The Colonel’s Corner-Mafia, CIA & George Bush Part 11

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Transcript

0:00 Okay, we've got a lot to get through today. So I'm going to jump right in. And like I said, I'm going to briefly go over chapter 10 because it has a lot of names in it that will be important as we finish up the book. The subject of chapter 10 is...

0:29 Kappa Sigma, which is a fraternity in Texas. And it gives you a little bit about the background of the fraternity. I don't think that's necessarily relevant to our conversations, but I am going to highlight some of the graduates that will fill in the rest of these chapters.

0:57 The number one of which was Houston heart surgeon, Dr. Denton Cooley. He was a fraternity member. And I just want to go through this so that you can see how prestigious this club was. This is what we would refer to possibly as the Cowboy and the Yankees and Cowboys, as Warhamster likes to call them. One of the Cowboys versions.

1:26 of skull and bones as far as the who's who's, not the secret ceremonies. I don't have any evidence of that, but just the who's who of the graduates of this particular fraternity. The year that the esteemed heart surgeon graduated, Frank Irwin. Frank Irwin would go on to be appointed by Governor John Conley as the chairman of the Board of Regents at the University of Texas.

1:56 He fought every reform movement in the university. He didn't want anything changed. Everything had to stay the same. And Irwin was also a close friend of Ben Barnes, who we've talked about repeatedly. He was considered his chief political strategist.

2:20 Barnes said it was Irwin who introduced him to Eagle Pass Rancher Richmond Harper. And Eagle Pass Rancher, remember, is where one of the landing strips was for the CIA. Richmond Harper was the same man that was caught in the 1972 explosive scheme with Barry Seale and Gambino Associates. So, very interesting.

2:50 Another alumni, Nelson Bunker Hunt, the son of H.L. Hunt, who tried and failed to corner the silver market. Hunt dropped out of UT and didn't make the yearbook, but he was in the fraternity. He was also involved with Oliver North and Spitz Channel for contributions.

3:22 to the contrast to the tune of about a quarter of a million dollars. Former Houston City Councilman Jim Westmoreland, who was ousted by voters in 1990 for making a racist comment, was a member. What they say about, I'm not even going to go into what the racist comment was, but it was a bad word. Westmoreland narrowly escaped indictment.

3:58 in the FBI's bribe lab, meaning bribery and labor sting operation, which involved two Houston men being indicted and convicted for giving him a bribe and a sting that netted New Orleans mafia boss Carlos Marcello. Westmoreland later said he didn't know it was a bribe, you know, because basically he just takes money from everybody. Another well-known Kappa Sigma.

4:30 Richard Rainwater, the Fort Worth dealmaker and leveraged buyout artist who cut his finance teeth with the Bass brothers. In 1965, Rainwater was the treasurer of the Kappa Sigma. And that same year, grandmaster in charge of the fraternity was Nick Kragel. It's K-R.

5:03 AJL from Galveston. Cragel had made a small fortune lobbying for paramutual gambling in Texas. All gambling, all gambling has mafia ties. He was representing dog racing interest and basically negotiating licenses for them in the state of Texas.

5:34 In October 1990, the Houston Post reported that he had received $2.4 million from dog racing interest. At one time, he was the aide to Texas politician and Michener minion, Ben Barnes. He operated the Quorum Club in Austin, which was basically like those...

6:00 clubs that are in washington dc where they bring all of the politicians in and deals are made with the appropriate amount of liquor and side performances in 1965 when he and rainwater were running kappa sigma there was a freshman pledge named george aubin a-u-b-i-n he was from

6:34 near the hometown of Michener. Oben embraced Kappa Sigma with his entire body and soul. 20 years later, the name of his companies were all named after his paternity. For example, Kappa Properties, Kappa Development Company, Sigma Capital Corporation, and Sigma Realty. He was living that.

7:04 Within five years, he was up to his eyeballs in the Texas rent-a-bank scandal. During the early and mid-70s, Aubin was the co-owner of 12 small Texas banks that were part of a circle of more than 20 banks that swapped loans around, all with directors of the same people. This is the musical chairs that I was talking about earlier.

7:33 and he's at the heart of it. His main partner, Bill Haley, and uncle of one of his Kappa Sigma brothers, Walter Beard. They're all, it's so incestuous, it's absolutely ridiculous. It was during this time that Aubin met Herman Beebe, Mr. Mafia himself. Aubin said a Houston baker, whose name he couldn't recall,

8:05 introduced him to Bebe. By 1975, Aubin and his childhood friend from Stocksdale, Jarrett Wood, had borrowed $30,000 from Bebe. In his 1979 personal bankruptcy filing, Aubin declared a $25,000 debt to Bebe. In an interview, Aubin said that it had been 10 years since he had anything to do with Bebe. That was in 1988.

8:35 And since that time, he'd only heard his name in passing. However, Dell Anderson, who joined Beebe's empire in 75, said Aubin and Beebe was always hanging around with each other. Aubin also knew who the power in Louisiana was. When he sent one of his employees to Louisiana to drum up some mobile home loan business,

9:02 He told the employee that the first place he needed to go was to go see Carlos, you know, the head mafia guy. Was Kappa Sigma a mafia and CIA recruiting place like Skull and Bones? Who knows? While Krogel was pursuing dog racing, Aubin got into horse racing. In 1985, he paid $5.5 million for a racehorse.

9:38 Princess Rooney. He also bought several others very high price, and Aubin collected approximately $6 million in insurance when one of them died. In 1984, Aubin bought the 567-acre Murty Horse Farm in Lexington, Kentucky.

10:10 That's next to the famous Calumet Farm. And according to a $120 million lawsuit filed against Aubin in 1990 by Sunbelt Savings, Aubin fraudulently used $14 million loan from Western Savings in Dallas owned by his buddy, Jarrett Woods, to buy the farm. Aubin had earlier dodged a $48 million bullet fired at him by EF Hutton.

10:39 By wild speculative trading in U.S. Treasury notes, options, and commodities, Aubin had ran up $48 million in debt with E.F. Hutton. To try to cover those losses, he wrote more than $46 million in worthless checks. Where? At Western Savings. A federal judge in Houston awarded E.F. Hutton a $48 million damage award.

11:09 from Auburn-related companies. But it did not hold Auburn personally liable for the debt. The corporate records the judge was talking about were those of a shell company that had guaranteed Auburn's debt. Its assets and the assets Hutton would have to go look for in repayment were two worthless Texas savings and loans, Mercury Savings in Wichita and Ben

11:41 Salem, or excuse me, Ben Malam Savings and Cameron. These two savings and loan were bought in 1983 by Auburn's partner, J.B. Harrelson. But everyone, including federal regulators, E.F. Hutton, and anybody else familiar with the situation, knew that Harrelson was fronting for Auburn. He had been hired as a $15,000 a month consultant.

12:09 He needed a front man after the Rennebank scandal. The two savings and loan were operated out of Auburn and Harrelson's office in Houston. One reason Auburn borrowed from Western Savings to buy the horse farm in Kentucky was that he was forbidden from borrowing any more money from Harrelson's savings and loans, which were basically his. The two institutions were closed down by the feds in 86 at a cost of

12:37 $70 million to you and me. Harrelson was one of Aubin's partners during the Renovate scandal, as was Jarrett Woods. Before that, in the late 1960s, Harrelson was a partner with B.G. Wiley and Wiley's half-brother, W. Carroll Kelly, where they purchased Brazosport.

13:09 Savings and loan from Lloyd Benson. Back to the Senate. Harrelson took over as president of Brazzo Sports Savings while Wiley was a majority shareholder. Wiley was a partner with Richmond Harper in a meat packing plant in Eagle Pass. Basically, they got that from Ben Barnes and mafia man, Herman Beebe.

13:46 Harrelson claimed that he had only met Bebe one time and had never done business with him. But that's basically not true. The half-brother, Carol Kelly, was the same savings and loan executive who had told state regulators that he was Bebe's man in Texas. Ben Barnes, who went to law school at the University of Texas, which is where this fraternity is, with Kelly.

14:17 first introduced Kelly to Beebe. Kelly was also a Kappa Sigma. In 1970s, Kelly bought Harrelson and Wiley stock in Brasso Sports Savings and then consolidated it with several other savings and loans that he had purchased with financing from mafia Herman Beebe. The stockholders in some of those savings and loan, one of which was Billy Clayton. He was the former Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives.

14:49 who got indicted during the FBI's Brylab sting operation. Kelly also, along with his minority partner BG Wiley's son David, renamed the savings and loan Continental Savings and then got a loan on its stock at Walter Bichner's Allied Bank, which was guaranteed again by the mafia Herman Beebe.

15:18 This raises the question of whether Bebe's money ended up in the pockets of Brazzo Sports' original owner, Lloyd Benson, the senator. Apparently it did. During the 1988 presidential campaign, Benson told the Houston Post that he didn't know what happened to Brazzo Sports' savings after he sold it. If Bebe was financing Kelly, we had no knowledge of it.

15:44 After Continental Savings started going downhill, the Allied Bank loan was transferred to San Joaquino Savings in Houston, owned by Southmark, the real estate company in Dallas. When Continental failed in 1988, San Joaquino got stuck with a $17 million bad loan. Then when San Joaquino failed itself, the taxpayers got stuck with it.

16:10 The big borrower at Continental Savings was one of Kelly's Kappa Sigma brothers, Harry Blake Terry, who was used by Kelly and Bebe as a front man to buy Continental. Terry borrowed $19 million from Continental to purchase several hundred acres of land surrounding a polo ground in San Antonio that Herman Bebe, the mafia guy, wanted to develop as a horse track.

16:40 But the plan fell apart when Bebe's bank, Bossier Bank and Trust, which had the loan on the polo ground, failed in the summer of 1986. Before that happened, Continental was having trouble keeping Terry's $19 million loan from going default. So it had one of its other borrowers, Robert Corson's associate, Mike.

17:02 Atkinson transferred $1 million to Terry so he could pay on the bad loan, just like we saw in last chapter. Just musical chairs with the money. So there's a long story about these two girls being involved. I'm not going to go into the story, but they were sisters of a guy by the name of Joseph.

17:35 P. DeLorenzo. He had sold Navarro Savings and Loan in East Texas to Kelly and Wiley with financing for mafia Herman Beebe. DeLorenzo went to jail in 1977 for fraud that he committed while at another bank, Central National Bank in Houston. They had lent money to Kelly when he was buying Brazo Sports from Lloyd Benson.

18:06 De Lorenzo, the president of Central National Bank in the 70s, was convicted for misapplying almost $2 million of bank funds, like embezzlement. The money was lent to two professional football players and then funneled to Saratoga Development Company in San Diego. Saratoga's co-owner, Alan Glick, was the front for the mob and had borrowed more than $100 million.

18:35 from Teamsters Union to buy two casinos in Las Vegas. Glick was booted out of Nevada Gaming Authorities by the Nevada Gaming Authorities after they discovered the mob was skimming $12 million a year from his casinos that he bought with Teamster Union money. Glick was also doing business at the time with BB, Mafia BB partner Lance Allworth.

19:05 a former San Diego football player. In 1958, the year before Carroll Kelly joined Kappa Sigma, the grandmaster of the fraternity was a guy by the name of Joe Rosso from Houston. Rosso went on to become Houston businessman noted for developing the Lyric Center, which was an office building downtown, one-time minority ownership of UPI.

