The Colonel’s Corner Safe for Democracy Part 8

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Transcript

0:00 Hello. Okay, tell me, are the strawberries absolutely as good as they look? Are you over on Rumble right now? Not yet. Okay, well, I am going to show you how good the strawberries are. Oh, that's not right. That's not right. So, we brought some home last night, and they are delicious. They are amazing. So.

0:34 Oh, my gosh. It's so sweet. Okay. Yeah. I hate you. I'm just saying. I know. I know. I hate myself during this time because I actually also had a donut. Not the really good kind. They have those extra large Amish donuts.

0:59 They replaced them this year with a local donut that makes the large donuts, but they're real doughy. I couldn't even finish mine. They were not near as good. The Amish donuts are like Krispy Kreme. They're very light and fluffy. There's only one donut, and I have to say, one year I took a trip up to Michigan, and it was in the fall when they were doing apple cider presses and all that.

1:25 And they made donuts out of the apple mash. And oh, my God. I've had them. Best thing ever. Yes. You're absolutely right. Okay. We're going to continue on. We're in the chapter Covert Legions, page 92. We start here with the National Student Association. We just talked about.

1:55 Braden and Cord Meyer and basically Warhamster and I did almost an entire show on Cord Meyer. So I'm not going to spend a lot of time going over his history. You can go watch that other podcast. But the National Student Association project worked basically like all of the other PSYOP, psychological warfare.

2:25 capability that they were deploying. The summer group held seminars each year where the CIA would go through the field for its preferences, then supported those people in the association's elections. Cord Meyer and other agency apologists asserted that the CIA made sure that only the National Student Association, NSA,

2:54 and the vice president were quote-unquote winning CIA assets and that each year these newly elected officials would be brought in. The CIA money supposedly supported only the NSA international efforts, which was a lie. That construction fails to show, however, that the agency had a first shot each year.

3:25 at influencing the leadership. So if you're influencing the leadership of the U.S. National Student Association, you're doing it in the United States. They weren't leaders from overseas. During the NSA's project, the CIA paid expenses. Some 250 Americans to attend conferences for international youth groups.

3:57 They formed the core of the U.S. delegation at the meeting held in Vienna, Helsinki, and Moscow in the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s. An American attending the Sixth World Youth Festival in Moscow in 1957 was specifically directed by the CIA to purchase samples of Soviet manufactured items and report on Russian surveillance.

4:28 Attendees were debriefed more generally by CIA officers when they returned. Braden's student project had methods common to other similar CIA operations with a variety of private groups. All this required money. Spreading money around without revealing its CIA origins proved a challenge.

5:00 suggested many possibilities. Around 1951, said Richard Bissell, then a senior Marshall Plan administrator, he received a visit from Frank Wisner, whom he knew socially, but with whom he had not previously done business. B.S. Wisner asked Bissell to help finance

5:25 his office operations by diverting a portion of the so-called counterpart funds the administration of the Marshall Plan controlled. This is just all crap. We know from other sources that the Marshall Plan actually had a covert element already embedded in it. This isn't something that they're doing on the fly. The money and local currencies in Europe was distributed

5:56 by European countries in exchange for assistance they received because this money was used for Operation Gladio units. Concerned with the apparent rising security threat in Europe in the wake of the Korean War, they felt compelled to use the money. You know, the Korean War that they created. Bissell gave Wisner the money. The practice continued until 1952. Bissell moved.

6:31 on to the Ford Foundation. The Ford Foundation began moving closer to the CIA, thanks to Bissell, and picked up funding where the Marshall Plan had left off. Bissell believed the real Russian threat lay in internal subversion, not military action. And yet, despite the fact that they're admitting there was not going to be military action, they have

7:03 used the potential of military action all over the world to overthrow governments for right up until the early 90s. Because the Soviet Union was any day, just like you hear right now, Russia is going to attack Europe on one hand, and at the same time, Russia is losing the war. You can't have all of them. Rumble is still on the intro.

7:37 Well, I don't know why, because it stopped. No idea what's going on. Okay. Let's see. Hold on a second. Let's see if I can fix that. Rumble's going to be the death of me yet. All right. It should be on there now. We'll give it a second to line up. Yeah.

8:14 Right. There's like a 15 second delay. Thank you. Sure. So basically, for those over on Rumble, we're talking about the National Student Association and how it was at least the leadership was funded and they paid expenses for people to travel internationally and spy on other countries as a result of that. And Frank Bissell and or excuse me, Frank Wisner and Richard Bissell was intimately involved in that using the Marshall Plan funds.

8:43 until the early 1950s. And then Bissell moved on to the Ford Foundation and continued that relationship. Not long afterwards, Bissell became a CIA consultant. That's another word for asset. Among his assignments, he helped Frank Lindsay on a study that examined how the Iron Curtain might be rolled back without a war. The report ended up gathering dust.

9:16 Because they weren't interested in doing that. They love having a boogeyman. Its most important consequence is the conclusion Bissell drew from it. Psychological warfare by itself would not defeat the Soviet Union. The Ford Foundation began to commission work at MIT's Center for International Studies. He's being used.

9:49 Ford Foundation is being used as a conduit for the CIA to engage with MIT, the agency's academic think tank. It was set up by CIA and headed by a former agency deputy director. Again, another facility on a university that is a CIA front. The CIA began moving cash through the Ford Foundation in the mid 1950s.

