The Colonel’s Corner Safe for Democracy Part 5 (4)

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Transcript

0:00 All right, let's wait for, there's Bridget. Let's get her back up here. See if it'll work this time. Now it sounded right. Okay. And people aren't disappearing, so. Good afternoon, how are you? Hold on. Oh my gosh, what a crazy day. I'm going to go live over here on X, or on Rumble, before I forget.

0:47 So I'm going to share the space out. So yeah, please everybody do that. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my gosh. X is worthless as far as I'm concerned. I don't know why our stuff is so, gets so messed up or attacked or whatever, but whatever. Okay. So we're going to finish up the end of chapter two and get into chapter three today.

1:19 So, George Kennan continued to press for the special studies group under the State Department control for things like the Italian operation, which was election interference. Admiral Hillenkotter now advised the White House that the CIA could carry out covert operations with no change to the NSC 4-A directive, even though his lawyers said they couldn't.

1:48 They were just going to ignore that legal opinion. When State refused to go along with this political warfare thing in any sane or sound matter, the CIA director threw up his hands. Early in June of 1948, Hill and Cotter told a Truman aide that Kennan could have it all. Let State run the apparatus and let it have no connection whatsoever with the CIA. Instead, President Truman, impressed by CIA's accomplishment,

2:17 in sabotaging the Italian election expanded not only the functions of the agency but those of the state and defense departments plus the National Security Council. You know the guy that said he regretted ever doing it? He just made it bigger after they interfered with the election in Italy that made it turn out the way they wanted. His policy directive drafted primarily by Kennan

2:49 included both psychological operations and paramilitary programs. You know, in addition to political warfare, we're just going to do the whole nine yards. Truman signed the new directive 10-2 on June 18th. Both kinds of missions would be carried out by a new organization taking operational orders from the CIA and its policy direction from secret committee chaired.

3:21 by the Director of Central Intelligence. Composed of representatives of the Secretary of State and Defense, along with the CIA Director, the Secret Committee became the unit of the National Security Council and worked directly for the President. It was called originally the 10-2 Panel, soon also called the Special Group. Funds for the new organization would be included in the CIA budget, while its Director would be named by the Secretary of State.

3:49 and approved by the NSC. According to 10-2 directive, quote, the overt foreign activities of the US government must be supplemented by covert operations, unquote, even though they knew it was illegal. Three features of the NSC 10-2 directive are crucial to the evolution of covert operations. For the first time,

4:16 A presidential document specified a mechanism to approve and manage secret operations, making it responsible to the chief executive. That's critical because they try to rewrite history and tell us that Truman regretted creating the CIA. He had no regrets. He expanded unconstitutionally their authority by 10-2. Second, also for the first time, there appeared a definition.

4:46 of the genesis finally the cia was given the primary role confirming the arrangement begun with nsc memorandum dash 4a the covert missions were to involve more than psychological warfare more than just secret wars the new definition specified that covert operations included all activities

5:13 sponsored or conducted by the U.S. either in support of friendly governments or against hostile ones. With the stipulation that they were to be, quote, so planned and executed that any U.S. government responsibility for them is not evident to unauthorized persons and that if uncovered by the U.S. government can be plausibly denied in any...

5:43 of any responsibility for them, unquote. That's devastating to that narrative. So we're going to do it. We're going to hide it from the American people. And if we get caught, it has to be done so we have plausible deniability so no one in the United States understands what was happening. The core of the 10-2 definition explained that, quote,

6:13 Such operations shall include any covert activities related to propaganda, economic warfare, preventative direct action, including sabotage, anti-sabotage, demolition, and evacuation measures, subversion against hostile states, including assistance to underground resistant movements, i.e. stay-behinds, guerrillas, and refugee liberation groups.

6:41 and support of indigenous anti-communist elements in threatened countries of the free world, unquote. And of course, anything that they wanted to attack, whether it was communist or not, was going to be labeled communist. Virtually, the only thing left out is espionage. As far as this intelligence is concerned, the scale ran just short of armed conflict by recognized military forces.

7:12 So anything short of actual declaration of war was covered and the CIA was allowed to do it. The definition of covert operations contained in 10-2 endured for more than three decades. The Office of Special Projects, the new organization created to carry them out, later merged into the CIA. But the mechanism for presidential control prescribed in 10-2 endures till today.

7:44 George Kennan, the secretary who later soured on this whole enterprise, so we're told, remained an enthusiastic supporter of covert operations at their inception. It was Kennan who the secretary of state placed on the 10-2 panel as the first representative for the State Department, and Kennan again who assembled the short list of nominees from whom the director was selected.

8:12 At the head of the list can input Frank Wisner, whom he did not know, but came highly recommended by Chip Bolin, the State Department's chief authority against the Soviet Union. And reportedly, George Marshall, Frank Wisner, OSS veteran, was a man who favored aiding, quote unquote, captive nations. And that included partisans in the Ukraine.

8:42 area which were Nazis. By some accounts, Wisner had been a prominent advocate of creating this covert action team. On August 6, 1948, they joined others to talk about making 10-2 mandate a reality. America's secret wars had begun. Chapter 3 is titled Secret Warriors. For the CIA in its formative years,

9:11 The existence of certain law firms held a key importance for the future of the agency. Obviously, the most prominent one was Sullivan and Cromwell. Established in 1879, its founders were no longer around during this time frame. But of course, the law firm continued on. The law firm retained William Nelson Cromwell's instinct for the jugular, attracting new powerful clients.

9:46 who in turn gave the firm's lawyers seats at some of the key passages of history. Cromwell, for example, represented the corporation that successfully arranged for the U.S. to take over the Panama Canal, which we've talked about. And the book doesn't mention, weirdly enough, that the arrangement was with a French company that had went bankrupt trying to do it with slave labor. That was Sullivan and Cromwell's.

10:17 customer, and basically sold it to the United States as a good thing to do, even though Congress had already passed legislation to create a Nicaraguan canal. John Foster Dulles, another of the firm's lawyers, played a role in Versailles Peace Conference at the end of World War I. His brother Alan Dulles

10:42 who had a bit part in Versailles, joined Sullivan and Cromwell in 1926 with Nazi Germany companies among his clients. During World War II, Allen went to Switzerland to benefit the U.S. intelligence representation of United Fruit Company, later impacted directly upon CIA operations. These brothers presently became respectively the CIA director.

11:12 and the Secretary of State under Dwight D. Eisenhower. By no means was Sullivan and Cromwell the only ones. Donovan, Leisure, Newton, and Lombard, formed by William Donovan, OSS, was formed in 1929. While Bill himself, executor of private missions on behalf of FDR and founder of the OSS, returned to his firm but continued.

11:46 to agitate for the creation of the CIA and remained a strong supporter of the CIA throughout the rest of his life. Donovan's firm employed a number of former OSS people, OSS veteran William Colby being one of them. Frank Wisner had his own law firm connection that came easily to Wisner.

12:14 who had an alliance between the two families, the two prominent families in Laurel, Mississippi, which had lumber interest there. His family was very wealthy. And it was originally from the Midwest. And when they had cut down all the trees with no care to replant, they just picked up, left the town a mess, and moved to Laurel, Mississippi. He put down roots in Virginia.

12:46 at a private school and attended the University of Virginia. He graduated third in his class, bringing an immediate offer from a Wall Street firm. Wisner joined Carter Ledyard Milburn in 1934, located three floors above Donovan's law firm in the same building at 2 Wall Street in New York.

13:18 James Ledyard did essentially the same work as Donovan's law firm. Even older than Sullivan and Cromwell, the firm had been founded in 1854 by lawyers from New York City and Buffalo, New York. James Carter, the Buffalo counsel, left after a few years and was replaced by Milburn. The firm steadily expanded. Perhaps its most notable account was American Express.

13:47 And its greatest claim to fame in 1905 was when it hired FDR. At Carter Ledyard, Frank Wisner labored for seven years, eventually becoming a partner. There he met other associates like William Jackson, Gordon Gray, and Tracy Barnes. Jackson, having just attained the exalted status of partner himself, had actually hired Wisner.

14:18 The war clearly approached in mid-1941 before Pearl Harbor. Wisner volunteered for the Navy Reserve. Gray took up psychological warfare. Jackson became a senior officer in the Army G2. So, we've got a trifecta there. Tracy Barnes went into the Army Air Force. Ooh, a four-hitter.

14:51 We've got all the services covered from one law firm. Bill Jackson would conduct an outside review of their work and become a CIA boss when appointed deputy director of the CIA. Gordon Gray would have his own role as well. Commissioned a Navy reserve officer, Wisner's international legal experience quickly led to him being assigned to the OSS. The OSS sent him to Cairo.

