I recently found this little gem, an old Frontline
documentary from an era on PBS that's hard to imagine in our day. There's no
way they would produce or condone a film like this anymore.
The funny part was that even though I had never seen the film
I found myself nodding along at the various connections. I've read the books,
watched and listened to other things. The topics and individuals involved were
all familiar to me as they are to anyone who's poked around this almost
unfathomable labyrinth.
I'm writing this and posting the link because for someone
unfamiliar or uninitiated this Frontline episode provides a pretty solid
introduction to the topic.
And yet for all that it really only hints at what is there.
It allows you to stand on the tip of the iceberg and you can begin to see the
massive submerged colossus beneath you. It's an introduction, nothing more.
Victor Marchetti briefly hints at the larger story concerning
World War II and OSS co-operation with the Mafia. This story could fill volumes
as indeed it has. It's a wonderland of Vatican Secrets, Nazi gold,
paramilitaries, fascist governments and organised crime. Everything from The Godfather to The French Connection ties in with this larger tale. Marchetti
mentions the Corsicans and yet the full implications of their connections with
French Indochina are not explored.
The Kuomintang (KMT) is briefly mentioned. Those familiar with Chiang Kai-Shek think of
his exile to Taiwan after being defeated by Mao in 1949. But many are either
unaware or have forgotten the story of the KMT in Burma and plans for an
invasion of South China during the Korean War. But the KMT in Burma also played
an important role in the development of the Golden Triangle and the opium
trade. This story goes way back to the days of the Flying Tigers and Generals
Chennault and Stilwell and OSS/CIA figures like Paul Helliwell. It's an early
chapter in America's long tally of illegal and hidden wars. Funding such wars
is where the turn to the black market becomes appealing and the lines between
officialdom and the underworld grow fuzzy.
Figures like Ramon Rodriguez come to light. In some ways he
literally embodies how the relationships work. Rotting away in a jail cell,
he's willing to talk and he helps to unfold the complex relationships between
drug cartels, the CIA, the Cuban expatriate community and even figures like
George HW Bush. Many trails lead back to Bush, who was Vice-President at the
time of this video. The former head of the CIA, Vice-President and later
President he was for many years a quiet player. Mocked by Nixon and Kissinger,
Bush seems to have been something of a quiet plodder. Not known for an
aggressive leadership style, he nevertheless built up an impressive portfolio
over the decades and is in fact a rather dark figure. He'll be dead before too
long and the media will heap praises upon him for his WWII record and his
leadership in the Gulf War. And yet, the truth is he's a man with a past as
dark as Don Corleone and hardly someone worthy of praise or respect.
William Colby appears and almost seems bitter about it. The
former CIA head puts on a masterful (if brief) performance and spins out as
many lies as he can, denying everything. Seeing Colby one is reminded of the
mysterious 'suicide' of Frank Nugan and the scandal surrounding his bank in
Australia. Colby's business card was in his possession when he was murdered and
the scandal surrounding the collapse of the Nugan-Hand Bank is yet another tale
of CIA drugs, money laundering and coup d'état.
Colby himself died under very mysterious circumstances in
1996. Colby, one of the masterminds of the Phoenix Program was a man of blood
and death... one who undoubtedly had many enemies. His denials are patently
unconvincing. There have been some CIA heads (like John McCone for example) that
never managed to control the agency and were kept in the dark about many
things. Bush may have been another example of that kind of leadership in Langley.
This description does not fit Colby. He knew what was happening. He is simply
one who lies without a conscience.
Richard Secord makes an appearance. Iran-Contra had forced
him into the spotlight and for a season he was all but compelled to give some interviews.
Secord is quite literally akin to a CIA operative out of the movies. Of course
when you see these people in real life they're not as impressive as their
Hollywood imitators. Yet, don't be fooled. Secord is the real deal. He played a
big part in the Secret War in Laos, the wars in Central America, and even after
Iran-Contra he was still busy in the post-Cold War era, turning up in
Azerbaijan. Everywhere he went, he left a trail of drugs and death squads.
It would seem some of his last projects were at the very
least helping to set the stage for yet another chapter in the Caucasus and
Central Asia. In retirement he reaped his reward and like many such figures
ended up sitting on various boards, no doubt getting paid huge sums for little
more than his name and his little black book.
