The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 42 (44)

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Transcript

0:03 Okay. Let's get this party going. So the tornadoes are staying away from you today, Bridget? So far. So far. But, you know, we've got a watch or a warning or something. Watch until 9 o'clock, I think. Okay. Well, everybody keep Bridget in their prayers.

0:32 No tornado. All right. Hope everybody had a great weekend. And craziness, craziness. All right. So we're going to get started. We're on page 490. That's a lot of pages. We're still in the chapter, The Mountains of Allah, talking about...

1:05 Afghanistan when we left off. Okay, Robert Gates remarked at his 1991 confirmation hearings for CIA director that he would have grave doubts about the efficiency of covert operations safe for Afghanistan. In other words, we can not do them anywhere else but there.

1:29 That leads to the heart of the matter. Afghanistan had supplanted Laos as the biggest paramilitary affair in CIA history. And supposedly was looking a little better for them because they're going to obviously get the Soviets to pull out. In 1988, the Soviet military had stalled in its air effort, neutralized by the CIA's Mujahideen, Sam.

2:02 weapons. Russian troops could punch through but achieve nothing. In UN-mediated negotiations, the Soviets agreed to a military withdrawal and carried it out. At 11.55 a.m. on February 15, 1989, General Boris Gromov stepped back inside Russian territory, the last Soviet soldier to leave Afghanistan. Milt Bearden and Frank Anderson

2:31 breaking CIA standing orders not to cross the border, went to have their pictures taken at the same bridge after he exited. But the Afghan war continued. Najibullah communist regime fought on and both the CIA project and aid halted only in 1992. I'm going to say it didn't halt.

3:02 it just changed on our side. The farewell gift of a generous allotment of arms to the factions, which the CIA justified on grounds that the U.S. had a moral obligation to the tribes, served to fuel a continuing civil war. The coalition government under a general of the former regime lasted about a year until the warlords fought again over fundamentalist

3:33 primacy in addition to political power. Ahmed Mossad and Gulbuddin Hekmarda became enemies because Hekmarda is the one that the CIA and ISI, Pakistan, was funding. And the Mossad guy was the one that was the better fighter, but they would give him nothing.

4:04 because he wasn't corrupt. He wasn't a part of the CIA future. Four battles for Kabul occurred, three of them after the Soviets' withdrawal. Elections to be held in 1993, of course, never took place because they never do because none of this is about democracy. In the midst of the Civil War, a different...

4:34 fundamentalist force arose. The Taliban conquered Kabul and most of the country. Massoud, now allied with the former general Dost, fought on. Before long, they got help from basically all of the parties because they were all stealing each other's weapons. The details of the war spill over into a story of the war on terrorism.

5:05 But the facts make a mockery of the pious arguments of the U.S. intervened to support quote unquote democracy in Afghanistan and the evaporation of American aid after the Russian withdrawal shows Washington was willing to discard any pawns they use in their global game. But I'm telling you, the CIA did not stop funding.

5:33 They were just going to start using the heroin to continue it. It is not possible to conclude, as some like to say, that the Afghan war brought about the fall of the Soviet Union. The war was increasingly unpopular and costly, but its burden cannot be separated from the pressures of a corrupted government.

5:56 The Afghan war paled in comparison to Soviet economic and nationality problems. Ironically, the immediate catalyst of this communist downfall came with Gorbachev's attempt to craft a new union and the secession of the Baltic states. Those theaters of long-ago CIA projects. The Afghan operation also cost the CIA and the U.S. Those at the CIA and elsewhere who worried about the Stinger missiles

6:25 given the Mujahideen would show up on the world arms market, proved exactly correct. At the height of the Iran-Contra affair, intermediaries for Tehran told CIA operative George Cabe how pleased they were at the U.S. because they had been supplying stingers from Afghanistan.

6:49 As early as 1988, a U.S. force in the Persian Gulf inspecting a motorboat belonging to the IRGC found two Stinger missiles in it. Makes you feel good? During the CIA operation, a thousand went to Afghan guerrillas. About 350 are reported to have been fired. No doubt, some were expended in training and others...

7:20 defective but by the spring of 1994 it was estimated that Afghan warlords still had at least 400 Stinger missiles. Indeed the Stinger became such a prestige item that the warlords took to parading them around on national holidays. Appeals to return the unused missiles were useless. It was propaganda. In 1994 the CIA began

7:49 A $65 million covert effort to buy them back. Apparently an enhancement from a CIA buyback program already underway. American demands fueled a surge in prices, fraud, and additional corruption. Missiles that cost the U.S. $35,000 each were now being bought for $50,000 or $100,000.

8:19 Some even marketed on the black market for $150,000. CIA proprietary aircraft flew to Middle East cities to bring back Stinger missiles. It is reported that the CIA bought back maybe, if you believe them, 200. Some Muslims who fought in Afghanistan left.

8:47 to seek new wars. Others who admired the Afghan resistance from afar went there to learn how to be trained to be a terrorist. And yes, the CIA still maintained terrorist training camps in those locations. Osama bin Laden is believed to have been trained in one of those camps. He made trips to Egypt, Sudan, and Algeria.

9:26 Algerian militants were blamed for a destructive series of bombings in France that began in early 1995. And bin Laden strikes on the US. Supposedly, I guess they're alluding to 9-11. But what I find very interesting about this is bin Laden is using CIA weapons and so are these terrorists. So it is...

9:59 It's probably too simplistic to say that he is part of this global gladio. And notice where they're conducting terror events inside of France. Afghan Arabs have been identified fighting in Bosnia, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, and we know there's a lot more, the Chechnyans.

10:30 They've been all over. They were all over Africa because they're now just part of a terror organization, just like Gladio. They're basically terror cells. The Afghan project underlines the point that successful covert operations have only short-term benefits, if any benefit at all. Pakistan, one of the major U.S. allies in the Afghan effort, is now

11:01 less stable than ever before as a result. And USA did nothing to restrain the Pakistanis from forging their own nuclear weapons or indeed from proliferating this technology to other lands. Now, just a little bit about the Pakistan. So the whole time this is going on and we're flooding Pakistan with money of which they're not.

11:25 sending it all to Afghanistan. They're using that money to launder back to the United States. And we read in the one book about them actually buying the triggers for, or the ignition, whatever you want to call them, in Texas as part of the whole late 1980s, early 90s, what's that guy's name? The weapons dealer.

11:56 Khashoggi. So all of this is going on. And again, it's all with our money. Okay. Its role as an ally and frontline state was used to Washington's leverage, leaving Islamabad to pursue its own aims, not just on weapons, but in fomenting the same Islamic fundamentalism.

12:29 That's become so deadly because we set up the training camps in Pakistan. American relations with China, another ally in the Afghan war, are not materially better as a result. Then there is the potential adverse effects of sophisticated American technology in the hands of terrorists and U.S. interests threatened by armies of secret warriors, all trained and raised by the CIA. Just part two.

