The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 39 (41)

auto-scroll word highlight ▶ Rumble @ here

Transcript

0:09 Okay, let's get going. Holy crap.

3:51 Let me just start off the show by saying, thank God we have done our homework over the last three plus years. I'm just going to say that. If you go through that SPLC indictment, it's got Gladio written all over it. Like in every paragraph, it's crazy. It's absolutely crazy.

4:24 I'm going to talk about that tonight on Alpha's show at nine o'clock. So make sure that you're there. I just have to say one caveat. Remember at the end of the show yesterday, the one gal asked if we were making any headway. That was a major headway. Holy crap. Holy crap. Again, if.

4:55 If you know the stuff that we've covered over the last three plus years, you see it all unfolding right in front of us. It's like crazy tunes. Okay, back to our book. We're on page 452. We were talking yesterday about President Ford and the Tooney Amendment of them not spending any more.

5:28 And basically, all of this stuff is getting exposed in the 1970 timeframe with the CIA under the spotlight, blah, blah, blah. So that's where we're going to pick up. So President Ford had made a statement about the grave consequences of the Tooney Amendment passing.

5:58 and abandoning, quote unquote, our responsibility in Angola. Ford's statement laid the groundwork for a counterattack when the bill came before the House. But on December 21st, a provocative article appeared on the front page of the New York Times. Again, Seymour Hersh had details of the operation feature.

6:24 He also had the story that Ambassador Davis's resignation was directly tied to it. Driven by more leaks, discussions of it in GOLA just kind of took on a life of its own. Ford simultaneously engaged in a very public fight with committees investigating intelligence over whether their reports and findings could go public, including

6:54 a specific study of Angola from the Pike Committee. The church committee had recently released its report on CIA assassination plots, opening many eyes and increasing Ford's political difficulties on the issue of Angola. As the House bill moved forward, the president pulled out all stops. Press Secretary Ron Nesson notes in a January 1976 briefing that indicated careful

7:24 parsing of Angola questions and marching orders to reiterate Ford's position. On various occasions, Nissen's instructions were to claim that Washington knew nothing about South African troops being involved, that there had been no U.S. recruiting of mercenaries, tightened to become a denial of recruiting Americans, that Congress had been fully informed of all covert matters.

7:55 that he had nothing to say, or that he had nothing to say beyond Ford's and Kissinger's comments. When White House counts indicated probable defeat, the president himself phoned House leaders to delay the vote. Talking points prepared by Skrokov's staff show that Kissinger's visit to Moscow now served as an excuse for the postponement.

8:23 And that a delay of even a few days were considered helpful for the CIA to move arms and for the U.S. to explore alternative sources. So they're using a congressional delay to move the arms that are already in the pipeline. Ford got his delay, but the Tooney Amendment passed the House.

8:50 President Ford reluctantly signed it into law on February 9th, 1976. So intent is Kissinger on shifting blame that he argues, quote, with victory for the Cuban and Soviet forces in Angola, the geopolitical context for SALT was gone, unquote. Blame it on the Soviets and the Cubans.

9:16 Calamity befall the FNLA mercenaries, generally an undisciplined lot. They arrived in buses, ragtag clothing, and old weapons. As Dave Tompkins said, there were no maps. The mercenaries were led by a self-styled colonel who was an enlisted veteran.

9:43 of the British Parachute Regiment, who called himself Costa Giorgigo. Unbalanced, in the opinion of some, a good trooper, according to others, he had only 50 or 60 men. Tompkins understood that they, plus some black troops with them, were the entire FNLA army in northern Angola. 50 or 60. And we shipped.

10:15 millions of dollars of weapons to him. Well, not directly to them, to Zaire Mubatu and via South Africa. They never had a battle. He never saw a Cuban. Diakou cut a swath of murder and rampage across Zaire and Angola, culminating in the execution for

10:48 alleged desertion and misconduct of more than a dozen men in his own outfit. Others died as well. Among them was a real paramilitary expert, well regarded at Langley, George Bacon III, a Green Beret who had served in Vietnam and had done a tour for the CIA in Laos. Using the agency's cryptonym,

11:20 Kayak. Bacon received an intelligence medal for Laos, but quit in disgust at what he perceived to be Americans' betrayal of South Vietnam. He was a quote-unquote cowboy in the CIA tradition. He was very enthusiastic about Angola. Because again, these people are all told they're communists there. And we've been brainwashed to hate quote-unquote communists, whether they're communists or not.

11:51 or not. The mercenaries' demise came when the MPLA decided to advance and Garu tried to ambush them. Many were captured, including the leader being wounded and three Americans. In Luanda, the Angola government put them on trial. The self-styled colonel, American Daniel Gerhardt,

12:21 and two others were condemned to death. Nine men received long prison sentences. With 16-year terms for Americans, Gustavo Grillo, a Marine Corps veteran of the Battle of Hue, and Gary Actor, who was also a Vietnam veteran. The State Department barely acknowledged these men existed. There was...

12:49 A couple of attempts to secure their release, but no media attention, nothing. Gorillo, an actor, were finally freed in an Angola South African prisoner exchange in 1982. Mo Bato simply pocketed final payments given him for Roberto and Zebembe. The South Africans continued destabilizing Angola.

13:18 Thoroughly disillusioned, CIA officer John Stockwell resigned and went public. With the fiasco so recently revealed, it is not so surprising that Senator Church made strong charges on covert action in his committee's final report. Church also called Henry Kissinger a compulsive interventionist. The Tooney Amendment attached to a specific budget bill would soon expire.

13:48 Clark took a hand and proposed permanent legislation. It would be reported out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously. Highly unusual. It passed by a large majority in both houses of Congress, and in mid-1976, the Clark Amendment made the restriction an enduring one. In April 77, after a changeover of administrations with President Jimmy Carter, another White House meeting centered on what to do about Angola.

14:18 Afterwards, the CIA director went to Senator Clark with a proposal to funnel the rebel weapons through France. Not to not do it, but to use a proxy. Clark would have none of it, and the episode embarrassed President Carter, who publicly claimed he had only learned of the covert action scheme from the newspapers. That proved the end of the Angola operation.

14:47 The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence went on to do a year-long investigation of Project Feature. In the spring of 78, it concluded that the Ford administration had misled Congress on the scope of the operation, not revealing some activities and mischaracterizing others. Documented with cable traffic in official papers, the study confirmed that the CIA had indeed spent more than a million dollars to recruit mercenaries.

15:16 That despite standing orders, U.S. personnel had served inside Angola and that the CIA had been much closer to the South Africans than they admitted. The committee also singled out Henry Kissinger's November 21st, 1975 testimony to the church committee as misleading. The CIA denied the charges and tried to show congressional overseers where it had been briefed in various matters.

15:44 Colby maintained that the CIA had not conducted Angola the way it had Laos. Kissinger dismissed the inquiry as a smear job. Project feature, a product of the White House determination, had been a dismal failure. Again, those who attributed causation of the Angolan war to Moscow and Havana typically downplay the effect of the initial CIA program, which inflated Holden Roberto enough.

16:15 to think that he could break up the unity coalition before independence. Apologists also fudged the timing. The attacks that broke up the coalition preceded any Cuban or Soviet involvement. Thus, they overplayed the Cold War aspect. U.S. intervention brought the Cold War to Angola, not the other way around. While Langley made overt errors like...

16:44 Posing the initial program would have no fallout. The major mistakes were of policy. Conceiving Mubato as an effective ally and siding with South Africans were decisions that undermined the entire project from the beginning. The CIA correctly anticipated that the Soviet would respond and oppose the paramilitary program. It was nevertheless ordered to be conducted.

17:14 Those who argue the CIA would have won in Angola if only Congress had not cut off their money, could not get around the weaknesses of cooperating with Zaire and the deadliness of the alliance with the South African government. In addition, U.S. ignorance of Angola's conditions and its fixation on Roberto, given his lack of popular support, created obstacles to success.