10:23 As the foundation came under the tutelage of H. Rowan Gaither, the flow increased. Conduits other than Ford was also developed. Foundations were set up as CIA shell corporations, and prominent individuals were used to represent them that were also under the at least influence, if not payroll, of the CIA. The use of this method mushroomed the internal

10:55 Agency study in 1966 found this technique particularly effective for democratically ran membership organizations, which need to assure their own unwitting members and collaborators, as well as their hostile critics, that they have genuine, respectable, private sources of income, which they did not. The funneling of money through legitimate foundations, in fact,

11:26 became the most effective way to conceal CIA's role. Again, operating on U.S. soil. Looking at major grants at the time, more than $10,000 at a minimum, made by foundations other than the big three, Ford, Carnegie, and Rockefeller, the 1966 CIA review of grants made over the previous three years found the agency's money involved

11:57 in over half of them. And while primarily engaging in international affairs, they were still operating on U.S. soil using the money of the CIA with people on the CIA payroll in the United States. A third of those were for scientific and social science initiatives, you know, like the ones Epstein worked on.

12:30 Of the total of 700 such grants, more than 100 had been fully funded by the CIA. Not only were the funding techniques important tools for the CIA's backtricks, the projects they financed were weapons to use in the Cold War, primarily psychological weapons. But like Richard Bissell, there were many in government who appreciated

13:01 the fact that we were conducting psychological warfare. Those officials, particularly the quote-unquote secret warriors, wanted real covert military capability, forces for unconventional warfare that could back up the CIA's psychological operations with covert action and take over where it left off. As an impetus for the creation of military units for special warfare,

13:34 was a congressional action in 1950. Building on America's traditional commitment to quote unquote freedom and Washington's interest in quote unquote captive nations, a proposed bill would set aside funds for a legion of Eastern European immigrants who might be sent back to their country. This was referred to as the Lodge Bill. It became public law.

14:04 passed in the 81st Congress in June of 1950 on the eve of the Korean War. How timely. It led the army to provide for the creation of special forces regiments. It would consist of three battalions with a total of 2,500 men. Of that 2,500 were going to be foreigners.

14:38 enlistments in the U.S. Army. Let me say that again. The Lodge bill also envisioned an equal number of foreign enlistments into the U.S. Army. This is how the A-teams were formed. This is exactly how we had former Nazis working alongside U.S. Army people. It's also in Vietnam how Felix Rodriguez.

15:09 And all the Cuban exiles ended up in the U.S. Army in Vietnam. After they were trained mercenaries, they put on a military uniform. And as a result of that, they got U.S. status to be here legally. The military raised the ceiling to 12,500. 12,500. But by August of...

15:42 52, they were short of their goals. The project would be revived as a bid to create an immigrant force with a set-aside of $100 million. That was introduced by Representative Charles Kirsten, an amendment to the Mutual Security Act of 1951.

16:14 And this book says that it was never fully implemented, but that's not true. We are talking about Operation Gladio. It was fully implemented. While the immigrant dream was part of this, the special forces themselves thrived under this. Once again, it was the Korean War that furnished the impetus. See how great warfare works out for these guys? It allows them to do all kinds of things.

16:47 At Army headquarters, the increased need arising from the war combined with the continuous interest in psychological operations led to the establishment of the Office of Chief of Psychological Warfare under an experienced leader, General Robert McClure. This office also had charge of special warfare planning.

17:16 This in 1950 were additional active duty army officers that were being trained as specialists in psychological warfare. By 1952, there was entire units devoted to radio and propaganda. And the army had set aside personnel for this new unit called 10th Special Forces Group. A year later, the group had actually recruited and trained 1,700.

17:46 officers and enlisted. A complement of the U.S. Army units materialized. This was the creation of special units composed of displaced persons or citizens of other countries. Recruits for that unit made up labor battalions referred to early in the Albanian operation. Roughly 40,000 people joined this.

18:17 living in military barracks, receiving training, available to be armed at a moment's notice. In 1953, the Eisenhower administration, responding to Kirsten's initiative, considered broadening the labor battalions to a voluntary, quote, unquote, Freedom Corps. It was championed by psychological warfare CD Jackson.

18:47 Ike's National Security Council talked over the concept several times and dreamed of a corps of as many as 250,000. You know, freedom fighters. They're not fighting for freedom. They were basically trained mercenaries that, when they were not used against the intended target of the Soviet Union, were obviously used for other things, as we well know.

19:20 A committee studied the proposition. By late 1954, Jackson attempted to revive the Freedom Corps, lobbying White House officials and Alan Dulles for months. Eisenhower showed interest in these schemes and did much to keep them alive, at least until the Hungarian Revolution. Now, obviously, this guy doesn't understand that we're basically talking about Operation Gladio because he makes it sound like this didn't really happen.

19:52 It was kind of something that they tried to do and didn't really do it. They really did it. As for Charles Kirsten, in 1955, Dulles tried to get his brother to enlist Kirsten for a State Department job and Foster countered by suggesting he be sponsored for membership on the Committee for Free Europe board, a CIA front. CIA's Dulles shot that down.

20:26 He said the guy was too overt. He wouldn't be able to function in a covert operation because everybody already had his number. It wasn't because they didn't like him. It's just that he would be too obvious. The CIA had already created its own counterpart in the form of, wait for it, stay behind networks. Agent groups recruited and prepared ahead of time.

