A Unified Theory: Assassinations, Watergate, Iran-Contra, etc.

[John Simkin]

Over the last few months I have been attempting to create a theory that helps to explain a whole range of events where governments and their agencies have lied to the American people. So far I am only up to the 1960s but I intend to take it up to the present time.

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

I have obviously been inspired by the work of Peter Dale Scott. However, I believe the story begins during a period before the main areas of his research. I also think it is important to take the story into the 21st century.

I am aware that some people are unwilling to read great chunks of text. Others have requested details by email about how this story explains Watergate and Iraq. I therefore thought it might be worth me producing a short summary of what I believe happened.

In some ways the story begins during the First World War. However, I think it is easier to make sense of the story by starting with Tommy Corcoran, William Pawley and Claire Lee Chennault setting up China Defense Supplies in 1940. This was an attempt to circumvent Congress in order to destroy the threat that Japan posed to the United States. However, this soon turned into something else, a crusade against communism. This is not surprising given the political views of Concoran, Pawley and Chennault. Although they were genuine in their hatred of communism, their motives were far from selfless. They saw the opportunity to make a lot of money for themselves on the side.

Concoran had already made himself a fortune from making use of his contacts in government to help his clients like John McCone, Herman & George Brown, Steve Bechtel, Henry Kaiser, etc. It was only natural that he should use these contacts to help benefit clients who were interested in changing attitudes towards military dictators. This included people like Sam Zemurray who would not continue to prosper without the US adopting a more interventionist foreign policy.

During the war Concoran had worked closely with OSS agents in South-East Asia in the fight against communism. The most important figure in this was Paul Helliwell, the head of the Secret Intelligence Branch of the OSS. This relationship included making money on the side by working closely with drug barons in the region. It is no coincidence that there were so many OSS agents and military men based in China who became important figures in this story: Paul Helliwell, Ray Cline, Mitchell L. WerBell, John Singlaub, Richard Helms, E. Howard Hunt, Lucien Conein, Robert Emmett Johnson, Nestor Sanchez, John Castorr and John Paul Hammerschmidt.

These people became part of a network of people who I will call the Secret Team (it seems this was a name they gave themselves in the 1960s). It included businessmen, fixers, criminals, government officials and members of the intelligence services. Later, it included important politicians such as Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson and George H. W. Bush.

These people were united by a passionate belief in the free enterprise system and a hatred of communism. But most of all, they were united in a desire to make money. They did this in two main ways – the arms trade and the drug industry. This led to a third aspect of their business – assassinations. This was necessary in order to protect their business interests. In other words - the need to remove people who posed a threat to their profits.

The Secret Team also provided this “assassination service” for clients such as the military dictators that often needed the removal of political opponents. With the establishment of Operation 40 in 1959, this became more organized. Although originally set up to kill Fidel Castro, this group, who were under the control of the Secret Team, began assassinating people in other countries, including the United States. I believe it is people from this group that were involved in the deaths of JFK, MLK and RFK.

In the early 1970s the Secret Team was very active in the Americas. This was mainly political in Cuba and Chile but drug related in other countries such as Honduras, Colombia and Bolivia. Later they became very involved in events in the Middle East. The key figure in the 1970s was Ted Shackley. Not far behind was George H. W. Bush.

In the 1970s CIA was free to give its support to Operation Condor (a combined operation to remove left-wing leaders in the America conducted by the intelligence and security services of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay). The Secret Team also worked closely with the drug barons in these countries.

Richard Nixon was never part of the Secret Team. However, he knew a great deal about their activities. He thought this gave him permission to get involved in similar operations. This was probably true but he made the mistake of trying to undermine the power of the CIA. This posed a serious threat to the existence of the Secret Team and Nixon had to be removed from the White House. Ford was not part of the Secret Team but at least he was willing to appoint George H. W. Bush as director of the CIA. In this position he was able to cover-up the Secret Team’s activities in Chile.

The Secret Team was faced with more problems with Jimmy Carter who appointed Stansfield Turner to clean-up the CIA. Unfortunately he was not up to the job and Shackley working with Bush was able to get Carter and Turner removed from office. Ronald Reagan now did what he was told and appointed another member of the Secret Team, William Casey, to takeover as director of the CIA.

Bush and Casey worked closely with those former CIA agents who were now working freelance in the arms and drug trades. It was this relationship that resulted in the Iran-Contra scandal. It is still difficult to believe how the Secret Team got away with this scandal. Only a few minor figures such as Tom Clines and Ed Wilson ended up in prison. The major figures got clean away and Bush even managed to become president at the end of it.

1989 was another crisis year for the Secret Team. Reagan claimed a total victory over communism. This was not true of course because China still remained a communist state and was clearly heading to overtake the US as the world’s main superpower. There was also communist Cuba on its borders.

However, it suited Reagan at the time to make this claim. After all, there was little evidence that China intended to invade the United States (that is also true of the Soviet Union pre-1989 but it did not stop them from using it as a justification for its anti-communist foreign policy). Logically, the declaration by Reagan should have followed by a dramatic cut in arms spending (the famous peace dividend). This did not happen. Instead, the U.S. continued to spend even more on weapons even if it did mean creating a budget deficit. It kept the Secret Team and its clients happy but it became more and more difficult for the U.S. government to justify.

Then came 9/11. I am not one of those who believe that 9/11 was part of this conspiracy. What I do believe is that the Secret Team took full advantage of the situation to create a new worldwide enemy and to justify an increase in arms spending combined with a growth in secret government. It is important to note that the government included a figure who had been a member of the Secret Team since the 1960s (Porter Goss) and a couple of figures recruited into the Secret Team in the 1980s (Richard Cheney and Richard L. Armitage). The head of the administration is of course the son of one of the most important figures in the Secret Team, George H. W. Bush.