</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Communist Party of Guatemala led by Jose Manuel </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Fortuny</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> and</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the Revolutionary Party of Guatemalan workers led by Manuel Gutierrez merged to form the PGT the Party of Guatemalan workers. They were energetic organizers and were one of the four parties in Arbenz’s coalition Government. Unions largely banned under Ubico exploded in membership under Arevalo and the number of </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">u</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">nions greatly expanded under Arbenz. In the countryside and the city radical forces demanding change were uniting behind Arbenz. The seeds of the “Mayan Marxism” of the 70’s and 80’s were being planted. The Arbenz years provided a brief period of prosperity for the people of Guatemala that sadly they would never achieve again. Standards of living would be lower in the 1980’s then in the 1950’s, and even today Guatemalans were arguably better off under Arbenz. This is of course putting aside the issue of the decades long dirty war and the nightmarish horror it brought to Guatemalans.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Arbenz’s land reforms were the final straw as far as the United Fruit Company and the United States were concerned. They were also outraged by Arbenz’s neutral stance on the </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">C</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">old </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">W</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ar at the very moment the US was trying to impose anti-communism as the guiding principal of </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">its</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Latin American neo-colonial empire and the rest of the world. They wanted Arbenz to purge all communists in government and arrest all communists in the country. Truman authorized the CIA to carry out a coup behind the State Departments back called PB/FORTUNE a massive shipment of arms was to be sent to Somoza so he could arm a proxy army to overthrow Arbenz. However Undersecretary David Bruce learned of the coup plot and warned Secretary of State Dean Acheson who convinced Truman to cancel it at the last minute. But Truman was soon to be replaced by President Eisenhower. Allen Dulles was promoted to head the CIA. Allen Dulles old boss CIA director Walter Bedell Smith became Undersecretary of State. His brother John Foster Dulles became Secretary of State. The Dulles Brothers had business ties to United Fruit that went back decades through their work for Sullivan and Cromwell. John Foster Dulles had negotiated United Fruit’s deals with Ubico and UFCO’S merger with IRCA (financed by the Nazi Schroder Bank to which the Dulles brothers had close ties.) Allen Dulles had been on United Fruit’s Board. Walter Bedell Smith had made a secret deal with United Fruit’s Lobbyist Thomas “Tommy the Cork” Corcoran</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">.</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Smith wanted to be appointed United Fruit’s President but had to settle for a position on the board. Corcoran was also the lawyer for the CIA drug smuggling airline Civil Air Transport (CAT) and for T.V. Soong the power behind Chiang Kai Shek and the China Lobby. Corcoran was also UFCO’s </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">liaison to</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the CIA. Two other figures closely involved with CAT would take part in the coup William Pawley as a “</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">c</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ivilian” adviser and State Department Liaison to the </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Pentagon and</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> CAT co-founder Whiting Willauer who </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">would be</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> appointed Ambassador to Honduras </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">so he could help set up a CIA air </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">force to bomb Guatemala. CAT pilots would bomb and strafe Guatemala piloting the CIA air force.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> In Latin America United Fruit had become infamous as El Pulpo “the Octopus” and </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">its</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> tentacles reached not only across Latin America but within the US as well. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> known as the “Senator from United Fruit”</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> would be appointed UN ambassador prior to the coup. The Eisenhower administration was filled with over a dozen people with close ties to United Fruit. Eisenhower’s personal secretary Anne Whitman was the wife of UFCO’s PR man Edmund S. Whitman. The Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America John Moors Cabot was the brother </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">of former</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> UFCO president Thomas Cabot. UFCO employed Edward Bernays the father of PR to manipulate liberal opinion and the press. It hired John Clements Associates to manipulate the right wing McCarthyite press. The United Fruit Company ran a press bureau and was the media’s main source of information on Central America. Bernays arranged for press tours of Guatemala carefully </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">stage-managed</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> so that they interviewed only </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">American</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> United Fruit managers. He was in close contact with the New York Times owner Arthur Hays Sulzberger who was also close to Allen Dulles and the CIA. Guatemala was portrayed as a Soviet puppet that was the first step towards the Soviet conquest of the Americas. The Arevalo and Arbenz years were the first time Guatemala had any semblance of democracy and civil rights. The media portrayed him as a brutal dictator anyway. The United Fruit Company orchestrated propaganda campaign went on for years paving the way for the CIA coup. </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">During the coup it would use it</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s rail lines to smuggle weapons.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> In August of 1953 the National Security Council’s 10/2 committee (Which supervised the covert war on the planet later known as the 5412 committee, the Special group </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">etc.</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">) authorized the CIA to launch the coup in Guatemala code named PB/SUCCESS. Frank Wisner CIA Deputy Director of Plans</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">the</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> euphemism for covert operations) together with Undersecretary of State Walter Bedell </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Smith selected</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Ambassador “Pistol Packing” John Peurifoy “The Butcher of Greece” to be the new ambassador to Guatemala. In Greece Peurifoy had worked closely with the CIA in solidifying a fascist government as it worked to crush the Greek Communists. In Guatemala he would work to pressure the military to overthrow Arbenz while cynically denying any US role in what was unfolding. He became Ambassador in October 1953. To run the coup Frank Wisner recruited Al Haney and his side kick Rip Robertson to who were responsible for running the covert war in Korea sending CIA trained paramilitaries to operate behind North Korean lines. Wisner sent Tracy Barnes to supervise Al Haney. The base of operations was in Opa Locka Florida. The CIA approached Miguel Fuentes Ydigoras the loser of the 1950 election to lead the coup. He turned them down because their terms of complete surrender of sovereignty offended him and because he wanted to protect his image back in Guatemala hoping to become president one day. However he would secretly take part in the coup having made a deal with Armas back in 1952. He suggested Colonel Castillo Armas to lead it. Armas had trained in the US at Ft. Leavenworth. Arevalo appointed Armas to head the military academy. Armas had resigned as head of the Military Academy after Arana was killed. In November of 1950 he lead a failed military uprising</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> leading 70 men in a disastrous attack on a military base where 16 of them died. Armas was arrested and sentenced to death but escaped or more likely bribed his way out. After seeking asylum in Colombia he ended up in Honduras and got $250,000 in funding from Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo. Trujillo hated Arevalo and Arbenz for allowing his enemies</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the Caribbean legion</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> to operate in Guatemala. Trujillo was a notorious sadist and racist genocidal maniac who slaughtered thousands of black people. After the coup Trujillo would send advisers to Guatemala to help train torturers and killers. Armas was also backed by the Nicaraguan dictator Somoza.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> In March of 1954 the 10th Inter-American Conference was held in Caracas Venezuela and John Foster Dulles went down to put in place the diplomatic framework for the coup. He bullied the delegates into adopting his Caracas </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">declaration, which</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> targeted but did not name Guatemala. It declared that any country that threatened to go communist was a threat to the region and that the OAS must unite to turn back the “invasion.” In other words any country John Foster Dulles </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">labelled</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> communist could be overthrown and this would be portrayed not as an offensive violation of the OAS Charter, the UN charter and international law but as defensive measure. Guatemala was still a capitalist country</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">.</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Arbenz had not seized the UFCO owned railroads, the UFCO owned port, the American electric company. He had not seized the property of the Guatemalan oligarchy. Not a single soviet or </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Chinese</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> soldier was stationed in Guatemala. But of course facts were and are irrelevant to the State Department and the American press.