XVII LE CERCLE

Le Cercle and the struggle for the European continent | Membership list
Private bridge between Vatican-Paneuropean- and Anglo-American intelligence

"I had first learned about it in October 1967 when Carlo Pesenti, the owner of a number of important Italian corporations, took me aside at a Chase investment forum in Paris and invited me to join his group... The discussions were conducted in French, and usually I was the sole American present... Members of the Pesenti Group were all committed to European political and economic integration... My Chase associates, who feared my membership could be construed as "consorting with reactionaries," eventually prevailed upon me to withdraw."
- 2002, David Rockefeller, 'Memoirs', p. 412-413.
"Formed in the Fifties... One of the most influential, secretive, and, it goes without saying, exclusive political
clubs in the West... One member contacted by this newspaper said he could not talk about it "even off, off the record". Another simply put the phone down... The source of its funding is a mystery..."
- June 29, 1997, The Independent, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club', one of the very few mainstream reports on Le Cercle.
"Coudenhove said: "You know, it is awfully difficult to make Europe with the English, but without them, it is impossible". That is very true."
- Otto von Habsburg, key founder of Le Cercle, head of the Paneuropa Union and one of the most central players in the underground Vatican-Paneuropa network.
Le Cercle is a secretive, privately-funded and transnational discussion group which regularly meets in different parts of the world. It is attended by a mixture of politicians, ambassadors, bankers, shady businessmen, oil experts, editors, publishers, military officers and intelligence agents, which may or may not have retired from their official functions. The participants come from western or western-oriented countries. Many important members tend to be affiliated with the aristocratic circles in London or obscure elements within the Vatican, and accusations of links to fascism and Synarchism are anything but uncommon in this milieu. The greatest enemy of the Cercle has been the Soviet Union and members have been crusading against communist subversion for many decades. During this process, Cercle members unfortunately have accused almost every nationalist and socialist government, every labour union, every terrorist, and every serious investigator of western intelligence of being in bed with the KGB.
In addition, the Cercle is also strongly focused on European integration, going back to the efforts of its early members to bring about Franco-German rapprochement. The significant presence of Paneuropa-affiliated Opus Dei members and Knights of Malta, together with statements of the Vatican and Otto von Habsburg, clearly indicate there's an agenda in the background to some day bring about a new Holy Roman Empire with its borders stretching from the Atlantic to the Black Sea and from the Baltic Sea to North Africa. Interestingly, the latest generation of British Cercle members, whose predecessors were keen on joining the European Union, now do everything in their power to keep Britain out of the emerging European superstate, having lost faith they can become a significant force within Europe. Their American associates, however, would like for them to continue the effort of breaking into the Franco-German alliance and possibly to establish a new Anglo-German alliance.
It seems like a cold war is raging in Europe. One that doesn't directly involve the Soviets.

