The Peregrine Gallery
presents
ROBERT GATES
Sightings from The Catbird Seat
~ o ~
November 15, 2006
Blackmail & Bobby Gates
By Robert Parry
One risk of putting career intelligence officer Robert Gates in charge of the Defense Department is that he has a secret – and controversial – history that might open him to pressure from foreign operatives, including some living in countries of U.S. military interest, such as Iran and Iraq.
Put more crudely, the 63-year-old Gates could become the target of pressure or even blackmail unless some of the troubling questions about his past are answered conclusively, not just cosmetically.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Gates benefited from half-hearted probes by the U.S. Congress and the Executive Branch into these mysteries. The investigators – some of whom were Gates's friends – acted as if their goal was more to sweep incriminating evidence under the rug than to expose the facts to public scrutiny.
While giving Gates another pass might work for Official Washington, which always has had a soft spot for the polite mild-mannered Gates, it won't solve the potential for a problem if other countries have incriminating evidence about him. So, before the U.S. Senate waves Gates's through – as happened in 1991 when he was confirmed as CIA director – it would make sense to resolve two issues in particular:
--Did Gates participate in secret and possibly illegal contacts with Iranian leaders from the 1980 election campaign through the Iran-Contra scandal of 1986?
--Did Gates oversee a clandestine pipeline of weapons and other military equipment to Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq starting in 1982?
Gates has denied allegations linking him to these operations, but evidence that has emerged since 1991 has buttressed claims about Gates's involvement. Other new documents, such as papers recovered from Iraqi government files after the U.S. invasion in 2003, also could shed light on the mysteries.
Teicher Affidavit
On the question of Gates and the Iraqi arms shipments, former National Security Council aide Howard Teicher swore out an affidavit in 1995 detailing Gates's secret role in shepherding military equipment via third countries to Iraq.
Teicher said the secret arming of Iraq was approved by President Ronald Reagan in June 1982 as part of a National Security Decision Directive. Under it, CIA Director William Casey and his then-deputy, Robert Gates, "authorized, approved and assisted" delivery of cluster bombs and other materiel to Iraq, Teicher said.
Teicher's affidavit corroborated earlier public statements by former Israeli intelligence officer Ari Ben-Menashe and Iranian-born businessman Richard Babayan, who claimed first-hand knowledge of Gates's central role in the secret Iraq operations.
In 1995, however, Teicher's affidavit embarrassed President Bill Clinton's Justice Department, which had just tried to dispose of the so-called Iraqgate scandal with a report that found no evidence to support allegations that the Reagan-Bush administration had illegally armed Saddam Hussein.
Clinton's Justice Department apparently wanted to clear the decks of these complicated historical scandals from the Reagan-Bush years. Clinton found those old controversies a distraction from his goal of focusing on the nation's domestic needs.
The Clinton administration's debunking report about Iraqgate had been so determined to see no evil that the Clinton lawyers didn't even object to the discovery that the CIA had been hiding evidence from them.
"In the course of our work, we learned of 'sensitive compartments' of information not normally retrievable and of specialized offices that previously were unknown to the CIA personnel who were assisting us," wrote John M. Hogan, counselor to Attorney General Janet Reno.
Without further skepticism or curiosity, Hogan added, "I do not believe this uncertainty severely undermined our investigation."
In other words, the CIA had withheld "sensitive compartments" of information from the Justice Department and – rather than conclude that this concealed evidence might be worth seeing – the Clinton investigators assumed that the hidden "compartments" must not be very significant.
A rookie detective would be kicked off a small town police force if he had applied such logic to the search of a drug suspect's house – "look anywhere you want, except in the closet" – but that was the way Reagan-Bush investigations were handled in that period.
Then, two weeks later, to the chagrin of the Clinton investigators, Teicher filed his affidavit as part of the defense by Teledyne Industries and one of its salesmen, Edward Johnson. Teledyne and Johnson were accused of shipping explosives to Chilean arms dealer Carlos Cardoen, who then used the material to manufacture cluster bombs for Iraq.