15:28 then to Turkey, where in 1944 he opened an OSS station. As Nazi Germany retreated, Wisner did too. He moved to Bucharest and from September 1944 ran a small CIA station there. The Soviets' takeover of this country in January 1945 greatly affected him. That spring, as the Nazis collapsed, the German intelligence unit led by Reinhard Galen volunteered to spy for the Americans.

16:02 Interesting, huh? Reinhard Gehling working for the future CIA during the war, and he ends up being Dulles' best friend after the war, working all of the stay-behind programs set up in NATO out of the Gehling organization. Very, very interesting. Wisner.

16:32 would chair the OSS committee that recommended the United States arrange to exploit Galen. In this assignment, Wisner came under the command of Alan Dulles in Bern. The Washington desk officer responsible for that area was none other than Richard Helms. And this, of course, is prior to the Operation Sunrise, but was part of Operation Sunrise.

17:04 and the transferring of the stay-behind units over to the United States, and the ratlining out of all of these guys out of Germany. After the war, Frank Wisner returned to the law firm. He would work there for a little bit, but he still wanted the CIA set up, and they were all advocating for it. Wisner occasionally lunched with Alan Dulles.

17:39 at Sullivan and Cromwell. Dulles, like Wild Bill Donovan, became a public figure agitating for the CIA, what would become the CIA. In 1946, Wisner took a huge pay cut and returned to the government as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Occupied Territories, meaning Eastern Europe.

18:14 Early on, he made a tour of the displaced persons camp in Germany. The posted state was one in which Wisner could exercise his expertise on Eastern Europe. Not coincidentally, his immediate boss had been a Carter Ledger client. Weird. Such a close-knit group. At home and at the office, Wisner developed fresh connections with Washington movers. People like State Department's Chip Bolin and...

18:45 Paul Nitz, just finished working on a massive study of aerial bombing who had fingers in policy pies. Wisner jumped at the opportunity to take charge of a new Cold War action group and soon found himself ensconced at CIA headquarters. The National Security Council approved Wisner's appointment on August 19, 1948. A week later,

19:12 Issuing the directive formally creating Wisner's organization, Admiral Hillenkotter adopted the new name of Office of Policy Coordination. Weird name for a covert operation. The Office of Policy Coordination went to war. Before years end, Frank Wisner had already obtained a budget of almost $5 million, and he controlled seven overseas stations.

19:43 There was a total of a little over 300 people working for him. The OPC had access to another fund that had been set up of unused currency stabilization accounts at the treasury. From their headquarters, Wisner's web began to encircle the world. Hundreds of projects flowed from the OPC shop. Wisner needed people to carry them out. Within a year, OPC had expanded to 500 people.

20:15 By mid-50s, there was another 1,000 on top of that. George Kennan, who fancied himself as a political warfare expert, supposedly reacted negatively to the transformation of the OPC being foreign interventionist. They all seem to have really good 2020 hindsight. You notice that? They're in the thick of actually creating the monster.

20:53 And then they all want, again, plausible deniability for history. And all seem decades later when the cat's already out of the bag. Oh, I really didn't mean to do that. By October 1948, Wisner had developed a general scheme of action. He envisioned more than a dozen different types of covert operations in four major categories. Psychological warfare, political warfare, economic warfare, and...

21:24 what he affectionately termed preventative direct action or covert operations. They included everything from poison pen letters to support of refugees to preclusive commodity purchases and market manipulation to support of resistance and guerrilla movement like stay behinds. The net effect was to

21:54 involved the OPC in every imaginable clandestine activity possible. Proud of their capabilities, particularly those spreading propaganda and misinformation, Wisner began calling it his Wurlitzer. Wisner's Wurlitzer. The OPC expanded steadily and soon had outposts in several of other buildings around Washington, D.C. Also,

22:31 There would be a psychological warfare staff under Joe Bryant. Stalin had mobilized the Soviet Union for World War II by fanning flames of nationalism in his country. The motherland theme and propaganda cloaked a nationality problem that predated Soviet rule to the beginning of Russian's expansion under the Tsar.

23:01 right along, notably the Kazakhs and the Ukrainians. Ukrainians then fought the Russians as German auxiliary troops in what was called the Great Patriotic War, if you were in Russia. The CIA wanted to take advantage of the Ukrainian guerrilla armies, which we all know to be constituted by Nazis after the war.

23:33 After migration began with the Soviet victory in 1945, joining the waves of displaced persons, Russian deserters, defectors, former prisoners of war, evading repatriation, and forced laborers began to fill the ranks of the Russian immigrant groups. Beyond Soviet borders, there were satellite states of Eastern Europe. These people, too, didn't want to live under the Soviet Union. They were referred to as captive nations.

24:03 The CIA quickly called them denied areas, places where intelligence operations could only be conducted with great peril. Organizing resistance in the denied areas initially seemed a simple matter of making contact with the right people. The captive nations had disaffected minorities and groups of disillusioned social Democrats. The CIA viewed them as targets.

24:33 At an early meeting of the 10-2 panel on August 12, 1948, an NSC representative made it clear that the Office of Public Coordination should be controlled by the State Department during peacetime in the Pentagon during war. That disturbed Wisner, the CIA member of the panel in whose office the group often met. The first representative for the Department of Defense, Army Colonel Ivan

25:03 Yeaton said little. In his turn, George Kennan demanded the State Department be given a detailed information about objectives and methods to be employed. Instead, Wisner effectively manipulated the system. The Director of Central Intelligence had been vested with the formal authority for OPC under the 10-2 directive. When he needed to, Wisner went to Admiral Hillenkotter, the DCI, under pressure to produce action against Russians.

25:35 He would oppose little that Wisner wanted to do. Kennan soon left the panel, replaced by Robert Joyce, an advocate for increased covert operations. Wisner would resort to the Pentagon, start for intelligence on Russia, to get them, he would basically bribe them to do whatever he wanted to do at the 10-2 meetings. The blockade of Berlin began only five days after approval.

26:04 of NSC 10-2. The State Department, impressed with the results of the CIA's intervention in the Italian general election, and the CIA then being criticized for failing to warn of a coup that had occurred in Colombia, were not inclined to challenge Wisner's maneuvers. The OPC was divided into regional divisions.

26:34 The Eastern European Division handled operations in the denied area of the Soviet bloc. He talks a lot about the different functional staffs and stuff like that. That stuff doesn't necessarily matter to us. Wisner had instructions on not to interfere with their counterpart, the OSO, because that's the way they were divided at the time. Like they couldn't poach each other's people.

27:07 people from each other, but they basically didn't pay attention to that. Wisner developed Stuart Alsop as one of his media people. For his secret propaganda programs, Wisner included a shortwave radio transmitter that he had acquired from the army and a fleet of air balloons to carry leaflets over the controlled area.

27:38 to begin their psychological warfare against the Soviet Union. So the staff kept hatching plots to demoralize the Russians. Everything from dropping senior Western trade goods over Soviet Union to taunt the people in the Soviet Union that didn't have access to those products. Also, he bought oversized condoms, had them marked made in the USA.

28:13 as a way to sexually intimidate the Russians. These proposals grew so outlandish that the CIA director threatened to close them down. The more serious schemes involved massive propaganda campaigns and radio broadcasting. To conceal CIA's hand in these efforts, the OPC created public groups to whom the activities could be attributed. This was contemplated from the program's

28:41 Inception, Alan Dulles, who continued his lunches with Wisner and was soon asked by President Truman to participate in an outside review. Among the people that were part of this was retired Ambassador Joseph Grew, who in turn contacted DeWitt Poole, P-O-O-L-E, an OSS veteran and then senior diplomat in Moscow.

29:11 He was the senior diplomat in Moscow at the time of the Russian Civil War. In June of 49, Grew and Poole set up a National Committee for Free Europe. It's a CIA front. Allen Dulles became its chairman and executive committee, chairman of this executive committee. Figures included General Lucius Clay. He joined the board of directors.

29:42 It's just like an old World War II comrade group to attack Russia. The committee created a broadcasting subsidiary called Radio Free Europe with corporate offices in New York. Internal Radio Free Europe documents make out Kennan as the father of the enterprise. In its studio in Munich,

30:08 Radio Free Europe employed Eastern European immigrants as broadcasters, obviously because they know the language. Radio Free Europe was secretly given Wisner's radio transmitter. A search began for more powerful equipment. The OPC kept in close contact, assigning a couple of officers undercover to work inside Radio Free Europe staff. He also had them as board members.

30:38 Former OSS radio experts Peter Mero, M-E-R-O, and Robert Lang helped select transmission sites near Frankfurt. The first Radio Free Europe broadcast was a half-hour program beamed into Czechoslovakia July of 1950. From that December, Radio Free Europe existed as a legal corporation. This and other broadcast units followed.