19:35 UPI, by the way, at one point was owned by Reverend Moon and the Unification Church. He also had ownership of the Houstonian Hotel and Conference Center, which was where President Bush lived when he was in Houston. Oh, crazy. Houston Post gossip columnist Betsy Parrish.

20:05 once ran an item on Bush and Russo, saying that Russo was waiting at the Houstonian to greet Bush when he arrived for an economic summit in July of 1990. He had his elephant-emblazoned Hermes tie for the occasion. Joe Russo waited at the front steps to welcome his buddy, the president. When Bush exited the limo, they realized they were wearing the same cravat.

20:36 Like, hello, friend. Russo is also a personal friend of Senator Lloyd Benson. Asked to characterize his relationship with George Bush, Russo replied, oh God, I'd say to you the relationship would be just like any other American. That we're so very proud to have a man like George Bush to be our president, who's from our community. But I have no relationship that's very unique, except that he lives in my building.

21:09 Okay, to further ask to characterize his relationship with Lloyd Benson, Russo said, same way. I mean, just glad to have a Texan like that on the team, but I have no relationship with him, just like the president. It'd be just the same thing. Sure, one of the few times that the author saw Walter Michener in a public political gathering was at the Houstonian at an election party.

21:42 night party of a Houston City Councilman candidate whom he and Russo had been backing against Kathy Whitmer's favorite candidate. Kathy Whitmer is one of their nemesis. They don't like her at all. The Michener-Russo candidate lost. That same night, Michener's lieutenant, Jim Box, appeared at Whitmer's victory party.

22:09 to offer his congratulations along with the women who had helped seal Whitmire's triumph. Russo ran into physical problems in the 1980s and filed for bankruptcy, coming in for criticism of transferring assets to his children, including his stake in the Houstonian. Russo also owned a savings and loan in Houston called

22:38 Ameriway Savings, which failed in 1990, just two months before President Bush was seen greeting him at the Houstonian. The Resolution Trust Corporation, set up to dispose of assets in the failed savings and loan, assumed $137 million of its assets. Savings and loan regulator who examined Ameriway filed two criminal referrals on Russo to the Department of Justice.

23:08 This means that the regulators believed that he had committed crimes at his savings and loan. But guess what happened? Absolutely nothing. Russo said he didn't know about the criminal referrals. But let me say this. I assume that there was probably many, many of those filed on any group that failed, from banks to thrifts to borrowers. But that wouldn't surprise me.

23:36 Well, ask if he had ever been interviewed by the FBI or appeared before a grand jury. He said, no, no. In 1990, Russo tried to buy a piece of property near the Houstonian from the Resolute Trust Corporation, which is supposed to have a policy prohibiting it from selling foreclosed real estate to anyone who was involved in the failed savings and loan. After a story about this was published in the Houston Post, he dropped his attempt to buy it.

24:07 But there were many people lined up to buy these assets, and some of that did happen through front companies. Russo and his affiliated entities also borrowed tens of millions of dollars from five exceedingly dirty Texas savings and loan. Lamar, Sunbelt, First South, Champions, and San Joaquino. When Russo was asked in 1992, how much...

24:35 He and his affiliated companies had borrowed from failed savings and loan. He said, gee, I have no idea. Joe Russo and Carol Kelly may have controlled more federally insured savings and loan deposits than any other of their fraternity brothers. But none of them, perhaps no one else in the country, borrowed more and paid back less from the fraud ridden savings and loan than the Kappa Sigma John Riddle. Riddle.

25:04 who was also a grand scribe of the Kappa Sigma in 1971, was two years behind his idol there. Some college boys want to be president of the United States. Some others want to be National League batting champions. John Riddle wanted to be just like George Aubin, and he might have exceeded his master and mentor.

25:30 Riddle earned a law degree after graduating from the University of Texas and started working for David Bolton, a real estate appraiser in Houston. But before too long, he went into law practice with Wade Kilpatrick and Victor Rogers II. Kilpatrick, another Kappa Sigma brother, was Grand Master in 1970. Rogers was...

25:57 a part of the Rogers family from Beaumont, who will be discussed in a later chapter. Rogers attended the University of Texas at the same time, but he was a little too aristocratic from a better family than to join Kappa Sigma. Riddle, Kilpatrick, and Rogers also owned a title insurance company together called Investors Title, which showed up in the middle of several

26:27 dirty Texas savings and loans deals. By the mid 80s, the law firm had essentially split up and Riddle was into real estate development in a big way. He was doing projects, mostly the strip mall centers and apartment complexes in Florida, Texas, Arizona, and California, all of which was associated with the mafia, but no big deal. Some of those loans included more than $30 million from Kappa Sigma.

26:58 Carol Kelly's continental savings. Some of these bad riddle loans would later foisted upon Mike Atkinson in a cash for trash deal. Some 30 million to 40 million from Sunrise Savings in Boynton Beach, Florida, where then Vice President Bush personally interfered in the federal regulatory process. More than 30 million from People's Heritage Federal Savings Loan into Selena.

27:28 40 million to 50 million from Vernon Savings, more than 2 million from Mercury and Ben Malone Savings, controlled by his fellow Kappa Sigma brother, George Aubin, 5 million from Liberty Savings in Leesville, Louisiana, and a $195 million loan or...

27:59 from Western Savings in Dallas, controlled by Auburn's childhood friend, Jarrett Wood. In 1990, Sunbelt Savings, which had taken over Western Savings, was awarded $284 million in damages in a federal lawsuit against Riddle and his partner, Richard Dover, for defrauding Western Savings.

28:24 Riddle had already filed for bankruptcy, though. He owed the federal receivers for all of the failed banking loans so much money that on his bankruptcy forms, he said he had $1 to his name. Riddle's bankruptcy papers also showed a debt of $22,000 to M&R Investment, which was Morris Shanker's company that owned the Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas.

28:58 Richard Dover was convicted for income tax fraud in federal court in Houston in 1990. Riddle, like his idol Auburn, had escaped any criminal indictment. Riddle was found in the middle of a Ponzi scheme involving savings and loans in Illinois, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Kansas that resulted in the indictment of several savings and loan officers in Illinois.

29:29 A federal regulator familiar with the case said that the Illinois federal prosecutors were ready to indict Riddle when their counterparts in Dallas contacted them and for unknown reasons told them not to do it. I bet we know what those reasons are. One business partner and friend of Riddle's who had been indicted is Robert Corson, Mr. CIA associate.

29:56 Riddle and Corson did a number of business deals together, including the purchase of a 1,300-acre west of Houston next to Cinco Ranch. Cinco Ranch was the over 5,000-acre development acquired in 1984 by Walter Michener and American General Insurance Company from Josephine Abercrombie and Robert Mosbacher.

30:26 Who, by the way, was the Secretary of Commerce in the Bush administration. Riddle also had an airline company, First Western Aviation. FAA records show only one plane ever registered to this company. It was a beach. This plane was registered to Riddle in 1984. And then in 1985, he transferred it to First Western Aviation. Federal law enforcement sources.

30:59 who have seen the records, said that Corson took some of the money laundering trips to Latin America in this very plane. Former Israeli intelligence officer, Arya Ben-Maneshe, has alleged that first Western aviation was a cutout by both the Israelis and the CIA to transport American arms to the Middle East. One of Corson's former partners said he got the impression that Riddle,

31:31 was just fronting First Western Aviation for Walter Michener. First Western Aviation obtained bank financing from United Bank Houston, which is controlled by Vincent Ciccarello. He was a very close friend of Walter Michener's. Michener even admitted knowing him, which is a shocker. Another Kappa Sigma brother of Riddle and Kilpatrick's was Steve Adger.

32:02 A-D-G-E-R, whose brother John was a partner with Corson and Ron Daly in the early 1970s in a real estate company called Adger, Corson, and Daly. John Adger testified in Daly's fraud trial in 1990 that he took $300,000 in cash to Daly as a kickback for a loan to a Daly associate.

32:31 from the Daley's First Savings in East Texas. There were several other Kappa Sigmas in Corson's operation. One was the previous mentioned Robert Ferguson, who was a member of the fraternity at the same time George Aubin and Walter Beard were. Ferguson was a straw borrower for Corson on a small track of land in a Florida Panhandles that was part of the $200 million

33:00 St. Joe paper deal, which we'll get into later. Ferguson also received a home loan from Corson's savings and loan, which then forced Ferguson's estranged wife out by foreclosing on the loan. It subsequently let Ferguson rent the house for less than market value.

33:23 according to several law enforcement. So they used the bank to kick the guy's wife out and then gave the house back to him. You just can't make this shit up. Another Kappa Sigma in business with Corson was Ford Hubbard, another fraternity member. Hubbard was president of Westside National Bank, whose controlling stock was owned by Corson and Corson's mother.

33:50 Hubbard wrote a letter of recommendation on Westside National Bank stationary for Corson when he was trying to buy a savings and loan. Whoa. When a group of about 30 savings and loan executives from across Texas met secretly in Houston in June of 1985 to discuss ways to foil federal regulators and allow them to continue making these deals in their failed savings and loans.

34:22 They were called together by Kappa Sigma, Carol Kelly, Kappa Sigma, Joe Russo, also attended the meetings. On June 11th, excuse me, the June 11th meeting was called by Kelly and David Wiley in May 22nd, 1985.

34:52 The list of savings and loans represented at the meeting is a who's who of the biggest failed savings and loans in Texas. Vernon Savings, Mainland Savings, Lamar Savings, Paris Savings, First South Savings, Western Savings, Continental Savings, State Savings of Lubbock, Meriway Savings, and Universal Savings. Topics discussed at the meeting were evasion of loan limits to one borrower, evasion of growth.

35:22 limits by the sale of participation between savings and loan and the use of front men and straw borrowers. Removal of delinquent loans and foreclosed real estate from the savings and loan books by selling them to each other.

35:40 Letter from Kelly and Wiley stated that the Savings and Loan Association stockholders or managers, we have experienced a great deal of change in our industry. Yeah, the entire freaking thing was taken over by the mafia and the CIA. Wiley and Kelly's letter went on to say, quote, have always recognized the need for cooperation among our fellow savings and loan competitors. And now more than ever, we need an accurate understanding of our competitors lending philosophies.

36:11 Actually, it was a planning session for how to continue the fraud. It went on to say, we would like very much for you to attend. We think it's mandatory that a high-level executive from your organization attend, even if you can't make it. Leonard Thomas of Colonial Savings in Kansas, the only savings and loan outside of Texas represented, said that he thought the meeting was a secret meeting.

36:40 I'm surprised someone found out about it, he said. Having a secret meeting to plan naughty things was nothing new, of course, especially to the boys of Kappa Sigma. Then the author goes on to say, consider the person who headed the fraternity in 1972, a small, quiet, shy boy who probably never even got drunk or chased women. He didn't fit the stereotype. In fact, if anyone was the opposite of George Aubin, it was this guy.

37:13 Walter Michener Jr. Welcome to Kappa Sigma. So, very interesting. There was something more to Herman Beebe than just being a mafia member, a embezzler of Teamster Union, and his relationship with Carlos Marcelo. There were helicopters for the CIA agent in Guatemala.

