Operation Gladio-Dominican Republic

1:11:41

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Transcript

0:00 Hi, everybody. Sorry we're a little late today. Let me get my co-host added here. Bridget, if you wouldn't mind sending the link to Cousin It for me. And we're going to spend a little bit of time today talking about the Dominican Republic. As those of you who've joined us on several of these understand, we're...

0:29 kind of geographically going around the world, talking about world history and how it relates to Operation Gladio, if in fact it does. And we're primarily, I wanted to start close to home because a lot of us have had personal experience. Relatives either have traveled to these locations.

0:56 have relatives that are from these locations. And it's just a little closer to home, a little easier to relate to. So we're spending some time in the Caribbean, Central America and South America initially, just so we can get familiar with what Operation Gladio is, what it looks like when you go back and reread history with Gladio glasses on. So, plus it's a great refresher.

1:25 For those of us who are interested in history, but we're not necessarily taught history in a way that's relevant to our everyday life. So that's kind of the agenda. And I'm going to focus on 1960 to 1966 because it's the most relevant to this conversation.

1:52 Unfortunately for the Dominican Republic, you can't just start there. There's so much history there. And for those of you who don't know, there's a land mass in the Caribbean that consists of both Haiti and the Dominican Republic. I've been to the Dominican Republic. I would not recommend anyone visit.

2:22 Or go there without a full situational awareness. Because there is a lot of corruption there. There is a lot of, I'm just going to say Operation Gladio activity in many of the areas. And it has been used routinely to project Gladio.

2:51 operations into Haiti in the past. So again, that's a 30,000 foot look. I'm not telling you you can't go. I just will not ever go back. I'll just leave it at that. I'm not going back. But I did want to briefly go over some of the history starting like in the

3:19 18th to 19th century because it's very interesting. It has been affiliated with much of the European colonial system for a very long time during this period of time. It was ripe with pirates. They, of course, referred to them as privateers. Those are pirates. And the pirates from

3:50 what we now know to be the Dominican Republic. At the time, it was called Santo Domingo. And again, those name changes makes history for some people a little more difficult in tracing back what you may read of history and then being able to apply it to modern day. So we've got, let me make her a co-host.

4:21 Okay, so then we've got, just for purposes of discussion, at the time in the 1800s, there was around 90,000 people at the time, and approximately 40,000 were white landowners. And they had free, multiracial people of color.

4:51 And they also had slaves, about 15,000 at the time. And it talks about modern-day Haiti, which was called Saint-Domingue, and about it being the wealthiest colony, Haiti, the wealthiest colony in the Caribbean. And there was a lot of trade going back and forth between them as a result of that. A lot of agricultural land.

5:19 They had a lot of disputes with what they call between white and mulatto people during the time, very racially segregated at the time. And some of that came over from Europe, but a lot of it was organic to the kind of pecking order that is established in most cultures.

5:47 It definitely was present here. So then you had a lot of fighting in the 1800s between Haiti and Santo Domingo. And then and sometimes Haiti would win, sometimes modern day Dominican Republic would win. But there was a couple of interesting things.

6:13 I wanted to point out just so that you can understand how contentious this is. Haiti's constitution forbid white elites from owning land because Haiti had been a colony for a long time and had fought for its independence and it didn't want to be colonialized again. And that is a very important, it was the first Caribbean colony to break free of European colonialism.

6:43 So they implemented laws to try to protect themselves from that. So you had when Haiti took over the Dominican Republic, it forced a lot of the land owning families because they tried to implement their constitution on the Dominican Republic. And so many of the people.

7:10 that were the elite landowners in the Dominican Republic, fled to Cuba and Puerto Rico and Colombia at the time. The Haitians, rightly or wrongly, associated the European conquerors with the Roman Catholic Church, and they also affiliated the French slave owners. So they put them all in the same bucket, and therefore...

7:39 They kicked the Vatican and closed down all of the Roman Catholic Church and confiscated all of their belongings. As a result of that, you had, again, a lot of turmoil. So then the Dominican Republic begins their war of independence in the 1800s. And there's some back and forth. Eventually, we get to the Dominican Republic's first.

8:10 Constitution and setting up their state, still they're going to have lots of border skirmishes over the years in trying to come up with a definitive boundary of where Haiti and the Dominican Republic separates themselves. So after continued squabbling, eventually

8:39 the Dominican Republic asked the Queen of Spain to come back after they'd kicked them out because there's so much internal turmoil going on. So then happened the War of Restoration. Eventually, we get to the part where in the late 1800s, U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant ordered the U.S. Marines to the island for the first time.

9:04 because there were pirates that were operating from Haiti that was interrupting the U.S. commercial trade in the Caribbean. At least that's the excuse we're given. And it was true. So they basically, all of the people, just keep in mind, because the U.S. military at the time, we also wanted basing rights down there.

9:32 to protect trade going through the Panama Canal. So that was kind of a big motivation too. Well, eventually the Panama Canal, the Panama Canal hasn't been established yet. And then, because we, our Marines has been down there multiple times. In the early 1900s, we get to several governments.

10:01 That they just keep going through them because of corruption and disagreement. So then we get to President Teddy Roosevelt. And he basically didn't want France or Spain or England or any of the people back in the Caribbean. So he decides that he's going to interfere. And he also decides.

10:32 because of the Monroe Doctrine and the fact that he was owned by the elite and the international syndicate, that he's going to impose U.S. administration of all Dominican customs, which is where they got like 90 percent of their money.

10:49 for the government was through their customs house. Now, remember, when we talk about Nicaragua, Guatemala, Panama, that is the U.S.'s method for control of these governments is to take over the custom houses because they know that external trade.

11:07 They have very specific crops that they grow. They don't produce a lot of hardware, whether it be military or machinery or whatever. So they understand how to control these governments and they do it through the customs houses. So they had to agree to a 50-year administration of their custom house by the U.S. in order for us to pay off their debt. And of course, then they do it.

11:37 The locals were not impressed with that at all. So there's several assassinations that happen of leaders within the next six year period of time. Then you have William Howard Tapp comes in and Woodrow Wilson after him. And they just keep going through this cycle of the people don't want us there. They end up in conflict.

