The Colonel's Corner The Invisible Soldier by Hagedoan Part 3

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Transcript

0:00 How are you today, SR-71? Outstanding, Colonel. Outstanding. Awesome. All right. I'm going to get us going over here on Rumble, and we're going to take off. If you will let me know when Bridget shows up, she's going to be a few minutes late. Yes, ma'am. No worries. Okay. Today's a crazy day. Crazy, crazy. I just keep finding so much stuff on these private military.

0:37 security companies um outside of this book so i'm gonna try to wrap them all up on the um alpha warrior show um tonight so it's gonna be a wild ride all right um chapter four um we're on part three and this will be a shorter show than normal um because it is wednesday and um

1:04 As you guys all know, that's been here. I go to dinner with my family on Wednesday. So we're going to try to get through most of chapter four. We may not get all of it. All right. Thanks to the contract signed with the Pentagon and with the blessing of the Iraq government, Aegis is in a good position to become, to the great displeasure of American companies, the most powerful private.

1:36 military contractor in the world, said a Paris newspaper in June of 2004. From France to Britain to America, the news that Aegis had won America's largest security contract caused a stir. After all, they had never even been in Iraq. It was not on the US government's list of recommended contractors for Iraq. It was also the second

2:06 highest bidder. And for those of you who don't know anything about U.S. government contracts, you're always supposed to go with the lowest bidder. And it had been operating under the name Aegis for less than two years. So, biggest military contract, less than two years in operation, and wasn't the lowest bidder. So, there's no way

2:41 using government contracting standards, that they should have ever been awarded the contract. Shortly after AGES had entered the competition, the Department of Defense Defense Contracting Audit Agency at Fort Eustis, Virginia, sent a letter to Defense Procurement Agency in London, an executive agency of the Ministry of Defense, asking for financial facts and an assessment of the British firm.

3:13 On May 11th, this was the response, and I'm going to read it in whole. We withdraw your attention to the financial strength of this company. This company has only recently formed, 15-month period, and in that period, its operating loss before taxes was £170,000 on a turnover of £542,000.

3:42 It had a negative net worth. The company is wholly supported by a $1 million pound loan repayable in five years. So it wasn't even profitable. It is also a holding company for three subsidiaries. The two significant subsidiaries both traded at a loss in the last year. The trading results of the third company, while...

4:14 profitable were insufficient, basically making a 12,000 pound profit. So not even close to profitable. Ageist's ability to win the $293 million contract with a renewal option in 2007, despite his financial condition, was hugely impressive and intriguing, instigating a flood of media interest.

4:46 Some commentary regarded the situation as business as usual for empire builders and nations accompanying to occupying other nations, such as England. Aegis, by some accounts, was simply a later version of the private military company known as Sandline, which basically it was, which of course was an iteration of executive outcomes, because it was.

5:14 All three were reshaped and reintroduced as the privatization of conflict and the market for private force evolved. In Britain, coverage of the story revived accounts of Tim Spicer's mercenary past. Quote, controversial ex-British Army officer given key Iraq role, unquote, from Financial Times.

5:41 The article quoted industry insiders who believe the contract could prove politically embarrassing for both the UK and US governments. Officials at the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, and that's an important element of this, the Coalition Provisional Authority, who had played a role in Aegis obtaining the contract, responded by saying that they were aware of Spicer's colorful,

6:11 That was their word, passed, as a mercenary, but saw no reason why that would be a barrier to his qualifying for the contract. The Financial Times article ended with a British foreign officer spokesman saying that the foreign office had nothing to say because the contract came out of the United States. Quote, the contract in question was awarded by the U.S. government to Aegis and

6:35 the British government is not a party to the contract, nor was it involved in any way in its negotiation, unquote. But the American response showed far less awareness of AGIS and was more focused on the contract itself than on Spicer. In a June op-ed in the New York Times, Peter Singer, one of the foremost experts on the topic of privatizing militaries, described the contract as a case study in what not to do.

7:02 Among Singer's concern was the fact that the private military company would be overseeing others. Quote, a core problem of the military outsourcing experience has been the lack of coordination, oversight, and management from the government side. So outsourcing that very problem to another private company has a logic that would only do Kafka proud, wrote Singer.

7:29 Singer, who was the author of the 2002 book Corporate Warriors, was also critical of the fact that it was a cost plus contract, which meant that Pentagon would cover all of the company's expenses plus a predetermined percentage of whatever the company spent as basically their profit. And for those of you, again, who's not familiar with government contracting.

7:58 Cost plus contracts are horrible for the taxpayer because it does not incentivize the contractor to do any cost savings at all. As a matter of fact, the more they spend, the higher their profit. It's stupid. And it was troubling to him that the contract did not go to a company with a long operating history or at least some experience on the ground in Iraq.

8:29 Singer believed that it was possible that the people awarding the contract might not know anything about ages past because the responsibility and the funding of private military contracts is spread out over the government to some of the strangest of places. In quotes to the press, Singer seemed truly confounded by the award. He told the Boston Globe reporter, quote, it's an embarrassment for the military. We ended up hiring one of the most notorious individuals in the industry.

8:58 with a record not for success, but failure and controversy, unquote. Ageist competitors for the contract wasted no time in expressing their skepticism. DynCorp submitted a formal request to the D.A.O. to investigate all aspects of the contract award process.

9:31 DynCorp hoped the government would reopen the competition. In its complaint, the firm said it was shocked by its rejection, despite the fact that its bid was at least $80 million lower. Further, DynCorp asserted that Aegis did not have enough personnel on the ground to even fill the requirements of the contract. Quote, any reasonable assessment would have concluded that Aegis is not responsible, unquote.

10:02 DynCorp enlisted Texas Republican Congressman Pete Sessions to speak up on his behalf. And in his letter to the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, Sessions wrote, it is inconceivable that the firm charged with the responsibility of coordinating all security firms and individuals performing reconstruction has never even been in the country.

