John Simkin

Richard Nixon told the American people during the 1968 presidential election that he fully supported Lyndon Johnson’s peace talks. However, at the same time he used Anna Chennault (a Chinese born Republican) to carry secret messages to President Thieu. Nixon persuaded Thieu not to go along with these peace talks. In return, Nixon promised to send South Vietnam enough US troops to “win the war”. This is why Thieu refused to take part in the peace talks (he announced this on 2nd November, three days before the election). Nixon knew the American people would not accept an escalation of the war. He therefore continued Lyndon Johnson’s policy of talking to the North Vietnamese government. Nixon eventually accepted the peace terms available in 1968. By that time another 20,763 American soldiers had died. So had 109,230 South Vietnamese soldiers, 496,260 combatants from the North and an unknown number of civilians. This information appears in several books. Probably the best account appears in Anthony Summers’s book, The Arrogance of Power (298-306).

He might have been born in New York but he was raised in Texas where his father ran his oil business. Officially, Buckley, the journalist, never rejoined the CIA. However, some people, including me, don't believe he actually ever left the CIA. My copy of Joe Trento’s Prelude to Terror was delivered this morning. It is based largely on interviews with Edwin Wilson after he was released from prison last year. Wilson told Trento that Buckley was "one of Shackley's oldest and dearest friends." According to Leslie Cockburn (Out of Control) Buckley "had to approve CIA assassinations undertaken by the Shackley organizations".

My copy of Joe Trento’s Prelude to Terror was delivered this morning. It is based largely on interviews with Edwin Wilson after he was released from prison last year. Here for example is one passage of interest: Wilson recalled a visit by Shackley to his farm, Mt. Airey, in the spring of 1978. Shackley spoke seriously of how the Agency was being destroyed by Carter and Turner and how "the only hope was to take things private until they got both men out of office." Wilson said Shackley was convinced that under a George Bush administration, he, Shackley, was going to be the next head of the CIA. "Things were looking good for Bush at that time, and I knew that Shackley and Clines were meeting with Bush," Wilson said. Shackley suggested to Wilson that if he was willing to back a private company that would allow covert operations to be taken out of the CIA, Shackley would arrange for Wilson's legal problems to end, and for him to be brought in from the cold. "He reminded me that under [DCI] Bush I was not a target of any grand jury investigations ... but since (the time of) the Letelier publicity, I had been a constant target. Larry Barcella was after me.... My problem was, I was too damn stupid to figure out why." Wilson said he agreed in principle to back this private intelligence venture as long as his Around The World Shipping got any shipping business that came out of it. Wilson told Shackley that he wanted one more thing: "Tom Clines is my good friend. I don't mind being in the trenches with him, but he has no head for business. If I put up any money, I want you to run things." Wilson said Shackley agreed. That is when Wilson agreed to fund API, the company that would manage the PEMEX account. Wilson put up the money, and Clines, Quintero, and Chavez were the corporate officers. There is also an interesting passage about Wilson in Gaeton Fonzi's, The Last Investigation (1993): Kevin Mulcahy called me because he thought the Federal Government had used him and was hanging him out to dry. A husky, darkhaired, 39-year-old Irishman, Mulcahy was an ex-CIA agent who, at that time, was the only witness in a case the Federal Government had brought against two other men on Kelly's list: Edwin Wilson and Frank Terpil. Mulcahy thought the Government was stalling in its prosecution and he feared for his life. Wilson, he said, was a killer, whose current job was arranging to knock off the enemies of Libyan strongman Moammar Khadafy. In response to my direct question, Mulcahy said he knew nothing that would link Wilson to the Kennedy assassination, but Wilson, like David Phillips, was deep inside that CIA clique pulling the strings at the time... To insiders, Wilson was a big-time player in the spook world. He owned a huge estate in Virginia horse country and regularly hosted Washington's top politicians, admirals, generals and key intelligence officers. He had been in the CIA's Special Operations section, which handled covert paramilitary operations around the world. His job was to set up the proprietary companies used to ship supplies for the Agency's secret missions or the coups it supported. Wilson's company shipped incendiary, crowd dispersion and harassment devices to Chile, Brazil and Venezuela, and arms to the Dominican Republic, all areas that came under David Phillips's charge. Wilson also had supplied many of the boats used by Miami exiles for their raids against Cuba. (His case officer at one point was Tom Clines, who then was a top deputy to Ted Shackley at Miami's JM/WAVE station.)

Edwin P. Wilson was released from prison in 2004 and now lives with his brother in Washington State.

Keith Gottschalk argues that Bush claims Congress gave him authorizing the use of military force after the 9/11 attacks which authorized the President “to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed or aided the terrorist attacks ... ” He adds: Further, Bush said: “My personal opinion is, it was a shameful act for someone to disclose this very important program in a time of war. The fact that we're discussing this program is helping the enemy.” and: “I think I've got the authority to move forward,” he said, adding: “It's legal to make the decisions I'm making ... An open debate about law would say to the enemy, 'Here's what we're going to do.'” So let me get this straight. The President of the United States decides its okay to wiretap Americans within the United States without a warrant or any other oversight because of a “war” he created, attacking a country that did nothing to harm the United States and now claims he has Constitutional authority to commit a Federal crime? And still a third of Americans see nothing wrong with this because they've been brainwashed into believing that if the President isn't given the powers of a dictator the mullahs will be marching down Main Street? This point is important to grasp as it mirrors what has happened before in history. For example, on 27th February, 1933 the German Reichstag caught fire. When they police arrived they found Marinus van der Lubbe on the premises. After being tortured by the Gestapo he confessed to starting the Reichstag Fire. However he denied that he was part of a Communist conspiracy. Hermann Goering refused to believe him and he ordered the arrest of several leaders of the German Communist Party (KPD). When Hitler heard the news about the fire he gave orders that all leaders of the German Communist Party should "be hanged that very night." Paul von Hindenburg vetoed this decision but did agree that Hitler should take "dictatorial powers". KPD candidates in the election were arrested and Hermann Goering announced that the Nazi Party planned "to exterminate" German communists. On 23rd March, 1933, the German Reichstag passed the Enabling Bill. This law gave Hitler what he wanted - a ban on the Communists and Socialists taking part in future election campaigns. On 7th April 1933, Nazi officials were put in charge of all local government in the provinces. On May 2nd 1933, trades unions were abolished, their funds taken and their leaders put in prison. On July 14th 1933, a law was passed making it illegal to form a new political party. It also made the Nazi Party the only legal political party in Germany.

