The Colonel’s Corner Safe for Democracy Part 4 (3)

auto-scroll word highlight ▶ Rumble @ here

Transcript

0:00 Okay, well, X is back to playing their silly games with our spaces. I sent the notice out and told everybody we're going to have one. And then they decided they weren't going to let me open my own space. So if you guys wouldn't mind sharing out this space, I'd appreciate it. Let's see. I'm just going to type out a real quick.

0:36 message and repost it myself, and then we will get started. All right. So I don't know if Bridget's going to be here or not. Oh, speak of Bridget, and she just pops in. Okay. So we're going to get started on the lesson part of this right away. Bridget, if you will remind me to talk about the video at the end of the show again, I'd appreciate it.

1:10 Absolutely. Okay. All right. So let's get started. This is chapter two. As you guys can tell, these chapters are very long and have lots of information in them. So it's going to take us a little bit to get through this book. Part of it kind of goes back in time to the post-World War II or towards the end of World War II. It talks about a German farmer.

1:45 and discovering men in his yard with submachine guns. No sooner were they gone than the farmer reported the incident to local authorities. The police also received other reports of armed men in the woods along the Austrian border. Investigations quickly confirmed a ban of some sort of roaming people with guns.

2:18 Thus began a dilemma for the local police. The time was September 1947 in a Germany under occupation by the Allied powers. This particular area laid in the American sector. Police there reported to U.S. military officers. The news of the armed ban north of the Inn River might signal some sort of aggressive move.

2:48 presumably by the Russians. In any case, German police were understanding orders. Anything to do with foreign nationals belonged to the counterintelligence core of the army, the CIC. The local police telephoned the American regional headquarters in Munich. The CIC decided to organize a manhunt in the hills. Agents drove to the local area and fanned out towards the border.

3:20 joining with german police at three o'clock in the morning on september 10th one of the cic search parties heard voices of men in the forest soon they found the band indeed a large group about 40 men sitting around a campfire singing they wore russian uniforms american security officers carefully surrounded the camp the intruders put up no resistance in fact they relaxed considerably when they learned their the

3:50 Other people were Americans. Investigators discovered the band to be an organized military type entity. In addition to submachine guns, the intruders had light machine guns and hand grenades. Like their uniforms, the equipment had been manufactured in the Soviet Union. The men spoke what sounded like Russians. The strangers were disarmed and taken to the local police station. And then eventually...

4:20 Taken to just outside of Frankfurt. There, the CIC brought in Russian intelligence specialists to work with the men. 35 soldiers had been captured at the campsite. Four others picked up in different areas over the next few days. The army put the affair under tight security. Oh gosh, they're going to play with us today too. The press reported some facts and some rumors.

4:51 Even at the time, with Europe immersed in displaced persons and prisoner exchanges between the East and West, armed bands in Bavaria were uncommon. The UP reporter that was sent to the local area a few days after it got a garbled version of the truth. The prisoners had told the CIC they were anti-Soviet partisans from Ukraine.

5:21 But speculation abounded that captured men were Russian deserters, Polish guerrillas, or simply well-armed bandits. Ukrainian activists in the West, such as the Roman Rachmani in Canada, also sought access and got somewhat better information.

5:45 The CIC debriefed the men for more than three weeks. Interrogators satisfied themselves that the new arrivals were in fact Ukrainian partisans. There were against Russian forces still in progress in Ukraine, Czechoslovakia, and southern Poland. The rebels provided considerable information about their movement, not to mention conditions in Eastern Europe. This intelligent CIC

6:15 Officers in Frankfurt worked into a report that was written on October 5th, 1947. The leader was named Karen, K-H-R-I-N, reputably one of the finest Ukrainian commanders. That spring, the band had ambushed an armed convoy of Polish troops fighting alongside the Russians, killing the Polish vice minister of defense.

6:44 General Karol Swarzeski? Later, the Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council had ordered Karen's unit to make its way to the West in order to get attention from the Allied intelligence services. Commander Karen, wounded in both arms, did not make the long exodus, but his ban succeeded in its mission. Detailed information on anti-Soviet partisan activity in Eastern Europe struck the Americans.

7:14 as an intelligence windfall. Washington, however, saw the data as more than merely an opportunity to update its political perceptions of the Soviet Union. Instead, it was the advent of the Ukrainian partisans, a signal for a secret military action against Russia. You know, the people that had just been our allies. The Ukrainian movement offered the opening for an offensive into the newly declared

7:45 Cold War, a classic covert operation along the lines familiar from World War II. The U.S. was just creating a capability to engage in secret missions of all kinds, including covert operations and the infamous stay-behind units. Since that day in 1947, American secret wars have been carried out on almost every continent.

8:15 I mean, Antarctica is probably the only one where it hasn't been. These covert operations have involved tens of thousands of dead and wounded, thousands of native fighters, significant numbers of American clandestine agents, and the use of regular U.S. military forces. U.S. involvement has run the gamut from advice to arms.

8:39 from support for invasions of independent states to secret bombing in clandestine military operations, to subsidizing political parties, associations, labor unions, and individuals, to the planting of misinformation by clandestine means. The techniques for international coercion are not new.

9:01 nor were they first developed by the US. But American participation in World War II opened many eyes in Washington to the potential of special operations to provide a nucleus of personnel to use in clandestine operations. Early American intelligence officers benefited from the British example. During World War II, the US created the Office of Strategic Services, OSS, to perform all kinds of tasks.

9:31 while Bill Donovan used the OSS globally with major commands in the Mediterranean, Northern Europe, Burma, and China. OSS teams parachuted into France, Norway, former Yugoslavia, and elsewhere. They blew up bridges in the Balkans, worked with partisans in Italy, led bands of tribesmen against the Japanese in Burma.