With the unveiling of Teicher's affidavit, the Clinton prosecutors exploded. Not only did Teicher's affidavit complicate their prosecution of Teledyne, it made Clinton's Justice Department look foolish for having failed to check out the CIA's "sensitive compartments." The lawyers lashed out at Teicher.
First, the Clinton administration classified Teicher's affidavit a secret. Then, when he pointed toward relevant records in the files of Ronald Reagan's White House, the Clinton lawyers insisted that they could find nothing to support Teicher's claims. Next, they threatened Teicher with prosecution for revealing state secrets.
Though this intimidation of a witness had the look of prosecutorial misconduct – if not outright obstruction of justice – the tactics worked. Teicher backed away. The Clinton lawyers claimed Teicher had recanted, though he told me that he hadn't retracted a thing.
Having blocked the testimony from Teicher and other witnesses who planned to describe the U.S. government's Iraqgate secrets, the Clinton administration won its prosecution of Teledyne. Salesman Johnson, who earned about $30,000 a year, was sentenced to a 3 ½-year prison term.
New Opportunities
If the Senate intends to review Gates's nomination seriously, it now has a fresh opportunity to ascertain the truth about Gates and his role in the Iraqgate case.
A source at the United Nations told me that some of the captured Iraqi documents shed light on the Cardoen arms pipeline; a new Chilean government less sympathetic to the old Pinochet regime might finally be willing to hand over Cardoen who remains under indictment in the United States; and Teicher and other witnesses finally could be given a forum to testify under oath about what they know.
Other potential witnesses include Israeli intelligence officer Ben-Menashe.
In his 1992 book Profits of War, Ben-Menashe wrote that Israeli Mossad director Nachum Admoni approached Gates in 1985 seeking help in shutting down unconventional weapons moving through the arms pipeline to Iraq.
Ben-Menashe wrote that Gates attended a meeting in Chile in 1986 with Cardoen present at which Gates tried to calm down the Israelis by assuring them that U.S. policy was simply to ensure a channel of conventional weapons for Iraq. Gates has denied that the meeting occurred.
For his part, Cardoen has insisted in press interviews that American officials knew about and supported his weapons sales to Iraq in the 1980s. He said he was targeted for punishment only after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 and U.S. officials scrambled to distance themselves from the covert policy of aiding Saddam Hussein.
On the question of Gates's illicit contacts with senior Iranians, other new opportunities have presented themselves for evaluating those controversial charges.
In a secret 1993 report to the U.S. Congress, the Russian government claimed that its intelligence files listed Gates as participating in hostage negotiations with Iranian officials in Paris in October 1980 behind President Jimmy Carter's back.
At the time, Iran was holding 52 American hostages and Carter was desperately trying to secure their release before the November 1980 elections, what became known as the October Surprise case. [For details, see Consortiumnews.com's recent three-part series, "The Original October Surprise" – Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.]
Ben-Menashe, who was born to Iraqi Jewish parents and grew up in Iran, worked for Israeli military intelligence from 1977-87, according to Israeli government records. He first fingered Gates as an operative in the secret Iraq arms pipeline in August 1990 during an interview that I conducted with him for PBS Frontline.
At the time, Ben-Menashe was in jail in New York on charges of trying to sell cargo planes to Iran (charges that were later dismissed). When the interview took place, Gates was in a relatively obscure position, as deputy national security adviser to President George H.W. Bush and not yet a candidate for the top CIA job.
In that interview and later under oath to Congress, Ben-Menashe said Gates joined in meetings between Republicans and senior Iranians in October 1980. Ben-Menashe said he also arranged Gates's personal help in bringing a suitcase full of cash into Miami in early 1981 to pay off some of the participants in the hostage gambit.
Gates has denied the claims from Ben-Menashe, Babayan and others.
"I was accused on television and in the print media by people I had never spoken to or met of selling weapons to Iraq, or walking through the Miami airport with suitcases full of cash, of being with Bush in Paris in October 1980 to meet with Iranians, and on and on," Gates wrote in his memoir, From the Shadows., in brushing aside the claims.