Origins

Le Cercle used be known as the Pinay Circle, or Cercle Pinay by its original French founders. Although the group was named after a French statesman who was prime minister from March to December 1952, the real organizer of this group was a person named Jean Violet, a close associate of Pinay since 1951 (1).
Jean Violet has a murky past to say the least. In French and later English literature, Violet is named as a pre-WWII member of the Comite Secret pour l'Action Revolutionnaire (CSAR), a secretive fascist group which, like Freemasonry, had its own initiation rites (2). Some authors have suggested that CSAR, popularly known at the time as the Cagoule, or "hooded ones", was one of the most important branches of the legendary Synarchist Movement of Empire and worked to undermine the French Republic in preparation for the coming Nazi invasion (3). Whatever truth can be found in this claim, it is known that Jean Violet was arrested after the war for having collaborated with the enemy. He was released however "on orders from above" (4), went to work as a lawyer in Paris, and decided to become a member of Opus Dei (or, possibly, he became a member first, which resulted in his release). In 1951, Violet came into contact with Antoine Pinay, a Catholic also said to have been in bed with Opus Dei, who asked him to solve a problem with a Geneva-based firm that had been sieged by the Nazis during WWII. As the story goes, Pinay was so impressed with the way Violet handled his assignment that he recommended him to French intelligence, the SDECE (5). Also, Violet soon managed to hook up with Opus Dei luminaries as Alfredo Sanchez Bella and Otto von Habsburg (6), who had founded the European Centre of Documentation and Information (CEDI) in 1949 (7). Habsburg was chairman for life of CEDI and later also of the Paneuropa Union. Sanchez Bella was the Spanish ambassador to Rome under Franco in the 1960s while his brother was head of Opus Dei in Spain (8). Violet also became an associate of Father Yves-Marc Dubois, a senior member of Vatican intelligence and possibly its head (9).
CEDI was one of the first in a long line of hard-right, often aristocratic institutions part of the Vatican-Paneuropa network. One of these institutions, founded by Antoine Pinay and Jean Violet, became Cercle Pinay, and besides that it was set up "somewhere in the 1950s" (10), the exact date remains unknown. The claim that Cercle Pinay was put together in 1969 (11) is wrong and has probably been a mix-up with the Belgian Cercle des Nations, which was founded that year by a secretary general of CEDI (12). Violet was one of the few French members of this Cercle des Nations (13) that was part of the same Opusian Vatican-Paneuropa network. The crowd of Cercle des Nations has featured in a number of Belgian conspiracies and some were involved with the "Dutroux network" that allegedly didn't exist. Bit more about that later.
Like many others, Pinay and Violet understood that the basis for a stable united Europe would be a Franco-German reconciliation. Therefore they recruited in their Cercle the most important individuals that were working towards this aim.
From Germany they invited the long time chancellor and foreign minister Konrad Adenauer, and two of his closest associates, Franz Joseph Bach, who ran Adenauer's office; and Franz Joseph Strauss, the controversial hard-right political figure from Bavaria who was a defense minister in Adenauer's second cabinet.
Early Cercle members representing the Paneuropa Union, the European Coal and Steel Community, France, Germany and Italy. Andreotti was not a founding member; the others were.
Robert Schuman and Jean Monnet, in addition to Pinay, were recruited from France. Schuman had been French prime minister from 1947 to 1948 and French foreign minister from 1948 to 1953. Jean Monnet, as Planning Commissioner of the National Economic Council from 1945 to 1952, and appointed by De Gaulle, carried out essential work for the reconstruction of the French economy. He was connected to the highest financial and political circles in North America, the UK, and western Europe, and was one of the major players in the push for an integrated Europe in the aftermath of WWII. As founding vice-chairman of the Committee for European Economic Co-operation (CEEC), which oversaw the Marshall Plan aid, he was the most influential player in this organization. This short description doesn't even begin to describe the life of this extraordinary Frenchman, so lets take a more in depth look at him.
Pinay and especially Violet were the official founders of Le Cercle, with Habsburg, vice president of the Paneuropa Union under Coudenhove-Kalergi, acting as Violet's patron. These men initially brought together Schuman, Monnet, Adenauer and a number of other individuals. All of these men, except Monnet, were either members or sympathizers of Opus Dei. The financial empire of Pesenti, who has no known direct ties to Opus Dei, was funded by the Vatican Bank and he turned out to be Banco Ambrosiano's largest minority shareholder when it collapsed in 1982. Monnet, as the only one among these names, was connected to leading bankers in London and New York, and used to be secretary general of the League of Nations. N.b. Pesenti might not have been a founding member, but used to be a top level player in the 1960s, chairing meetings and inviting David Rockefeller. He later also financed some of the work of Violet and Crozier.