20:56 who were to be activated if the Soviet Union ran over the Volga Gap, known today by the name Gladio, after the title of the Italian counterpart of the CIA network, among the few to be acknowledged in the 1990s. There were perhaps, get this, 5,000 members of these networks in all. That's a bold-faced lie.

21:30 There were tens of thousands of these people, including some in most Western European lands to include neutral countries like Finland, Sweden, and Austria. We know that because we've done all of the research on that. And it wasn't most Western. And you notice how he doesn't associate it with NATO at all. And yet we know it was a requirement to be.

22:06 in NATO that you had to have these units. Beginning in 1950, the groups provided yet another focus for Wisner in his network for these units. There was basically a pissing contest between OPC and OSO at the time, those two different units that were both in the CIA, on who was going to control the stay-behind networks.

22:39 Both CIA elements tried to recruit the same Europeans who themselves frequently joined both sides. Equipment for them was stockpiled in their country. We know that in caches. Many had orders to report to their bases. No, they weren't reporting to bases. So what's interesting about this is this is kind of like narrative.

23:08 No mention of NATO or the hierarchy that was in charge of it. And it was well known that NATO was running these operations by the time this book was written. I find that fascinating. And supposedly this book consists of a lot of really well-intentioned researchers to give you the full story. No mention of the Nazi origins. They act like it just started.

23:38 in the 1950s, and yet we already know that in the late 1940s, these Detachment A guys were going around all over Europe trading out the weapons from Nazi weapons to NATO-approved weapons. He goes on, in later years, the Gladio Networks became a positive embarrassment to the CIA because they constituted hotbeds of right-wing political action.

24:09 engaging in actions from terrorist bombings to attempted coups. Not attempted coups, actual coups in Italy, Belgium, and elsewhere. They actually murdered Aldo Morrow. They murdered Olaf Palm from Sweden. Those weren't attempted coups. They murdered Patrice Lumumba. There would be specific fallout for the CIA.

24:40 in 1956 at the time of the Hungarian Revolution. The groups remained in being for decades. They're still there today. The DO officer, David Whipple, who later managed CIA operations in Western Europe, recalled that agent meetings and network exercises continued at the time he moved on to another assignment in 1979.

25:07 Richard Helms, on the other hand, insists that the Gladio networks were dismantled before he became head of the CIA. Here's his quote. I had to sign off on all these projects, he told Jonathan Kitney. Quote, what would have been the sense of keeping these operations so long? Unquote. Several nations ultimately held official inquiries. That's not true. At the time.

25:39 The Gladio Nets did nothing in the open. Danielle Ganser, the principal analyst of Gladio, presents evidence across many nations that Gladio networks amounted to anti-democratic elements in their own society. He's citing Danielle Ganser and no mention of NATO. The book is called NATO Secret Armies. Just going to put that out there. If so,

26:10 That is telling judgment against the CIA in the service of the United States committed to making the world safe for democracy. Democracy is not safe from the CIA. They hate it. Meanwhile, the presidential transition from Truman to Eisenhower brought a change in covert warriors. The Korean War was winding down, ending in a stalemate with the armistice on July 27, 1953. By then,

26:42 paramilitary operations in China were proceeding. Those in Korea ground to a halt. They didn't. They just installed a dictator like they do everywhere else. And he immediately declares martial law. And there was no democracy in South Korea for decades. There was a lot of change of administration, but they were all still firmly in bed.

27:11 with the CIA setting up the KCIA, the Unification Church, which was used as a front for the CIA. We could go on for days just about Korea. The Korean era still witnessed a substantial buildup of the means to carry out psychological warfare and covert operations. It did indeed. It also created mechanisms to plan and manage them. Before the end of the conflict,

27:43 Covert legions were ready to act on command, like Gladio units. Operators like Frank Wisner and managers like Gordon Gray were equipped to make the most of these available resources. Through his enthusiasm for psychological warfare, President Harry Truman played a major role in this buildup. It occurred in secret while in public.

28:13 The political perception developed that Truman's foreign policy of containment stood helpless in the face of global challenges of the Cold War. We were actually creating the Cold War. The way was open for someone offering a new direction and supposedly in walked Dwight D. Eisenhower. You know, because we changed parties. We didn't change anything else. We just changed parties. Eisenhower spoke often.

28:45 of the ideological struggle against communism, a recurrent theme of the 1952 election. The Republican Party's platform offered to roll back the Iron Curtain while Eisenhower promised to intensify the Cold War through such measures as removing the restrictions on Taiwan's Chiang, unleashing him.

29:16 against mainland China using covert operations and propaganda, a psychological war. And we know all about that. Eisenhower won the election. His victory rang in a new atmosphere for the CIA, where at least one intelligence officer felt the Republican platform read Ike the proposals he used to write for Frank Wisner.

29:46 The morning after the election, one of the senior paramilitary officers home from Bangkok pranced through the Frank Wisner's offices shouting, now we'll finish off the G.D. commie bastards. They loved President Eisenhower. Okay, moving on to chapter six, bitter fruit. In 1955, when John

30:19 Ehrman, a special assistant to the director of central intelligence, came on the line, meaning the telephone, that the president's appointment secretary had called saying that there were new problems. But Ehrman had a question, not a problem. It concerned an appointment with the president set up for 9.50 a.m. on March 24th, 1955. The meeting.