13:01 of Operation Gladio. Taking the long view, Afghanistan is by no means a victory for covert operations. By way of a counterpoint, if there had never been a CIA secret war in Afghanistan, the Soviet Union would still have collapsed. Perhaps not at the exact moment, but it would have collapsed. Through all of this, or at least until his death, late in Reagan's presidency, William

13:32 Casey led an expansion of the CIA held at the time as a renaissance. Casey pushed for another covert action projects with anti-Soviet bent. Many of Langley's tribes would have their hands full during the coming years. To the secret warriors, Bill Casey had heralded in a new age. At the end of the 80s, the members of

14:02 or at the end of 1980, sorry, the members of Reagan's transition team unanimously believed there should be much more covert action. William Casey, Reagan's 1980 campaign manager, and his choice for CIA director, accepted this position, though he largely ignored the transition report. The new director, a friend of the president's,

14:29 and a member of Reagan's informal kitchen cabinet, made no bones about offering policy advice. By all indications, he rather enjoyed it. Casey and Reagan were a close team. No director of intelligence, except George Tenet in later years, ever spent more time with the president than William Casey. Ronald Reagan saw his director of CIA as a loyal, tough, and competent advisor.

14:57 basically his agent. Reagan appreciated Casey's political work and his personal achievements. As a Wall Street lawyer, Casey had grown extremely wealthy. An amateur historian, sometime president of the Export-Import Bank, and the chairman of the SEC, you know, where they don't charge or fine people that they don't want to.

15:30 Casey had also been one of the original secret warriors. In World War II, he went into the OSS, where he worked as an aide to Wild Bill Donovan. The OSS chief, in turn, sent Casey to London. There, the acolyte helped organize the Jedburgh Program, which, as we've discussed, was the British version of the stay-behind units. In December 1944, Casey replaced

16:01 David Bruce as OSS chief of secret intelligence for the European theater. Basically negotiating the changeover of Hitler's stay behind with General Wolf to soon to be NATO and Alan Dulles. He supervised the infiltration of OSS agents into Germany during the last days of the war. And we know why. After the war, Casey remained active.

16:30 in OSS veteran associations and was appointed to the intelligence board, the presidential intelligence board by Gerald Ford. To a newly elected Ronald Reagan looking for a CIA director, Bill Casey was a natural. Casey himself had wanted to be Secretary of State. One problem at first, that was poor speaking ability, which might not impress senators at confirmation hearings.

17:02 Casey could be well prepared for testimony, but that turned out to be the least of his difficulties. One irregularity after another emerged during the confirmation process until Casey's chances appeared threatened. Among these surprises was a political item from a Carter Reagan election campaign that brewed into a significant scandal.

17:30 It was called DebateGate. Reagan and President Carter had appeared in several televised debates formatted as joint press conferences hosted by the League of Women Voters, because of course it was. Before the foreign policy debate, a copy of Carter's briefing book was serendipitously made and given to the Republicans.

18:01 Reagan's staff used the book to prep him for what Carter might say. As Reagan's campaign manager, Bill Casey had kept the briefing book in his office safe. Several more things called into question Casey's judgment or his integrity. Oh, that makes him perfect for the CIA. His financial disclosure forms necessary under post Watergate laws were incomplete and had to be amended. It also developed that Casey.

18:31 had not registered as a foreign agent as required by law when he represented the government of Indonesia. Huh? You mean the Indonesia that was being ran by Suharto, who the CIA installed? Yeah, that same one. Then it became known that he intended to continue managing his stock portfolio while he was the CIA director. Wouldn't that be nice? After confirmation,

19:06 Judgment again became an issue in the summer of 81 during the Hoogle affair. This concerned Max Hoogle, whom Casey personally brought into the agency as an assistant, then promoted him to deputy director of operations. Hoogle's attraction for Casey lay precisely in his lack of association with intelligence. As the CIA director explained to a friend, Gerald Carman,

19:36 Casey needed to break up the old boys network and only someone from the outside could do that. But Hoogle didn't last long. He resigned after an allegation of insider stock transactions occurred. Imagine knowing everything that was going to go on in the world and trading stocks. This happened just two months after Hoogle was hired, even after the initial disclosures.

20:07 disclosures, William Casey solidly backed him, saying he had known Hoogle as an honest man for 20 years. But once tape recordings surfaced of Hoogle giving out business tips, not just doing it himself, but sharing confidential information, Casey admitted to fewer than two years of casual acquaintance with him. Not 20 years, just two.

20:37 Hoogle's legal problems later appeared as overblown allegations. But as far as the CIA was concerned, the damage had been done. The appointment had shaken the clandestine service. Had he not had Ronald Reagan's high regard, William Casey would probably have had to retire as well. As it was, Casey mended the fences, listing 70 former clients in financial disclosures.

21:06 asserting he remembered nothing about Debategate and eventually also agreeing to a blind trust for his stocks, which we know don't work. At Langley, Casey assembled the top CIA leadership in the bubble to assure them. Reagan defended Casey, commenting that the criticisms were merely personal attacks. In August 81, the Senate Intelligence Committee passed a recommendation.

21:36 judging, quote, there is no basis for concluding Mr. Casey is unfit to serve, unquote. Casey mollified the professionals with his next deputy director, John Henry Stein, the man originally recommended by the transition team. He was 48 years old with two decades at the CIA. Casey's intentions were reflected.

22:05 in his instructions to the new deputy. Concentrate on covert paramilitary and political action. Espionage and management could be left to an associate. So concentrate on doing all of the bad things because the good things will get done by somebody else.

22:27 Casey wanted to stress the critical role the spooks must play in the Reagan universe, as well as motivate the best minds to see intelligence as necessary to national security. He anticipated difficulties with congressional overseers, but believed they could be circumvented. Langley did his best to follow the director's lead. Greater emphasis on recruitment led to one-third increase.

22:56 and the covert personnel staff, putting CIA back near their peak. You know, basically just hiring all the people that Carter and Turner let go. John Stein saved expertise in covert operations by bringing back all of the people that had been fired in the 80s. Not all of them on the direct payroll, though. Many of them via contracts.

23:23 Although spending for covert operations because of this dropped, it's interesting that that potentially was the reason they were brought back on contracts. And for those of you who don't know, the personnel budgets are separate from contract budgets. Personnel budgets.

23:46 are in one appropriation where contracts are in O&M, operational and maintenance. And there's no way in looking at operational and maintenance contracts that you can decipher what are the salaried employees because of the way they're set up. So just another sleight of hands. Under Casey, the CIA moved into a phase of what enthusiasts saw as

24:16 combat on communist territory, fighting revolutionary movements, and by revolutionary, we mean nationalist, anywhere that there was a perception, not factual, just a perception that they had communists, which basically meant everywhere. As he would put it in his 86th speech, the U.S. had a window of opportunity to, quote unquote, advance democracy.

24:46 To do this, he declared an intent to match Soviet meddling. We have always surpassed meddling. Quote, just as there is a classic formula for communist subversion and takeover, there is also a proven method of overthrowing repressive governments that can be applied successfully in the third world, unquote.

25:17 Yes, we have a very successful track record on overthrowing governments. With its in-house capabilities plus its privatized or proprietary network, the CIA went to work. Director Casey advocated for vigorous covert action. The president declared his support for quote-unquote freedom fighters everywhere and defended U.S. covert action. Casey backed operations that were talked down at Langley.