"Europe's founder" Jean Monnet

Right before and after WWI Monnet hooked up with leading figures in the Anglo-American establishment. One of the first was Lord Kindersley, who during his life was a partner in Lazard Brothers, a chairman of the Hudson's Bay Company, and a director of the Bank of England. Kindersley's son is known to have become a Pilgrims Society executive (14).
Another very important person was Arthur Salter, whom he first met in 1914 (15). Salter and Monnet would become involved in setting up the Inter-Allied Maritime Transport Council, the Supreme Economic Council at Versailles, and the League of Nations. In 1931, Salter wrote 'The United States of Europe', which favored a federal Europe within the framework of the League of Nations. Probably not by coincidence, Monnet's post-WWII proposal for a political structure of a united Europe was almost exactly the same. Three years after writing 'The United States of Europe', Salter became a professor at Oxford and a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, named by Quigley as the center of the Round Table Group. In fact, Quigley identified Salter as a member of the Milner Group (16), and it is known that Salter shared a few boards with Lord Astor, a prominent Pilgrims Society family, and the Viscount Cecil of Chelwood of that time, a member of the family that is said to have coordinated the Round Table group (and appears in both Le Cercle and the Pilgrims). Salter also became a member of the Privy Council in 1941.
Others Monnet became a close associate of were Sir Eric Drummond, the 16th Earl of Perth, who was a member of a very aristocratic family in Britain; John Foster Dulles; Douglas Dillon; a Lazard Brothers' banker whose sister-in-law was Lady Nancy Astor; and John J. McCloy. He also was a long time business associate of Elisha Walker (American International Corporation; Kuhn, Loeb & Co.; CFR), with whom he clandestinely tried to take over A. P. Giannini's Transamerica Corporation and its Bank of America network. It failed after a lawsuit in which Giannini vowed to fight the "Wall Street domination" on the board of his company. In February 1932, Walker and Monnet were ousted as chair and vice chair respectively (17).
He then went into business with the leaders of the Chinese Green Gang Triad, Tse-Ven Soong and Chiang Kai-shek. He took his assistant, David Drummond (the future 17th Lord Perth; from a catholic Hungarian family which emigrated to Scotland in the 11th century; two members of this family were among the eight original founders of the Order of the Thistle; raised by the Duke and Duchess of Norfolk, a very old catholic aristocratic family; later Privy Councillor; later chair of the Ditchley Foundation for 3 years; later representative of the Queen to the Vatican; became a member of the extremely elite Roxburghe Club, together with members of the Cecil, Cavendish, Howard (Dukes of Norfolk), Mellon, Rothschild, and Oppenheimer families), the son of Monnet's superior at the League of Nations, to China where he lived until 1936.
In 1935, when Monnet was still in Shanghai, he became a business partner of George Murnane in Monnet, Murnane & Co. Murnane was connected to the Wallenbergs in Sweden, the Bosch family in Germany, the Solvays and Boëls in Belgium, and John Foster Dulles, André Meyer, and the Rockefellers in the United States. He was considered among the most connected persons of his time (18). John Dulles of Sullivan & Cromwell provided the financial backing for the partnership. After Monnet got back to the United States, he was briefly investigated for tax evasion. Then, in 1938, Monnet, Murnane & Co. was briefly investigated by the FBI, who suspected it of having laundered Nazi money (19). Nothing came of this investigation, but the Nazi-cooperation of some of Monnet's close friends, like Douglas Dillon and John Dulles, or Murnane's earlier firm, Lee, Higginson & Co., is well documented (20).
When WWII broke out, Monnet was one of the most important individuals in contact with both the French resistance and the Churchill government. While in London at the time that France was overrun, Monnet proposed to General Charles de Gaulle, the leader of the French government in exile, the creation of a Franco-British Union; a plan to completely unite France and Britain. The Churchill government accepted, even a desperate de Gaulle accepted, but eventually the (supposedly Synarchist) opposition in France, headed by Marshall Petain, killed the plan. They saw it as an attempt of Britain to wrestle control over France. Petain subsequently became the leader of Vichy France.
After the war, Monnet was appointed by de Gaulle to reorganize the French economy. But Monnet also began to reorganize the whole of Europe.
Together with an equally mysterious Joseph Retinger (connected to both MI6 and the Vatican; founder of Bilderberg), who was raised by European nobility (21), Monnet organized the May 1948 Congress of Europe, which met under the auspices of the United Europe Movement in The Hague. Chairman was Winston Churchill, whose son-in-law, Duncan Sandys, worked closely with Joseph Retinger and CIA heads Allen Dulles and Bill Donovan. Later Cercle members as Robert Schuman and Konrad Adenauer were in attendance, just as Alcide de Gasperi and Paul Henri Spaak. The CIA would become the primary source of funding for the United European Movement in the following decades (22).
In 1949, with the support of Adenauer, Robert Schuman proposed the so called "Schuman Plan", which became the basis for the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). It was established in 1952 and is usually seen as the birth of the European Union. In reality, Monnet, who became the first chairman of the ECSC's High Authority, had entirely written the "Schuman Plan". And interestingly, even this might only partially be true, as Monnet's structure for Europe turned out to be a slightly adapted version of Arthur Salter's 1931 paper 'The United States of Europe', which originally advocated a federal Europe within the framework of the League of Nations (23). Both men worked high up in the League of Nations and had a close relationship to the leading Anglo-American families, as has already been discussed.
One year later, on 24 October 1950, the French prime minister René Pleven introduced his "Pleven Plan". As happened earlier with Schuman, who didn't support this latest proposal, this document too had been written entirely by Jean Monnet (although he might have discussed it with his friend Arthur Salter). It proposed the creation of the European Defence Community (EDC): a Paneuropean defense force. Eventually this proposal was defeated by the Gaullist nationalists in France, and Europe's defense forces remained part of the newly-established NATO, which was (and is) mostly international, instead of supranational.
After the failure of his European Defence Community (EDC), Monnet doubled his efforts and founded the very low-profile Action Committee for the United States of Europe (ACUSE). It brought together leading international members of governments and labour unions, mainly to discuss European economic integration. ACUSE, together with the US State Department, lobbied and pressured a great deal behind the scenes in the run up to the 1957 Treaty of Rome, which created the actual European Economic Community (EEC; "Economic" was dropped in '91). All of Monnet's most important associates in this process were members of the Pilgrims Society: David K.E. Bruce, the Dulles brothers, John J. McCloy, George Ball, C. Douglas Dillon, and president Eisenhower. Cercle member Konrad Adenauer was among the signers of the treaty, just as Paul Henri Spaak. Also, the founding vice president of the ACUSE was Max Kohnstramm, who became the initial 1973 European chairman of the Rockefeller-founded Trilateral Commission. Kohnstramm used to be private secretary to Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. Antoine Pinay was another important member of ACUSE, the organization that Time Magazine dubbed a "European shadow government" in 1969 (24).
In 1961, Monnet managed to replace the OEEC, initially established to oversee the Marshall Plan, with the broader Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (25). The OECD since then has been one of the most influential institutions promoting globalization and free trade, today working in partnership with the World Bank, the IMF, and the World Trade Organization. Mainland European governors of the Atlantic Institute of International Affairs, which also was founded in 1961, have had a relatively strong presence in these institutions, especially in the OECD. Pilgrims Society members have been dominant in the other institutions while the Vatican-connected Paneuropa members have always played a minor role in the institutions above and tend to criticize the Anglo-American Liberal establishment.
Around the same time Monnet replaced the OEEC with the OECD, he met with Edward Heath (As Lord Privy Seal 1960-1963 responsible for the initial talks to bring Britain into the European Common Market; head Conservative party 1965-1975; Conservative prime minister UK 1970-1974; very committed to the EU; a close Sun Myung Moon associate) at the house of his good friend David Drummond, the 17th Lord Perth (26), a member of an old aristocratic family with very good connections to both the Vatican and the highest levels in British society, including the Rothschilds, Oppenheimers, Mellons, Cecils, and Howards (27). Lord Perth was a chairman of the Ditchley Foundation and his father was the initial secretary-general of the League of Nations while Monnet was his deputy. Heath became a member of Monnet's Action Committee and in 1973 he signed Britain into the European Economic Community. This only became possible after De Gaulle had ceased to be president of France.
Monnet was an early supporter of de Gaulle, as he was of the opinion that this legendary general was the only person who might be able to reunite the French people after WWII. However, in later years some friction developed between these two men. De Gaulle was a nationalist who supported a strong intergovernmental Europe, preferably with France being the major influence. Monnet, on the other hand, was a no holds barred supranationalist.