9:59 The U.S. also acquired experience with special operations during the war, most often the military-assisted operations, for example, by covertly landing additional agents or supplies. The Navy did this using submarines and PT boats. The Air Force used planes. The Army actually ran guerrilla forces fighting the Japanese in the Philippines. The Army and Marines

10:26 established elite units for commando missions. The Army's 5307th Composite Unit, better known as Merrill's Marauders, played an important part in the Burma Campaign, along with the OSS. They also created American Psychological Warfare Units. The Burma Campaign illustrates standard procedures for later secret wars.

10:53 An OSS formation called Service Unit Detachment 101 sent to establish a base in India began burrowing into areas occupied by the Japanese Empire. Agents from Detachment 101 infiltrated the Burmese hill country beginning in 1944, forged links with local tribesmen, and created a guerrilla movement against the Japanese. Weapons, supplies, and OSS officers parachuted into the jungle.

11:23 or were flown in by planes of the Air Commando Group, formed by the Army Air Force. Radio broadcasts by Allied propaganda experts tried to spark hatred for Japan and hope of liberation by the Allied forces to the locals. The OSS slowly built up the area from local spy networks to roving patrols of fighters to organized guerrilla units. Of course, Burma is where they're going to...

11:54 extirpate Chiang Kai-shek. By 1944, the area was fighting in conjunction with Merrill Marauders and the British Chendik Brigades. More than 10,000 of the locals were fighting a year later, including a fierce force of seven battalions, each of almost 5,000 fighters led by the OSS. Legendary U.S. intelligence officers Carl

12:23 Eifler and Joe Lukarski got their starts in this very operation. Dozens of spies deep in Japanese rear, plus about 400 agents surveying nearby enemy positions, helped those units plan their missions. They in turn helped trap two powerful Japanese divisions during the final Allied offensive in Burma. This became a remarkable achievement.

12:52 Detachment 101 mobilized a military force more than 30 times its size and used the capability to execute highly successful operations. Several features of the OSS tribal program are worth noting. Among them are the creation of formal units within the overall guerrilla force, the clearing of zones within the operational area to serve as local bases, the use of espionage nets to shield guerrillas.

13:20 and to find targets for them later. The use of outside bases for specialized training and major support. The use of clandestine air supply and communications between the locals and outside bases. These techniques became essential features of secret warfare tactics. This type of clandestine operation came to be called paramilitary. OSS also participated in the European theater after the...

13:50 a guy by the name of David K.E. Bruce. Teams assisted the escape of Allied airmen downed over the continent, carried out commando raids, cooperated with resistance fighters. One of the biggest operations came with the Normandy invasion of 1944. There, the military portion of the invasion plan under the code name Sussex called

14:17 for special teams to be parachuted into France to supplement the resistance. The OSS, British SOE, and French intelligence each contributed agents to form three-man Jedburgh teams. They were sent specifically to work with the resistance networks. The Jedburghs parachuted in uniform but carried civilian clothes. They were backed up by operational groups, 32 men's strike teams, for commando missions. More than 500 OSS

14:47 went to the continent in this campaign, including two future directors. Bill Colby led one of the 90 Jedburgh teams in France. And later, the operational group in Norway, William Casey masterminded the overall OSS effort to infiltrate Germany. There were also spy networks that produced other future CIA chiefdoms. In Switzerland,

15:17 Alan Dulles, Richard Helms spearheaded the work in the Balkans. They would both go on to be CIA directors. The European operations proved highly successful. Casey's campaign got as many as 200 agents directly from into Germany. In addition to the OSS, the Army CIC had a parallel program on enemy territory through a much smaller network. The CIC activity

15:48 had been underway since 1942. These army agents proved especially useful in Italy. They helped identify Nazi efforts to penetrate pro-allied Italian partisan groups. This operation reinforced a certain way of thinking. FDR made America the arsenal of democracy. After the war, it became easy to transfer.

16:19 this hostility and the use of intelligence and their clandestine methods to a newly perceived adversary. That newly perceived adversary was going to be our former ally, the Soviet Union. The evolving hostility between the U.S. and the Soviet Union did not matter at first.

16:48 The surrender of Japan in August of 1945 brought a scramble to demobilize armies, one that extended to the intelligence service. The OSS had built up a strength of 13,000 people when President Truman ordered its dissolution on September 20, 1945. Under the new arrangement, parts of the OSS that had dealt with analytical intelligence moved to the State Department.

17:17 The detachment of clandestine officers went to the War Department as a new strategic services unit under Brigadier General Magruder, the former OSS Special Warfare Chief. By early 1946, General Magruder's mandate, not so much to preserve or enlarge the SSU, but mainly to liquidate it. Former OSS officers who had served with the Jedbergs

17:47 and in Burma and elsewhere, went back to their homes, law practices, school, or to the army. But Magruder also was responsible for producing fresh intelligence data. He and his deputies virtually begged army senior commanders to make use of their capabilities, but were ignored. When Colonel William Quinn

18:13 took over the SSU in 1946, it had been reduced to fewer than 200 people. In addition to the SSU, the Army's Counterintelligence Corps remained as a clandestine operation entity. Military intelligence, or G2, controlled the CIC. The G2 was well situated to act in Eastern Europe and against the Soviet Union because the Army's presence in Germany, Austria, and Japan.

18:42 as part of the military occupation. The first American links with anti-Soviet immigrants were forged by the G2. The 430th CIC detachment was stationed in Austria. And Austria, by the way, is home to the genesis of the Nazi movement, or at least it was the home country of many of them.

19:12 The shift in early 1947 when it recorded a change in emphasis from denazification to positive intelligence. So gone were the days where we were going to actually get rid of the Nazis and in rushed where we're going to use all of them. In Austria, the CIC operated rat lines to save the Nazis. The CIC also had its own spy networks.

19:45 In Russian occupied areas, including Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Eastern Germany. It screened refugees, prepared cover stories to support its agents, and maintained relationships with other services. Al Ulmer, the SSU station chief for Vienna, had been in the OSS. So while they say it's the CIC, it actually had a lot of the OSS hanging out there.