30:49 had been arranged to award a National Security Medal, the highest decoration given in the U.S. for intelligence work. A few months earlier, December 15, 1954, President Eisenhower had signed a memorandum awarding this medal to CIA Officer Kermit Roosevelt for the latter's role in overthrowing Iran. Everything about the ceremony would be very closely

31:20 held. The National Security Medal itself is secret. It can be awarded by the president at his discretion, unlike the Medal of Honor approved by Congress. Award citations and medal are classified, kept in CIA vaults for the duration of the intelligence officer's career. The National Security Medal was not only secret, it was special. Kermit Roosevelt was only the fourth person

31:49 to ever receive it. It would not be the first time Roosevelt came to the White House, nor indeed his first brush with exotic adventures. The grandson of Teddy Roosevelt, he had inherited his thrill of basically overthrowing countries. In 1938, Kim, as he was known, accompanied President FDR's crony, Vincent Astor,

32:23 on a Pacific Island cruise slash spy mission in which they used a yachting expedition to conduct surveys. This time, they were surveying Japanese docks, fuel depots, and airfields in the Marshall Islands. Astor had reported to FDR personally, and Kim went along for the ride.

32:56 so outraged at the Soviet Union's invasion of Finland in the 1939-40 Winter War, that he recruited a Spanish Civil War-style international brigade, you know, paramilitary people, too late to help the Finns, but a fine adventure for him. Months before Pearl Harbor,

33:24 Kim joined the War Information Office that while Bill Donovan would eventually turn into the OSS. Roosevelt's PhD dissertation in propaganda, yeah, propaganda in England's glorious revolution had been just the thing to appeal to Donovan who snapped Kim up from his job at a newly minted

33:56 history instructor. One day, while Bill asked Roosevelt what he thought of Iran, effectively giving Kim a portfolio he kept throughout his career. He went to the Eastern Mediterranean with his OSS boss, Stephen Penrose, serving as a top intelligence evaluator. Roosevelt, then 29, first visited Palestine in 1944.

34:25 and then went on to Iran. His cousin and fellow OSS CIA agent, Archie Roosevelt, followed Kermit to northern Iran at the end of the war, affording a secondhand but still close look at an immediate post-war Iran, where the imperial government of Reza Shah Pahlavi survived as a constitutional monarchy.

34:57 Kermit Roosevelt served as the lead writer on an official history of the OSS, and he retreated to writing and academia afterwards, returning to Iran repeatedly beginning in 1947, when he went back to research a book on Arabs and oil. Three years later, Frank Wisner recruited Kim away from where? Harvard.

35:27 thought Wisner was a little off his rocker, saying that he lacked depth and judgment, but he got on better with Tracy Barnes, who went to the same grooming school of Groton with Kermit Roosevelt. He also really liked Miles Copeland, former musician and army counterintelligence veteran.

36:00 Through Barnes, Kim quickly opened his own channel to Alan Dulles while he was still deputy director. It became clear to everyone that the Middle East would be Roosevelt's private preserve after a startling performance in Egypt. Kim knew Farouk, the king of the semi-independent Egypt, from dealing with him during the war. The CIA sent him back.

36:30 There, Roosevelt reminded himself of his low opinion of Farouk, soon denigrating among agency insiders as the fat effer, not heffer, effer, and broadened his contacts to include the Free Officers Movement, a revolutionary group of quote-unquote reformists that

37:06 encompassed Farouk's overthrow. You know, another regime change that no one ever talks about. Chief among the officers was one Nasser. It was referred to as Project FF for Fat Epper. In March of 1952, Miles Copeland, acting for Kim, told several of the free officers that the United States was worried about the increasing discontent in Egypt.

37:43 The seed was planted, blossomed into a coup. There's a lot more to that. We didn't just suggest it to them. We never do. Nasser became a member of the junta from which he emerged as an Egyptian leader. Kim Roosevelt became Nasser's gray eminent, extending quiet CIA help and giving advice.

38:12 right up until they couldn't control them anymore. Then they hated. Estimates are that the agency funneled over $3 million to overthrow the government of Egypt. Kim attempted to harness Arab nationalism to the American wagon. That didn't work out for them. Agency operators understood the reasons for the anti-American rhetoric Nasser used with his public.

38:49 They were trying to convince him privately that he really didn't mean it. At least Roosevelt tried. He would again try an Iran that had a different, both short-term and long-term result. The award ceremony at the White House came off without a hitch. Roosevelt, his wife, two children entered the West Wing through a side entrance, avoiding any press.

39:21 The appointment itself was just 10 minutes before a session of the National Security Council. It made it convenient for Alan Dulles and John Foster Dulles and the ambassador to Iran, Lloyd Henderson, to present, to be present for the medal that Eisenhower wrapped around Roosevelt's neck before it went back in the safe. Iran had been a covert action.

39:48 Solving a problem Eisenhower inherited from the Truman administration. Yeah, the problem was that they wanted to be nationalistic. Iran's problem was oil. They had lots of it and they were losing control of it. The CIA covert action represented the end result of the Anglo-Iranian oil crisis that had endured for two years.

40:18 drawing in the British government, the Royal Navy, and their SIS, and the U.S. government. Great Britain had total control over the pumping, refining, and shipping of oil in southern Iran through their Anglo-Iranian oil company. Under an agreement, they were supposed to pay Iran rents and taxes, plus the salaries for all of the Iranian employees.

40:52 The money accounted for half of the Iran budget. But in fact, the Anglo-Iranian oil company paid more taxes to the British government than to the nation it pumped the oil from. The Anglo-Iranian oil company itself earned 10 times what it paid Iran. Sure of their position, the British offered only cosmetic changes when Mossadegh was elected.