Namebase entry for Edwin P. Wilson: http://www.namebase.org/main1/Edwin-Paul-Wilson.html Adams,J. Secret Armies. 1988 (357) Anderson,J. Peace, War, and Politics. 1999 (314-6) Assn. National Security Alumni. Unclassified 1992-05 (12) Back Channels 1992-W (11) Bainerman,J. The Crimes of a President. 1992 (75-6) Berlet,C. Right Woos Left. 1991-12-16 (20) Bloch,J. Fitzgerald,P. British Intelligence and Covert Action. 1984 (157) Brewton,P. The Mafia, CIA, and George Bush. 1992 (201-2) Brogan,P. Zarca,A. Deadly Business. 1983 (336-55) Chasey,W. Pan Am 103: The Lockerbie Cover Up. 1995 (141-2) Chernyavsky,V. The CIA in the Dock. 1983 (87-8) Christic Institute. Sheehan Affidavit. 1987-01-31 (29-31, 37-41) Christic Institute. Sheehan Affidavit. 1988-03-25 Cockburn,L. Out of Control. 1987 (96, 98, 106) Corn,D. Blond Ghost. 1994 Covert Action Information Bulletin 1982-#16 (52-5) Covert Action Information Bulletin 1987-#28 (4-8) Covert Action Information Bulletin 1990-#35 (54) Crile,G. Charlie Wilson's War. 2003 (36-9) DeCamp,J. The Franklin Cover-up. 1994 (179) Emerson,S. Secret Warriors. 1988 (31, 146, 217-8) Epstein,E. Deception. 1989 (282-3) Fonzi,G. The Last Investigation. 1993 (355-8) Freed,D. Death in Washington. 1980 (172-4, 199) Freney,D. Get Gough! 1985 (5, 17, 69, 73) Goulden,J. The Death Merchant. 1985 Gritz,J. Called to Serve. 1991 (182, 301, 587-8) Hartung,W. And Weapons for All. 1994 (180-1) Honegger,B. October Surprise. 1989 (81) Hougan,J. Secret Agenda. 1984 (62, 120-2) Intelligence (Paris) 2000-05-01 (23) Intelligence/Parapolitics (Paris) 1984-06 (3) Jensen-Stevenson,M. Stevenson,W. Kiss the Boys Goodbye. 1990 (185-6, 218, 277-82, 286-7, 290) Kwitny,J. The Crimes of Patriots. 1987 (16, 97-105, 114-5, 123, 308-18) Lernoux,P. In Banks We Trust. 1984 (63-4, 67, 149) Livingstone,N. The Cult of Counterterrorism. 1990 (356-84) Loftus,J. Aarons,M. The Secret War Against the Jews. 1994 (390-3) Maas,P. Manhunt. 1986 Marshall,J... The Iran-Contra Connection. 1987 (16, 25, 29-30, 37-9, 41, 73, 95, 155-7, 167, 194-6, 256) McClintock,M. Instruments of Statecraft. 1992 (439) McCoy,A. The Politics of Heroin. 1991 (466-7, 471-3, 477) Minnick,W. Spies and Provocateurs. 1992 (239-41) Mother Jones 1984-03 (20) Nation 1999-10-04 (20-4) Naylor,R.T. Hot Money and the Politics of Debt. 1994 (313, 402-4) Parade Magazine 1983-09-18 (22, 24) Parapolitics/USA 1981-10-31 (2-4, 49-50) Parapolitics/USA 1982-03-31 (5-6, 26) Parapolitics/USA 1983-03-01 (19, 25-6, 28, 30-1) Parapolitics/USA 1983-06-01 (14-5, 20) Payne,R. Dobson,C. Who's Who in Espionage. 1984 (178) Prados,J. Presidents' Secret Wars. 1988 (369-70) Riebling,M. Wedge. 1994 (160) Rodriguez,F. Weisman,J. Shadow Warrior. 1989 (207-8, 215, 238, 248) San Jose Mercury News 1986-07-18 (14A) Schlosser,E. Reefer Madness. 2003 (149) Scott,P.D. Deep Politics. 1993 (237) Silverstein,K. Washington on $10 Million a Day. 1998 (200) Sklar,H. Washington's War on Nicaragua. 1988 (22, 253-6) Spotlight Newspaper 1987-04-06 (3) Stich,R. Defrauding America. 1994 (303-4, 459) Stich,R. Drugging America: A Trojan Horse. 1999 (5, 11-4, 18-9) Stich,R. Russell,T.C. Disavow: A CIA Saga of Betrayal. 1995 (94) Summers,A. Conspiracy. 1989 (517) Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (317-8, 383) Thomas,K. Keith,J. The Octopus. 1996 (68, 74, 80, 82, 93) Trento,J. Prelude to Terror. 2005 Trento,J. The Secret History of the CIA. 2001 (220, 344-5, 437, 497) Trento,S. The Power House. 1992 (95-97, 101-2, 104-9, 112-3, 249-51) Turner,S. Secrecy and Democracy. 1985 (55, 183) Vankin,J. Whalen,J. The 60 Greatest Conspiracies. 1998 (126-7, 161, 270) Village Voice 1987-06-23 (31-2) Wall Street Journal 1982-08-24 (22) Washington Post Book World 1986-04-27 (7) Washington Post 1982-11-21 (B1, 5) Washington Post 2000-01-20 (A21)

Gerry, I have a link from my page on you to this thread. However, I suspect my readers will be very confused by this debate about your knowledge of the JFK assassination. It seems that you have been misquoted or misunderstood in the past. I think it would be a good idea to clear-up this confusion. I have therefore started a new thread for you. Maybe, you could state clearly and concisely what you know about the assassination of JFK. Maybe you could also post a timeline of your life (what you were doing and when you were doing it). I would then use this information to correct my web page on you. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKhemming.htm If you did this you would provide a good response to those who have argued that you have confused people on purpose. You might also wish to use this new thread to put forward your own theory of the assassination. The new thread can be found here: http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=5751

I have a link from my page on you to this thread. http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=3173 However, I suspect my readers will be very confused by this debate about your knowledge of the JFK assassination. It seems that you have been misquoted or misunderstood in the past. I think it would be a good idea to clear-up this confusion. I have therefore started this new thread for you. Maybe, you could state clearly and concisely what you know about the assassination of JFK. Maybe you could also post a timeline of your life (what you were doing and when you were doing it). I would then use this information to correct my web page on you. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKhemming.htm If you did this you would provide a good response to those who have argued that you have confused people on purpose.

Comments on Today's letters page in response to Max Hastings article. There is an implication in Max Hastings's article on history teaching (This is the country of Drake and Pepys, not Shaka Zulu, December 27) that because Britain, a western country, has been dominant throughout the world for the past 500 years, the teaching of history in British schools should celebrate this domination. That was exactly what British history textbooks used to do before the second world war. Much of the racist mentality in this country was engendered by that sort of history writing and teaching. A constructive way in today's multi-ethnic Britain would be to strengthen the British history curriculum, not by teaching tales of loot and plunder by Drake, Clive and Kitchener, but by presenting a more balanced account of Britain and its achievements in the perspective of world history and also by explaining how British society has been enriched, both materially and culturally, by successive waves of foreign people, from the Romans to the recently arrived asylum-seekers. Burjor Avari, Lecturer, multicultural studies, Manchester Metropolitan University Max Hastings' campaign for real learning has real virtue. Let us start with setting our children to regard the anniversary of the death, in 2006, of James Connolly, a subject of the Queen's grandfather, who was executed by Britain following the 1916 Irish rising. A good start, even nostalgic reactionaries might agree, for an understanding of contemporary politics. We are six years late in studying the centenary of the Boxer rebellion when an international force of imperialist powers occupied Beijing. Just one of the humiliations suffered by the Chinese people and surely a good start to studying China's role in the modern world. We can wait until 2007 to celebrate the birth of Baghat Singh, who confronted the British colonial state in India. When he and his comrades were executed by the British, Nehru said their courage and sacrifice has been an inspiration to the youth of India. To understand the impact of Britain and its imperialist role, and perhaps to help explain how our soldiers are still dying in military expeditions in other people's countries, our children should be encouraged to study the works of Rajani Palme Dutt who said of the British empire that over it the sun never set, and the blood never dried. A history syllabus that leads British people understand how others view us would be a real contribution to learning. Nick Wright, Croydon, Surrey Max Hastings appears to have been the victim of a narrow English education which he wishes to inflict on future generations. The issue is not multiculturalism and the "sense of cultural identity" which he wishes to impose on "new Britons". It is whether an education in the humanities focused purely on the last 500 years of British and western activities is good enough for any of us. Clearly it is not. Children and students, and their teachers, need to understand how history is constructed and for what purposes, including the social and political. To get this wide perspective they need a variety of subject matter and ideas and not, say, just the nitty-gritty of the British national insurance acts of the mid-20th century - the speciality of my grammar school education - nor the fascination of the social and cultural history of medieval England, my interest now. Children need a long chronological span, and to explore the big themes such as the interactions of different human groups, the development of religions and the relationships between them, the growth of exchange and trade, and forms of artistic expression over time. The past 500 years of the west will not do for history nor for understanding our own society. Dr GM Draper, Sevenoaks, Kent This may not be the country of the Mahdi, however neither is it that of Kitchener and Crecy. Rather it is an amalgam of the efforts of Wycliffe, Lilburne, Wilkes, Bamford, Rochdale Pioneers, London match girls and dockers, suffragettes, Hardie and Bevan, together with thousands of working-class people. Let their stories be taught - perhaps then all students of whatever background may appreciate the true history of these isles and the value of the struggles of the people. Kevin Fitzgerald, Norwich Max Hastings leaves out an importance addition: "History, as taught" is the story of dominance. To Waterloo added Peterloo; to Stalin, add Mandela. Then history comes to life to include ideas alongside action. Robin Bennett, Ludlow, Salop