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Tracy Barnes hired E. Howard Hunt to run the propaganda campaign against Guatemala. Hunt brought in David Atlee Philips. They launched a massive psychological warfare campaign. They set up the Voice of Liberation Radio </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">station, which</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> went on the air </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">1 May</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> 1954</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> luring listeners with a variety show of pre-recorded clips of</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Latin American celebrities. It</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">logan was “work, bread, and country.” Their strategy was to demoralize and terrify Arbenz supporters into inaction, move neutral listeners into the opposition and motivate the opposition to join the CIA campaign of terrorism and sabotage. A key goal element was to destroy Arbenz’s support in the military by accusing him of planning to disband the army and arm civilian militias. Arming unions and students could have played a decisive role in foiling the coup plot. Transmitters were placed in Nicaragua, Honduras, and even within the American Embassy in Guatemala City. CIA radio operations were even able to falsify military radio traffic which would prove decisive during the coup</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> fooling the Guatemalan military into believing they were losing when they were winning. The US Information Agency </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">(</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">USIA</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">)</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> also played a key role in the propaganda campaign producing movies, printing 100,000 pamphlets, and planting hundreds of CIA funded stories in the press across Central America. The CIA also turned to Cardinal Spellman in New York (He would play a key role as patron of fascist </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">émigrés</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> and backer of the Diem regime in south Vietnam)</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">.</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Spellman contacted the fascist Guatemalan Archbishop Mariano Rossell Arellano who was already a bitter foe of Arbenz and a key anti-communist Ideologue who had been importing fascist priests to lecture people on the evils of communism. Spellman had the Archbishop write a manifesto demanding Guatemalans rise up to overthrow Arbenz as part of a holy war against godless communism. The CIA then printed his statement on thousands of leaflets and dropped them over the countryside. Within Guatemala city the CIA worked with a right wing student group CEUA one of who</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">se</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> leaders</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Mario Sandoval Alarcon</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">would later become notorious as the “Godfather of the Death Squads” in Central America</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> mentoring Roberto D’Aubuisson in El Salvador, helping the Nicaraguan </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Contras regroup, leading Armas’</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> political party MLN and representing Guatemala in the World Anti-Communist League. During 1954 Sandoval and CEUA led a campaign of propaganda terrorism and sabotage. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Meanwhile the CIA was training Armas tiny army</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> which was never larger then 400 men</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> but which the CIA convinced the world was 5,000 strong and recruiting ever more people. Arbenz was under an arms embar</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">go dating back to 1948 and</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the CIA and </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">US </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">State Department managed to sabotage any of his attempts to buy arms in Latin America and Western Europe. The CIA was busy planting phony Soviet Arms cache in Nicaragua and Guatemala when it learned that a Swedish freighter</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Alfheim</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> was delivering a Czech arms shipment on May 13 1954. It had been tipped off about the arms deal the year before but despite </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">its</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> massive surveillance had lost track of the ship during </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">its</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> voyage. By </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">15 May,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> it had leaked the story to the press and John Foster Dulles warned the media privately that Arbenz </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">was now</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> planning to launch an</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> offensive and seize Panama</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> an absurd lie. On </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">16 May</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Rip Robertson led a commando team into Guatemala to blow up the rail lines carrying the arms but </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">heavy rains defused the bombs</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. Within days Eisenhower had signed a mutual </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">defence</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">pact with Honduras and sent a massive weapons shipment as a cover for arming Armas forces. He sent nuclear bombers down to Nicaragua to intimidate t</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">he Guatemalan military. Through</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">out the coup plot US military forces were put on standby for a possible invasion of Guatemala. On </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">24 May</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> 1954</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Eisenhower ordered the </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">US </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Navy to search all ships heading into Guatemala. It was illegal under international law and some at the </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">S</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">tate </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">D</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">epartment joked about America having fought the war of 1812 to prevent similar treatment at the hands of the </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">British</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. Now it was the Americans harassing the British and French. By </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">26 May,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the CIA air force was dropping leaflets and warning of the coming bombing campaign. At the end of May</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Arbenz arrested a number of coup plotters while others sought asylum in various embassies. One of Armas’ couriers had defected and revealed the entire plan of PB/Success. Arbenz and his Foreign minister tried to expose the plot. The media mocked their claims as an absurd fabrication.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> On </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">17 June,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Armas finally joined his forces and they were flown in CIA cargo planes to</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the Guatemalan border. On </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">18 </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">June, </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Armas forces invaded Guatemala. CIA planes began bombing and strafing targets in Guatemala</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">:</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">small towns, the airport, and military barracks. One of the victims of the airport attack was a three old girl. Arbenz had been forced to ground his tiny air force for lack of parts and to avoid defection</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. H</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">e had no air </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">defences</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. The CIA had created a secret air force flown by CIA contractors that was the largest in Central America. It was this air superiority along with the threat of an American </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">invasion that</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> would eventually convince the Guatemalan military that the cause was hopeless. Armas took Esquipulas 6 miles from the Honduran border on </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">19 June</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. It had enormous symbolic value as the home to the shrine of the black Christ. It was the last victory Armas would win in battle. His next targets were Zacapa and the Porto Barrios where he was soundly beaten and forced to retreat back to Esquipulas. To save face he held a mass of Thanksgiving on </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">21 June</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. The day before</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the coup had another setback when CIA bombers bombed Southern Guatemala but then ran out of fuel and </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">crash-landed</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> in Mexico. Allen Dulles had to lobby Eisenhower to send down replacements</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> which arrived on </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">23 June</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">The new CIA planes went on a 72-</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">hour rampage including bombing a campus and the barracks at Zacapa. Zacapa would later become the laboratory </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">for the CIA and Special Forces </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">scorched earth strategy. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> On </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">21 </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">June </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">1954</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Arbenz had Foreign Minister Torriello attempt to appeal for help to the UN. Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold was sympathetic to Guatemala’s plight and Britain and France wanted to send in UN observers on a </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">fact-finding</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> mission. This enraged Eisenhower</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> who threatened to withdraw support in Indochina and Egypt. They quickly caved</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> in</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. The American UN ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge demand</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ed that the case be transferred</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> to the OAS of which Guatemala was not even a member. Thanks to American bullying the UN was powerless to interfere. Dag Hammarskjold cons</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">idered resigning in disgust. He </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">would later be killed by the CIA for interfering with their plans in the Congo and Indonesia. Attempts by Guatemala to negotiate with the US directly were met with cynical denials from Ambassador Peurifoy. He denied that the interests of United Fruit played any role</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">;</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> instead demanding Arbenz </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">purge</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">the</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Communists. Earlier on </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">3 June,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Peurifoy had convinced Arbenz’s military to demand he purge all Communists. When Foreign Minister Toriello mentioned the CIA bombing campaign Peurifoy denied that any bombs had been dropped. He consistently treated any mention of US involvement as a baseless attack and a reason for further hostility.