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Assassination, Terrorism and the Arms Trade: Debate


John Simkin

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I thought I would start a separate thread for the discussion on my paper, “Assassination, Terrorism and the Arms Trade: The Contracting Out of U.S. Foreign Policy: 1940-2006”. As I am producing it in 6 parts this will give it some consistency (I might even take it up to the present as it is quite clear that the network started in 1940 is still involved in what is going on in the United States today.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=5799

I welcome corrections and suggested additions to the paper. This is very much a collaborative project.

Over the years several people have blamed the assassination on the Military Industrial Congressional Complex (MICC) first mentioned by Dwight Eisenhower when he left power in 1960 (he had been persuaded at the last moment to remove the word Congressional from his theory). I intend to give flesh to what is meant by the MICC and to name the important people who took part in this conspiracy that is still at the heart of the government of the United States.

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William Harvey's name didn't appear on your list?

He was indeed a member of the network. The list only included people who were active in the group for over 20 years.

I need to visit the university library tomorrow to check a few facts concerning the 1940-50 section. Therefore, the first section will not be posted to Thursday. Sorry about the delay.

Sherman Skolnick, if I am not mistaken has an archive section on Nexus, where he alleges that the Israeli's are 'blackmailing the Bush Family.'

Israel is not the only the country in the Middle East blackmailing the Bush family.

And your proof of the latter statement can be found at . . .?
Tim, the Saudis who left the US in the days immediately post-9/11 when the no-fly restrictions supposedly applied to EVERYONE...doesn't THAT suggest something to you?

You can't POSSIBLY be THAT clueless.

Or CAN you?

Over the next few weeks I hope to show the connection between the Bush family and the MICC. This includes the pro-Nazi activities of Prescott Bush in the 1930s and the cover-up that enabled the intelligence services to develop a close relationship with Prescott's son and grandson.

John

I will look forward to more information as you present it. As you know my research goes back to associations that began in 1927 and moves forward from that point. The 1940 date that you use coincides with Henry Stimson's appointment of John J. McCloy to a position of advisor followed by his elevation to Asst. Sec. of War. McCloy's job was to revamp the military intelligence system within the United States as we geared up to enter the second World War.

McCloy was at the center of the intelligence apparatus that was developed at that time and was then positioned to revamp that apparatus (after WWII) for the new enemy during the Cold War.

The system as imagined by Stimson was to be modeled upon the British system of intelligence. Within the British system, at that time was one man at the top of a many headed group of organization. McKenzies, I believe, was the head of this British group of organizations and was known as "C."

Was McCloy our "C" in America? I believe the topic needs to be studied in depth.

Jim Root

John McCloy is indeed an important figure in this network. So far I have concentrated on his pro-Nazi activities in the 1940s. However, I need much more information on him and have just ordered Kai Bird’s book, Chairman: John J. McCloy, The Making of the American Establishment. Do you have a copy of this book?

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John wrote:

I intend to give flesh to what is meant by the MICC and to name the important people who took part in this conspiracy that is still at the heart of the government of the United States.

John Merriam-Webster on-line has two different definitions of "conspire":

1 a : to join in a secret agreement to do an unlawful or wrongful act or an act which becomes unlawful as a result of the secret agreement b : SCHEME

2 : to act in harmony toward a common end.

(the dictionary notes that from the original Latin conspire means simply "to act in harmony".

I assume you, however, will attempt to prove the first more sinister meaning.

Edited by Tim Gratz
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Not quite sure where to put some of these so as they partly relate I put them here...

Prescott Bush on behalf of Gen EA Walker. defending right of Military Personnell anti communist propaganda/seminars

___________

Chennault pinning medal of John Birch "He was like a son to me"

____________

RP Oliver from sep 64 JBS publication

______________

Jose Norman at JBS seminar on Cuba

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John wrote:

I intend to give flesh to what is meant by the MICC and to name the important people who took part in this conspiracy that is still at the heart of the government of the United States.

John Merriam-Webster on-line has two different definitions of "conspire":

1 a : to join in a secret agreement to do an unlawful or wrongful act or an act which becomes unlawful as a result of the secret agreement b : SCHEME

2 : to act in harmony toward a common end.

(the dictionary notes that from the original Latin conspire means simply "to act in harmony".