The two men are often confused. William Frank Buckley was born in Texas on 24th November, 1925. He joined the CIA in 1951 and like his namesake did serve in Mexico. However, he officially left the CIA in 1952. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKbuckleyW.htm

William Francis Buckley was born in Medford, Massachusetts, on 30th May, 1928. He joined the United States Army in 1947. He later attended Officers Candidate School and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. Buckley also attended Intelligence School at Oberammergau, Germany. Buckley served as a company commander with the 1st Cavalry Division during the Korean War. In 1955 Buckley joined the Central Intelligence Agency. According to official records he left two years later and after graduating from Boston University he was employed as a librarian in Lexington. In 1960 Buckley joined the 320th Special Forces Detachment. Promoted to the rank of colonel he served in Vietnam as a Senior Advisor to the ARVN. Buckley rejoined the CIA and served in Mexico in 1963. According to one source, Buckley was recruited by Ted Shackley and joined his Secret Team that had been involved with Edwin Wilson, Thomas Clines, Carl E. Jenkins, Raphael Quintero, Felix Rodriguez and Luis Posada, in the CIA “assassination” program. Buckley served with the CIA in Vietnam (1965-1970), Zaire (1970-1972), Cambodia (1972), Egypt (1972-1978), and Pakistan (1978-1979). It is believed he worked with William Casey in the secret negotiations that had taken place with the Iranians on behalf of Ronald Reagan during the 1980 presidential elections. In 1983 Buckley became CIA station chief in Beirut. On 16th March, 1984, Buckley was kidnapped by the Hezbollah, a fundamentalist Shiite group with strong links to the Khomeini regime. Buckley was tortured and it was soon discovered that he was a senior CIA officer. Buckley eventually signed a 400 page statement detailing his activities in the CIA. He was also videotaped making this confession. William Casey asked Ted Shackley for help in obtaining Buckley’s freedom. Three weeks after Buckley’s disappearance, President Ronald Reagan signed the National Security Decision Directive 138. This directive was drafted by Oliver North and outlined plans on how to get the American hostages released from Iran and to “neutralize” terrorist threats from countries such as Nicaragua. This new secret counterterrorist task force was to be headed by Shackley’s old friend, General Richard Secord. This was the beginning of the Iran-Contra deal. Talks had already started about exchanging American hostages for arms. On 30th August, 1985, Israel shipped 100 TOW missiles to Iran. On 14th September they received another 408 missiles from Israel. The Israelis made a profit of $3 million on the deal. In October, 1985, Congress agreed to vote 27 million dollars in non-lethal aid for the Contras in Nicaragua. However, members of the Ronald Reagan administration decided to use this money to provide weapons to the Contras and the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. The following month, Ted Shackley traveled to Hamburg where he met General Manucher Hashemi, the former head of SAVAK’s counterintelligence division at the Atlantic Hotel. Also at the meeting on 22nd November was Manuchehr Ghorbanifar. According to the report of this meeting that Shackley sent to the CIA, Ghorbanifar had “fantastic” contacts with Iran. At the meeting Shackley told Hashemi and Ghorbanifar that the United States was willing to discuss arms shipments in exchange for the four Americans kidnapped in Lebanon. The problem with the proposed deal was that Buckley was already dead (he had died of a heart-attack while being tortured). His body was returned to the United States on December 28, 1991 and he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.