20:14 waiting for the CIA to be set up. Once a new intelligence service emerged, the Central Intelligence Group, its first Vienna station chief, John Richardson, would be a former CIC man. The same functions were carried out by the 970th CIC detachment with headquarters in Frankfurt, the new American occupation zone of Germany.

20:46 As agents, this unit used certain notorious former Nazis in Germany, such as Kloss Barbie. The shift in American priorities could be encapsulated in the life of Net Master Gordon Stewart, who headed the CIA station in 1948. A former OSS man, Stewart had come to Heidelberg to help in quote-unquote denazification.

21:13 but quickly began trolling displaced persons camp for sources to use against Russia. He rode the rising wave of hostility. The Department of the Army detachment formed to handle interagency activities eventually furnished cover for Stewart and his officers who took over the control of Kloss Barbie. It was the 970th CIC.

21:45 that handled the band of Ukrainian partisans, i.e. Nazis. On one level, the partisans were identical to the masses of refugees, displaced persons throughout Europe. By the fall of 1945, as many as 7 million were on the move, fleeing Soviet domination or driven from their homes by war damage. An equal number could be found in the Soviet Union or Russian-controlled areas of Eastern Europe.

22:17 the smaller number in the Mediterranean countries. Millions of former German soldiers joined the flow as they emerged from the prisoners of war camp. Like the Ukrainian partisans, significant numbers of them came from land swept by war and occupation and had information that the intelligence services were interested in. They were trying to identify those worth debriefing.

22:48 And equally important, finding angry men and women who would go on clandestine missions. Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 signaled U.S. entry into World War II and changed U.S. intelligence forever. Investigations revealed a number of items that might have alerted leaders during that time, but no one had been responsible for gathering them and interpreting them.

23:19 Competing plans for peacetime intelligence agencies existed even before Truman abolished the OSS. Truman military advisors, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, favored an interagency group to supervise intelligence. The State Department proposed an arrangement that concerned only supervisory authority, which they wanted in the hands of the Secretary of State. Members of the OSS proposed an independent agency. Truman took part.

23:50 And the advice took part of the advice of the Joint Chiefs when on January 22nd, 1946, he issued a directive establishing the National Intelligence Authority. It was to oversee the Central Intelligence Group, CIG, and the NIA, the National Intelligence Authority, composed of the secretaries of State, War, and Navy, thus Truman's personal representative.

24:21 They would monitor the director of central intelligence in charge of the CIG, Central Intelligence Group. Truman selected trusted individuals for both the DCI and his representative to the NIA. And he humorously referred to them as his personal snooper and director of centralized snooping.

24:54 Truman's first DCI was Sidney Sowers, S-O-U-E-R-S. He was a St. Louis businessman and presidential crony. He was also a reserve officer in his wartime service with the Navy Intelligence. But Sowers served only five months as director of the Central Intelligence, though Truman convinced him to return as a representative on the National Intelligence.

25:25 authority, and then the first executive secretary of the National Security Council. Army Chief of Staff Dwight D. Eisenhower recommended Charles Bonestell, a top Pentagon planner, for the DCI job. Truman instead selected Lieutenant General Hoyt Vandenberg. The president considered Vandenberg enough of a diplomat to get along with state, war, and navy.

25:57 Vandenberg had been a combat commander with minimal intelligence experience, but he was a good organizer and began to build the Central Intelligence Group. Under Sowers, the CIG, the Central Intelligence Group, had operated out of a suite of three rooms next to the White House with fewer than 250 employees. Vandenberg soon established an office for research and evaluation, plus administrative areas.

26:25 In June of 46, he asked the National Intelligence Authority to give him responsibility for all U.S. foreign intelligence gathering, a preliminary to bringing the strategic services back out of the War Department. The proposal matched recommendations from an outside advisory group. Magruder's unit thus became the Office of Special Operations. By the close of 46, there were about 800 just in that office alone.

26:59 and the CIG had grown to 1,800. Between January and April of 47, the last holdouts, FBI agents in Latin America, were transferred to the new intelligence group as well. General Vandenberg's plans was to expand to several thousand people. The peacetime intelligence agency grew quickly, but remained a creation of the executive branch. The CIG had no basis in law at all.

27:31 So in 1946, they drafted a proposal. Thanks to Clark Clifford. Clark Clifford, the guy that eventually goes on to be involved in BCCI. That same Clark Clifford. He helps draft the intelligence legislation. Vandenberg pushed for the bill and wanted Truman to announce the creation of the agency in 1947 at the State of the Union address.

28:01 The president spoke to Clifford several times expressing doubt, though he went ahead and did it anyway. Truman planned a reorganization of the entire military establishment, a proposal he sent to Congress in 47. Provisions for the peacetime intelligence agency was included in the legislation, which became known as the infamous National Security Act of 1947 and gave birth to the CIA.

28:32 And we're still suffering as a result of that. Through the 1947 law, Truman created the National Security Council supposedly to give advice to him on defense and foreign affairs. The separate war and army departments merged into the Department of Defense, under which the Air Force became new service. As for intelligence, the original proposal did no more than say that a central intelligence agency would be formed.

29:04 In a letter that Truman sent to congressional leaders with the draft legislation, he did not even mention this aspect. Like the president, most congressmen concern themselves mainly with the part of the bill unrelated to intelligence. Only late in the congressional hearings did the intelligence initiative come up, and then attention centered on whether it would become some kind of secret police.

29:33 Further amendments, and the answer to that was yes, worldwide. Further amendments specified responsibility for the new CIA. Essentially, Congress turned to Truman's January 46 directive, extracting from it almost the exact language the president had used to assign that function. Under the NSA, the CIA would be directly answerable to the president through the NSC. The law gave the CIA five duties.

30:03 Advising the NSC on intelligence, making recommendations on related matters, producing intelligence estimates and reports, preferably on actual intelligence, not shit they make up now. Performing additional services of common concern for the government-wide intelligence community. And then the infamous such other functions and duties related to intelligence affecting national security.