Russian Report
But the Russian report, which was sent to an investigative House task force in January 1993 but never officially released, represents another chance to judge competing claims of credibility between Ben-Menashe and Gates.
The Russian report stated that "R[obert] Gates, at that time a staffer of the National Security Council in the administration of Jimmy Carter, and former CIA Director George Bush also took part" in a meeting with Iranians in Paris in October 1980. (Actually, Gates had left the NSC staff by then; he was working as the executive assistant to CIA Director Stansfield Turner in October 1980.)
If nothing else, questions could be posed to Russian officials about the quality of their intelligence reporting....
Once in office, the Reagan administration did permit weapons to flow to Iran via Israel. One of the planes carrying an arms shipment was shot down over the Soviet Union on July 18, 1981, after straying off course, but the incident drew little attention at the time. [For details on the October Surprise dispute, see Robert Parry's Secrecy & Privilege]
In his memoir, Gates claimed that the Senate Intelligence Committee decisively knocked down the suspicions about him during the 1991 confirmation process for him to become CIA director.
“The allegations of meetings with me around the world were easily disproved for the committee by my travel records, calendars, and countless witnesses," Gates wrote.
But none of Gates's supposedly supportive evidence was ever made public by either the Senate Intelligence Committee or the later inquiries into either the Iran hostage initiative or Iraqgate.
Not one of Gates's "countless witnesses" who could vouch for Gates's whereabouts was identified. Though Senate Intelligence Committee chairman David Boren had pledged publicly to have his investigators question Iranian businessman Babayan about the Iraq arms shipments, they never did.
Perhaps most galling for those of us who were trying to assess Ben-Menashe's credibility was the Intelligence Committee's failure to test Ben-Menashe's claim that he met with Gates in Paramus, New Jersey, on the
afternoon of April 20, 1989.
The date was pinned down by the fact that Ben-Menashe had been under
Customs surveillance in the morning. So it was a perfect test for whether
Ben-Menashe – or Gates – was lying.
When I first asked about this claim, congressional investigators told me that Gates had a perfect alibi for that day. They said Gates had been with Senator Boren at a speech in Oklahoma. But when we checked that out, we discovered that Gates's Oklahoma speech had been on April 19, a day earlier. Gates also had not been with Boren and had returned to Washington by that evening.
So where was Gates the next day? Could he have taken a quick trip to northern New Jersey? Since senior White House national security advisers keep detailed notes on their daily meetings, it should have been easy for Boren's investigators to interview someone who could vouch for Gates's whereabouts on the afternoon of April 20.
But the committee chose not to nail down an alibi for Gates. The committee said further investigation wasn't needed because Gates denied going to New Jersey and his personal calendar made no reference to the trip.
But the investigators couldn't tell me where Gates was that afternoon or with whom he may have met. They interviewed no alibi witnesses. Essentially, the alibi came down to Gates's word.
In his memoir, Gates thanked his friend, David Boren, for pushing through
the CIA nomination. "David took it as a personal challenge to get me
confirmed," Gates wrote.
Boren's top aide who helped limit the investigation of Gates was George
Tenet, whose behind-the-scenes maneuvering on Gates's behalf won the
personal appreciation of then-President George H.W. Bush.
Tenet later became President Bill Clinton's last CIA director and was kept on in 2001 by the younger George Bush partly on his father's advice.
As difficult as it might be for Congress to run down some of these Iran-Iraq leads before voting on Gates's nomination to replace Donald Rumsfeld as Defense Secretary, the risks to the United States would be much greater if hard evidence surfaces later showing that Gates did participate in these dubious schemes.
It could even be worse if U.S. adversaries are in a position to hold undisclosed evidence of Gates's guilt over the Defense Secretary's head.
Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq, can be ordered at secrecyandprivilege.com. It's also available at Amazon.com, as is his 1999 book, Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth.'
Robert M. Gates
From SourceWatch
Dr. Robert M. Gates was nominated November 8, 2006, by President George W. Bush to be Secretary of Defense. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Gates will replace Donald H. Rumsfeld, who resigned on November 8, 2006, following the 2006 congressional elections.