As members have probably guessed from earlier postings, I have been doing some research into Edwin P. Wilson. In 1982, the federal court in northern Virginia sentenced Wilson to 10 years in prison for selling 22 tons of explosive to Libya. He was also convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to another 15 years. Wilson, now 77 years old, has served 23 years in maximum security prison. Eric Margolis has described him as America's Man in the Iron Mask. Margolis has always believed Wilson innocent and spoke to him many times in prison. ‘I was framed by the government,’ Wilson told Margolis, ‘they want me to disappear. I know too much. ’ ‘They buried him alive in prison,’ a former CIA official told Margolis. In 2003 Federal District Judge Lynn Hughes in Huston, Texas, threw out Wilson’s two-decades old conviction. Judge Hughes wrote: ‘government knowingly used false evidence against him,’. However, he still has not been released. What is the truth about Edwin P. Wilson? He was born in Idaho in 1928. The son of an unsuccessful farmer Wilson managed to obtain a degree in psychology before joining the Marine Corps in 1953. Wilson joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1956. As a CIA agent, he spied on European unions before running shipping companies secretly owned by the agency. Over the next few years he arranged clandestine CIA arms shipments to Angola, Laos, Indonesia and the Congo. In 1971, Wilson left the CIA to run shipping companies for a secret Navy intelligence organization called Task Force 157. This included a company based in Washington called World Marine Incorporated. Wilson used World Marine to carry out his own private business deals. In 1973 Wilson earned a $500,000 fee by delivering a spy ship to Iran under the cover of World Marine. In 1973 Frank Nugan, an Australian lawyer, and Michael Hand, a former CIA contract operative, established the Nugan Hand Bank. Another key figure in this venture was Bernie Houghton, who was closely connected to CIA officials, Ted Shackley and Thomas G. Clines. Nugan ran operations in Sydney whereas Hand established a branch in Hong Kong. This enabled Australian depositors to access a money-laundering facility for illegal transfers of Australian money to Hong Kong. According to Alfred W. McCoy, the "Hand-Houghton partnership led the bank's international division into new fields - drug finance, arms trading, and support work for CIA covert operations." Hand told friends "it was his ambition that Nugan Hand became banker for the CIA." In 1974 the Nugan Hand Bank got involved in helping the CIA to take part in covert arms deals with contacts within Angola. It was at this time that Edwin Wilson became involved with the bank. Two CIA agents based in Indonesia, James Hawes and Robert Moore, called on Wilson at his World Marine offices to discuss "an African arms deal". Later, Bernie Houghton arrived from Sydney to place an order for 10 million rounds of ammunition and 3,000 weapons including machine guns. The following year Houghton asked Wilson to arrange for World Marine to purchase a high-technology spy ship. This ship was then sold to Iran. By 1976 the Nugan-Hand Bank appeared to have become a CIA-fronted company. This is reflected in the type of people recruited to hold senior positions in the bank. For example, Rear-Admiral Earl P. Yates, the former Chief of Staff for Policy and Plans of the U.S. Pacific Command and a counter-insurgency specialist, became president of the company. Other appointments included William Colby, retired director of the CIA, General Leroy J. Manor, the former chief of staff of the U.S. Pacific Command and deputy director for counterinsurgency and special activities, General Edwin F. Black, former commander of U.S. forces in Thailand, Walter J. McDonald, retired CIA deputy director for economic research and Dale C. Holmgren, former chairman of the CIA's Civil Air Transport. The investigative journalist, Jonathan Kwitny, became convinced that the Nugan Hand Bank had replaced the Castle Bank & Trust of Nassau, as the CIA's covert banker. Former CIA agent, Kevin P. Mulcahy later told the National Times newspaper "about the Agency's use of Nugan Hand for shifting money for various covert operations around the globe." In February 1976, Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, the new head of the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), discovered that Wilson was involved in some dubious undercover business deals. A few months later Wilson was asked to leave the ONI. Wilson continued to run the CIA-fronted companies he had established. The largest of these was Consultants International and over the next few years amassed a fortune of over $20 million. This enabled him to buy a 2,338-acre farm in Northern Virginia, where he often entertained his close friends, Ted Shackley and Thomas G. Clines. Much of his money was made in the arms trade. His most important customer was Moammar Gaddafi, the dictator of Libya. Wilson later claimed that it was Ted Shackley who first suggested he should go to Libya. Wilson got contracts to sell Libya army uniforms, ammunition, explosive timers and 20 tons of C-4 plastic explosives. In 1976 Wilson recruited Raphael Quintero to kill a Libyan dissident in Egypt. Quintero selected two brothers, Rafael and Raoul Villaverde, to carry out the killing. However, the killing was later called off. One of the men Wilson employed was former CIA officer Kevin P. Mulcahy. He became concerned about Wilson's illegal activities and sent a message about them to the agency. Ted Shackley, Deputy Director of Operations, was initially able to block any internal investigation of Wilson. However, in April, 1977, the Washington Post, published an article on Wilson's activities stating that he may be getting support from "current CIA employees". Stansfield Turner, director of the CIA, ordered an investigation and discovered that both Shackley and Clines had close relationships with Wilson. As a result, Turner made sure that both men's careers came to an end in the CIA. In 1978 Thomas G. Clines left the CIA. He now joined with Raphael Quintero and Ricardo Chavez (another former CIA operative) to establish API Distributors. According to David Corn (Blond Ghost) Wilson provided Clines with "half a million dollars to get his business empire going". In 1979 Clines established International Research and Trade Limited in Bermuda. Later that year he joined forces with Hussein Salem in providing U.S. military hardware to Egypt. After leaving the CIA in September, 1979, Ted Shackley formed his own company, Research Associates International, which specialized in providing intelligence to business. He was also given consulting work with API Distributors, the company established by Thomas G. Clines, Raphael Quintero, and Ricardo Chavez. In 1979 a gun that Wilson arranged to be delivered to the Libyan embassy in Bonn was used to kill a political dissident. Another dissident was murdered in Colorado by one of Wilson's men. According to Alfred W. McCoy (The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade): "Throughout 1979 the Wilson network and the Nugan Hand Bank began to build a close commercial alliance in the netherworld of national security subcontracting". Ted Shackley and Thomas G. Clines were also drawn into a relationship with the Nugan Hand Bank. Michael Hand wrote to Shackley on 27th November, 1979, suggesting a business meeting. Hand's latter also referred to Bernie Houghton, who had worked for Shackley in Vietnam. Michael Hand probably wanted to talk about Edwin Wilson. In 1979 a Washington grand jury began gathering incriminating evidence about his illegal arms sales. To avoid arrest he moved to London. In the winter of 1979, Wilson had a meeting with Bernie Houghton and Thomas G. Clines in Switzerland in an attempt to help him out of his difficulties. This included a non-delivery of 5,000 M16 automatic rifles. The three men discussed ways of using the Nugan Hand Bank to float a $22 million loan to finance the delivery. Hand was obviously concerned that if Wilson was arrested he might begin talking about his dealings with Nugan Hand. Michael Hand also had talks with William Colby, the former director of the CIA. It is not known what was discussed at this meeting but Colby submitted a bill to Nugan Hand Bank for $45,684 for his legal advice. On 27th January, 1980 Frank Nugan was found dead in his car. Bernie Houghton was in Switzerland at the time and he immediately rang his branch office in Saudi Arabia and ordered the staff to leave the country. Houghton also visited Edwin Wilson's office in Geneva and left a briefcase with bank documents for safekeeping. Soon afterwards, a witness saw Thomas G. Clines going through the briefcase at Wilson's office and remove papers that referred to him and General Richard Secord. Two days after Nugan died, Michael Hand held a meeting of Nugan Hand Bank directors. He warned them that unless they did as they were told they could "finish up with concrete shoes" and would be "liable to find their wives being delivered to them in pieces". According to one witness, Thomas G. Clines helped Bernie Houghton escape from Australia. Michael Hand also left the country accompanied by James Oswald Spencer, a man who served with Ted Shackley in Laos. The two men traveled to America via Fiji and Vancouver. Hand then disappeared and has never been seen again. The Australian authorities were forced to investigate the bank. They discovered that Ricardo Chavez, the former CIA operative who was co-owner of API Distributors with Thomas G. Clines and Raphael Quintero, was attempting to take control of the bank. The Corporate Affairs Commission of New South Wales came to the conclusion that Chavez was working on behalf of Clines, Quintero and Wilson. Wilson was eventually indicted by the Department of Justice. However, he had moved to Libya and Moammar Gaddafi refused to extradite him. Wilson feared for his safety and the prosecutors knew this and in 1982 they sent Ernest Keiser to convince him that he would be safe in the Dominican Republic. Wilson flew to the Caribbean but upon arrival was arrested and flown to New York. While awaiting trial Wilson attempted to recruit a fellow prisoner to kill Lawrence Barcella, the federal prosecutor. The prisoner instead went to the authorities and they set Wilson up with an undercover agent. The agent taped Wilson hiring him to kill the prosecutors, six witnesses and his ex-wife. In 1984 Wilson was found not guilty of trying to hire Raphael Quintero and other Cubans to kill a Libyan dissident. However, he was found guilty of exporting guns and conspiracy to murder and was sentenced to 52 years in prison. Wilson claimed he had been framed and claimed that he was working on behalf of the CIA. He employed David Adler, a former CIA agent, as his lawyer. Adler eventually found evidence that Wilson was indeed working for the CIA after he retired from the agency. In October 2003 a Houston federal judge threw out Wilson's conviction in the C-4 explosives case, ruling that the prosecutors had "deliberately deceived the court" about Wilson's continuing CIA contacts, thus "double-crossing a part-time informal government agent."