I assume you, however, will attempt to prove the first more sinister meaning.

Wordnet defines it in the following way:

S: (n) conspiracy, confederacy (a secret agreement between two or more people to perform an unlawful act)

S: (n) conspiracy, cabal (a plot to carry out some harmful or illegal act (especially a political plot)

S: (n) conspiracy, confederacy (a group of conspirators banded together to achieve some harmful or illegal purpose)

The Free Dictionary defines it in the

1. An agreement to perform together an illegal, wrongful, or subversive act.

2. A group of conspirators.

3. An agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime or accomplish a legal purpose through illegal action.

4. A joining or acting together, as if by sinister design.

I have used the word conspiracy to mean: “A secret agreement between a network of people to perform harmful and illegal acts.”

What I am attempting to do is to show how this network operated between 1940 and the current time. I have fully documented my theory. I am awaiting you to point out the errors of my argument.

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John, I like your definitions much better and I also like the one short definition you adopted. It is succinct and correct, IMO.

We previously discussed problems in the Merriam Webster definition of "coup". It seems equally deficient in its definition of conspiracy.

Edited by Tim Gratz
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Not quite sure where to put some of these so as they partly relate I put them here...

Prescott Bush on behalf of Gen EA Walker. defending right of Military Personnell anti communist propaganda/seminars

___________

Chennault pinning medal of John Birch "He was like a son to me"

____________

RP Oliver from sep 64 JBS publication

______________

Jose Norman at JBS seminar on Cuba

____________________________________

Interesting photos, John. Can't read the letter, though. Print's too small.....

FWIW, Thomas

____________________________________

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John, a great work of synthesis. I agree that its high time we break down this Military Industrial Complex abstraction. (Does something remain an' abstraction,' because journalists can't publish articles about it in anything with a circulation above 10,000?)

The Corcoran links to both the New Deal and the growing right wing arms indsutry can help explain how Roosevelt managed to create national unity among elites during WWII. It shows one more time just how deceptive laissez faire rhetoric among American rightists is. Big gov. is just fine so long as the largess is flowing into a few big pockets and not a lot of smaller ones.

As you described Corcoran, the name of Irving Davidson came to mind as a person of similar trouble shooting capacities later on in D.C. Davidson worked for similar clients. Any signs of their collaboration later on?

You mention some key China Lobby people such as Claire C., and the far- right trio within the OSS in China.

Around the years 1950-54 this group, if I'm not mistaken, had begun criticizing the CIA as too multilateralist, and too focussed on Europe. Later their views were to be expressed by the American Security Council.

Your article hints at both differences with and connections to the CIA.

Even though this group was INTERVENTIONIST it might be distinguished from MULTILATERALISTS in thier different strategies for intervention. This Brown-Root-Kaiser link had profitted by land and sea wars, (as opposed to Kennedy interest in shifting to more agile Special Ops.) rather than by talking it out as the new Eastern Estabishment institutions like the U.N. and the World Bank.

Also potentially allied to this group were the U.S. companies with direct investment in Latin America, who still wanted to treat Western Hemisphere as their back yard-- without the U.N. having any say in how the badmitten net was set up.

Are their signs of this unilateralist group having an integrated intelligence network, possibly involving military and navel intelligence, that could:

1) possibly have an agenda different from the CIA's main office

2) be able to keep some intelligence a secret from the CIA, and than later selectively feed conctacts within the CIA filtered intelligence?

As an example of this latter point Peter Dale Scott has written of the New Orleans' FBI agent John Quigley sending the name A.J. Hidell to the 112th Army Military Intelligence group that then matched this name to Lee Harvey Oswald.

Oswald was working for a private Inteligence group that had connections to the FBI. Scott argues that the myriad conntacts of Oswald with groups of both the Right and Left suggests that he may have been investigating mail order arms shipments for his employers on Camp Street.

Scott also suggests that the Camp street office may have assigned Oswald work that had been contracted out to it from other U.S. intelligence agencies such as the A.T.F.

Might such cut- out private intel. companies as Camp Street have been used by this Unilateralist economic allies as cells that might stitch together alternative inteligence networks of the moment. These cells might connect different gov agencies, such as parts of FBI, A.T.F. , Military Inteligence Groups, but in a zig zag manner designed to prevent knowledge from filtering up to the top of the separate bureaucracies.