Gates is a member of the Iraq Study Group, which was created in March 2006 by Congress. The Group has been meeting since to "devise a fresh set of policies to help" President Bush "chart a new course in—or, perhaps, to get the hell out of—Iraq," Robert Dreyfuss wrote in the September 2006 edition of the Washington Monthly.
On Gates and George H.W. Bush
"But if anything defines Bob Gates, it is the fact that he is extremely close to the very Bush Rumsfeld so detested," Ivo Daalder wrote November 8, 2006, at the TPM Cafe Blog. "Gates worked for Bush when the latter was CIA director in the mid 1970s (a position to which Bush was appointed by [President Gerald] Ford on the recommendation of Rumsfeld in order to put him out of the running for the VP slot in 1976).
During Bush 41’s presidency, Gates served as deputy national security adviser and then as CIA director. And since leaving government, Gates has been dean of the Bush School and then president of Texas A&M, which is where the Bush presidential library is located. ... In other words, Bob Gates is a Bush 41 kinda guy — not exactly the profile of a Bush 43 national security principal during the last six years."
On the "Axis of Evil"
The Bush administration "has long seen distinctions among the evils in its axis. The North Koreans confessed, which implies a willingness to keep talking. Saddam continues to dodge and deny, which to the Bushies implies that only force can work," Michael Duffy and Nancy Gibbs wrote October 28, 2002, in TIME Magazine. "'North Korea isn't an imminent threat to anyone,' says former CIA Director Bob Gates. 'They haven't attacked anyone in 50 years.' Iraq invades its neighbors and could use nuclear weapons to threaten the whole region, which—at least until last week—was far more volatile than Asia."
Controversy & Criticism
North American Union
An October 13, 2006, news release from Texas A&M Engineering and Nuclear Science Center announced that it and the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) had "successfully converted the university's 1-megawatt TRIGA research reactor's fuel from highly enriched uranium (HEU) to low-enriched uranium (LEU)," which was the "first research reactor conversion in the United States since the creation of NNSA's Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI) in May 2004. As a part of its nonproliferation mission, NNSA converts research reactors in the United States and around the world from operating on HEU to LEU fuel. The effort is part of the Bush administration's efforts to minimize the use of highly enriched uranium in civilian applications around the world. ...
"The conversion of the Texas A&M research reactor supports" the March 2005 Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) "under which the United States, Mexico and Canada agreed to complete the conversion of civilian HEU reactors on the North American continent by 2011, provided such LEU fuel is available. Specifically, the United States will convert six university research reactors, Mexico will convert its one research reactor in Mexico City, and Canada will convert three research reactors," the news release stated.
Bombing Baghdad & Saddam Hussein
"During the bombing of Baghdad in 1991, officials in the [George H.W.] Bush White House 'lit a candle every night hoping Saddam Hussein would be killed in a bunker,' according to Robert M. Gates, then a National Security Council official and later director of the CIA," Walter Pincus wrote in the February 15, 1998, Washington Post. "A former top intelligence official in the Clinton administration said yesterday, 'Those candles will be lit again if we have to bomb again. Command and control sites will be targeted and we hope that Saddam Hussein is in one of them.'"
"Gates said that U.S. involvement in an assassination attempt against Saddam Hussein 'would put our own leaders at increased risk, not to mention U.S. diplomats and other American citizens traveling abroad'," Pincus wrote.
Iran/Contra
Gates' name has been associated with the Iran-Contra Affair. See Chapter on Robert M. Gates:
"Independent Counsel found insufficient evidence to warrant charging Robert Gates with a crime for his role in the Iran/contra affair. Like those of many other Iran/contra figures, the statements of Gates often seemed scripted and less than candid. Nevertheless, given the complex nature of the activities and Gates's apparent lack of direct participation, a jury could find the evidence left a reasonable doubt that Gates either obstructed official inquiries or that his two demonstrably incorrect statements were deliberate lies."