12:07 Our Marines die, their people die, and it just keeps going back and forth. So Wilson ordered another U.S. Marine expedition in 1916, which would seize their ports, their capital. And they retreated to the mountains and basically kept this military skirmish going up. We appointed a military government, which was ran by Admiral.

12:37 The Shepard Knapp, K-N-A-P-P. And they were not happy with that at all. So, but of course, they had old rifles and not a lot of ammunition because they didn't make any on the island. And the U.S. Marines had machine gun, modern artillery, blah, blah, blah. So they didn't have a chance.

13:03 And it became very awkward, too. There was a lot of race issues at this time because there was a large portion of the Dominican Republic that were minority. And at the time, there were no minorities allowed in the Marines. They didn't desegregate the Marines until 1942. So that was a source of contention as well.

13:31 Moving forward, you have World War I, World War II. The Dominican Republic basically assisted in the form of like sugar and other things. I mean, of course, we bought it, but they did assist with supplies to the allies during those two wars. So then you have a guy who we trained.

14:00 by the name of Rafael Trujillo. It's T-R-U-J-I-L-L-O. And he's a very interesting guy. He ends up being installed in 1930 as a dictator, and he remains in power until 1961. And he did do, in his defense, many good things.

14:27 He brought about, number one, stability. Number two, he built a lot of hospitals, got their economy back under control, and built schools, roads. The harbor was basically completely redone. He did negotiate a final undisputed border with Haiti, finally, in 1935.

14:54 And he ended the customs agreement with the U.S. early. So the problem, the downside of all of that was he was a dictator. He murdered people. At the end of 30 years, it is estimated that over 50,000 Dominicans and foreign nationals were murdered by him. Also, they had an exile.

15:24 population, this was news to me, inside the United States too, that they utilized, and by they, I'm going to say both Trujillo and the CIA, because anybody in New York that was anti-Trujillo publicly and in a very boisterous manner got assassinated inside the United States by this exile population.

15:53 So you also had exiles that had fled to Guatemala and New Orleans and Miami. I'm sure that's a coincidence, though. And in 1949, as people are getting tired of him, there is an invasion not unlike the one, the several that happened for Cuba.

16:26 But this one was launched by Dominican rebels from Guatemala. And of course, Guatemala was used to launch an attack against Castro later on. Not a coincidence. So you have Cuba eventually breaks diplomatic relationships with Trujillo because he's getting a little off his rocker.

16:56 Interestingly enough, at one point, Trujillo, he murders three of four sisters that were referred to as the butterflies. There's a whole story behind them. It's called Mirabal, M-I-R-A-B-A-L, sisters. Definitely need to look at that. It's a very interesting story. And they basically, a lot...

17:25 Depending on what you're reading, if you actually dig into it, if you look just cursory, like on Wikipedia or whatever, they all refer to them as communists. They were not communists. They were nationalists that wanted the integrity of their country back, and they didn't want to live under a dictator. So for some people, that appears to be communistic.

17:54 Trujillo made the ultimate mistake and reached out to because he's starting to get cut off by because he's doing these crazy ass things. He starts to get cut off by the US and they're starting to distance himself. He even tries to assassinate the Venezuelan president by exploding a bomb. And so, again, they're kind of like, you know.

18:22 We need to get rid of this guy. So, of course, that's kind of where we get into the part that I'm going to go over today, because they definitely get rid of him. He's assassinated. And there is a lot of people that believe, because of how he was assassinated, that it was definitely.

18:57 CIA-inspired. So we're going to pick up there with this other source that I've been using that is called The Killing Hope, written by William Bloom. And he talks about Trujillo being a mass murderer, torturer, absolute dictator, and was shot to death on the highway.

19:24 outside of the capital city. The assassination set off a chain of events that lasted over five years and basically showed an overarching intervention by the U.S. And the U.S. had been an accomplice in the assassination itself.

19:53 And had been part of his rise to power as well, because at any one time, the U.S. was intimately working with him over those 30 years. So there was no attempt to boycott him. There was no attempt to cut the harbor off, as you see with anybody who reaches out.

20:21 to the Soviet Union for help. But it is interesting that at one point, apparently he did reach out just before he was assassinated to the Soviet Union and legalized the Communist Party in the Dominican Republic. I'm sure that had nothing to do with it. So in January 1959, when Batista fell to Fidel Castro in Cuba, a reconsideration

20:53 of Washington policy and agenda happened. And it basically said that it seemed to suggest that support of right-wing governments might no longer be the best way of checking the rise of revolutionary governments because it actually causes them. It doesn't check them.

21:19 When you tell a foreign country who they can and can't have as a president and you assassinate anybody that they want as their president that is actually elected, it makes people a little radical. That obviously is newsflash to them. And interestingly enough, where did Batista go when he was overthrown by Castro? He went to Trujillo's Dominican Republic because they were two peas in a pod.

21:53 So the decision to get rid of Trujillo was reinforced in 1960 when the U.S. sought to organize opposition to the Castro regime. And it was noticed by everyone that the U.S. would only oppose leftist governments and not equally tyrannical governments that they felt was fascist in nature.

22:26 Eisenhower was led to observe that, quote, it's certain that American public opinion won't contend Castro until we have moved against Trujillo, unquote. So you see how they're setting their ducks up. The President Eisenhower's belief that in the independence of American mind may have been overly generous for Washington was supporting.

22:54 right-wing dictators in Guatemala, Nicaragua, I mean, they installed them, Haiti, and elsewhere before and after Trujillo's assassination. Yet the American public readily fell in line in condemning Castro as a result supposedly of them having finally held Trujillo accountable. That's kind of laughable on its face, but...

23:18 We do know that in the past, the American public has been manipulated through psychological operations and manipulation of the mockingbird press. So, in 1958, the CIA station chief in the Dominican Republic, his name was Lear, L-E-A-R, Reed, R-E-E-D, along with several Dominicans, had plotted an assassination of Trujillo, one of which...