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As you described Corcoran, the name of Irving Davidson came to mind as a person of similar trouble shooting capacities later on in D.C. Davidson worked for similar clients. Any signs of their collaboration later on?

I will be dealing with how Irving Davidson joined the network in the next section of the article: 1950-60.

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Not quite sure where to put some of these so as they partly relate I put them here...

Prescott Bush on behalf of Gen EA Walker. defending right of Military Personnell anti communist propaganda/seminars

___________

Chennault pinning medal of John Birch "He was like a son to me"

____________

RP Oliver from sep 64 JBS publication

______________

Jose Norman at JBS seminar on Cuba

____________________________________

Interesting photos, John. Can't read the letter, though. Print's too small.....

FWIW, Thomas

____________________________________

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I suppose I should have commented on the images.

Prescott Bush here in association with the people such as Gen. EA Walker places the current president a hop and skip away from one of the prime persons of interest in the assassination of JFK, if nothing else certainly in spirit which provides a relevance to the network John S. is writing about.

Similarly grouped with them are Chennault, John Birch, JBS, and anti Cuba individuals.

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Joe Trento: You are right about British support of Hitler in the upper classes but you cannot lump Bush into this. Your characterization of Prescott Bush is unfair. There is no evidence he was a man who was ideological supportive of the Nazi’s. Like many American businessmen – and British he could be blinded by money.

I knew McCloy, he was a patriot and did not take part in the murder or coverup of JFK. He was on the Warren Commision because he was one of the most distinguished Americans in 1963.

John Simkin: Is it therefore not possible that people like Bush, Dulles and McCloy did have ideological reasons for their political activities? After all, the main thing that drove the CIA agenda was the perceived fear of communism.

Joe Trento: Come on – there is no basis to indicate any Bush believed in Hitler – just money. I remind you that the Royal family had a very cozy relationship with their German cousins. Don’t overreach.

They hated communism – by the way so do I. I don’t think fear is what this was about. They had a pragmatic approach to eliminating it and fighting it. Sometimes they over did it. Often innocents suffered. What drove the CIA agenda was commercial US interests and bureaucratic survival for this unsuccessful agency.

John Simkin: (4) On page 9 you mention that Prescott Bush was a “close friend and adviser to William Pawley”. Are you aware that some people believe Pawley was one of those right-wing businessmen who helped fund the assassination of JFK?

Joe Trento: I think that is nonsense.

I agree that people like Prescott Bush and William Pawley were capitalists who were trying to maximize their profits. This is what people like Alfried Krupp, Friedrich Flick, Hjalmar Schacht and Kurt von Schröder argued at Nuremberg. As you know, none of the people who provided the money for the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany suffered very much after 1945. Schröder got three months, Schacht was sentenced to eight years imprisonment but he was freed after serving just over 2 years.

Krupp and Flick got longer sentences but were both released by John McCloy in February, 1951. They were also given back the money and property they had made under the Nazis. This included the considerable wealth Krupp made from the labour of over 100,000 inmates of concentration camps. For example, Krupp’s fuse factory inside Auschwitz. It is estimated that around 70,000 of those working for Krupp died as a result of the methods employed by the guards of the camps.

Krupp's property, valued at around 45 million, and his numerous companies were restored to him. Within a few years of his release Krupp's company was the 12th largest corporation in the world.

By 1955 Flick owned over 100 companies with an annual turnover of two billion dollars. Flick was reported to be the richest man in Germany and the fifth-richest man in the world. However, he refused to pay any compensation to the families of the people who had died making him wealthy.

Friedrich Flick died at Konstanz on 20th July, 1972. He left over a billion dollars to his playboy son but nothing to the families of the 48,000 people who had died while slave labourers during the war.

You say that people like Bush and Pawley are just anti-communist. You add that you are also anti-communist. So am I. But I am also anti-fascist. Krupp, Flick, Schacht, Schröder, Bush, Pawley, etc. do not fall into the same category. They are willing to back fascism when it makes them money. It is no coincidence that people like Prescott Bush, William Pawley, Henry J. Kaiser, George & Herman Brown, Stephen D. Bechtel, Tommy Corcoran, Sam Zemurray, etc. like fascist governments. They provide ideal conditions for making high profits. This is why these people provided backing for military dictatorships in Asia and Latin America.