Franco-German rapprochement

Jean Monnet clearly was among the most influential and secretive of the Cercle members that pushed for a united Europe. However, according to Brian Crozier, a former chairman of Le Cercle, Jean Violet himself also played an important behind the scenes role several years after the European Economic Community (EEC) had been founded:
"By far the dominant theme in de Gaulle's foreign policy (as Violet interpreted it) was Franco-German reconciliation. A genius at (non-violent) operations of influence, Violet played an historically key role between 1957 and 1961 in bringing about this rapprochement, which is the real core of the European Community. He had developed a close friendship with Antoine Pinay, who had served as French Premier in 1951 under the unstable Fourth Republic. At a lower level, a complementary role was played by his SDECE colleague Antoine Bonnemaison. Violet was the go-between in secret meetings between Pinay and the West German Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, and his coalition partner Franz Josef Strauss. These paved the way for Charles de Gaulle's own encounters with Adenauer, which culminated in the Franco-German Treaty of January 1963. [Treaty of Elysée]" (28)
The Treaty of Elysée is a relatively unknown agreement (for the average person) between France and Germany in which both countries agreed to consult with each other on important foreign policy and economic issues, ahead of time of general EEC meetings. It is the core of the often-discussed Franco-German alliance, which has had great influence on the European project ever since. Some say, too much.
The Elysée agreement was made at the time that de Gaulle first vetoed the accession of Britain into the European Economic Community (EEC). The decision was quietly backed by Adenauer. De Gaulle argued that Britain's economy was based on trade with its Commonwealth and did not have a large agricultural economy, like France and most other countries in mainland Europe. This, together with Britain's historical "special relationship" with the United States, convinced de Gaulle that Britain would never be fully committed to the interests of Europe (29). Of course, it's far from unreasonable to think that de Gaulle's primary reason was that he saw Britain and its ally the United States as a threat to France's influence within the European Union. A few years later de Gaulle also withdrew from NATO, expelled all Allied forces from France, and tried to get on good terms with the Soviet Union. In addition to the enemies he had made when he withdrew from Algeria, he now also angered people like Brian Crozier and his French intelligence associate Colonel Antoine Bonnemaison. Bonnemaison ran a Cercle-like operation (let's shorten it to Le Centre), of which Crozier had become a member (30). Members of the Centre had already labeled de Gaulle "the enemy" in 1965, and were looking for ways to evict him from office (31). Within four years they got what they wanted, although it's not known if they had any active involvement in ousting de Gaulle, besides spying on him. But they certainly had the connections to do that.
It would still be several years before the Opusian Jean Violet and Anglo-Saxon Brian Crozier would meet and join hands. Ironically, at this time, when Crozier was involved in spying on de Gaulle, Violet was carrying out de Gaulle's defense and foreign policy objectives, and possibly was the French president's most important intelligence agent. Even when Crozier was head of Le Cercle from 1980 to 1985, he did not know Jean Violet's full background:
"It was not until the spring of 1993 that I learned the details of Jean Violet's real secret service role when General de Gaulle was in power. A background document was given to me by one of Violet's ex-colleagues. Ironically, a few years before Gabriel Decazes and I started spying on de Gaulle, Violet was masterminding a Service Spécial to promote the General's objectives in defence and foreign policy.
The document began with a paragraph of wistful praise for Britain's remarkable achievements in intelligence and clandestine action. But France, too, offered a precedent: Louis XV had set up a special service known to the few who were aware of it as the Secret du Roi. This service reported directly to the King, bypassing the Foreign Ministry of the day.
Only two people were aware of de Gaulle's latter-day model: General Grossin, the then head of the SDECE, and a certain 'Monsieur X'. It required no great deductive powers to assume that Monsieur X had to be Maître Violet, but Jean refused to comment when I asked him. My other source, however, confirmed my supposition. No wonder, in retrospect, that Violet's shadowy role and apparently bottomless purse stirred resentful envy among his colleagues and poisoned Alexandre de Marenches's mind against Violet, whom he had never met." (32)
Violet saw Franco-German rapprochement as de Gaulle's most important foreign policy objective, but judging by his association with people who wanted Britain in the European Union as a "third pillar" it is doubtful he supported all of de Gaulle's later decisions. In 1980, Violet picked Crozier as his follow-up to the presidency/chairmanship of Le Cercle (33). Crozier had been recruited by the Frenchman nine years earlier, and introduced by a person who had been a close assistant to Cercle member Jean Monnet (who struggled for a long time to get Britain into the EEC).
"On 1 March 1971, a long interview I had given to Joseph Fromm appeared in US News and World Report. The theme was terrorist and Communist intentions. On reading this interview, a Frenchman named Maitre Jean Violet came to see me in my Piccadilly office, with an introduction from Francois Duchene, my former Economist colleague and Director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.... Violet impressed me with the clarity and precision of his arguments - Gallic logic at its best - and with the breath of his intellectual grasp of world problems." (34)
Duchene had met Monnet in exactly the same way as Crozier met Violet. In 1950, Duchene wrote a series of articles for the Manchester Guardian which came to the attention of Jean Monnet. In response, Monnet invited Duchene to become one of his assistants in building a united Europe. Duchene followed Monnet when the latter became head of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). He then followed Monnet to Paris and became an editor of the Economist. In 1958, Duchene became a director of Monnet's Action Committee for the United States of Europe (ACUSE), which struggled to get Britain in the EEC under the dictations of the Treaty of Rome. He remained on the board until 1963. During this time, he suffered a nervous breakdown for some unknown reason. In 1963, he went on to become leader writer for the Economist and from 1967 to 1969 he was a Ford Foundation fellow (a huge US intelligence-connected foundation). From 1969 to 1974 he was a director of the prestigious International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a think tank on international affairs with directors linked to intelligence and the high financial circles. In 1974 or 1975, Duchene became the European deputy chairman of the Trilateral Commission, working under Max Kohnstramm, Monnet's partner at the Action Committee (35).
So, as can be concluded from the above text, during Duchene's time as a director of the IISS, he approached Brian Crozier on behalf of Jean Violet, and very likely on behalf of the Cercle in general, as Crozier mentioned that his involvement with the Cercle started that same year (36). Interestingly, Duchene not only introduced Violet as a person who worked for French intelligence, but also as a person who "represented a powerful consortium of French business interests." (37)
It seems there's no end to the interests Cercle-founder Jean Violet represented during his lifetime: the fascist CSAR group, Opus Dei, Paneuropa, the French government, French business, French intelligence, and even German intelligence, as former Nazi General Reinhard Gehlen recruited him at one point for his involvement with Le Cercle (38). Whereas Jean Violet is tightly locked into the Paneuropa-Vatican network, his associates Jean Monnet, Francois Duchene, Brian Crozier and several other (Duchene is not confirmed as a Cercle member) British Cercle members seem to be more connected to the Anglo-American interests.