10:31 Responding to DynCorp's complaint, the GAO announced it would review the contract and report the results by September. Around the time of DynCorp's filing, Senators Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton, along with Chuck Schumer and Chris Dodd, also sent a letter to Secretary Rumsfeld requesting an investigation of the Pentagon's Inspector General, who was responsible for overseeing Iraq's multi-billion dollar reconstruction contracts.

11:01 Several weeks later, Senator John Kerry endorsed their letter. Here's what it said. Dear Secretary Rumsfeld, we are writing to request you to ask the Inspector General to investigate the $293 million Iraq security contract, given troubling concerns that recently have come to light. The contract, which we understand is largest yet awarded for security in post-war Iraq.

11:29 was granted to a British company, Aegis Service Limited, in May to provide security teams for the project and contracting office, the body responsible for overseeing $18 billion in U.S. reconstruction funds for Iraq. The company is led by Tim Spicer, a former lieutenant colonel in the Scots Guard. The Boston Globe has reported that Mr. Spicer has a reputation

11:57 for illicit arms deals in Africa and for commanding murderous military units in Northern Ireland. Two soldiers in the unit shot and killed Peter McBride, a Catholic teenager in Belfast in 1992 while under Mr. Spicer's command. Two soldiers were convicted of murder. Even after he retired from the military, Mr. Spicer defended the two soldiers who shot

12:25 McBride in the back. Spicer argued for their release, which occurred in 1998, and the soldiers were inexplicably reinstated into the British Army. The U.S. government requires all contractors to be responsible bidders. Contractors have to have a satisfactory record of integrity and business ethics. We would like to know whether the government considered human rights abuses or an individual who vigorously defends them

12:55 as part of this record. Additionally, the U.S. government requires consideration of the contractor's past performance. We would like to know whether the contracting team adequately reviewed the contractor's record, identified past human rights abuses or defense of abuses, and whether the contractor received a poor past performance rating on that basis. We would also like to know the extent to which the factors were evaluated in awarding this contract.

13:24 If they were evaluated, we would like to know what the rationale for awarding the contract. In light of the recent revelations of abuses of detainees in Iraq, it is important that U.S. actions, whether by military personnel or contractors, have respect for the laws. It is troubling that the government would award a contract to an individual with a history of supporting excessive use of force against civilian populations.

13:53 Certainly, we understand the urgent need to establish a secure environment, but the U.S. government is also working to create a democracy in Iraq in which respect for fundamental human rights is guaranteed. We appreciate your consideration of this request, and we look forward to the results of the Inspector General's review. That's the end of the letter.

14:15 The voices of protest came from Northern Ireland and the Irish-American lobby, growing louder by the day. Within hours of the government's announcement of the contract, Washington-based Irish National Caucus had pressed the U.S. government not only to review the contract from a human rights perspective, but also to terminate it. Quote, tear up that contract, Mr. Bush. It has Irish blood on it. That of innocent, unarmed Peter McBride.

14:45 This could undo any credit you gained from Irish Americans, unquote. That was written by the guy that led the caucus. Ageist spokespersons responded to the contract protests and decedent with confidence and enthusiasm. Early in the summer, the company's official comment was that, quote, tender process the evaluation of contract proposals.

15:13 was exemplary and the company was successful, unquote. By August, the spokesperson for Aegis told the press, quote, the awarding of the contract was extremely rigorous and all relevant facts were obviously known by the authorities. We have nothing further to add. I am pleased to confirm that we've been awarded a contract to assist Project Program Management Office in Iraq by the U.S. Department of Defense.

15:40 The contract involves coordination of security support for reconstruction contractors and for the protection of their personnel, unquote. After that, he was quiet and apparently out of the country for the summer. The British Foreign Office stuck to their no comment. It was like a black blast from the past. Like I took a leap back into a time machine into the 90s, Peter Singer said in an interview. To be honest, though, I.

16:10 am doubtful that the folks awarding the contract had any sense of Spicer's history, he told the Globe reporter. The Army never even bothered to Google this guy to find out who he was. Backing up such notions were the comments of the U.S. Army spokesman, who said that Spicer's resume, as submitted in the proposal, showed that he had a successful career in the British Army and that he had done security work in Africa and Southeast Asia.

16:40 He did, but it was as a mercenary. And of course, you're asking the people that are responsible for these coups to reevaluate the fact that they just awarded another contract to the people doing the coups. It's kind of like spinning your wheels. In response to the question of whether the Army knew about Spicer being a military, the spokesman said, my understanding is that they met all the requirements.

17:13 and that it was not part of the process to look at the backgrounds of the principals. That's bullshit, by the way. Others disagreed and believed the government knew exactly what they were doing, and that is true. Supporting that theory, a former executive outcome contractor with experience in Africa, mainly Sierra Leone, in the 1990s, wrote in an email, the U.S. government needs an organ that is from outside the U.S. government, far less accountable to the U.S.,

17:43 and already tainted, albeit slightly, with a whiff of dirty tricks. And that is the crux of the matter. The powers that be want mercenaries for mercenary activity. That was his email. The email recipient was Deborah Avant, then a scholar at George Washington University who had been studying private military phenomenon for several years and who agreed that the government knew exactly what they were doing. She believed that Spicer's...

18:13 past was likely viewed as an asset for the work they wanted to do in Iraq. Some people have suggested that this shows that the U.S. was clueless about contracting. Avant says, but there is no reason for his company to have gotten the contract other than his reputation. Because again, they had no experience in Iraq and they had lost money for consecutive years and were under two years old.

18:41 There was no other reason. Whether the government was aware of what it was getting may have been discussed for a hot second in 2004, but such concerns would fade as ages became more valuable to the entities that employed it and as the industry became more established. Ambivalence about private military security companies, however, would be a reoccurring theme.

19:08 This was, after all, a business dependent on conflict and instability to market itself. So guess what we're going to get? More conflict and instability. In the summer of 2004, Spicer kept a low profile. By then, he seemed already different from the infamous mercenary depicted by his critics and rivals. There were hints of respectability in the media. In 2004, it seemed that Spicer perhaps

19:38 The most important figure in the transition of old world mercenaries to these new private military companies had already lived several lives. He was a graduate of Sandhurst British Elite Military Academy for British Army officers, had served as a lieutenant colonel in the Scots Guard, worked as assistant to the UK's director of special forces, commanded his own battalion in Northern Ireland.