41:24 Tensions heightened when the United States signed its own agreement with Saudi Arabia that recognized Saudi's ownership of the oil and the corporation and had a much better deal with the Americans than Iran had with the British. Iran wanted the same thing. British suspicions of American interest in Iran oil persisted.

41:53 Nevertheless, as early as 1948, a group of American oil spectators formed overseas consultants in an effort to control oil production in northern Iran. And overseas consultants, by the way, also was traced back to have intelligence assets in it. They wanted the north because the British didn't have concessions there. Their legal counsel, interesting enough, was none other than Alan Dulles.

42:26 at work at Sullivan and Cromwell. In his pre-CIA days, Kermit Roosevelt, who began traveling in the Middle East for the CIA in 1950, was perfectly aware of American penetrations, British sensitivities, and Iranian politics. Meanwhile, the British contrived to have the Iranian parliament commission report nationalization as being completely infeasible.

42:59 The prime minister, presenting this conclusion, read a statement that had clearly been inadequate translated from English into Iranian, and this linked him to British interest. He was shouted down and several weeks later was shot dead because he basically was a mouthpiece for the British government. This brought to power the nationalist leader, Mossadegh.

43:31 who immediately presented a bill for the government to take Anglo-Iranian and nationalize it, which it did through their parliament. Because of the global interest, the Anglo-Iranian oil company had a working relationship with the covert elements of the British government and soon demanded political action to change the government out in Tehran. Because, you know, that's the way it works.

44:03 The civilian companies run the intelligence. Monty Woodhouse, the SIS station chief, arrived in Tehran in August of 51, only a few weeks after Mossadegh's security service shut down the Anglo-Iranians' own private intelligence operations. Both Woodhouse and the Secret Service controller for the Middle East, George Young, were amenable to action.

44:33 They initiated schemes to discredit Mosaddegh's leadership through the use of psychological warfare, though without accomplishing much more than making them pissed off and aware that the British was staging a coup. By mid-1952, when the British Navy actually seized a tanker containing Iranian oil in violation of the British embargo, tensions reached a fever pitch.

45:03 Some weeks later, Iranians monarch, the Shah, responded by attempting to dismiss Mossadegh, appointing instead another politician that was a British favorite. This action was done along with Julian Amory, who was a SIS covert warrior. This maneuver failed. The parliament

45:36 re-elected Mosaddegh as prime minister, tying the Shah's hands. The prime minister's national front seemed to have overwhelming support. London shifted its stance on covert action. Young ginned up a plan to overthrow Mosaddegh by meaning of a coup. The SIS station chief began working actively with Iranian agents and arming tribes in the north, like the Kurds. Suddenly in October,

46:06 The Mossadegh government cut diplomatic relations with the British, closing down the SIS and basically kicked them out of the country. Mossadegh's police also pursued key British agents and pro-Shah figures in the armed forces. The SIS retreated to Cyprus. Cyprus is very convenient. They set up a Tehran station there nearby.

46:38 Norman Darbyshire took charge of the Cyprus SIS detachment. Monty Woodhouse returned to London where he prepared a new plan called Operation Boot that would finally be implemented. In November 52, the SIS delegation showed the proposal to the CIA in Washington. Kermit Roosevelt traveled to the Middle East, as he often did, learned about Boot.

47:06 while stopping in London. That's an interesting way to say that. The MI6 basically came courting the CIA, Alan Dulles. Roosevelt went on to say what they had in mind was nothing less than overthrowing Mossadegh. They wanted to start immediately. I had to explain that the project would require considerable clearance.

47:36 While the Truman administration remained in office, official U.S. policy favored a solution, not the overthrow. Thus, nothing happened with the British proposal. But Truman had already become a lame duck, and Eisenhower, working on his transition to presidency, favored a much more energetic covert operation. Eisenhower's chief of staff during the war, Walter Bedell Smith,

48:07 then CIA director, was very much in favor of a more aggressive plan. Smith discussed it at a meeting in Washington in December, even though Iran had not even been on the agenda. The session brought together key CIA officers and British officers as well. Agency participants included Kim Roosevelt, John Leavitt, chief of the Iranian branch.

48:40 Levitt's deputy, John Pendleton, and James Darling, chief of the Near East Division, paramilitary operations. Woody Woodhouse headed the British group. Meanwhile, Bedell Smith's days at the CIA were coming to an end. Eisenhower selected General Smith to serve as an undersecretary of state. Same stuff. Most likely to be the president eyes and ears in the department.

49:09 Ike replaced him at the agency with Alan Dulles, the same guy that was just representing Sullivan and Cromwell in Iran. John Foster Dulles became Secretary of State. The Iran covert project moved ahead. Although Gordon Gray may have been disappointed, he wasn't asked to head the agency. The truth was that Alan Dulles had the inside track all along, and we know that from

49:41 the devil's chessboard. They basically put Eisenhower in office. Okay. Dulles also had impeccable credentials in diplomacy and intelligence, having served in the State Department from 1916 to 26 with the OSS and then with the CIA. And of course, Sullivan and Cromwell. Alan Dulles' era began when he took office.

50:13 February 23, 1953, another SIS delegation from Britain headed by Sir John Sinclair, their intelligence chief, was in Washington at the time. Its mission was to plan the Iran mission. Alan Dulles had headed the Near East Division during his time at state, and Sullivan and Cromwell represented Anglo-Iran.