Crozier's anti-communist propaganda network

Brian Crozier: "[Reagan] shared my view that Nel- son was more intelligent than his banker brother, David. He was critical of the role of David Rockefeller's Chase Manhattan Bank in easing technology transfers to the Soviet Union. Reagan also men- tioned, with mild distaste, the role of the Trilateral Commission in sponsoring Jimmy Carter." (Free Agent, p. 182) 

In the 1950s and early 1960s Crozier worked as a journalist and editor for the Sunday Times, the Economist, and the BBC. During this time he made his first intelligence contacts and used them for scoops. When John Hay "Jock" Whitney was ambassador to Great Britain from 1957 to 1961, Crozier was invited to his inner circle (39). Whitney was a Rockefeller associate, a friend of the British royal family, a CIA associate, and a Pilgrims Society vice president until the day he died (40). A few years later, Crozier went to work for the IRD, doing studies (some prefer to call it "disseminate propaganda") on KGB subversion. He also started to work with the CIA, MI6, and the intelligence agencies of France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Morocco, Iran, Argentina, Chile, and Taiwan. The CIA's Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) also approached him to reconstruct and commercialize their organization. Crozier, however, turned down this offer as he was too busy with his other undertakings. He later did a study for the CCF, investigating its South American network. Some time after that study, in 1965-1966, he reconstructed the CCFs Forum Service, turning it into Forum World Features (FWF). John Hay Whitney was the one who took over the financial burden of FWF from the CIA when it was commercialized. Another billionaire CIA associate, Richard Mellon Scaife, later took over funding of FWF from Whitney. Scaife also funded Crozier's Institute for the Study of Conflict (ISC), which he founded in 1970, and showed up at gatherings of the Foreign Affairs Research Institute, an anti-communist and anti-terrorist propaganda group headed by several British Cercle members, including Crozier (41). In his book 'Free Agent' Crozier summarized the purpose of his ISC:
"Throughout my period as Director, the Institute for the Study of Conflict was involved in exposing the fallacies of 'détente' and warning the West of the dangers inherent a policy of illusion." (42)
Crozier and associates rejected Kissinger's Détente, aimed at reducing tensions between the superpowers, because, this group claimed, the Soviets continued to infiltrate and significantly influence Western Labour and Green parties, trade unions, media, and intelligence agencies. Also, they were of the opinion that the initial post-WWII policy of Containment (the Truman doctrine) was flawed. Instead, they argued that the West not only should resist a further communist encroachment, but also that it had to liberate countries that had fallen under the control of the Soviet empire. Every piece of territory that the Soviets conquered had to be taken back.
A noble and intelligent idea you would think. Unfortunately, many people who headed this lobby from behind the scenes just happen to be so far to the right they could actually be labeled as fascists. And in between these left and right wing extremists you had the Rockefeller clique, seemingly with their own agenda, encouraging technology to be sold to the Soviets (43). Even Crozier and some of his associates criticized that, probably never entertaining the idea that these people might know a thing or two they didn't (44).
In his book Crozier claims that the people who exposed his Forum World Services, The 61, and his Cercle were mostly manipulated or working for the KGB. He also presents information in such a way that will lead you to conclude that people like Mohammed Mossadeq and Harold Wilson were KGB paws, and that Pope John Paul I & II were both targeted by the KGB for assassination (only John Paul I died of that, allegedly). The KGB is basically behind everything. Crozier even repeated a 1978 claim by Time Magazine that the most effective KGB propaganda was that of discrediting the CIA (45). He also likes to state that "neo-colonialism" was a term invented by the Soviets, etc. Many of his accusations are based on statements from anonymous intelligence officers. At times, although he normally focuses on his own connections, he has used or referred to such reliable sources as the CIA sponsored Encounter magazine, the CIA sponsored Reader's Digest, his own CIA sponsored ISC think tank, the CIA sponsored journalist Claire Sterling, or to the CIA connected Zionist extremist Michael Ledeen.
It is important to consider that Crozier perfectly fits the profile of someone like Colin Wallace, the British intelligence agent who was handed all kinds of forged material to be put into circulation (46). And just recently, a Belgian associate of Jean Violet, Crozier's closest colleague for years, was caught forging KGB documents that had to prove a vast left wing conspiracy against this person (47). Crozier's good friend Richard Perle (48), and some of the other people he is associated with, would also know a thing or two about cooking or inventing evidence to sway public opinion. Crozier himself has been very influential in the late 1970s and early 1980s in setting up the war on terrorism. His friend Perle would take it to the next level after 9/11. More about that later, as Crozier's bio is a lot longer.