20:06 where they murdered somebody, and had managed PR for the British Army in Bosnia. After retiring from the army, he became a marketing director at one of London's most impressive investment firms, a job that required travel regularly to the Middle East. And I'm sure he was not doing investing. By the time in the 1990s, when he headed Sandline International, he had connections with British generals.

20:36 Special Forces officers, MI6 agents, Arab sheiks, and a wide range of entrepreneurs. He knew the power of PR and the perception of management in building the success of any endeavor. He knew what it was like to be lamb blasted and despised in public, as in the Peter McBride case in Northern Ireland. And what might be most important in the years ahead, he was tough and tenacious.

21:04 and always seemed to know how to flip a failure into a success. In the evolution of private military and security sector, Sandline was a conceptual bridge between executive outcomes and Aegis. Playing corporate leapfrog, Sandline started about 18 months before executive outcomes shut down, and it would fold about 18 months after the launch of Aegis. It was conceived by the same cadre.

21:35 who had created and rebranded their mercenary business. It had rules that executive outcome did not, and it enlisted sentinels of public relations to ensure it didn't follow. What was most intriguing, perhaps, was that in its short life, Sandline landed in the middle of two scandals, one of which nearly brought down the British government. The first scandal involved Papua New Guinea, the Australian protectorate,

22:03 that declared its independence in 1975. And we covered that when we did Southeast Asia. It's a very interesting story. So did the nearby island of Bougainvillea, the site of one of the largest copper mines in the world. Oh my gosh, here's my shock face. Because of the mine, the newly independent government of Papua New Guinea quickly took over Bougainvillea.

22:31 Years later, however, the local landlords rebelled and shut down the mine. This became a problem for the Papua New Guinea government, which depended on its revenue from the mine for half of its budget. So in early 1997, the Papua New Guinea government offered Sandline a $36 million contract to push out the Bougainvilleans. Claiming that the government should be paying the nation's own troops, not mercenaries,

22:59 The Papua New Guinea military denounced Sandline's contract. The prime minister fired the military commander and the soldiers. The soldiers, showing their devotion to the commander and their anger to the government, began anti-government protests that quickly escalated into riots. The Sandline contractors were arrested and deported, while Spicer ended up in a jail cell.

23:25 The prime minister was forced to resign and eventually Spicer was released. The next year, the second Sandline scandal occurred in Sierra Leone. This one was labeled by the media as arms for Africa. It caused a considerable stir during the Tony Blair first year as prime minister. This was the incident that Aegis competitor, including DynCorp, referred to in their protest of Spicer winning.

23:55 the Project Matrix contract. In brief, Sandline allegedly violated a UN arms embargo when it supplied at least 1,000 AK-47s, as well as mortar, light machine guns, and ammunition to coup plotters favoring the return of Sierra Leone's exile leader, Ahmed Kaba. The weapons purchased in Bulgaria, oh, there's that country again.

24:24 the arms capital of the illicit arms capital of the world, evidently, were paid for by Canadian-based Thai, as in Thailand, imagine that, businessmen, who represented a group of investors with mining interests in Sierra Leone. It's always the oligarchs. He, in turn, had a deal with the ousted Kaba government regarding mineral rights.

24:56 So they wanted him back in office and they wanted to overthrow the current government because Cabba had sold his soul to the Western oligarchs. And in this case, an Eastern one as well. The mineral rights, mostly diamonds, would be awarded in the aftermath of the successful coup. Spicer claimed that Sandline had proceeded with the approval of the British government, which was true. Members of the British Foreign Office.

25:27 however, disputed his claim, and investigation reports and heated disputes would ensue for years. In 1999, Spicer resigned from Sandline, and for the next few years until founding AGES, he started and ran several small enterprises, mostly paramilitary, maritime, and security. Journalist Robert Young Pelton reported in his book License to Kill,

25:57 That before Aegis, Spicer had started a series of companies, each of which achieved something between a limited degree of success and total failure. Even so, Spicer forged ahead. In 2002, the director of a New Jersey-based company that did emergency response work for shipping business was working on the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

26:22 and won a Homeland Security contract to assess security at American seaports and brought Spicer in as a partner. Some people in the insurance business in London gave me Spicer's name, the director said. I knew he had a colorful reputation, but he knows the sharp end of security, so we set up a joint venture. Spicer then brought two more partners in. One was a former military compatriot.

26:50 who had left a British army for baking career in Hong Kong at a bank called Jardin Fleming. And that has come up as a money launder, just FYI. This was a merchant bank rooted in the Fleming family, of which Ian Fleming is a part. It had been rumored for years as being a British MI6 front, because it was. The other one, the other colleague,

27:22 was the banker star researcher also from Jardin. A few months later, in December of 2002, while the New Jersey project continued, Spicer, the two men from Jardin, and one more Jardin banker, who was a big backer, launched Aegis. So, you have money launderers from a Hong Kong bank, and Spicer, a mercenary, launched

27:52 Aegis. Are y'all following along? That's crazy shit. So from the start, this company basically fits all of the descriptions of this ongoing Operation Gladio bullshit. On the list of Aegis' early investors was Frederick Forsyte, who said later that he had seen Spicer in London one day and asked him what he was up to.

28:21 He told me he was setting up a new company and asked if I fancied investing in it. I thought, why not, Forsythe said. Also on the list was Saad, S-A-A-D, Investments Company. And of course, we know that's linked to Saudi Arabia, Saad Group. They had offices in Bahrain, Geneva, London, and of course, the Cayman Islands.

28:49 because you have to be there if you're laundering money. At first, Aegis was a discreet entity, staying in the same London offices at Piccadilly as the maritime security firm Trident Maritime, which was one of Spicer's companies, and even using Trident's phone exchanges, so they had the same phone number. But in the late spring of 2003, the new firm stepped out of the past and went upscale.