To some within the system Secord and others like Oliver North
are great patriots, unsung heroes. In reality these men are little better than mafiosi,
thugs and killers, monsters hiding behind uniforms, medals and social trappings.
Secord attempted to stop the Cockburn's who exposed some of
his dark deeds but the judge shut him down. He had no case. One wonders if the
judge was ordered to shut down the case as further agitation would only draw
more attention?
He didn't need to worry. Within a matter of a few years his
name was largely forgotten and today no one cares. His legacy is quite safe.
USAID is connected to the story. This organisation which
often appears in news articles and in television reports has a long track record
of CIA contacts and infiltration. Many believe it is not only heavily
infiltrated but is effectively an arm of Langley. I have shaken my head in
amazement on numerous occasions when a country will talk of expelling USAID and
then when this is reported in our media... the connection is never made. Why
does leader X want them out? He's crazy and unreasonable. He's authoritarian.
No, he knows what they are what they're doing. They're an
agency of infiltration, a cover and a means of moving contraband and money in
and out of his country. In recent years the US Deep State has expanded this
function to a host of NGO's. It's as if the people that are ostensibly there to
help, contain within them the cancer cells that are there to foment trouble.
Air America is mentioned. I remember when the Mel Gibson
movie came out and some people scoffed at what was being presented to them. The
truth is the movie was gentle in its treatment, flawed in that it presented the
issue in comedic terms. Of course it didn't matter, the critics for the
Establishment media lambasted it and attacked it on every front.
The Air America story was tied to drugs from the beginning
and it was hardly the only CIA airline. I have related elsewhere a few of my
own observations and stories connected with Southern Air Transport which was
basically a parallel outfit. Officially defunct, it simply had its name changed
and was rolled into something else. The game goes on.
The Hmong leader Vang Pao is given a large segment and yet he
is perhaps best known because his character appears in the Mel Gibson film. Pao,
a general and a drug dealer extraordinaire was the lynchpin to the Secret War
and ended his life an exile in the United States. And yet it is unclear as to
whether or not he continued acting in some capacity as a US agent. He certainly
kept his finger on the pulse of Laotian politics.
Of course the Hmong themselves continue to deal with the
fallout of the Indochina Wars. Decades after the Americans have moved on the
Hmong are still facing persecution and difficulty due to their previous alliance
with America.
The story of Thailand also comes to mind though it is
mentioned only in passing. The US has relied for a very long time on Bangkok
and Thailand has served as both a buffer and base. In a role reminiscent of
Panama in Latin America, Thailand is the place where the dirty business is
plotted and hidden. It's the place where people hide and things are smuggled.
Its frontiers are a haunt of drug runners and paramilitaries. Some are in
alliance with the United States and some aren't. Part of the Golden Triangle,
Thailand has played no small part in the drug trade and all that goes with it. Though
it's beyond the scope of the Frontline story, one must also consider the US
relationship with Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, the story of Cambodia and the
Thailand frontier.
We have mentions of Colonel Kurtz-like figures, old agents
still functioning in the hinterland, stories of dirty connections to the
successive corrupt governments of South Vietnam... another US imperial project
riddled with corruption and murder.
The story shifts to Latin America as the documentary rightly
picks up on the fact that Latin America in the 1980s was essentially a repeat
or sequel to the CIA's projects in Indochina.
Once again it's a tale of counterinsurgency, drugs, weapons,
paramilitaries and death squads. The PBS film could barely scratch the surface.
They've switched continents and languages but the war is the same and many of
the same players reappear. This time the Cubans play a significant role. The expatriate
community is often thought of in terms of their Anti-Castro posture and their
involvement in the Bay of Pigs. That's just an early chapter of a larger story.
The Cubans in South Florida have played a tremendous role in the American
Empire project and in particular as assets of the CIA.
Familiar names like William Casey and Noriega appear but in
1988 they're connected. After Bush 'flipped' on Noriega and invaded Panama the
following year, the story was changed and when Noriega died in the spring of
2017, these old connections were all but forgotten.
Some of the players hint of the same deeds going on in
Afghanistan in the 1980s. Indeed when the Indochina theatre all but collapsed
in the mid-1970s new options were explored. Latin America and Afghanistan
became new hubs of the drug-funded wars. Latin America was about cocaine and
crack and yet the opium trade was now funneled from Afghanistan through NATO
ally Turkey and into Europe. The French Connection became the Turkish
connection.