Cercle leadership

We briefly discussed the history of some of the key players in Le Cercle: Jean Violet and Antoine Pinay, the official founders; and their patron, Otto von Habsburg; how Violet and Pinay recruited individuals like Jean Monnet, Konrad Adenauer and Robert Schuman, and influenced the early history of the European Union. We also discussed how an agent of both Monnet and Violet recruited a well-connected member of British and American intelligence, Brian Crozier, and made him head of their Cercle in 1980. We also discussed the anti-communist and pro-Europe activities of its key members.
However, more key people were involved with Le Cercle over the years. Take Carlo Pesenti from Italy and Sir Peter Tennant from England. Pesenti was a close associate of the Vatican's financial circles; Tennant an important trade promoter for the City of London. They acted as chairmen of Cercle sessions when it was under the presidency of Jean Violet (49). Another important person was Franz-Josef Bach, who used to run Konrad Adenauer's political office. Bach co-organized Cercle meetings from at least 1980 to at least 1991 (50). A quick summary follows of who these people were. Look in the membership list attached to this article for more details, including the source of each individual name.
Scion of what was one of the wealthiest families of Italy until the 1970s, together with the Agnellis and Pirellis. Financier of some of the enterprises of Jean Violet and Brian Crozier; possibly also of Le Cercle. Chaired some of the meetings of Le Cercle and invited David Rockefeller. Head of Italcementi/Italmobiliare, one of the few key firms in cooperation with the IOR, or Vatican Bank. Boards of some of the companies it owned were loaded with aristocrats and SMOM members. Italmobiliare was the largest minority shareholder of Banco Ambrosiano at the time of its collapse in 1982. Pesenti was investigated for his role in the collapse but died during the court proceedings.
Sir Peter Tennant
Recruited into the SOE (WWII rival of MI6) by its founder, Colonel Sir Charles Hambro (head of Hambro, a Pilgrims Society bank; close friend of Churchill and the Wallenbergs; his son went to live with the Wallenberg family during WWII; head of the SOE 1942-1943; Sir Hambro's deputy in the SOE, Henry "Harry" Sporborg, also of Hambro Bank, ended up in the small inner circle committee of Crozier's Shield) as one of its first members. Helped Sefton Delmer (the Lord Beaverbrook agent who used to be in contact with Hitler's inner circle) with material for his propaganda broadcasts to the German armed forces. Deputy commandant of the British sector in Berlin 1950-1952. Went on to become a long time major trade representative for the City of London and had a lot of involvement in the negotiations leading up to the 1957 Treaty of Rome. Joined Barclays Bank in the City of London as a director and industrial advisor in 1972. Chaired some meetings of Le Cercle. Co-organized a fundraising in 1976 with a bunch of Pilgrims Society members and leading officers to save Canterbury Cathedral. Joined the board of the International Energy Bank in 1981, which financed worldwide oil and gas explorations, starting with the United States and Europe. Helped to establish the right-wing political pressure group Policy Research Associates.
Franz-Josef Bach
Ran Konrad Adenauer's office, who was chancellor of the Federal Republic of West Germany from 1949 to 1963. German ambassador to Iran. Conservative member of the Bundestag from 1969 to 1972. Went to work for the Swiss-based Economic and Development Corporation (EDC), an unacknowledged lobbying group for Northrop. Named as a shareholder of EDC and acknowledged that he had "advised them [EDC] about political things - the stability of a country, whether it was going to be an industrial country or not, whether it was going to be stable or not... I go to the country, see the country and make a report." (51) Senator Church of the Church Committee said about the Northrop arrangement: "an intelligence network like a government would employ to get inside information, to pull the strings... the records itself show that Northrop has been doing it." (52) Commercial and financial advisor to the Siemens Corporation.
Other important members of Le Cercle were-are Lord Julian Amery, his protege Jonathan Aitken and Lord Norman Lamont, all three members of the Privy Council. In 1985, Amery was picked by Brian Crozier as his follow up as president of Le Cercle (53). Aitken was Amery's protege and is known to have chaired at least some meetings in the early 1990s (54). Lord Lamont, the Rothschild employee, has repeatedly been named chairman of Le Cercle since 1996 (55). Here are some additional details on these people:
Son of Leopold Amery (1873-1955), who was close associate of Lord Milner and the Rothschilds. Leopold was a British imperialist heavily involved in the creation of Israel. He also was a great supporter of Coudenhove-Kalergi's Paneuropa Union, which was initially funded by the Warburgs and Rothschilds (56), and was later headed by Otto von Habsburg. Leopold had two sons: John and Julian. John went to work for French, Spanish, German, and Italian fascists, and was eventually hanged for it. Julian was Churchill’s personal representative to Chiang Kai-shek in 1945. Reportedly a life-long MI6 operative, although it isn't really known what he has been doing in this function. In 1950, he became a Conservative member of parliament and served in the cabinets of Harold Macmillan and Edward Heath. Married Harold Macmillan's daughter in 1950. Involved in the founding of the CIA's Congress for Cultural Freedom in 1950. Representative to the Council of Europe 1950-1956. Representative to the Round Table Conference on Malta in 1955. Involved with the Rhodesia and Nyasaland Club in the 1950s and 1960s, together with the Oppenheimers. Became a member of the Privy Council in 1960. Member of the very aristocratic Other Club since 1960, over the years together with the Duke of Devonshire (Cavendish), the Cecils, Lord Rothschild, Lord Rees-Mogg, Prince Charles, Pilgrims Society president Lord Carrington, Pilgrims Society member Lord Richardson of Duntisbourne, and a whole string of ex-prime ministers. With his friends David Stirling and Billy McLean, and help from the Cercle-affiliated royal houses of Jordan and Saudi Arabia, he set up a private SAS war in Yemen in the early 1960s in an effort to get Nasser out. One of the most prominent supporters of the illegal pro-white dictatorship in Rhodesia during the 1970s. In 1975, he claimed that it seemed more and more that the British trade unions were infiltrated by the KGB. Said to have been at a meeting on November 15,1982 with Prince Johannes von Thurn und Taxis and several known Cercle members about an expansion of Jewish settlements on the West Bank (57). Chairman of the London chapter of the Global Economic Action Institute, a free-market organization that was exposed in 1986 as being funded by the Moonie cult. Julian not only was an avid empire-builder, just like his father, but also in favour of Britain joining the European Common Market. He was also a supporter of a strong nuclear deterrent against the Soviets. Picked by Crozier as the new president of Le Cercle in 1985. Consultant to the extremely corrupt BCCI in the 1980s. Mentor to Jonathan Aitken, the next president of Le Cercle. Good friend of the very powerful and dynastic Cecil family, which also was very prominent in the initial Round Table clique.
Great nephew of Hitler-intimate Lord Beaverbrook, whose son ended up in the 1001 Club. Served as a war correspondent, and reportedly an MI6 agent, during the 1960s in the Middle-East, Vietnam, and Africa. Became a politician and member of parliament. During the 1980s, Aitken was a director of BMARC, a company that exported weapons to intermediary countries, who sold these weapons again to the intended countries (like Iraq). CEO of TV-Am and chairman of Aitken Hume Plc, a banking and investment group. In 1992, he was appointed Defense Minister. During this time, he stood in close contact with co-Cercle member and MI6 head of Middle-East affairs Geoffrey Tantum. Chairman of Le Cercle. Accused of having lobbied for three arms contractors: GEC, Marconi and VSEL, in an effort to sell many millions worth of arms to Saudi-Arabia. Through multiple offshore companies in Switzerland and Panama, submarines, howitzers, medium-range laser guided bombs, Black Hawks, and EH101 helicopters were sold and shipped. After his trial and brief time in jail, Aitken is one of the few people who had to resign from the Privy Council. Seemingly funded by British intelligence during tough times. Has become an extremely religious evangelist who even went on a few Jesuit retreats. Claims that since Britain has failed to become the dominant power in the European Union, Britain should withdraw its membership in the EU.
Very influential British politician who was the campaign manager for John Major. Worked at Rothschilds from 1968 to 1979. Became an important politician and leading eurosceptic under Thatcher, who also led the Treaty of Maastricht negotiations for Britain. Handled Russia's negotiations with institutions as the IMF and World Bank on behalf of Gorbachev and Yeltsin. Again director of N.M. Rothschild and Sons Ltd 1993-1995, personally appointed by Sir Evelyn de Rothschild against the advice of the other board members. Appointed chairman of Le Cercle in 1996 after Aitken had to step down. Member of the Privy Council. Director of Scottish Re and many other insurance, banking, and chemical corporations. Advisor to the Monsanto Corporation. Chairman of the obscure Oil Club. Member of the Neoconservative Benador Associates, together with Arnaud de Borchgrave, Alexander Haig, and James Woolsey. Director of General Mediterranean Holding of the controversial former Saddam associate and arms dealer Nadhmi Auchi, who also is a member of Le Cercle. Sought the release of Pinochet. Has visited Bilderberg. As chairman of the British Iranian Chamber of Commerce, he's been promoting increased trade with Iran while the US is about to attack this country for allegedly trying to create nuclear weapons. As head of the Bruges Group he is a leader in the eurosceptic movement in Britain.
There is some confusion these days about who is president and-or chairman of Le Cercle. When Pinay was president of the group the chairmanship of the individual meetings was shared out among people like Pesenti, Tennant, and Crozier. The presidency was later handed over to Jean Violet, Brian Crozier, and Julian Amery. However, since then their successors have been referred to as chairmen of Le Cercle. Following is a list of heads of Le Cercle, compiled by comparing a number of different sources.