29:22 They began focusing on maritime and focusing on terrorists, this threat that they kept creating of maritime shipping. On August 26, off the coast of Sumatra, 10 pirates in a speedboat stopped an Indonesian chemical tanker called the Dewey Modrum and armed with machetes and one machine gun boarded it.

29:50 They smashed radio equipment, forced the captain to open the safe, and stole $21,000. They ransacked the crew cabins, took cash and other personal belongings. After collecting the loot, they left without taking anyone from the boat. In the international media, however, there were conflicting accounts at what had actually taken place. Some reporting that the captain and first officer had been kidnapped but later returned.

30:19 There was no ransom mentioned. And if they didn't steal anything, they still must be terrorists. But if so, what was their motive? Often the differences between pirates and terrorists are debated. So, again, if we call them pirates, if it's even real, because Sumatra was a hotbed of CIA anyway during the Indonesian.

30:50 overthrow of Sukarno. So if you go with the narrative that that actually happened and that they were actually just interested in robbing it, then the appropriate term would have been pirates. But we're not interested in...

31:11 technicalities as far as language, because we want to label them a terrorist, because as long as we call them terrorist, then we get to further the terrorist on the open seas, which gets these guys contracts. So I went back and researched some of this stuff. There's a lot of articles that, I wouldn't say there's a lot, there's several articles that

31:39 cast doubt on what actually happened. But the bottom line is it furthered their PR campaign. Later in the year, Aegis published a study on what had happened. The Economist magazine wrote, according to a new study, a London defense and security consultancy, Aegis, these attacks represented something altogether more sinister.

32:12 Because we're going to develop a PR campaign, kind of like we did after 9-11. The temporary hijacking was done by none other than terrorists. And the kidnapping, although there was no kidnapping, was aimed at acquiring expertise to help the terrorists mount a maritime attack, which did not happen. They took the shit and they left. So they were trying to paint the picture.

32:48 that this incident was the equivalent on this open seas as 9-11. They were going to try to learn how to pilot the ship, even though they weren't on there but less than an hour or so. But they made a whole big story out of it and wrote an article about it. They even compared it in the article to the Al-Qaeda hijackers learning how to fly and not land.

33:16 So they milked it for everything they could get. And immediately a star was born. Aegis was one of the first companies to discuss publicly the need for protecting commercial shipping industry from the risk of terrorist attacks. In the months ahead, the press continued to write about the subject with headlines. And the press, of course, is part of the operation. They're in on the psyops too.

33:45 So they just kept milking this for all it was worth. By the end of the summer of 2004, Aegis had more authority and attention than it had had when it first applied for the contract in Iraq. It was even quoted several times in news sources that August about the terror alert in the United States regarding certain financial agencies and firms in Washington, D.C. So now they're going to bring the terror threat home to the U.S.

34:17 All of the threats they were using, the New York Times exposed, was all based on old, outdated intelligence. Not a single thing they said in any of their PR releases or statements or anything was based on any current threat. In early September 2004,

34:42 Late line, a popular Australian ABC affiliate asked Spicer to appear on a segment about maritime security. He declined. He sent Dominic Donald, then a senior analyst at Aegis, representing the firm. The host of the show, ABC correspondent Tom Cooks, said that, quote, analyzing the nature of marine terror threats has become a growth industry and London as the home of marine insurance.

35:12 is where many new players are popping up, unquote. His focus was on Aegis and the head Spicer, whom he referred to as the mercenary thrown out of Papua New Guinea. Cooks responds, these days Spicer's company will now sell you a 1,500 pound report on why you should be concerned about maritime terrorism attacks, unquote.

35:41 In his line of questions about the new company, Cook asked him, quote, you haven't had any baggage from your age's previous incarnations, question mark. He said, no, we haven't found any. On August 13th, the government accounting office rejected the complaints about the contract in the parallel probe by the Pentagon special.

36:12 inspector general concluded that ageist award had indeed been just fine this line there was there was little public reaction though sean mcmanus of the irish national caucus told the media i am hoping that president bush will show some basic decent decency and since excuse me and sensitivity to the feelings of irish americans and do the right thing and cancel this outrageous

36:43 Contract. Why Aegis? From vicious and fantastic to plausibility and logical, rumors filled the atmosphere. The most commonly expressed opinion was that Tony Blair pressured the Bush administration to hand over a piece of the privatization pie to Britain. But if so, why was Aegis the chosen British company?

37:13 among the British was that Spicer had been part of MI6 for years, and he was just continuing working for them. This fit with the long-lived suspicion that Jardin Fleming Banks, tethered to Aegis early days, was just an extension of the British intelligence. So this is literally MI6 owning Aegis. And that might have explained why Spicer was able to escape relatively unscathed in some of his

37:44 incidents in the past. It would explain it perfectly. He was referred to as Tony Blair's pet bulldog. Those were the rumors based on the assumption that the U.S. did not know about Spicer's past and hastened the quest in the award of the contract. Deborah Event

38:13 The woman that did research into private military companies at George Washington University is convinced that the U.S. officials knew exactly who they were hiring. The man in charge of writing the specifications for the U.S. contract proposal at the Coalition Provisional Authority. So let me just make sure you all understand. When the military was in charge of Iraq, CENTCOM.

38:42 was the commander in Iraq. There would be a CENTCOM commander on the ground in Iraq. Everything reported to them. This is post-Handover, supposedly we won, and they handed it the authority of the quote-unquote reconstruction after they decimated it and fired everybody. And now there's all of these disgruntled Iraqis running around.

39:10 They handed that over without ever securing the country to the coalition provisional authority. And so now technically, while CENTCOM has people on the ground, they're not in charge anymore. The coalition provisional authority is actually in charge. And supposedly, it's accountable to the new government in Iraq, which was completely not functional.

39:42 So just so that you guys understand that the guy in the coalition provisional authority. Now, another point I have to make when you're going to issue a contract, you the person that is going to be responsible for overseeing the contract has to actually write what the requirements are and put them in a document. That document then goes out to the bidders for the contract. So, for example, in my last job.