25:45 John Stein resisted escalation in Nicaragua. John McMahon, Casey's deputy after 82, opposed the kind of effort in Afghanistan, certain Libya plans, and renewed support for UNINA in Angola. For the most part, Bill Casey did all of it and more. By 86, fueled

26:11 Especially by Afghanistan, the CIA's budget for covert operations surpassed its spending for espionage clandestine collections for the first time in history. Within the executive branch, President Reagan worked to improve climate for covert action. Reagan reestablished the Presidential Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, which Carter had gotten rid of. Because we have to get those civilian business owners in there telling the president what they want done.

26:44 Among conservatives who encouraged this, Leo Schoen, a longtime Casey associate who had cheered the presidential intelligence board under Ford, and in fact had been instrumental in bringing Casey into the board at the time, returned as vice chairman. And Armstrong became chairwoman.

27:16 Isn't that nice? Like Armstrong and Chern, staff director Randall Fort, though sophisticated, wore his conservative credentials on his sleeve. The president populated the board with the most like-minded characters, including one of our all-time favorites, Claire Booth Luce. Yes, she's back.

27:48 Campbell, John S. Foster, Admiral Thomas Moore, and William French Smith. On this board, Henry Kissinger and Alan Greenspan passed and were billed as liberals. Okay, sure, that's hilarious. Only William Baker remained from the old cadre. He was joined by CIA

28:20 Albert Whelan and airline magnate Robert Six. In this administration, the board was highly restricted. When the White House debated where to put it and how to fund it, the decision was to locate the board in its old offices on the fourth floor of the old executive office building. But the budget would come from money set aside for unanticipated needs. The Intelligence Oversight Board

28:51 with its minuscule $5 million budget, would be more than an order of magnitude ahead of the Presidential Intelligence Advisory Board. There is no evidence of efforts to play watchdog. The advisors reviewed the great spy cases of the day, the Moscow embassy bugging mess, the disputes over satellite programs. But on a covert action, there's little evidence, not that there would be,

29:21 that the Presidential Intelligence Advisory Board was there because they just don't take minutes. William Casey encouraged President Reagan to change out several people in 1985. And it was focused at anybody that didn't agree to the operations that they were planning in Nicaragua, supporting the Contras. About half of the 21 members were let go.

29:54 in Casey's purge. Reagan also reorganized the National Security Council to create a National Security Planning Group, a more restricted subcommittee of the NSC that included Vice President George Bush, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, the DCI, and the NSC advisors, and a few top political aides. Reagan's deputy secretaries

30:25 committee, the old 40 committee, was at the heart of the secret war. It was retitled, they love changing names, to the crisis pre-planning group. In other words, we're pre-planning the next crisis. Then they changed it to the policy coordination group. It was also sometimes referred to as the 208 committee.

30:56 because that was the number of the room that they met in. The attorney general and the OMB director, regular members of Carter's special group, were occasionally invited, but not really. Langley's proposal came in option papers, passed around at the outset of a meeting. Then they were all collected at the end. Final decisions rested with the National Security Planning Group.

31:26 Here, the Reagan administration parted with its predecessors. Eisenhower had participated directly in the Bay of Pigs and the Congo planning, Johnson directly in Cuba, but these had been not the norm. Under Ronald Reagan, the president himself sat in on the covert action decision body for the first time.

31:53 eliminating the special group as screen. So anybody telling you that George Bush was running this is lying. Reagan continued regulating intelligence activities by executive order. His version, Executive Order 12333, issued on 4 December 1981, contained a somewhat expanded definition of covert action, which it termed

32:24 special activities. And that is a term that is used a lot inside the Pentagon for covert operations. They call them special activities. The order reiterated existing prohibitions on assassinations and specifically provided

32:50 that except in time of war or presidential direction, the CIA had full responsibility for special activities. While domestic intelligence provisions attracted the bulk of public attention at the time, the order clearly referred to the NSC as the highest executive branch entity that provides review of and guidance for covert operations, labeled special activities.

33:18 Under those provisions, Reagan had to sign a memorandum of notification to justify each covert action and to order it as far as a policy level. Reagan issued general instructions affecting the CIA's role that were expressed in national security decision directives, the authorization documents of his administration. These were supplemented by findings or CPI.

33:49 annexes, such as in 1985 with the Afghan escalation. Reagan approved covert actions against Nicaragua in a November 81 decision directive. About a year later, he sanctioned Bill Casey's activism that ordered global covert operations to prevent nations from accepting the Cuba

34:19 He also had one that authorized a public diplomacy campaign that nevertheless had secret annexes as well. And by public diplomacy, we're talking about propaganda and interference in elections. An important feature of this.

34:47 and intelligence oversight that pitted Reagan against Congress during these years were controversies over the nature of presidential findings. An uneasy relationship prevailed between the executive and Congress through this period. The Hoogle affair and Casey's legal entanglements got the sides off to a bad start. Nonetheless, Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, who chaired the select

35:16 Committee on Intelligence, beginning in 81, tried to protect Casey and minimize oversight. The guy that's on the Senate, Goldwater, who we're all told is such a great guy, tried to keep Congress out of the CIA's business. The committee supported the CIA in passage of the Intelligence Identity Protection Act.

35:45 in 1982 and in obtaining extra exemptions from the Freedom of Information Act. Imagine that, Congress obstructing U.S. citizens from FOIA-ing the CIA. Huh, so much for oversight. Langley, according to historian Frank Smith, who concludes that the CIA's position, which he attributed,

36:18 tributes to both Casey and Brzezinski viewed the congressional oversight intelligence committees as compromising sensitive information and according oversight power to people with no expertise. Yeah.

36:39 Because you don't know anything about intelligence, but you just happen to be the person that has the congressional responsibility for providing oversight, we think it's okay not to tell you anything. Treatment of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence was similar. The secret war in Nicaragua proved to be a particularly thorny area of dispute, but Bill Casey, confident in the abilities of his covert warriors,

37:10 Didn't worry about it. Proprietaries had long constituted the backbone of CIA covert capability. Under Casey's leadership, they were even more important. As before, aviation companies performed most of the useful services, but in the 80s brought a great need for entities capable of moving money, currency trading, and personnel services, and the quiet acquisition of various gear.

37:40 the CIA had them all, proprietaries, to do all of that. When Langley liquidated Southern Air Transport, its buyer, Stanley Williams, once the manager, the liaison for the CIA to Southern Air Transport, oh, and they liquidate it but sell it to the guy that had been their liaison, Williams sold off most of

38:12 Southern Air Transport's assets, which led to a lawsuit. But mutual dependency proved too great. The CIA needed Southern Air and Southern Air Transport wanted Langley's business. Iranian Air Force contracts had comprised as much as 42% of Southern Air Transport's work in 1978. So 1978's the Shaw.

38:44 What are they flying out of Iran covertly with CIA assets? Oh, that's right. Iran in the north had opium. The fall of the Shah hurt business. Even with the Iranian deals, Southern Air Transport posted a loss. The Iranian account disappeared. Williams bailed out selling Southern Air to lawyer John Bastian in 1979. He became the sole proprietor.