23:52 Let's see what the agency's motivation was and whether or not it was acting on its own or within government, because, of course, we know in order to do this, you have to have a finding by the president, which we may or not ever see because they classify all of them.

24:16 It does say that the National Security Council special group in Washington gave consideration to a program of covert aid to anti-Trujillo Dominicans. Two months later, Eisenhower approved a contingency plan, which provided in part that if the situation deteriorated, the United States would immediately take political action to remove Trujillo from the Dominican Republic as soon as a suitable.

24:45 successor regime can be induced to take over with the assurances of U.S. political, economic, and, if necessary, military support, unquote. Trujillo continued to live up to his gangster reputation during this time, and in June, his henchmen, so we're in June of 1960, that's when he blew up the Venezuelan president's car, which, of course, we're told that he did that.

25:16 I don't know at this point without being there personally that it wasn't the CIA that did it, that blamed him, that then gave them the justification to take him out, you know, because that's kind of the crap that they do. And that's the problem with talking about this stuff is there's literally nothing off the table. There's nothing these people won't do. And so when you're going back and trying to evaluate.

25:42 Without having the cables from the Secretary of State or the files from the CIA, it really is difficult to discern which is accurate and which isn't. But let's just go with the story as we know it, in that he did, in fact, try to take out the Venezuelan president, which is really weird.

26:10 Because the CIA wanted him gone, too. Just laying that out there. Americans living in the Dominican Republic were enlisted for the cause by the CIA. Schemes to overthrow Trujillo were drawn up at different times by the State Department. Colonel, you're banding. Colonel, you're banding. I don't know if it's just my phone because I'm trying new tricks, but you're banding. What is Bridget? Do you? Is it? It's loud. No, it's clear for me. I think.

26:42 All right. All right. Thanks for following, Liza. Just teasing. Big shock. Big, big shock. All right. Let's see. Where were we at? All right. So they're drawing up schemes. They actually even have a special group that they constitute. A training camp was set up in Venezuela for the Dominican exiles. Oh, that's interesting. Because keep in mind, Venezuela is right next to.

27:11 where they set up Jonestown, just throwing that out there. It was literally right across the border, like they were running out of Jonestown to Venezuela after the Jonestown massacre in order to get out of the country. So that's very interesting. So they set up basically a terror training camp in Venezuela for Dominican exiles.

27:39 flown there from the U.S. and Puerto Rico by the CIA. The dissidents make numerous requests for weapons, sniper rifles, remote control detonating devices, you know, all the stuff like in the stay-behind units. And several of the requests were fulfilled by both the CIA and the State Department. And they had regular meetings in D.C. about this operation.

28:09 So maybe blowing up the Venezuelan president's car was just his putting him on notice that they're going to do this. And if he wants to live, I don't know. So none of the ambitious plans was even attempted. The actual assassination was essentially a spur of the moment improvised affair where and that oftentimes happens in some of these.

28:38 operations because there will be a moment of opportunity. And the fact that they've already practiced how they're going to do it allows them to be able to improvise when the moment's notice happens. Okay, so the most significant aid received by the dissidents from the U.S. was the assurance that the U.S.

29:02 would not interfere militarily to prevent the assassination and would support them and recognize the new government afterwards. The Dominican Republic, where American Marines have landed on four separate occasions in this century, the last intervention having created a centralized Dominican National Guard, which the U.S. placed under the control of Rafael Trujillo. So, this is a foot-stomping point.

29:33 When we go back and we look at many of these Operation Gladios, they either have a secret police or the U.S. has helped them set up a National Guard. And they use the National Guard as the apparatus to then bring those people to the schools of America because they're in military status or Fort Benning or Fort Bragg or to these Operation Gladio training sites.

29:59 And then it is the people within the National Guard slash military structure that rises up and becomes the new dictator, as in the case with Rafael Trujillo. It was during one of those Marine invasions into the Dominican Republic that the U.S. set up there and trained their National Guard. And they maintain that training relationship over the years like they're co-opting them to basically be.

30:27 spies on their own government. And then at the right time, they will use those people. They install them. And that's what just happened in Niger. So it's still going on. So anyway, there was some requirements that the U.S. had as far as who was going to be an acceptable person in Trujillo's wake. They could not be pro Castro.

31:00 And they also could not be adverse to political assassinations. And then they say the State Department officially put it, quote, they didn't. This is not the quote part. They didn't want, quote, further tarnishing in the eyes of the world of the U.S. moral posture. Just let that resonate for a little bit. We're assassinating foreign heads of state.

31:29 And we think that some of these people's actions infringes on how the world sees us in a moral posture. It's, again, laughable at this point. So anyway.

32:02 And again, this is not unlike what we found in the Cuba situation, where you have somebody like Felix Rodriguez, who...

32:18 was sent away to boarding school in Pennsylvania from Cuba. He was from a very elite and prestigious family. And he took like a year out of that while he's in high school to go to the Dominican Republic. Hello, hello. He went to the Dominican Republic and was an aide to Trujillo for a year during this mess.

32:47 And it is assumed at that point is when he was sent to the terror training camp because he comes back, finishes high school. Then he goes to begin overthrowing Castro as a sniper. So he had to learn how to shoot somewhere. And it's not a coincidence that that break in his high school, he actually returned. He went to the Dominican Republic and.

33:15 was affiliated with Trujillo. So I want you guys to understand this stuff is all integrated. It's all intermixed. There's this network that operates. And the more we get into it, the more overlap you're going to see. It was not coincidental that when we talked about Jonestown, we found that Jim Jones was originally from Richmond, Indiana. And then when we

33:42 talked about Iroquois, we find out that Iroquois or Paraguay, one of the two, we find out that his elementary school best friend is the guy down there teaching them, working for the CIA as well, teaching them how to torture and disappear people. Again, this is a very well-integrated network that we continue to run across people from these.

34:14 operations. So the day after the assassination, Raphael Trujillo Jr. rushed home from his playboy's life in Paris to take over the reins of the government. Little had been resolved either in the Dominican Republic or in Washington because now you've got a new administration in because Eisenhower is the one that issued the finding.