40:12 we had certain support functions that were contracted out every year. And you have to send out a solicitation for bids. And you have to write up the entire document of everything that has to be met because that's kind of your report card. Quarterly, you go over and make sure that they're in compliance with the contract in order for them to compete for another year of that contract in a potential extension or whatever.

40:42 So the person that is the contract awarder puts down the requirements in writing as to what they're bidding on doing. That person at the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad was a guy by the name of Tony, and he has a hyphenated last name, Hunter-C-H-O-A-T-E.

41:12 He was familiar with both Aegis and Spicer. He had worked with Spicer during the 1990s Balkan War, when Hunter Kiyote had been part of the British UN contingent, while Spicer was the spokesperson for the UN Protection Force, which comprised troops from half a dozen nations.

41:42 A former commanding officer in the SAS, a former French foreign legionnaire, former leader of the Sultan's Special Forces in Oman, the former security chief for Aga Khan. This is describing Hunter Kiyote. So he was also in the SAS. He was also in the French foreign legionnaire.

42:10 which does a lot of mercenary stuff with their Gladio team. He was also in the Oman Sultan's Special Forces, which we train, and former security chief for Aga Khan. And, Bridget, if you'll go get Aga Khan, because he comes up over and over and over again. Can you spell his name real quick? It's A-G-A.

42:39 K-H-A-N. Okay, just making sure. Yeah, he's come up in many of our Gladio conversations about the Middle East. Hunter Kiyote in 2004 was the security director for the U.S. program office in Iraq. How the hell did that happen? This guy's not U.S. This guy has nothing to do with the United States.

43:07 He's writing the source requirements document to give to the United States government for them to find a contractor who's going to be his buddy in the UK. Sources within the private military security company industry seem confident that he formulated the specifications so that only Aegis would meet them all. What really happened, said Aegis senior advisor Dominic Donald in a later interview.

43:38 was that the other bidders thought the contract was about protection, but it was about coordination of protection. That's different. And Aegis understood that, very well understood what was needed there, what the requirements were. And the others just did not completely understand the requirements of the contract, not the way Aegis did, because Aegis had an inside guide writing the contract.

44:09 Aegis indeed focused on the coordination aspect of the project when it entered the competition, and this was what the U.S. government wanted. But the government also wanted Spicer's expertise, Avant said. At the time, according to knowledgeable sources, one of the biggest concerns was instability in the Kurdish oil fields in northern Iraq. Although the security risk was not as great in Iraqi Kurdistan,

44:38 as it was in the rest of Iraq in 2004, it appeared to be, and the U.S. did not want to take chances. Now, let me just tell you how big of a bullshit line that is. There was not instability in the North. The Kurds has the PKK, and they take care of shit. There's no insecurity there, and these people know that.

45:06 I was there in the early 1990s. Everybody that was in. See, this is the kind of crap that had General Jay Garner stayed there and not Bremer. They would have never gotten away with because General Garner was the task force commander in northern Iraq. He knew all of those people. He spent over a year. He knew all of those people. This shit would have never happened. And so.

45:34 They're using that. And again, all about the oil. Give me a break. They knew that the oil was their lifeline. They didn't let anybody get near them. All bullshit. So, but they use that as the threat. Shortly after the GAO's decision to green light the contract, Spicer moved back into the spotlight. Now he appeared to be an expert, not just on maritime security.

46:09 but also on Iraq, and he's never been there. That autumn, he was on Sir David Frost's TV show called Breakfast with Frost. Congratulations on the assignment, Frost said. But at the same time, it is so difficult, isn't it? I mean, you've probably got a better view than almost any other individual on how secure or insecure Iraq is. What's your summary of the situation?

46:39 Again, to the guy who's never been to Iraq. A few days later, the Sunday Times, tracking Spicer like a celebrity, reported that he was looking for a new place to live. You know, we got to upscale now that I'm rich off of our taxpayer dollars. So he put his old nice house up for sale and went and bought a much bigger one.

47:06 Aegis became the focus of a debate over the issue of maritime security. The clash between a shipping magnate and an Aegis director played out in a publication called Lloyd's List, a trade daily posting with a substantial circulation. The shipping magnate, Andrew Craig Bennett, was irritated by a comment from Aegis executive in early December 2004 issue of Lloyd's List.

47:36 about the possibility that al-Qaeda might seek to block the Suez Canal. Bennett saw it as an example of what he termed maritime insecurity, a branch of the fear business. That's exactly what it was. The growth industry of the early 21st century, he wrote, the insecurity experts depend on plausible threats in order to make a living from us.

48:02 And since the terrorists themselves have failed to oblige by doing anything scary, in the maritime for well over a year now, the masters of insecurity have been reduced to scaring us silly with whatever threats they can dream up. Unquote. That says everything in a nutshell. Responding to Bennett, an Aegis analyst wrote, quote, the fact that nothing has happened for a year doesn't mean it won't happen in the future. You know.

48:33 Because we can make it happen whenever we want. And then went on to say, bastards. Al Qaeda had never hijacked an aircraft until 9-11. They love using their false flags to justify everything afterwards. Much like the Special Forces Club, Aegis was a nexus of past, current, and future conflict in the realm of special ops.

49:02 There is an old maxim that no one really knows who is on which side until the game ends. It's the perfect environment for private military security companies. And that's the end of that chapter. So we're going to stop there. I found a very elaborate article written about his money laundering operation. And I posted it up in the net. There you go. That's the guy I know.

49:37 Yeah, and this guy was his security, okay? The guy that wrote the contract to hire Aegis was his security. I'm sure it's just a coincidence. Always. The man was remembered as a spiritual leader, not... Yeah, and also it's a coincidence that the two investors were money launderers too, the Jardin guys.

50:11 Just a coincidence. Right. All right. Renee. Anybody got anything? Renee just requested a mic. Okay. Hey, Colonel. Hey, everyone. So regarding early times of the Gladio shenanigans, would you consider.