39:16 Bastion had been Southern Air Transport's lawyer for the CIA. So they're not really selling it. It's just a paper shuffle. Southern Air Transport maintained headquarters and operating facilities in Miami. Operating revenue in 82 totaled almost 10 million with a profit of almost a million. The next year, Bastion brought in William Langton as president.

39:47 Langton had previously worked for two other cargo carriers, and you'll never guess which ones. Flying Tiger and Evergreen, the other CIA proprietaries. Isn't that crazy? In 84, Southern Air Transport won a almost $10 million contract from the Pentagon's Military Airlift Command, a figure that ballooned to $23 million a year later.

40:19 Total revenues of almost $40 million. So they were basically doing about 60% of their business with either the Pentagon or the CIA. Southern Air's largest private account was a subcontractor to the Anglo-Irish firm IAS Guernsey to provide flight service to Angola. Yeah, Angola.

40:54 currently operating in a covert manner. So is that really civilian? Yeah, I don't think so. About 300 flights were made to Angola between June and December of 84 alone. Business increased further in 85 after a competing company left Angola following destruction of one of its C-130s on the ground in a guerrilla attack. That year

41:23 Southern Air Transport flew almost 600 flights to Angola. Again, not civilian. At one point, the State Department warned Southern Air Transport against carrying, they put out a formal warning saying, don't carry Cuban soldiers to Angola. Like the CIA would be doing that? Do you need to put that out there? No, you need to.

41:56 cover it as if that's actually happening when it's actually CIA flights going in and out of Angola. The charter company also worked for the U.S. government. Through 1986, the military airlift command used eight Southern Air Transport L-100s, civilianized versions of a C-130 daily for shuttles.

42:25 among bases in the U.S. Oh, isn't that interesting? Southern Air Transport aircraft was used by military airlift command flying things around inside the U.S. With the State Department, Southern Air Transport had contracts for monthly flights to Havana to service the American interest sections there.

42:54 but an arrangement to deliver humanitarian assistance to Nicaraguan rebels in Honduras as well. And those are the ones that Oliver North and his buddy in the State Department is going to use. Southern Air Transport remained strong through the 80s. Its fleet expanded from three to eight Boeing 707s plus 17 civilianized C-130s.

43:22 At the time, Southern Air Transport employed 540 people, including 96 pilots. Setbacks were fatal crashes, the first in its history on October 4th, 1986 and April 8th, 1987. Both were the civilianized C-130s flying for the military airlift command. But by comparison, as the 1982

43:53 As of 1982, only four private corporations, Standard Oil, Tenneco, Rockwell, and Mobile Oil, possessed air fleets larger than the Southern Air Transport Command. So this just illustrates yet again. And I love the fact that Mobile Oil and Standard Oil has air fleets. You just can't make this shit up.

44:22 In 1979, a former Air America chief pilot and hero of Desert One, James Ryan, started a company called Aero Contractors. Over more than two decades, with a series of interlocking directorates and subsidiaries, it accumulated more than 20 aircraft and a major stake in an airport in Johnson County, North Carolina. You know, where all the special forces guys are.

44:52 Later investigations revealed corporate directors with fictitious names traced to post office boxes in Northern Virginia, D.C., and Maryland. So it's another front company. It also included corporate cutouts. Research has yet to establish the operational role of Aero contractors during its early period, though Ryan advised some of the pilots recruited.

45:25 by private benefactors to work with the Contras. That was the whole purpose of it. Another proprietary for the CIA worked out of Middletown, Delaware. That one was called Summit Aviation, which specialized in aircraft brokerage and modification. In other words, just like the place in Arizona,

45:56 It brokers aircraft, and we went through all of this in the 80s with the book we did, Dark Alliance, how they were basically just re-registering aircraft and basically laundering them. And then the modification piece, that's where they equip them with guns and all kinds of things like that, especially...

46:17 If you're hauling drugs, there's different equipment that you want on board as far as palletizing as opposed to seats and stuff like that. Even former employees were uncertain of who they actually worked for. During the Nicaraguan Revolution in the late 1980s, Summit trained pilots for Somoza.

46:47 Because of course they did. Somoza is the CIA-controlled dictator that, when he's eventually overthrown, moves to just outside of Houston, Texas. In the 80s, summit aviation was linked to aircraft the CIA had used in El Salvador and Honduras, with planes prepared for the rebels fighting for the CIA in Honduras.

47:17 with aircraft maintenance for Southern Air Transport. In 1984, Summit received a grant from the FAA to improve its airfield, enabling it to work on large multi-engine aircraft. Yeah, so the FAA is just spending our taxpayer dollars to increase a private airfield to fly drugs and weapons. Caribbean-based...

47:48 El Lucia Airways owned or leased two Boeing 707s and at least one civilianized C-130. One of its aircraft carried the Shah from Egypt to the U.S. in 78, an event that catalyzed the Iran hostage crisis. Because again, they all knew it was a CIA aircraft flying the Shah.

48:17 out of Iran. Revelations of secret U.S. arm deals in Iran brought new attention to St. Lucia, with disclosures that a Boeing 707 making one of the deliveries bore company markings. St. Lucia denied any involvement, but the press investigation uncovered even more details. Another St. Lucia plane, in fact, carried U.S. weapons to Israel to then forward to Iran.

48:51 In 1985, an apparent St. Lucia modified C-130 was destroyed in Angola. The company denied any role in Angola. Well, of course they did. But its careful statement did not mention Zaire, which is where we know they were staging the operations for Unina in Zaire.

49:18 Between January and April of 86 alone, there were four flights from an American base to an airfield in Zaire, identified as a CIA supply point for the United Rebels. There reportedly used a type of plane that exists solely in U.S. Air Force inventories. Like Southern Air Transport, St. Lucia did contract air work for U.S. Military Airlift Command as well.

49:50 In 1984, a Honolulu investment advisor, Ronald Ray Rewald, R-E-W-A-L-D, charged with security fraud, defended himself with the claim that his company, Bishop Baldwin, Rewald, Dillingham, and Wong, had been working for the CIA.

50:21 may have been spurious, represented only the bare tip of the iceberg in terms of CIA corporate covers. Edwin Wilson's import-export operations, for example, was another kind of cover used to move arms and equipment, as is Associated Traders Corporation, which the CIA reportedly had set up as early as 1969. Tetra Tech Corporation,

50:52 was the brainchild of retired CIA James Critchfield, did security-related work in the Middle East, where Critchfield had spent his time as a CIA officer. Huh, Tetra Tech Corporation. We've come across that one before. We've also come across Edwin Wilson. He's the guy they eventually turned their back on because they want to steal his,

51:27 steal his company and throw him in jail. That's why I tell you there's no such thing as a former CIA officer. Even when they retire, they don't retire. They just go head up a proprietary. During the first Bush administration, a major scandal over a rash of bank failures revealed possible links. We're talking about the savings and loan, Pete Bruton's book.

51:56 um possible links between cia and no fewer than 22 savings and loan banks as reported by the houston post in all these cases the cia denied any role data remains too scanty to treat the issue of corporate covers with the depth that it deserves but we've already done that so we don't need them to do it for us and yes those were all true but the fact remains that the movie

52:22 company CIA created to further operations in Iran during the hostage crisis. Activities there and elsewhere depended on the use of these techniques. Reagan administration inherited a program or at least a problem in Iran. The hostages came home on inauguration day, but now there was plenty of expatriate Iranians in touch with the CIA, not the least of which was the Shah.