It might now be worth taking a second look at Gene Wheaton's interview by Matt Ehling on Declassified Radio (4th January, 2002): Carl Jenkins took me to the, what they called the Humanitarian Aid Office for the State Department in Roslyn, Virginia, and I met with Chris Arcos who was the deputy for that program to a guy, an Ambassador Dumeling. We were trying to get some of the 27 million dollars of cargo to haul to Honduras for the Contras that Congress had approved, and we were told several times in no uncertain terms that the only way we could do it was to work through Dick Secord and that aviation supply route, and I refused to do that because I knew that Secord had an unsavory reputation; he been forced into retirement out of the Air Force as a major general in ’83 over the Ed Wilson scandal in Libya. So I was advising the people around Ollie North, the liaison people between me and him, that they were dealing with a bunch of unsavory characters that had a reputation, an official public reputation, of causing extreme embarrassment to the government. At that time I didn’t... I thought the contractors - Secord and that group - I thought they had a legitimate covert contract with the government, but they were also diverting aircraft and hauling illegal cargo on the side, and I was receiving direct information about their movement. Well, in May of ’86, I personally briefed CIA director Bill Casey, and of course he looked startled. I had no idea at the time that he was one of the masterminds behind all this illegal stuff, but he said he’d look into it and get back to me. And he said he had to leave the country the next day, and would be back in touch with me in two or three weeks. It was exactly the same weekend, or the week, I think the 30th of May, when I met with him, or the 31st, when Ollie North was on that secret trip with Bud McFarland to Tehran. So I suppose Casey was going over to Israel to brief them about it. I didn’t know that at the time. Casey sent a message to me after he got back saying that the agency wasn’t involved in any of this stuff, and that the government wasn’t involved in this illegal diversion, and "If you think you can do anything about it, let the chips fall where they may," as a bluff. I’m just a raggedy little old Oklahoma country boy, retired chief warrant officer, and I guess he figured I couldn’t do it. Anyway, as result of those briefings in the summer of ‘86, and I was kind of - this struck me as being treason and grand larceny on a major scale, stealing from the taxpayers’ money, - and having been a cop all my life, I thought it was kind of wrong. So I got with a couple of Washington D.C. journalists that I knew. And one of them was a two-time Pulitzer prize winning journalist by the name of Newt Royce. And Newt Royce and Mike Icoca, who was a free-lancer who was writing with him - Newt at that time was with the Hearst newspaper chain in Washington D. C., with their bureau. I had information - direct knowledge from the Saudi royal family - that kickbacks were being, from the Saudi AWACS program, were being used to help fund the Contras, to buy weapons from different countries around the world. And I furnished Newt with the names of other people that could back up what I was saying, and that this was a scam because Secord, who was on active duty after the Iranian revolution, was the chief architect of the Saudi AWACS program. The Saudi AWACS program was identical to our Iran IBEX program that we had to close down in Iran. They just moved it across the Persian Gulf to Saudi Arabia and renamed it. It was an 8 billion dollar program, and those guys were talking about 10 % or 15%, so you’re talking about an 800 million dollars minimum, estimate, that that these guys could get whenever they wanted it, out of the bag. And Newt and Mike Icoca wrote it up on the wire service for Hearst newspaper chain, and it went out on the wires and was made a front page headline of the San Francisco Examiner on the 27th of July of 1986. As a result of that article in August of ‘86, Congressman Dante Facell wrote a letter to then secretary of defense Casper Weinberger asking him if it was true that foreign money, kickback money on programs, was being used to fund foreign covert operations. And in September of ‘86 Cap Weinberger wrote a letter back to Facell denying that it was being done by the U.S. government, with any knowledge of it being kickback money. That eventually, one of George Bush’s last acts - and Larry Walsh, the special prosecutor, indicted Weinberger as a result of that correspondence - and Bush pardoned him as one of his last acts. And that’s how this whole mess got started. This stuff goes back to the scandals of the 70s... of Watergate and Richard Helms, the CIA director, being convicted by Congress of lying to Congress, of Ted Shackley and Tom Clines and Dick Secord and a group of them being forced into retirement as a result of the scandal over Edmond P. Wilson’s training of Libyan terrorists in conjunction with these guys, and moving C-4 explosives to Libya. They decided way back when, ‘75-’76, during the Pike and Church Committee hearings, that the Congress was their enemy. They felt that the government had betrayed them and that they were the real heroes in this country and that the government became their enemy. In the late 70s, in fact, after Gerry Ford lost the election in ’76 to Jimmy Carter, and then these guys became exposed by Stansfield Turner and crowd for whatever reason... there were different factions involved in all this stuff, and power plays... Ted Shackley and Vernon Walters and Frank Carlucci and Ving West and a group of these guys used to have park-bench meetings in the late 70s in McClean, Virginia so nobody could overhear they conversations. They basically said, "With our expertise at placing dictators in power," I’m almost quoting verbatim one of their comments, "why don’t we treat the United States like the world’s biggest banana republic and take it over?" And the first thing they had to do was to get their man in the White House, and that was George Bush." Reagan never really was the president. He was the front man. They selected a guy that had charisma, who was popular, and just a good old boy, but they got George Bush in there to actually run the White House. They’d let Ronald Reagan and Nancy out of the closet and let them make a speech and run them up the flagpole and salute them and put them back in the closet while these spooks ran the White House. They made sure that George Bush was the chairman of each of the critical committees involving these covert operations things. One of them was the Vice President’s Task Force On Combating Terrorism. They got Bush in as the head of the vice president’s task force on narcotics, the South Florida Task Force, so that they could place people in DEA and in the Pentagon and in customs to run interference for them in these large-scale international narcotics and movement of narcotics money cases. They got Bush in as the chairman of the committee to deregulate the Savings and Loans in ’83 so they could deregulate the Savings and Loans, so that they would be so loosely structured that they could steal 400, 500 billion dollars of what amounted to the taxpayers’ money out of these Savings and Loans and then bail them out. They got hit twice: they stole the money out of the Savings and Loans, and then they sold the Savings and Loans right back to the same guys, and then the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation - the taxpayers money - paid for bailing out the Savings and Loans that they stole the money from.. and they ran the whole operation, and Bush was the de facto president even before the ‘88 election when he became president.

Just reposted this on the right thread: http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=5494

The Nugan Hand Bank started carrying out its CIA work in 1976. Shackley was Deputy Director of Operations at the time. He therefore was second-in-command of all CIA covert activity. Given his close association with people like Michael Hand, Bernie Houghton and Edwin Wilson, Shackley is the prime suspect. Thomas Clines was probably the field officer (he seems to have played a major role in the clean-up operation). However, it is unlikely that Shackley would have used Nugan Hand as the CIA banker without the approval of the director of the CIA. Who was the director of the CIA in 1976? George Herbert Walker Bush. Fiji??? From posts in the Sprague topic that may be of interest here: "Donald Freed, Gemstone (1974) The full story remains to be told. But during 1972-Z3, our research group, the Citizens Research and Investigation CommitteeCRIC), receive severa bits of unconfirmed information which are worthy of note: (1) On July 13, 1973 Roger Gordon, fifty-three, a member of the rigtit-wing Secret Army Organization (SAO) fled from a hiding place in Australia to beg asylum in Suva, Fiji. According to the Associated Press, Gordon "had secret information concerning Watergate" and feared for his life. His information: that the heavy-set man with the "Joisey brogue" seen giving orders toBremer on an Ohio ferry was Anthony Ulasewicz, a White House operative." "John, I'm just offering this observation as a question, not to digress or anything. I've been reading this topic over time and don't have much to offer. One thing that on a couple of occasions has jumped out at me now is the reference to Fiji. I find it puzzling at first why anyone seeking refuge would contemplate Fiji? As someone living in a country fairly close to it and seeing its vunerability it just seems odd. Perhaps an answer may be found in its recent history. There was an attempted coup there, I think it involved 'native' Fijians asserting a traditional but unconstitutional right of 'rulership' over the largely Indian, Chinese majority. Perhaps within this 'military' clique of traditional rulers some clue as to why he considered Fiji a safe place?" and: "Again, John, I may be going right off on a tangent here but I thought I'd look into this a bit further. Contrary to the impressions one gained from the events through media, the story is much more in the modern world. Speight, the frontman of the coup had been educated in Andrews university in Michigan, a 'leading adventist university'. He then spent some time in Australia doing things like selling computers. He had business problems. The coup is suggested by some as being an attempt to loot. He was mainly involved in companies exploiting Fiji's forestry resources. Michigan has a huge forestry industry. Fifth in the US in acreage. 12 billion a year in related monies. 200 000 employed. Speights dad attempted a coup in 87. I realsise the timeline is a bit out of place as far as events re Gordon. But the ingredients of money, computers, australia, america, (forestry? Adventists? Michigan?)" Unfortunately if relevant it might 'tip the hand' but if possible a perusal of relevant Fiji census' may be fruitful? It is something worth exploring. As an Australian you might be interesting in reading this article that suggests Ted Shackley was involved in the overthrow of Gough Whitlam's government. http://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/20...0Cover-Up1.html http://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/20...0Cover-Up2.html