30:33 as the National Security Council may direct time to time. That catchphrase is the opening, the toe in the door that was kicked wide open. It should be noted that that last item, therefore the term covert operation, clandestine operation, paramilitary operation, secret operation, and special operation for secret warfare.

31:07 appeared nowhere in the law and still doesn't. Nor do the terms political action, psychological warfare, propaganda, misinformation, or disinformation appear anywhere in the document. The phrase other such functions that appears in the 1947 Act sought to cover unforeseen circumstances, but even the legislative history of the law makes clear that Congress

31:36 had not contemplated international coercion. The White House privately held a much more expansive view. The other functions were purposely not specified but were expected to include covert operations. Clark Clifford notes of the language, quote, I reviewed this sentence carefully at the time but could never have imagined that 40 years later I would still be

32:04 asked to clarify before Congress what its meaning and intent, unquote. President Truman signed the legislation on July 26, 1947, and the National Security Act became law. Six weeks later, on September 8, the CIG became the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA, thanks to General Vandenberg, had already began expanding its roles and missions.

32:34 It was precisely this time that American officers in Germany apprehended the band of Ukrainian partisans. The Ukrainians were looking for help. And again, they're Nazis. Conflict between the superpowers may not have been inevitable, but avoiding it in 1945 required wisdom. The Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, persisted in his obsession with defending Russian borders by means of a buffer zone.

33:04 of Soviet dominated nations. Apparently he needed it. In pursuit of this aim, the author says that Stalin repeatedly broke agreements. History shows that the U.S. broke almost every agreement it had with Stalin as well. He just conveniently leaves that part out. Crises over Soviet action in taking over Romania and seeking

33:35 access to Turkey seemed to confirm Russia's aggressive intentions. Truman explained to his Secretary of State, James Burns, I'm tired of babying the Soviets. The secession of crises proved a watershed for public opinion in the U.S. Winston Churchill then delivers his famous Iron Curtain speech in Missouri. Not in the U.K.

34:08 Because they don't have to worry about them being warmongers. In the United States, as part of a propaganda campaign, early efforts at negotiation expired in the increasingly heated atmosphere. Truman spoke harshly to the Soviet foreign minister. They don't give a date on that. Lend-Lease Aid, which Americans had provided Russia since 1941.

34:39 and the Soviets thought to extend, instead halted. In July 1945, Truman met with Stalin and British leaders at Potsdam, Germany. They talked of arrangements for the Eastern Europe and the work of Allied control councils in the occupied countries. No president would again meet with Soviets at a summit for over a decade. In 1947,

35:11 Soviet-American relations crossed another watershed. That February, the British told American officials that they would terminate foreign aid to Greece. Europe faced a cruel winter, the worst in decades. The British government felt it could not continue supporting the Greeks, who had been receiving military economic aid for more than two years. That's not the full story either. We've talked about this. This is going to lead to a coup in Greece.

35:39 And the British didn't want to do it. They had kind of tried to do it and didn't do a very good job. So Greece is plunged into a civil war. And, of course, it was blamed on the communists in Greece. President Truman approved a suggestion that the U.S. take over responsibility for Greece, adding aid to Turkey for good measure. In March, the State Department offered aid.

36:12 which soon grew substantially. This shift in Truman's policy towards countering Soviets proved more important than the aid itself. Under the new concept, Soviet power had to be contained within the areas that had previously achieved further Soviet expansion or the accusation, regardless of what the intelligence shows, would be resisted. George Kennan, a service...

36:42 A Foreign Service officer coined the term containment, and we were off to the races. From the initial help in Turkey and Greece, it would be but a short step of offering foreign aid more widely to European nations. Secretary of State George Marshall expanded the offer in a commencement address at none other than Harvard, of course.

37:12 The Marshall Plan aimed at furthering containment by helping rebuild Europe, eliminating social conditions hospitable to the growth of communism. As an added benefit, rebuilt European economies could purchase American goods. The Marshall Plan became the first sustained foreign assistance program ever adopted by the U.S.

37:37 At the CIA, the Marshall Plan became a device to disguise the providence of money spent for propaganda and political action purposes, an institution that could help the agency exchange U.S. local currencies, a way to hide CIA officers, and a source to recruit agency causes. In other words, the Marshall Plan was a money laundering operation for the CIA and was used

38:03 as the initial seed money to set up Operation Gladio stay-behind units throughout Europe. Soviet leaders were not wrong to view the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan that it was a shot aimed at them. Stalin forbade occupied Eastern Europe for participating because it was chock full of intelligence people to go into these countries.

38:36 and do nefarious shit that the CIA had already contemplated on doing. The Czechs, whose political system the Russians had not yet subdued, saw the Marshall Plan aid as a counterweight to the Soviet influence and initially responded to the American offer. Their maneuver led Stalin to consolidate Soviet control over Prague. Political pressure mounted, so in February of 1948,

39:04 a sort of constitutional coup took place. Non-communist ministers in the Czech coalition government resigned, replaced by representatives of a minority party. Within a month, a famous Czech patriot, Jean Masaryk, a prominent politician and official, died under suspicious circumstances. These events led.

39:34 in Czechoslovakia to a rising tide of hostility in America now created a war scare, just what the CIA loves. The American High Commissioner in Germany, General Lucius Clay, cabled a warning on March 5th, 1948, that war may come with dramatic suddenness. The CIA prepared a memorandum concluding that war was in fact not imminent.

40:05 but it refused to protect anything within further than 60 days. So it's just not going to happen in the next 60 days. But in Germany, matters were also coming to a head. On the last day of March, 1948, the Russians suddenly informed the West that they would impose travel restrictions on the three land corridors connecting the Western sector of Berlin with the Allied occupation.