52:50 who wished nothing better than to return to Tehran. Reagan's behavior was extremely schizoid, is his name, is his word. In the opinion of Iranian Major Rafi Zadeh, a former intelligence officer who had worked with the CIA until 1983, meaning he was in the Savak. Rafi Zadeh.

53:22 that the American policymakers decided early to throw in their lot with Khomeini, expecting that the Muslim fundamentalism would be the best defense against the communism in the Middle East, which again is corroborated by the continued supplying them with missiles. We didn't have a problem with them. Rafi Zadeh.

53:54 recounts that William Casey went to Ronald Reagan in September of 81 with a dual-track program. The president approved a tryout. The CIA would fund Iranian exile groups while maintaining the United States, excuse me, while simultaneously the United States would overlook Israeli arms shipments to Khomeini. They weren't Israeli. They were U.S.

54:24 using Israel as a cutout. So we're going to fund both sides of this, as we always do with our money. On both tracks, gathering intelligence became the object. Sure. There is no evidence that the CIA itself sold arms to Iran at this stage. That's a bold-faced lie. They made the arrangements to sell them in a deal to keep the hostages.

54:56 and delivered that first shipment soon after Reagan took office. On the other hand, Langley proved quite adept at getting information from the exiles by putting them in competition with one another, which is exactly what we did with the Ukrainian thing in Germany after World War II. We just pit these exile groups against each other. We did it with the Russians after World War II. This is an old tactic.

55:29 Langley's comptroller, George K., fluent in Farsi and former station chief in Tehran and Saudi Arabia, was in charge of, basically, he was the Iranian paymaster. Six or seven main exile circles were active. The CIA developed them all.

56:01 millions of dollars. The CIA regarded Mandani as too independent and decided not to work further with him. Many of the exiles were too busy squabbling to do very much, but in 82, the CIA reportedly began paying $100,000 a month to the front for the liberation of Iran under Ali Amani in Paris.

56:32 This included $20,000 to $30,000 for equipping him with new radios and creating a radio liberation, which broadcast four hours a day in anti-Komeini programming from Egypt. Oh, so we've got an Arabic version of Air America or of Radio Free Europe. Yeah.

57:03 This became active in October of 82. The Shah's son, Raja Pavlovi, who's all over the news lately, cooperated with this radio station and appeared on broadcast repeatedly. They were able to override two Iranian domestic TV channels on September 5th, 1986. That was probably their greatest achievement.

57:33 The CIA eventually provided miniature transmission equipment that made the disruption and substitution possible. At the same time, Langley curried favors with Khomeini. In late 82, a Russian agent in Iran defected to the British, soon to be debriefed by the CIA. The Russian spy, Vladimir Kuchetskin, provided data on the communist...

58:01 Tudor party, oh, we're not still playing with them, are we? Including names of organizers. Langley passed the list to the Iranians who executed all of the members and then outlined the Tudor party on May 4th. Yeah, so the CIA created a death list, gave it to the Iranian government so they could all be executed. Oh my gosh. According to...

58:35 Rafi Zadeh, the CIA, did the same to some of the exile groups, passing their contacts to Iran for the Khomeini security service. As a result, Rafi Zadeh reports more than a thousand people were arrested and executed. So they're basing everything off of this one guy. It is not clear that these

59:10 actions represented purposeful effective to track policy. Rapizade believes they were, but the administration source saw U.S. action as groping through a maze without any coherent policy. Just the policy of killing everybody.

59:40 The incoherence of U.S. policy comes into sharp focus when the question of relations between Washington and Iran is juxtaposed with the Islamic government's support for terrorists in Lebanon. Shiite Muslim militia in Beirut began a campaign of terror against the West when in 1983, Reagan abandoned neutrality in Lebanon in fighting.

1:00:12 The Shiite militia had close ties to Tehran. There was no detente with the great Satan. The suicide attack, be interesting to see how he categorizes this. I don't remember. Fanatics loaded a panel truck with explosives, rammed their way into the U.S. embassy in Beirut and blew it up. At that instant, a CIA regional conference was going on inside.

1:00:42 Among the 17 dead Americans of 63 overall was Robert Ames, the agency's national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia. The station chief, his wife, and his deputy. Ames' hand would be found in a Mediterranean area a mile offshore, still bearing his wedding ring.

1:01:12 The blow energized Langley. The U.S. government began to crack down on arms shipments to Iran in Operation Staunch. So again, we're supplying them. They blow up Americans and then we crack down on them. And even more ambitious dual operation, parallel truck bombings of the U.S. Marine and French embassies in Beirut.

1:01:42 Followed on October 23rd, 1983. That's where the 241 American Marines were killed, plus another 100 injured. Bombings continued of the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait and Israeli military headquarters, the American Embassy in Beirut again, this time with a truck bomb that left 14 more dead.

1:02:09 The Shiites also struck directly at CIA again on March 16, 1984, kidnapping William Buckley, recently arrived station chief in the tough Middle Eastern city. Despite protective measures, the station chief was seized right off the street in Beirut and held by his captors for a year. He became the first of six American hostages taken in Lebanon.

1:02:50 But, hey.

1:03:09 We're still going to deal with them. We're going to stop there for today. And we'll go into the response tomorrow. Crazy ass people. You got anything, Bridget? I'm sorry. Yep, I'm still with you. I know. I'm just saying, did you have any comments? Oh, just, you know, the same Tom, rather than Tomfoolery, Tomfuckery. It's just another day.

1:03:54 You know, last, yeah, yesterday, okay, so Monday or Saturday, I was off of, we were fishing and doing all sorts of stuff and didn't get to see until Sunday about what happened with the president. But going through all this stuff that we have gone through, you see it in a totally different light. You know, it's,

1:04:26 It doesn't just open your eyes and you see the historical patterns playing out. Even though the faces are different, the storyline is all just the same. Anyway, just my opinion. You definitely see things differently. SR, did you have anything? Thank you, Colonel. And thank everyone for being here on Spaces and on Rumble. I'm listening to what's going on here.

1:04:59 We start getting into Cuba again and C-130s flying in and out of Cuba. Of course, that would be the airfield in Guantanamo that they're using. Okay, so I can sort of understand that. But along with all of this going on, my interest was in the bombing that you were talking about that they referred to here in the States. And I'm wondering if that bombing was not...

1:05:33 referring to 9-11 but referring to the original bombing of the twin towers in 93 maybe maybe yep but i mean supposedly it was the same network which are all associated with the cia yeah correct i mean we're seeing that the other thing that's getting me here too is we already know that the cia is funding both sides across the board

1:06:08 And I'm beginning to wonder if these, I can't help but think that these other nations don't understand that and don't see it, especially with what the CIA is doing. I don't quite understand how they don't see, oh yeah, the CIA is funding him and he's funding me. Why? Why are we both fighting? Well, I don't think a lot of them at the time that it's going on know that.