37:48 who was training Contras in Belize by the name of Gilbert Dossier, the former Louisiana Agricultural Commissioner serving time for extortion and bribery, who was going to turn state's evidence against Beebe until President Reagan pardoned him at the request of CIA Director William Casey. Let me say that again. This is very, very important. Gilbert Dossier.

38:19 He was the Louisiana Agricultural Commissioner. He was serving time for extortion and bribery. He was going to testify against the mafia, this entire Iran-Contra failed savings and loan, all of this shit. President Reagan was asked by CIA Director William Casey to pardon the guy to keep him.

38:51 Quiet. That's the United States government. They're not interested in the truth. So there was Beebe's financing the establishment of Palmer National Bank in Washington, D.C. Remember Palmer? Palmer is, what's his face? Oh, good gosh. Stephen Halper's bank. Stephen Halper, the guy that was setting Trump up with.

39:32 Christopher Still, that Stephan Halper that was employed by the Pentagon in the Office of Net Assessment, that Stephan Halper. He, with BB's money, created Palmer National Bank in Washington, D.C. So that bank was set up to help funnel money to the Contras three blocks from the White House. There was E. Trine Starnes, Jr.

40:02 one of the biggest borrowers at BB Controlled Savings and Loan, and one of the biggest private donors to the Contras. So he wasn't privately donating. He was borrowing this money laundered money through the savings and loans in these, remember how I was telling you about directed deposits, how they would deposit money, which was covert money.

40:28 And then they got to decide who got the loans on that deposited buddy. So he was taking out massive amounts of that money because they designated him as the guy to get the loans and then quote unquote privately donating to the Contras. He wasn't privately donating that. He was taking money that the CIA was laundering through these savings and loans.

40:54 out as loans and donating them to the CIA-directed contra program. Just want to make sure you got that. There was also Barry Seale in the C-4 explosives in a Shreveport warehouse destined for anti-Castro Cubans in Mexico. Adler Berryman Barry Seale, his nickname El Gordo, the fat man, also known as Thunder Thighs. He had a lot of nicknames.

41:26 was from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, called the world's greatest pilot. He was at least the youngest ever to captain a Boeing 747 at the age of 26. But several years later, he turned to the dark side. He was caught dealing with mafia associates and CIA operatives in one of the most bizarre criminal cases on record. On July 1st, 1972, Seal was taking some sick leave from his job.

41:54 as a captain flying 707s and 747s out of New York to Europe for TWA. TWA has lots of links to this whole dark world. As he walked out of his motel room near New Orleans International Airport, he was arrested by federal agents and charged with violating the Mutual Security Act of 1954, which prohibited the...

42:21 exportation of weapons without permission of the U.S. State Department. Also involved in the plot and arrest that day were eight other individuals from Shreveport, Louisiana, New Orleans, and Eagle Pass, Texas. A DC-4 that SEAL had recently purchased in Miami was seized at the Shreveport Regional Airport. On board were 13,500 pounds. I'm going to say that again.

42:50 13,500 pounds of C4 explosives, 7,000 feet of primer cord, 2,600 electric blasting caps, and 25 electrical detonators. The explosives, according to U.S. Attorney's Office in Louisiana, were destined for Cuban exiles in Mexico, who was going to overthrow the government of Castro.

43:25 Excuse me. So what's interesting about this is this is 72. There's a lot of things that happened with explosives. C4 specifically, because that's what NATO used in all of the stay behind units. That was their explosives. That's what was used in the Bologna train station. All of those terrorist attacks uses C4. You don't need 13,000 pounds of C4.

43:54 You could blow up the entire island of Cuba with that. This shit was going other places. Arrested in New Orleans along with Seal was a man from Brooklyn, New York named Murray Morris Kessler. Kessler was a key middleman in the deal. He was the one who agreed to sell the explosives to the Cubans and then arranged for transportation. Now, keep in mind, this part of the story is...

44:25 Obviously, this guy doesn't know about Operation Gladio. The Cubans are the CIA. Kessler, who was six previous criminal convictions and was awaiting trial in New York on income tax fraud when he was arrested, was well known to the Brooklyn Organized Crime Strike Force. He was a friend and business associate of Emmanuel Manny Gambino, a member of the Gambino Mafia crime family.

44:54 and nephew of Carlos Gambino, the boss. Kessler and Manny Gambino were partners in Neptune's Nugget, a Long Island frozen stuff seafood packing firm that had been criticized in Newsday articles for having a product that was extremely low in seafood and high in bacteria because it was smuggled in with the cocaine. I don't know.

45:27 About a month before Kessler was arrested in the explosive scheme, Manny Gambino dropped out. Gambino, reported by Jonathan Kittney in vicious circles, was a loan shark and had been murdered. I wrote that book, by the way. The man who brought Kessler into the scheme was just as interesting as the mob associate from Brooklyn.

46:02 It was Richmond Harper, a millionaire banker and meatpacking plant owner from Eagle Pass, Texas. And of course, Eagle Pass, Texas is on the Rio Grande right across the river from Mexico. After he was charged in the conspiracy, Harper told reporters, I do know Murray Kessler. He was a friend of mine. And I've loaned him my airplane occasionally when he is down in this part of the world.

46:33 I don't know what he was doing with it. I don't, really. In a statement Seale made after the trial, he said that the request for arms and ammunition was brought across the border to a rancher banker by the name of Mr. Richmond Harper in Eagle Pass, Texas, who had very deep ties to the White House. One of those people in Washington that was close to Harper.

47:02 was Miles Ambrose, the U.S. Customs Commissioner. It's very convenient when you know the Customs Commissioner if you are illegally bringing shit in the country. And he was also in charge of the Federal Narcotics Bureau, which of course is the predecessor to the current DEA, which we know is just as corrupt based on the recent arrest.

47:43 So you got cover for narcotics and you got cover for any other thing that you want to bring into the country. Ambrose would come to visit Harper and go hunting with him on his ranch in Mexico. According to former customs officials who work for Ambrose, we tried to warn him, tell him that this guy Harper is bad. He wouldn't listen to us.

48:11 Ambrose's visits to Harper were also discovered in the 1976 House Banking Subcommittee investigation on the Texas rent-a-bank scandal. So, everybody knew it. They just didn't do anything about it. One of Ambrose's running buddies was Jack Caulfield, a White House undercover spy and aide to John Ehrlichman, and one of the conceptual fathers of Richard Nixon's White House plumbers.

48:44 the CIA Dirty Trick Squad, John Ehrlichman, buddies with Jack Caulfield, who's buddies with Ambrose. In addition to the scheme to sell explosives to the anti-Castro Cubans, Harper had also been observed by customs agents flying arms and ammunition to Shreveport, and earlier than that to Alexandria, Louisiana, which is right by where Herman Beebe is.

49:18 In a written statement after the trial, Seal said that Flores, one of the defendants, contacted Richmond Harper, who contacted Mafia Connections in New York, who then called the Mafia in New Orleans, and they contacted Barry Seal for the contract to do the flying. This statement is important because it shows Seal, for the first time, admitting to a connection to the Mafia.

49:50 The possibility that it was increases with three additional pieces of information. One, the warehouse where the explosives were stored in Shreveport was owned by Herman Beebe, the mafia guy, according to a private investigator and a customs official who worked on the case. Two, with the help of Beebe's partner, Ben Barnes, Harper obtained almost a $2 million loan.

50:22 money laundering, from Surety Savings in Houston, where Bebe was doing business and brokering deposits. See what I said? You deposit the money, you say where it goes. And three, one of the principals of the helicopter company that Bebe financed was a longtime childhood friend of Barry Seale's. Seale, Harper, and Kessler and the other defendants were not brought to trial until the summer of 1974.

50:55 The trial seemed to be proceeding in a normal fashion until the fifth day when Seals' attorney requested a mistrial and the judge granted it. It seems that the government prosecutors couldn't produce two key witnesses against the defendants. One of them, Jamie Fernandez, was involved in the explosive scheme when the government began its investigation and later became a government informant, according to prosecutors. And then he mysteriously disappeared.

51:23 And then we can't have a trial. Jimmy Tallon, the lead prosecutor from the Organized Crime Strike Force, told the judge that Fernandez was a co-conspirator until he went to Mexican authorities with the scheme. Tallon stated that he went to Mexico to try to get Fernandez to come to Louisiana to testify, but Fernandez wouldn't. But I thought Mexico was our neighbor and our friend.

51:55 The second witness, Francisco Peco Flores, was a defendant, but federal agents couldn't find him. The judge declared a mistrial and the charges were later dismissed by an appeals court. End of story. Or was it? After the trial, Seale wrote out a four-page statement, apparently because he felt like he was unjustly harassed by the Customs Service in his subsequent travels into and out of the United States.

52:26 tells a fantastic story about how the whole scheme was a government sting operation set up to ingratiate our government with Fidel Castro so that he would sign an anti-hijacking agreement. In the proposed agreement, Castro would let American planes hijacked to Cuba return without having to pay stiff fines. The Customs Service undercover agent who carried out the sting was called Serrario Diaz.

52:57 Dotto, according to SEAL, who through records I have obtained from a private investigative agency in Denver, Colorado, has been proved to have been an ex-CIA agent, there's no such thing, who worked in the Bay of Pigs invasion and had been working on both sides of the fence of Miami and Cuba. Dios Dotto testified in the trial that his investigation began

53:28 with Jamie Fernandez. But earlier stories indicated that Diosdado had either started the ball rolling or picked it up and ran with it, even traveling to New York to show Kessler some letters of credit to buy the explosives. Later, 10 years after the trial, Seale changed his story about the purpose of the operation in a sworn statement in a trial in Las Vegas in which he was a government witness.

53:58 After he had turned informant, he testified that the explosives were for CIA-trained Cuban exiles. And, of course, they were deployed all over the world. Several law enforcement, and he said that under a sworn testimony, several law enforcement officials familiar with the case said that regardless of whether the scheme was a custom sting or actually a CIA operation, the CIA pulled the plug on it during the middle of the trial.

54:29 The agency did so because some of the key participants and witnesses were working for the CIA and they didn't want to compromise their assets. The entire thing was a CIA operation. Russell Welch, an officer with the Arkansas State Police who has spent years investigating Barry Seale, said the case was dismissed because Seale and the others were protected because the informant was protected and the CIA didn't want to burn him.

55:02 Richard Gregoria Gregoric, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Miami who you seal as a drug informant in 1984, told Rodney Bowers of the Arkansas Democrat, which is a newspaper, that the case was dismissed because of government misconduct. Although Gregori said he had no knowledge of prior undercover work, he told the Democrat.

55:27 in a recent interview in 1972 incident gave an indication that Seale might have been involved in a government operation at the time. He was. He was working for the CIA. After the charges were dismissed, Seale, who had been fired by TWA, began working for the CIA full time as a drug smuggler. His activities between the explosive case and his murder in the parking lot of a halfway house in Baton Rouge in February of 86

55:56 allegedly by an associate of the Colombian Medellin drug cartel, have been well reported by Kitsney, Bowers, John Cummings, John Camp, and Jerry Bonin, who revealed that after the explosive case was dismissed, Seale began working full-time for the CIA, traveling back and forth to Latin America. In 1977, he had turned to narcotics trafficking and became one of the most proficient at it.