Joseph Pratt and Christopher Castaneda pointed out in their book about George and Herman Brown that the common goals of the Suite 8F group involved working towards a “healthy business climate characterized by a minimum of government regulations, a weak labor movement, a tax system favorable to business investment, the use of government subsidies and supports where needed to spur development, and a conservative approach to the expansion of government social services.” This is what fascist and neo-fascists governments in third-world countries give investors from the West. That is why they back them. That is why they are willing to work so closely with the CIA to get these kind of governments. That is why most American presidents in the 20th century were so keen to back these military dictatorships. JFK tried to develop an alternative policy and as a result he had to be removed from power.

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You may be interested to know that "Tommy the Cork's" old law firm (bearing his name) is alive and well and a son is still quite active in that shop. I do not know about their ongoing lobbying business but they are quite close to the NSC and the unitary/imperial presidency crowd.

In your list of players in the network, some are vastly more important than others. You have serious policy makers (even Bilderberg participants) alongside "mechanics."

I would have confidence in Morganthau's opinion about TC.

You should know that McCloy (CMB) was at Murchison's house on the evening of 11 /'21/63 along with J.Edgar Hoover, Nixon, H.L. Hunt, Cabel, George Brown, others in the 8F group, and eventually LBJ., whose mistress became a dear friend of mine, and who was also there. She also, along with other Ruby girls saw Oswald and Ruby together on various occasions. The deed was confirmed between 10 and 10:30 PM in M's study.

A closer more personal account is contained in Barr McClellan's book in which he also claims to have made a fingerprint match from the Book Depository nest of a shooter other than Oswald, who was contracted by LBJ's Clark law firm.

Anyway keep on the historical framework and context. It is important.

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You should know that McCloy (CMB) was at Murchison's house on the evening of 11 /'21/63 along with J.Edgar Hoover, Nixon, H.L. Hunt, Cabel, George Brown, others in the 8F group, and eventually LBJ., whose mistress became a dear friend of mine, and who was also there. She also, along with other Ruby girls saw Oswald and Ruby together on various occasions. The deed was confirmed between 10 and 10:30 PM in M's study.

A closer more personal account is contained in Barr McClellan's book in which he also claims to have made a fingerprint match from the Book Depository nest of a shooter other than Oswald, who was contracted by LBJ's Clark law firm.

Anyway keep on the historical framework and context. It is important.

So the rest of us should believe Madeline Browne based on your say-so?

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Joe Trento: You are right about British support of Hitler in the upper classes but you cannot lump Bush into this. Your characterization of Prescott Bush is unfair. There is no evidence he was a man who was ideological supportive of the Nazi’s. Like many American businessmen – and British he could be blinded by money.

I knew McCloy, he was a patriot and did not take part in the murder or coverup of JFK. He was on the Warren Commision because he was one of the most distinguished Americans in 1963.

John Simkin: Is it therefore not possible that people like Bush, Dulles and McCloy did have ideological reasons for their political activities? After all, the main thing that drove the CIA agenda was the perceived fear of communism.

Joe Trento: Come on – there is no basis to indicate any Bush believed in Hitler – just money. I remind you that the Royal family had a very cozy relationship with their German cousins. Don’t overreach.

They hated communism – by the way so do I. I don’t think fear is what this was about. They had a pragmatic approach to eliminating it and fighting it. Sometimes they over did it. Often innocents suffered. What drove the CIA agenda was commercial US interests and bureaucratic survival for this unsuccessful agency.

John Simkin: (4) On page 9 you mention that Prescott Bush was a “close friend and adviser to William Pawley”. Are you aware that some people believe Pawley was one of those right-wing businessmen who helped fund the assassination of JFK?

Joe Trento: I think that is nonsense.

I agree that people like Prescott Bush and William Pawley were capitalists who were trying to maximize their profits.