34:45 But now JFK's in the seat. The Kennedy administration was confronted with the same questions which had caused them so much indecision right before the assassination as they had within the Eisenhower administration. What is the best way of preventing the establishment of a left-wing government intent upon radical social change? The traditional iron fist of right-wing dictatorships.

35:14 or a more Democrat society capable of meeting many of the legitimate demands of the populace. How much democracy? Would too much open the door for even greater and unacceptable demands and provide the left with a legal platform? And so this is a conversation they're having inside the United States on how to set up a foreign government. I just want to foot stomp that. JFK, so no one's free to do it on their own.

35:45 JFK and his men from Harvard tended to treat such policy questions in a manner more similar to American political figures that are usually inclined to do on occasion. It might be said that they were agonizing over these questions, but in the end, their Latin American policy was scarcely indistinguishable from the previous administration.

36:16 Because the people who actually dictate it don't ever change. A leader who imposed order with at least the facade of democracy, who kept the left submerged without being notoriously brutal. In short, an anti-communist liberal still appeared to be the safest ally. There are three possibilities, Kennedy said, in descending order of preference. A decent democratic regime.

36:49 a continuation of Trujillo regime or a Castro regime. We ought to aim at the first, but we really can't renounce the second until we are sure we can't avoid the third. Rafael Trujillo Jr. was clearly not ideal. Besides bearing an inescapable stigma of his name and family, he proceeded to carry out a bloodbath of revenge over the next six months of his father's assassination.

37:20 Resentment spilled over into the streets. By October, the protests were occurring daily and being put down by tanks. Students were being shot dead by government troops. The U.S. began to make moves for the situation in the street and the high place of government became anarchic. Washington feared to provide an opening for the proverbial communist takeover. American diplomats met in the capital city.

37:49 with the Trujillo clan and the military leaders, and bluntly told them that U.S. military power would, if necessary, be used to compel the formation of a provisional government headed by Haquin Balaguer, B-A-L-A-G-U-E-R, until elections could be held. Balaguer had been closely tied to the Trujillo family for decades, so

38:18 For those people and that methodology, that would be satisfied. But also, there was at least some semblance of a separation between them. But he was not regarded as a threat to continue the tyranny. As Kennedy put it, he was our only tool, Kennedy's word.

38:45 The anti-communist liberals aren't strong enough. We must use our influence to take Balaguer along the road to democracy, unquote. To make certain that the Dominicans got the message, a U.S. naval task force of eight ships and 1,800 Marines aboard appeared off the Dominican coast on November 19th, just outside the three-mile limit, but in plain sight of the capital.

39:15 Spanish language broadcast from the ship warned that the Marines were prepared to come ashore while overhead American jet fighters occupied the skies. Nothing like a show of force. One of the generals, a key military figure, was persuaded by the U.S. to put aside any plans for a coup he may have harboring and to support the American action. He proceeded.

39:46 whether of his own initiative or someone else's, to order the bombing of an air base outside the capital where Trujillo's had been massing the Trujillo advocates of the junior guy had been massing troops. Over the next two days, it was basically

40:18 Not a good scene there. And the rest of the holdouts that had been the Troheolites left for Florida. However, when Balaguer proved to be a major obstacle to beginning the process of democratization and indicated that he did not regard his regime as temporary, the U.S. added its own special pressure to that of Balaguer's domestic opposition to force him to resign.

40:48 after only two months in office. Washington then turned around and issued another stern warning to General Rodriguez, threatening Dominican leaders with a large loss of aid if they supported another coup and mounted another naval show of force off their coast.

41:07 While a seven-man council of state administered the state of the government, the U.S. continued to treat the Dominican Republic as a private experiment of the prevention of communism. The American ambassador now was John Bartlow, B-A-R-T-L-O-W, Martin. He pressed the council to curb left-wing activity. By his own admission, Martin urged the use of methods.

41:37 once used by the police in Chicago, unquote. So, quote, methods once used by the police in Chicago, unquote. Harassment of subjects by repeated arrest, midnight raids on their homes, and beatings. Huh, that's interesting. Almost like some elements of our police have been trained by Gladio operators. When street disturbances erupted, U.S. Attorney...

42:08 General Robert Kennedy arranged for riot control equipment to be sent to Santa Domingo. The equipment came complete with Spanish-speaking L.A. detectives to impart to their Dominican counterparts the fine art of quelling such uprisings that they had acquired in the Mexican barrios of East L.A. In a few weeks, Ambassador Martin could report that the council had re-won the streets.

42:40 Imagine that. Thanks to those two detectives, this riot control unit remained as a permanent part of the Santo Domingo police force. They became known as the White Helmets. They came to be much hated by the populace. Shortly afterwards, the U.S. military undertook a long-range program to transform the country's armed forces. Oh my gosh! More training from the U.S. and hope that they would be efficient.

43:12 anti-guerrilla organization. And what they mean by that is that's what they're going to be. Finally, in 1962, elections were held under terms dictated in large part by Ambassador Barton to the two candidates. So in other words, his purpose was to introduce into the Dominican Republic some of the features that American regarded as necessary. You know, do it my way or the highway. But Martin's...

43:47 Fiat was inescapable, a highly condescending intrusion into the affairs of a sovereign nation. His instructions extended down to the level of what the loser should say in his concession speech. Further, under the emergency law of the U.S. and the council arranged for the deportation of the Troheolites into the U.S., I might add.

44:20 And also the exporting of Castro communists to the U.S. from where they were not allowed to leave until after the election was over. So in other words, we kidnapped a bunch of people and brought them to the United States and forced them to stay here so they didn't interfere with our election in the sovereign country of the Dominican Republic. You just can't make this shit up. So in other words, we have yet another.

44:52 And there's a lot more to this. But I think we have illustrated with what we have covered to understand that we have well overstepped our bounds repeatedly throughout this time to dictate

45:22 And you have to ask yourself at some point, to what end? Is the country of Haiti any better off? Is the country of Dominican Republic any better off? Is the catastrophic poverty and the 50,000 dead bodies? You have to, and please don't misunderstand this, but at some point you have to ask yourself, how different?