31:09 and became referred to in the CIA as the radios. Russian adversaries were instantly alert to the danger of the broadcast and began jamming them. As for two years, they had already jammed the over propaganda broadcast that was Voice of America. Truman's National Security Council contemplated a ring of transmitters surrounding Russia to alleviate that problem.

31:37 Radio Free Europe's solution became saturating broadcasts, in which a series of increasingly powerful radio transmitters in different locations beamed the same program to Eastern Europe simultaneously on different frequencies. By 1952, the nine new transmitters were online, including one in Portugal. Radio Free Europe approached critical mass. Saturating broadcasts began in earnest with Stalin's death.

32:08 in 1953 when Radio Free Europe pulled out every stop to get news into Eastern Europe. By then, the Munich headquarters at the edge of English Garden contained almost two dozen, 500 expats from Eastern Europe. The Wurlitzer was playing loud in the propaganda arena. The American Committee for Liberation

32:42 from Bolshevikism, started up in 1950. It was incorporated the following year. Franklin Lindsay put together its board of directors. It was another CIA front. Robert Dreher, D-R-E-H-E-R, joined the CIA in 1951 as a Navy Reserve lieutenant. He had been expelled from Russia on spy charges three years before.

33:13 Its first broadcast was March 1st, 1953. This radio had the same problem with different Russian immigrant groups. The effort to impose some discipline on the immigrant groups eventually led to ending the CIA subsidy programs to the groups, overtly anyway. They had a lot of infighting. You know, you had in the Soviet Union, the white Russians, you had...

33:42 nationalist. You had all kinds of different factions and they manifested themselves outside of Russia as immigrant populations. And they basically were infighting all the time. There was a lot of trying to set them up to not appear because they wanted the CIA money bad.

34:04 And there was a lot of infighting and exposure operations among themselves to disenfranchise one particular group or the other in the eyes of the CIA. So they were backstabbing each other big time. The radios became an important source in the secret war against Russia. They used the balloon program where they put the propaganda flyers on the balloons. They delivered up to...

34:36 400 tons of leaflets over the Soviet Union. I guess we didn't care about littering back then. C.D. Jackson becomes Radio Free Europe's president. Politician Harold Stassen, journalist Drew Pearson, all were part of this program. Creation of the capability for paramilitary operations became a key facet in Franco.

35:12 Wisner's toolbox. Paramilitary efforts offered the most direct avenue to challenge Soviet power in the occupied territories. The paramilitary option had a defensive function as well. The United States wanted to have stay-behind networks similar to the Russian resistance in World War II that would fight the Russians.

35:41 If there was no invasion, the United States still wanted to use them to conduct paramilitary operations on Russians' own ground. The fledgling CIA could not carry out these missions by itself and went to the Pentagon for assistance.

36:01 A relationship with the Defense Department evolved despite some opposition. The Secretary of the Army initially prohibited any assignment of Army officers to the CIA on grounds that he wanted his service to have nothing to do with it. But by August 1948, the Joint Chiefs of Staff went on record declaring not only the guerrilla warfare to be supported under the direction of the NSC, but that the armed services form.

36:32 not to form their own units for it. They wanted that left strictly with the Office of Public Policy Coordination. Individual military men could be given special training, but OPC would be the only organization with a comprehensive capability to plan the missions.

36:55 The military's interest became Frank Wisner's entree into outflanking the 10-2 panel when he encountered obstacles from CIA and State Department. In August of 49, Wisner asked the Army for extensive assistance, including the designation of an Army officer to serve as chief of the Office of Public Policy Coordination, Guerrilla Warfare Group, and use Army facilities.

37:25 to train the CIA paramilitary forces. While the request for a detailee was later withdrawn, in mid-November, the OPC and Army representatives agreed to use Fort Benning, Georgia, so now you know why they relocated the School of Americas there, for CIA training paramilitary people.

37:55 One of the OPC's men at the conference was in fact on detached service from the Army. It was Colonel Richard Stilwell, who had served in Europe. As a military officer, Stilwell played a major role in the CIA-Army relationship. There are certain Army assets in the field, especially in Germany, that would be useful to the OPC. The main one being the G2 Counterintelligence Corps.

38:24 with its 66th CIC detachment at Stuttgart. The 66th CIC had the responsibility for screening all displaced persons who would be the main source of OPC's agents. Some 42,000 people were screened by the 66th in 1949 alone. As late as 1951, 500 defectors a month were still coming.

38:55 from the Soviet Union. The 66th CIC also carried out positive intelligence missions in the Soviet zones. 2,211 of them in 1949 providing information useful to OPC secret missions. Among them were the highly classified Detachment A people. But weirdly enough, they don't mention that in here. And again,

39:26 I find that very interesting. Okay, we're going to go just a little bit further. Probably the most important resource for Frank Wisner, pride from the army, was an entire intelligence agency, a German one. Of course, this story stretches back to 1945, actually 44. Germany had a military intelligence unit called Foreign Armies East.

39:58 that handled Soviet intelligence. That, of course, was ran by Reinhard Galen. The director that he worked for had ordered him, as they were being pushed back west, to destroy his records, but he didn't. He took them all and buried them. Then he used that as another cachet, in addition to all his caches of weapons, as a bargaining tool at Operation Sunrise.

40:28 The general then contrived to have himself taken by Americans. Galen offered to tell them everything he knew about Russia and bring together a cadre of his former top people to add to that intelligence capability. And he peddled the wartime allies or files. And isn't it interesting that, of course, he knew to do all of this because of his former working relationship with Frank Wisner. Galen handled it.

40:57 first by the Counterintelligence Corps in what was called Operation Rusty, became a case for the Army's European Intelligence Chief, Brigadier General Edwin Seibert. He didn't have a lot of experience with Russians, so Seibert's G2 interrogators found Galen's knowledge impressive. He was transported to Washington in August of 1945.

41:27 dressed up as an army general, and that got left out too. They went to Fort Hunt near Mount Vernon, used throughout the war for high value prisoners. Extensive debriefings with G2 and OSS took place with Wisner being one of them. So Wisner was reacquainted with his source of information while Wisner was in East Germany.

41:55 Or in Eastern Europe. It makes it so much more understandable when you understand all of these connections. Galen began an alliance with the U.S. that ultimately took him back to Germany to create the Galen Organization and eventually the BND, which was their counterpart to the CIA. Creating an American relationship with Reinhard Galen provided an early illustration of a reoccurring theme.

42:27 making deals with bad guys. The CIA is notorious for it. So despite the fact that we were supposed to be denazifying the process of destroying the Nazi ideology, not only by prosecuting top Nazis at war crimes trial, but prohibiting former Nazi officials from participating in any post-war political lie.

42:58 That was thrown right out the window. Galen is merely an example of many. A long list of former Nazis like Joseph Mingle, Klaus Barbie, Emil Osberg, Gustav Hilger, Hans Perworth, and many other. I mean, they left out Otto Skorzeny. Why would they leave him out?

43:28 were sometimes helped to escape through rat lines opened and formed by U.S. intelligence and even ended up, many of them, working for Americans. The CIA developed an entire operation called Project Bloodstone to use these Germans. The executive agent for Bloodstone was Wisner's man, Carmel Offie, O-F-F-I-E. We've talked about him before.

43:57 Odd duck. In each case, authorities rationalized decisions with variations on the argument that a pact with the devil is good if it may help save heaven. Irony. The U.S. decisions were consistently in favor of pacts with assorted devils. There were at least three major instances. Bloodstone, in which more than $5 million was directly spent to employ

44:27 Known Nazis on U.S. security projects. Operation Paperclip, which brought former Nazi scientists into the United States. And Operation Rusty, the Galen organization. In each case, Nazi connections of individuals were minimized or lied about completely. The CIA sought to suspend immigration law in bringing people into the United States. In 1949, Congress modified the CIA portion of the National Security Act.

44:57 to permit the agency to bring in up to 120 foreigners a year into the country outside normal immigration channels, which is how they get their terrorists into the United States. Funds assigned to the CIA for contingencies were also made available to pay these people. So we're not only just going to bring them in, we're going to put them on our payroll. The action taken with Reinhard Galen was an early example of this.

45:28 The Galen organization was installed at Pollock near Munich in December of 1947. At the time, still working for the U.S. Army, Galen hired his specialist on the Soviet Union without any regard to their Nazi past. Others were from Nazi security services. No one kept an eye on any of it. The Army's counterintelligence corps initially assigned Colonel

46:00 Russell Phillip, to supervise Operation Rusty. The Central Intelligence Group had its own liaison, Samuel Buzard. Buzard surveyed Galen's group, interviewing its deputy director, Eric Waldman, to make recommendations as to whether the Army or the CIA should take over the Karen feeding.