1:06:40 Um, do they eventually know that? Yes, because there's cross talk. But I don't know. I've never seen any evidence that says that, you know, the two enemies sit down and talk and say, hey, I'm getting my shit from the CIA. Are you getting your shit from the CIA? I've never seen that.

1:07:09 because it's done through cutouts and these fake companies. So do they know afterwards? Absolutely. Because at the end of the day, this all gets exposed. And point after a certain period of time, you would think, but they don't care because they think that they're going to be, you know, if you're team A and you're fighting for particular objectives,

1:07:38 They don't really care if you're giving team B also aid because you just hope that you're able to use the aid they're giving you better than anything that they're giving to B and your objectives are going to be achieved anyway.

1:08:00 It's not even just the CIA, because you have to consider all of the other intelligence agencies as well, because they all get in on this too. We tend to focus only on the CIA, but anyway, go ahead all along. Yeah, Colonel, regarding the question just raised by SR, I think, you know,

1:08:33 What we got to do is ask ourselves, why is your show and other shows, you know, well, why is your show getting such bad algorithm compared to shows that are much worse? You know, if there's a reason that your show is, is, you know, it's been on for a long time and yet that sometimes, you know, it's the, the listenership is very small. Other times it seems to be growing, but.

1:09:02 The reason is the quality of the show. It's not an accident, you know. And it's why I think, you know, again, the CIA and the national security state, it's like they care about secondary education because it's the last time everyone's on the same page. That's 100% of the population. And the reason, you know, as SR said, you know, you have.

1:09:32 different groups not realizing the CIA is running both blades of the scissors is because people, you know, if that awareness is staggered over time, it can never be kind of like a fashionable topic. Because like you read something two years later, I read something else like three years ago or seven years later, it'll never be au courant, as they say, you know, fashionable.

1:10:00 The CIA really effing cares about that. They really care. They're trying to make the mind as much a matter of fashion as our clothes are. Because if they can't fashion knowledge and make this topic fashionable among the Tucker listeners, but the same topic not fashionable among the Noam Chomsky listeners, that's their bread and butter, you know?

1:10:28 And so the reason so many people still fall for things not realizing that, you know, the CIA is really operating both blades of the scissors is they learn about it too late. They learn about it in smaller groups where they can't, you know, you can't talk to the person sitting next to you on the bus or train or whatever. If you pretty much know that they don't even have the basic common denominator to start up a conversation, you know,

1:10:59 So it's just like it's it's media machinations. And that's why I think we have to, you know, devote our attention to like NBC. If you're going to go ahead and lie into every single classroom about a coup, you're going to have to pay a price for that. Right. We have to create a cost for the big the biggest liars that reach 100 percent of the population at the starting gate of political life.

1:11:28 And I think that's, you know, the fact that that cost has not been created by, quote, alternative media, which purported to like be will hold their feet to the fire. That has not happened. Why? We need that's what we need to think about. Yeah, I don't disagree with that. It is interesting that if you want.

1:11:58 to understand how the CIA operates. People that have spaces that actually talk about how they actually operate and not made up shit, they get no exposure at all on X, none. Yet you have quote unquote former CIA officers on podcast after podcast after podcast lying to you.

1:12:27 at supposedly exposing shit, most of which is not even true, and covering up the shit that is true or minimizing it at best. And as I made a post today for something that goes to base Patrick Henry said, you really have to pay attention to the podcasters also that bring these people on.

1:12:56 They are providing them a venue and 90% of what they say is flat out lies and it would take you five minutes on any search engine, not just Yandex, to disprove what they're saying. And yet none of them have done, evidently, unless they're in on it, any research. There's no pushback. And as soon as you see that, you're better off just turning it off because

1:13:26 It's propaganda. And these are large platforms that they're using. And that is to drown out the real truth because they don't want the real truth to be exposed. Travis, go ahead. Right after we pulled out of Iraq.

1:13:52 Erickson was convicted in Southern District of New York, prosecuted by Securities and Exchange Commission for supplying arms, tech assistance, and financial assistance to ISIS while the entire time we were fighting ISIS. Same court also convicted them of funding Cuban mercenaries.

1:14:22 in various countries, Tuareg Rebels, Timor Tigers, and many others. Every single time they're fined however much in SDNY, their subsidiaries receive new contracts from DHS and the State Department. Exactly.

1:14:56 To the penny matching the fines that they just paid. So Erickson is providing the front. So they get convicted and convicted. It's well documented, court documented. Erickson did it. Didn't have anything to do with the CIA. And yet the CIA is paying them through other proxies. Money laundering.

1:15:27 And of course, Ericsson is part of Sweden, which is part of this whole international syndicate that we talk about all the time. The Wallenbergs, all of them. So it makes sense that they're all in on it.

1:15:48 Funding both sides. We know that a lot of the Mujahideen were the base, bottom floor for ISIS and Al-Qaeda. So yeah, supplying them with equipment and weapons makes perfect sense because they're just another version of the Gladio operations resident in Southwest Asia. So not at all surprising.

1:16:21 But anyway, crazy, crazy, crazy. Okay. And I did look up that Ronald Rewald. He's very interesting, very smart guy. He graduated from MIT and did work for the CIA. And guess where he was working at?

1:16:56 the University of Wisconsin-Madison. And then supposedly he went to a university, which he didn't go to. And then he was in the NFL. He played, or at least he tried out for the Cleveland, he was signed with the Cleveland Browns.

1:17:24 trained with Kansas City chiefs. And then he went into business in the Midwest and then moves to Hawaii and sets up this firm. And it basically was a Ponzi scheme. What I find most interesting about the timing is this timing of when he set up this firm in Honolulu, which was basically a money laundering operation, is when...

1:17:53 And Nugent Hand set up their branch in Honolulu as well. It's in the late 1970s when this is at the exact same time BCCI and Nugent Hand is money laundering. And then when it all gets exposed, he basically claims at his trial that he was working for the CIA. He gets sentenced to 80 years in prison and serves 10.

1:18:22 And then he gets released on parole. And this is federal. So this would have been, you know, let's see, in 95. So he would have been released under Clinton's watch. So, yeah. And he was working. You can't make this shit up. After he gets released, he gets hired by a talent agency.

1:18:53 in Beverly Hills. So another corrupt area. That's just absolutely bizarre. SR, go ahead. Thank you, Colonel. I did want to make one other comment concerning the deal with retired CIA people. As the Colonel stated, they're not retired.

1:19:26 They don't go away. And the evidence of that is the CIA will get rid of you before they retire you. Just do one thing wrong. And the CIA says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We'll take care of it. Yeah. Thank you, girl. Sure. I wanted to. Yeah.

1:19:54 I'm going to have to look at this other one too, because I have a blank spot in my notes for this Associated Traders Corporation that was set up. And I know that that had something to do with Edwin Wilson, because that was the name of his first company, but then he set up that other one.

1:20:22 So I'm gonna have to go back in my notes and see if I have that written somewhere else. So I'll go find what I have on that one too. I'll make a post about that. But yeah, it's all interwoven. All right, so that's it for tonight. And we will be back. Let me just check since we're at the beginning of the week. We've got...

1:20:57 It looks like a normal schedule for this week. Don't have anything big going on. I will be on Wednesday morning, first thing. I have a very interesting podcast I'm looking forward to with a bunch of...