45:52 would someone be that these people labeled as a communist? How much different would the guy that they overthrew in Nicaragua, who had the best interests of his people at heart and was setting up schools and building roads and taking control back from the U.S. oligarchs that had managed their economy for decades, how much?

46:22 worse off. I'm not even saying what he did was a good thing, which I think it was, but how much worse off would the country be if he would have been allowed to live and do his thing? The country unequivocally would not have been worse off. You can argue it wouldn't have been better off, and okay, but you can't argue that it would be worse off. And so you come away from almost every one of these stories,

46:52 with the wonderment or the puzzling reality that in the name of democracy, we have set up totalitarian dictatorships all over the world. But our government came home in so doing and lied to us.

47:21 and told us through their mockingbird media that we had just installed a democracy and that things are hunky-dory now. And then this mockingbird media does not spend the next 10 years telling us all of the dead bodies that have been...

47:40 stacked up as a result of this democracy that we just installed. And in the case of some place like Argentina, where they ran out of grave spaces and people to dig the graves so that they load them up in the back of an aircraft and start dumping them out over the ocean so the sharks can eat them. And they don't even have to worry about doing anything with the dead bodies. That's how many dead bodies they generated. So it's, and again,

48:07 I am doing this because I want people to understand that this particular operation and our government's involvement in foreign governments never stopped. It is an ongoing process, as it is with many of the people that are in collusion. And we said last night in the spaces that we did, you have only to look at New Caledonia.

48:36 to see exactly that colonialistic mentality and their interference in the government of a foreign country that they refuse to grant independence to, in the case of New Caledonia. And they want to water down the locals' votes, kind of like they're doing here, by saying that, I guess their constitution says that,

49:06 There were certain people that couldn't vote and then they want to change the constitution to say that they can vote so they can basically allow new foreigners to be voting, which dilutes the local vote. So France is doing exactly what our government is doing here by importing and what they did all over Europe by importing foreigners to dilute their own citizens vote so that they can manage the population better.

49:33 That's kind of my point. We're looking back in the 1950s and 60s at them having done this repeatedly while we're living them doing it today. And I want to show you the parallels so that you can see what's coming next. Because in every one of these situations, they didn't just stop with messing with the vote. They didn't just stop with installing an unelected.

50:00 president like Biden. They didn't stop with just harassing and imprisoning people for long stints of time like they're doing with the January 6th. It all led to much worse things like loading up aircraft with dead bodies and throwing them out in the ocean.

50:17 And that's what we have to understand. And we have to get more involved in our local elections. We have to get more involved in understanding what this process is and educating people. It didn't just stop with the Phoenix program. It didn't just stop with them doing this to foreigners. As a matter of fact, I would make an argument.

50:37 As we go through these countries, I hope you guys all, if you can't make each space, go back and listen to them. You're going to see the commonality with them all. And if you can speak articulately enough to your elected officials to make them aware of it, do it in town halls.

51:00 memorize this information, go to a town hall and say, this is what we've done in the past. I see it happening here and I want it stopped. And if you don't stop it, I will work my butt off to get you out of office to find someone who will stop it. That's what I'm hoping for. So we're going to open it up for questions, comments. Let me, does anybody have?

51:31 want a mic to offer any insight or comments. Go ahead, Bridget. Yeah, I just wanted to add that I had put a bunch of links down in the post underneath here. There are some that go into even, like you said, there is more detail than just what you covered. This was a particularly nasty

52:06 how we went in and literally took away any chance they had of freedom. But this is not the first time. And, in fact, we're seeing it going on right now in Haiti, and the Haitians are fighting back. Something, if anybody has been following, they've been going on with Jimmy. They call him Barbecue.

52:32 For some of you, you already know this, but the barbecue nickname is not because he's a cannibal. It came out because his mother ran a barbecue truck and he ran back and forth with the food to run it out to his mother when he was a little boy. But this shows how they manipulate us into believing their narrative because you won't find that in any of the news headlines. And just like they're saying gangs are taking over,

53:03 The people are attempting to overthrow an installed dictator. And they have attempted to, and in some cases been able to. However, this time they have nothing to lose. These people are living in abject squalor. They truly have nothing. The only thing they have to lose is death.

53:30 And when you are backed against that kind of wall, you know, you are going to take back your country. And I pray and hope that these people do succeed. However, again, NATO and the U.S., via a Caribbean council, appointed a presidential council to choose the next president, not elect, choose. But anyway, that was...

54:02 My little soapbox. Anyway, there is more information about the Dominican Republic down in the links. Thank you, Bridget. Do anybody else have anything they wanted to add? Okay. That's all I got for today. I appreciate you guys being here. I really wanted to bring this type of forum to spaces.

54:35 so that we could get interaction with you guys. I love the feedback, even if you just want to say, you know, good job, or hey, I wish you would have covered this aspect of it, or we're looking for feedback on if there's a particular area that you guys are interested in us covering. That's why we're here. We're here for you.

55:01 So I am definitely looking for the feedback from you guys. I enjoy the interaction. The problem with doing these things, obviously, on Rumble, when we do our book reviews, if you haven't checked out our Rumble page, it's called the Colonel's Corner. I highly recommend you do. We have selected particular Operation Gladio books that uncover a lot of this information in a different format.

55:29 And I'm bringing them to you. What I do is I go through and I read the entire book and check out all of the sources that they use, the backup material to ensure that we're not spreading disinformation. And believe me, I went through several of them that I think are pieces of crap. And I'll tell you why I think they're pieces of crap. There are people that write books that are basically limited hangout. They're not going to tell you anything new.

55:58 they are going to reinforce an agenda that has been already preset. To me, a book needs to not only give you new information, but it needs to source that information. And so things that I look for is State Department cables. In the case when you looked at Antony Sutton's books that we talked about in the spaces, he actually included photographs of bank statements that

56:27 documented the flow of money from New York bankers and London bankers into Hitler and into the Bolshevik Revolution and into FDR. Those are the kind of things that I'm looking for. If you don't have those types of source documents in the books, I'm not going to bring those books to you. So that's kind of what we're looking for. And we do a really good job in trying to source the books.