50:42 oil company's parent firm in the United States. Although he maintained a casual and non-committal posture, Dulles was definitely in. Mosadegh appealed to the incoming administration for aid, not to settle with the former oil company, but to develop resources. In 1952, the U.S. had provided $23 million in economic aid, but Eisenhower's response on June 29, 1953,

51:12 was that it would be unfair to the American taxpayers for the U.S. government to extend any considerable amount of economic aid to Iran so long as Iran could have access to funds derived from the sale of oil and oil products. In other words, they cut them off like they do every single one of the governments that they want to overthrow. Four days before Ike's letter, Kim Roosevelt carried a 22-page paper outlining objectives.

51:43 to overthrow the government. The paper condensed the much more detailed British plan. John Foster Dulles asked a few questions, and some of the State Department officers, like Ambassador Lloyd Henson, the guy that's going to be running the operation in addition to Kermit, because he's the ambassador to Iran, was there for the briefing. Some CIA officers also weren't all that

52:16 keen on it, but they weren't invited to the meeting either. Secretary of Defense Charles Wilson, who knew only about certain parts of it, Kim said, was excited about it. Alan Dulles asked Roosevelt to be sure to cover two items in his briefing, the cost of the project and flap potential or ability to cause controversy.

52:49 Roosevelt estimated the price to be no more than a couple hundred thousand dollars. The flap potential, he said, was ambiguous. If the spooks seriously miscalculated, the result would be disastrous in the entire Middle East. The project got dubbed Operation Ajax, and Kermit said he would ensure it didn't fail. The project amounted to a scheme fanatically put together in Cyprus.

53:21 in Beirut. A few months earlier, the CIA station in Tehran had reported inquiries from a senior Iranian general as to whether the U.S. might support a coup against Mossadegh. In mid-March, Frank Wisner had sent the British a message informing the British where they stood. An interim measure for the Iranian general received mild encouragement from the headquarters CIA personnel station.

53:51 on how to proceed. Donald Wilbur, a part-time contract officer and Princeton archaeologist, and Miles Copeland, a veteran of the CIA's Egyptian adventure with Nasser, were the head planners, both experts in psychological operations. Wilbur had spent much of the preceding year in Iran planning efforts against the Iran government.

54:20 He was the psychological expert on creating the myth that the Tudor party was an imminent threat, which we know is not true. So I'm going to stop right there and we will continue with the rest of this on Monday as it gets really interesting. And of course, we know what the outcome is.

54:53 But there is a few more details in this that I want to bring up. So we're going to go ahead and go through it. Okay. And I have to be done by 530 tonight. So if you've got something, come on up. It seems I lost my co-host. If you don't mind throwing that out down to me. Oh, well, that's interesting. Okay. So just FYI.

55:32 I have talked to somebody and I do know that I can make the YouTube information after it's been on my premier area public. So I am going to do that. I think you have to wait like three days. I will be recording the third segment of it once we get back from dinner because of course.

55:56 Every Strawberry Festival, we have friends from out of town. As I told you, the Minnesota people are here, and so is some Michigan friends of ours. They flew in a couple of days ago, so we're going to go to dinner with them tonight. They actually went to the Strawberry Festival with us last night. So we're just the center of the reception of forces for the Strawberry Festival of Outer Towners here. Okay.

56:29 So no hands. All right, we're good to go. So I'm gonna jump off here. You guys have a nice evening. And next week's gonna be a barn burner. We've got some really interesting interviews coming up, which I'll preview on Monday and just kind of give everybody a heads up. I thought I was gonna get out of here without all along coming up, but I see them.

57:04 Go ahead. Not bloody likely. OK, Colonel, I just wanted to mention I'm going to post this thing in the bubble about I mentioned it before, but this guy, amazing old researcher named Dave Emery, he has this three part series with some Iranian scholar or whatnot.

57:33 I mentioned it about a year ago, but it's an absolutely incredible interview with incredible detail about, you know, Safari Club intrigue with our good holy trinity of Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the CIA. I don't see that. Where is it? Oh, no, I'm saying I'm about to put it on because I haven't had time yet. Okay. But, yeah, it's...

58:02 It's such a must listen because, I mean, you know, we know some of this, but it's just like some of this is just utterly eye popping detail. And this guy is an Iranian. He seems like a completely, you know, centered being, whatever the heck that could possibly mean in 2026. But, you know, it's just so solid and so, so timely regarding.

58:26 um you know iran now but also it goes back way back into george bush doing iran as early as 1976 that's awesome yeah i would love to listen to it yeah must listen you know listen on the treadmill or whatever just so much fun i'm gonna put it in the bubble right now all right thank you yeah i'd love to listen to it what you got a line i hey colonel um susan kokinda recently sort of touched

58:56 in a recent video on sort of tracing the network back, you know, to the CIA, the CFR, then back to the British East India Company, then back to Venice, and then back to Rome. And if you're on Tommy's podcast, I'm sure you'll have a lot to talk about, but if you're searching for something, it would be fascinating to kind of, you know, walk through that with her, because she's basically kind of, in some ways,

59:25 EIR has kind of done Operation Gladio squared in some ways. And if she can give you the primary sources and the evidence to basically trace the behavior back to Rome, that would have some, number one, that would be really neat to watch. Number two, if somebody can go out there and prove it as a historical fact. Right.