1:21:24 primarily former military that all live in Thailand. So they host a podcast. They've had a whole bunch of different people on. They like talking about the CIA and special forces and stuff like that in Southeast Asia. So they reached out and asked if I would come on their podcast. So I'm gonna be doing a podcast at 8 a.m., but it's not a live podcast that I know of. But I'll clarify that with them.

1:21:53 and let you guys know. So other than that, it's just gonna be a normal week. So with that, I'm gonna close, grab something to eat and then I will be doing part two of our other premium over on Rumble in a couple of hours. So you guys take care and that will finish me up for the month over on the premium requirements. So.

1:22:25 You guys take care and I will see you tomorrow.

Entities here

CIA50 William Casey25 Ronald Reagan21 Afghanistan17 Iran17 Southern Air Transport15 Soviet Union7 Pakistan6 Ronald Ray Rewald6 Nicaragua6 Cuba5 National Security Council5 Ayatollah Khomeini5 Lebanon5 Angola5 Max Hoge5 Jimmy Carter5 Presidential Intelligence Advisory Board4 Summit Aviation4 Rafi Zadeh4 El Lucia Airways4 Mujahideen4 Military Airlift Command4 Reza Pahlavi4 Israel3 John Stein3 UNITA3 208 Committee3 Edwin Wilson3 Iran hostage crisis3 Congo3 Egypt3 DebateGate3 Ericsson2 Osama bin Laden2 Tudeh Party2 France2 Gerald Ford2 U.S. State Department2 Vietnam2

Claims made here

Robert Gates host_asserted CIA host_asserted ▶ 1:05

“Afghanistan when we left off. Okay, Robert Gates remarked at his 1991 confirmation hearings for CIA director that he would have grave doubts about the efficiency of covert operations safe for Afghanis…”

CIA supplied_arms_to Mujahideen host_asserted ▶ 1:29

“That leads to the heart of the matter. Afghanistan had supplanted Laos as the biggest paramilitary affair in CIA history. And supposedly was looking a little better for them because they're going to o…”

Soviet Union carried_out_attack Afghanistan documented ▶ 1:29

Boris Gromov removed_from_power Afghanistan documented ▶ 2:02

“weapons. Russian troops could punch through but achieve nothing. In UN-mediated negotiations, the Soviets agreed to a military withdrawal and carried it out. At 11.55 a.m. on February 15, 1989, Genera…”

Milt Bearden member_of CIA host_asserted ▶ 2:31

“breaking CIA standing orders not to cross the border, went to have their pictures taken at the same bridge after he exited. But the Afghan war continued. Najibullah communist regime fought on and both…”

Frank Anderson member_of CIA host_asserted ▶ 2:31

Najibullah headed Afghanistan host_asserted ▶ 2:31

CIA funded Hekmatyar host_asserted ▶ 3:33

“primacy in addition to political power. Ahmed Mossad and Gulbuddin Hekmarda became enemies because Hekmarda is the one that the CIA and ISI, Pakistan, was funding. And the Mossad guy was the one that …”

Taliban overthrew Afghanistan host_asserted ▶ 4:34

“fundamentalist force arose. The Taliban conquered Kabul and most of the country. Massoud, now allied with the former general Dost, fought on. Before long, they got help from basically all of the parti…”

Ahmad Shah Massoud member_of Afghanistan host_asserted ▶ 4:34

CIA supplied_arms_to Mujahideen host_asserted ▶ 6:49

“As early as 1988, a U.S. force in the Persian Gulf inspecting a motorboat belonging to the IRGC found two Stinger missiles in it. Makes you feel good? During the CIA operation, a thousand went to Afgh…”

Osama bin Laden trained CIA host_asserted ▶ 8:47

“to seek new wars. Others who admired the Afghan resistance from afar went there to learn how to be trained to be a terrorist. And yes, the CIA still maintained terrorist training camps in those locati…”

Pakistan laundered_money_for CIA host_asserted ▶ 11:25

“sending it all to Afghanistan. They're using that money to launder back to the United States. And we read in the one book about them actually buying the triggers for, or the ignition, whatever you wan…”

William Casey headed CIA host_asserted ▶ 13:32

“Casey led an expansion of the CIA held at the time as a renaissance. Casey pushed for another covert action projects with anti-Soviet bent. Many of Langley's tribes would have their hands full during …”

William Casey trained Jedburgh Program host_asserted ▶ 15:30

“Casey had also been one of the original secret warriors. In World War II, he went into the OSS, where he worked as an aide to Wild Bill Donovan. The OSS chief, in turn, sent Casey to London. There, th…”

William Casey succeeded David Bruce documented ▶ 16:01

“David Bruce as OSS chief of secret intelligence for the European theater. Basically negotiating the changeover of Hitler's stay behind with General Wolf to soon to be NATO and Alan Dulles. He supervis…”

Ronald Reagan appointed William Casey documented ▶ 16:30

“in OSS veteran associations and was appointed to the intelligence board, the presidential intelligence board by Gerald Ford. To a newly elected Ronald Reagan looking for a CIA director, Bill Casey was…”

Gerald Ford appointed William Casey documented ▶ 16:30

CIA installed Suharto host_asserted ▶ 18:31

“had not registered as a foreign agent as required by law when he represented the government of Indonesia. Huh? You mean the Indonesia that was being ran by Suharto, who the CIA installed? Yeah, that s…”

William Casey recruited Max Hoge documented ▶ 19:06

“Judgment again became an issue in the summer of 81 during the Hoogle affair. This concerned Max Hoogle, whom Casey personally brought into the agency as an assistant, then promoted him to deputy direc…”

William Casey appointed John Stein documented ▶ 21:36

“judging, quote, there is no basis for concluding Mr. Casey is unfit to serve, unquote. Casey mollified the professionals with his next deputy director, John Henry Stein, the man originally recommended…”

Ronald Reagan funded Nicaragua documented ▶ 33:49

“annexes, such as in 1985 with the Afghan escalation. Reagan approved covert actions against Nicaragua in a November 81 decision directive. About a year later, he sanctioned Bill Casey's activism that …”

Ronald Reagan funded Cuba documented ▶ 33:49

William Casey viewed House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence documented ▶ 36:18

“tributes to both Casey and Brzezinski viewed the congressional oversight intelligence committees as compromising sensitive information and according oversight power to people with no expertise. Yeah.…”

William Casey headed CIA documented ▶ 37:10

“Didn't worry about it. Proprietaries had long constituted the backbone of CIA covert capability. Under Casey's leadership, they were even more important. As before, aviation companies performed most o…”

Stanley Williams sold Southern Air Transport documented ▶ 37:40

“the CIA had them all, proprietaries, to do all of that. When Langley liquidated Southern Air Transport, its buyer, Stanley Williams, once the manager, the liaison for the CIA to Southern Air Transport…”

CIA funded Southern Air Transport documented ▶ 38:12

“Southern Air Transport's assets, which led to a lawsuit. But mutual dependency proved too great. The CIA needed Southern Air and Southern Air Transport wanted Langley's business. Iranian Air Force con…”