56:56 So that it's not shaping an agenda. It's actually just presenting you with alternative viewpoints that then allow you to use your own discernment. And I tell everybody, just like we did today, Bridget put the links in the, I want you guys to all go research everything. And I want you to come back here and I want you to tell me, you know, hey, when you covered the Dominican Republic, you said this and this. Well, I read this. And how does that fit into what you were saying?

57:25 I want you guys to not to don't trust anything I say. Go look it all up. Go ahead, Andy. Hi, Colonel Tanner. Thanks for doing this and all the series you're doing. You mentioned I had a question. You mentioned that you wouldn't go back to or you wouldn't go to the Dominican Republic at this time or anymore. Is that mainly because of like.

57:53 gladio being active or is it some other reason like like organized crime you know behind all the the you know the vacation industry down there or is there something that's or just because it's too dangerous well can you just it's kind of all of the above actually um when when i've been there twice and both times so this is going to be a little hard to explain but in the military um

58:22 Everywhere you go, you're given threat assessments. Every TDY you go on, especially more senior in rank, you get threat assessments. You get told what to look for. So you build in over time, over decades, I was there three decades, almost like a sixth sense when you're walking around. And I'll tell you this little side story because it'll illustrate my point.

58:50 I had recently married my husband in, let's say, like six years ago. We visited Margarita Island, which is off the coast of Venezuela. And we all know that Venezuela, we just talked about Venezuela. Craps happen in there all the time and not necessarily good crap. So one of my girlfriends, a fellow colonel, she was having her 50th birthday. So we flew down there to celebrate her birthday on the island.

59:20 We're standing in a line. Now, I had traveled several places internationally with my husband, but not any that were suspect. And so we're standing in line at this event in an organized tourist event that was organized by the all-inclusive resort that we were staying at. So we're at one of the churches. We're waiting to go in. And one of the people from mainland Venezuela.

59:50 was standing in line in front of us. And so he spoke English. And so we're kind of chit-chatting. And my girlfriend's sister who got out, she was in the military as well, but just got out and did something else. So she has a military background, my girlfriend's military, I'm military, and then my civilian husband. And so...

1:00:13 The guy starts, oh, so you're from America, blah, blah, blah. And I'm kind of like trying to hit my husband to like, you know, don't say anything to him. Just let him blabber on. And then he just out of nowhere says, hey, how come you guys don't come down here and kill our president? And my husband turned around and he looked at me and he went like, what? And I looked at him and I said, you're a grown ass man. Why don't you do it yourself?

1:00:42 And so I kind of pulled my husband off to the side and I said, don't engage these people. Because he had told that I left out the punchline. He had told him that I was a retired colonel. And that's when he turned around and looked at me and says, why don't you come take our president out? And I'm looking at my husband going, don't ever do that. Don't tell people I'm retired military in a foreign country that's ran by an idiot. Not a good thing to do.

1:01:10 So, again, when I went to the Dominican Republic, I went with three other colonels. We all went down there on vacation. We were all female and collectively, you know, over 100 years among the group of military experience. Everywhere we went, we didn't just stay with organized events from the all inclusive. We just.

1:01:37 I had looked at the State Department. I had called people. I was still on active duty at the time. And I had checked it all out. And this is the problem with our State Department. Our State Department's not going to tell us that they just overthrew a country. They're not going to tell us that they destabilized the country because they hide all that shit from us. And so when you go down to these countries, I can guarantee you anything that's on the State Department's website isn't going to give you the real story of what they've done.

1:02:07 potentially put you as a target for what they have done. So we're walking around in the Capitol, and you get all of these really strange looks. And so at one point, I was sitting just outside of a bookstore, drinking coffee, waiting for my girlfriends. And another woman came up and was sitting at the table next to me.

1:02:36 She said something to me. And then when I responded in English, she started speaking English. And she basically revealed to me that I needed to be concerned about my safety there because of how people in the Dominican Republic viewed the United States and that I needed to pay attention to that.

1:03:03 That was kind of my first heads up. And again, I was still under my PSYOP spell. I had no idea we were the bad guy in any of these places ever. And so I'm thinking it was just the strangest thing to me that she's telling me that the people down there viewed us not necessarily in a positive way. And she said something about the U.S. military, which, of course, I'm not going to volunteer. I was in the military.

1:03:33 And they are very much aware of the fact that we've been there repeatedly. And every time we come there, we leave them with a dictator that murders bunches of them. They're very familiar with this. And so, again, I've traveled all over the world. I never had anyone do that to me ever. And I got the distinct impression no matter where we and we proved it twice on two different trips that we were followed.

1:04:01 I don't know who it was that was following us. I don't know if it's just because we were four women. All of that is plausible. I did not feel secure from the time I went through the customs in the airport. And as a matter of fact, the second time I went, I left three days early because of that. There was something, and I am not a paranoid person. Again, I've been everywhere.

1:04:28 Um, never had this happen to me before. I've never been followed. Um, and it's not to say I wasn't followed. I've never felt like that, um, anywhere. So, um, but again, that things could have changed, um, for the good or worse. Um, I've not been there in the last, um, 10 years. So, um, it was about, yeah, it was 10 years ago, the last time I was there. Um, so I just, it was not a good feeling for me.

1:04:57 But thank you for asking, Andy. Yeah, thanks. Just if I could just add, like, one thing here, sort of, like, I don't have proof or hearsay, but, you know, there's the criminal element in construction, like even here in, I'm in Toronto, Canada. And, you know, the companies go down there in the winter over here and they invest heavily. They have, you know, paving companies or other things that invest.

1:05:25 heavily in those areas. And I'm sure, you know, there's an element of, you know, well, there could be an element of organized crime that's helped facilitating this and a way to wash money, you know, if you bring, you know, bring tourists there and everything. So I'm sure they want to keep people as safe as possible. But, you know, I've been to Mexico and they...

1:05:49 They basically tell you to just stay on the resort or just go to the organized tours. You know, don't do anything on your own. Correct. And that's definitely, and it's funny you say that because you just re-emerged a memory for me. Every single person besides the four of us that was in our all-inclusive resort was from Canada.