56:28 Poor the CIA. But in 1983, he was turned in by an informant in Florida, convicted and sentenced to a long jail term. He tried to make a deal with the DEA to turn informant, but no one would listen to him until he spoke to George Bush's vice president task force on drugs. Steele told Bush's task force that the Sandinistas in Nicaragua were involved in drug smuggling, which we know to be a lie.

56:57 Even though there was not one shred of evidence. One of the first tasks after he began serving as a DEA informant was to catch the Sandinistas in the act. Now, let me tell you what really happened. They went to Barry Seale and said, hey, we'll let you out if you will go set up the Nicaraguan government, the Sandinistas, of which he agreed.

57:31 That's the real story. So he took his C-123 cargo aircraft to the CIA, which installed a hidden camera, still flew the plane to Nicaragua, took some pictures. And we know that he basically put the bail on the Nicaraguan tarmac and then took a picture and put it back. And then it was floated around everywhere saying that the Sandinistas were drug trafficking, when in fact that was not true.

58:05 The CIA and Oliver North decided to blow Seale's cover and use the pictures in their... That's the whole purpose of it. They didn't blow his cover. That was his whole mission. The story appeared in the Reverend Moon's paper, convenient, Washington Times. And President Reagan displayed the picture on national news. Several journalists later blew the story out of the water as a setup.

58:34 And there had been no evidence before or since that the Colombian cartels were transshipping narcotics through Nicaragua. But the timing of that was very important because that's when they had frozen the money in Congress and they wanted our taxpayer dollars to facilitate the drug trafficking under the guise of fighting.

59:03 the Sandinista government for drug trafficking to pay for the Contra operation so they could use their drug money elsewhere. So, Seal, in the meantime, was busy training Contras at his new base of operations in Mena, Arkansas. At least seven pilots have told reporters of Seal's work with the Contras. The last one to go public, Terry Reed, said he was introduced to Seal by Oliver North.

59:35 Reed said that North wanted him to turn over a light plane he owned to North's Enterprise and then reported the stolen and collect the insurance. Reed declined to do so, but the aircraft was later stolen anyway, and Reed collected on his insurance. The plane turned up in SEAL's Contra resupply operation, and Reed was charged with fraud.

59:59 After Reed began talking about Seal North and the Contras and subpoenaed North for his trial, the government, after going after Reed with everything it had, dropped the case against him. But not before requiring the local prosecutor to get a security clearance and requiring Reed not to comment on the case for 30 days afterwards. The federal government also went after Bill Duncan, an agent with the IRS.

1:00:27 who was investigating the flow of drug money through Barry Seale's operation. When Duncan was called to testify before the House Subcommittee on Crime regarding the federal interference in Arkansas and Louisiana police investigation of Seale, he was ordered by one of his IRS superiors to perjure himself if he were asked any questions about Seale's relationship with Attorney General Ed Meese.

1:00:53 and whether Meese had ordered evidence withheld from a federal grand jury investigation of Mena, Arkansas. Duncan resigned over the matter after 17 years with the IRS. He then went to work for the House Subcommittee on Crime investigating Seale's operation, but eventually got stymied everywhere. He was then arrested when he took a gun inside the House office building, even though he was authorized to carry that weapon.

1:01:20 The House subcommittee cut his travel funds and once again, he resigned in frustration. It does not pay to be an actual whistleblower about what the government's doing because the government will ensure that it persecutes you. Another investigator probing into Seal's operation was Gene Wheaton, the former Pentagon criminal investigator who went to work for the Christic Institute after parting company with Oliver North and Richard Secord.

1:01:51 Wheaton said he tracked SEAL's 123 cargo aircraft flying from MENA to William Blackmore's Iron Mountain Ranch in West Texas. There is also an Iron Mountain in Arkansas near SEAL's Contra trading grounds. Blackmore said he had no knowledge of this. SEAL's C-123, which he called the Fat Lady, would go down in history.

1:02:22 after its Batman was murdered. This was the C-123 that was shot down by the Sandinistas in 1986 while it was making a resupply run to the Contras. The resulting crash blew the lid off the White House secret support of the Contras as the plane and occupants were tracked to the CIA-connected Southern Air Transport to Miami and directly to Oliver North.

1:02:47 While Wheaton was tracking SEAL and other CIA assets, he ran into a helicopter company that was based in Lafayette, Louisiana, called Commercial Helicopters. The president and majority owner was a timber man named Charles Haynes Jr. The other principal was Vaughn R. Bobby Ross, who started out as a pilot for the company's first helicopter. Ross was from Baton Rouge and a longtime close associate.

1:03:17 of Barry Seale. Ross said they grew up together. It was the same crowd around Ed Wilson that introduced me to Bobby Ross, said Wheaton. Ed Wilson, of course, that's Edwin Wilson to us. He's the Libya guy that the CIA imprisoned after he wouldn't sell his company to the CIA. He's an ex-CIA agent. This is how the author describes Edwin Wilson.

1:03:49 An ex-CIA agent who is now in prison charged with selling 20 tons of C4 explosives to Libya. He was set up, by the way, by the CIA because they wanted his company. Some of Wilson's closest associates were CIA officials Thomas Klein and Theodore Shackley. They're the two that tried to buy his company and he wouldn't sell it. So they just set him up and sent him to prison.

1:04:19 In the late 1970s, Wilson put up half a million dollars to front Klein's half ownership in the Egypt American Transport Services, ETSCO. We've done shows on ETSCO before. Which won the contract to transport billions of dollars worth of American arms to Egypt under the Camp David Accord. Other partners, according to Wilson, included Shackley and Richard Secord.

1:04:45 The company was later convicted of overbilling the Pentagon for $8 million. In 1990, Clines was convicted of income tax fraud involving payments received for arms shipments to the Contras. Clines had been brought in by Secord to handle arms procurement. Shackley left the CIA in 79 after having Wilson hung around his neck like an albatross. The blonde ghost had been deputy to the director of operations, the spy covert arms.

1:05:13 under George Bush and was even mentioned as a possible future CIA director. In 1984, Shackley participated in some meetings with Iranians regarding the release of the terrorist hostages. Commercial helicopters was started by Haynes and Ross in 79. One helicopter to ferry supplies to offshore oil rigs, which is very interesting because that's where Bush was training.

1:05:43 terrorists on offshore rigs that's another story and it grew rapidly to include 35 helicopters i bet it did because it was doing work for the cia the time it it came into financial problems and it had 26 helicopters and left numerous creditors in financial holdings holding the bag for millions of dollars which is kind of a common occurrence here

1:06:16 Ross landed on his feet. He was appointed a top position in the Louisiana Department of Transportation by the corrupt Mafia-associated governor of Edwin Williams, the guy that hung out with Mafia guy Herman Beebe all the time. Commercial helicopters had provided helicopter service for Edwards during his 1983 campaign. Okay.

1:06:48 There's more to commercial helicopters than just offshore oil work and ferrying Edwards around Louisiana. Ross, while denying that the company ever did business with his buddy Barry Seal or the CIA, did volunteer, we used to lease helicopters to Flying Tigers Airlines. This airline company was Claire Chenault, General Claire Chenault.

1:07:14 In the 1950s, as a cargo company, you know, the one that was taking care of Chiang Kai-shek in Southeast Asia, running the opium empire, that Flying Tigers. It would become the largest private cargo company in the world. This guy says it was not a CIA proprietary, but it was in fact a CIA proprietary. And we've proven that in other research. It took its name from a group of pilots organized by Chenault during World War II.

1:07:48 When they flew supplies for Chiang Kai-shek's National Chinese, this group formed the foundation of the CIA's proprietary airline, Civil Air Transport, which turned into Air America. Commercial helicopters also negotiated the sale of helicopters to Saudi Arabia for use as quote-unquote medical ambulances. It also provided services in Guatemala.

1:08:16 which is where we train all of the Cuban exiles to attack Cuba for the Bay of Pigs. This company, Helicopter Guatemala, was ran by Wheaton's buddy, Carl Jenkins, the old CIA agent from Louisiana who was living in Guatemala and training the Contras in Belize. At the time, Continental Helicopters filed for bankruptcy. It was holding for repairs.

1:08:44 about $150,000 worth of helicopter parts. A letter filed by the bankruptcy court in 85 from Gary Villard, the general manager of commercial helicopters, states in May of 1984, Jenkins and Ricardo Moratoria from

1:09:09 Helicopters Guatemala instructed him to transport a helicopter owned by the company from New Orleans to commercial helicopters facility in Lafayette and then ship it to Guatemala along with an engine belonging to them. Jenkins had other connections to Edwin Wilson, Tom Klein, and Ted Shackley and the Richard Secord group. He was Chi Chi Quintero's CIA case officer during the Bay of Pigs.

1:09:38 after which Tom Clines became Quintero's case officer. Shackley and Clines boss and headed up the CIA's Miami station after the Bay of Pigs disaster. He was also involved in the CIA's use of mafia to try to assassinate Castro. Jenkins also headed a large CIA base in Laos, where we were shipping out all of the heroin using the Flying Tiger ship.

1:10:10 Air America. During that time, Shackley, Secord, and Clines were all involved in the CIA drug operations in that area. Also working with these individuals in that theater was General John Siegel, a Marine officer, along with Oliver North. Oliver North was there too. Wheaton claimed that Haynes and Ross told him that Commercial Helicopters had purchased API Distributors, a Houston-based company.

1:10:44 Set up by Edwin Wilson and Klein's and employing Quintero and Shackley to sell oil drilling equipment to PIMEX. That's George Bush. George Bush was involved in PIMEX, which is the Mexican oil company. Ross said that he had never heard of API distributors, but that Haynes had started a company called API Oil Tools and Supply, which leased.

1:11:13 all kinds of oil drilling equipment around Houston. Haynes incorporated API oil tools and supply in 81. It is around that time that Wilson's criminal activities began to be exposed. And who financed that setup of API oil tools for Hayes? The same man that had financed Hayes' commercial helicopters operation, mafia man, Herman Beebe. Same guy. It's all the same operation.

1:11:45 And Pemex and Bush, through Zobata Oil, created the mobile oil drilling rigs, which didn't really do a lot of mobile drilling. It did a lot of CIA training on those rigs. Convenient that you can move them around. Commercial helicopter bankruptcy records show that when the company filed for bankruptcy, it owed BBs.

1:12:15 more than $2 million. It would have owed them more than $3 million, except Edmund Regge's Acadia Savings took out more than $1 million of the company's debt to Beebe's Bolsier Bank and Trust. In addition, one of Beebe's insurance companies, Consolidated Bankers Life Insurance, had the reinsurance on Commercial Helicopter's employee benefit plan.

1:12:46 Beebe also brought Haynes Inter that borrowed $4 million from Beebe's controlled state savings and loan in Lubbock, Texas, to buy a lumber company in New Mexico from Pennzoil. That deal stuck to high hell, said one person. Two other people who got money out of the purchase were Don Dixon, who owned Vernon Savings and Loan, and Bernie Souza from Fresno, California.

1:13:18 who had been in real estate business in Fresno, where he apparently did business with Southmark, which is where Bebe dumped all of the property. That was beyond tubes, among other things, to borrow close to $14 million from Vernon Savings, secured by a second mortgage on a ranch in Colorado, and then immediately defaulted on it.