There's been an interesting development in Canada today that might help to illuminate the financial incentives for those involved in the supply of contraband items. As you read the following, plucked from today's Globe & Mail [the Canadian newspaper of record and counterpart here to the NYT], please bear in mind that the Greg Sorbara who is mentioned was pretty much forced to temporarily step down as Finance Minister for Canada's largest province, Ontario, when his name became ensnared in this ongoing investigation. Aside from the initial alleged fiscal impropieties that caused the investigation, the RCMP seem [let me stress that word, since none of the allegations have been proven in a court of law] to have discovered some rather dirtier crimes than one usually attributes to white-collar fraud artists. If this pans out the way the Mounties think it will, it could illustrate in current terms the nexus at which financial, political and criminal interests converge:

Royal Group probe takes bizarre turns

RCMP allegations include tale of 'Angel of Death'

By PAUL WALDIE

Tuesday, January 17, 2006 Posted at 4:42 AM EST

From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

The criminal probe surrounding Royal Group Technologies Ltd. took several bizarre twists yesterday with new allegations about the role of Bank of Nova Scotia in the saga, a tale involving an "Angel of Death" and allegations a key player is "involved in running guns and drugs."

The allegations are contained in hundreds of pages of documents filed by the RCMP in an Ontario court that were unsealed yesterday. The RCMP has been investigating Royal Group and several former company officials, including founder Vic De Zen and former Ontario finance minister Greg Sorbara, for more than a year over allegations of fraud. Mr. De Zen and Mr. Sorbara, a former company director, have denied any wrongdoing along with all the others. None of the allegations have been proven.

Royal Group, based in the Toronto suburb of Woodbridge, Ont., specializes in building products and it has been dogged by controversy and poor financial performance for months. The company put itself up for sale last spring.

Much of the RCMP investigation is centred around the relationship between Royal Group and a $330-million resort in St. Kitts that Mr. De Zen and some of the others co-own (Mr. Sorbara is not among the owners).

The documents unsealed yesterday were filed by police in Ontario Superior Court to support their applications for several search warrants that were exercised during the past two years.

The filings alleged that Mr. De Zen and his brother in law, Fortunato Bordin, who used to work at Royal Group, borrowed $114-million from Scotiabank between 1996 and 2004 to fund construction of the Caribbean resort. The documents allege the bank became concerned about repayment and security for the loans, insisting on securing the money against the resort. It is not clear how much of the loan is still outstanding, but police alleged "it would appear that Mr. De Zen and Mr. Bordin might be encountering difficulties in repaying the loan amount." A bank spokesman declined to comment.

The filings also alleged a former Bank of Nova Scotia manager had a cottage built for him by a company co-owned by Royal Group which did not charge the full construction costs. The 1,725-square-foot cottage was allegedly built in 1997 for Les Neate, vice-president of Bank of Nova Scotia Vaughan Commercial Banking Centre, where Royal Group did most of its banking. The documents allege the contract to build the house was $90,000, but actual costs were nearly $14,000 higher.

The filings also revealed that Mr. De Zen's original partner in the St. Kitts project, Archie Zuliani, has "a couple of indictments out on him" in the United States. Mr. De Zen and Mr. Zuliani, who is originally from Toronto, launched the project in 1995 but had a falling out three years later.

According to the court filings, Mr. Zuliani "has dealings with Ecuadoreans and Colombians" and that "two guys who came to collect payment from Zuliani 'went fishing' and did not come back." Mr. Zuliani was unavailable yesterday.

The documents also allege that in 2002 the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation in Houston received a complaint about Royal Group, which has a subsidiary in Texas, over allegations of corporate fraud. The FBI was later told the complainant issued a threat to another man that "that Angel of Death was coming if he did not settle his $6-million debt." The FBI is not pursuing the case.

Royal Group divests unit

Royal Group said yesterday it has sold 60 per cent of its interest in plastics injection moulding firm Royal Alliance to its minority partners.

Proceeds from the divestiture of Royal Alliance "were in line with its expectations," Royal said in a release. The Toronto-based company said it expects divestitures of business units to produce proceeds between $60-million and $80-million during the first quarter of 2006.

The restructuring plastics company has said it will sell five units -- Royal Alliance, Baron Metal Industries, Roadex Transport, Royal EcoProducts and a subsidiary in Poland -- as it seeks to rebuild after being beset by high raw material costs, shaky sales, the strong Canadian dollar and continuing probes into its governance under previous management.

Royal Group has sought cash to pay off debt in a bid to grow profitable enough to attract buyers.

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