17:43 The U.S. lacked in infrastructure for a decisive intervention, and geography precluded backing Roberto in Zimbabwe, except through other proxy states. The scale of the program is not the real question. The proper comparison is between the $100 million spent by Moscow in 1975 with the CIA's $32 million in Angola.

18:13 100 million in Zaire plus the funds committed by South African, which was substantial, Zaire, France, Britain, and the PRC, those numbers are not currently discoverable, but they definitely would outweigh the Soviet slash Havana contingent. The story of Angola, and that's just what we know about, that's not any of the covert funding. The story of Angola is that

18:43 Ford and Kissinger heard lots of advice to steer clear, yet chose to go straight for disaster. As for America and democracy, the Ford administration acted against it. There is no doubt that Roberto's FNLA and Zebembe's United and Netto's MPLA were in an uncomfortable coalition.

19:07 But at least it was a coalition and had the opportunity to fight it out at the ballot box. You know, that thing called democracy. Given Roberto, the advantage of CIA political action helped spark a civil war. And wading into the conflict not only proved short-sighted, but placed the U.S. on the wrong side, giving it a black eye throughout Africa. In addition, the Ford-Kissinger decisions further complicated.

19:38 Their problem's right in Washington, D.C. Why? Because they're in the middle of an investigation into the CIA while using the CIA in Angola. The events of the year of intelligence touched off a struggle to regulate U.S. intelligence, an effort that ebbed and flowed. Oversight is the game, which the executive branch, claiming there was too much of it, has the whole play more successfully.

20:09 in Congress. Legislatures on Capitol Hill, having created reporting requirements through the Hughes-Ryan Act, strengthened their monitoring by replacing the secret CIA subcommittees with permanent committees in both houses of Congress, which did basically nothing. Oversight did not bring the end to covert actions. On February 15, 1976,

20:35 The newly minted CIA director, George H.W. Bush, refused to say whether the Angola project had ended. In a later interview, Bush commented, quote, what happened in Angola was that a properly conceived program, one signed off by the policymakers and reported in accordance with the law to congressional intelligence committees, was leaked. And once it was leaked, it was aborted, unquote. Yeah.

21:06 That's how it happened. He also added, I think there is a role for covert action somewhere between inactivity and sending in troops. During the Ford administration, there was also covert action in Portugal and the Malagasy Republic, where an American ambassador who had been a career CIA officer was expelled following a puzzling series of musical chair.

21:36 military coups. Former agency officers take credit for putting in place a constitutional government, but the 1975 constitution, promulgated for the Democrat Republic, permitted only a single political party and remained in place until the fall of the government in 1991. In other words, it was a dictatorship, but we're going to call it a democracy. To this day, when the book was

22:10 written, it still remained classified, you know, because democracy has to be classified. If it was actually a democracy and success story, it would be the first and it wouldn't be classified because they'd be bragging about it. Oversight simply meant covert actions were reported and justified by a presidential finding, formerly known as a memorandum of notification.

22:39 Hughes-Ryan Act specified that all significant or anticipated actions by the CIA, not for intelligence gathering, had to be covered by a finding. The executive tried to limit oversight, particularly on covert operations. In December of 75, Special Counsel Mitchell Rogobin of the agency gave the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence a detailed

23:09 account of the CIA's position in which Langley construed a statutory basis for its activities, which is obviously a new change of heart since we already know during Truman, the legal counsel said they had not. The argument was that covert activities lays in the quote-unquote inherent powers of the president.

23:36 They had been conducted by presidents long before a CIA existed. Thus, the agency was not attempting any new powers. Rogovin also referred to such other functions. Provision of the 1947 Act, arguing Congress has never objected to those practices and always approved the agency's budgets to conduct them. Again,

24:08 that clause, such other functions, the CIA published a legal opinion saying that unless Congress gives them special authorization, i.e. money, that that's not legal. These claims are undercut by the legal opinion, which we just talked about, Lawrence Houston. Paradoxically,

24:35 By laying out reporting requirements for covert operations, the huge Ryan Amendment could be seen as authorizing them in the name of Congress. Whatever animosities William Colby had attracted, he had at least been a CIA professional. When George H.W. Bush took the helm at the end of January 76, there were grave doubts.

24:59 A Republican politician from Texas, Bush overcame those doubts, appearing at staff meetings and professing to have an aw shucks attitude. His mixture of quick appreciation and practical problem solving won over converts. Richard Helm, for one, had been a Colby supporter, but came away a fan of Bush. I bet he did.

25:25 And again, they're pretending that Bush does not have a long history with the CIA, which is bullshit as well. Genuine concern for the rank and file plus an international awareness Bush had honed as ambassador to the UN and to Beijing were the roots of his success. No, it was his long-term involvement with the CIA. Although not a great manager of CIA analytical role, you know the only thing that they're really supposed to be doing? He was a big advocate.

25:57 of covert operations. Bush's sensitivity to public relations and connections returned stability to Langley with an impression of White House support and an increase in agency morale in a move that curried favor among one agency faction throughout his time.

26:19 As CIA director, Bush resisted Justice Department demands to turn over material pertaining to Chile and ITT. The evidence necessary for a determination on whether to prosecute Richard Helms. So, that endeared Bush, right? Long-term CIA operative. Hey, we're going to continue hiding all of our...

26:49 dirty laundry and not give it to the DOJ. Within weeks of Bush entering the director suite, President Ford issued an executive order on the intelligence community, billed at the time as a major reorganization. In fact, the move amounted to tweaking. Its major purpose was to head off congressional action against the CIA. The executive order responded partly to the excesses revealed in the year of intelligence.

27:20 partly to a set of a dozen suggestions Bush had made as he prepared to take over. In early 76, Ford's executive order 11905 became the first public regulations ever to describe the function of the U.S. intelligence and restrictions. The order prohibited assassinations enshrining directive Colby had issued. It replaced the 40 committee with an operations advisory group,

27:50 Just another renaming of the same thing. And all they did was sublet assassinations. It placed decisions in the hands of cabinet members, not deputies. The attorney general continued as a member while the White House budget director became an observer. Telephone concurrence, at least, was prohibited. Oh, we must have eavesdropping by now.

28:22 Covert operations were defined as those intended to further U.S. policies abroad. Ford also put fresh people on the Presidential Intelligence Advisory Board. The CIA would concentrate administrative functions under a new deputy and elevate its community role with a second. At Langley, Director Bush turned the improbable trick of raising morale while purging leadership.

28:52 Inside half a year, Bush changed 11 of the top 14 CIA officials. Some he transferred, a few he promised he promoted. Others retired and Bush brought a couple back in from the outside. Okay, so this is just a shuffling of chairs and the ones that left basically went into proprietary or contract status. So basically no change.

29:21 When he spoke of excesses, Bush typically referred to outside investigations of the CIA, not his agency's activities. He deplored the effects of the Washington spectacle on CIA relations with foreign services. To reinvigorate those associations, Bush tried to convey an impression of receptivity and keep hands off foreign operations.

29:51 which of course we know they didn't do. On his watch, the intelligence services of the Southern Cone nations moved strongly on Operation Condor and assassinated Orlando Latier in Washington on his watch. You know, no assassinations, well, except that one and the others.

30:18 and Operation Condors in full swing, which is basically the overthrowing of all of Latin American countries and installing dictators that killed tens of thousands of people, tortured them. Oh, and don't forget the use of the Nazis in the middle of that, which I'm sure George Bush didn't have any problem with at all since his family is directly tied to them. In fact,

30:51 During the Bush period, actions against dissidents in the U.S. was carried out by the intelligence services of Iran, the Philippines, South Korea, and Israel inside the U.S. under George H.W. Bush. The CIA, during his tenure, recruited Manuel Noriega.

31:25 the guy that he will overthrow when he's president. Throwing a few military KIAs in the mix. He recruited Manuel Noriega as CIA director. And then in, I think it was 1992, orders the CIA and the military to go down there and overthrow him. There remained the matter.

32:01 of Director of Operations. The DO still seemed bloated from the Vietnam War. The question of realigning it was a major agenda item. The consensus on the need to do this had existed in the CIA since Schlesinger's time. In 1974, a management study for William Colby had advised the agency to shed its covert operations mission completely.