1:13:53 You can see from all of those shenanigans that this is all connected, every bit of it. It's incredible. I see we lost Bridget again. So that's the end for today. That's a lot. All of these stories that you guys thought were all separate stories, the Iran-Contra, the savings and loan debacle,

1:14:32 C4 explosives with Edwin Wilson's case, those were all presented to us as isolated incidents, and they are anything but isolated incidents. They are all connected, and they're all connected to the CIA, the mafia, and George Bush. Go ahead, SR. Thank you, Colonel, and thank everyone for being here today.

1:15:03 and attending us on Spaces and Rumble. What I was looking at at this point in time, Colonel, you talk about how it's all connected and what's going on. Anybody who has been following Colonel Towner for quite some time knows about Shackley. Shackley goes way back. I mean, way back. We are not talking about...

1:15:34 people who just showed up on the scene, okay? Kappa Sigma itself is something new. This is the first I've heard about Kappa Sigma. Right. And what's going on. But if you had been paying attention through all the tales that have been told up to this point, not tales, facts, it's very clear that they have set this up from the word go. Everybody involved.

1:16:05 knows who's who in the zoo, pretty much. Yes. With the exception of assets. But that's about as far as it goes. Thank you, Carmen. Sure. Bridget, go ahead. 13,000 pounds of C4? Yes. Oh, my God. But that'd be almost enough to bring down Oklahoma City bombing, wouldn't it? Just saying.

1:16:36 And, and, and all these other places. Thank you for going through this book because, again, it adds a lot of color to a sketchy outline that we all know. And context. Well, when you're setting up all of those caches of stay-behind units, they all had C4 explosive in it. You're going to move a lot of C4.

1:17:03 I think because these were all reported as isolated incidents, you have no idea where the seaport ends up. Remember, this is also very, very important. The place where they taught all of Operation Condor people, the Office of Public Safety that they brought in from the graduates of School of Americas,

1:17:32 Explosive training happened at a base just north of Mexico in South Texas. These are not isolated stories. They had C4 for that training. And the best way to get C4 around the world without tracking it is through CIA and their proprietary airlines. Go ahead, Ron.

1:18:04 I was just going to say – forgive me because I only caught bits and pieces as I was running some errands. But you were talking about a money thing where they were – the money was going into the bank, and then they were giving it out as loans that didn't have to be repaid. Did I hear that correctly? Well, they're called brokered loans, and it was something that was set up at the beginning of the Reagan administration. And basically what it is –

1:18:34 is the CIA could have a front guy. And let's just say it's Herman Beebe, the mafia guy. He deposits $20 million in a bank. A brokered loan means that Herman Beebe, as a customer of that bank, gets to decide who borrows his $20 million. Only him. The bank has no say in it. And this scheme was used.

1:19:04 to money launder through savings and loans. All of the CIA, not all of their money, obviously they have trillions of dollars floating around, but this scheme called brokered loans allowed them to parse out money in the form of a quote unquote loan. There was literally no expectation that it was ever going to be paid back because- No, no, okay.

1:19:32 Let me cut you off because I wanted to – the primary reason I asked that is, is essentially that the same model that the Arkansas Development Finance Authority was running? No, not exactly. It's similar, but they were actually using taxpayer dollars, and that's very different than – they did have private investment.

1:20:00 too. But a lot of that development authority was using Arkansas taxpayer money too. In this case, there's none of that. This is strictly a depositor walks in with $20 million. There was no due diligence at the time as to where that money came from. They put it on deposit and then that person alone got to decide where all the loans went. So Illini, go ahead. Hey, Colonel.

1:20:33 I mean, what a tour de force by Pete Bruton. This book came out in 1992, and it was based on a lot of journalism work from the late 1980s, of course. I never remember the fact that, you know, I think I did flip through the index once. I think I did stumble on Barry Seal. I didn't realize he got to Terry Reid back in 1992. This was two years.

1:20:59 before Terry Reid came out with his book and became a household name. To show everybody how this all runs back to ground and how this is a relatively stable portion of the thesis is in the Terry Reid case, you're not relying on Terry Reid's testimony to believe what happened. You're relying on the Department of Justice's

1:21:25 own admissions in open criminal court, going in there, trying to prove beyond reasonable doubt that, number one, Terry Reid was up to no good. Barry Seale was obviously trafficking drugs. The plane was involved in all of this. And they had to admit that both of these men were CIA contractors. They had no way around, you know,

1:21:55 admitting that part of it. So this, this isn't stuff that like everybody, like I remembered hearing about Terry Reed back in the aughts and like being a college kid. I'm like, okay, this, this kind of seems like a conspiracy theory. This kind of seems like something from the X-Files. And I, nobody ever told me that it's not just Terry Reed is saying this stuff. It was the department of justice going into open criminal court.

1:22:22 And making these allegations. And I think that's how you know that Pete Bruton has an incredibly responsible story here. Yes. And the amazing thing that you just pointed out is he basically had it first. And again, he did it with a stubby pencil and a notebook.

1:22:46 You know, the time in which he's gathering this, we did not have wide use of the internet. We didn't have all of these electronic database for sources and stuff. This man traveled around. He talked to people. He interviewed people. He did it the old fashioned gumshoe way of revealing all of this stuff and connecting all of these dots. And it's just...

1:23:13 fascinating to me that as you pointed out this was all done in the 1980s almost in real time which was virtually and we know from Gary Webb all of the hours and hours and hours of reading court documents and Pete Bruton and his partner was going through massive amounts of real estate records and

1:23:42 courtroom bankruptcy files and finding all of these gems and connecting. And I can't even imagine what his wall looked like. He must have had all of these little stickies like the old, you know, with the yarn connecting them. It's just literally crazy what a great job he did. And the underlying kind of Kappa Sigma.

1:24:06 fraternity piece of this, which we already know from Warhamster's great work on Skull and Bones and Squirrel and Key, how they form an underlying, and I do believe because these are college age people that you can have people embedded in these organizations that are pretending to be college age people, but are actually much older and trained in human behavior as a CIA person.

1:24:35 to know exactly who in those fraternities you can co-op blackmail at the earliest ages and formulate them into your workhorses. SR, go ahead. Thank you, Colonel. I just did want to make one note about Gilbert Dozier. He wasn't actually pardoned by Reagan. His sentence was commuted by Reagan.

1:25:07 to a six-year sentence. Now, it is interesting that, of course, the CIA went to Reagan and told Reagan what to do. He couldn't pardon him because there was just way too much evidence of what he had done that people were not going to believe it. So he commuted the sentence saying, well, he got more time than anybody else got and would ever get this, that, and the other.

1:25:36 Too much time for him to spend in jail. And that's how he got out. Well, they have all kinds of ways of getting you out of jail. One hundred percent, Colonel. One hundred percent. Ron, go ahead. It all depends on what type of a purpose you serve or what can you serve. You know, Pete Bruton, I actually posted this in the pill.

1:26:05 There's a – I can't believe it's still on YouTube, actually. But there's like a two-and-a-half to three-hour interview of Pete Bruton, and he talks specifically about the book. But if a memory serves – and you may have covered this, and I apologize if I'm saying it again, repeating it. But he was – I think he was an investigative reporter for the Houston Chronicle. He was an – go ahead. No, no, go ahead. No, go ahead.

1:26:33 I was pretty much done. I think he was an investigative reporter for the Houston Chronicle, if memory serves. He worked for the Houston Chronicle, the Houston Post, and The Economist. That was his career. But as you'll see at the end of the book, they basically let him go because they got too much pressure publishing what was not authorized to be published by the higher-ups, just like Gary Webb.

1:27:04 I'm glad you asked that because I was going to ask because there are – what other works out there are published that are not – it's like they didn't seek permission from the CIA to do it? There's lots of them. I mean every book that I have, I have 130 of them that's exposing them.

1:27:24 that didn't seek authorization because they're not inside the only people that have to actually seek authorization is people that worked for the cia now can the cia block um or coerce a publisher not to publish your work yes there's examples of that too where you have to go to a private publisher in order to get it published um and in some cases when they do that that the private

1:27:53 publisher gets set up in some kind of steam operation where they'll attempt to take them down as well. So they have many ways of doing it, but the only people that actually have to submit transcripts is people that work for them. But, you know, they find ways. They lean on the, just like they did with Gary Webb, and we'll see at the end of this book, like they did with Pete Bruton as well.

1:28:25 Well, I imagine that if you tried to publish something like that today, it would be a whole lot easier to track it because you're doing it electronically. Back then, if there was no computer stuff and it was all analog, it was probably much harder, although he probably was asking questions of certain individuals and then that information was being passed up. Oh, absolutely. You don't have somebody asking the kind of questions that he asked without him being on their radar, which is how they ended up.

1:28:55 applying the coercive pressure to get him fired. So, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, Colonel, the book was published by Sapolsky Publishers, who also published Terry Reid's book. There's a sticker, if you, you know, buy one of the original hardcovers, there's a sticker on the front that says, you know, the book that Simon & Schuster signed up but wouldn't publish. Yes. That they, I mean, books like these have trouble.

1:29:24 Yes, they do. And you have to go to these off-brand. And thank you. I was just looking that up myself. I do have a hard cap. Anytime I can buy the hardback books, I do. And yeah, it was published in 1992 by Sapolsky's publishers. And yeah, Simon & Schuster will not publish any books that are accurate.

1:29:54 and anti-CIA. Well, they're gatekeepers. I think I've said this before, but if I'm looking at books, what tells me if the book is really accurate or hardcore truth typically is the price. The higher the price, the more accurate it probably is. Well, we found that

1:30:19 Early on, when I forget the guy's name, when I bought the book about Indonesia, if you tried to buy it in the United States, it was like $300. Bridget did a bunch of research and got the guy to send me an electronic version. He's a professor down in Australia. So, yeah, that is absolutely true. Megan, go ahead. Yeah, I just wanted to make a statement about the whole book thing.

1:30:47 In this day and age, anybody can publish anything they want now pretty much as long as it isn't, well, even some defamatory stuff gets published. But my suggestion to everyone that is ever going to listen to this podcast or to this X-Space, if you can get a copy of an original book, you have information that cannot be tampered with.

1:31:17 All online information can be tampered with. It's been proven time and time again from the New York Times, Newsweek, all of those people. If somebody doesn't like the headline, they can change that in a heartbeat. If you have a book, that can't never be changed. That's my part in this. Thanks, Colonel, for another banger space. Sure. And that's great advice, which is why I started.

1:31:47 When we first started this journey buying these books, I did not, a lot of them are online at archive.org, but I don't trust online sources. And just so that you guys that are over on Rumble can see, this little red circle on this book says the book that Scheinman and Schuster signed up, but wouldn't publish. So there's verification over on Rumble that that is in fact true.

1:32:15 Once they got the transcripts, they would not publish the book or once they got the – what do you call it? The material. The manuscript? The manuscript. That's the word I was looking for. They wouldn't publish it. I was going to say the – what was Amazon's first role? Their first role was books.

1:32:42 And you look at used bookstores and stuff like that. A lot of these places are kind of clandestine areas to filter out things that they don't want to be regurgitated. And what I find, one of the best places to find books is like old estate sales where people are holding on to stuff. But if you go to a used bookstore, a lot of times –

1:33:08 People are instructed to not sell certain types of material or to either destroy it or pull it out of circulation. And I kind of have an idea that that was one of the reasons that Amazon was so successful, at least at the outset. But that's just me. So I have purposely looked. When we travel, I love going into used bookstores.