50:40 William Pauly like an OG private or one of the original contracts with the military and this kind of stuff? I was just thinking of him recently and this came to mind as a question for you. Technically, no. He was actually more along the lines of an undeclared CIA agent.

51:05 The infiltration of him into business fronts and into the State Department as an ambassador, his purchase. So you could either term him one of the actual oligarchs in the international syndicate. If you want to say that he was completely independent, just.

51:34 being one of the directors of the CIA doing their stuff, right? Or you can make the argument that he was one of the off-book CIA agents pretending to be a millionaire, and he just so happened to be tasked to be in all of those places, like Southeast Asia, setting up Chiang Kai-shek.

51:55 And the drug operations and the Curtis aircraft franchise just so happened to be awarded to him. And then his purchasing of all of the stuff on Cuba while it was under the control of Batista. So those can all be fronts. I can make an argument that he was either an off book CIA agent or if he legitimately was a millionaire. He's one of the international syndicates that.

52:23 is in bed with the cia making all this shit happen so that they can use it um but he definitely would not be in the private military business okay thank you yeah because i was thinking about the whole um flying tigers thing yeah he's got his uh he's such a multi-pronged character as far as yeah it's it's overwhelming his

52:49 Fingers are in many pies. So you can make the argument that they were backdooring money to him for him to do all of those things as an off-book CIA agent. Because he definitely made money off of all of it. And you could also make the argument, but his family history doesn't justify that, that he was in the international syndicate and just leveraging getting rich off of CIA operations, which of course they all do.

53:19 He just doesn't have the history of the old money ties to put him in that category. But I can't rule that out completely. In my mind, he's more of an off-book CIA agent. Okay, great. Thank you. Yeah. SR-71? Thank you, Colonel, and thank everyone for attending here in Spaces and on Rumble. I'm sitting here thinking about...

53:57 how britain gets involved in this in the first place and and we can directly assume that yeah it's plausible deniability on the u.s's side of the house but tim spicer had already been in in trouble huge with with uh the british government and and their parliamentary procedures and everything else that goes on i i'm still not

54:25 quite clear how he managed to skate free. I don't think Tony Blair had a lot to do with that. I have to think it came from much higher up. Well, I mean, he obviously worked for MI6. And keep in mind, most of the leaders of the UK are as much a puppet in this process as ours is. They're not really in control.

54:55 Well, that's basically what I'm getting at. Are they really a puppet? Yeah. When I look at all of this, they seem much more than that. Who seems much more than that? The British government and the involvement in what went on. I'm not sure I get your point. Well, I guess the question is, is one could argue whether or not Britain stepped in saying, yeah, I need a piece of the pie versus the U.S. said you'll have this piece of the pie.

55:32 I've always been under the assumption that all of the other intelligence agencies technically work under the direction of MI6. MI6 was the one that existed before all others. And everyone modeled their organization off of MI6. So if MI6 picks up the phone and says this is going to happen, it's going to happen. Does that help? Very much so. Very much so. Yeah.

56:05 And he obviously has worked for MI6. So I think it was all agreed. And plus, it gives added deniability for what they're going to do, as we're going to find out, from the CIA and the U.S. government, because they get themselves in trouble. And you have the plausible deniability of it being a U.K. firm and go, what? What were we going to do?

56:34 You know, it was on the contract and all of these people are going to be over there and none of them are going to be under U.S. law because they're not even under the company that is going to hire and subcontract all of this stuff. It's sitting across the pond. And so anybody that's hurt is going to have to turn to them for accountability, even if we're footing the bill. So it's perfect setup, actually.

57:06 Miles? Good afternoon, Colonel. Hi. I saw something today that I kind of think we're under a different paradigm. And it came out a little while ago, executive order addressing threats by the government of Brazil and safeguarding the U.S. interests, which impose an additional 40% tariff on Brazilian imports, declaring a national emergency to address...

57:36 Brazil's policies that violate human rights. Now, I think they had a fraudulent election a little while ago. So do you believe we're turning the corner as far as how we're going to deal with rogue nations? Well, I think President Trump deals with countries completely different than anybody else in the past, which is why they hate him. So we're under a completely different paradigm. Thanks, Carol. Sure.

58:08 SR-71. Thank you, Colonel. In the very first episode of this, in the very first part one of this book, you were talking about the British monarchy itself having control over pretty much the S.A.S. The S.A.S. Yes. And the training and everything that went on, as well as their involvement in everywhere they went without any.

58:40 involvement from the British government, so to speak. Is that still true today? As far as I know, it is. It's just like our JSOC. Our JSOC is tasked out of the National Security Council and basically works directly for the president. I mean, it has an operation, and for those of you who don't know, there's basically two chains of command in the military.

59:11 One is administrative and one's operational. So administratively, when I was at U.S. Central Command, my boss was an Army colonel when I got there as a major, but he was not my commander. And nobody in another service can be my commander as an Air Force officer. There is an Air Force element for administrative purposes, and there's an Air Force element commander that is my...

59:40 administrative commander. So if I get in trouble, that's the guy that gets me in trouble. My operational, my day-to-day boss was an army colonel. He wrote my evaluation and all of that other stuff, but he was not my commander. And that is a very different thing. So when you are in the Navy and you're at port, you have an administrative commander that if you get in trouble,

1:00:09 that guy's going to be the one that holds you accountable. When you step foot on a ship, you operationally become the subject of your operational commander while you're at sea. And those do not have to be the same people. So when you deploy, you're operationally under a different chain of command. So for somebody like the people at JSOC,

1:00:37 They're administratively assigned to the Army. You know, they have to go to the Army professional military education. They meet Army promotion boards and all of that other stuff. But operationally, their taskings do not come from the Army. They don't come from a unified commander. They come directly from the National Security Council and the president. They're like a direct report is what they call them.

1:01:06 And that's a very different setup than any other organization. Does that help? Go ahead, SR71. Absolutely, Colonel, it does. With the monarchy specifically in charge, I know we're paying for all of this through our tax dollars as well as other nations and so on and so forth.