32:28 Another, completed in 76, recommended cutting the DO by 1,350 officers over a five-year period. That spring, Deputy Director William Nelson sent Bush a memo about moving ahead on reductions. As Nelson later described it to journalists, quote, there were a lot of people in the DO who were marginal performers. We needed quality, not quantity.

32:59 I told him that the lower 25% should be identified and should be encouraged to seek other employment. I said we owe these people a lot, but not a lifetime job. Unquote. Bush would think about it. He told Nelson, but he put the paper in the round file, meaning the trash can. Although Director Bush never disavowed reductions, he made no move to initiate them.

33:28 A few months later, he selected E. Henry Nock over Nelson to be the deputy director. Nelson retired. That opened up the deputy director of operations position for which Bush chose William Wells, a experienced officer who had served in the OSS. Wells had been close to both William Colby and Tom.

33:59 and had spent his agency career on the Far East operations after selling kerosene lamps in China before the big war. Representative, so he's a Chiang Kai-shek fan. Representative of the very group who stood to be phased out, Wells happily went along with Bush doing nothing to reduce personnel. As associate,

34:31 Deputy Director of Operations, meanwhile, Bush elevated secret warrior Ted Shackley. In a memoir published at the time, Ray Klein advocated taking the covert operations function away from the CIA and giving it to the Pentagon. George Bush opposed this idea. Of course.

34:56 By far the most serious situation to confront Bush during his time at Langley was the Lebanese Civil War. Fighting broke out there in the spring of 75 and was stifled temporarily by Syrian mediation and then intervention. But a year later, the Maronite Christians and Muslim sects were back at arms. Next to Indochina. This had become Langley's biggest headache.

35:25 In 75, Division Chief David Blee promoted his deputy, Claire George, to chief of station in Beirut, then considered a prestigious assignment. George was a skilled street man, relaxed ballroom dancer. He needed all the dexterity in Beirut.

35:52 On June 16th, 76, the new American ambassador, Francis Malloy Jr. died under a hell of bullets on his way to a very first meeting with the president-elect of Lebanon. With him perished his driver and an embassy economic counselor, which may or may not have been CIA.

36:19 George scrambled to figure out whether the murders had been some insane mistake or an act against the U.S. It turned out that Malloy had been abducted before being killed. The next day, President Ford held an NSC meeting, considered evacuating Americans from Lebanon. Director Bush briefed the CIA's latest information, which was bleak. Ford decided to pull out.

36:50 The evacuation would be carried out by the U.S. Navy. The CIA scored a coup here because it had established a relationship with the PLO. And the PLO security forces now furnished protection for the maneuver, which had already ordered evacuation of CIA families from Beirut. Now, Claire George had to pull out the agency officers themselves. The operations center at Langley set up a special area.

37:18 to monitor the pullout. In the middle of the night, Bush came to watch along all of the other DO officers. The move was successful. For a time, the Beirut station worked out of Athens, Greece. That fall, the Arab League placed a deterrent force in Lebanon, which became the origins of the Syrian occupation that went on for decades. The CIA returned.

37:48 to Beirut. Jerry Ford faced the Lebanon crisis in the middle of his political campaign for re-election in 76. He lost that election to Jimmy Carter. During the hard-fought campaign, Carter several times indicated suspicion of the CIA. A climate of apprehension prevailed at Langley when he came to office. As for George Bush, the director,

38:20 He indicated to Jimmy Carter, which we've covered before, that he wanted to stay on as CIA director because he was going to be the fly in the ointment. But Jimmy Carter said no. Much of 76 passed as Congress set up the machinery for intelligence oversight. Legislation containing intelligence charters were considered during the Carter administration from 78 to 80, but it never passed.

38:53 Meanwhile, the congressional support for regulatory action on intelligence peaked during Carter's middle years. When the charters were taken up at hearings, the vast majority of CIA professionals testified against excessive restrictions on covert action. Imagine that. Witnesses at various hearings included figures like George H.W. Bush, John McComb, Richard Helms.

39:22 William Colby, Dick Bissell, Tom Karamanenis, David Ackley Phillips, and General Richard Stilwell. You know, all the guys deeply up to their eyeballs in covert operations don't want you to stop them. Outpacing Congress, the White House sees the initiative on intelligence reform. President Jimmy Carter continued Ford's practice of intelligence regulation through executive order.

39:53 with one that he signed in 78. The assassination ban continued. The decision-making body became the special coordinating committee of the NSC. Again, just a new name. The covert action definition narrowed somewhat to include only those conducted abroad. Why would you have to put that in there? Only those conducted abroad. They're not allowed to be in the United States.

40:29 That tells you everything. Typical activities approved by Carter's NSC group, Special Coordination Committee, SCC, during the period included the provision of training and special communication equipment to the leaders of Egypt and Sudan for their personal security and an anti-Cuba propaganda campaign in the Horn of Africa. Hank.

41:01 Knox stayed on for six months into the Carter administration. He later recalled that the presidential findings were signed. Copies went to the congressional oversight committees. I never presented a finding to any of these committees, he said, but what there wasn't a whole range of questions and answers covering an hour or two and usually a lot of fuminating like

41:31 Who in the world wants to do this or that? In other words, Congress asked way too many questions. The White House created a fresh mechanism to monitor operations called the Intelligence Oversight Board. Much later, in the heat of the Iran-Contra affair, it would be revealed that the Intelligence Oversight Board had never conducted a single investigation.

42:03 Probably not an oversight board. Two of the three members, though, former Ambassador Robert Murphy and Leo Schoen, came right out of the Presidential Intelligence Advisory Board. Schoen, having been its most recent chairman, James Farmer ran the Intelligence Oversight Board for Carter. The Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board itself.

42:34 was abolished by Carter. So again, we've just changed names. At first, the Carter administration had no great appetite for covert action. Postponing the day of reckoning between congressional oversight and executive power, Carter nonetheless defended executive primacy. He supported legislation to repeal Hughes-Ryan and reduce CIA reporting to two standardized

43:08 Intelligence committees of Congress. Carter also made use of a gambit innovated by Kissinger and Ford. Blanket findings to justify in advance all covert operations concerning terrorism, narcotics, and counterintelligence. From the oversight standpoint, once this device became accepted, there's literally no oversight.

43:40 Just do a blanket one, then you can't be held accountable. As in many matters during the years in the White House, Carter was frustrated in his first choice of CIA Director Theodore Sorensen. Carter's nominee had to withdraw when his nomination ran into congressional opposition. Next, Carter turned to Admiral Stanfield Turner, a Navy officer, then NATO commander in Italy. Not reassuring.

44:11 Turner and Carter had been classmates at Annapolis. Although regulations forced him to retire from the Navy to accept the offer, Turner took the DCI job. Despite being able, Turner was an outsider to Langley and remained unpopular. He gained no friends like Peter Goss early in the 21st century. Turner showed up with a...

44:42 cadre of mostly former intelligence officer or naval officers as his inner staff one rusty williams did a global evaluation for the directorate of operations visiting stations poking into all manner of things the rumor mill buzzed with accusations that he um regaled

45:08 the front office with innuendos about people's escapades abroad. You know, came home and actually told what was going on. Any chance of Turner being accepted evaporated with the staffing reductions. Although the DO passed its evaluation, those personnel studies from the Bush era that were still on board needed to...

45:39 face basically justifying their existence. When the director asked Bill Wells what ought to be done, the deputy director of operations did not oppose reductions. Admiral Turner quickly cut back planned staff reductions by more than a third. To cut the time of hysteria, the director shortened the layoffs from five years to two.

46:07 while more than 800 staff slots were dropped. The CIA director insisted there was almost entirely at the headquarters. Some sources report a quarter were in the field. Turner said there was none in the field. And then the remainder were support jobs. Plus, most of the reductions came from early retirement or attrition. The real findings was minimal.

46:40 actually forced only about 150 officers into retirement, Cord Myers being one of them, supposedly only actually had to fire 17, although the DO declined from its Vietnam War peak of about 7,500 to roughly 4,750. That total is rather close.