1:33:36 And you don't find any material that would follow this research in any of the years. That's just anecdotal information. You would expect, especially as wide traveled as we have been in the last three years going all over the United States, that you would find one occasionally sitting on a shelf, but you don't. And I scour the nonfiction area.

1:34:05 every time I go into one. So it is very interesting. Although obviously I'm getting quite a few, I have three different, Goodreads is another website that I use to purchase books. I do find quite a few of them on Amazon that are for resale. Most of every book that I've gotten is not new.

1:34:32 because the majority of them are much older books. So, SR, go ahead. Thank you, Colonel. We do have a question from Ricarda in the pill. Okay. The question is, does the book contain any references to transactions involving West Germany during the Cold War?

1:35:01 The Allies had numerous no man's lands pockets in Germany. Thank you for your response. No, this book does not cover World War II at all. So this is primarily about the savings and loan collapse. And he does go back into the early 70s to the point of bringing stories forward so you can understand a little historical perspective.

1:35:31 And yes, Shelly the Kiwi, I know that I still owe everybody a list of books. And I will get that done at some point. I posted the picture. I know people have used AI to produce lists. Somebody posted one a long time ago. But that is something that we should do and pin it in my profile.

1:35:59 as a list of all of the stuff that we've read to date. Not just on the series, but that I have personally read. I have a stack of about 15 that are still in the queue to be read. I will not include those because I can't vouch for them. I haven't read them yet. I haven't checked out their footnotes and all that other stuff. But I do need to collect the names of all of the books.

1:36:25 to produce the list of everything. And it's not like I'm gatekeeping. I don't want to endorse a book that I don't know that's accurate because we know there's a lot of fake information that gets broadcast. And that's kind of the reason why I started doing this book series is to add the context because so many of these authors have...

1:36:54 and very important piece of the pie, but they don't have the overarching how it fits into this structure that we discovered once we started researching. The fact that there's this international syndicate.

1:37:12 Most of these authors have written their books independently of knowing anything about Operation Gladio. And so Pete Bruton talking about these loads of C4 is very, very important to our conversation. But he had no idea that.

1:37:33 Operation Gladio, Stay Behind, Caches, had C4 in them and was used in multiple domestic terror events throughout Europe and the world, for that matter. And so that's why I think going through these books with the other hundred books having already been read, we can put in the new material in context. Obviously, Pete Bruton has done such a masterful job. There's not a lot of context.

1:38:03 Except for what happened between 92 and now, like Stefan Halper and his role in Russiagate. These players, as we just saw with Robert Sensei and his being arrested for money laundering. And I laid out his entire history. Some of these players are still doing this shit.

1:38:28 And that's why I think it's so important for us to be able to do what Pete Gruden did in a wonderfully wonderful way of here's the character. Let me go back to where he came from and bring you forward to his role in this savings and loan mafia CIA operation. That's basically what we're doing. We are scavenging all of these books.

1:38:58 to give us a very broad base that as things happen today, we can be those people. We can be the people that give you the context when everybody's talking about the DEA official, you really need to be looking at Robert Sensei. That type of thing I think is critically important in this information war. And we're doing something that no one else is doing. Renee, go ahead.

1:39:27 Hey, Colonel. Hey, everyone. Good afternoon. Interesting little nugget. I posted in the Purple Pill regarding Kappa Sigma, their Wikipedia page, the history of this fraternity. Can you hear me? Yeah, I can hear you. Okay, sorry. It says the fraternity was based in part on the traditions of the ancient order from Bologna, Italy.

1:39:56 Just wanted to throw that in there for you. Bologna, Italy. Isn't that where they had one of the terrorist attacks? That's very interesting. Thank you. Megan, go ahead. Yeah, one last comment on all this. I do not personally have the technical chops to do anything like this, but it would be really interesting if someone could get...

1:40:27 a program designed to go through and scour all these books that you have been putting out and be able to draw. That's a great question. Ron is working on it. I have some tools for that. Illini has helped me immensely behind the scenes. Send me a direct message.

1:40:57 Um, if, if, um, I will add, you send me a direct message and I will send you a link to a search engine that, that basically it's, it's, it's not a big deal, but there does exist a tool out there that at least tells you which book stuff that you might be looking for might be in. That's all. Yeah. Yeah. So when I.

1:41:25 find names of, and I've suggested to Illini some of the books. He's very good at finding these books himself. And there is a tool that he developed where I can just go put in a subject or a name or a place. And with the books that are already in there, I can quickly find the material that I need.

1:41:53 And it has been immeasurably helpful to me. Well, that and the reason why I brought that up for people that are new to this whole, you know, they're finally coming out of the ether to be able to go do their own research without it. And nothing against you, Colonel. It's great that you're doing these spaces, but it's a piece and part in a certain time. And then.

1:42:21 Somewhere down the road, you hear somebody's name or something. And well, I got to go back to every one of your X spaces and figure out where the hell did this come into play? Because my brain doesn't work like that either. So that's why I was just wondering if somebody and I'm grateful for Illini. Illini. That's correct. And Ron, if you're in on this, that's awesome that somebody's putting this together.

1:42:49 so that you have that ability to map out how things have worked out over the past hundred years or whatever. Right. Go ahead, Ron. Well, I actually, so I'm building my own personal, what they call large language model. It's going to be local to my system, and I have well over 10,000 books on PDF or EPUB.

1:43:15 And basically what it does is it creates a vector database so that what you can do is you can search for anything. And mine essentially covers everything from current day all the way going back to the, like, 1600s, 1700s. And it's not exclusively focused on this, but I do that on purpose because there's going to be a crap ton of information that could be useful that you may not know that could be, you know, one little sentence in a book.

1:43:44 I don't know if what I'm doing is similar to what Illini's doing. We've never actually really discussed. I kind of knew what he was doing, but I don't know the scope. But I don't know if I can make mine visible to the public. I'm sure I probably could, but that's another. I'm pretty cautious on the copyright stuff, but what I will do.

1:44:11 What I'm willing to do is you give me a word. You give me the name like Nelson Rockefeller. I will tell you which books and which pages. I will give you the source material. You can then, if you want to, go track it down and get it from Internet Archive or archive.org if you want, if it's up there. They have a book checkout program. You can get it from a local library. You can buy it on Amazon. I'm not undermining demand for the books.

1:44:39 If you're looking for information on somebody in one of these, you know, more esoteric Gladio related books. And, you know, I do a pretty good job of covering the post-war period. I don't have everything. I have a lot. And then I have a little bit of stuff, you know, going back to, you know, starting with Cecil Rhodes. But Ron's database is probably deeper. Yeah. Well, the problem, though.

1:45:07 is you get too deep. A lot of the, I'm not gonna say a lot, probably about 20 of the books that I've read, they're garbage. And if you're not screening the books that go into the material, then you're going to get pieces of garbage. I recently bought a book that

1:45:33 supposedly was about Operation Gladio. And basically all it does, and I'm not even kidding you, it was the craziest thing I've ever read. All it did was take like three different events and talk about those three different events through like 13 chapters over and over again, literally using the same words and got a lot of the information incorrect.

1:46:02 And this is information that has been validated through all types of sources to include newspapers at the time. And if you can't get the facts right, those types of things in a search engine is just going to slow you down, which is why I'm very particular about the source material that I use because number one, I've read the book myself.

1:46:29 Number two, I've checked out the footnotes. Number three, I have vetted the author. I've bought multiple books they used as source books and read those as well. So you can quickly get mired in too much detail, which again is why I kind of narrowed the focus of what we're doing to...

1:46:54 Post-World War II, and like Illini says, we did trace it back at the very beginning to the Fabian Society because you have to know why. Why are they doing this? And why they're doing it is important, more important than how they're doing it. But how they're doing it is so important to what we're living through right now as far as methods.

1:47:17 their operational footprint that they use so you can spot when you're being messed with in real time which again you see so much and I hate to keep using this it's just the most recent there's tons that I could use the fact that you watched last week on Alpha Warrior Show when he was trying to find Robert Sensei's name in all of the mainstream media

1:47:45 putting out of the DEA guy getting arrested. It was not in any of them. Well, why wasn't it in any of them? Because he's CIA. And so again, there's a lot of people that contact me in DMs and ask me to get involved in their pet project. I'm not getting involved in their pet project. And I know that hurts people's feelings. They've unfollowed me. I don't care. I have my pet project. It's this.

1:48:14 If you guys want to create your own pet project and build your own audience, I'll do everything I can to help you. But I'm not doing your pet project. I have a mission here. And when my mission is done, I'm out. That doesn't mean I'm going to delete my ex account because we've collected enough knowledge to be relevant. But I'm not going to do people's pet projects, no matter how mad they get at me. Megan, go ahead.

1:48:44 Yeah, I was just going to, you know, with the advent of AI, it wouldn't be too terribly hard to program a part of your programs to eliminate those junk sources. I mean, I don't know how to do any of that stuff. That's my problem. And like I said, for Eli and I and Ron, I applaud both of you for going at this. And Colonel, I believe 100 percent in what you just said.

1:49:14 Every one of us has our own mission. I'm just here to ask the question, and it might trigger somebody to go off on a tangent they didn't even think of. And that's my whole point about coming in here and saying something about this. So thumbs up to Ron and Eli and I. You guys are awesome. Keep up the good work. And you too, Carol. Thank you, Megan. I should just caution that the search engine doesn't do the sermon for you.

1:49:41 I mean, you're going to get, you know, results from Kissinger in there too. They're included for completeness, you know, to basically say, you know, here's the admissions against interest over here. Here's what, you know, was kind of the popular narrative back then and the authoritative narrative, if you're looking for that. And then, you know, here's some other books too. Yeah, and obviously the problem that I've seen,

1:50:09 Even when I'm running just a quick query on, I recognize the name and I don't remember where it's at and all my books are out in my studio. I will go on to Grok and just ask it about a name and events. And you'll get two pages of that's all conspiracy theory and it's never been proven.

1:50:34 despite the fact that there's been multiple books written about it. And by the time you get down to the very end, it'll give you the little blurb that I was actually looking for that he was tied to this activity or that activity. Grok has a lot of judgment, non-discernment in there of basically kind of pushing you to none of this is true, but here's what was said at the very bottom of it. And that's the reason why I,

1:51:03 for the most part, stay away from any AI. I do research on Yandex on quoted terms that I know is going to give me material that has source documents to it. And about the only thing, I don't really use AI. I know that it's a tool and it can be used and all that other stuff. But frankly, I don't have time to figure out how to use it to my benefit.

1:51:32 I'm able to do in my head what most of all of this material, how it makes sense to me, and then relay it to you guys. SR, go ahead. Thank you, Colonel. A little note on AI. AI and I typically get into conversations where we disagree. Okay, that's just the way it is. Case in point, this last one was Hugh Hewitt.

1:52:03 who hollered and complained about how cold it is here in D.C. And I went through and I got the information about what happened with the weather, what happens with snow here in D.C. Every year said he should have done the research instead of going to AI. And then I asked AI a simple question. I said, has there ever been a single year in Washington, D.C. when it has not snowed? And AI comes back and says.

1:52:31 Well, there was 0.01 accumulation of snow in a specific year. So, yes, there is a year where it hasn't snowed. Well, I got torqued off with AI. And I said, well, there is snow. And it came back with the same answer. And finally, I got torqued off with AI to say.