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> The bombings, and the false reports of Armas victories threw the Arbenz government into a panic. The CIA had set up a sophisticated psychological warfare campaign that was faking military radio traffic making it appear that Armas forces were much larger and more </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">successful</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">then they really were. Fake reports came in reporting imaginary defeats and demanding reinforcements. The American embassy started a </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">rumour</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">campaign that the US was about to invade. Secretly the CIA was panicking about Armas lack of success. That didn’t stop CIA man E. Howard Hunt from gambling on the success of an audacious “big lie.” Three days of bombing by the replacement </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">air force</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> had completely demoralized the military as soldiers and cadets were blown up in their barracks. Hunt used the Voice of Liberation to fake a massive invasion heading for the capital in Guatemala City on the Weekend of June 26-27 giving a </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">minute-by-minute</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> account of an imaginary invasion. Armas</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">’ forces were in reality </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">still just 6 miles into Guatemalan territory. When Arbenz arrived at the National Palace on </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">27 June,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> he received news that the Americans had sunk a </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">British</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> freighter. Supposedly the bombing was carried out on Rip Robertson’s orders in defiance of the CIA but at the insistence of Somoza. Arbenz had no way of knowing this, if the Americans were willing to attack a powerful ally like Britain there was no telling how far they might go. Arbenz sent his Foreign Minister Toriello to meet Peurifoy to work out a surrender. The ambassador demanded Arbenz resign before a ceasefire could be worked out. Arbenz’s Chief of Staff of the Army met with the Ambassador to work out a coup plan. He promised to crush the Communists and Peurifoy sent him back to issue an ultimatum to Arbenz from the military to resign. Arbenz surrounded by armed men loyal to Diaz had no choice but to resign</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. B</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ut he got Diaz to promise never to negotiate with Armas. That night a heartbroken Arbenz made his farewell address which the CIA jammed. Diaz the new president made a speech promising to resist Armas and to protect the gains of the October Revolution. This outraged Peurifoy and former </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Time</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> magazine journalist turned CIA Enno Hobbing decided Diaz had to go. Hobbing went over to tell Diaz to resign. Diaz complained that he had an agreement with Peurifoy</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">.</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Hobbing warned him there was diplomacy and there was reality and Hobbing represented reality. Diaz demanded to hear it from the Ambassador. At 5 Am Peurifoy demanded Diaz negotiate with Armas and that he begin killing subversives and Diaz refused. Peurifoy wired Opa Locka to restart the bombing campaign and recruited Elfegio Monzon to laun</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ch a coup against Diaz. On </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">29</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> June</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> 1954</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Monzon overthrew Diaz while he was meeting with Peurifoy. On </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">30 June,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Monzon was flown on Peurifoy’s official plane to meet with Armas in El Salvador. John Foster Dulles ordered Peurifoy to stay behind but then changed his mind when negotiations broke down and Peurifoy arrived in El Salvador “to crack some heads”. Within an hour Monzon had formed</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> a Junta with Armas. By 4 July,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> they were all back in Guatemala celebrating at the American Embassy</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">.</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Peurifoy paid Monzon’s supporters 100,000 dollars each to resign from the Junta. On </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">8 July,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the remaining Junta members elected Castillo Armas president. He promised to preserve the gains of the October Revolution. Arbenz meanwhile was publicly strip searched and humiliated at the airport as he went into exile. Even in exile the CIA continued to hound</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> pressuring countries to deny him asylum. After wandering from Mexico to Switzerland he was forced to seek asylum in the eastern bloc living in Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union. After the Cuban revolution</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> he was invited to stay there but grew tired of hearing Fidel promise that Guatemala would not become another Cuba. Most historians claim he died accidentally</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> drunkenly drowning in a bathtub. More likely he was murdered in Mexico on CIA orders</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">:</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> held under water that was scalding hot covering his body in burns as he drowned. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> On </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">2 August</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> 1954</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> the cadets at the military academy rebelled in protest of Armas forces being allowed to join the army. They appealed to Monzon for support</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> but on US advice he refused. On </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">31 August,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Monzon</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> resigned from the Junta. The CIA game of musical chairs was over and Armas was now in charge. He resisted the efforts of John Foster Dulles to force him to arrest the Arbenz supporters and communists that had sought asylum in foreign embassies. Among them was Ernesto “Che” Guevara who had arrived in January of 1954 attempting to join the defen</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">c</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">e of Guatemala. He would escape to Mexico</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">;</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> befriend Fidel Castro and fight to liberate Cuba from American imperialism. Cuba learned the lesson of Guatemala well</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. T</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">he CIA Bay of Pigs invasion</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> model</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">l</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">ed on the Guate</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">malan coup of ‘54 </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">and advised by many veterans of that coup plot</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> would be crushed.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> On everything else however Armas was suitably obedient to his </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">American</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">masters. He outlawed trade unions, confiscated the lands Arbenz had given to the peasants and returned them to United Fruit. </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Seven</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">l</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">abour</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">leaders active on United Fruit Plantations were shot in Guatemala </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">City</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. Dozens and possibly hundreds of </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">labour</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> leaders and Arbenz supporters were assassinated. Thousands were arrested and tortured. Communism was made illegal. The CIA seized all the </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">labour</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> records to compile a massive list of “subversives” anyone that had joined a peasant confederation was put on a black list. As CIA, military, USAID, and </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Special Forces</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> advisers transformed the Guatemalan military and police into ruthless tools of counter</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">-</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">insurgency the black list became a death list. Armas brought back Ubico’s ruthless secret police chief</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> infamous as a sadistic torturer</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> back from exile. The CIA helped Armas set up the President’s National Security Council a precursor to the infamous Regional Center of the 1970’s and 1980’s that supervised the mass assassination campaign.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Armas restored the privileges the Church had lost in the 19th Century. This would lead ironically to his downfall. United Fruit had helpe</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">d bring Armas to power now it</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s rival Standard Fruit would eliminate Armas. Standard Fruit was run by Seymour Weiss</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> who ran New Orleans for the Meyer Lansky syndicate with Carlos Marcello. Weiss was the former </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">bagman</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> for Huey Long and was close to Frank Costello. After the</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> 1954 coup United Fruit used it</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">s control of the IRCA railways to make things difficult for Standard Fruit. Guatemalan gambling was controlled by Ted Lewin</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> a gangster with ties to Standard Fruit</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> who had worked closely with the CIA in the Philippines. On the advice of the Church</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Armas began to crack down on Ted Lewin’s </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">c</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">asinos. Gangster and fi</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">xer for Standard Fruit John </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Ross</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">e</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">l</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">li</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> who had made a number of trips to Guatemala the year before</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> arrived in 1957 and met with the Guatemalan military to plot Armas assassination. On </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">27 July</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> 1957</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Armas was assassinated by his bodyguard</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Rosselli’s</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> army contact Lieutenant Colonel Enrique Trinidad </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Oliva</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> was appointed the new head of the secret police. Rosse</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">l</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">li would later be recruited by the CIA to assassinate Castro and would be murdered after testifying about the JFK assassination to the House Committee on Assassinations in 1976. He was one of many like, William Pawley, E. Howard Hunt and David Atlee Philips who would be linked to both Guatemala and the Kennedy assassination. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> Unfortunately Armas death would bring no relief to the people of Guatemala. Their nightmare had only just begun. The growing of cotton and the discovery of oil would provide new economic motives to rob the poor of their tiny plots of land massacring them and sending the survivors to Vietnam style model villages. Soon the Cuban revolution and the escalating war in Vietnam would inspire an obsession in Washington to spread the techniques of counter-insurgency across the world. Guatemala would become yet another textbook example this time of how CIA, AID’s Office of Public Safety and military advisers train the military and police to wage a dirty war on. Special Forces and CIA advisers rotated between Guatemala and Vietnam setting up assassination programs and creating death squads. US military planes would napalm the Guatemalan countryside at the same time the US was waging the Vietnam </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">War</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">. As Vietnam was ending the violence in Guatemala was still escalating. The war in Guatemala would continue well into the 1990’s and continues today on a smaller scale. Part two will tell the story of this largely unknown dirty war in Guatemala that claimed 200,000 lives.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Sources</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">My main source was the classic </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> by Stephen Schlesinger and Stephen </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Kinzer</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">The American Connection: State Terror and Popular Resistance in Guatemala</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> by Mich</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">a</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">el McClintock covers the evolution of the system of exploitation and repression from the 19th Century through the 1980’s.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">The Last Colonial Massacre: Latin America in the Cold War</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> by Greg </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Grandin</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> is a study of the Alta </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Verapaz</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> region focusing on the lives of Indian </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">labour</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> leaders and revolutionaries.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Deep Politics and the Death of JFK</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;"> by Peter Dale Scott covers the ties between the fruit companies the CIA and the mafia. It covers the assassination of Castillo Armas. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">My article on El Salvador</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/el-salvador-war-revolution/5692937"><span class="s4" style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">https://www.globalresearch.ca/el-salvador-war-revolution/5692937</span></a></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">My article on the Dulles brothers law firm Sullivan and Cromwell </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="https://libya360.wordpress.com/2018/09/04/sullivan-cromwell-the-dulles-brothers-corporate-power-and-the-birth-of-the-cia/"><span class="s4" style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">https://libya360.wordpress.com/2018/09/04/sullivan-cromwell-the-dulles-brothers-corporate-power-and-the-birth-of-the-cia/</span></a></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">My article on Allen Dulles and the origins of the CIA</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="https://libya360.wordpress.com/2018/12/14/allen-dulles-and-the-birth-of-the-cia/"><span class="s4" style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">https://libya360.wordpress.com/2018/12/14/allen-dulles-and-the-birth-of-the-cia</span></a><a name="_GoBack"></a><span class="s4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px; text-decoration: underline;">/</span></p>Hugo Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12229123097438571385noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8001402613324067475.post-75920675213924442282020-09-09T16:01:00.001-07:002020-09-09T16:01:30.740-07:00Cover Up: Behind the Iran/Contra Affair<a href="https://youtu.be/ZDdItm-PDeM">https://youtu.be/ZDdItm-PDeM</a><br />
<br />Hugo Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12229123097438571385noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8001402613324067475.post-37280812738712950242020-07-13T15:23:00.001-07:002020-07-13T15:23:07.919-07:00Thy Will Be Done: Rockefeller, Missionaries & Imperialism in Latin America <a href="https://anti-imperialist-action-ireland.com/blog/2020/07/13/thy-will-be-done-evangelical-imperialism-in-latin-america-discussed-by-hugo-turner/">https://anti-imperialist-action-ireland.com/blog/2020/07/13/thy-will-be-done-evangelical-imperialism-in-latin-america-discussed-by-hugo-turner/</a><br />
<br />Hugo Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12229123097438571385noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8001402613324067475.post-35432074501433665502020-05-19T22:00:00.000-07:002020-05-19T22:00:25.530-07:00Stefano Delle Chiaie: From Gladio to Condor<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> Stefano Delle Chiaie: International Fascism and Terrorism</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> From Operation Gladio to Operation Condor</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">With special thanks to @NovaShpakova</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> The career of Stefano Delle Chiaie illustrates many of the most shocking suppressed truths of the twentieth and twenty first centuries,. He represents the second generation of fascism and was involved in many of the most infamous terror attacks of Italy’s “Years of lead.” Protected by Italian and American intelligence he was never punished for his many crimes. He was part of Operation Gladio NATO’s secret armies which waged covert war on their own countries to prevent any turn to the left. Operation Gladio conducted terrorist attacks that could be blamed on the left. Delle Chiaie was active in secret armies not just in Italy but in Greece, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium and Germany. He was a member of the infamous P2 a CIA backed secret society run by Licio Gelli that stretched from Italy to Latin America and that had recruited much of Italy’s intelligence, business, clergy, political, military, media and police leadership. Delle Chiaie’s close friends and colleagues included a who’s who of international fascism Prince Junio Valerio Borghese, Pino Rauti, Otto Skorzeny, Leon Degrelle, Yves Guerin Serac, Klaus Barbie Abdullah Catli and Joachim Fiebelkorn. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> His activities in Portugal and Spain lead him to expand his activities into Africa and Latin America. He was a key member of Aginter Press which aided fascist Portugal in it’s CIA backers in their covert war on Africa assassinating African revolutionaries like Amilcar Cabral in Guinea-Bissau. Often when a fascist coup occurred Delle Chiaie would arrive offering his services. Fascist Greece, Chile, and Argentina would all hire him to do their dirty work. He signed on with Chilean and Argentine intelligence arranging assassinations for Operation Condor exiles in Europe. When the fascist regimes fell in Spain and Portugal he headed for Latin America joining Chile, Argentina, and El Salvador’s murderous dirty wars. Finally he would play a key role with Klaus Barbie in organizing Bolivia’s infamous “Cocaine Coup” on behalf of drug barons Roberto Suarez and Luis Arce Gomez (who was named minister of the interior) installing General Luis Garcia Meza as the new president. He became a key figure linking the Latin American drug cartels with Italian Mafia of which he had long had close ties. His life should have made him one of the most infamous figures of the 20th century but instead he is largely unknown outside of researchers into the histories of Operation Gladio or Operation Condor. His career exposes too many scandalous details of the history of the CIA and it’s ties to international fascism, the drug trade and it’s role in waging a brutal world wide covert war on the people of the world involving terrorism, torture and mass murder. Writer Stuart Christie did a brilliant job of attempting to chronicle Delle Chiaie’s career back in 1984 in his book “Stefano Delle Chiaie: Portrait of the Black Terrorist” a book I relied on heavily for this article. However it was written 6 years before Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti publicly exposed the existence of Operation Gladio and the slow exposure of many details that were revealed over the next decade.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> Post war Italy would be the scene of an incredibly complex web of interlocking conspiracies. There was the CIA mafia drug connection which was laundering money through the Vatican bank. Italy was where the fascist war criminals of Europe were being smuggled out to Latin America, the middle east, Australia, Canada, and the US and a number of other places. There were the Vatican banking scandals as the church and Italy’s rich attempted to smuggle as their wealth out of the country through a series of shell companies. The masterminds behind this massive financial fraud Licio Gelli, Michele Sindona and Paul Marcinkus were also to found Propaganda Due (P2) a free-masonic secret society that recruited Italy’s elite from the business, press, military, Intelligence and police. In creating P2 Gelli was following CIA orders. Archbishop Paul “The Gorilla” Marcinkus was from Al Capones home town Cicero Illinois also the hometown of Continental Illinois Bank. The Bank was also tied into the Mafia and the Rockefeller family which became the Vatican’s business partner. The Rockefeller family was deeply involved in lobbying for coups in Latin America like the one that toppled Allende. P2 was deeply tied into fascist Argentina. Postwar Italy was the scene of blackmail, kidnapping, assassination, money laundering, fraud, arms dealing, drug dealing, psychological warfare, political manipulation, bribery, secret societies, organized crime, secret armies, all part of an interlocking series of series of conspiracies involving the CIA, the mafia, the Vatican and NATO which are far too complex to fully go into here. I suggest you read Paul L. Williams “Operation Gladio: The Unholy Alliance between the Vatican, The CIA, and the Mafia.” Of course in fairness to Italy similar things go on in most countries, however in Italy there were people willing to risk their lives to expose the truth, there were political movements that demanded answers. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> James Jesus Angleton had arrived in Italy in 1945 as the head of X2 in Italy the OSS counter-intelligence branch. One of his first acts was to rescue Prince Valerio Borghese who had headed Decima Mas or X-Mas a sort of cross between the SS and the Navy Seals. The OVRA which Mussolini had used to attempt to infiltrate and destroy the Partisans together with Decimas which had acted as an anti-partisan death squad were to form the early nucleus of GLADIO. In Italy it began as a secret army to wage war on Italy’s left engaging in beatings and killings and was used successfully to insure a defeat for the Communist and Socialist popular front in the 1948 elections. The scheme was the brainchild of Allen Dulles. OPC head Frank Wisner was in charge of setting up gladio style stay behind networks across Europe. James Jesus Angleton would be a key Gladio planner in Italy. Future CIA director William Colby’s one of Angleton’s main enemies would also supervise Gladio before heading off to supervise the Phoenix program in Vietnam. CIA man William Harvey would be sent to Rome as station chief after his failed attempt to overthrow the Cuban government. Each stay behind network in each NATO country had it’s own code name, some stay behinds had more then one name (Italy’s was also called the Rose of the Winds) and some countries had more then one stay behind network. I refer to them all as Gladio for the sake of convenience. Each countries Gladio branch was supervised by NATO’s Clandestine Planning Committee (CPC) and the Allied Clandestine Committees both part of NATO’s SHAPE (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe.) Each gladio army had secret training bases and hidden arms stockpiles which included the sophisticated bombs used in Gladio attacks. The secret armies received training from the british SAS and the US special forces. They were equipped with high tech radios that enabled encrypted communication. The CIA and MI6 were pulling the strings behind the scenes in alliance with intelligence agencies which they had set up or restructured in each NATO country and even some non-NATO countries like Austria. In Italy the Intelligence agency supervising GLADIO was SIFAR later renamed SID and then renamed SISMI.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> Stefano Delle Chiaie was born in a small apartment on the Apio Latino on the outskirts of Rome to a family of ardent fascists. He was a failed political science student and a failed insurance underwriter. He was nicknamed “Il Caccola” meaning “Shorty.” He was a lifelong fascist and by 1956 was a secretary in the local MSI branch. MSI was the Italian fascist party who’s honorary head was the illegitimate son of Mussolini full of fascists from the Mussolini era MSI hoped to win power through elections. MSI split in 1956 as even more fanatical fascists left to form Ordine Nouvo (ON) headed by Pino Rauti. The split was also to create plausible denial for MSI. In 1958 Stefano Delle Chiaie left MSI to join Ordine Nouvo. ON was inspired by the philosophy of Julius Evola who disliked the populist element in fascism admiring instead groups like the Nazi SS or the Romanian Iron Guard which he saw as an aristocratic warrior elite. Evola would inspire Delle Chiaie and his followers writing “It is not a question of contesting and polemicizing, but of blowing up everything” Evola was the godfather of Traditionalism he was allied to the most reactionary elements of the Catholic church while at the same time being a pagan an occultist and a satanist. During the war the SS Ahnenerbe had granted Evola access to it’s massive library of plundered occult texts. He was assigned to create The Order a fascist secret society. By the 1950’s Evola was a sort of guru to Ordine Nouvo (New Order) which modeled itself on the Nazi SS and had the same motto “Our honor is our loyalty.” ON sought to return to the “Pure fascism” of the Salo republic Mussolini had set up in Northern Italy after being overthrown and then rescued from prison by Nazi Commando Otto Skorzeny on September 12 1943.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> In 1960 Stefano Delle Chiaie was recruited via his old comrades at MSI to work for the Italian Interior Ministry in waging a secret war on the left and the anti-fascist movement. He left ON to found his own group Avanguardia Nazionale (AN) although he would remain close to ON founder and CIA agent Pino Rauti in the years to come. AN was funded by wealthy cement and insurance magnate Carlo Pesenti and other wealthy P2 members. Interestingly as Stuart Christie observes many of the AN funders were from the “road lobby” connected to the cement, rubber or auto industries which would lead AN to frequently target railways in their attacks. Other attacks would be planned to distract from business scandals involving P2 members Licio Gelli, Michele Sindona, and Roberto Calvi.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> Although it would never have more then 500 members AN would become infamous as the “Cudgel of the extreme right” involved in the bloodiest attacks of the era. In one AN leaflet they bragged “Before setting out our men are morally prepared so that they learn to break the bones even of somebody who kneels down and cries” In 1961 Delle Chiaie would first receive notoriety when he was arrested for removing the Italian resistance flag from the tomb of the unknown soldier. He would later order the bombing of the tomb as part of his gladio terror campaign in 1969. Early on AN was involved in beating protestors, attacking left wing politicians, bombing trade unions and communist party headquarters and spraying anti-semitic graffiti in jewish cemeteries. One of Delle Chiaie’s henchmen Antonio Alioti was involved in hacking the finger off the daughter of communist deputy Pietro Ingrao with a knife. However after leaving to join the military and returning he realized AN was merely a tool of the Italian government and began to denounce Delle Chiaie for his ties to the interior ministry. Alioti was stopped by police who planted explosives in his car and arrested him trying to frame him. When he continued to plot against Delle Chiaie he was found dead his death was ruled a suicide despite signs of a struggle. He would not be the last of Delle Chiaie’s enemies or even friends who would die for investigating Delle Chiaie or to keep them from talking.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> In 1962 Delle Chiaie and Avanguardia Nazionale were hired to provide security for MSI in the 1962 and 1963 elections gaining access to huge funds in the process. Also in 1962 the Rome Special Squad hired AN to infiltrate and disrupt protests against Moise Tshombe’s visit. Backed by Belgian mining interests and the CIA Tshombe had attempted to break off the rich Congo province of Katanga aided by fascist mercenaries from South Africa and Europe. He was hated for his role in the murder of Patrice Lumumba. The CIA and Belgian intelligence delivered Lumumba to Tshombe by plane although secretly it was the Belgians who beat Lumumba to death and dissolved his body in acid. Expecting huge protests against this murderous traitor Rome Special Squad hired AN to infiltrate and disrupt the protests supplying them with police truncheons. A minor scandal erupted and the head of the Rome Special Squad Inspector Santillo was forced to resign. Delle Chiaie however continued his rise and by 1964 he had been recruited by SIFAR (Italian intelligence which ran Gladio) was becoming known as a psychological warfare expert. He was now in on the plans for a coup plot known as Plan Solo by General Giovanni De Lorenzo it would have involved the assassination of Aldo Moro and the rounding up of all left wing politicians. In the end the mere threat of a coup was enough and the Christian Democrats convinced the socialists in government to resign. JFK who had encouraged the opening to the left in Italy had been assassinated the year before. Interestingly Delle Chiaie’s main case officer Guido Giannettini had been invited to lecture at the Naval War College in the US by one of JFK’s bitter enemies Pedro Del Valle on prospects for a European military coup back in 1961. Clay Shaw who Jim Garrison attempted to prosecute for his role in the JFK assassination had deep ties to Italy through his role in the CIA fronts Centro Mondiale Commerciale and Permindex. One of many GLADIO connections to the JFK assassination. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> In 1964 the year of the Plan Solo coup plot Delle Chiaie and his men in Avanguardia Nazionale would receive extensive training in psychological warfare, explosives and terrorism from the Italian Government. On May 3-5 1965 the CIA and Italian Intelligence were behind the Parco Dei Principei Conference where The President of the Milan court of appeals and the General of Italy’s Parachute troops (Paratroopers are deeply connected to special warfare) invited a dozen neo-fascist journalists including Guido Giannettini Delle Chiaie’s patron to discuss “Revolutionary Warfare-Instrument of World Expansion”. The conference would be an important event in the history of gladio calling for the creation of what already existed an unconventional warfare force able to ruthlessly resist any attempt at revolution ie a secret army like Gladio. The fascists instantly became known as counter-insurgency experts and were recruited into Italian Intelligence by Admiral Hencke. In 1965 AN and Delle Chiaie would launch a huge offensive against the PCI the Italian Communist Party printing up thousands of fake PCI posters several AN members would be caught posting the fake posters. They were funded by the right wing catholic group Comitati Civici who gave them 3 million Lira Delle Chiaie pocketed much of the money and bought himself some fancy new clothes and a sports car. It was around this time that the Carabinieri would hire AN to attempt to bomb PCI headquarters RAI studios and the Christian Democrats headquarters. PCI managed to discover the bombers and chase them away but the other attacks were successful. The bombers were caught and imprisoned but Delle Chiaie remained free his intelligence ties made him untouchable despite being denounced by the bombers. In 1966 Stefano Delle Chiaie seemingly disbanded AN and went underground continuing to secretly run the terror network. He traveled across europe networking with fascists in Spain, France, Austria, Switzerland and Germany. Some AN members would rejoin MSI and other fascist groups while others would later attempt to infiltrate left wing groups. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> It was during this period 1966-68 when Delle Chiaie probably first met up with the french Yves Guerin-Serac the founder of Aginter Press who coined the phrase “strategy of tension.” Guerin-Serac embodied the blurred lines between fascism, settler-colonialism, and counter-insurgency expert. A veteran of the Korean war, the French War in Indochina and the Algerian war he was a member of the OAS a secret army that terrorized Algeria and attempted to overthrow and Assassinate De Gaulle the French President. In 1962 after the failed Algerian Putsch Guerin-Serac deserted the infamous 11th du Choc Paratrooper regiment which had specialized in special warfare, torture and terrorism under the tutelage of the French 5th Bureau of the General Staff which masterminded the psychological warfare campaign in Algeria involving terror and atrocities. The 5th Bureau was headed by Colonel Lacheroy. After the failed plot to topple DeGaul Guerin-Serac headed for exile in fascist Portugal which was committed to holding on to it’s African colonies like Angola, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique by any means necessary(Portugal had begun the conquest of Africa ten years before Spain began the conquest of the “new world”). Towards this end Portuguese intelligence PIDE in conjunction with the CIA and the BND set up Aginter Press “a press service” that was to provide cover for their covert war in Europe and Africa. It’s armed branch OACI was set up by Yves Guerin-Serac, Guido Giannettini (Delle Chiaie’s patron and former Italian Liaison to the OAS) and Otto Skorzeny and recruited fascist mercenaries from around europe to fight in the CIA’s World War 3 on the third world. Mostly it recruited SS veterans, Neo-nazis and ex OAS members. Initially Aginter Press was formed to counter Cuba’s plans to hold the 1st Tri-Continental Congress in Havana which invited the peoples of Asia, Latin America and Africa to unite in solidarity against imperialism. Fidel Castro had his friend Ben Barka organize it Barka would end up kidnapped and murdered in Paris. Aginter press would assassinate African revolutionaries like Amilcar Cabral who was fighting to free Guinea-Bissau and Eduardo Mondlane the head of Frelimo and Portuguese opposition figures like Humberto Delgado. Skorzeny ran a similar group of mercenaries, arms dealers and spies the Paladin group. Delle Chiaie would become a key member of Aginter Press traveling under fake names as a fake journalists to carry out various secret missions. These included bombings to be blamed on Algeria and the bombing of the South Vietnamese embassy that was blamed on the left. Yves Guerin Serac’s “Strategy of Tension” would be the blueprint for Delle Chiaie’s terror campaign. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> In 1967 there was a coup in Greece carried out by the greek Gladio branch the Hellenic Raiding Force, the CIA and it’s greek version the KYP. It was approved by President Lyndon Johnson. The greek Junta began a reign of terror and torture. It invited Delle Chiaie’s friend and mentor Pino Rauti and he visited under cover as a journalist secretly meeting with the head of the greek military police Dimitrios Ionnidis and Secretary General of the Ministry of Public Order Colonel Ioannis Ladas and Ladas private secretary KYP agent Kostas Plevris who also ran his own fascist group the August 4 movement and advised the military on psychological warfare. Exactly what they discussed is unknown but soon Rauti and Delle Chiaie were bringing over ON and “ex”-AN members for secret training in Greece under cover of a “cultural exchange program”. Greece had it’s own CIA/KYP front fascist press agency used as a cover for terrorism called World Service. Delle Chiaie’s men were being trained to infiltrate left wing groups and on their return to Italy began to masquerade as communists or Anarchists infiltrating and even founding left wing groups. They would then carry out terrorist attacks and then turn informer giving the police names of people to round up and blame for the attacks. Perhaps the most infamous example was Mario Merlino who founded the March 22 Anarchist group conning real anarchists like Pietro Valpreda into joining. Franco Freda, and Giovanni Ventura the future Piazza Fontana bombers switched from printing the works of Hitler to printing Che Guevara and Kropotkin upon their return from Greece. Serafino di Luia would found Lotta di Popolo a fake anti-imperialist group. Delle Chiaie and his men were now tools of the Greek Junta as well as their Italian and CIA masters. Delle Chiaie’s career would demonstrate the horizontal loyalties that bound the intelligence agencies on one level and international fascism on another level. This international alliance of intelligence agencies and militaries often seeking to overthrow the civilian governments of the countries they were supposedly loyally serving and using fascist paramilitary groups to provide plausible denial.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> In 1968 Delle Chiaie and 50 of his followers were flown to the secret Gladio training base on the island of Sardinia for further training in the techniques of psychological warfare and terrorism. Also in 1968 Aginter Press came to Italy to further instruct Delle Chiaie’s men in the use of terrorism psychological warfare and explosives. In 1969 Stefano Delle Chiaie recreated AN and he was now being funded by Michele Sindona and Continental Illinois Bank headed by David Kennedy two key figures in the Vatican banking scandals. Through Sindona, David Kennedy, and CREEP member Luigi Turchi Delle Chiaie was now tied by one degree of separation to the new President Richard Nixon. Nixon had ties to fascists around the globe as he had once run the Republican Heritage groups that were the cover for CIA backed fascist emigre groups and Nixon was also close to Taiwanese and Japanese fascists. Nixon would green light the fascist coup in Chile in 1973. Nixon also had close ties to organized crime and the complex Vatican banking scandal which funneled illegal donations into his campaign. Nixon was backing plans for an Italian coup scheduled for late 1970 which was to be carried out by Prince Valerio Borghese who James Angleton had rescued from a partisan firing squad back in 1945. Prince Borghese would become another key mentor of Delle Chiaie. In order to set the stage for the Borghese coup plot of 1970, 1969 would see a massive terror campaign organized by Delle Chiaie and carried out by Avanguardia Nazionale. In the 4 years prior to 1969 there had been 50 bombings. In 1969 alone there would be nearly three times as many 149 bombings. AN would be behind the bloodiest attacks. It would also be a major year for the student radical movements and the labor movements a year of strikes and political unrest. AN would infiltrate the protests and stage provocations to justify a murderous police crackdown.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> In April of 1969 AN infiltrated the crowds of demonstrators at the Battipaglia general strike which erupted after rumors spread that the towns main employer a tobacco company was about to close. AN engaged in outrageous provocations which were then written up in the neo-fascist press which accused the workers of adopting Viet Cong tactics and in the mainstream press which hinted that these provocations had been planned by outside forces leaving the reader to assume they meant revolutionaries and not fascist provocateurs. The police responded by gunning down a number of protestors on April 17-18. The police were so out of control that parliament was debating a bill on disarming police when on April 28 1969 AN struck again in an attack bombing the Fiat stand at the Milan trade fair and the Milan central station dozens were injured. It was planned by Delle Chiaie and carried out by Franco Freda and Giovanni Ventura. Ventura later revealed he was working for the CIA. The police used the Milan Trade fair attack as an excuse to arrest 15 anarchists. On July 24 1969 again acting on Della Chiaie’s orders Freda and Ventura bombed the Turin Palace of Justice. On August 8-9 1969 AN including Freda and Ventura yet again bombed 10 different trains injuring dozens of people. The anarchist leader Giuseppe Pinelli a key union organizer was framed and would later be killed in police custody and thrown out of the 4th story window of police headquarters to cover up the cause of death. The man who framed him Inspector Calabresi who had been trained at US police academies through USAID’s office of public safety would later end up dead himself for knowing too much about gladio. On October 4th 1969 AN member Antonio Severi left a time bomb at an elementary school set to go off as the children were leaving but thankfully it was discovered in time to foil the plot. On December 7-8 the Reggio Emilio police HQ is bombed seriously injuring one police officer two AN members were arrested two weeks later in Rome but Anarchists were blamed anyways. On December 11th 1969 the Milan stock market crashed as a result of the schemes of the Vatican banking clique of P2 members Sindona and Calvi. Milan was the site of Banco Ambrosiano which played a major role in the Vatican banking scandals. The next day Dec 12 1969 to distract from this fact AN staged it’s bloodiest attack of the year a bomb exploded in the Banca de Agricultura in the Piazza Fontana in Milan 16 were killed and 48 injured. AN then set off 3 more bombs in Rome targeting banks and the tomb of the unknown soldier. A fifth bomb was discovered unexploded but it was destroyed to disguise the fact it came from a Gladio arms cache and had a sophisticated german timer. On Dec 15 1969 Pinelli met his fate. On December 17 1969 the Serpieri report by italian intelligence correctly named Delle Chiaie and Mario Merlino as being behind the Piazza Fontana bombing and other attacks of 1969. SID head Admiral Hencke supressed the report which was unsurprising as he was the case officer of Pino Rauti (Delle Chiaie’s mentor) Giovanni Ventura (Delle Chiaie’s bomber) and possibly Delle Chiaie himself. Delle Chiaie was allowed to go underground to prepare for the coup plot of 1970. It was revealed much later that CIA man Hung Fendwich was the planner behind the attacks working under cover as an engineer for Selenia a company owned by Finmeccanica which had long had close ties to the CIA. CIA operative and Navy Captain David Carrett was commander of the Piazza Fontana bombing with gladio commander Sergio Minetto. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> James Jesus Angleton arrived in Italy to supervise the Borghese Coup plot. Richard Nixon followed events closely. Borghese had personally recruited Delle Chiaie into Gladio and served as his mentor. The coup plot was code named Tora Tora and was scheduled for the anniversary of Pearl Harbor the night of December 7-8 1970. The plan was to seize power install Prince Borghese as a fascist dictator and round up and execute left wing politicians and other enemies of the state. The US navy was stationed at Malta and was supposed to arrive to signal US support for the coup as they would later do in Chile. However at the last moment President Nixon himself called to cancel the coup at 1 am. The Soviet Union had stationed their navy to resist the coup. The Italian government had learned in advance of the plot and was planning to arrest the plotters. However before the coup was called off Delle Chiaie and 50 neo-nazis had snuck into the Interior Ministry disguised as workmen then at 11:15 PM seized control of the building. He was disappointed to learn the coup had been canceled but his men stole 180 machine guns before leaving.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> The Italian public wouldn’t learn about the coup plot for 3 more months it was covered up. Prince Valerio Borghese and Stefano Delle Chiaie with 100 fascists went into exile in Spain where thanks to the Americans and British the fascist dictator Franco was still in charge despite the defeat of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Borghese and Delle Chiaie were welcomed to Spain by Otto Skorzeny one of the key ringleaders in a network of former SS men and other nazi war criminals operating worldwide in the employ of the CIA and other intelligence agencies. Skorzeny sold weapons, provided advisers, mercenaries, and collected intelligence working for the CIA, the German BND, and German big business. Skorzeny was married to the daughter of Nazi banker Hjalmar Schacht the Dulles Brothers longtime ally. Skorzeny was to become another of Delle Chiaie’s mentors and his Paladin group interlocked tightly with Aginter Press, and the secret army Delle Chiaie would set up in Spain. They were also met by Jose Antonio Giron a former Franco minister who housed Borghese and Delle Chiaie in his Villa. Finally they were met by Mario Sanchez Covisa a wealthy businessman who ran the Guerrillas of Christ the King death squad that Delle Chiaie would soon be working closely with. Delle Chiaie was soon working for spanish intelligence SECED his army of Italian fascists were formed into a death squad to wage a secret war on the Basque Separatists ETA and on the spanish left. They were responsible for over 1000 violent attacks and at least 50 murders. The most infamous was the Atocha Massacre of 1977 when a dozen left wing lawyers were machine gunned and 5 of them died. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> In addition to his activities as a death squad leader in Spain, Delle Chiaie also opened a restaurant with his wife Leda Minetti that was the hangout for any fascist terrorists that happened to be passing through. More importantly it was in Spain that Delle Chiaie began to form close ties to Latin America through those living in exile in Spain like fellow P2 members Juan Peron and Jose Lopez Rega “el Brujo” the founder of the AAA death squad in Argentina. Some say Delle Chiaie helped Lopez Rega organize the massacre of 300 left wing peronists on the day of Peron’s return from exile June 20 1973 and that he loaned him some gladio terrorists. Late in 1973 Borghese and Stefano Delle Chiaie were invited to Chile by DINA Chilean Intelligence. They traveled under cover as journalists and met with DINA head Manuel Contreras who took a liking to Delle Chiaie. Delle Chiaie also befriend CIA terrorist Michael Townley who was working for DINA after helping to supervise the fascist death squad Patria y Libertad. In the summer of 1975 Delle Chiaie snuck into Italy to meet with Michael Townley in Rome and agreed to help Operation Condor carry out assassinations in europe of exiles as well as to use his network to spy on them. Delle Chiaie’s favorite hitman the Sicilian Pierluigi Concutelli shot Chilean exile Bernardo Leighton and his wife Ana Fresno in Rome although they managed to survive. This assassination was planned at the Delle Chiaie meeting with Townley and CIA cuban Virgilio Paz who was on loan to DINA. Delle Chiaie’s men were more successful when they assassinated General Joaquin Zenteno Anaya who was serving as Bolivian ambassador in Paris in May of 1976. Ironically Zenteno Anaya was the US trained ranger commander who had captured Che Guevara in 1967. However Bolivia’s Fascist dictator Hugo Banzer ordered his own ambassador killed for his loyalty to ex-president Torres who would also soon be killed by Operation Condor in Argentina. Operation Condor was in a narrow sense an intelligence sharing and assassination program targeting political exiles. More broadly speaking it was an alliance of fascist latin american governments installed by the CIA that waged a dirty war of torture and assassination on anyone threatening the economic interests of the local eilte and the multinational corporations. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> Delle Chiaie’s prior work for Operation Condor would prove very useful because in 1975 both Franco and Skorzeny were to die, Portugal and Greece’s fascist governments had also collapsed the year before. Yves Guerin-Serac had moved to Spain working closely with Delle Chiaie. Delle Chiaie would soon be heading for Latin America as fascism was collapsing in western europe. Before heading for South America however I must first catalog the continuing series of attacks carried out in Italy by terrorists with links to Delle Chiaie. Despite supposedly being a wanted man Delle Chiaie was allowed to secretly enter Italy seemingly whenever he choose. He still controlled the gladio terrorist groups like ON and AN and mysteriously seemed to control new ones like NAR (Armed Revolutionary Nuclei) and the Third Position. Thus Delle Chiaie can be linked to the Peteano car bombing of May 31, 1972 which targeted the carabinieri was carried out by his followers including Vincenzo Vinciguerra who’s testimony would later expose gladio. 200 Communists were rounded up after the attack. In 1974 Stefano Delle Chiaie and his men would form close ties to the World Anti-Communist League (WACL) which had also been a key funder of Aginter Press. On May 28 1974 a bomb planted in a garbage can exploded at an anti-fascist rally in Brescia killing 8 and injuring 102 people. It was ordered by Delle Chiaie’s old mentor Pino Rauti. On August 4 1974 a bomb exploded on the Rome-Munich “Italicus” express train 12 were killed 48 injured Delle Chiaie’s follower Mario Tutti and his old fascist friend from Greece Kostas Plevris were both implicated in the attack. Delle Chiaie also ordered the death of examining magistrate Vittorio Occorsio on June 14 1976 carried out by Pierluigi Concutelli and Aldo Tisei who headed Delle Chiaie’s fascist network in Italy. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> In February 1977 the spanish police raided a covert arms factory in Madrid owned by Mario Sanchez Covisa who ran the Guerrillas for Christ the King which was closely allied to Delle Chiaie’s spanish secret army. They arrested 9 AN members, discovered a bomb making factory and the M10 machine pistol used to assassinate Judge Occorsio. The Ingram M10 machine pistol (which seemed designed for terrorist attacks) had been manufactured by a company belonging to CIA silencer expert Mitch WehrBell III (worthy of his own article) and supplied to spanish intelligence who supplied it to Delle Chiaie who gave it to Concutelli to kill Occorsio. The Police also found clues leading to a safe deposit box with 3 bars of gold from a 25 million dollar bank robbery carried out by the Albert Spaggiari and the Paladin mercenary group in Nice in 1976. Delle Chiaie and Yves Guerin Serac had been warned in advance and escaped.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> Delle Chiaie would soon resurface in Chile acting as an adviser in the setting up of death squads. He was so popular with his DINA employers that they started wearing ON pins with the SS Motto on them (ON and AN had merged.) He had helped DINA set up an Aginter Press style chilean press agency AIP. Delle Chiaie also set up the front company Ibercom to fund condor ops. Ibercom employed chemist Eugenio Berrios who conducted experiments on the nerve gas Sarin in Michael Townley’s basement. Sarin can be used as a chemical weapon but Berrios discovered a tiny dosage could also be used to kill someone and make it appear to be a heart attack. DINA files seized in 1978 also show DINA employed AN members Pierluigi Pagliai ( one of the Brsecia bombers and one of the most sadistic members of the Fiances of Death in Bolivia) and Vincenzo Vinciguerra the Peteano bomber. Unfortunately for Delle Chiaie back in 1976 (when George H. W. Bush was CIA director) his partner in crime Michael Townley had planned the Letelier bombing in Washington DC. Now with the Carter Administration in office it was pressuring Chile to turn over Townley while at the same time covering up Townley’s CIA ties. Delle Chiaie’s sponsor Manuel Contreras influence was waning in Chile as the pressure mounted and so Delle Chiaie headed for Argentina in 1978. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> On March 24, 1976 when George H.W. Bush was CIA director a fascist military coup had occurred overthrowing Isabel Peron and installing General Jorge Videla as dictator and the brutal dirty war was intensified. Delle Chiaie loved the new fascist junta but since he had close ties to the peronists it took him a while to win over the new junta. Or at least that’s one version. He traveled to Colombia and Venezuela. Delle Chiaie traveled to Paraguay and Central America becoming an adviser to Roberto D’Aubuisson praising the ruthless effectiveness of their murderous counter-insurgency strategy. Delle Chiaie agreed to recruit european fascist mercenaries to serve in El Salvador’s death squads. In El Salvador he befriended the Argentine adviser Major Hugo Raul Miori Pereira and so on his return to Argentina was recruited into Argentine Intelligence. In Argentina he met with exiled Bolivian dictator Hugo Banzer and he would soon join 70 Argentine Intelligence agents that were being sent to Bolivia in preparation for the infamous Cocaine Coup. Argentina and the CIA were worried that moderate Hernan Siles Zuazo would win the upcoming elections. First Delle Chiaie traveled to Guatemala and El Salvador to offer more advice and encouragement on mass murder and psychological warfare.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> Stefano Delle Chiaie arrived in Bolivia in November 1979 along with Pierluigi Pagliai and was hired by Department 2 to work alongside Klaus Barbie. Delle Chiaie and Pagliai had already met Klaus Barbie on a previous trip to Bolivia in 1978. Klaus Barbie had served in the SS during the war mostly in France but possibly also on the eastern front where he made formed close ties to the Ukrainian fascists of the OUN. In France he had tortured the leader of the resistance Jean Moulin to death and overseen the deportation of 50 jewish orphans to the death camps among many other war crimes. After the war he had been recruited by American Intelligence in the form of the CIC running a network of SS men, Ukrainian OUN and Croatian Ustasi before being sent along the Ratline to Bolivia by way of Argentina in the 1950’s. In Bolivia Barbie was a personal friend to dictator Hugo Banzer and other presidents and an adviser to Bolivian intelligence on counter-insurgency. He was also a key member of a network of former SS that formed their own parallel version of Operation Condor sharing intelligence, raising funds from arms dealing and financial fraud. Barbie was close friend and business partner to SS conman Fritz Schwend in their currency smuggling scam and was also part of Skorzeny’s network of arms dealers. In 1978 Barbie recruited Joachim Fiebelkorn a second generation german fascist whose major regret was being born after the war in 1947 he joined Skorzeny’s Paladin mercenary group and the KDS neo-nazis also serving in the spanish foreign legion. Fiebelkorn had fled Paraguay after drunkenly challenging ex-SS Adolf Meinike to a game of russian roulette that ended in Meinike’s death. Barbie recruited him to provide muscle for Bolivian drug kingpin Roberto Suarez “the King of Coca” and Fiebelkorn created the Fiances of Death to serve as a death squad to keep his Colombian costumers in line. Barbie was impressed and soon the Fiances were made drug enforcement agents thanks to Barbie’s boss at Department 2 Luis Arce Gomez who was also Suarez’s cousin and a major drug dealer in his own right. The Fiances recruited SS veterans, neo-nazis, OAS members and South African mercenaries. According to Christie CIA officer William Adgar Moffet III helped train the Fiances of Death. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> This was the scene in Bolivia Delle Chiaie was arriving in so of course he felt right at home working with yet another group of fascist mercenaries and death squads. Delle Chiaie impressed Barbie with his fanaticism and created his own death squad the Phoenix commando made up mostly of Italians and Argentinians. Delle Chiaie advised a wave of assassinations to make way for the planned coup. He advised the use of masked paramilitary death squads to carry out the killings. In February 1980 the newspaper Aquis was bombed for printing exposes on ruling class Bolivians involved in the drug traffic. In March 1980 the papers editor jesuit priest Luis Espinal was kidnapped and tortured to death. Barbie’s old friend former dictator Hugo Banzer had been infamous for declaring war on liberation philosophy and assassinating priests, nuns, and lay workers as part of his Banzer Plan. On June 2 1980 Siles Zuazo’s VP candidate nearly died in a sabotaged plane which crashed killing 4 others. It had been rented from a company owned by Delle Chiaie’s boss Arce Gomez. Also in June Delle Chiaie flew to europe to plan the Bologna bombing in France and flew to Belgium to a conference held by the fascist VMO which would later be linked to a series of mass killings in Belgium. On June 29 1980 Hernan Siles Zuazo won the general election he was scheduled to take office on August 6 1980.