1:01:39 But having full command of the SAS and everything that's going on seems to me that I would hope the Brits recognize this. Recognize what? The dilemma we're in where a king has complete control over a military unit, so to speak, to do anything and everything he damn well pleases without their consent.

1:02:06 Well, they understand it just like we should understand that's what JSOC is for. And JSOC is modeled after the SAS model. Yeah. Thank you. Sure. Anybody else? Would it surprise you if Aga Khan was connected to Trudeau? No. Okay. And a scandal regarding $300 million of tax money that may have disappeared.

1:02:47 To Aga Khan's island. In 2016. No. That guy has stink all over him. I'm just saying. He's come up a couple of times. And his dad. Ali Khan. We talked about. He died in like 1960. But in the very early stages. He actually was married to Rita Hayworth. He has lots of. Very interesting.

1:03:20 Um, he, one of his, um, let's see. Um, I think his original wife was married to, um, he was married to, um. A supermodel. The Ali Khan, the guy that died in 1960. Oh, nope. Sorry. I was talking about the other one. Yeah. His son. Um, but he was, he was having an affair with Pamela Churchill. Um, he has like.

1:03:50 All kinds of stuff all over him. It's just fascinating. He used to travel to Nevada all the time to gamble. And he also, while he was still married, the one that died in 1960, the dad, while he was married to Rita Hayworth, he started having an affair with another Hollywood actress.

1:04:20 So definitely a man of the town. It says that Ali Khan's eldest son, Kareem Khan, went to Harvard and he became Aga Khan IV. And I think Aga Khan IV is the one that you're talking about.

1:04:49 Correct. He died in February 2025. Yeah. Yeah. The organization owns, which the foundation, you know, they have all their money in a giant foundation. Of course. Owns massive, what do you call it? Newspapers, media organizations and everything all throughout Africa. So they control all the news there.

1:05:23 They're a leader in global development. And they are also linked to NGOs in India. Of course he is. So it's just a very wide web of interlinkedness. Which is very interesting because they originally were associated with Pakistan. So them owning NGOs in India.

1:05:53 with all of the terrorism that goes back and forth between those two is very interesting. If I'm not mistaken, one of the cons had some deal with Sardinia, the island off of Italy where they were doing all of the Gladio training as well. I was just looking through here real quick to see if I could find that. One of them, one of the generational ones,

1:06:22 had a house there, and they kept their yacht there. I'm not seeing it. Oh, right here. Yeah, the one that just died had his yacht docked at, yeah, right here. He owned hundreds of racehorses, had a stud farm, and he created an exclusive yacht club on Sardinia.

1:06:53 How do you like that? Well, that's her telling, isn't it? I bet she was a knight of Malta. I'm just saying. And he owns an island in the Bahamas. That's nuts. Well, and like I said, the NGOs over in India, and I'll post this, is not just one NGO. It's a whole slew of everything from economic development.

1:07:21 Rural development, education, health. I mean, they have like 15 different subsections of one NGO to birth out 15 other NGOs. So if you go to Bell Island, it says Justin Trudeau's vacation visit in December 2016. He actually flew on Khan's private helicopter.

1:07:51 Which created all kinds of scandal in Canada. And also says that John Kerry's visited his island there. Of course he did. Just a coincidence. Yeah. Anyway. All right. I'm going to jump off of here and get ready for dinner. I will see you guys tonight at 930 East Coast time.

1:08:23 Let me just go over real quickly tomorrow because we're not doing noon tomorrow with Warhamster. That's going to be on Friday. And we are doing the podcast with 8-Track. Hold on a second. Get off there. Yeah, that's it. Arnold, can you see my hand? No, I can't because I'm not looking at my phone. Oh, okay.

1:09:02 What do you need? Colonel, can I pay for a catering service so you and your husband can have a movie night together? So, sure you can. It's funny you should say that. I decided, everybody's been talking about, you guys know I've done the carnivore thing for like probably the better part of the last year.

1:09:33 But I had never done the fasting. And everybody talks about how great that is. So I started Sunday night after the Cates brothers left. I fixed them dinner. I've not eaten anything since Sunday night. So I'm like starving. And I can't wait to get to the restaurant. And I probably shouldn't be eating restaurant food.

1:10:02 It's what it is. That's awesome. Yeah. I didn't think I was going to make it today, to be honest with you, but I did. I'm proud of myself. Hang on. I got to go grab my cantaloupe. Oh, that was mean, Bridget. Sorry about that. There will not be anything in the restaurant as good as that. I can guarantee you. But anyway, thanks everybody for being here.

1:10:37 I will see you tonight at 930. And then I'll send out the little screenshot of the podcast that I'm going to be on tomorrow. If you guys want to tune in. Take care.

Entities here

Tim Spicer25 Aegis Defense Services25 Iran22 United States18 United Kingdom14 Sandline International9 Aga Khan IV8 U.S. State Department7 Kurdistan7 Peter Singer6 British Army6 William Pawley6 Tony Choate5 Coalition Provisional Authority5 Papua New Guinea5 DynCorp5 Deborah Avant4 Jardine Fleming4 Inter-Services Intelligence4 Sierra Leone4 Tony Blair4 Prince Karim al-Husseini4 JSOC4 Executive Outcomes4 Al Qaeda3 Peter McBride3 United States Central Command3 Andrew Craig Bennett3 Vietnam3 Donald Rumsfeld3 Bougainville3 Tom Cooks3 University of Washington2 Irish National Caucus2 National Security Council2 Frederick Forsyth2 Dominic Donald2 Sumatra2 Ahmed Tejan Kabbah2 Brazil2

Claims made here

Aegis Defense Services funded Iran documented ▶ 1:04

“As you guys all know, that's been here. I go to dinner with my family on Wednesday. So we're going to try to get through most of chapter four. We may not get all of it. All right. Thanks to the contra…”