1:52:58 You tell me the definition of no snow is snow at point zero one. This is a reason people are going to Leo. What's Leo? What's Leo? Rock came back and gave me an answer. Oh, you're right. And there was snow. What's Leo? Leo is Braves AI. Oh, yeah. I don't even know. So if you pit them against each other, all of a sudden things change.

1:53:31 Well, yeah, I'm not going to get into an argument with AI. Okay, Megan, go ahead, and then we'll go to Ron. I'm just going to drop one thing. If you haven't locked AI up on a query, you're not doing it correctly. That's all I'm going to say. So I have asked it, and that's the reason why I stopped using Grok for the most part. I've asked it very pointed questions.

1:54:00 Because I can't remember somebody's name. And it will be about a CIA operation. And it just won't answer. It's like, I don't know what you're talking about. It just goes blank. It stops its little computing thing altogether. I downloaded the app as a separate thing. It works more times than the one that's on the app of X. But I have locked it up multiple times where it just goes like.

1:54:30 okay, I'm done with you and your CIA garbage. And it just stops working. I don't know why that is. I don't know if it happens to a lot of other people. But if you ask it very specific questions, like you're wanting to recall a name and you tell them what the operation is or where it happened, it'll just stop working. Ron, go ahead.

1:54:53 Okay, so primarily the reason for that is because they have governors and they can't talk about specific information. I'm actually working on a project right now going back about slavery, and I was asking it a bunch of questions, and it started giving me – I uploaded like, I don't know, probably 200, 300 sources into this thing.

1:55:19 Because at the time, I didn't have my LLM up. So I uploaded all these sources, and then I had it help me write some stuff. And the stuff was amazing. I was, like, blown away. And then I said, well, print out a bibliography. And it only printed off 10, 10 books.

1:55:38 And I'm like, where's the rest? And this is all I have. And I said, well, how did you write all this stuff? And he says, well, because you exhibited to me that you knew what it was. And so you are now okay. I can tell you the things because you've exhibited that you already have an understanding.

1:55:56 But if you don't have an understanding and you say something like this or you don't reframe the question correctly, it will kick it back to do a politically correct response. And that's because it's governed because it wants to protect information. The best thing that you can do is to get an AI model, put it on your computer, have it running locally. So, I mean, even if you're not connected to the Internet. And then what you do is then you have a database that it searches. And that's what I'm building.

1:56:24 I recognize that my database is much broader than what you. I don't know what happened to you, Ron. You stopped talking. Ron, at a bare minimum, if you can just feed the right stuff into the context window, that is very helpful in terms of even just trying to get, you know, a chat GPT or Gemini to process, you know, a large set of information for you and you feed it, you know, a specific, you know,

1:56:55 set of information, you can usually use that to kind of steer the conversation and have it at least sift through a large chunk of information. Some of these LLMs are now up to, you know, million tokens in terms of the context when those are available. So, you know, there is stuff out there.

1:57:16 Yeah, believe me, Grok knows me well enough to know the queries that I have put into it and ask it to find other things. It knows what I'm doing. But I'm just saying that I have on occasion broken it where it's not playing. And it's very frustrating to me, especially when you need it on the fly. A lot of the information that I have has been asked in previous questions.

1:57:44 I have like a whole laundry list of things that I've asked it to go and find other references so I can cross check things. And when you go to specific names and places, it doesn't like to play with you. Even though I know it's there because I asked it before on different occasions about certain operations, which is why on a few occasions when I was looking for a name, I'd go back and ask it.

1:58:13 I can go into Grok and search on that name once I went out and found it, and it's right there. It just wouldn't give it to me, which I find hysterical. And why I don't make a habit of using it for most of my research because I don't find it reliable. I go out and look through the indexes of the books for the names of something that I want to prepare.

1:58:42 an in-depth research on and I just use the books and I look it up. And that's why the tool that Align I found that has the books that I like using is very helpful because I can type that name in there and it gives me all of the page numbers where I don't even have to skip and I can actually see some of the text.

1:59:06 It's just a very helpful tool. It just doesn't have all the books. So I know the books that are in there and I look in the other ones and I have them segregated that way. So it's very helpful. But anyway, enough about all of that. So just know that all of the information that we have is very carefully vetted. And that's the short story of the long story that we just talked about.

1:59:35 And I feel an obligation to do that so that we're not putting out false information. Okay. Anyway, I did have some interesting things happen over the last 24 hours. The interview that I did today will be out in a couple of days. I will let you guys know when it's out. And I did have an entity contact me.

2:00:07 that is working with a particular, and I'm not gonna name them right now, in case it doesn't work out, I'll tell you after that, with a CIA agent that is very interested in having a round table conversation. And I will keep you guys updated on that if it does work out. You will obviously know it because it's gonna get aired. If it doesn't,

2:00:36 after whatever happens happens, I will let you guys know about it, that it fell through. But I just don't want to say too much about it right now, because it's kind of a nebulous jello form thing right now. SR, go ahead. Thank you, Colonel. I did want to give you props, and I do want to mention the interview that, or the session that Colonel did on Redact. She got the honor seat.

2:01:06 Think about that. She opened that show with them. That is huge, Colonel. Props to you. Thank you. And I said SR to everyone yesterday. I couldn't have done it without everybody here. Everybody here has been so helpful and so many people behind the scenes that have fed me information and given me pointers on where to look.

2:01:34 It obviously is all relevant to what's going on now. And you guys know that I feel like I have all of you behind me every time I appear on one of those shows whispering in my ear. So I love it. I love being able to represent all of the combined knowledge of all of us working together on this project. So it's an honor. And that's all I got to say about that.

2:02:04 You know who followed you immediately after you? Kevin Shipp. We need to get you and him to talk to each other. If only they had both of you on at the same time, that would be fun. That would be fun. Yes, it would. That would be very fun. And, I mean, we did his book, so. And he knows all about Operation Gladio. He mentioned it in his book.

2:02:34 But a lot of those people, and I understand it, a lot of those people, because of their NDAs and stuff like that, can't talk about the stuff that I talk about, which is why I think we're uniquely positioned because I don't have any of those. I didn't work in this stuff when I was on active duty. I don't have any of the buffers that they have. So it's all very interesting. Yeah. And I could see him.

2:03:04 just to give you guys some inside baseball. When he, so you get a link to appear on the show and you're told to log on 15 or 20 minutes early. And on Redacted, they do it via Zoom. And so the people that are on deck, whatever computer software they use, I can see.

2:03:34 the person that's waiting after me. So I could see his facial expressions as I was talking. It was very interesting because he logged on about halfway through what I was talking about. So yeah, he obviously doesn't know. I sent him a DM when we did his book because I would have loved to have had him.

2:04:02 on the podcast. So you guys could have asked him questions after we did his book, but I never heard from him. He doesn't follow me. So yeah, it was very interesting, but anyway, it is what it is. Okay. So I will see you guys tomorrow. I'm going to go grab some dinner. Take care.

Entities here

CIA38 Barry Seal25 Herman Beebe22 Kappa Sigma19 George Aubin19 John Riddle14 George H.W. Bush13 Joe Rosso12 Louisiana12 Richmond Harper11 Iran-Contra affair10 Carol Kelly10 Ted Shackley9 Robert Corson9 Continental Helicopters9 United States9 Edwin Wilson8 Savings and Loan Association8 Pete Brewton8 Terry Reed7 B.G. Wiley7 Oliver North7 Houstonian Hotel and Conference Center7 Mexico7 Murray Kessler7 Charles Haynes Jr.6 Shreveport6 Continental Savings6 Ben Barnes6 Lloyd Bentsen6 Walter Mischer6 Texas6 Cuba5 Richard Secord5 Vaughn R. Bobby Ross5 New Orleans5 Operation Gladio5 University of Texas5 Western Savings5 Mafia5

Claims made here

Frank Irwin appointed John Connally book_quoted ▶ 1:26

“of skull and bones as far as the who's who's, not the secret ceremonies. I don't have any evidence of that, but just the who's who of the graduates of this particular fraternity. The year that the est…”

Ben Barnes member_of Kappa Sigma book_quoted ▶ 1:56

“He fought every reform movement in the university. He didn't want anything changed. Everything had to stay the same. And Irwin was also a close friend of Ben Barnes, who we've talked about repeatedly.…”

Richmond Harper carried_out_attack Barry Seal book_quoted ▶ 2:20

“Barnes said it was Irwin who introduced him to Eagle Pass Rancher Richmond Harper. And Eagle Pass Rancher, remember, is where one of the landing strips was for the CIA. Richmond Harper was the same ma…”

Richmond Harper member_of Kappa Sigma book_quoted ▶ 2:20

Nelson Bunker Hunt member_of Kappa Sigma book_quoted ▶ 2:50

“Another alumni, Nelson Bunker Hunt, the son of H.L. Hunt, who tried and failed to corner the silver market. Hunt dropped out of UT and didn't make the yearbook, but he was in the fraternity. He was al…”

Nelson Bunker Hunt financed_via Oliver North book_quoted ▶ 2:50

Jim Westmoreland member_of Kappa Sigma book_quoted ▶ 3:22

“to the contrast to the tune of about a quarter of a million dollars. Former Houston City Councilman Jim Westmoreland, who was ousted by voters in 1990 for making a racist comment, was a member. What t…”

Jim Westmoreland paid FBI book_quoted ▶ 3:58

“in the FBI's bribe lab, meaning bribery and labor sting operation, which involved two Houston men being indicted and convicted for giving him a bribe and a sting that netted New Orleans mafia boss Car…”

Nick Kragel member_of Kappa Sigma book_quoted ▶ 4:30

“Richard Rainwater, the Fort Worth dealmaker and leveraged buyout artist who cut his finance teeth with the Bass brothers. In 1965, Rainwater was the treasurer of the Kappa Sigma. And that same year, g…”

Richard Rainwater member_of Kappa Sigma book_quoted ▶ 4:30

George Aubin member_of Kappa Sigma book_quoted ▶ 6:00

“clubs that are in washington dc where they bring all of the politicians in and deals are made with the appropriate amount of liquor and side performances in 1965 when he and rainwater were running kap…”

George Aubin founded Kappa Development Company book_quoted ▶ 6:34

“near the hometown of Michener. Oben embraced Kappa Sigma with his entire body and soul. 20 years later, the name of his companies were all named after his paternity. For example, Kappa Properties, Kap…”

George Aubin founded Sigma Capital Corporation book_quoted ▶ 6:34

George Aubin founded Sigma Realty book_quoted ▶ 6:34

George Aubin founded Kappa Properties book_quoted ▶ 6:34

George Aubin member_of Rent-a-bank scandal book_quoted ▶ 7:04

“Within five years, he was up to his eyeballs in the Texas rent-a-bank scandal. During the early and mid-70s, Aubin was the co-owner of 12 small Texas banks that were part of a circle of more than 20 b…”

George Aubin paid Herman Beebe book_quoted ▶ 8:05

“introduced him to Bebe. By 1975, Aubin and his childhood friend from Stocksdale, Jarrett Wood, had borrowed $30,000 from Bebe. In his 1979 personal bankruptcy filing, Aubin declared a $25,000 debt to …”