I was involved in the 1980s with training teachers to use computers in the history classroom, the introduction of GCSE and the History National Curriculum. Understandably, teachers complained a great deal about this constant state of change but overall, the standard of history teaching improved because of these changes. However, the situation was far from perfect and the curriculum still needed changing. In the 1990s the examination system began to dominate all subjects. Further problems were caused by the decision to make history optional at Key Stage 4. This compounded the problem of not changing the 16+ curriculum. One of the results was the teaching of Nazi Germany and the Second World War at every possible opportunity. Most history departments had not really taken on board the need to teach subjects like “black history”. Nor did they spend enough time studying “resistance history”. As someone who is now out of the classroom I suppose it is easy for me to say that teachers need to change the curriculum in order to address flaws in the system.

I am a great admirer of Secret Agenda. I have read virtually all the books available on Watergate and believe Jim Hougan gets the closest to explaining what really went on. There is still a lot more to be told. Especially concerning Operation Sandwedge. As Ron points out, McCord clearly sabotaged the Watergate break-in. Who was he really working for? In my opinion, he was still working for the CIA. Deep Throat was a collection of different sources but was largely CIA (Richard Ober/ Robert F. Bennett). Pat, I agree with most of what you post, but the two areas you have got wrong concerns the way that the CIA use the media (Watergate/Operation Mockingbird). You have also fallen for the Bob Woodward "Mark Felt" story. The CIA got rid of Richard Nixon, not the Washington Post. If George Bush is eventually impeached, it will be the CIA and not the New York Times that will be behind his removal.

Thought you might be interested in reading this article: http://www.rabble.ca/everyones_a_critic.shtml?x=45277 A U.S. view: So this is how democracy dies by Keith Gottschalk December 27, 2005 Sorry to interrupt what has been a very entertaining election season in Canada this holiday period, but I regret to inform you that your neighbour's house is on fire. As reported by Ron Hutcheson of the Knight Ridder new service on Tuesday: A defiant President Bush said he didn't need explicit permission from Congress or the courts to establish a secret domestic surveillance program to eavesdrop on suspected terrorists. “We've got to be fast on our feet, quick to detect and prevent,” said Bush. “Do I have the legal authority to do so? The answer is, absolutely.” What this means, I'm afraid, is that a dictatorship is being born on your southern border. Backing Bush up is his lapdog hireling, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez who cites Article II of the Constitution as one rationale for Bush's power grab: Article II of the Constitution declares “The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States.” The other rationale Bush claims Congress gave him authorizing the use of military force after the 9/11 attacks which authorized the President “to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed or aided the terrorist attacks ... ” Respected Constitutional scholar and George Washington University Professor Jonathan Turley disagrees strenuously with any assertion Bush acted legally. On the O'Reilly Factor, Turley said the following: “I think that this operation was based upon a federal crime. Under federal law, there's only two ways in order for the President to engage in the surveillance of citizens in this way. They can get a Title 3 warrant, which is the traditional electronic surveillance warrant in criminal cases, or they can get a so-called FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] warrant from the secret court. But it is a crime for someone, acting under the color of law, to order surveillance — or to conduct surveillance — unless you've gone to a judge under one of those two schemes.” All right then, what we have is an impeachable offense, yes? Well, yes, but in the new American governmental paradigm, there's apparently little stomach in the Republican controlled Congress to do what must be done, according to Hutcheson's story. Apparently the best we'll get is an assertion by Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) that there will be hearings held sometime early next year. This from the man who formulated the “magic bullet” theory to explain the unexplainable in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Pardon me if allowing Specter to talk to death what is essentially treason by the President to the Constitution of the United States does not strike me as necessary action. You may not realize it since it's not been reported in the mainstream press but only Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Ca.) and Congressman John Lewis (D-Ga.) have called for impeachment inquiries. Over on the right wing blogs, they're celebrating the death of American democracy and the rise of a new fascism, which many in this country have always wanted, truth be told. Like Bush they are angrier at the leak of the secret wiretaps than by the fact that, paraphrasing Benjamin Franklin, they've just lost their republic. Further, Bush said: “My personal opinion is, it was a shameful act for someone to disclose this very important program in a time of war. The fact that we're discussing this program is helping the enemy.” and: “I think I've got the authority to move forward,” he said, adding: “It's legal to make the decisions I'm making ... An open debate about law would say to the enemy, 'Here's what we're going to do.'” So let me get this straight. The President of the United States decides its okay to wiretap Americans within the United States without a warrant or any other oversight because of a “war” he created, attacking a country that did nothing to harm the United States and now claims he has Constitutional authority to commit a Federal crime? And still a third of Americans see nothing wrong with this because they've been brainwashed into believing that if the President isn't given the powers of a dictator the mullahs will be marching down Main Street? And after committing what most reputable Constitutional scholars see as a slam dunk Federal crime and an impeachable offense, only two Democrats have the guts to ask for impeachment inquiries even after the President has all but admitted his crime and dared the public to do anything about it, tarring those who uncovered this crime as treasonous (pot, kettle, black)? This is the land of the free and the home of the brave? This is a country under the rule of law, not of men? This is the “democracy” we're killing people to spread around the world? Are we serious? Bush is serious — about being the new American Caesar. Check this out from the Knight-Ridder article: Bush bristled when a reporter asked whether a decades-long war against terrorism might lead to “a more or less permanent expansion of the unchecked power of the executive in American society?” “First of all, I disagree with your assertion of 'unchecked power,'” Bush snapped. “To say 'unchecked power' basically is ascribing some kind of dictatorial position to the president, which I strongly reject.” My follow up question to Bush, if allowed to ask, would have been: “Then, Mr. President, could you delineate any particular action under what you see as your given authority during the duration of this war, that you would need any prior approval for by Congress or the courts?” And watch him fume. For the truth behind whatever answer he might give is that he believes there is no check on his authority. All he has to do for any action he wishes to take is invoke 9/11, claim we're at “war” (which will last however long he wishes it to), claim the Constitution gives him the power as Commander-in-Chief in a time of war, and he can rule by decree. And too many Americans think this is fine. So this is how democracy dies. Daniel Webster once wrote: “Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster, and what has happened once in 6000 years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world.”

The Nugan Hand Bank started carrying out its CIA work in 1976. Shackley was Deputy Director of Operations at the time. He therefore was second-in-command of all CIA covert activity. Given his close association with people like Michael Hand, Bernie Houghton and Edwin Wilson, Shackley is the prime suspect. Thomas Clines was probably the field officer (he seems to have played a major role in the clean-up operation). However, it is unlikely that Shackley would have used Nugan Hand as the CIA banker without the approval of the director of the CIA. Who was the director of the CIA in 1976? George Herbert Walker Bush. See http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=5740

The Nugan Hand Bank started carrying out its CIA work in 1976. Shackley was Deputy Director of Operations at the time. He therefore was second-in-command of all CIA covert activity. Given his close association with people like Michael Hand, Bernie Houghton and Edwin Wilson, Shackley is the prime suspect. Thomas Clines was probably the field officer (he seems to have played a major role in the clean-up operation). However, it is unlikely that Shackley would have used Nugan Hand as the CIA banker without the approval of the director of the CIA. Who was the director of the CIA in 1976? George Herbert Walker Bush.