Career CIA Bureaucrat
"If you want a whiff of the unavoidably bureaucratic and political nature of Big Intelligence, go find some of the op-ed pieces written by Robert M. Gates who served as Director from 1991 to 1993. The good old New York Times often published his puff pieces. Gates was a career CIA bureaucrat, I believe the only one ever given the top job. His pieces, bromides expressed in oily institutional prose, are not worth reading except for the sense they convey of a decades-long career of throbbingly-dull, inconclusive reports," John Chuckman wrote June 9, 2004, in CounterPunch.
Profiles
Brief Biography
According to his university biography, Dr. Robert M. Gates is "the 22nd President of Texas A&M University, the nation's seventh largest university and an institution recognized internationally for its teaching, research and public service. He assumed the presidency of the land-grant, sea-grant and space-grant university on August 1, 2002. Dr. Gates served as Interim Dean of the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M from 1999-2001.
"He served as Director of Central Intelligence from 1991 until 1993. In this position, he headed all foreign intelligence agencies of the United States and directed the Central Intelligence Agency. Dr. Gates is the only career officer in CIA's history to rise from entry-level employee to Director. He served as Deputy Director of Central Intelligence from 1986 until 1989 and as Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Adviser at The White House from January 20, 1989 until November 6, 1991 for President George H.W. Bush.
"Dr. Gates joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1966 and spent nearly 27 years as an intelligence professional, serving six presidents. During that period, he spent nearly nine years at the National Security Council, The White House, serving four presidents of both political parties. ...
"Dr. Gates serves on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the American Council on Education, the Board of Directors of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, and the National Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America. He is President of the National Eagle Scout Association. ...
"A native of Kansas, Dr. Gates received his bachelor's degree from the College of William and Mary, his master's degree in history from Indiana University, and his doctorate in Russian and Soviet history from Georgetown University. Dr. Gates is 62, and he and his wife Becky have two adult children."
Career Timeline
The basis for the following timeline can be found here and here.
March 2006-present - Iraq Study Group [1]
2005 - Member, National Security Higher Education Advisory Board [2]
2005 - National Security Advisor, Oil Shockwave ("an oil crisis simulation conducted" early Summer 2005) [3]
2005 - "Turns down President George W. Bush's offer to return as the first director of national intelligence, a position created under post-Sept. 11, 2001, reforms." [4]
2004 - Co-chair of Independent Task Force on U.S. Policy Toward Iran (Council on Foreign Relations). [5]
August 2002-November 2006 - President of Texas A&M University.
1999-2001 - Interim Dean of the George Bush School of Government and Public Services at Texas A&M University.
November 1991-January 1993 - Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
1989-1991 - Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor.
1986-1989 - Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
January 1982 - Deputy Director of Intelligence at the Central Intelligence Agency.
November 1981 - National Intelligence Officer for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
July 1981 - Director of the new Office of Policy and Planning.
March 1981 - Director of the Executive Staff in the Office of the Director of Central Intelligence.
1980-1981 - National Intelligence Officer for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
1979 - Director of the Strategic Evaluation Center at the Central Intelligence Agency.
April 1979-December 1979 - Special Assistant to the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (President Jimmy Carter) [6]
1976 - Served in the Center for Public Policy at the Central Intelligence Agency.
1974-1976 - Served on National Security Council staff at the White House.
1974 - Earns his doctorate from Georgetown University.
1973 - Assistant National Intelligence Officer for Strategic Programs.
1972 - Assigned to staff of the Special Assistant to the Director of Central Intelligence for Strategic Arms Limitations.
1969 - Civilian current intelligence analyst in the Office of Current Intelligence.
1966-74 - Signs up with the CIA, but serves in the Air Force for two years before starting his job at the agency as an intelligence analyst.
1966 - Earns a master's degree from Indiana University.
1965 - Earns a bachelor's degree from the College of William and Mary.
September 25, 1943 - Robert M. Gates born in Wichita, Kansas.
Affiliations
Robert M. Gates has either served or is currently serving in the following capacities:
Member, Iraq Study Group
Member, Aspen Institute / Aspen Strategy Group
Chairman of the Independent Trustees, Fidelity Investments
Trustee, Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc.