46:31 Central intelligence initially rejected the course of the army doing it. And Admiral Hill and Cotter even recommended that the Galen unit be abolished. We know that didn't happen. Yet in 1948, the Galen organization was fully functional and the Soviet threat was everything. By then, the army had begun winding down its activities in Germany.

47:04 and basically began pulling at support from the Galen organization. Colonel Charles Bromley would be the chief army representative. The man from the CIA, also from the army actually, but in the reserve, having just joined the agency, was James Critchfield. In the last days of the war, Critchfield had actually led his troops right past the mountain where Galen hid.

47:34 Critchfield continued into Austria, where he returned later as a young colonel with the counterintelligence group. He joined the CIA in the summer of 1948. Richard Helms approved personnel assignments for Germany at the time, and Critchfield's file went to him. Helms felt he had made an excellent choice. Critchfield's original assignment to create an intelligence activity aimed at the Russians morphed into the Galen organization.

48:03 Critchfield began that September with no CIA or Army input, no files, no nothing. His Army colleagues soon dropped out. Galen and his assistant, Eric Waldman, and Heinz Herr were Critchfield's main points of contact. In the end, Critchfield justified all of this as there was no option. There was no option other than the Galen organization.

48:38 Codenamed Marshal from his Vienna days, Jim Critchfield became the chief of the Galen organization on the American side. His deputy, Pierre De Silva, had helped manage security for the atomic bomb project during World War II. Another, Henry Pleasance, had been a part of this as well.

49:09 The two once suggested to Critchfield that Galen be dumped. The base chief refused to do that. Through Critchfield, the CIA provided money, equipment, and advice for the Germans and passed on orders from Washington. We now know that Washington also gave Galen a house. The organization in return provided intelligence, both analysis and raw reports from a few networks. It imagined...

49:38 had been salvaged from the debris of war. The organization, as it began being called, the Galen organization, actually. And this would be crucial for the CIA secret war, provided training bases, which would accommodate a variety of Eastern European and Soviet immigrants and defectors being groomed to be agents and infiltrators to return. CIA secret armies began here.

50:07 And I would say that was NATO's secret armies. And it did begin there. So we're going to stop there for the day. I know some of this is a review for those of you who've been here for a long time. But it's important in the context of what's in the rest of this book to understand this as kind of a review.

50:35 And there are a few new pieces as every book provides us as we go through them. There's a lot more names in this book than normal of the participants, which is what I find very interesting. I've done a little outside research on some of them and very interesting cast of characters. But that's for another day. Did you have something, Illini?

51:09 Hey, Colonel, it is interesting to sort of see Prados go through, you know, his rendition. I don't see their mics. Bridget, are you still there? Yes, I can hear Elena. I don't see anybody's mics. Oh, they just come up. Can you not talk, Bridget? Oh, my gosh. This is so frustrating. Colonel, can you hear me? Let me take. OK, you can hear me.

51:45 Can, Bridget, can you hear them guys talk? Is it just me that can't hear them? Okay, I'll go out and come back in. Well, in the meantime, how are you guys? I'm doing well, Bridget. It's a nice Friday here in the Midwest. Cloudy and overcast, though, unfortunately. Right, but my God, last, what was it, earlier this week was 70 degrees. Oh, it was beautiful. 70 plus degrees. Oh, my God.

52:20 Yeah, 20 degrees this morning, but, you know. Okay. I'm back. Can you hear us? Yeah. I am so sick of them attacking our space. All right, Illini, go ahead. Colonel, it's pretty interesting to sort of see Prados' version of Operation Gladio, or at least the events sort of surrounding it, and the standing up of the post-war.

52:50 you know, European intelligence apparatus. And, you know, it basically backs up and aligns with everything we've heard, you know, from Paul Williams and, you know, a lot of the other folks out there, including the stay behind units, including, you know, Reinhard Galen and the Nazi, you know, collaboration with U.S. intelligence. And of course, the U.S. partnership with the Sicilian mafia, which when I first heard you speak,

53:19 Um, two years ago, I was, I was gobsmacked by, and I'm like, this, this couldn't be true. I had to look it up myself and it ran all the way to the ground. Um, but we've basically got, you know, I guess you're not allowed to say that. When did Prada write this book? I can hear you, Colonel. Can you hear me? Yeah, now I can hear you. Colonel, when did Prada write this book, Safer Democracy?

53:47 I just looked that up. It's 2005 or 2006. Okay. I mean, I think the first – okay, you had Alfred McCoy's book in 72 detailing the relationship with Lucky Luciano. And then you had Chris Simpson go into more detail on the 48 Italian elections and exactly everything that was involved with that.

54:15 in like 88. But then, you know, Prados is kind of giving us some new material here too. Yes. In 2005. Yes. Which is why I found it fascinating. You know, probably 90% of it is stuff we've heard, but there's a lot more names.

54:36 As far as the people that were participating, some of the agents names I've never, I don't have in my records yet. That's what I found fascinating. He does have more details. And, you know, so I'm fascinated that when you first started listening to my podcast, that your reaction was, there's no way any of this is true.

55:06 And then I bought the book and I read the citations and I got, you know, Alfred McCoy's book and I ran it all the way to the ground. I realized he's a 1972 Senate hearing. So this was relatively.

55:22 This guy had a decent amount of credibility. You check the footnotes on it. You see that in 71, he interviews Lucia and Conine, and Conine gets a gold medallion out of his pocket, and he shows it to this 26-year-old Yale PhD student who's doing his paper on all these different people. He says, hey, this is what the Corsican Mafia gave me. They made me an honorary Mafia don.

55:50 for all of my relationships with them and the CIA. And, you know, the CIA's got a really good relationship with the Corsican mafia. And he just gets it out of his pocket in 71 and shows it to this Yale PhD student. I just find that fascinating. Yeah, and obviously, you had the same reaction that I did when I first came across Paul Williams' book. I was like, there's no fucking way this is true.

56:20 You know, because I've shared with you guys, I lived in Italy. Many talks about it being revealed in the 1990s. And I'm like, there's just no way this is true. And the more I dug and the more Bridget and Cousin Ed, all of us, the more we dug into it, we're like, not only is it true, it's 10 times bigger than even Paul Williams knew. And I think we've made that case.

56:51 Go ahead, All Along. Did you want to say something? Yeah, so there's a lot there. I can't hear you. I can hear All Along, but yeah. Oh, my gosh. Bridget, can you hear him? All Along, I can hear you. Can you hear me? Yes, I can hear you. Yes, I can hear you. Bridget? Let's have All Along step down and come back up, and then that way I think the Colonel will be able to hear him. This is so bad.

57:29 Before we go today, I have a comment on the Les Wexner deposition. But we'll follow that away and talk about the book for now. Can you hear me now, Bridget? Oh, yes. Yes, ma'am. Oh, my gosh. It reminds me of the very beginning of when we started doing these shows. I just want to throw this piece of crap away. Holy crap. Yes. It's exactly like when we first started.

58:14 In fact, all along he's now just, in my vision, because we took him down and brought him back up, he's just spinning and spinning and spinning. So may not be able to free bring him back up. Oh, my gosh. That's just crazy. All right. Well. Colonel, while we're waiting for all along, do you want to talk about the Les Wexner deposition? Sure. I just found that fascinating.

58:44 I think we're going to need a Pete Bruton-style character to basically go through that deposition. I'm going to sort of be cautious in my comments about what I think was really being communicated there. But I'm going to point out a few things that stuck out. Number one, it seems like I think the majority committee was...

59:10 Or maybe it was the minority. But one of the questioners was asking questions about how, number one, Les Wexner's security team was providing security for Jeffrey Epstein, too. And that, in fact, some of them actually had to call Les Wexner's house in order to get out, in order to leave.

59:35 And then what I just found fascinating was Les Wexner gets asked another question, and he goes off on a tangent. But I see all along his back, I see he has a muted mic. Just go ahead. Just finish your thought, and then we'll go back to him. All right. I'll finish my thought on this one. So everybody was commenting about his lawyer, Michael Levy.

1:00:04 Michael Levy was, you know, Wexner's lawyer there. Previously, he had worked for the Clinton administration. He had also worked for ExxonMobil. But, you know, he leans over and there's a hot mic minute where Levy says that, you know, if you answer another question with more than five words next time, I'm going to blankety blanking kill you.

1:00:35 Now, five words is a common comment from anybody who's ever hired a lawyer to help them with a deposition. You'll hear comments from lawyers all the time saying, use as many words as you need to use to answer the question. And then they'll say something like, and they'll hold their fingers up and count each extra word cost.

1:01:03 million dollars as the count out seven to say that, you know, try to use as few words as you can to answer the question. Well, Les Wexner goes off on this tangent. Yes, he did. That makes his lawyer clearly uncomfortable as he talks about how Jeffrey Epstein was talking about how he needed to start, you know, doing better inventories of all the household assets and keeping track of them.