1:06:13 Every single person that we met in that place was from Canada. And I thought that was extremely strange because generally there's a broad brush of people that you meet when you go to touristy type locations. Every person in our all inclusive was from Canada. And they've been there for years on end. They came back for two to three months every year. So that's funny. Yeah, it also goes with,

1:06:43 you know, where, you know, it's being close to us in terms of a warm location as opposed to the Europeans. They have a lot more choice to go to different places. But, yeah, it's true. There's a lot of investment from here down there and then the promotion and then the airline, the charter flights and all that to get you there. So, yeah, there is that aspect. But, yeah, you can see it as just, you know, a matter of fact because it's location and, you know, beautiful beaches and all that or whatever they have to offer.

1:07:13 Whatever they have to offer. And that is interesting because Bridget just brought up about Haiti. It was the, for those of you who don't know, part of the chaos with Haiti is they want to break Haiti so that they can rewrite their constitution. They also did that in the Dominican Republic. They wanted to rewrite their constitution. They're trying to rewrite the constitution in, the name just escaped me, New Caledonia.

1:07:42 to change the way they vote. One of the things that they do and one of the reasons why they break these countries is to get a more favorable method of business for the international syndicate. So in the case of Canada, Canada was awarded a contract which

1:08:06 in effect couldn't happen because in Haiti, they're not allowed to mine gold. So they were trying to get around the mining restriction and they did basically some tests and the contract was given to a Canadian company that had ties to, I think it was Clinton's brother.

1:08:34 When the contract, when the people, the Canadians went to Haiti to try to do the mining sampling so that they could determine how much to bid on the contract if it ever came to fruition and to verify that there was gold deposits there, they verified that there is approximately $20 billion worth of gold in the Haitian country. But again, it's illegal to mine it.

1:09:03 And they were going to try to coerce or buy the officials to change the Constitution. And it is thought that that's the reason why they knocked off the previous president, not the recent prime minister, but the actual guy that got assassinated.

1:09:18 was because he had refused to try to do that. And every time, the reason why they tell you there's gangs in Haiti is because every time that these foreigners go into the hills to try to determine what resources are in Haiti, they get attacked by the local villagers. They're not gangs. They're not organized in any way. They're local villagers that don't want the foreigners in there messing up their country like they do in so many other countries. These mining companies go in and destroy the natural resources.

1:09:47 resources and habitat of these countries. And there are some countries that have held fast and said, we don't want that. And so they will be labeled appropriately, as Bridget articulated. They're going to be called cannibals. They're going to say that they're gangs. They're going to say every negative thing that they can. We have to be more educated and more diverse in our news sources in order to determine what the truth is about these things.

1:10:16 Sorry, one more. It's funny what you said just brought this to mind. It's like they use Canada in the U.S. sort of like a good cop, bad cop. You know, the U.S. take the bad reputation of coming in and the Canadians come by. But the syndicate is using both of us, you know, and taking advantage of both Canadians and Americans.

1:10:39 Andy, that is so well put. You are so right in that. And it's interesting that you say that because in so many of these research projects, you are absolutely right. You find Canada always thrown in there as if they're like the nice guys. Yeah, you're right. That's very interesting. Okay. Okay. Thanks again. Sure, Andy. Thank you for being here.

1:11:11 If that's what we got, we're going to close this up. Again, I thank you for being here. I will be, there should be a sit rep done with Warhamster sometime tomorrow. We will do our book review tomorrow night at seven and we'll be here at noon for our next segment of Operation Gladio. Thanks.

Entities here

Rafael Trujillo26 United States25 Dominican Republic25 Haiti18 United States government14 Fidel Castro10 CIA9 Cuba8 United States Marine Corps7 Operation Gladio6 John F. Kennedy6 Venezuela6 Canada5 Dominican National Guard3 Guatemala3 U.S. State Department3 Joaquín Balaguer3 John Bartlow Martin3 Felix Rodriguez3 Dwight D. Eisenhower3 Jimmy 'Barbecue' Chérizier2 Fulgencio Batista2 Woodrow Wilson2 New Caledonia2 Argentina1 Bolsheviks1 Caribbean Council1 Assassination of Iranian President1 William Black1 Bill Clinton1 Killing Hope1 NATO1 White Helmets1 Robert F. Kennedy1 Ulysses S. Grant1 Shepard Knapp1 Mirabal Sisters1 Reed Lear1 Nicaragua1 Antony Sutton1

Claims made here

United States government supplied_arms_to Dominican Republic documented ▶ 8:39

“the Dominican Republic asked the Queen of Spain to come back after they'd kicked them out because there's so much internal turmoil going on. So then happened the War of Restoration. Eventually, we get…”

Theodore Roosevelt appointed United States government host_asserted ▶ 10:32

“because of the Monroe Doctrine and the fact that he was owned by the elite and the international syndicate, that he's going to impose U.S. administration of all Dominican customs, which is where they …”

Woodrow Wilson ordered_assassination_of Dominican Republic documented ▶ 12:07

“Our Marines die, their people die, and it just keeps going back and forth. So Wilson ordered another U.S. Marine expedition in 1916, which would seize their ports, their capital. And they retreated to…”

Shepard Knapp headed Dominican Republic documented ▶ 12:07

United States government installed Rafael Trujillo host_asserted ▶ 14:00

“by the name of Rafael Trujillo. It's T-R-U-J-I-L-L-O. And he's a very interesting guy. He ends up being installed in 1930 as a dictator, and he remains in power until 1961. And he did do, in his defen…”

Rafael Trujillo assassinated Mirabal Sisters documented ▶ 16:56

“Interestingly enough, at one point, Trujillo, he murders three of four sisters that were referred to as the butterflies. There's a whole story behind them. It's called Mirabal, M-I-R-A-B-A-L, sisters.…”

Rafael Trujillo attempted_assassination_of Venezuela host_asserted ▶ 17:54

“Trujillo made the ultimate mistake and reached out to because he's starting to get cut off by because he's doing these crazy ass things. He starts to get cut off by the US and they're starting to dist…”