47:07 to the strength in the mid-60s at 5,500. There was actually more reductions under Schlesinger and Colby, but the handling of the cutbacks were abysmal. Turner allowed himself to be convinced that the CIA would avoid legal liability by simply serving pink slips rather than graciously commending officer service, which might furnish grounds to question the personnel actions.

47:38 Retirements were dictated by edict. Personnel officers went through their files and called the oldest and the bottom 5% performers. The latter by taking the lowest ranked officers within their grade. The old hands were the most numerous. 92% of those let go were over age 40.

48:07 with the most experience and usually at least one language. Some young officers were also part of the cut. At least one, dismissed from the European station, hired Mitchell Rogovin back in private practice, showed that his rankings had been based on differences with the CIA station chief who wrote his efficiency reports, and he was eventually rehired to avoid a lawsuit.

48:37 In experience at Langley, the admiral did not know he had been set up. Turner's strategy gained the CIA director no friends and alienated the clandestine service. President Carter could not miss the torrent of complaints reflected in media reporting. He asked Pennsylvania Governor William Scranton to look at the CIA personnel mess. Scranton gave Admiral Turner a pass.

49:06 That did not stop officers from blaming him. Many would agree that the DO's Floyd Paceman, who writes, quote, our collection capacity was decimated, unquote. Turner would argue it had been improved. Some sided with him. Tom Gilligan, who had served both in stations and undercover, believes that Turner's decision to cut

49:32 evenly from the top and bottom, made more sense than any plan before. Turner himself believes that he should have done the same as George Bush. Nothing. Just pass on the problem. The cutback issue played out over years. So did an unsavory scandal over former DO officer Edwin Wilson, who had, that began within a few weeks of Turner becoming the DCI. Now again,

50:04 We've went over the Edwin Turner multiple times in past shows. I firmly believe this was part of the discrediting of Turner because of the timing and the fact that Wilson had been associated with a Navy secret project of mapping harbors and ports.

50:34 all over the world using a fake company. And of course, that infringed upon the CIA's jurisdiction. And I believe that it was kind of a retribution attempt at Turner and Carter. The Wilson scandal added to criticisms of the Admiral, who felt obliged in the course of it to replace

51:03 Hank knock and discipline Ted Shackley, a Wilson associate, as well as fire a couple of other officers. He stepped in it. Then there was the denouncement of the Helm affair. Admiral Turner found Helms very defensive when they met. Little wonder. The forces that had stalled the Justice Department in this matter were eroding. Prosecutors had impaneled a grand jury in late 1976.

51:35 Carter took office. They loved doing that. Helms was told he was a target of the inquiry. The secret document issued persisted until the fall of 77. The CIA had turned over 60 documents to justice, but they could not be given to the grand jury until declassified. Bush stalled all of it. There was no evidence whether Turner had a direct role, but Helms' indictment went forward in September.

52:05 That November, Helms pleaded no contest to two counts of perjury. Declared guilty, he received a suspended sentence and a fine collected from former comrades in cash donations one afternoon at a country club lunch. In other words, they used covert money to pay his fine. No matter Turner's role, he could not but suffer a CIA veteran's bristling treatment that was metered out.

52:36 due to Helms actually facing justice for lying. Imagine that. One little shred of justice and its immediate attacks on the CIA director who is viewed by the cadre as responsible for metering out a small ounce of justice.

53:06 And Richard Helms was guilty of so many things, to include lying. It is to Director Turner's credit that he persisted and did what he could to make the community more responsible. In the DO, Turner brought forward John McMahon, whose background lay in technical intelligence, on a temporary assignment in charge of the intelligence community staff. He impressed Turner so much that in 78, Turner...

53:37 had him replace Bill Wells. Everywhere Turner sought to manage the colossus giant, clandestine service officer, DeWayne Claridge, never slow to criticize weakness, credits Turner while trying to transform the director of operations into the lead manager of a directorate, leaving behind his traditional role as spy chief. McMahon,

54:07 as Deputy Director of Operations, played his own part, among other things, reinvigorating field training for ops officers at Camp Perry and personally selecting graduates' assignments. Admiral Turner conceded in a later interview that he had not paid much attention to the DO as the service wanted, but he certainly had not ignored it. Still, the former

54:34 CIA director recalled, quote, being confident that the organization was not out of control was not the same as feeling that it was adequately under control. Unquote. Very well said, Admiral. As the congressional oversight, Stansfield Turner.

54:55 felt it was a positive benefit to the CIA, a view decidedly unconventional at the time. He strongly resisted prior notification of covert operations to Congress. He also advocated restricting reporting to the intelligence committees and adopted harsh strictures against leaks. Most of this Congress yielded with the Intelligence Oversight Act of 1980. Passed as an amendment to the fiscal 1981 budget,

55:24 back when we actually still did budgets, repealing the Hughes-Ryan Act. Congress did insist on being fully and currently informed and got some definition of elements that belonged in the proper finding. Senators who wanted a comprehensive intelligence charter gave up. As one of the policy review initiatives, Carter ordered a study of intelligence, which was completed in February of 77, although it centered on

55:55 resource allocation, and responsiveness to the president and other consumers, the review gave some attention to covert operations. The chief consequence was an expression of interest in developing the new standard doctrine, but the paper saw procedures for controlling actions as adequate. Carter Review also observed that the procedures not only maintained, but should be put into statute.

56:26 The administration's willingness to concede on this issue remained untested. Meanwhile, the DO stayed in business. Leary of covert operations, as Carter may have been, his national security advisor, Brzezinski, demanded action. You know, being a Kissinger Rockefeller buddy, he's definitely going to be in the game. Robert Gates served during this period.

56:52 successively as CIA analyst, special assistant to Turner, and NSC staff director for intelligence. Robert Gates dealt with both Brzezinski and his deputy, David Aaron. He recalls, quote, the most frequent criticism of the CIA that I heard was its lack of enthusiasm for covert action and its lack of imagination and boldness in implementing the president's

57:21 findings, unquote. What the hell? Preoccupied with his duties as manager of the intelligence community as a whole, Admiral Turner left the covert action role to his deputy, Frank Carlucci. Within two months of his arrival at the White House, Brzezinski, who had a major interest in nationality questions as an avenue to breaking up the Soviet Union, yeah.

57:51 had already begun insisting on new propaganda efforts to reach into Russia. These White House demands were slow to garner momentum, in part because Brzezinski first tried to work through the CIA's Soviet East European Division, whose expertise lay in running spies. Richard Stolz headed the division at the time, and he had only numbered

58:20 among the anointed spy chiefs, but had several successful espionage penetration into the Soviet Union. Once Brzezinski connected with the covert action staff, propaganda projects began to move. Paul Hintz seconded from CIA to NSC staff to help Brzezinski on intelligence. He had an extensive background on propaganda and political action.

58:49 Underground literature that Soviet dissidents knew received a boost from the CIA's Xerox machines. Russian exiles in Western Europe and elsewhere got help from the agency for more formal publishing efforts. Toward the end of 77, the agency established that the Russians were running their own propaganda operation to stoke up anti-nuclear opposition in Western Europe. Langley worked to expose.

59:20 Moscow's activity with journalists. Findings were also approved for operations against pro-Cuban government in Grenada, pro-Cuban government, a political action in Jamaica, and actions in Nicaragua and El Salvador, as those governments faced guerrilla movements.

59:50 Some of these findings occasioned strong objections when they were described to the oversight committees in Congress. But there is no recorded instance in which covert action was called off due to congressional complaints. In late 79, the Carter administration signed a finding authorizing the CIA to block Cuban activities.

1:00:16 across all of Latin America, which was like writing them a blank check. Turner wanted the capability in reserve and wished to avoid squandering it on insignificant moves. He preferred highly directed operations, such as the one mounted in East African country to recover certain equipment from a downed aircraft. Carlucci had been especially identified.