The Nugan Hand Bank started carrying out its CIA work in 1976. Shackley was Deputy Director of Operations at the time. He therefore was second-in-command of all CIA covert activity. Given his close association with people like Michael Hand, Bernie Houghton and Edwin Wilson, Shackley is the prime suspect. Thomas Clines was probably the field officer (he seems to have played a major role in the clean-up operation). However, it is unlikely that Shackley would have used Nugan Hand as the CIA banker without the approval of the director of the CIA. Who was the director of the CIA in 1976? George Herbert Walker Bush.

Here is the response from Salon's readers to David Talbot's article on Ultimate Sacrifice: http://letters.salon.com/books/feature/200...01/review/view/

Another unexplored area is Ted Shackley's involvement with the Nugan Hand Bank scandal. In 1971, Edwin Wilson left the CIA to run shipping companies for a secret Navy intelligence organization called Task Force 157. This included World Marine Incorporated in Washington. Wilson also ran this company for his own benefit. In 1973 he earned a $500,000 fee by delivering a spy ship to Iran under the cover of World Marine. In 1973 Frank Nugan, an Australian lawyer, and Michael Hand, a former CIA contract operative, established the Nugan Hand Bank. Another key figure in this venture was Bernie Houghton, who was closely connected to Ted Shackley and Thomas Clines. Nugan ran operations in Sydney whereas Hand established a branch in Hong Kong. This enabled Australian depositors to have access to a money-laundering facility for illegal transfers of Australian money to Hong Kong. According to Alfred W. McCoy, the "Hand-Houghton partnership led the bank's international division into new fields - drug finance, arms trading, and support work for CIA covert operations." Hand told friends "it was his ambition that Nugan Hand became banker for the CIA." In 1974 the Nugan-Hand Bank got involved in helping the CIA to take part in covert arms deals with contacts within Angola. It was at this time that Edwin Wilson became involved with the bank. Two CIA agents based in Indonesia, James Hawes and Robert Moore, called on Wilson at his World Marine offices to discuss "an African arms deal". Later, Bernie Houghton arrived from Sydney to place an order for 10 million rounds of ammunition and 3,000 weapons including machine guns. The following year Houghton asked Wilson to arrange for World Marine to purchase a high-technology spy ship. This ship was then sold to Iran. By 1976 the Nugan-Hand Bank appeared to have become a CIA-fronted company. This is reflected in the type of people recruited to hold senior positions in the bank. This included Admiral Earl Yates, retired chief strategist of the U.S. Pacific Command, as president. Other appointments included William Colby, retired director of the CIA, General Leroy J. Manor, the former chief of staff of the U.S. Pacific Command, General Edwin F. Black, former commander of U.S. forces in Thailand, Walter McDonald, retired CIA deputy director for economic research and Dale Holmgren, former chairman of the CIA's Civil Air Transport. The investigative journalist, Jonathan Kwitny, became convinced that the Nugan-Hand Bank had replaced the Castle Bank & Trust of Nassau, as the CIA's covert banker. Former CIA agent, Kevin Mulcahy later told the National Times newspaper "about the Agency's use of Nugan Hand for shifting money for various covert operations around the globe." Castle Bank had itself been closed down as a result of an IRS investigation. This came to an end as a result of pressure being applied on the IRS. According to the Wall Street Journal, “pressure from the Central Intelligence Agency… caused the Justice Department to drop what could have been the biggest tax evasion case of all time.” In February 1976, Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, the new head of the Office of Naval Intelligence, discovered that Edwin Wilson was involved in some dubious undercover business deals. A few months later Wilson was asked to leave the ONI. Wilson continued to run the CIA-fronted companies he had established. The largest of these was Consultants International and over the next few years amassed a fortune of over $20 million. This enabled him to buy a 2,338-acre farm in Northern Virginia, where he often entertained his close friends, Ted Shackley and Thomas Clines. Much of his money was made in the arms trade. His most important customer was Moammar Gaddafi, the dictator of Libya. Wilson claimed that it was Ted Shackley of the CIA who first suggested he should go to Libya. Wilson got contracts to sell Libya army uniforms, ammunition, explosive timers and 20 tons of C-4 plastic explosives. In 1976 Wilson recruited Raphael Quintero to kill a Libyan dissident in Egypt. Quintero selected two brothers, Rafael and Raoul Villaverde, to carry out the killing. However, the killing was later called off. One of the men Wilson employed was former CIA officer Kevin Mulcahy. He became concerned about Wilson's illegal activities and reported them to the CIA. However, Ted Shackley, Deputy Director of Operations, was initially able to block any internal investigation of Wilson. However, in April, 1977, The Washington Post, published an article on Wilson's activities stating that he may be getting support from "current CIA employees". Admiral Stansfield Turner, Jimmy Carter’s new director of the CIA, ordered an investigation and discovered that both Shackley and Clines had close relationships with Wilson. Turner demoted both men. In 1978 Clines left the CIA. He now joined with Raphael Quintero and Ricardo Chavez (another former CIA operative) to establish API Distributors. According to David Corn (Blond Ghost) Edwin Wilson provided Clines with "half a million dollars to get his business empire going". In 1979 Clines established International Research and Trade Limited in Bermuda. Later that year he joined forces with Hussein Salem in providing U.S. military hardware to Egypt. After leaving the CIA in September, 1979, Ted Shackley formed his own company, Research Associates International, which specialized in providing intelligence to business. He was also given consulting work with API Distributors, the company established by Clines, Quintero, and Chavez. According to Alfred W. McCoy (The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade): "Throughout 1979 the Wilson network and the Nugan Hand Bank began to build a close commercial alliance in the netherworld of national security subcontracting". Shackley and Clines were also drawn into a relationship with the Nugan Hand Bank. Michael Hand wrote to Shackley on 27th November, 1979, suggesting a business meeting. Hand's latter also referred to Bernie Houghton, who had worked for Shackley in Vietnam. Michael Hand probably wanted to talk about Edwin Wilson. In 1979 a Washington grand jury began gathering incriminating evidence about his illegal arms sales. To avoid arrest he moved to London. In the winter of 1979, Wilson had a meeting with Bernie Houghton and Thomas Clines in Switzerland in an attempt to help him out of his difficulties. This included a non-delivery of 5,000 M16 automatic rifles to Libya. The three men discussed ways of using the Nugan Hand Bank to float a $22 million loan to finance the delivery. Hand was obviously concerned that if Wilson was arrested he might begin talking about his dealings with the Nugan Hand Bank. Michael Hand also had talks with William Colby, the former director of the CIA. It is not known what was discussed at this meeting but Colby submitted a bill to Nugan Hand Bank for $45,684 for his legal advice. On 27th January, 1980 Frank Nugan was found dead in his car. Bernie Houghton was in Switzerland at the time and he immediately rang his branch office in Saudi Arabia and ordered the staff to leave the country. Houghton also visited Edwin Wilson's office in Switzerland and left a briefcase with bank documents for safekeeping. Soon afterwards, a witness saw Thomas Clines going through the briefcase at Wilson's office and remove papers that referred to him and General Richard Secord. Two days after Nugan died, Michael Hand held a meeting of Nugan Hand Bank directors. He warned them that unless they did as they were told they could "finish up with concrete shoes" and would be "liable to find their wives being delivered to them in pieces". According to one witness, Thomas G. Clines helped Bernie Houghton escape from Australia. Michael Hand also left the country accompanied by James O. Spencer, a man who served with Ted Shackley in Laos. The two men travelled to America via Fiji and Vancouver. Hand then disappeared and has never been seen again. The Australian authorities were forced to investigate the bank. They discovered that Ricardo Chavez, the former CIA operative who was co-owner of API Distributors with Thomas Clines and Raphael Quintero, was attempting to take control of the bank. The Corporate Affairs Commission of New South Wales came to the conclusion that Chavez was working on behalf of Clines, Quintero and Wilson.