40:31 The restrictions went into effect at midnight on April 1st. British and American trains en route to Berlin were halted. The Allies shifted to aircraft for transport. On April 5th, a British C-47 making its approach to Berlin was destroyed when a Soviet fighter plane collided with it midair. The Soviets apologized, but the Allies then ordered fighter escorts for all the transport planes.

40:58 By July, a full-scale blockade of Berlin had developed, lasting until May 12, 1949. During that time, everything that arrived in West Berlin came in by air. From the years 1945 to 1948, we witnessed an accelerating cycle of misperception, provocation, and hostility. The wartime Big Four alliance became a thing of the past. It was a thing of the past during the war.

41:31 They were already plotting against the Soviet Union. We all know that. Neither side saw much possibility for improving relations. Western leaders spoke of Soviet aggression and the captive nations of Eastern Europe. President Truman looked to strike back at Russia and the CIA would be his instrument. From its creation, the CIA was caught in the shifting currents of the Cold War.

41:59 In the fall of 1948, I'd say they weren't caught. They definitely had oars in their hand, if not being the motor itself. In the fall of 47, the first Secretary of Defense, James Forrestal, asked if the agency would be capable of undertaking secret political action and paramilitary campaigns on behalf of the U.S. The CIA replied,

42:31 that it could complete any mission assigned by the National Security Council. At first, the agency concentrated on building up capability. It occupied additional quarters in a complex of temporary buildings that had earlier been the home of the OSS. Managed by a new director, Rear Admiral Roscoe Hillencotter, in its first year, the CIA increased its budget by 60% and added hundreds of people.

43:02 most were former OSS people. But in truth, the CIA had yet to attain readiness for covert operations and in important ways, it lacked authority to engage in them. Responding to the initial Pentagon inquiries, Admiral Hillencotter asked the CIA's legal counsel for an opinion on whether or not that catchphrase at the end of the authorization allowed it to do covert actions. General counsel,

43:33 Lawrence Houston replied on September 25, 1947, arguing that the National Security Act failed to provide CIA the required legal authority. The famous language usually cited to justify all covert operations was the provision that the CIA would use to fulfill its mission in the, quote, time, from time to time.

44:05 But Houston noted that this provision was qualified by language that said the mission must be related to intelligence, meaning it could do intelligence operations, not covert paramilitary operations, intelligence operations. Covert operations had only the most tenuous relationship to intelligence. Furthermore, Houston noted, Congress had clearly directed that the agency's chief mission

44:36 was to coordinate intelligence reporting. You know, actually be an intelligence agency. Houston did support one intelligence function that was already being performed. This was acquisition of extensive indication on plans in Western Europe for the establishment of resistant elements. You know, Gladio.

45:09 That included information on the training of agents, groups, radio operators, and their contacts. For secret propaganda and paramilitary missions, Houston felt new offices would have to be established entailing the procurement of huge quantities of all kinds of material and involve large sums of money. Not if you're selling drugs on the side.

45:34 The memo then declared that we believe this would be unauthorized use of funds made available to the CIA. If such operations were ordered by the NSC, Houston concluded, it would, we feel, still need to be authorized by Congress with an appropriated funding line. 35 years later, Houston recalled that Hill and Cotter expressed concern at his opinion. That's not the answer we wanted.

46:04 The admiral asked whether there was offsetting considerations in the matter, whereupon the lawyer provided a second memorandum. Here, Houston stated, quote, if the president, with his constitutional responsibility for the conduct of foreign policy, gave the agency appropriate instruction, and if Congress gave it the funds to carry those out, the agency had the legal capability of carrying out covert actions involved, unquote.

46:33 meaning that Congress would have to authorize the funding of covert operations before covert operations could actually be conducted. Hill and Cotter took the problem to Truman. State Department policy planner George Kennan played a key role in pushing a proposal for secret propaganda. Kennan advised in December that Soviet covert actions

46:58 threatened to defeat American foreign policy objectives absent this Cold War tool. He wanted the U.S. Directorate for Political Warfare. At its very first meeting on December 13th, the National Security Council discussed a program for secret propaganda. The following day, President Truman signed Directive NSC 4-A, approving a secret propaganda program and signing it to the CIA.

47:28 A week later, Admiral Hillenkotter ordered his OSO chief, Donald Galloway, to plan a covert psychological campaign using existing CIA resources where possible. Galloway formed a special procedures group within the Office of Special Operations in March of 48. Hillenkotter instructed Galloway that the covert operations were intended to influence governments, groups, and individuals by all means short of physical.

48:00 that they were to be kept distinct from all other U.S. government information activities, and that the program would move foreign public opinion so as to accomplish American objectives. These decisions were made months before the Czech coup or the Berlin blockade. World developments only heightened American hostility and accelerated preparations for covert operations.

48:30 While the U.S. talked about democracy, its policy goals were more immediate and often took other nations in a rather different direction, including Italy. Events in Italy crystallized all the talk of political warfare. Mussolini's Italian fascist regime had been overthrown. The king abdicated. After the war became a republic, a parliamentary democracy.

48:58 Going into election scheduled in April 1948, the Italian radical left, meaning labor movements, were immediately dubbed communist. War recovery had barely begun. There was massive unemployment. Truman sought to avoid any communist victory. In a report two months before the election, the CIA warned that

49:32 There was a centrist, moderate left government. Oh my God. And it was dangerous. Truman's administration went into high gear because that's of course the intelligence they were looking for to do what they were going to do anyway. And they committed $200 million in 1948. $200 million. We just finished fighting a war. Where'd we get that money? To influence the outcome.

50:04 Of the Italian election. Spooks intervene. In this electoral drive. The first initiative of the CIA. Special procedures group. Some had worked with OSS. In Italy. And were relatively. They had old ties. Like F. Mark Wyatt. Who had lived in Italy. Before the war. The CIA threw him. Right into the breach. The agency approached.

50:35 Gaspari with offers of cash, but the Italian insisted the Americans work with all non-communist parties across the board, including the socialist, not just his party. Wyatt and others delivered suitcases of money to Rome hotels, supposedly chance encounters on the road. Funds went to...