1:00:46 with a paramilitary venture in concert with the British and, for the first time, Saudi Arabia that began in South Yemen in February of 79, when that country attacked North Yemen. Turner is reported to have thought this project ridiculous, but others wanted to forge ahead. Vice President Walter Mondale, formerly a senator and member of the church committee, supported the effort.

1:01:18 The CIA recruited several dozen Yemenis and formed two strike teams, one of which set up in the Yemeni prisons. Secret warriors terminated the operation at that point. The U.S. had spent $390 million in military aid to North Yemen and eventually helped broker a unification of the two states in 1990.

1:01:48 $390 million in Yemen. By 1980, the pendulum had swung from restraining the rogue elephant to unleashing the CIA. International events, as well as public opinion, account for much of the impetus. Foreign developments especially affected the debate over the role of covert operations and the control of them. The advent of the human rights as a foreign policy, yeah.

1:02:18 The rising incident of terrorism. Oh, yeah. So if you need justification to grow covert operations, let's have a few terrorist acts. The fall of the Shah of Iran and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. So CIA, CIA, CIA, CIA, CIA. Because Bush did not retire. Bush did not go away.

1:02:46 Bush took all of the people that were leaving the CIA covert operations and set up an independent, as well as Brian Cozier over in Europe set up that 6i, 6.1, depending on what format you're reading about him, their own private intelligence organizations, the Savari Club, blah, blah, blah.

1:03:12 So we can go around and do whatever kind of crap we want and then force the U.S. government to respond to it. Human rights, the enshrinement of which proved to be Jimmy Carter's foreign policy, at first appears antithetical to covert operations. Indeed, not a policy issue at all. Certainly, many of the times resisted thinking of human rights abroad as a policy goal.

1:03:41 But in fact, that goal could easily be manipulated to cloak cynical aims, as Brzezinski did with his effort to destabilize Russia through its nationalities. The succeeding Reagan administration would be especially adept at this to justify covert action. The rise in terrorism

1:04:07 on which Carter administration took a hard line, led to renew attention to military special warfare forces. This ended the post-Vietnam doldrums of the special forces. They had fallen to only 3,600 in three groups, all deployed in the U.S., with detachments in Europe and the Far East, plus a battalion in Panama.

1:04:31 Reserve and Guard units assumed the bulk of special operation missions with a force level of 5,800. Anti-terrorism provided a new rationale to conduct counterinsurgencies. Imagine that. Talk about the self-licking ice cream cone. With the support of the Chief of Staff, General Edward Meyer, the Army formed two... Hold on.

1:05:03 Elite commando units, Blue Light and Delta. These initiatives received personal attention from Brzezinski. The third development was the fall of the Shah of Iran. What followed in its wake? Policymakers and intelligence analysts either refused to recognize the Shah's growing vulnerability or would not agree on what to do about it. Carter at one point complained to Turner Brzezinski.

1:05:32 and Cyrus Vance, which was his Secretary of State, about the poor quality of political intelligence regarding Iran. Similarly, more detailed criticism emerged from a House Intelligence Committee study repeated extensively in the press and of public opinion leaders. The Iran crisis of 78 through 80 ended by calling into question U.S. special warfare capability.

1:06:04 Diplomats were unable to preserve friendly relations with the Islamic Republic under the Ayatollah Khomeini. As already recounted, Iranian militants took over the U.S. embassy on November 4th. National Security Advisor Brzezinski ordered preparations for a rescue mission. Secretary of State Vance strongly resisted a resort to force.

1:06:31 In Tehran, the militants released 13 blacks and women hostages and later freed one man, Richard Queen, who had contracted MS during captivity. Otherwise, diplomatic efforts were of no avail. On January 29th, 1980, when the Canadians smuggled six...

1:06:59 Americans out of their embassy in Tehran, Director Turner gave no prior notice to the intelligence committees who were briefed hours after the Americans were out of the country. The pushing at the envelope of newly established congressional oversight allowed it to pass this time because it was a good thing. The losses at Desert One, the failed helicopter.

1:07:27 Rescue mission obliged Carter through the sec-deaf Harold Brown. Yeah, he comes back up later in the Clinton administration, Harold Brown. And the Joint Chiefs of Staff to reveal the existence of Operation Eagle Claw. The Carter administration faced ridicule on many quarters. Cyrus Vance, who perhaps had earned the right to criticize, remained charitably silent.

1:07:56 Nevertheless, Carter continued to maintain a military option as part of his search on what to do about the hostage crisis. Okay, we're going to stop right there. So, we just have like...

1:08:32 during the Trump administration is how many people we've had imprisoned in other countries. And yet you hear that expression, hostage crisis, get thrown around periodically. Is it only a crisis when they need news media attention? Well...

1:08:54 Given the fact that we've had hostages like those two guys, Robert Fectow or Downey and the Fectow guy were hostages in China for 20 years and you never heard boo about them in the media because if you did, then you would have figured out that the CIA had been running ops into South China via Chiang Kai-shek in Taiwan.

1:09:22 Nothing was ever said about them. So I'm going to say yes. The people that have been held prisoner that are mercenaries, you never hear anything about them that are basically employed by the CIA. When they get caught overseas, you never hear anything about them. So it's only an emergency when you want to use it to your advantage. Great observation, Bridget. Thank you.

1:09:51 But yeah, that's what, you know, because it's an expression, I guess, I grew up with. You know, I remember hostage crisis, hostage crisis. And it's like, you know, we have a lot of people being held in other countries. And it only becomes a hostage crisis whenever, well, somebody's up for re-election. Yes, that's true. Very true. Warhamster, did you want to jump in?

1:10:26 Yeah, it did. Really fun chapter. That whole period, like 75 through 77, it's just remarkable how close we came to actually cleaning house and failed to do so. Bush was put in, CIA absolutely to block a bunch of stuff that was coming out. I'm reminded of the show that we did recently on Operation Mockingbird and those videos I unearthed about the Pike Committee. It's just so damning.

1:10:55 But it was an opportunity missed in so many ways. But the information was out there. And then for the last 50 years, Congress has basically sat on their hands and done nothing. And there's been no accountability whatsoever. So that tells you, you know, now we see all these CIA agents, you know, running for Congress, including right here in my own backyard. I mean, it's amazing that these illegal operators from the CIA who, you know.

1:11:24 basically are not supposed to be conducting operations, period, in the domestic United States, are continuing to run their ops at levels as high as Congress. I mean, this should disgust everybody, and it should be really alarming. But I really recommend people, if you haven't seen the Operation Mockingbird video that the colonel and I did, it really is worth a watch, and it's complimentary to what she's talking about right here. So if you follow me on X, I'm going to post that video.

1:11:52 On my own timeline, I'll tag the colonel too so you can retweet it. Awesome. So yeah, really fascinating chapter. Some of the names that keep being recycled. Yeah, and it's interesting because that kind of dovetails into what Bridget was saying too. The media plays a role in hyping hostage crisis, hostage crisis. And they also cover up when CIA...

1:12:19 operations go bad and Americans are killed or captured because hostage crisis at that point becomes not advantageous to the CIA. It would expose them. And so these people are pawns when it comes to things like that, which should disturb everybody. Yeah.

1:12:49 Great point. Well, just like the thing you posted about the ones caught down in Mexico that you posted just recently. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Travis, go ahead. Two things. First, to touch on what Warhamster said about CIA and Congress. If you want to look at a CIA state, I mean, the governor, the secretary of state,

1:13:23 all of our congressmen, mayors of the bigger cities. Look at New Mexico. Really look at New Mexico. It's pretty much a CIA black site. Ever since they brought von Braun and a thousand Nazi schoolteachers here from 1945 through 1948.

1:13:55 Second thing, I wanted to say the eight Iranian women that were scheduled to be executed this morning, four of them have been released. The other four had their sentences commuted to one month. That's all. Thank you. Thank you. Stella, go ahead. Well, I'm noticing that they use the hostage crisis mainly for Iran, but were those other things that happened?

1:14:25 in Beirut, like the Olympic thing or like the airplane stuff, were those all like beta tests for the bigger ones, like the Iran-Contra and Jimmy Carter stuff with the, you know, embassy stuff? I mean, it sounds like everything is just nothing but CIA and other dark operatives. So I don't know about the beta test aspect of it, but the point.