In 1971, Edwin Wilson left the CIA to run shipping companies for a secret Navy intelligence organization called Task Force 157. This included World Marine Incorporated in Washington. Wilson also ran this company for his own benefit. In 1973 he earned a $500,000 fee by delivering a spy ship to Iran under the cover of World Marine. In 1973 Frank Nugan, an Australian lawyer, and Michael Hand, a former CIA contract operative, established the Nugan Hand Bank. Another key figure in this venture was Bernie Houghton, who was closely connected to Ted Shackley and Thomas Clines. Nugan ran operations in Sydney whereas Hand established a branch in Hong Kong. This enabled Australian depositors to have access to a money-laundering facility for illegal transfers of Australian money to Hong Kong. According to Alfred W. McCoy, the "Hand-Houghton partnership led the bank's international division into new fields - drug finance, arms trading, and support work for CIA covert operations." Hand told friends "it was his ambition that Nugan Hand became banker for the CIA." In 1974 the Nugan-Hand Bank got involved in helping the CIA to take part in covert arms deals with contacts within Angola. It was at this time that Edwin Wilson became involved with the bank. Two CIA agents based in Indonesia, James Hawes and Robert Moore, called on Wilson at his World Marine offices to discuss "an African arms deal". Later, Bernie Houghton arrived from Sydney to place an order for 10 million rounds of ammunition and 3,000 weapons including machine guns. The following year Houghton asked Wilson to arrange for World Marine to purchase a high-technology spy ship. This ship was then sold to Iran. By 1976 the Nugan-Hand Bank appeared to have become a CIA-fronted company. This is reflected in the type of people recruited to hold senior positions in the bank. This included Admiral Earl Yates, retired chief strategist of the U.S. Pacific Command, as president. Other appointments included William Colby, retired director of the CIA, General Leroy J. Manor, the former chief of staff of the U.S. Pacific Command, General Edwin F. Black, former commander of U.S. forces in Thailand, Walter McDonald, retired CIA deputy director for economic research and Dale Holmgren, former chairman of the CIA's Civil Air Transport. The investigative journalist, Jonathan Kwitny, became convinced that the Nugan-Hand Bank had replaced the Castle Bank & Trust of Nassau, as the CIA's covert banker. Former CIA agent, Kevin Mulcahy later told the National Times newspaper "about the Agency's use of Nugan Hand for shifting money for various covert operations around the globe." Castle Bank had itself been closed down as a result of an IRS investigation. This came to an end as a result of pressure being applied on the IRS. According to the Wall Street Journal, “pressure from the Central Intelligence Agency… caused the Justice Department to drop what could have been the biggest tax evasion case of all time.” In February 1976, Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, the new head of the Office of Naval Intelligence, discovered that Edwin Wilson was involved in some dubious undercover business deals. A few months later Wilson was asked to leave the ONI. Wilson continued to run the CIA-fronted companies he had established. The largest of these was Consultants International and over the next few years amassed a fortune of over $20 million. This enabled him to buy a 2,338-acre farm in Northern Virginia, where he often entertained his close friends, Ted Shackley and Thomas Clines. Much of his money was made in the arms trade. His most important customer was Moammar Gaddafi, the dictator of Libya. Wilson claimed that it was Ted Shackley of the CIA who first suggested he should go to Libya. Wilson got contracts to sell Libya army uniforms, ammunition, explosive timers and 20 tons of C-4 plastic explosives. In 1976 Wilson recruited Raphael Quintero to kill a Libyan dissident in Egypt. Quintero selected two brothers, Rafael and Raoul Villaverde, to carry out the killing. However, the killing was later called off. One of the men Wilson employed was former CIA officer Kevin Mulcahy. He became concerned about Wilson's illegal activities and reported them to the CIA. However, Ted Shackley, Deputy Director of Operations, was initially able to block any internal investigation of Wilson. However, in April, 1977, The Washington Post, published an article on Wilson's activities stating that he may be getting support from "current CIA employees". Admiral Stansfield Turner, Jimmy Carter’s new director of the CIA, ordered an investigation and discovered that both Shackley and Clines had close relationships with Wilson. Turner demoted both men. In 1978 Clines left the CIA. He now joined with Raphael Quintero and Ricardo Chavez (another former CIA operative) to establish API Distributors. According to David Corn (Blond Ghost) Edwin Wilson provided Clines with "half a million dollars to get his business empire going". In 1979 Clines established International Research and Trade Limited in Bermuda. Later that year he joined forces with Hussein Salem in providing U.S. military hardware to Egypt. After leaving the CIA in September, 1979, Ted Shackley formed his own company, Research Associates International, which specialized in providing intelligence to business. He was also given consulting work with API Distributors, the company established by Clines, Quintero, and Chavez. According to Alfred W. McCoy (The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade): "Throughout 1979 the Wilson network and the Nugan Hand Bank began to build a close commercial alliance in the netherworld of national security subcontracting". Shackley and Clines were also drawn into a relationship with the Nugan Hand Bank. Michael Hand wrote to Shackley on 27th November, 1979, suggesting a business meeting. Hand's latter also referred to Bernie Houghton, who had worked for Shackley in Vietnam. Michael Hand probably wanted to talk about Edwin Wilson. In 1979 a Washington grand jury began gathering incriminating evidence about his illegal arms sales. To avoid arrest he moved to London. In the winter of 1979, Wilson had a meeting with Bernie Houghton and Thomas Clines in Switzerland in an attempt to help him out of his difficulties. This included a non-delivery of 5,000 M16 automatic rifles to Libya. The three men discussed ways of using the Nugan Hand Bank to float a $22 million loan to finance the delivery. Hand was obviously concerned that if Wilson was arrested he might begin talking about his dealings with the Nugan Hand Bank. Michael Hand also had talks with William Colby, the former director of the CIA. It is not known what was discussed at this meeting but Colby submitted a bill to Nugan Hand Bank for $45,684 for his legal advice. On 27th January, 1980 Frank Nugan was found dead in his car. Bernie Houghton was in Switzerland at the time and he immediately rang his branch office in Saudi Arabia and ordered the staff to leave the country. Houghton also visited Edwin Wilson's office in Switzerland and left a briefcase with bank documents for safekeeping. Soon afterwards, a witness saw Thomas Clines going through the briefcase at Wilson's office and remove papers that referred to him and General Richard Secord. Two days after Nugan died, Michael Hand held a meeting of Nugan Hand Bank directors. He warned them that unless they did as they were told they could "finish up with concrete shoes" and would be "liable to find their wives being delivered to them in pieces". According to one witness, Thomas G. Clines helped Bernie Houghton escape from Australia. Michael Hand also left the country accompanied by James O. Spencer, a man who served with Ted Shackley in Laos. The two men travelled to America via Fiji and Vancouver. Hand then disappeared and has never been seen again. The Australian authorities were forced to investigate the bank. They discovered that Ricardo Chavez, the former CIA operative who was co-owner of API Distributors with Thomas Clines and Raphael Quintero, was attempting to take control of the bank. The Corporate Affairs Commission of New South Wales came to the conclusion that Chavez was working on behalf of Clines, Quintero and Wilson.