John Bastian purchased Southern Air Transport documented ▶ 38:44

“What are they flying out of Iran covertly with CIA assets? Oh, that's right. Iran in the north had opium. The fall of the Shah hurt business. Even with the Iranian deals, Southern Air Transport posted…”

William Langer appointed Southern Air Transport documented ▶ 39:16

“Bastion had been Southern Air Transport's lawyer for the CIA. So they're not really selling it. It's just a paper shuffle. Southern Air Transport maintained headquarters and operating facilities in Mi…”

Southern Air Transport supplied_arms_to Angola documented ▶ 40:19

“Total revenues of almost $40 million. So they were basically doing about 60% of their business with either the Pentagon or the CIA. Southern Air's largest private account was a subcontractor to the An…”

U.S. State Department warned Southern Air Transport documented ▶ 41:23

“Southern Air Transport flew almost 600 flights to Angola. Again, not civilian. At one point, the State Department warned Southern Air Transport against carrying, they put out a formal warning saying, …”

Oliver North used Southern Air Transport documented ▶ 42:54

“but an arrangement to deliver humanitarian assistance to Nicaraguan rebels in Honduras as well. And those are the ones that Oliver North and his buddy in the State Department is going to use. Southern…”

James Ryan founded Aero Contractors documented ▶ 44:22

“In 1979, a former Air America chief pilot and hero of Desert One, James Ryan, started a company called Aero Contractors. Over more than two decades, with a series of interlocking directorates and subs…”

Aero Contractors front_for CIA documented ▶ 44:52

“Later investigations revealed corporate directors with fictitious names traced to post office boxes in Northern Virginia, D.C., and Maryland. So it's another front company. It also included corporate …”

Summit Aviation front_for CIA documented ▶ 45:25

“by private benefactors to work with the Contras. That was the whole purpose of it. Another proprietary for the CIA worked out of Middletown, Delaware. That one was called Summit Aviation, which specia…”

Summit Aviation trained Anastasio Somoza documented ▶ 46:17

“If you're hauling drugs, there's different equipment that you want on board as far as palletizing as opposed to seats and stuff like that. Even former employees were uncertain of who they actually wor…”

El Lucia Airways supplied_arms_to Iran documented ▶ 48:17

“out of Iran. Revelations of secret U.S. arm deals in Iran brought new attention to St. Lucia, with disclosures that a Boeing 707 making one of the deliveries bore company markings. St. Lucia denied an…”

El Lucia Airways supplied_arms_to UNITA documented ▶ 48:51

“In 1985, an apparent St. Lucia modified C-130 was destroyed in Angola. The company denied any role in Angola. Well, of course they did. But its careful statement did not mention Zaire, which is where …”

Ronald Ray Rewald claimed CIA documented ▶ 49:50

“In 1984, a Honolulu investment advisor, Ronald Ray Rewald, R-E-W-A-L-D, charged with security fraud, defended himself with the claim that his company, Bishop Baldwin, Rewald, Dillingham, and Wong, had…”

CIA founded Associated Traders documented ▶ 50:21

“may have been spurious, represented only the bare tip of the iceberg in terms of CIA corporate covers. Edwin Wilson's import-export operations, for example, was another kind of cover used to move arms…”

James Critchfield founded Tetra Tech Corporation documented ▶ 50:52

“was the brainchild of retired CIA James Critchfield, did security-related work in the Middle East, where Critchfield had spent his time as a CIA officer. Huh, Tetra Tech Corporation. We've come across…”

CIA provided_bridge_financing_for Iran guest_asserted ▶ 53:54

“recounts that William Casey went to Ronald Reagan in September of 81 with a dual-track program. The president approved a tryout. The CIA would fund Iranian exile groups while maintaining the United St…”

William Casey proposed Ronald Reagan guest_asserted ▶ 53:54

CIA funded Front for the Liberation of Iran documented ▶ 56:01

“millions of dollars. The CIA regarded Mandani as too independent and decided not to work further with him. Many of the exiles were too busy squabbling to do very much, but in 82, the CIA reportedly be…”

Reza Pahlavi cooperated_with Front for the Liberation of Iran documented ▶ 57:03

“This became active in October of 82. The Shah's son, Raja Pavlovi, who's all over the news lately, cooperated with this radio station and appeared on broadcast repeatedly. They were able to override t…”

CIA covered_up Tudeh Party guest_asserted ▶ 58:01

“Tudor party, oh, we're not still playing with them, are we? Including names of organizers. Langley passed the list to the Iranians who executed all of the members and then outlined the Tudor party on …”

CIA covered_up Iran guest_asserted ▶ 58:35

“Rafi Zadeh, the CIA, did the same to some of the exile groups, passing their contacts to Iran for the Khomeini security service. As a result, Rafi Zadeh reports more than a thousand people were arrest…”

Erik Prince supplied_arms_to ISIS documented ▶ 1:13:52

“Erickson was convicted in Southern District of New York, prosecuted by Securities and Exchange Commission for supplying arms, tech assistance, and financial assistance to ISIS while the entire time we…”

Erik Prince funded Cuba documented ▶ 1:13:52

Ericsson member_of Sweden host_asserted ▶ 1:15:27

“And of course, Ericsson is part of Sweden, which is part of this whole international syndicate that we talk about all the time. The Wallenbergs, all of them. So it makes sense that they're all in on i…”

Wallenberg family member_of Sweden host_asserted ▶ 1:15:27

Mujahideen supplied_arms_to Al Qaeda host_asserted ▶ 1:15:48

“Funding both sides. We know that a lot of the Mujahideen were the base, bottom floor for ISIS and Al-Qaeda. So yeah, supplying them with equipment and weapons makes perfect sense because they're just …”

Mujahideen funded Islamic State host_asserted ▶ 1:15:48

Mujahideen funded Al Qaeda host_asserted ▶ 1:15:48

Mujahideen supplied_arms_to Islamic State host_asserted ▶ 1:15:48

Ronald Ray Rewald worked_for University of Wisconsin-Madison host_asserted ▶ 1:16:21

“But anyway, crazy, crazy, crazy. Okay. And I did look up that Ronald Rewald. He's very interesting, very smart guy. He graduated from MIT and did work for the CIA. And guess where he was working at?…”

Ronald Ray Rewald member_of Cleveland Browns host_asserted ▶ 1:16:56

“the University of Wisconsin-Madison. And then supposedly he went to a university, which he didn't go to. And then he was in the NFL. He played, or at least he tried out for the Cleveland, he was signe…”

Ronald Ray Rewald trained Kansas City Chiefs host_asserted ▶ 1:17:24

“trained with Kansas City chiefs. And then he went into business in the Midwest and then moves to Hawaii and sets up this firm. And it basically was a Ponzi scheme. What I find most interesting about t…”

Ronald Ray Rewald pardoned Bill Clinton host_asserted ▶ 1:18:22

“And then he gets released on parole. And this is federal. So this would have been, you know, let's see, in 95. So he would have been released under Clinton's watch. So, yeah. And he was working. You c…”

Edwin Wilson founded Associated Traders host_asserted ▶ 1:19:54

“I'm going to have to look at this other one too, because I have a blank spot in my notes for this Associated Traders Corporation that was set up. And I know that that had something to do with Edwin Wi…”