1:01:32 And how he ultimately wound up hiring a household manager who had, I think his words were previously run, the U.S. Embassy in Rome. He just sort of offers this gratuitously. And you could see, like, you know, at the very end of it, you know, Mike Levy leaned over and gave him that comment. And I think...

1:02:01 You know, that U.S. Embassy to Rome, that's the same building that the CIA's Rome Station is in. That's the same building that James Angleton was running the Rome Station from, that Vernon Walters was running the Rome Station from, that Tom Karamasins, who was responsible for Operation Condor, or at least the beginning of it with the Pinochet coup in 1970.

1:02:27 was running the Rome station from. And then, of course, now we find out all these other connections that are slowly coming out about Epstein's connections to Iran-Contra. And you see how there's an extra link now. Not just this tangential thing from the Cuban anti-communists being involved with Lucky Luciano and the Sicilian mafia, but also this

1:02:56 Some of these direct links to Wexner and the Italian embassy, at the very least. I just find that fascinating. Somebody right now should be trying to track down who that household manager was and what her resume looks like and her previous work before being at the US embassy in Rome.

1:03:25 It does make you. And so just to follow up on that real quick, doesn't knowing all about Operation Gladio change your perspective of everything? It does. I mean, you know what to look for in these things. And that exchange, that 90 seconds checks off a lot of boxes.

1:03:52 It just checks off so many different boxes and all the link analysis. And I mean, diligent Denison. I mean, he, I mean, I, he, he, he's onto this one too, but like, I'm not sure he's got the right person yet. And I, I think.

1:04:14 I mean, if somebody needs to talk to some of the victims or, you know, some of the people in this household, be careful which witnesses you talk to and what their interests are. But somebody's got to run that person's name to ground. And I think we can still do that right now. And hopefully, I mean, I don't want to start suggesting things because I think it's a delicate situation right now in terms of getting that information out. But I hope it gets out. Yeah, I agree.

1:04:44 All along. Go ahead. Yeah, Colonel. So much in that chapter. But the part that stuck kind of stood out for me was, you know, when he's just very clear about how integrated CIA was with the Pentagon already by night. You know, it was almost like it's.

1:05:14 continuity from wartime operations from world war ii it never really stopped so the cold war is an institutional reality in the relationship between cia and the pentagon you know which brave gravity and it's like if we don't see that my point if here is i um like all of the institutional continuities between academia and the pentagon

1:05:41 During wartime, right? Between communications and the media. And a line I mentioned, this guy Simpson, which I really urge all citizens to read this. It's essential Cold War media history. And it's absolutely necessary. In his book, Science of Coercion, he's basically saying, look, the whole army air...

1:06:11 what'd they call the, um, you know, the social scientists doing in, in charge of like gathering data and analyzing the, um, the Island hopping campaign against Japan and world war two, you know, it had people like Walter Cronkite and like half frigging Frankfurt school is in there like playing badminton and shit. And so, um, but also like key leaders at NBC, ABC, et cetera. And C and of course CBS. And, um,

1:06:41 But these institutions, you know, that were from World War Two never stopped and they became the Cold War. And if we don't see that, then we don't see the JFK assassination. Yeah. And which is why I wanted to, you know, if possible, just take one second and read that your words, which I, you know, I've read a lot about the JFK assassination and I found these exceptional. And it kind of is the result of.

1:07:11 aren't not seeing the continuity between World War II and the Cold War in our institutions, right? Whereas like, you know, if the defense has already outgrown or the War Department has already outgrown Foggy Bottom before they can move into the new offices and then they make the Pentagon, no president is going to be able to control that. It's just a fact.

1:07:39 If we can't see that, then we can't really understand the JFK assassination because, you know, JFK was like when CIA was 13 and understanding the links that early in the Pentagon are absolutely crucial. And so, but this is what you wrote. The Chicago plot against JFK foiled days before involved Cuban exiles with OAS training, same networks. What does this, why does this matter?

1:08:08 Continuing Colonel Towner, JFK's moves threatened the whole Gladio ecosystem. He sought detente with the USSR, parentheses, Gladio's raison d'etre, parentheses, crackdown on CIA's rogue ops in Cuba, Vietnam, and alienated French nationalists by backing Algerian independence and raging OAS. Israel wasn't acting alone. This was a CIA orchestrated hit with Mossad as junior partner using Gladio's.

1:08:37 Fascists stay behind for muscle. De Gaulle himself suspected a NATO CIA plot after JFK telling associates in 1967, quote, they killed him because he wanted peace. The same forces that tried to kill me. I think you nailed that one, Colonel. We're not surprised here. Amazing work. Thank you.

1:09:07 The people over on Rumble saw me like turn my head. I started to have to yell at my dog because one of my dogs was trying to chase one of my chickens. So just in case you saw that like flash there. Anyway, yes. I'm so sick of these people that only want to shove off JFK's assassination onto Masada Israel.

1:09:36 Anybody that says that is ignorant or they have an agenda. It is simply not true. Anybody that has read any history about any of this knows that's ignorant or they have an agenda and it needs to stop. So I will continue to beat that dead horse. Go ahead all along. Yeah, Colonel.

1:10:12 I agree with what you're saying about the Israel and JFK aspects. I mean, it's absolutely clear that Israel was not at all, you know, probably did want JFK dead. Absolutely. Absolutely. And it's absolutely clear right now that Israel, a country doesn't.

1:10:38 take on the role of Israel as international pariah, and in my opinion, absolutely correctly, without playing some kind of a cat's paw game, right? Because Israel, they're becoming almost like a cartoon Satan, or, you know, probably cousin of the real one, first or second cousin, you choose. And it's like, you don't do that unless someone has your back.

1:11:11 And you're not playing a cat's paw game for the region. So I think it's very easy to look at how Israel's genocidal behavior is being used and manipulated by the CIA and the Zionists themselves in a symbiosis to fragment U.S. dissent. And not just the Zionists.

1:11:40 The Zionists are part of the entire thing. Absolutely. Yeah. That's why I think it's so important in your comment, which I just quoted, that you integrated the Gladio aspect that JFK was himself facing as the absolute threat and indeed executioner in Dallas.

1:12:12 know anything about history and see the two guys that were speaking out about Algerian independence. One had over 30 attempts on his life and JFK had at least two or three at the same time and not go, huh, maybe they're related. You just can't. I'm sorry. But anyway.

1:12:43 Yeah, that's I mean, that's the amazing part of Talbot's book where he's saying, you know, that JFK tries to call him and say, I cannot control that CIA who is helping the OAS try to assassinate you. The media not reporting on that is a death blow to The New York Times and NBC, et cetera. Right. Yeah. And that's the the whole.

1:13:11 JFK assassination cannot be mediated because of TV news and the media in general shotgun marriage to the narrative from Dallas. So it's a shotgun marriage unto death for the people unless we reclaim our public airwaves. Yeah, agreed. All right. Alicia, go ahead.

1:13:38 I just wanted to kind of speak a little bit to what Alana was talking about. So I'm actually in mutuals with Noxy, and I sent her the Bruton book and told her to look into it, and she seemed really interested in that. Just try to get them on a similar page to where y'all are at. Yeah. Yeah, but if y'all had anything else that you think I should... Alicia, thanks. I think Noxy's kind of aware of Operation Gladio.

1:14:07 They seem to be making some of the connections to the Rome Station there. Diligent spaces are sometimes very interesting. Obviously, he's got kind of a good nose sometimes for certainly understanding the overall intelligence network. There's also a lot of talk sometimes with Grock. But I think it's worth him chasing this one down.

1:14:37 And I think it would be really neat to get, you know, a Colonel Towner or a war hamster up there to kind of discuss, you know, what's going on with Les Wexner and the whole situation with Barry Seal and, you know, Terry Reed. You got multiple with you have the DOJ and their own sworn affidavits. You know, it's not that it's not.

1:15:04 conspiracy theorist saying it is the department of justice who said that the cia was involved in drug trafficking and that these people were cia contractors and these people were using cia equipment to transport drugs the only question is who put them up to it um the witness you know the defendants and the witnesses all kind of seemed to say that it was being orchestrated by the cia um and then when you got that and you know the other connections to

1:15:34 organized crime uh in iran contra playing out um there's this clearly a connection going on yeah yeah and you know obviously they missed the part who put the cia up to it nobody has to put the cia up to it they've been involved in the drug trafficking um for decades by that time so well was terry reed doing it by himself

1:16:00 Or was this under agency remit is the question. Yeah, I agree with you. Bridget, go ahead. You're not going to believe this. We're getting raided on the chat by Biohackingville. No, that's not what that is. That's that thing I was telling you I have to do in order to get the five raids.