1:14:54 I think that needs to be made is that when hostages are taken, when it plays to the CIA's advantage, it's a crisis. When hostages or people are arrested in foreign countries doing nefarious things associated with the CIA and destabilization.

1:15:22 It's not even, it may be reported on page 12 in section F of a newspaper, if at all. And it's not a crisis. It's not treated as a crisis. It's not front page news because then everybody would say, what were they doing in that country? And people would pay attention to the potential trials and those types of things.

1:15:52 which happened in Angola. So if they don't want attention drawn to it, it's not publicized because they control the media. When it's to the CIA's advantage to manipulate us to increase funding or to stop legislation that would thwart the CIA's activity and make us sympathetic to whatever it is that they want to do,

1:16:20 It's front page news. It's on every television station. Moneypenny, go ahead, and then we'll go back to Warhamster. Hi there. Just quickly, I recently have been re-watching the Snowden films. There's a couple of them. And obviously the Julian Assange ones, the WikiLeaks, where there is obviously that big question of being in a foreign country and potentially, you know, if you touch...

1:16:53 back into the United States, you're suddenly under arrest again. So with Snowden, did the CIA have more leverage or more control over that than the US government or another legal authority? What is the hierarchy of legal control in that sort of situation? And ask your question again.

1:17:15 and in allowing him back into the yeah well no not allowing him edward snowden was effectively in hong kong when he whistled all about the nsa and everything that was corrupt um he then went to russia where he was actually given uh permission to stay in russia for a year

1:17:35 But the whole time the U.S. were trying to get him back. If they'd have caught him in an airport, apparently they could have got him and taken him back to the U.S. But what is the hierarchical legal structure? Is it the CIA, the NSA, the FBI or the U.S. government has the legal right to do that to somebody? So what they do in the cases that I've looked in.

1:18:00 And when we did the Venezuela coup book that Anya wrote, the legal authority is whatever they want it to be to include backdated Interpol arrest warrants. So in the case that she talked about was the quasi-ambassador.

1:18:26 from Venezuela traveling to the Middle East to arrange oil for food exchanges to get food to Venezuela because of the U.S. sanctions. And he made a gas stop in Africa and the U.S. paid this country that has no extradition treaty with the United States at all to arrest him.

1:18:55 spent months in jail there. One of his parents died while he was under arrest. And then Pompeo got a backdated Interpol arrest warrant to justify that country who has no extradition treaty to turn him over to the US. And we sent a plane and picked him up. So military aid and foreign assistance. The US has the ability.

1:19:24 to intimidate any country into complying with anything they want to do, period. And those things are normally done through the CIA and the State Department. And they will privately tell the country that we will withhold all aid. And they understand because USAID at the time was such big money.

1:19:53 to corrupt leaders in countries that the turning off of the spigot and potential sanctions in addition to that will destroy your country. And so they are bullied into complying with all edicts from the State Department of the United States. Does that help? Not really in terms of the Snowden thing.

1:20:22 Would it have been the CIA that had more authority to get him back to the US than the US government or the NSA? They work in tandem. The State Department and the CIA are not inseparable. They work in tandem with each other. We think of them on an org chart as being completely separate. They are not.

1:20:45 The CIA could enforce something then just as much as any other intel agency and or the Pentagon, the White House. Yes. All the same, is it? Yes. I mean, there would be official U.S. people there to turn them over. But generally speaking, the arrangements are made through CIA and State Department officials in that country.

1:21:14 U.S. Marshals will show up to take him into custody or the Coast Guard or whatever, but depending on what the situation is, but that's all arranged at a much higher level. If I'm not mistaken, I don't think the CIA has any legal authority over U.S. citizens, especially when they're abroad. That's not what I'm suggesting.

1:21:41 They do all of the preliminary bullying of the foreign government. And then a U.S. Marshal or a Coast Guard, if it's at sea or whatever, they step in to actually execute the formal exchange of the person or whatever. But the right person will show up, whether it's the FBI, because the FBI works internationally as well.

1:22:08 All of that is greased or arranged prior to the person coming to actually take custody of the person. So you're suggesting that the CIA sometimes does things it doesn't have the authority to do? That's just crazy. Well, I'm not – I don't even think it's – I wouldn't have said it that way. The CIA, based on the direction that it is given from –

1:22:35 the State Department and the White House, they're not stepping outside their bounds of authority by telling the officials in that country that you're going to lose everything and we're going to sanction you because that's what the US government told me to tell you. So as much as I hate the CIA, I'm not even suggesting they're outside their boundaries. They're doing exactly what they're directed to do.

1:23:04 Now, do they step outside their boundaries? Hell yeah. But in the case of the, I wish I could remember his name. It's a very simple name. But in the cases that I've researched, they are doing exactly what the U.S. government wants them to do. I'm trying to remember the name of the American freelance journalist who died in the Ukraine like a year or two ago, Gonzalo Lira. Yeah.

1:23:37 That is one of the things that's very clearly a case of someone CIA wanted gone. Yes. And they used Ukrainian proxies to do it. Yes, 100%. That's the over the line, out of bounds stuff. And that is still such a tragedy. Yes. I enjoyed Gonzalo Lira's reporting quite a bit. Yes. He was one of those investigative journalists that would risk his life to go tell a story no one else was brave enough to do.

1:24:08 Yeah. The other comment I was going to make earlier is I think Stella mentioned something about, you know, the former previous events like at the Olympics and stuff like that. You know, we've got the World Cup and the Olympics coming to American soil, American shores here in the next year or so. I am quite concerned that we're going to get some kind of whether false flag or real event is going to occur. The security of these events is impossible and it is a really precarious time.

1:24:37 That's kind of, it's a little off topic here, but that is something that I'm, I mean, I will see what happens. Anything's possible with these guys. Yeah, the political turmoil right now, I mean, everything's at stake right now for the statists. The 2030 census is going to absolutely wipe out Democrat control. And obviously the Democrats and CIA are very politically aligned.

1:25:06 That's why they're going for it so hard. You saw stuff like this in Virginia. I don't know if anybody saw this yet, but a Virginia court has already overturned the election from last night because it was done on unconstitutional, according to Virginia constitutional grounds. And this will be decided at the Virginia Supreme Court, and it should not stand the new redistricting that passed yesterday. It'll probably be overturned, and it's now been stayed. It can't go into effect. They'll fast track it.

1:25:34 But you're going to see more desperate ploys for power of these 2026 midterms in the 2028 election. They're going to go for all the marbles. And if they do get into power, they're not they're going to do things just like Spanberg is doing in Virginia to make sure that they can never lose power again. And, you know, this is these next four years are going to be about the most dangerous our country has ever faced. Yeah, because if that occurred, there would be a civil war.

1:26:02 I'd like to push back against the term civil war because people think about North-South, stuff like that. No, I know, but I'm just saying that it would be almost impossible to stop people from taking matters into their own hands, even at a local level, when they see what they would interpret the government being aggressively unconstitutional.

1:26:32 Yeah, I mean still in the 2020 election, a lot of people thought that would be enough. But at some point in time, people are going to get pushed too far. Yes. And I've talked to enough people that would never want to engage in legitimate – oh, I don't want to use the word sedition because it wouldn't be, be fighting, sticking up for your damn constitution. But people are getting pushed pretty hard right now. Correct. But the constitution even allows that even though they try to.

1:27:01 intimidate us by the use of the word sedition, that when your government is out of control, you have a duty to, a constitutional duty to push back on it. Well, that's why they had to try to shove in the insurrectionist narrative down our throats on January 6th. Correct. Yeah, we're the most well-armed civilian population in history, and we decided to overthrow the government and left our guns at home? Yes. Screw you. You're not selling that narrative.

1:27:29 I watched a Senate judiciary hearing yesterday where some stupid Democrat senator was trying to get these guys, doing a full Soviet struggle session, asking the question, who won the 2020 election? Yes. What was January 6th? And these guys are giving good answers, but they never give the right one about the 2020 election. And it's really simple. And I posted this on X yesterday. I saw it. It's really, really simple. There are enough anomalies in the 2020 election.