51:06 any Western favored labor unions, but none that actually represented the people. They also went to corporations in Italy. There was a lot given to the Catholic church, religious movements, including Catholic action.

51:37 The CIA financed campaign posters, ads, leaflets, media plants, and rallies. Dis Gasparri obtained an overwhelming majority in the parliament, gaining against everyone else. Therefore, Italy would be safe, and there started the CIA covert operations. And oh, by the way, the big thing about Gasparri was that he wanted to join NATO.

52:11 That was the big tale. So we'll get us to the end of today. And we will start here tomorrow. Go ahead, SR. SR, go ahead. Thank you, Colonel. And thank everyone for attending here today on Spaces and on Rumble. As we can see here, now we have gotten to the point where NSC-4A comes in. And all of...

52:57 The things, shall I say, covert operations and everything else that the now CIA wants to do relies on with some minor changes to it afterwards. My understanding is NSC-4A is still not completely declassified. We get bits and pieces of it, but we don't get it all.

53:19 The entire document has never been published. Is that true, Colonel? I don't know. I've never looked at that aspect of it. I know the one that's most talked about is the other functions that the legal counsel at the CIA said did not include covert operations unless authorized by Congress and funded separately. I'm going to have to do some digging and see what I come up with. Yeah, a lot of the National Security Action Memorandums.

53:52 Do not become public until a much later date. But some, to my knowledge, had never been declassified. But because that's how they get around all their nefarious crap. Megan, go ahead. I know this is not the appropriate space, but, you know, listening to your series all this time, have you ever pondered?

54:26 What condition the United States would be in at this point in juncture if everyone had just followed the rules? I don't think we would be a superpower anymore. I don't agree with that. Well, I think the ingenuity and the pioneering independent initiative of Americans.

54:58 Because we became a superpower with the weight of the world. So if you think about it, we have been robbed blind for 75 years and we still are where we are today. We have literally financed through them stealing our wealth what we have today. So I think if the U.S. had played by quote unquote democracy rules, we would be...

55:29 light years ahead of where we are. Anybody that creates technology that competes with the oligarchs has, through this apparatus, their patents classified and they're not allowed to actually produce it. There's thousands of patents that have been stolen under national security reasons. And we know damn good and well it has literally nothing to do with

55:54 national security reasons. It has to do with protecting oligarchs. So I don't believe for a moment that the ingenuity and the drive and the independent nature of America would be less than what it is today. I think it would be thousands of times more than it is today if we would have been allowed to be the republic.

56:22 That we were intended to be. There's a reason why they destroyed the republic. And that was not beneficial to the world. I'm going to also put a caveat to that. I'm glad you said that. I was playing devil's advocate. And to hear someone else have that same view that I actually possess.

56:49 I can only imagine where humanity would be today if we had just quit fucking around. Yep. Yep. Crazy. Okay. Thank you, Colonel. Awesome space again. Thank you. And I think about that actually a lot. If you look at just like literally the entire debt, which the entire debt is out there.

57:18 as fraud. As far as I'm concerned, we don't owe the Federal Reserve a penny. That's all fraud. And in addition to that fraud, we pay them billions of dollars, like hundreds of billions of dollars of interest on it that is being sucked out of our economic well-being. And that's in addition to all of the foreign aid.

57:47 all of the crap USAID was doing. And think about the entire world's humanity. There would be families not destroyed. There would be people not murdered. There would be houses not burned down. It's just mind-boggling the devastation that has been levied upon the world over the last 75 years. And that's not even including the two world wars.

58:17 where millions of people died. Yeah, and I was going to also say that every time I see a Forever 19 post on X, I give a salute, the American flag, and it should have never happened. Man, we lost so many people because of this crap. The whole world did, but man, it's insane. Yeah. Why are you so mad? Go ahead, whenever you get your...

58:53 speaker-connected. Go ahead. Why are you so mad? Go ahead. Why are you so mad? Hello? I don't know what's going on there. Well, we're waiting for... Go ahead, SR. Thank you, Colonel. Appreciate it. You asked the question, or you said we were talking about classified patents that will never see the light of day, so to speak.

59:44 According to Brock, in the U.S., the most transparent on this and classification as such secret classified recent figures from the USPTO, the Federation of American Standard American Scientists report show as of fiscal year 2025 in the period.

1:00:12 6,543 total secrecy orders in effect. That rose from 5,976 in fiscal year 21. So there you have it. It's a lot. Oh, yes, ma'am. That's a lot. Yeah. Go ahead. Why are you so mad? Can you talk now?

1:00:41 I'm going to be quick because my signal keeps bouncing around. I've been in and out all in your space, barely being able to hear anything. But what I have heard in and you are absolutely singing my song. The Federal Reserve Bank is nothing but money laundering, corrupt and has been stealing from the American people since its existence. And the one thing that I mean, I the one thing I'm living for.

1:01:10 is to see that end. And that's all I got to say because I'm probably going to be kicked off again. But yes, hashtag in the Fed. I am absolutely, that is my goal and purpose in life right there. Thank you. Sure. So I definitely know X is messing with our space. When I do it in advance and then I come and open it, it wouldn't even let me open my own space.

1:01:37 And then obviously Bridget gets attacked every time and taken off of co-host. So it's something that we've dealt with the entire time that we've been on here. It's crazy. The sound messes up and you can go on other people's space and be there for hours and hours and never have any of those problems. It's very frustrating. But another reason why you can watch us over on Rumble.

1:02:08 And I did, again, we've got the first cut of our intro video that was just sent to Bridget and I. And I did manage just under the wire to squeeze in looking at it. I thought I was going to have to wait till the end of the show. It's not releasable yet because we haven't paid for it.

1:02:36 It's like, oh my God, it is crazy good. Like crazy, crazy good. So if you guys want to help us out, go to that little dollar sign on my X page or go to Rumble. I don't know how you do it on Rumble, but it's easier to do it over on X. But I think Rumble has like some mechanism for you to do that as well.