Tim Spicer headed Aegis Defense Services documented ▶ 11:29

“was granted to a British company, Aegis Service Limited, in May to provide security teams for the project and contracting office, the body responsible for overseeing $18 billion in U.S. reconstruction…”

Tim Spicer member_of Scots Guards documented ▶ 11:29

Tim Spicer member_of British Army documented ▶ 19:38

“The most important figure in the transition of old world mercenaries to these new private military companies had already lived several lives. He was a graduate of Sandhurst British Elite Military Acad…”

Tim Spicer headed Sandline International documented ▶ 20:06

“where they murdered somebody, and had managed PR for the British Army in Bosnia. After retiring from the army, he became a marketing director at one of London's most impressive investment firms, a job…”

Sandline International carried_out_attack Papua New Guinea documented ▶ 22:31

“Years later, however, the local landlords rebelled and shut down the mine. This became a problem for the Papua New Guinea government, which depended on its revenue from the mine for half of its budget…”

Sandline International supplied_arms_to Ahmed Tejan Kabbah book_quoted ▶ 23:55

“the Project Matrix contract. In brief, Sandline allegedly violated a UN arms embargo when it supplied at least 1,000 AK-47s, as well as mortar, light machine guns, and ammunition to coup plotters favo…”

Tim Spicer founded Aegis Defense Services documented ▶ 27:22

“was the banker star researcher also from Jardin. A few months later, in December of 2002, while the New Jersey project continued, Spicer, the two men from Jardin, and one more Jardin banker, who was a…”

Frederick Forsyth funded Aegis Defense Services book_quoted ▶ 27:52

“Aegis. Are y'all following along? That's crazy shit. So from the start, this company basically fits all of the descriptions of this ongoing Operation Gladio bullshit. On the list of Aegis' early inves…”

Saad Investments Company funded Aegis Defense Services book_quoted ▶ 28:21

“He told me he was setting up a new company and asked if I fancied investing in it. I thought, why not, Forsythe said. Also on the list was Saad, S-A-A-D, Investments Company. And of course, we know th…”

The Economist cited_as_source Aegis Defense Services documented ▶ 31:39

“cast doubt on what actually happened. But the bottom line is it furthered their PR campaign. Later in the year, Aegis published a study on what had happened. The Economist magazine wrote, according to…”

Tim Spicer member_of Inter-Services Intelligence host_asserted ▶ 37:13

“among the British was that Spicer had been part of MI6 for years, and he was just continuing working for them. This fit with the long-lived suspicion that Jardin Fleming Banks, tethered to Aegis early…”

Inter-Services Intelligence front_for Jardine Fleming host_asserted ▶ 37:13

Tony Blair ordered_assassination_of Tim Spicer host_asserted ▶ 37:44

“incidents in the past. It would explain it perfectly. He was referred to as Tony Blair's pet bulldog. Those were the rumors based on the assumption that the U.S. did not know about Spicer's past and h…”

Tony Choate recruited Tim Spicer host_asserted ▶ 41:12

“He was familiar with both Aegis and Spicer. He had worked with Spicer during the 1990s Balkan War, when Hunter Kiyote had been part of the British UN contingent, while Spicer was the spokesperson for …”

Tony Choate member_of French Foreign Legion host_asserted ▶ 41:42

“A former commanding officer in the SAS, a former French foreign legionnaire, former leader of the Sultan's Special Forces in Oman, the former security chief for Aga Khan. This is describing Hunter Kiy…”

Tony Choate member_of Special Forces Club host_asserted ▶ 42:10

“which does a lot of mercenary stuff with their Gladio team. He was also in the Oman Sultan's Special Forces, which we train, and former security chief for Aga Khan. And, Bridget, if you'll go get Aga …”

Tony Choate headed Coalition Provisional Authority host_asserted ▶ 42:39

“K-H-A-N. Okay, just making sure. Yeah, he's come up in many of our Gladio conversations about the Middle East. Hunter Kiyote in 2004 was the security director for the U.S. program office in Iraq. How …”

Tony Choate funded Aegis Defense Services host_asserted ▶ 43:07

“He's writing the source requirements document to give to the United States government for them to find a contractor who's going to be his buddy in the UK. Sources within the private military security …”

Aegis Defense Services funded Tim Spicer book_quoted ▶ 44:09

“Aegis indeed focused on the coordination aspect of the project when it entered the competition, and this was what the U.S. government wanted. But the government also wanted Spicer's expertise, Avant s…”

William Pawley funded Chiang Kai-shek host_asserted ▶ 51:34

“being one of the directors of the CIA doing their stuff, right? Or you can make the argument that he was one of the off-book CIA agents pretending to be a millionaire, and he just so happened to be ta…”

William Pawley funded Cuba host_asserted ▶ 51:55

“And the drug operations and the Curtis aircraft franchise just so happened to be awarded to him. And then his purchasing of all of the stuff on Cuba while it was under the control of Batista. So those…”

William Pawley funded Curtiss-Wright Corporation host_asserted ▶ 51:55

JSOC member_of National Security Council host_asserted ▶ 58:40

“involvement from the British government, so to speak. Is that still true today? As far as I know, it is. It's just like our JSOC. Our JSOC is tasked out of the National Security Council and basically …”

Prince Karim al-Husseini member_of Rita Hayworth host_asserted ▶ 1:02:47

“To Aga Khan's island. In 2016. No. That guy has stink all over him. I'm just saying. He's come up a couple of times. And his dad. Ali Khan. We talked about. He died in like 1960. But in the very early…”

Prince Karim al-Husseini member_of Pamela Churchill host_asserted ▶ 1:03:20

“Um, he, one of his, um, let's see. Um, I think his original wife was married to, um, he was married to, um. A supermodel. The Ali Khan, the guy that died in 1960. Oh, nope. Sorry. I was talking about …”

Prince Karim al-Husseini member_of Aga Khan IV host_asserted ▶ 1:04:20

“So definitely a man of the town. It says that Ali Khan's eldest son, Kareem Khan, went to Harvard and he became Aga Khan IV. And I think Aga Khan IV is the one that you're talking about.…”