59:56 That's got some really big implications. It does. You're right. So that has been rescheduled Tuesday at noon. And again, he records it. And so it would probably be released sometime before our podcast on Tuesday afternoon. Again, as soon as he puts them out, he texts me and I repost them. So just FYI, that has been rescheduled too.

1:00:25 March 3rd, next Tuesday, the show that Susan and I are going to do with him. So yeah, I'll definitely hit on that. Good stuff. Okay. So I'm out of here. You guys have a nice weekend. I will try to do all of the U2 stuff that I have left. And I do have one other CIA document that will fill up our...

1:00:55 premier requirement for the but I have to do it between um today and tomorrow um in order for it to count for um February's numbers so just be looking for that and don't worry I will move it to the public space as soon as I can okay take care everybody

Entities here

CIA26 Iran25 Kermit Roosevelt23 United States17 United Kingdom15 Allen Dulles15 Dwight D. Eisenhower14 Mohammad Mosaddegh14 1953 Iranian coup d'état10 Operation Gladio9 Frank Wisner8 Richard M. Bissell Jr.7 Anglo-Iranian Oil Company6 National Student Association6 Operation 406 Soviet Union5 Ford Foundation5 Tehran5 Marshall Plan5 Korean War5 Gamal Abdel Nasser4 Reza Pahlavi4 Sullivan & Cromwell4 China3 Harry S. Truman3 Egypt3 Monty Woodhouse3 Korea3 Walter Bedell Smith3 Charles Kirsten3 NATO3 Miles Copeland3 National Security Council2 C.D. Jackson2 Lloyd Henderson2 Gordon Gray2 Cyprus2 Sweden2 Republican Party2 Tracy Barnes2

Claims made here

CIA funded National Student Association book_quoted ▶ 2:54

“and the vice president were quote-unquote winning CIA assets and that each year these newly elected officials would be brought in. The CIA money supposedly supported only the NSA international efforts…”

CIA paid National Student Association book_quoted ▶ 3:25

“at influencing the leadership. So if you're influencing the leadership of the U.S. National Student Association, you're doing it in the United States. They weren't leaders from overseas. During the NS…”

Frank Wisner financed_via Marshall Plan book_quoted ▶ 5:25

“his office operations by diverting a portion of the so-called counterpart funds the administration of the Marshall Plan controlled. This is just all crap. We know from other sources that the Marshall …”

CIA funded Operation Gladio host_asserted ▶ 5:56

“by European countries in exchange for assistance they received because this money was used for Operation Gladio units. Concerned with the apparent rising security threat in Europe in the wake of the K…”

Richard M. Bissell Jr. funded Frank Wisner book_quoted ▶ 5:56

Ford Foundation front_for CIA host_asserted ▶ 9:49

“Ford Foundation is being used as a conduit for the CIA to engage with MIT, the agency's academic think tank. It was set up by CIA and headed by a former agency deputy director. Again, another facility…”

CIA funded Ford Foundation book_quoted ▶ 9:49

Lodge Bill funded 20th Special Forces Group book_quoted ▶ 14:04

“passed in the 81st Congress in June of 1950 on the eve of the Korean War. How timely. It led the army to provide for the creation of special forces regiments. It would consist of three battalions with…”

Charles Kirsten funded Operation Gladio host_asserted ▶ 15:42

“52, they were short of their goals. The project would be revived as a bid to create an immigrant force with a set-aside of $100 million. That was introduced by Representative Charles Kirsten, an amend…”

Robert McClure headed Office of Chief of Psychological Warfare book_quoted ▶ 16:47

“At Army headquarters, the increased need arising from the war combined with the continuous interest in psychological operations led to the establishment of the Office of Chief of Psychological Warfare…”

CIA created Operation Gladio book_quoted ▶ 20:26

“He said the guy was too overt. He wouldn't be able to function in a covert operation because everybody already had his number. It wasn't because they didn't like him. It's just that he would be too ob…”

Operation Gladio carried_out_attack Aldo Moro host_asserted ▶ 24:09

“engaging in actions from terrorist bombings to attempted coups. Not attempted coups, actual coups in Italy, Belgium, and elsewhere. They actually murdered Aldo Morrow. They murdered Olaf Palm from Swe…”

Operation Gladio carried_out_attack Olof Palme host_asserted ▶ 24:09

Operation Gladio carried_out_attack Patrice Lumumba host_asserted ▶ 24:09

Richard Helms covered_up Operation Gladio book_quoted ▶ 25:07

“Richard Helms, on the other hand, insists that the Gladio networks were dismantled before he became head of the CIA. Here's his quote. I had to sign off on all these projects, he told Jonathan Kitney.…”

Danielle Ganser exposed Operation Gladio book_quoted ▶ 25:39

“The Gladio Nets did nothing in the open. Danielle Ganser, the principal analyst of Gladio, presents evidence across many nations that Gladio networks amounted to anti-democratic elements in their own …”

CIA front_for Unification Church host_asserted ▶ 27:11

“with the CIA setting up the KCIA, the Unification Church, which was used as a front for the CIA. We could go on for days just about Korea. The Korean era still witnessed a substantial buildup of the m…”

Kermit Roosevelt overthrew Iran book_quoted ▶ 30:49

“had been arranged to award a National Security Medal, the highest decoration given in the U.S. for intelligence work. A few months earlier, December 15, 1954, President Eisenhower had signed a memoran…”

William J. Donovan recruited Kermit Roosevelt book_quoted ▶ 33:24

“Kim joined the War Information Office that while Bill Donovan would eventually turn into the OSS. Roosevelt's PhD dissertation in propaganda, yeah, propaganda in England's glorious revolution had been…”