George Aubin financed_via Western Savings book_quoted ▶ 10:10

“That's next to the famous Calumet Farm. And according to a $120 million lawsuit filed against Aubin in 1990 by Sunbelt Savings, Aubin fraudulently used $14 million loan from Western Savings in Dallas …”

J.B. Harrelson front_for George Aubin book_quoted ▶ 11:41

“Salem, or excuse me, Ben Malam Savings and Cameron. These two savings and loan were bought in 1983 by Auburn's partner, J.B. Harrelson. But everyone, including federal regulators, E.F. Hutton, and any…”

J.B. Harrelson member_of Rent-a-bank scandal book_quoted ▶ 12:37

“$70 million to you and me. Harrelson was one of Aubin's partners during the Renovate scandal, as was Jarrett Woods. Before that, in the late 1960s, Harrelson was a partner with B.G. Wiley and Wiley's …”

Ben Barnes recruited Carol Kelly book_quoted ▶ 14:17

“first introduced Kelly to Beebe. Kelly was also a Kappa Sigma. In 1970s, Kelly bought Harrelson and Wiley stock in Brasso Sports Savings and then consolidated it with several other savings and loans t…”

Carol Kelly member_of Kappa Sigma book_quoted ▶ 14:17

Carol Kelly financed_via Herman Beebe book_quoted ▶ 14:17

Carol Kelly founded Continental Savings book_quoted ▶ 14:49

“who got indicted during the FBI's Brylab sting operation. Kelly also, along with his minority partner BG Wiley's son David, renamed the savings and loan Continental Savings and then got a loan on its …”

Continental Savings financed_via Herman Beebe book_quoted ▶ 14:49

Continental Savings financed_via Allied Bank book_quoted ▶ 14:49

Harry Blake Terry front_for Carol Kelly book_quoted ▶ 16:10

“The big borrower at Continental Savings was one of Kelly's Kappa Sigma brothers, Harry Blake Terry, who was used by Kelly and Bebe as a front man to buy Continental. Terry borrowed $19 million from Co…”

Harry Blake Terry financed_via Continental Savings book_quoted ▶ 16:10

Harry Blake Terry member_of Kappa Sigma book_quoted ▶ 16:10

Mike Adkinson paid Harry Blake Terry book_quoted ▶ 16:40

“But the plan fell apart when Bebe's bank, Bossier Bank and Trust, which had the loan on the polo ground, failed in the summer of 1986. Before that happened, Continental was having trouble keeping Terr…”

Joseph P. DeLorenzo financed_via Herman Beebe book_quoted ▶ 17:35

“P. DeLorenzo. He had sold Navarro Savings and Loan in East Texas to Kelly and Wiley with financing for mafia Herman Beebe. DeLorenzo went to jail in 1977 for fraud that he committed while at another b…”

Alan Glick financed_via International Brotherhood of Teamsters book_quoted ▶ 18:35

“from Teamsters Union to buy two casinos in Las Vegas. Glick was booted out of Nevada Gaming Authorities by the Nevada Gaming Authorities after they discovered the mob was skimming $12 million a year f…”

Joe Rosso founded Lyric Center book_quoted ▶ 19:05

“a former San Diego football player. In 1958, the year before Carroll Kelly joined Kappa Sigma, the grandmaster of the fraternity was a guy by the name of Joe Rosso from Houston. Rosso went on to becom…”

Joe Rosso member_of Kappa Sigma book_quoted ▶ 19:05

Joe Rosso secretly_owned Houstonian Hotel and Conference Center book_quoted ▶ 19:35

“UPI, by the way, at one point was owned by Reverend Moon and the Unification Church. He also had ownership of the Houstonian Hotel and Conference Center, which was where President Bush lived when he w…”

Joe Rosso member_of Kappa Sigma book_quoted ▶ 24:35

“He and his affiliated companies had borrowed from failed savings and loan. He said, gee, I have no idea. Joe Russo and Carol Kelly may have controlled more federally insured savings and loan deposits …”

John Riddle member_of Kappa Sigma book_quoted ▶ 25:04

“who was also a grand scribe of the Kappa Sigma in 1971, was two years behind his idol there. Some college boys want to be president of the United States. Some others want to be National League batting…”

Wade Kilpatrick member_of Kappa Sigma book_quoted ▶ 25:30

“Riddle earned a law degree after graduating from the University of Texas and started working for David Bolton, a real estate appraiser in Houston. But before too long, he went into law practice with W…”

John Riddle founded Investors Title book_quoted ▶ 25:57

“a part of the Rogers family from Beaumont, who will be discussed in a later chapter. Rogers attended the University of Texas at the same time, but he was a little too aristocratic from a better family…”

John Riddle financed_via Continental Savings book_quoted ▶ 26:27

“dirty Texas savings and loans deals. By the mid 80s, the law firm had essentially split up and Riddle was into real estate development in a big way. He was doing projects, mostly the strip mall center…”

John Riddle financed_via People's Heritage Federal Savings Loan book_quoted ▶ 26:58

“Carol Kelly's continental savings. Some of these bad riddle loans would later foisted upon Mike Atkinson in a cash for trash deal. Some 30 million to 40 million from Sunrise Savings in Boynton Beach, …”

John Riddle financed_via Sunrise Savings book_quoted ▶ 26:58

John Riddle financed_via Mercury Savings book_quoted ▶ 27:28

“40 million to 50 million from Vernon Savings, more than 2 million from Mercury and Ben Malone Savings, controlled by his fellow Kappa Sigma brother, George Aubin, 5 million from Liberty Savings in Lee…”

John Riddle financed_via Liberty Savings book_quoted ▶ 27:28

John Riddle financed_via Ben Malam Savings book_quoted ▶ 27:28

John Riddle financed_via Vernon Savings book_quoted ▶ 27:28

Savings and Loan Association exposed John Riddle documented ▶ 27:59

“from Western Savings in Dallas, controlled by Auburn's childhood friend, Jarrett Wood. In 1990, Sunbelt Savings, which had taken over Western Savings, was awarded $284 million in damages in a federal …”

John Riddle financed_via Western Savings book_quoted ▶ 27:59

M&R Investment secretly_owned Dunes Hotel book_quoted ▶ 28:24

“Riddle had already filed for bankruptcy, though. He owed the federal receivers for all of the failed banking loans so much money that on his bankruptcy forms, he said he had $1 to his name. Riddle's b…”

John Riddle paid M&R Investment documented ▶ 28:24

Carl Elmer Jenkins member_of CIA host_asserted ▶ 1:08:16

“which is where we train all of the Cuban exiles to attack Cuba for the Bay of Pigs. This company, Helicopter Guatemala, was ran by Wheaton's buddy, Carl Jenkins, the old CIA agent from Louisiana who w…”

Carl Elmer Jenkins headed Helicopter Guatemala host_asserted ▶ 1:08:16

Continental Helicopters funded Helicopter Guatemala host_asserted ▶ 1:08:16

Carl Elmer Jenkins recruited Chi Chi Quintero host_asserted ▶ 1:09:09

“Helicopters Guatemala instructed him to transport a helicopter owned by the company from New Orleans to commercial helicopters facility in Lafayette and then ship it to Guatemala along with an engine …”

CIA ordered_assassination_of Fidel Castro host_asserted ▶ 1:09:38

“after which Tom Clines became Quintero's case officer. Shackley and Clines boss and headed up the CIA's Miami station after the Bay of Pigs disaster. He was also involved in the CIA's use of mafia to …”

Ted Shackley headed CIA host_asserted ▶ 1:09:38

Carl Elmer Jenkins headed CIA host_asserted ▶ 1:09:38

Tom Clines succeeded Carl Elmer Jenkins host_asserted ▶ 1:09:38

Tom Clines trafficked CIA host_asserted ▶ 1:10:10

“Air America. During that time, Shackley, Secord, and Clines were all involved in the CIA drug operations in that area. Also working with these individuals in that theater was General John Siegel, a Ma…”

Richard Secord trafficked CIA host_asserted ▶ 1:10:10

Ted Shackley trafficked CIA host_asserted ▶ 1:10:10

Charles Haynes Jr. founded API Oil Tools and Supply host_asserted ▶ 1:10:44

“Set up by Edwin Wilson and Klein's and employing Quintero and Shackley to sell oil drilling equipment to PIMEX. That's George Bush. George Bush was involved in PIMEX, which is the Mexican oil company.…”

Tom Clines founded API Distributors host_asserted ▶ 1:10:44

Edwin Wilson founded API Distributors host_asserted ▶ 1:10:44

George H.W. Bush member_of PEMEX host_asserted ▶ 1:10:44

Herman Beebe financed_via API Oil Tools and Supply host_asserted ▶ 1:11:13

“all kinds of oil drilling equipment around Houston. Haynes incorporated API oil tools and supply in 81. It is around that time that Wilson's criminal activities began to be exposed. And who financed t…”

George H.W. Bush founded Zobata Oil host_asserted ▶ 1:11:45

“And Pemex and Bush, through Zobata Oil, created the mobile oil drilling rigs, which didn't really do a lot of mobile drilling. It did a lot of CIA training on those rigs. Convenient that you can move …”

Don Dixon financed_via Vernon Savings host_asserted ▶ 1:12:46

“Beebe also brought Haynes Inter that borrowed $4 million from Beebe's controlled state savings and loan in Lubbock, Texas, to buy a lumber company in New Mexico from Pennzoil. That deal stuck to high …”

Haynes Inter financed_via Herman Beebe host_asserted ▶ 1:12:46

Bernie Souza financed_via Southmark host_asserted ▶ 1:13:18

“who had been in real estate business in Fresno, where he apparently did business with Southmark, which is where Bebe dumped all of the property. That was beyond tubes, among other things, to borrow cl…”

CIA trained Operation Condor host_asserted ▶ 1:17:03

“I think because these were all reported as isolated incidents, you have no idea where the seaport ends up. Remember, this is also very, very important. The place where they taught all of Operation Con…”

Terry Reed member_of CIA documented ▶ 1:21:25

“own admissions in open criminal court, going in there, trying to prove beyond reasonable doubt that, number one, Terry Reid was up to no good. Barry Seale was obviously trafficking drugs. The plane wa…”

Barry Seal trafficked CIA documented ▶ 1:21:25

Pete Brewton member_of The Economist host_asserted ▶ 1:26:33

“I was pretty much done. I think he was an investigative reporter for the Houston Chronicle, if memory serves. He worked for the Houston Chronicle, the Houston Post, and The Economist. That was his car…”

Pete Brewton member_of Houston Post host_asserted ▶ 1:26:33

Pete Brewton member_of Houston Chronicle host_asserted ▶ 1:26:33

Simon & Schuster covered_up Pete Brewton host_asserted ▶ 1:28:55

“applying the coercive pressure to get him fired. So, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, Colonel, the book was published by Sapolsky Publishers, who also published Terry Reid's book. There's a sticker, if you, yo…”

Robert Sensi trafficked CIA host_asserted ▶ 1:38:03

“Except for what happened between 92 and now, like Stefan Halper and his role in Russiagate. These players, as we just saw with Robert Sensei and his being arrested for money laundering. And I laid out…”

Kevin Shipp exposed Operation Gladio host_asserted ▶ 2:02:04

“You know who followed you immediately after you? Kevin Shipp. We need to get you and him to talk to each other. If only they had both of you on at the same time, that would be fun. That would be fun. …”