1:16:28 On Rumble, in order to keep your premium status as a podcaster, you have to raid. That's a term they use. You have to suggest your audience, when you're done, go to another live show. It's called raiding the show. And it's a dumb name, but that's what they call it, raiding the show.

1:16:57 I have to do five of them in a rolling 30-day period of time. So you're going to see that at least five times in 30 days because I'm not going to do it otherwise unless I knew friends of mine were doing a podcast, which nobody does during this time. Otherwise, I wouldn't do that at all. They just make you do these dumb things. And that's what I was talking about yesterday. I have to do...

1:17:26 five hours of premium Rumble content in order to keep that status. And that status allows your videos to be seen by more people. So you want to keep it, but I put all of my stuff out there. I don't have a secret five hours worth of stuff to say because I don't want to say anything that everybody doesn't have access to.

1:17:54 I kind of jokingly said, I guess I can just turn on premium and plant my garden. I don't know, but I don't want anybody to buy a premium rumble thinking that they're going to get some top secret information that no one else is going to get because I don't do that kind of crap. So I have no idea how I'm going to do that or what content I will do, but somehow I'm going to have to do it.

1:18:23 Maybe I'll just turn my video on and put it in front of Bridget's beautiful bookcase with all my books on it and leave it on for five hours. I don't know. That's great. Yeah. I just, you know, when you change things on me, I freak out. Trust me, I'm not changing anything. Yeah, this is just stuff we have to put up with in order to maximize the exposure.

1:18:53 And since we were having so many glitches over here, I thought, now they're doing something over on Rumble. Yeah. All right. Alicia, go ahead. I was going to say back to y'all, I agree with Al and I again. I think it would be great if we were able to see one of y'all to catch up the diligent people on where y'all are at with the Project Gladio. I did also kind of shove...

1:19:23 your name in Noxie's face and said, hey, catch up. So it's been fun for me this week. I'll just say that because it's been interesting because I caught up with y'all a bit. And then with the Texans in here, we've been kind of waking up to a lot of things been going up here that's aligned with what y'all found, aligned with and seeing that the Noxie crew or the Diligent is and all those people kind of come.

1:19:49 now coming to the realization about the mafia involvement and kind of seeing it for what it is in that direction, it's almost like we the people are kind of coming to a more clear understanding together. Yes, I agree with that. Alicia, for the record, I'm not 100% sure they've got their woman. Diligent is going around saying it's Lindy Boggs. I think...

1:20:19 On the one hand, I think this information is probably knowable. We can probably get it through the various victims and witnesses in the case or the Wexner family or others as to who this woman from the embassy to Rome was. On the other hand, just because she appears once in an Epstein email,

1:20:46 And because she was in charge of the embassy at one point, I'm not sure that we've got this one confirmed yet. But I'm fascinated to get the right answer on it. That crew is like a dog with a bone. They'll go down it, and even if the bone doesn't end up being the right one, they'll find some sniffs along the way that'll get them in a different direction. I check in and out with them.

1:21:16 I don't have the kind of time that following diligent fully takes. They go down a lot of different roads. It seems like I check it every so often and they get closer each time because they're going about it from an evidence-based approach of they're not going through what y'all are doing systemically. Here, let's look at this and then let's add it.

1:21:45 They're going down different tangents as something pops up and they explore that one deeply and then come back up. So it's more of like a meandering journey, if you will. Well, you know, the one thing I'll say about Diligent Spaces is, I mean, he's on the right track and he asks good questions. But, you know, three times out of four, when I tune into one of his spaces,

1:22:13 It's basically this Grok account, this AI lady is basically reading off a whole bunch of research to him. And I do think that it would be more fun for him to rotate speakers through there. I don't think he's ever going to do that. He won't. He won't. Yeah, I know. I think it would be a lot more fascinating to have the Colonel up there, to have Warhamster. And yeah, have Grok to resolve disputes.

1:22:43 I mean, I'm not going on anybody's show that uses Grok to fact check me. Sorry. And that's the problem that I had with him up front. When I first started doing this, I had to actually tell Grok where to go look for this information. And I argued with them repeatedly. Oh, there's no such thing as that. And okay, well, it's right here. It's right here. And here's the declassified CI. Oh, look at that. There it is.

1:23:10 anybody that relies on AI to fact check people is lazy. And I'm not going to have an intelligent conversation with somebody like that. Because it's funny, because just yesterday, I asked, I just do this periodically to see how more it's evolved. I asked, I don't even remember what I was researching, something yesterday.

1:23:37 in another book and I asked, without telling it the name of the book, I asked Grok what this particular thing was. And then I asked Gab AI the same question. Grok came back and told me I was a conspiracy theorist and Gab AI gave me, because it's been tracking my history and knows that I'm interested in Operation Gladio.

1:24:03 it pulled in the entire other aspects of it that I didn't even ask it about. That's why you can't rely on AI, at least at this point, to fact check anything because Grok's still calling me a conspiracy theorist and I've never put anything out there that has not been documented several times.

1:24:30 These AI services sometimes have a bigger normie bias than CNN does. Way more. The secret sometimes is to feed in the sources that you want it to reference and have available to it into the context window. You have to do that because otherwise it's going to tell you the shit doesn't exist. And if I already have it, why would I be asking it anything? It's already in my head.

1:25:03 I also get a kick out of it. The other day I just said, quit throwing your opinion in. Quit throwing your opinion in. And adding, like you're saying, that it's a conspiracy theory that's already been proven. I said, no, just digest this. Just digest this. Just digest this and spit it out. And when you get to a point where you're trying to pull its opinion out, it will shut down completely.

1:25:33 Oh, yes. Look, I mean, it's a conspiracy theory that's already been proven. I mean, my favorite... But that makes it a conspiracy, not a theory. Yeah, it's a conspiracy theory that runs all the way to the ground, so therefore it's a conspiracy reality. Yeah. But, I mean, my favorite way to do it...

1:25:54 I guess it's just because I enjoy debate. If I'm on the receiving end of psychological warfare, but I can confront it on a level playing field, or even one that silts it a little bit against me, but I can show up with all my sources and basically just keep dropping citation after citation after citation that the skeptics have to acknowledge are highly credible and authoritative.

1:26:24 I just find that a lot of fun. I think that that is one of the most fun parts of this strange psychological warfare game that we have going on. Are you still there? I'm here. Can you hear me? Illini? Bridget, can you still hear him? Can you hear me? I can hear him. Can you hear me? Oh, my gosh. Oh, no. Hang on. Let me text her. Oh, well, I mentioned psychological warfare, and I got a weak start.

1:26:58 There you go. You're back. Okay. I love debating people. I'm not going to bait anybody that's going to fact check me on Grok. It just isn't going to happen. I'm willing to do it as long as I can cite my own sources and basically say, hey, the Washington Post is more authoritative than Grok. Here, take a look at this front page article from 72. Or, hey, I'm just studying the New York Times, guys. This isn't a conspiracy theory. Seymour Hersh wrote about it.

1:27:27 Or, hey, this is extensively covered in the Washington Times. Here's your newspaper article. Go argue with them. Don't argue with me. Don't call me a conspiracy theorist. Call these authoritative sources. You're just some rando on the internet, too. So why don't you go argue with mainstream media sources? And when you do that, it changes the nature of the conversation.

1:27:56 Yeah, I agree. All right. I think we got that. Colonel? Yes? Yeah, on that note, I just wanted to add, especially with the U.S. media citations, it can actually be extremely useful to illustrate the extent to which the CIA is running the government right now. Because, I mean, if you see something that was...

1:28:28 in the Washington Post in 1977 or 78, it's just like another galaxy from right now where the Senate is scared to, you know, ask a single question about the CIA. And it's the most unchecked, you know, part of government. So where would absolute power go? You know, which we're experiencing right now. So, yeah, excellent show today. Thank you.

1:29:00 Just because of all of you guys. I love the after part and the engagement that all of you guys do. I love being on this journey with you guys. It's been fantastic and enlightening beyond measure. Okay. So it's kind of like our psychological warfare support group. Anyway. All right.

1:29:30 Take care and... Any news on when the video is going to come out? Just asking for a friend? No. Did we get a... We'll talk about it offline. I don't want to talk about that in front of everybody. We just need to secure the rights for it. But the video is going to blow your mind, guys. Absolutely. I was just excited. Because it really is perfect.

1:30:00 Yeah, we have some paperwork to do before we can release it. Yes, it's gonna like, I need everybody in this audience and everybody in your audiences to repost it, repost it, repost it, like repost it every day for like the next seven days after we release it. Cause it's crazy. And plus it's that good. All right, so.