1:27:59 that we should be asking questions, and they're reasonable questions. The fact that you will not let us ask those questions tells us all we need to know. Correct. Agent Farmer, go ahead. Yes, Colonel. I'm glad I had an opportunity to talk with you. I have been just recently introduced to you and Colonel Mattis.

1:28:27 I actually have dropped a little thing into the pill that I wanted to show you, a project that my wife and I have put together for reflecting. Anyway, it's a new e-book that we're writing, and we're giving away a lot of free materials to rebuild the family unit.

1:28:55 And reflect on the next 250 years, because we're going to make it no matter what. We're going to get through all this. I'm 100 percent confident and positive that America will continue to be the most extraordinary nation that ever has been in the history of this world. I agree. I'll take a look. Thank you.

1:29:25 Thank you. You know, can I give you a little background on me? I worked for all branches of the service. I actually worked for the Office of the Secretary of Public Affairs and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And I worked with every single branch of the military. I had a special identifier as a combat photojournalist. I was an air crew member. I traveled the world close to.

1:29:54 250, sometimes more, deployed all over this world on many of these operations that we spoke of today. Awesome. I know what a combat photojournalist is. I have many pictures from the one that was in Operation Provide Comfort. They used to fly on our aircraft with General Jay Garner. Yeah, actually, I was involved in that one as well.

1:30:24 I actually was involved in most of them. I started out, my first assignment when I graduated from Syracuse University, you know, you're hand selected to get these, you get to go to school for like two years. And when you graduate, then I became an air crew member. Right. Yeah, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Yeah, I'm very familiar with combat. All right. Thank you.

1:30:54 Yeah, great. Well, you know, I just wanted to kind of run across. It's kind of fun to talk to, you know, honestly, I miss my military career. And nobody, everybody said, oh, wow, I wish I could have seen the world like you have seen it. And I said, well, if you want to live out of a bag all your life and have to be able to deploy within a 45-minute notice and be on a plane to someplace you've never heard of. Yeah.

1:31:23 reading briefings and getting debriefed and rebreathed and shot after shot after shot as an air crew member with all the diseases and everything and all the shithole that we had to deploy to, you know? Yep, yep. Well, anyway, I believe that I'm going to start watching you a lot closer now.

1:31:51 And you and Colonel Mattis as well. I was on another chat with Colonel Mattis. And the thing I've been working on with another person, with Roger Stone and the J6 thing, I'm working with a person that right now is in D.C. having petitions filled out. I think her name is, she worked with Roger Stone. It's Adriana.

1:32:21 Demarclio something. She's Italian. The Italian last name. But she's in D.C. with doing petitions for the J6 thing right now as we speak. Her son was taken away from her for two years. Her little boy, Elijah, she was not allowed to see him for over two years. And she was just allowed to see him two weeks ago for the first time. That's crazy.

1:32:50 Yeah, it's really crazy stuff that's happened with the J6ers. Yep. I mean, it's unbelievable that this has happened in my country. Yep. It's shameful. Yeah, I've interviewed a couple of them on my show. Yeah, as have I. And it's, you know, some of them just really responded to adversity in remarkable ways. And they're basically full-time patriots right now. And I can't offer any more support than I already do.

1:33:20 They're just very, very patriotic people and deserve all of the love and support we can give them. Yep. I agree. Their entire government, the entire Department of Justice, all of that power was thrown at these innocent people. And, you know, that's who knows how much justice we'll get out of that. You know, there's still prosecutors working for our DOJ that maliciously prosecuted them to this day, working for the Trump DOJ. Yep. And there's still FBI agents. Some of them have been gone.

1:33:48 For the love of God, this weaponization of the U.S. government for political purposes is probably the low point in American history, and that's saying a lot considering how critical I am of a few other points in history. But for the love of God, the J6 heroes are – I agree. All right, guys. Need to run. Wednesday night, stay tuned for Alpha Warrior at 9 o'clock so we can talk about the –

1:34:19 Southern Poverty Law Center. You guys have a nice rest of your evening and we'll be back here tomorrow at four o'clock. Take care all. Oh, Stella, go ahead. What time is that on tonight? That's nine o'clock. Nine o'clock Eastern. Nine Eastern, six my time. Perfect. Thank you so much. Looking forward to it. Thank you. Thanks Warhamster. Bye. Good night. Take care, everybody.

Entities here

George H.W. Bush30 Jimmy Carter25 CIA25 Covert operations in Angola25 Stansfield Turner25 United States23 U.S. Congress17 Gerald Ford16 United States Department of Defense10 Henry Kissinger9 National Security Council8 Directorate of Operations8 South Africa8 William Colby8 Iran hostage crisis7 Richard Helms7 Lebanon7 Soviet Union7 Zbigniew Brzezinski7 Iran7 Holden Roberto5 Congo5 Edward Snowden5 Church Committee5 William Wells4 Costa Giorgigo4 FNLA3 Mobutu Sese Seko3 France3 Edwin Wilson Scandal3 William Nelson Cromwell3 Richard Helms Perjury Trial3 Cuba3 Edwin Wilson3 Cyrus Vance3 Mitchell Rogovin3 Claire George3 MPLA2 Venezuela2 Operation Condor2

Claims made here

Seymour Hersh exposed Covert operations in Angola documented ▶ 5:58

“and abandoning, quote unquote, our responsibility in Angola. Ford's statement laid the groundwork for a counterattack when the bill came before the House. But on December 21st, a provocative article a…”

Gerald Ford ordered_assassination_of Covert operations in Angola host_asserted ▶ 5:58

Costa Giorgigo headed FNLA host_asserted ▶ 9:16

“Calamity befall the FNLA mercenaries, generally an undisciplined lot. They arrived in buses, ragtag clothing, and old weapons. As Dave Tompkins said, there were no maps. The mercenaries were led by a …”

South Africa supplied_arms_to FNLA host_asserted ▶ 10:15

“millions of dollars of weapons to him. Well, not directly to them, to Zaire Mubatu and via South Africa. They never had a battle. He never saw a Cuban. Diakou cut a swath of murder and rampage across …”

CIA supplied_arms_to Mobutu Sese Seko host_asserted ▶ 10:15

George Bacon III member_of CIA documented ▶ 10:48

“alleged desertion and misconduct of more than a dozen men in his own outfit. Others died as well. Among them was a real paramilitary expert, well regarded at Langley, George Bacon III, a Green Beret w…”

John Stockwell exposed Covert operations in Angola documented ▶ 13:18

“Thoroughly disillusioned, CIA officer John Stockwell resigned and went public. With the fiasco so recently revealed, it is not so surprising that Senator Church made strong charges on covert action in…”

Gerald Ford funded Covert operations in Angola documented ▶ 14:47

“The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence went on to do a year-long investigation of Project Feature. In the spring of 78, it concluded that the Ford administration had misled Congress on the scope …”

CIA recruited FNLA documented ▶ 14:47

George H.W. Bush headed CIA documented ▶ 24:35

“By laying out reporting requirements for covert operations, the huge Ryan Amendment could be seen as authorizing them in the name of Congress. Whatever animosities William Colby had attracted, he had …”

George H.W. Bush covered_up 1973 Chilean coup d'état host_asserted ▶ 26:19

“As CIA director, Bush resisted Justice Department demands to turn over material pertaining to Chile and ITT. The evidence necessary for a determination on whether to prosecute Richard Helms. So, that …”

Operation Condor assassinated Orlando Letelier host_asserted ▶ 29:51

“which of course we know they didn't do. On his watch, the intelligence services of the Southern Cone nations moved strongly on Operation Condor and assassinated Orlando Latier in Washington on his wat…”

CIA recruited Manuel Noriega documented ▶ 30:51

“During the Bush period, actions against dissidents in the U.S. was carried out by the intelligence services of Iran, the Philippines, South Korea, and Israel inside the U.S. under George H.W. Bush. Th…”