Trustee, Forum for International Policy [7]
Director, Brinker International, Inc.
Director, Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC)
Director, LucasVarity plc
Director, Nacco Industries, Inc.
Director, Parker Drilling Company, Inc.
Director, Science Applications International Corporation [8]
Director, TRW Inc.
Advisory Board, America Abroad Media [9]
Advisor, The National Academies [10]
Significant Accomplishments
"Before becoming DCI on November 6, 1991, Robert M. Gates had already served as DDCI for many years, and even served as acting DCI during Casey's illness. As DCI (a job to which [George H.W.] Bush appointed him), he led the redirection of CIA efforts away from their Cold War orientation, and toward a focus on issues such as nonproliferation, terrorism, and drug trafficking. During an October, 1992 visit to Moscow, Gates did something inconceivable for a DCI in Dulles's time: he entered the Kremlin."
(Note: Allen W. Dulles served as DCI February 26, 1953-November 29, 1961; William J. Casey served as DCI January 28, 1981-January 29, 1987.)
www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Robert_M._Gates
John Cook's Venture Blog
Robert Gates' ties to a Northwest startup
Former CIA Director Robert Gates -- who is replacing Donald Rumsfeld as Defense Secretary -- has an interesting connection to the state's startup community.
For a short period in 2001, Gates served on the board of a Puyallup company called Advanced Biometrics Inc. that claimed to be developing handprint identification systems.
It is a part of Gates' resume that he probably wants to forget.
I have a big file on Advanced Biometrics, primarily because the state investigated the founder of the company for allegedly defrauding investors. Former employees also sued the startup in federal court in Tacoma, alleging that it failed to pay workers. (The case was dismissed in August 2002).
I covered the company's troubles in 2002 as did The Tacoma News Tribune.
Ken Hatch, a prominent former Seattle television executive who sat on the board of Advanced Biometrics, told me in 2002 that the situation was "messy."
Gates resigned from the board before the state's investigation, stepping down in the fall of 2001. He was on the board for less than a year.
- Posted by John Cook at November 8, 2006 12:18 p.m.
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/venture/archives/108542.asp
FRENCH CONNECTION, THE SMOKING GUN
If Bush went to Paris, the French and
U.S. have documents to prove it
By Harry V. Martin
Copyright, Napa Sentinel, 1991
Sixth in a Series
If there is a smoking gun in the allegations that George Bush flew to Paris in October 1980 to arrange for the delay of the release of 52 American hostages, it will be found in a file cabinet in the French SDECE office, or in secure U.S. government computers.
While Bush was allegedly in Paris, the French intelligence service (SDECE) was asked to make certain the Vice Presidential candidate was not seen. French security succeeded in that task and wrote a routine memo on the incident. A man who spent 18-years in the U.S. intelligence service has testified that he actually saw that memo in December 1980 in the files of the C.I.A.
The file of the Paris meeting was given to the CIA on November 18, 1980. The agent testifies that Bush had to meet with three different factions of the Iranian revolution. The meeting took place at the Rafael Hotel. The agent not only names Bush, but also William Casey, Donald Gregg and Richard Allen as participants. Bush did not attend the first meeting, only the second.
Afraid that Bush would be recognized by the French press, his aircraft landed at the military part of Orlee. He was whisked away in a closed car and brought directly to the Rafael Hotel. He was there for about two hours, the agent states.
This agent has the highest CIA clearance and worked the entire time in the Directorate of Operations in the CIA and was with the Agency since 1965. The agent also testified that the $40 million the Iranians received as a "down payment" in the deal was actually funds left over from a $60 million illegal contribution to the Committee to Reelect the President (Richard Nixon's 1972 reelection campaign) from the Shah of Iran.
In a taped interview, to be released by the Napa Sentinel to KING Radio in Seattle, the agent states that Bush was "out of the loop" from midnight, October 18, 1980 to 5 p.m., October 19. He states that Bush was in a meeting with Hashemi Rafsanjani, representatives of the Ayatollah Behisti, and Javad Bahonar. A key figure was also there for the French SDECE, Robert Benes, the son of Czech President Edward Benes who died in 1948 when the Communists took over his country.