1:30:29 You guys, hold on just a second. I wanted to, yeah. So we have, I'm trying to find out, next week looks pretty much just normal as far as shows goes at this point. So if anything pops up, I will post it on the calendar. But otherwise, I'll see you back here on Monday at 4. You guys have a wonderful weekend.

1:31:01 See you then.

Entities here

CIA33 Frank Wisner25 Reinhard Gehlen18 Office of Policy Coordination16 Soviet Union14 Eastern Soviet Union11 NSC 10/210 Allen Dulles9 U.S. Army9 Gehlen Organization9 United States8 Les Wexner7 Radio Free Europe7 Germany6 Diligent Spaces6 Sullivan & Cromwell6 George F. Kennan6 Robert Kennedy assassination5 Operation Gladio5 James Critchfield5 Harry S. Truman5 Israel5 Counterintelligence Corps5 Rome5 William J. Donovan5 Walter Bedell Smith4 Italy4 West Germany4 Carter, Lanyard, and Milburn4 U.S. Embassy in Rome3 Jeffrey Epstein3 Noxy3 Project Bloodstone3 Michael Ledeen3 Munich3 James Ledyard3 John Prados3 1948 Italian election3 Operation Rusty3 Washington, D.C.2

Claims made here

George F. Kennan founded Office of Policy Coordination host_asserted ▶ 1:19

“So, George Kennan continued to press for the special studies group under the State Department control for things like the Italian operation, which was election interference. Admiral Hillenkotter now a…”

Walter Bedell Smith appointed Frank Wisner host_asserted ▶ 1:48

“They were just going to ignore that legal opinion. When State refused to go along with this political warfare thing in any sane or sound matter, the CIA director threw up his hands. Early in June of 1…”

Harry S. Truman funded CIA host_asserted ▶ 2:17

“in sabotaging the Italian election expanded not only the functions of the agency but those of the state and defense departments plus the National Security Council. You know the guy that said he regret…”

Harry S. Truman founded NSC 10/2 documented ▶ 2:49

“included both psychological operations and paramilitary programs. You know, in addition to political warfare, we're just going to do the whole nine yards. Truman signed the new directive 10-2 on June …”

NSC 10/2 funded Office of Policy Coordination documented ▶ 3:21

“by the Director of Central Intelligence. Composed of representatives of the Secretary of State and Defense, along with the CIA Director, the Secret Committee became the unit of the National Security C…”

George F. Kennan member_of NSC 10/2 host_asserted ▶ 7:44

“George Kennan, the secretary who later soured on this whole enterprise, so we're told, remained an enthusiastic supporter of covert operations at their inception. It was Kennan who the secretary of st…”

George F. Kennan appointed Frank Wisner host_asserted ▶ 8:12

“At the head of the list can input Frank Wisner, whom he did not know, but came highly recommended by Chip Bolin, the State Department's chief authority against the Soviet Union. And reportedly, George…”

William Nelson Cromwell founded Sullivan & Cromwell host_asserted ▶ 9:11

“The existence of certain law firms held a key importance for the future of the agency. Obviously, the most prominent one was Sullivan and Cromwell. Established in 1879, its founders were no longer aro…”

Allen Dulles member_of Sullivan & Cromwell documented ▶ 10:42

“who had a bit part in Versailles, joined Sullivan and Cromwell in 1926 with Nazi Germany companies among his clients. During World War II, Allen went to Switzerland to benefit the U.S. intelligence re…”

Allen Dulles member_of CIA host_asserted ▶ 10:42

Frank Wisner member_of Carter, Lanyard, and Milburn documented ▶ 12:46

“at a private school and attended the University of Virginia. He graduated third in his class, bringing an immediate offer from a Wall Street firm. Wisner joined Carter Ledyard Milburn in 1934, located…”

James Ledyard member_of Carter, Lanyard, and Milburn host_asserted ▶ 13:18

“James Ledyard did essentially the same work as Donovan's law firm. Even older than Sullivan and Cromwell, the firm had been founded in 1854 by lawyers from New York City and Buffalo, New York. James C…”

Tracy Barnes member_of Carter, Lanyard, and Milburn host_asserted ▶ 13:47

“And its greatest claim to fame in 1905 was when it hired FDR. At Carter Ledyard, Frank Wisner labored for seven years, eventually becoming a partner. There he met other associates like William Jackson…”

Gordon Gray member_of Carter, Lanyard, and Milburn host_asserted ▶ 13:47

James Ledyard member_of CIA host_asserted ▶ 14:51

“We've got all the services covered from one law firm. Bill Jackson would conduct an outside review of their work and become a CIA boss when appointed deputy director of the CIA. Gordon Gray would have…”

Reinhard Gehlen spied_on Eastern Soviet Union host_asserted ▶ 15:28

“then to Turkey, where in 1944 he opened an OSS station. As Nazi Germany retreated, Wisner did too. He moved to Bucharest and from September 1944 ran a small CIA station there. The Soviets' takeover of…”

Frank Wisner spied_on Reinhard Gehlen host_asserted ▶ 16:32

“would chair the OSS committee that recommended the United States arrange to exploit Galen. In this assignment, Wisner came under the command of Alan Dulles in Bern. The Washington desk officer respons…”

Richard Helms member_of CIA host_asserted ▶ 16:32

Frank Wisner headed Office of Policy Coordination documented ▶ 18:45

“Paul Nitz, just finished working on a massive study of aerial bombing who had fingers in policy pies. Wisner jumped at the opportunity to take charge of a new Cold War action group and soon found hims…”

Frank Wisner headed Office of Policy Coordination host_asserted ▶ 19:43

“There was a total of a little over 300 people working for him. The OPC had access to another fund that had been set up of unused currency stabilization accounts at the treasury. From their headquarter…”

Joe Bryant headed Office of Policy Coordination host_asserted ▶ 22:31

“There would be a psychological warfare staff under Joe Bryant. Stalin had mobilized the Soviet Union for World War II by fanning flames of nationalism in his country. The motherland theme and propagan…”

Ivan Yeaton member_of NSC 10/2 host_asserted ▶ 24:33

“At an early meeting of the 10-2 panel on August 12, 1948, an NSC representative made it clear that the Office of Public Coordination should be controlled by the State Department during peacetime in th…”

Robert Joyce member_of NSC 10/2 host_asserted ▶ 25:35

“He would oppose little that Wisner wanted to do. Kennan soon left the panel, replaced by Robert Joyce, an advocate for increased covert operations. Wisner would resort to the Pentagon, start for intel…”

Stuart Alsop member_of Office of Policy Coordination host_asserted ▶ 27:07

“people from each other, but they basically didn't pay attention to that. Wisner developed Stuart Alsop as one of his media people. For his secret propaganda programs, Wisner included a shortwave radio…”

Joseph Grew founded National Committee for a Free Europe host_asserted ▶ 29:11

“He was the senior diplomat in Moscow at the time of the Russian Civil War. In June of 49, Grew and Poole set up a National Committee for Free Europe. It's a CIA front. Allen Dulles became its chairman…”

DeWitt Poole member_of National Committee for a Free Europe host_asserted ▶ 29:11

Allen Dulles headed National Committee for a Free Europe host_asserted ▶ 29:11

CIA front_for National Committee for a Free Europe host_asserted ▶ 29:11

Lucius Clay member_of National Committee for a Free Europe host_asserted ▶ 29:11

National Committee for a Free Europe founded Radio Free Europe host_asserted ▶ 29:42

“It's just like an old World War II comrade group to attack Russia. The committee created a broadcasting subsidiary called Radio Free Europe with corporate offices in New York. Internal Radio Free Euro…”

Office of Policy Coordination funded Radio Free Europe host_asserted ▶ 30:08

“Radio Free Europe employed Eastern European immigrants as broadcasters, obviously because they know the language. Radio Free Europe was secretly given Wisner's radio transmitter. A search began for mo…”

Robert Lansing member_of Radio Free Europe host_asserted ▶ 30:38

“Former OSS radio experts Peter Mero, M-E-R-O, and Robert Lang helped select transmission sites near Frankfurt. The first Radio Free Europe broadcast was a half-hour program beamed into Czechoslovakia …”

Radio Free Europe carried_out_attack Eastern Soviet Union documented ▶ 30:38

Peter Mero member_of Radio Free Europe host_asserted ▶ 30:38

Robert Dreher member_of CIA host_asserted ▶ 32:42

“from Bolshevikism, started up in 1950. It was incorporated the following year. Franklin Lindsay put together its board of directors. It was another CIA front. Robert Dreher, D-R-E-H-E-R, joined the CI…”

Harold Stassen member_of Radio Free Europe host_asserted ▶ 34:36

“400 tons of leaflets over the Soviet Union. I guess we didn't care about littering back then. C.D. Jackson becomes Radio Free Europe's president. Politician Harold Stassen, journalist Drew Pearson, al…”