The larger story of the banks and money laundering is not
touched on and yet it's a story that lives on today. Every once in awhile a
bank is caught laundering drug money and makes it into the news. The story
generates some buzz and then fades away. The magnitude of this phenomenon is
not even remotely grasped. Various interviewees hint at the monetary
discrepancies and budgetary shortfalls and suggest these vast gaps are filled
with illicit funds.
The CIA also plays the role of venture capitalist through
In-Q-Tel. Look at the numbers. They're staggering. Is all this money part of
the official budget? Are they receiving returns on these investments? How is
that money accounted for? What's happening with the money? Is In-Q-Tel the only
firm they operate? The money trail is complex beyond comprehension. Truly the
CIA is wed to Wall Street and both rely heavily upon drug money. The money is
laundered and when the banks are caught they receive but a slap on the wrist.
The Drug racket (and its multi-billion dollar phony war apparatus) is too big
to fail.
It's not an anomaly. It's systemic. It's at the very heart of
the US Empire and has been for decades. The Drug War is a farce. In addition to
being a charade for the public it is in itself a huge bureaucracy, job creator
and a means of further profit for the hosts of contractors and manufacturers of
military equipment. It's all a big scam and yet it's so big that apparently
many don't see it. Those that do, either keep their heads down and take a nice
paycheck, or they get out and end up bitter and isolated. Or they talk... and
put their lives at risk.
By the end of the video the viewer is overwhelmed as
connections are made to Israeli intelligence agents and weapons being smuggled
out of the Eastern Bloc.
The story is actually very basic. It's about money and power
and what men will do to get it. As Christians we believe human nature is
corrupted by sin and our world is the province of dark angelic activity, the
machinations of demons and the dominion of Satan. This does not mean that God
is not in control but how many Christians fail to grasp this and not only turn
a blind eye but instead join the world in this mad and evil quest. Convincing
themselves they are building the kingdom they join with thieves and murderers
and seek to conquer the world.
Or they join with the masses and stupidly sit in front of the
television digesting sports and endless episodes of worthless television. There
are movies they could watch that would challenge them to think but they decry
these as liberal and subversive. The public library is filled with books that
would open new worlds to them and open their eyes to the evil of this world but
they're really not interested, especially if it might drive them to challenge
the system they live in and prosper under. The implications of such knowledge
are too terrible to consider and so they don't. Those that discover a hint of
the corruption and evil comfort themselves with sweet lies, doing all they can
to believe that it's just a few bad apples and that the bulk of the people who
have status in the system are in fact good hard working folks.
Ward Churchill faced death threats when he said the people
who died in the World Trade Centers were 'little Eichmann's'. In other words
though they killed no one personally they were part of the death machine and
thus culpable in the sins of the American Empire. It generated outrage and
admittedly was probably a less than prudent statement, especially given the
climate in the days following the attacks.
But he was right. I thought of his statement a few months ago
when I was walking around Lower Manhattan and taking in the power resident among
those skyscrapers. For a moment I wondered, where is the capital of the US
Empire? Yes, it's in Washington but in many ways Manhattan wields just as much
power. It is just as much at the centre of the Empire and the projection of its
power. Gazing up at the new Trade Center, I thought about the power of the
banks, what they do, what they're involved in and the role US business plays in
the way the Empire governs the world.
All the figures in the Frontline documentary would not be
where they were if it were not for the influences and interests flowing from
the island metropolis at the mouth of the Hudson. This does not excuse what the
hijackers did in 2001. Don't misunderstand me.
But there's a reason why that target was selected and it
wasn't just symbolic. While I cannot condone their ideology, methods or deeds I
will agree with them on one thing... the system represented so powerfully in
the skyscrapers of New York is an evil one and has blanketed the earth in
darkness and death. It feeds on the life-force of others... they die so the US
populace can live and flourish and revel in its decadence.
And yet what is perhaps most offensive is that those who feed
parasitically and Matrix-like on the flesh of others proclaim themselves and
their system to be moral and upright, godly and righteous. Few of them will
face the reality and acknowledge the monsters their system creates in order to
make it function. Others know that the monsters must exist and are necessary.
They justify these men and their deeds. They give them medals and I know of one
Christian couple who literally offer God daily thanks that our country has such
men... men who haunt the shadows and do dark deeds so that they can drive their
SUV's and remodel their kitchens in splendour.
God help them. They have their reward.
For further reading:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.