The agent further testifies that Maurice Stans obtained the funds from Mexico. After November 20, 1980. Col. Alexandre de Marenches, head of the SDECE met with President-elect Ronald Reagan in California and presented the Paris meeting report to him. He did not visit President Jimmy Carter. The French intelligence chief warned Reagan not to trust the CIA.
The U.S. agent said Bush and the CIA go back to 1959 and 1960. A memo from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was sent in 1963 to CIA agent George Bush addressing the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the possible reaction of Cubans in Miami who might have believed Fidel Castro was responsible for the plot.
But that is not the only smoking gun that could prove the Bush trip to Paris, a trip that he denies. The computers in Washington have codes buried in them, codes that would identify the Bush-Paris activity. In fact, using the right code name and code number, a complete history of the trip, the manifest of the aircraft and other details, including briefing notes, would emerge. According to three separate CIA sources, the operation was conducted in three stages and had three codes:
Part One was Magdelen.
Part Two was Maggellan.
Part Three was Michaelangelo.
Each has a separate code access. The Maggellan access code is reported to be 0221-001-666. Some of the records can be found at Quantico and others at Andrews Air Force Base. The source of this later information could not be double checked.
Navy Captain Gunther Russbacher, who has been verified by several separate agency members and intelligence sources, claims he flew Bush to Paris in a aircraft owned by the Saudi Royal Family, the aircraft was a reconfigured BAC-111, which refueled in Newfoundland. Russbacher's credibility has been a see-saw for awhile because much of his files are missing, and like many agents has a strange and sometimes silent past. Russbacher, is currently serving a short sentence in Terminal Island for allegedly impersonating a U.S. Attorney. The U.S. Defenders Office indicates that the information published about Russbacher is "on the right track". Others have confirmed the same thing.
But the Sentinel has not been totally satisfied with the complete testimony of Russbacher and has pressed other sources and Russbacher, himself, for more detail. Records will now prove that Russbacher is the cousin of Richard Brennecke, who was acquitted of perjury by a federal jury. He was charged with perjury when he testified that Bush went to Paris. Brennecke originally denied knowing Russbacher, but now admits he knows him. They virtually grew up in Nevada together after their families secretly left Austria after World War II and were recruited by U.S. intelligence. Russbacher indentified Brennecke as a member of the flight crew.
One of the difficulties in tracing the steps of CIA agents is the smoke screen, disinformation and attacks on their credibility. The Sentinel has learned that Russbacher escaped from a U.S. Federal Prison in Secoville, Texas in 1975. On national radio, Russbacher openly admitted the escape and said he was placed on the escape list and spent 10 years in Europe and the United States, working with the CIA. The fact that he has been in the United States and the focus of public attention, he has never been rearrested for the escape. But sources very high up in the intelligence community verify his authenticity.
After receiving information from other sources and pressing Russbacher, he has confirmed the reports of other intelligence officials that Robert Gates was also on the aircraft that flew Bush to Paris. "Gates had a strong hand in it," Russbacher finally admitted. Russbacher, who did not originally seek publicity on this case, was very reluctant to bring in Gates' name. Gates has just been appointed by President Bush to head the CIA and is facing Senate confirmation. Intelligence sources indicate that Russbacher is a key figure in CIA financial matters.
The smoking guns are out there, it is a question of whether they will be found or destroyed. The French have a bitter hatred for the CIA and it is plausible they might use the French report to blackmail the President, especially on matters related to the new European Community and Common Market.
~ ~ ~
Dead Men Tell No Tales
By Harry V. Martin
Senator Albert Gore has called for a formal investigation into the "October Surprise". A one-time Democratic presidential candidate, the Tennessee senator is considering a second race for the Democratic nomination in 1992.
But at the heart of the question of any investigation is: who would be the witnesses? The Sentinel has published a 13-part series on the allegation that George Bush and his Republican colleagues made a deal with Iran to delay the release of 52 American hostages in 1980.