George H.W. Bush appointed William Wells documented ▶ 33:28

“A few months later, he selected E. Henry Nock over Nelson to be the deputy director. Nelson retired. That opened up the deputy director of operations position for which Bush chose William Wells, a exp…”

George H.W. Bush appointed Ted Shackley documented ▶ 34:31

“Deputy Director of Operations, meanwhile, Bush elevated secret warrior Ted Shackley. In a memoir published at the time, Ray Klein advocated taking the covert operations function away from the CIA and …”

David Blee appointed Claire George documented ▶ 35:25

“In 75, Division Chief David Blee promoted his deputy, Claire George, to chief of station in Beirut, then considered a prestigious assignment. George was a skilled street man, relaxed ballroom dancer. …”

Jimmy Carter removed_from_power George H.W. Bush host_asserted ▶ 38:20

“He indicated to Jimmy Carter, which we've covered before, that he wanted to stay on as CIA director because he was going to be the fly in the ointment. But Jimmy Carter said no. Much of 76 passed as C…”

Jimmy Carter funded Egypt documented ▶ 40:29

“That tells you everything. Typical activities approved by Carter's NSC group, Special Coordination Committee, SCC, during the period included the provision of training and special communication equipm…”

Jimmy Carter funded Sudan documented ▶ 40:29

Leo Schoen headed Presidential Intelligence Advisory Board documented ▶ 42:03

“Probably not an oversight board. Two of the three members, though, former Ambassador Robert Murphy and Leo Schoen, came right out of the Presidential Intelligence Advisory Board. Schoen, having been i…”

James Farmer headed President's Foreign Intelligence Oversight Board documented ▶ 42:03

Jimmy Carter abolished Presidential Intelligence Advisory Board documented ▶ 42:03

Robert Murphy member_of President's Foreign Intelligence Oversight Board documented ▶ 42:03

Leo Schoen member_of President's Foreign Intelligence Oversight Board documented ▶ 42:03

Jimmy Carter appointed Stansfield Turner documented ▶ 43:40

“Just do a blanket one, then you can't be held accountable. As in many matters during the years in the White House, Carter was frustrated in his first choice of CIA Director Theodore Sorensen. Carter's…”

Stansfield Turner headed CIA documented ▶ 44:11

“Turner and Carter had been classmates at Annapolis. Although regulations forced him to retire from the Navy to accept the offer, Turner took the DCI job. Despite being able, Turner was an outsider to …”

Stansfield Turner removed_from_power Ted Shackley documented ▶ 51:03

“Hank knock and discipline Ted Shackley, a Wilson associate, as well as fire a couple of other officers. He stepped in it. Then there was the denouncement of the Helm affair. Admiral Turner found Helms…”

Richard Helms covered_up CIA documented ▶ 52:05

“That November, Helms pleaded no contest to two counts of perjury. Declared guilty, he received a suspended sentence and a fine collected from former comrades in cash donations one afternoon at a count…”

Stansfield Turner removed_from_power William Wells documented ▶ 53:37

“had him replace Bill Wells. Everywhere Turner sought to manage the colossus giant, clandestine service officer, DeWayne Claridge, never slow to criticize weakness, credits Turner while trying to trans…”

Stansfield Turner appointed John McMahon documented ▶ 53:37

Jimmy Carter appointed Zbigniew Brzezinski documented ▶ 56:26

“The administration's willingness to concede on this issue remained untested. Meanwhile, the DO stayed in business. Leary of covert operations, as Carter may have been, his national security advisor, B…”

Robert Gates member_of National Security Council documented ▶ 56:26

Robert Gates member_of CIA documented ▶ 56:26

David Aaron member_of National Security Council documented ▶ 56:52

“successively as CIA analyst, special assistant to Turner, and NSC staff director for intelligence. Robert Gates dealt with both Brzezinski and his deputy, David Aaron. He recalls, quote, the most freq…”

Frank Carlucci member_of CIA documented ▶ 57:21

“findings, unquote. What the hell? Preoccupied with his duties as manager of the intelligence community as a whole, Admiral Turner left the covert action role to his deputy, Frank Carlucci. Within two …”

Richard Stolz headed Soviet East European Division documented ▶ 57:51

“had already begun insisting on new propaganda efforts to reach into Russia. These White House demands were slow to garner momentum, in part because Brzezinski first tried to work through the CIA's Sov…”

Zbigniew Brzezinski ordered_assassination_of Soviet Union host_asserted ▶ 57:51

Paul Hnit member_of National Security Council documented ▶ 58:20

“among the anointed spy chiefs, but had several successful espionage penetration into the Soviet Union. Once Brzezinski connected with the covert action staff, propaganda projects began to move. Paul H…”

CIA carried_out_attack Grenada documented ▶ 59:20

“Moscow's activity with journalists. Findings were also approved for operations against pro-Cuban government in Grenada, pro-Cuban government, a political action in Jamaica, and actions in Nicaragua an…”

CIA carried_out_attack Jamaica documented ▶ 59:20

CIA carried_out_attack Cuba documented ▶ 59:20

CIA carried_out_attack Nicaragua documented ▶ 59:20

CIA carried_out_attack El Salvador documented ▶ 59:20

CIA carried_out_attack South Africa documented ▶ 59:50

“Some of these findings occasioned strong objections when they were described to the oversight committees in Congress. But there is no recorded instance in which covert action was called off due to con…”

Saudi Arabia supplied_arms_to South Yemen documented ▶ 1:00:46

“with a paramilitary venture in concert with the British and, for the first time, Saudi Arabia that began in South Yemen in February of 79, when that country attacked North Yemen. Turner is reported to…”

CIA supplied_arms_to South Yemen documented ▶ 1:00:46

United Kingdom supplied_arms_to South Yemen documented ▶ 1:00:46

Walter Mondale funded South Yemen documented ▶ 1:00:46

United States funded North Yemen documented ▶ 1:01:18

“The CIA recruited several dozen Yemenis and formed two strike teams, one of which set up in the Yemeni prisons. Secret warriors terminated the operation at that point. The U.S. had spent $390 million …”

CIA recruited South Yemen documented ▶ 1:01:18

Brian Cozier founded Safari Club host_asserted ▶ 1:02:46

“Bush took all of the people that were leaving the CIA covert operations and set up an independent, as well as Brian Cozier over in Europe set up that 6i, 6.1, depending on what format you're reading a…”

George H.W. Bush founded Safari Club host_asserted ▶ 1:02:46

United Wa State Army founded Delta Force documented ▶ 1:05:03

“Elite commando units, Blue Light and Delta. These initiatives received personal attention from Brzezinski. The third development was the fall of the Shah of Iran. What followed in its wake? Policymake…”

United Wa State Army founded Blue Light documented ▶ 1:05:03

Jimmy Carter appointed Cyrus Vance documented ▶ 1:05:32

“and Cyrus Vance, which was his Secretary of State, about the poor quality of political intelligence regarding Iran. Similarly, more detailed criticism emerged from a House Intelligence Committee study…”

CIA carried_out_attack Iran documented ▶ 1:07:27

“Rescue mission obliged Carter through the sec-deaf Harold Brown. Yeah, he comes back up later in the Clinton administration, Harold Brown. And the Joint Chiefs of Staff to reveal the existence of Oper…”

United States paid Venezuela book_quoted ▶ 1:18:26

“from Venezuela traveling to the Middle East to arrange oil for food exchanges to get food to Venezuela because of the U.S. sanctions. And he made a gas stop in Africa and the U.S. paid this country th…”

Mike Pompeo ordered_assassination_of Venezuela book_quoted ▶ 1:18:55

“spent months in jail there. One of his parents died while he was under arrest. And then Pompeo got a backdated Interpol arrest warrant to justify that country who has no extradition treaty to turn him…”

Jay Garner member_of Operation Provide Comfort guest_asserted ▶ 1:29:54

“250, sometimes more, deployed all over this world on many of these operations that we spoke of today. Awesome. I know what a combat photojournalist is. I have many pictures from the one that was in Op…”