1:03:04 and help us get this video released because you guys are gonna die. It's four minutes long. It's something that's easily shared to people and it captures in four minutes amazing information. Bridget did a lot of the help as far as getting the articles and stuff like that that you'll see in the video.

1:03:30 And these two guys that are working on it are very, very talented. So I'm extremely pleased with it. So as soon as we write them a check, we can play it. Okay. Did anybody else have anything that they wanted to add? If not, we are going to call it a day and we'll be back tomorrow at four.

1:04:05 And we will have, I was with William Ramsey earlier today on Tommy's podcast, going over some of the Epstein material. I think you guys will find it enlightening. And I love William Ramsey's research. He is one of the really, really good researchers as far as information goes.

1:04:33 I will repost it as soon as Tommy posts it on his X page for you guys to, I'll put it on X. He has it on his podcast as well, but I don't know all what platforms he's on. But if you guys go to X, I'll repost it as soon as he has it available. So, oh.

1:04:57 Thank you, Mary. Somebody just made a donation to our video. And I don't use you guys' last name for many reasons. But thank you for that. I appreciate it. And with that, we're going to call it an evening. Thank you for being here. Take care, everybody.

Entities here

CIA33 United States25 Soviet Union20 Harry S. Truman20 Office of Strategic Services13 Italy9 Army Counterintelligence Corps9 National Security Council9 Burma7 Lawrence Houston7 Roscoe Hillenkoetter6 Japan6 Hoyt Vandenberg5 United Kingdom5 Joseph Stalin5 Germany5 Czechoslovakia5 1947 National Security Act5 Marshall Plan5 Intelligence and National Security Alliance4 Austria4 Frankfurt3 Turkey3 France3 430th CIC detachment3 Alcide De Gasperi3 Jedburghs3 1948 Italian election3 Special Operations Group3 West Berlin3 Service Unit Detachment 1013 NSC-4/A3 Clark Clifford3 Berlin Blockade2 Poland2 William Casey2 Ukraine2 Special Procedures Group2 Mark Wyatt2 Balkans2

Claims made here

Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council ordered_assassination_of Karol Swierczewski book_quoted ▶ 6:15

“Officers in Frankfurt worked into a report that was written on October 5th, 1947. The leader was named Karen, K-H-R-I-N, reputably one of the finest Ukrainian commanders. That spring, the band had amb…”

Office of Strategic Services trained Joe Lukarski book_quoted ▶ 12:23

“Eifler and Joe Lukarski got their starts in this very operation. Dozens of spies deep in Japanese rear, plus about 400 agents surveying nearby enemy positions, helped those units plan their missions. …”

Office of Strategic Services trained Carl Eifler book_quoted ▶ 12:23

William Casey headed Office of Strategic Services book_quoted ▶ 14:47

“went to the continent in this campaign, including two future directors. Bill Colby led one of the 90 Jedburgh teams in France. And later, the operational group in Norway, William Casey masterminded th…”

William Colby member_of Jedburghs book_quoted ▶ 14:47

Allen Dulles spied_on Switzerland book_quoted ▶ 15:17

“Alan Dulles, Richard Helms spearheaded the work in the Balkans. They would both go on to be CIA directors. The European operations proved highly successful. Casey's campaign got as many as 200 agents …”

Richard Helms spied_on Balkans book_quoted ▶ 15:17

Harry S. Truman removed_from_power Office of Strategic Services documented ▶ 16:48

“The surrender of Japan in August of 1945 brought a scramble to demobilize armies, one that extended to the intelligence service. The OSS had built up a strength of 13,000 people when President Truman …”

Brigadier General Magruder headed Office of Strategic Services documented ▶ 17:17

“The detachment of clandestine officers went to the War Department as a new strategic services unit under Brigadier General Magruder, the former OSS Special Warfare Chief. By early 1946, General Magrud…”

Colonel William Quinn succeeded Brigadier General Magruder documented ▶ 17:47

“and in Burma and elsewhere, went back to their homes, law practices, school, or to the army. But Magruder also was responsible for producing fresh intelligence data. He and his deputies virtually begg…”

Military Intelligence Division headed Army Counterintelligence Corps documented ▶ 18:13

“took over the SSU in 1946, it had been reduced to fewer than 200 people. In addition to the SSU, the Army's Counterintelligence Corps remained as a clandestine operation entity. Military intelligence,…”

Alfred Ulmer headed Office of Strategic Services documented ▶ 19:45

“In Russian occupied areas, including Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Eastern Germany. It screened refugees, prepared cover stories to support its agents, and maintained relationships with other services.…”

John Richardson headed CIA documented ▶ 20:14

“waiting for the CIA to be set up. Once a new intelligence service emerged, the Central Intelligence Group, its first Vienna station chief, John Richardson, would be a former CIC man. The same function…”

Gordon Stewart headed CIA book_quoted ▶ 20:46

“As agents, this unit used certain notorious former Nazis in Germany, such as Kloss Barbie. The shift in American priorities could be encapsulated in the life of Net Master Gordon Stewart, who headed t…”

430th CIC detachment spied_on Klaus Barbie book_quoted ▶ 21:13

“but quickly began trolling displaced persons camp for sources to use against Russia. He rode the rising wave of hostility. The Department of the Army detachment formed to handle interagency activities…”

Harry S. Truman appointed Sidney Sowers documented ▶ 24:54

“Truman's first DCI was Sidney Sowers, S-O-U-E-R-S. He was a St. Louis businessman and presidential crony. He was also a reserve officer in his wartime service with the Navy Intelligence. But Sowers se…”

Harry S. Truman appointed Hoyt Vandenberg documented ▶ 25:25

“authority, and then the first executive secretary of the National Security Council. Army Chief of Staff Dwight D. Eisenhower recommended Charles Bonestell, a top Pentagon planner, for the DCI job. Tru…”