As more and more attention is focused on the issue, little attention has focused on who would be the witnesses and what happened to many of them.
CYRUS HASHEMI, an arms dealer, was approached by William Casey to set up the meetings with the Republicans and Iranians. He reported the contact to the CIA and died shortly after that.
JOHN TOWER, a U.S. Senator who was deeply involved in the process through his then aide Robert McFarlane. Tower was the chief investigator in the Iran-Contra scandal. He died in a plane crash recently.
ALAN MICHAEL MAY, who managed the funds for Richard Nixon's Committee to Re-elect the President. May allegedly transferred $40 million from a Mexican bank to various U.S. banks to Luxembourg as a "down payment" for the delay of the hostages. His name came up for the first time in the Napa Sentinel last week and he died of a heart attack this weekend at age 50. May had indicated a short time before he died that he feared for his life.
U.S. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE POTTER STEWART, who Bush claims had lunch with him during the missing hours in October 1980, is now dead.
WILLIAM CASEY, the former head of the CIA and principle negotiator in the alleged hostage delay, died on the eve of the Iran-Contra hearings.
HEINRICH RUPP, the man who allegedly flew Casey back from Paris and a long-term CIA operative, was sentenced to jail for 40 years in a CIA bank scandal. His sentence was reduced to two years.
RICHARD BRENNEKE, who also claims he was a pilot involved in the October Surprise and a long time arms dealer for the CIA, went to Rupp's defense and was charged with five counts of perjury. He was acquitted, but has recently changed his story saying he did not fly over in the BAC-111. He claims he flew Pan Am to Paris and flew part of the Paris party back to the United States.
GUNTHER RUSSBACHER, who claims he was the command pilot that flew George Bush to Paris in October 1980 and a long-time Naval Intelligence and CIA operative, is finishing a short term in federal prison on charges he impersonated a U.S. attorney.
MICHAEL RICONOSCIUTO, who was allegedly the man who finalized the money transfers for the deal in Paris and also a long time CIA operative, is being held without bail in a federal prison in Missouri pending a trial in the State of Washington for drug manufacturing. Riconoscuito had warned the media and Congress that he would be arrested if he testified in the INSLAW case. He provided testimony and was arrested within a week.
DONALD GREGG, who was a principle in the alleged meetings with the Iranians and former high official in the CIA, is now Ambassador to South Korea. Gregg's testimony in Brenneke's trial was rejected by a federal jury. Gregg is also supposed to be indicted by a U.S. Federal Grand Jury in Washington, D.C., soon on charges of perjury. Former President Jimmy Carter said that Gregg was the mole in the White House.
ROBERT GATES, implicated by Russbacher as having been involved in the deal, is seeking confirmation from the U.S. Senate as the new CIA director.
DR. EARL BRIAN, said to have been the liasion in setting up the preliminary meetings between the Republicans and the Iranians, has enjoyed extensive contracts with the U.S. government, including involvement in the INSLAW case in which he is alleged to have illegally sold INSLAW's PROMIS software to Israel, Libya, Iraq, Canada, Australia and South Korea. The INSLAW case is currently under investigation.
ARI BEN-MENASHE, an Israeli Mossad agent, has testified to the meetings in Paris and the Israeli role as an arms conduit. The Israeli Mossad is known for its disinformation, and thus Ben-Menashe may not be considered a reliable witness.
RICHARD ALLEN, head of Ronald Reagan's National Security Council, was allegedly instrumental in the deal. Allen has already been nationally discredited.
GEORGE BUSH, President of the United States and former head of the CIA, denies any involvement.
RONALD REAGAN doesn't recall. He also couldn't recall being at any Iran-Contra discussions.
MRS. JUSTICE STEWART POTTER, who was supposed to be having lunch with her husband and Bush at the time of the Paris meeting, does not recall the luncheon, but says she can't recall yesterday, either.
It isn't going to be easy for the Senate investigators. But there are a lot more permanent items on the paper trail that might break the case wide open.
Stay tuned.
www.sonic.net/sentinel/usa3.html
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Last Updated on May 25, 2007 by The Catbird