C.D. Jackson headed Radio Free Europe host_asserted ▶ 34:36

Drew Pearson member_of Radio Free Europe host_asserted ▶ 34:36

Office of Policy Coordination carried_out_attack Eastern Soviet Union host_asserted ▶ 34:36

Frank Wisner headed Office of Policy Coordination book_quoted ▶ 36:55

“The military's interest became Frank Wisner's entree into outflanking the 10-2 panel when he encountered obstacles from CIA and State Department. In August of 49, Wisner asked the Army for extensive a…”

Office of Policy Coordination recruited U.S. Army book_quoted ▶ 36:55

Office of Policy Coordination trained CIA book_quoted ▶ 37:25

“to train the CIA paramilitary forces. While the request for a detailee was later withdrawn, in mid-November, the OPC and Army representatives agreed to use Fort Benning, Georgia, so now you know why t…”

Office of Policy Coordination used Fort Benning book_quoted ▶ 37:25

Richard Stilwell member_of U.S. Army book_quoted ▶ 37:55

“One of the OPC's men at the conference was in fact on detached service from the Army. It was Colonel Richard Stilwell, who had served in Europe. As a military officer, Stilwell played a major role in …”

Counterintelligence Corps spied_on Eastern Soviet Union book_quoted ▶ 38:55

“from the Soviet Union. The 66th CIC also carried out positive intelligence missions in the Soviet zones. 2,211 of them in 1949 providing information useful to OPC secret missions. Among them were the …”

Reinhard Gehlen headed Foreign Armies East book_quoted ▶ 39:26

“I find that very interesting. Okay, we're going to go just a little bit further. Probably the most important resource for Frank Wisner, pride from the army, was an entire intelligence agency, a German…”

Reinhard Gehlen participated_in Operation Sunrise book_quoted ▶ 39:58

“that handled Soviet intelligence. That, of course, was ran by Reinhard Galen. The director that he worked for had ordered him, as they were being pushed back west, to destroy his records, but he didn'…”

Reinhard Gehlen worked_with Frank Wisner book_quoted ▶ 40:28

“The general then contrived to have himself taken by Americans. Galen offered to tell them everything he knew about Russia and bring together a cadre of his former top people to add to that intelligenc…”

Reinhard Gehlen interrogated_by Edwin Seibert book_quoted ▶ 40:28

Reinhard Gehlen recruited_by U.S. Army book_quoted ▶ 40:28

Reinhard Gehlen held_at Fort Hunt book_quoted ▶ 41:27

“dressed up as an army general, and that got left out too. They went to Fort Hunt near Mount Vernon, used throughout the war for high value prisoners. Extensive debriefings with G2 and OSS took place w…”

Reinhard Gehlen founded Gehlen Organization book_quoted ▶ 41:55

“Or in Eastern Europe. It makes it so much more understandable when you understand all of these connections. Galen began an alliance with the U.S. that ultimately took him back to Germany to create the…”

CIA recruited Reinhard Gehlen book_quoted ▶ 41:55

CIA recruited Klaus Barbie book_quoted ▶ 43:28

“were sometimes helped to escape through rat lines opened and formed by U.S. intelligence and even ended up, many of them, working for Americans. The CIA developed an entire operation called Project Bl…”

Carmel Offey headed Project Bloodstone book_quoted ▶ 43:28

CIA recruited Otto Skorzeny book_quoted ▶ 43:28

CIA funded Project Bloodstone book_quoted ▶ 43:28

CIA recruited Josef Mengele book_quoted ▶ 43:28

Project Bloodstone financed_via U.S. Army book_quoted ▶ 43:57

“Odd duck. In each case, authorities rationalized decisions with variations on the argument that a pact with the devil is good if it may help save heaven. Irony. The U.S. decisions were consistently in…”

U.S. Army funded Operation Rusty book_quoted ▶ 44:27

“Known Nazis on U.S. security projects. Operation Paperclip, which brought former Nazi scientists into the United States. And Operation Rusty, the Galen organization. In each case, Nazi connections of …”

CIA funded Operation Paperclip book_quoted ▶ 44:27

Samuel Buzard liaison_for Gehlen Organization book_quoted ▶ 46:00

“Russell Phillip, to supervise Operation Rusty. The Central Intelligence Group had its own liaison, Samuel Buzard. Buzard surveyed Galen's group, interviewing its deputy director, Eric Waldman, to make…”

Richard Helms approved James Critchfield book_quoted ▶ 47:34

“Critchfield continued into Austria, where he returned later as a young colonel with the counterintelligence group. He joined the CIA in the summer of 1948. Richard Helms approved personnel assignments…”

James Critchfield headed Gehlen Organization book_quoted ▶ 48:38

“Codenamed Marshal from his Vienna days, Jim Critchfield became the chief of the Galen organization on the American side. His deputy, Pierre De Silva, had helped manage security for the atomic bomb pro…”

Gehlen Organization provided_intelligence_to CIA book_quoted ▶ 49:09

“The two once suggested to Critchfield that Galen be dumped. The base chief refused to do that. Through Critchfield, the CIA provided money, equipment, and advice for the Germans and passed on orders f…”

CIA funded Gehlen Organization book_quoted ▶ 49:09

Gehlen Organization trained CIA book_quoted ▶ 49:38

“had been salvaged from the debris of war. The organization, as it began being called, the Galen organization, actually. And this would be crucial for the CIA secret war, provided training bases, which…”

CIA connected_to Sicilian Mafia host_asserted ▶ 52:50

“you know, European intelligence apparatus. And, you know, it basically backs up and aligns with everything we've heard, you know, from Paul Williams and, you know, a lot of the other folks out there, …”

John Prados authored Safe for Democracy host_asserted ▶ 53:19

“Um, two years ago, I was, I was gobsmacked by, and I'm like, this, this couldn't be true. I had to look it up myself and it ran all the way to the ground. Um, but we've basically got, you know, I gues…”

Lucia Conine received_from Mafia host_asserted ▶ 55:22

“This guy had a decent amount of credibility. You check the footnotes on it. You see that in 71, he interviews Lucia and Conine, and Conine gets a gold medallion out of his pocket, and he shows it to t…”

CIA connected_to Mafia host_asserted ▶ 55:50

“for all of my relationships with them and the CIA. And, you know, the CIA's got a really good relationship with the Corsican mafia. And he just gets it out of his pocket in 71 and shows it to this Yal…”

Les Wexner employed Michael Ledeen host_asserted ▶ 59:35

“And then what I just found fascinating was Les Wexner gets asked another question, and he goes off on a tangent. But I see all along his back, I see he has a muted mic. Just go ahead. Just finish your…”

Michael Ledeen worked_for Carter Administration host_asserted ▶ 1:00:04

“Michael Levy was, you know, Wexner's lawyer there. Previously, he had worked for the Clinton administration. He had also worked for ExxonMobil. But, you know, he leans over and there's a hot mic minut…”

Michael Ledeen worked_for ExxonMobil host_asserted ▶ 1:00:04

Tom Karamessines responsible_for Operation Gladio host_asserted ▶ 1:02:01

“You know, that U.S. Embassy to Rome, that's the same building that the CIA's Rome Station is in. That's the same building that James Angleton was running the Rome Station from, that Vernon Walters was…”

James Jesus Angleton ran U.S. Embassy in Rome host_asserted ▶ 1:02:01

Vernon Walters ran U.S. Embassy in Rome host_asserted ▶ 1:02:01

Tom Karamessines ran U.S. Embassy in Rome host_asserted ▶ 1:02:01

Jeffrey Epstein connected_to Iran-Contra affair host_asserted ▶ 1:02:27

“was running the Rome station from. And then, of course, now we find out all these other connections that are slowly coming out about Epstein's connections to Iran-Contra. And you see how there's an ex…”

Charles C. Simpson authored Science of Coercion host_asserted ▶ 1:05:41

“During wartime, right? Between communications and the media. And a line I mentioned, this guy Simpson, which I really urge all citizens to read this. It's essential Cold War media history. And it's ab…”

Mossad participated_in Robert Kennedy assassination host_asserted ▶ 1:08:08

“Continuing Colonel Towner, JFK's moves threatened the whole Gladio ecosystem. He sought detente with the USSR, parentheses, Gladio's raison d'etre, parentheses, crackdown on CIA's rogue ops in Cuba, V…”

CIA orchestrated Robert Kennedy assassination host_asserted ▶ 1:08:08

Charles de Gaulle suspected NATO host_asserted ▶ 1:08:37

“Fascists stay behind for muscle. De Gaulle himself suspected a NATO CIA plot after JFK telling associates in 1967, quote, they killed him because he wanted peace. The same forces that tried to kill me…”