Frank Wisner recruited Kermit Roosevelt book_quoted ▶ 34:57

“Kermit Roosevelt served as the lead writer on an official history of the OSS, and he retreated to writing and academia afterwards, returning to Iran repeatedly beginning in 1947, when he went back to …”

Kermit Roosevelt spied_on Egypt book_quoted ▶ 36:30

“There, Roosevelt reminded himself of his low opinion of Farouk, soon denigrating among agency insiders as the fat effer, not heffer, effer, and broadened his contacts to include the Free Officers Move…”

Miles Copeland recruited Free Officers Movement book_quoted ▶ 37:06

“encompassed Farouk's overthrow. You know, another regime change that no one ever talks about. Chief among the officers was one Nasser. It was referred to as Project FF for Fat Epper. In March of 1952,…”

Gamal Abdel Nasser overthrew Farouk of Egypt book_quoted ▶ 37:43

“The seed was planted, blossomed into a coup. There's a lot more to that. We didn't just suggest it to them. We never do. Nasser became a member of the junta from which he emerged as an Egyptian leader…”

CIA funded Free Officers Movement book_quoted ▶ 37:43

CIA funded Egypt host_asserted ▶ 38:12

“right up until they couldn't control them anymore. Then they hated. Estimates are that the agency funneled over $3 million to overthrow the government of Egypt. Kim attempted to harness Arab nationali…”

Anglo-Iranian Oil Company funded Iran documented ▶ 40:18

“drawing in the British government, the Royal Navy, and their SIS, and the U.S. government. Great Britain had total control over the pumping, refining, and shipping of oil in southern Iran through thei…”

Allen Dulles member_of Sullivan & Cromwell documented ▶ 42:26

“at work at Sullivan and Cromwell. In his pre-CIA days, Kermit Roosevelt, who began traveling in the Middle East for the CIA in 1950, was perfectly aware of American penetrations, British sensitivities…”

Mohammad Mosaddegh overthrew Anglo-Iranian Oil Company documented ▶ 43:31

“who immediately presented a bill for the government to take Anglo-Iranian and nationalize it, which it did through their parliament. Because of the global interest, the Anglo-Iranian oil company had a…”

Reza Pahlavi attempted_coup_against Mohammad Mosaddegh documented ▶ 45:03

“Some weeks later, Iranians monarch, the Shah, responded by attempting to dismiss Mossadegh, appointing instead another politician that was a British favorite. This action was done along with Julian Am…”

Mohammad Mosaddegh removed_from_power Reza Pahlavi documented ▶ 45:36

“re-elected Mosaddegh as prime minister, tying the Shah's hands. The prime minister's national front seemed to have overwhelming support. London shifted its stance on covert action. Young ginned up a p…”

Monty Woodhouse founded Operation 40 host_asserted ▶ 46:38

“Norman Darbyshire took charge of the Cyprus SIS detachment. Monty Woodhouse returned to London where he prepared a new plan called Operation Boot that would finally be implemented. In November 52, the…”

Kermit Roosevelt attempted_coup_against Mohammad Mosaddegh host_asserted ▶ 47:06

“while stopping in London. That's an interesting way to say that. The MI6 basically came courting the CIA, Alan Dulles. Roosevelt went on to say what they had in mind was nothing less than overthrowing…”

John Leavitt headed CIA documented ▶ 48:07

“then CIA director, was very much in favor of a more aggressive plan. Smith discussed it at a meeting in Washington in December, even though Iran had not even been on the agenda. The session brought to…”

James Darling headed CIA documented ▶ 48:40

“Levitt's deputy, John Pendleton, and James Darling, chief of the Near East Division, paramilitary operations. Woody Woodhouse headed the British group. Meanwhile, Bedell Smith's days at the CIA were c…”

Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Walter Bedell Smith documented ▶ 48:40

Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Allen Dulles documented ▶ 49:09

“Ike replaced him at the agency with Alan Dulles, the same guy that was just representing Sullivan and Cromwell in Iran. John Foster Dulles became Secretary of State. The Iran covert project moved ahea…”

Allen Dulles headed CIA documented ▶ 49:41

“the devil's chessboard. They basically put Eisenhower in office. Okay. Dulles also had impeccable credentials in diplomacy and intelligence, having served in the State Department from 1916 to 26 with …”

Sullivan & Cromwell front_for Anglo-Iranian Oil Company host_asserted ▶ 50:42

“oil company's parent firm in the United States. Although he maintained a casual and non-committal posture, Dulles was definitely in. Mosadegh appealed to the incoming administration for aid, not to se…”

United States funded Iran documented ▶ 50:42

Dwight D. Eisenhower removed_from_power Iran documented ▶ 51:12

“was that it would be unfair to the American taxpayers for the U.S. government to extend any considerable amount of economic aid to Iran so long as Iran could have access to funds derived from the sale…”

Kermit Roosevelt founded Operation 40 host_asserted ▶ 52:49

“Roosevelt estimated the price to be no more than a couple hundred thousand dollars. The flap potential, he said, was ambiguous. If the spooks seriously miscalculated, the result would be disastrous in…”

Donald Wilber trained Mohammad Mosaddegh host_asserted ▶ 54:20

“He was the psychological expert on creating the myth that the Tudor party was an imminent threat, which we know is not true. So I'm going to stop right there and we will continue with the rest of this…”