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> On July 17 1980 Arce Gomez and army head Garcia Meza staged a coup that would become infamous as the Bolivian Cocaine Coup. The same day the powerful left wing union COB held a meeting of the Committe for the Defense of Democracy to plan a strategy of resisting the coup. Suddenly machine gun fire shattered the windows and as they ducked for cover Delle Chiaie and the Fiances of death invaded the building and ordered everyone out telling union leader Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz to stay behind he refused and they shot him and one of his comrades. Everyone else was arrested the women were raped and all of them were beaten and tortured for a week locked in cement cells with no food or toilets. They were interrogated by hooded men with Argentine or Italian accents meaning Delle Chiaie’s friends and allies. At least 20 union leaders were killed the day of the coup. The miners managed to resist the coup for 2 weeks until their leaders were killed or arrested. Within a month at least 500 had been killed and 2000 were wounded. Delle Chiaie’s men prowled the streets in ambulances kidnapping or disappearing people and anyone who saw an ambulance ran for their lives.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> The Fiances of Death were renamed the Special Commando Group and also given jobs in the Bolivian drug enforcement agency. Roberto Suarez, Arce Gomez and the other 3 top drug kingpins had decided to enforce a monopoly on the drug trade. Arce Gomez had been promoted to head the Interior Ministry and he demanded a 10% tax be paid to himself personally on all profits from the drug trade. The Fiances of death were given a list of 140 small time drug manufacturers to kill and torture. They were ordered to turn the drugs in to the Interior Ministry but were allowed to steal any other valuables for themselves. It was in reality merely a slightly more corrupt and dramatic example of how the war on drugs always works with some of the big dealers getting immunity and put on CIA, DEA, FBI or police payroll as informants supplying names of their competitors who are then arrested. The prisons fill up with low level drug dealers while the drugs continue endlessly to flow in. In America the police are allowed to seize the property and sell it off just like the Fiances of Death. The drunken insane Fiances launched a reign of terror in Bolivia killing each other and terrorizing local businessmen. Meanwhile Delle Chiaie’s henchman Pierluigi Pagliai became infamous for sadistically torturing his victims while wearing ballet tights he loved to torture his victims with electricity. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> Only 2 weeks after the coup Delle Chiaie’s earlier trip to europe resulted in the bloodiest attack Italy would suffer during it’s years of lead. On August 2 1980 a bomb exploded at the Bologna railway station 85 were killed 200 were wounded. In April of 82 4 of Delle Chiaie’s accomplices would be arrested and finger him as the planner. Like the Piazza Fontana bombing it was staged to distract from the collapsing P2 Vatican banking scandal by Lecio Gelli. On August 12 1982 Luigi Concutelli strangled Delle Chiaie’s main go between to Europe Carmine Palladino to keep him quiet.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> Back in Bolivia in 1980 Delle Chiaie was put in charge of gaining international support for the new government which only South Africa and Argentina had recognized the Carter Administration having withdrawn it’s ambassador and the OAS having condemned it. Delle Chiaie was sent to the September 2 1980 WACL conference in Argentina where he introduced his Bolivian hosts to El Salvadoran fascist death squad leader Roberto D’Aubuisson who agreed to supply weapons and advisers in exchange for drugs. In April of 81 Arce Gomez concerned the Fiances were out of control because of their drunken rampages, threats to the police and arrest of his mistress paid Joachim Fiebelkorn to leave the country. He was arrested in Brazil with 8 of his men 3 kilos of cocaine and a massive amount of Nazi paraphernalia. He was quickly released. On August 3 1981 President Garcia Meza’s rule ended after he failed to put down an earlier military rebellion attempting to rally the military he made the mistake of hitting a commander while yelling at him. The commander responded by kicking the president in the balls and pulling a gun on him. He was replaced by a military junta and then by General Celso Torrelio. Delle Chiaie continued his work for the new regimes but the country was bankrupt and tottering. The Reagan administration had re-established diplomatic relations with Bolivia but the new Ambassador Edwin Corr had launched a personal vendetta against Barbie, Delle Chiaie, and Pagliai. In July of 1982 Ambassador Corr took a secret trip to Italy to arrange for the arrest of Pagliai and Delle Chiaie. By September of 1982 the Bologna Bombing investigation had progressed enough for warrants to be issued for the arrest of Delle Chiaie and Pagliai. On October 10 1982 the day Hernan Siles Zuazo was finally inaugurated Italian spies and Bolivian police arrived to arrest Delle Chiaie and Pagliai. Both had been warned in advance and Delle Chiaie hid out in Cochabamba but Pagliai delayed going into hiding spending the day sunbathing. It was a fatal mistake after surrendering he was shot in the throat by the Italian secret service to keep him from talking and he died 23 days later. Delle Chiaie escaped to Argentina he hinted that he had been warned by the CIA to escape. Even as Edwin Corr was attempting to have him arrested Delle Chiaie still had mysterious friends in US Intelligence since at some point in 1982 he made a trip to the United States with an equally notorious gladio terrorist the turkish Grey Wolf and Heroin kingpin Abdullah Catli who was linked to the Taksim Square massacre and the shooting of the pope. Catli would later move to Chicago where he became a key element the CIA’s Gladio B terror campaign in Central Asia before dying in the infamous Susurluk incident in Turkey in 1996. Miami was then a center for the covert war on Nicaragua and Delle Chiaie is also believed to have arranged drug deals to finance the contras for his Argentine, Bolivian, and Salvadoran friends. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> There is scant information on the rest of Delle Chiaie’s career after the collapse of the Argentine Junta he spent 3 years in Venezuela from 1984-87. In March of 1987 he was finally arrested knocked down by a karate chop from a policewoman when he tried to escape. The CIA and Italian intelligence appeared within hours. Delle Chiaie was deported to stand trial in Italy for his crimes. On February 20 1989 he was cleared of all charges in the Piazza Fontana bombing. He was never punished for any of his many crimes. Many details of his career remain a mystery to this day such as when exactly the CIA recruited him. However given that both people above him like Pino Rauti and people below him like Ventura were on the CIA payroll and especially given his complete immunity from prosecution he was almost certainly put on the CIA payroll at some point in the 1960’s. His ties to the mafia are also somewhat mysterious although Fiebelkorn would claim that Delle Chiaie was the main liaison between the Latin American drug cartels and the Sicilian Mafia. One of Delle Chiaie’s Lieutenants Pierluigi Concutelli was a key member of the Mafia’s “Kidnap Anonymous” Kidnapping ring. In addition his true role as a terror planner remains unclear in some cases he may have served as a convenient scapegoat which is what he himself always claimed. On May 11 1994 the party he founded Avanguardia Nazionale became part of the Italy’s government as it was incorporated into P2 member Silvio Berlusconi’s coalition government. On May 17 1996 the PDS the new name for the PCI the Italian Communist Party was finally allowed to become part of the coalition government the very thing 40 years of gladio terrorism had been designed to prevent. Delle Chiaie would remain an unrepentant fascist to the end publishing his memoirs “L’aquila e il Condor Memor di Un Militante Politico.” On September 9 2019 he died of natural causes. The man himself remains an enigma but his infamous career demonstrates the horrors that result when intelligence agencies are above the law, when fascism is fueled worldwide in order to forestall revolution. Terrorists, death squads, drug cartels, all puppets of the CIA. Torture, coups, bombings, and financial crashes all planned chaos in the name of preserving capitalism. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Sources</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">My main source is Stuart Christie’s “Stefano Delle Chiaie: Portrait of a Black Terrorist”</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">“The Fourth Reich: Klaus Barbie and the Neo-Fascist Connection” by Magnus Linklater, Isabel Hilton and Neal Acherson also discusses Delle Chiaie and has an in depth account Bolivian Cocaine Coup.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Nato’s Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe by Daniele Ganser is a masterpiece which covers Gladio in all the NATO countries.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Operation Gladio: The Unholy Alliance between The Vatican, The CIA, and the Mafia by Paul L. Williams covers the dizzying array of scandals in postwar Italy as well as some interesting material on Latin America. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Predatory States: Operation Condor and Covert War in Latin America by J.P. McSherry is a masterpiece covering operation condor.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Stuart Christie’s Stefano Delle Chiaie book is available free online as a PDF</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> <a href="https://archive.org/details/stefanodellechiaieportraitofablackterroristbystuartchristie1984/mode/2up"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">https://archive.org/details/stefanodellechiaieportraitofablackterroristbystuartchristie1984/mode/2up</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">It’s also available in an online version</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://libcom.org/history/stefano-delle-chiaie-portrait-black-terrorist-stuart-christie">https://libcom.org/history/stefano-delle-chiaie-portrait-black-terrorist-stuart-christie</a></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Stuart Christie on Stefano Delle Chiaie’s 1987 arrest in Venezuela</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.fifthestate.org/archive/326-summer-1987/stefano-della-chiaie/">https://www.fifthestate.org/archive/326-summer-1987/stefano-della-chiaie/</a></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Stefano Delle Chiaie’s obituary</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.italianinsider.it/?q=node/8487">http://www.italianinsider.it/?q=node/8487</a></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Archive on Stefano Delle Chiaie from a site dedicated to studying GLADIO</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://secretsandbombs.wordpress.com/tag/stefano-delle-chiaie/">https://secretsandbombs.wordpress.com/tag/stefano-delle-chiaie/</a></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> JFK and GLADIO</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.kennedysandking.com/articles/nato-s-secret-armies-operation-gladio-and-jfk">https://www.kennedysandking.com/articles/nato-s-secret-armies-operation-gladio-and-jfk</a></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Dave Emory and Nip Tuck on the interlocking Post-War Italian scandals</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://spitfirelist.com/anti-fascist-archives/rfa-17-21-who-shot-the-pope/">spitfirelist.com/anti-fascist-archives/rfa-17-21-who-shot-the-pope/</a></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Dave Emory and Nip Tuck on the CIA Drug Connection part 4 is on the “Bolivian Cocaine Coup”</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://spitfirelist.com/anti-fascist-archives/rfa-24-28-the-cia-the-military-drugs/">http://spitfirelist.com/anti-fascist-archives/rfa-24-28-the-cia-the-military-drugs/</a></span></div>
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Hugo Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12229123097438571385noreply@blogger.com0