Hoyt Vandenberg headed CIA documented ▶ 25:57

“Vandenberg had been a combat commander with minimal intelligence experience, but he was a good organizer and began to build the Central Intelligence Group. Under Sowers, the CIG, the Central Intellige…”

Clark Clifford founded 1947 National Security Act book_quoted ▶ 27:31

“So in 1946, they drafted a proposal. Thanks to Clark Clifford. Clark Clifford, the guy that eventually goes on to be involved in BCCI. That same Clark Clifford. He helps draft the intelligence legisla…”

Harry S. Truman founded CIA documented ▶ 32:04

“asked to clarify before Congress what its meaning and intent, unquote. President Truman signed the legislation on July 26, 1947, and the National Security Act became law. Six weeks later, on September…”

Winston Churchill carried_out_attack Iron Curtain documented ▶ 33:35

“access to Turkey seemed to confirm Russia's aggressive intentions. Truman explained to his Secretary of State, James Burns, I'm tired of babying the Soviets. The secession of crises proved a watershed…”

Harry S. Truman ordered_assassination_of Soviet Union host_asserted ▶ 33:35

United States supplied_arms_to Soviet Union documented ▶ 34:08

“Because they don't have to worry about them being warmongers. In the United States, as part of a propaganda campaign, early efforts at negotiation expired in the increasingly heated atmosphere. Truman…”

Harry S. Truman member_of Potsdam Conference documented ▶ 34:39

“and the Soviets thought to extend, instead halted. In July 1945, Truman met with Stalin and British leaders at Potsdam, Germany. They talked of arrangements for the Eastern Europe and the work of Alli…”

United Kingdom removed_from_power Greece documented ▶ 35:11

“Soviet-American relations crossed another watershed. That February, the British told American officials that they would terminate foreign aid to Greece. Europe faced a cruel winter, the worst in decad…”

Harry S. Truman funded Greece documented ▶ 35:39

“And the British didn't want to do it. They had kind of tried to do it and didn't do a very good job. So Greece is plunged into a civil war. And, of course, it was blamed on the communists in Greece. P…”

George C. Marshall founded Marshall Plan documented ▶ 36:42

“A Foreign Service officer coined the term containment, and we were off to the races. From the initial help in Turkey and Greece, it would be but a short step of offering foreign aid more widely to Eur…”

George F. Kennan founded Marshall Plan host_asserted ▶ 36:42

Marshall Plan funded Operation Gladio host_asserted ▶ 37:37

“At the CIA, the Marshall Plan became a device to disguise the providence of money spent for propaganda and political action purposes, an institution that could help the agency exchange U.S. local curr…”

CIA laundered_money_for Marshall Plan host_asserted ▶ 37:37

Joseph Stalin ordered_assassination_of Czechoslovakia host_asserted ▶ 38:36

“and do nefarious shit that the CIA had already contemplated on doing. The Czechs, whose political system the Russians had not yet subdued, saw the Marshall Plan aid as a counterweight to the Soviet in…”

Soviet Union carried_out_attack Berlin Blockade documented ▶ 40:58

“By July, a full-scale blockade of Berlin had developed, lasting until May 12, 1949. During that time, everything that arrived in West Berlin came in by air. From the years 1945 to 1948, we witnessed a…”

James Forrestal appointed CIA documented ▶ 41:59

“In the fall of 1948, I'd say they weren't caught. They definitely had oars in their hand, if not being the motor itself. In the fall of 47, the first Secretary of Defense, James Forrestal, asked if th…”

Roscoe Hillenkoetter headed CIA documented ▶ 42:31

“that it could complete any mission assigned by the National Security Council. At first, the agency concentrated on building up capability. It occupied additional quarters in a complex of temporary bui…”

Lawrence Houston member_of CIA documented ▶ 43:02

“most were former OSS people. But in truth, the CIA had yet to attain readiness for covert operations and in important ways, it lacked authority to engage in them. Responding to the initial Pentagon in…”

George F. Kennan founded NSC-4/A documented ▶ 46:33

“meaning that Congress would have to authorize the funding of covert operations before covert operations could actually be conducted. Hill and Cotter took the problem to Truman. State Department policy…”

Harry S. Truman founded NSC-4/A documented ▶ 46:58

“threatened to defeat American foreign policy objectives absent this Cold War tool. He wanted the U.S. Directorate for Political Warfare. At its very first meeting on December 13th, the National Securi…”

Roscoe Hillenkoetter appointed Donald Galloway documented ▶ 47:28

“A week later, Admiral Hillenkotter ordered his OSO chief, Donald Galloway, to plan a covert psychological campaign using existing CIA resources where possible. Galloway formed a special procedures gro…”

Donald Galloway founded Special Procedures Group documented ▶ 47:28

CIA funded Italy host_asserted ▶ 49:32

“There was a centrist, moderate left government. Oh my God. And it was dangerous. Truman's administration went into high gear because that's of course the intelligence they were looking for to do what …”

Mark Wyatt member_of CIA host_asserted ▶ 50:04

“Of the Italian election. Spooks intervene. In this electoral drive. The first initiative of the CIA. Special procedures group. Some had worked with OSS. In Italy. And were relatively. They had old tie…”

CIA funded Alcide De Gasperi host_asserted ▶ 50:35

“Gaspari with offers of cash, but the Italian insisted the Americans work with all non-communist parties across the board, including the socialist, not just his party. Wyatt and others delivered suitca…”

CIA funded Catholic Church host_asserted ▶ 51:06

“any Western favored labor unions, but none that actually represented the people. They also went to corporations in Italy. There was a lot given to the Catholic church, religious movements, including C…”

Alcide De Gasperi member_of North Atlantic Treaty Organization host_asserted ▶ 51:37

“The CIA financed campaign posters, ads, leaflets, media plants, and rallies. Dis Gasparri obtained an overwhelming majority in the parliament, gaining against everyone else. Therefore, Italy would be …”