CIA ordered_assassination_of Rafael Trujillo host_asserted ▶ 18:22

“We need to get rid of this guy. So, of course, that's kind of where we get into the part that I'm going to go over today, because they definitely get rid of him. He's assassinated. And there is a lot …”

William Black exposed Rafael Trujillo book_quoted ▶ 18:57

“CIA-inspired. So we're going to pick up there with this other source that I've been using that is called The Killing Hope, written by William Bloom. And he talks about Trujillo being a mass murderer, …”

United States government funded Rafael Trujillo book_quoted ▶ 19:53

“And had been part of his rise to power as well, because at any one time, the U.S. was intimately working with him over those 30 years. So there was no attempt to boycott him. There was no attempt to c…”

Fulgencio Batista installed Dominican Republic host_asserted ▶ 21:19

“When you tell a foreign country who they can and can't have as a president and you assassinate anybody that they want as their president that is actually elected, it makes people a little radical. Tha…”

Reed Lear ordered_assassination_of Rafael Trujillo book_quoted ▶ 23:18

“We do know that in the past, the American public has been manipulated through psychological operations and manipulation of the mockingbird press. So, in 1958, the CIA station chief in the Dominican Re…”

Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered_assassination_of Rafael Trujillo book_quoted ▶ 24:16

“It does say that the National Security Council special group in Washington gave consideration to a program of covert aid to anti-Trujillo Dominicans. Two months later, Eisenhower approved a contingenc…”

CIA trained Dominican Republic book_quoted ▶ 27:11

“where they set up Jonestown, just throwing that out there. It was literally right across the border, like they were running out of Jonestown to Venezuela after the Jonestown massacre in order to get o…”

CIA supplied_arms_to Dominican Republic book_quoted ▶ 27:39

“flown there from the U.S. and Puerto Rico by the CIA. The dissidents make numerous requests for weapons, sniper rifles, remote control detonating devices, you know, all the stuff like in the stay-behi…”

United States government trained Dominican National Guard book_quoted ▶ 29:02

“would not interfere militarily to prevent the assassination and would support them and recognize the new government afterwards. The Dominican Republic, where American Marines have landed on four separ…”

United States government trained Rafael Trujillo host_asserted ▶ 29:59

“And then it is the people within the National Guard slash military structure that rises up and becomes the new dictator, as in the case with Rafael Trujillo. It was during one of those Marine invasion…”

Felix Rodriguez member_of Rafael Trujillo host_asserted ▶ 32:18

“was sent away to boarding school in Pennsylvania from Cuba. He was from a very elite and prestigious family. And he took like a year out of that while he's in high school to go to the Dominican Republ…”

John F. Kennedy ordered_assassination_of Rafael Trujillo host_asserted ▶ 36:49

“a continuation of Trujillo regime or a Castro regime. We ought to aim at the first, but we really can't renounce the second until we are sure we can't avoid the third. Rafael Trujillo Jr. was clearly …”

Rafael Trujillo carried_out_attack Dominican Republic host_asserted ▶ 36:49

United States government installed Joaquín Balaguer host_asserted ▶ 37:20

“Resentment spilled over into the streets. By October, the protests were occurring daily and being put down by tanks. Students were being shot dead by government troops. The U.S. began to make moves fo…”

Joaquín Balaguer member_of Rafael Trujillo host_asserted ▶ 37:49

“with the Trujillo clan and the military leaders, and bluntly told them that U.S. military power would, if necessary, be used to compel the formation of a provisional government headed by Haquin Balagu…”

United States government supplied_arms_to Dominican Republic host_asserted ▶ 38:45

“The anti-communist liberals aren't strong enough. We must use our influence to take Balaguer along the road to democracy, unquote. To make certain that the Dominicans got the message, a U.S. naval tas…”

United States government removed_from_power Joaquín Balaguer host_asserted ▶ 40:18

“Not a good scene there. And the rest of the holdouts that had been the Troheolites left for Florida. However, when Balaguer proved to be a major obstacle to beginning the process of democratization an…”

John Bartlow Martin headed United States government host_asserted ▶ 41:07

“While a seven-man council of state administered the state of the government, the U.S. continued to treat the Dominican Republic as a private experiment of the prevention of communism. The American amb…”

United States government trained White Helmets host_asserted ▶ 42:08

“General Robert Kennedy arranged for riot control equipment to be sent to Santa Domingo. The equipment came complete with Spanish-speaking L.A. detectives to impart to their Dominican counterparts the …”

John Bartlow Martin covered_up Dominican Republic host_asserted ▶ 43:47

“Fiat was inescapable, a highly condescending intrusion into the affairs of a sovereign nation. His instructions extended down to the level of what the loser should say in his concession speech. Furthe…”

United States government recruited Jimmy 'Barbecue' Chérizier guest_asserted ▶ 53:30

“And when you are backed against that kind of wall, you know, you are going to take back your country. And I pray and hope that these people do succeed. However, again, NATO and the U.S., via a Caribbe…”

Antony Sutton exposed Bolsheviks host_asserted ▶ 56:27

“documented the flow of money from New York bankers and London bankers into Hitler and into the Bolshevik Revolution and into FDR. Those are the kind of things that I'm looking for. If you don't have t…”

Antony Sutton exposed Adolf Hitler host_asserted ▶ 56:27

Canada funded Haiti host_asserted ▶ 1:08:06

“in effect couldn't happen because in Haiti, they're not allowed to mine gold. So they were trying to get around the mining restriction and they did basically some tests and the contract was given to a…”

Canada supplied_arms_to Haiti host_asserted ▶ 1:08:06

Canada targeted_for_regime_change Haiti host_asserted ▶ 1:09:03

“And they were going to try to coerce or buy the officials to change the Constitution. And it is thought that that's the reason why they knocked off the previous president, not the recent prime ministe…”

Canada ordered_assassination_of Assassination of Iranian President host_asserted ▶ 1:09:03

United States government funded Haiti host_asserted ▶ 1:10:16

“Sorry, one more. It's funny what you said just brought this to mind. It's like they use Canada in the U.S. sort of like a good cop, bad cop. You know, the U.S. take the bad reputation of coming in and…”