Chairman/president Term
Antoine Pinay 1950s - 1970s
Jean Violet 1970s - 1980
Brian Crozier 1980 - 1985
Julian Amery 1985 - 1990s (Likely until 1991, when Amery retired from public office)
Jonathan Aitken 1990s - 1996
Lord Norman Lamont 1996 

Subversive tendencies

At some point a more exclusive coordinating group, or "executive committee", was formed within the wider Cercle, initially referred to as the Pinay Group. Few details are available about this group, besides the fact that it worked out possible action on political issues that were current at the time. Both Crozier (58) and Langemann (59) acknowledged this, and David Rockefeller's reference to a "Pesenti Group" (60) likely was a reference to this inner circle. The Group might have been the same as the "Pinay Committee" that appeared in documents of the Institute for the Study of Conflict (ISC), leaked in 1975 to Time Out Magazine (the first known public references to the Cercle). The Pinay Committee commissioned Crozier's institute to produce several reports, which were then spread to right wing officials on both sides of the Atlantic. Unfortunately, the 1500 ISC documents that were leaked have mostly gone missing (61).
Several years after the ISC leak, German intelligence officer Hans Langemann provided more details on this coordinating group. Langemann was head of Bavarian State Security in the 1970s and early 1980s. One of his colleagues was Hans von Machtenberg (a pseudonym) who attended meetings of Le Cercle. Von Machtenberg agreed to pass on full briefings to Langemann about the Cercle meetings in exchange for information gathered by Langemann from his own intelligence contacts. Seemingly after questioning the motives of the Cercle, Langemann wrote down and recorded what he knew about it and eventually sold it to Kronket Magazine in the early 1980s. Der Spiegel soon picked up on the story of Kronket and exposed the role of their political enemy it, Franz Josef Strauss. The 1980 and 1982 articles of Der Spiegel were based on internal memos of Hans Langemann, seemingly informing persons within the German government about the clandestine efforts of the Cercle to get Franz Josef Strauss elected Chancellor. According to Der Spiegel, Langemann had written the following text on November 8, 1979 (translated) (62):

Protected source contributions to state security. Personal for the state minister only.
"The militant conservative London publicist, Brian Crozier, Director of the famous Institute for the Study of Conflict up to September 1979, has been working with his diverse circle of friends in international politics to build an anonymous action group, a 'transnational security organization, and to widen its field of operations. Crozier worked with the CIA for years. One has to assume, therefore, that they are fully aware of his activities. He has extensive connections with members, or more accurately, former members, of the most important western security and intelligence services..."
What the group can do:
provision of contributions by certain well-known journalists in Britain, the US and other countries
access to television
creation of a lobby in influential circles directly or indirectly through middlemen whether they are informed of this or not
organization of public demonstrations in particular areas on themes to be decided and selected
the involvement of the main intelligence and security agencies both as information sources and as recipients for information in these institutions
undercover financial transactions for political aims.
What the group can do if financing is available.
Conduct international campaigns aiming to discredit hostile personalities or events.
Creation of a (private) intelligence service specialising according to a selective point of view.
The establishment of offices under suitable cover each run by a co-ordinator from the central office. Current plans cover London, Washington, Paris, Munich and Madrid.

As one can imagine, the secrecy surrounding Le Cercle is not that much of a mystery, as most people would disapprove of a secret group consisting of persons tied to questionable corporate, political and religious interests, that is involved in political manipulation. More from Langemann (63):

Amongst other points in the (Crozier) planning paper are:

Specific Aims within this framework are to affect a change of government in

the United Kingdom - accomplished.
In West Germany to defend freedom of trade and movement and oppose all forms of subversion including terrorism ..
"On 5 and 6/1 1980 members of the Circle met in Zurich to discuss executive measures..."
The main things discussed were:
(a) international promotion of the Minister President (Strauss) in international publications
(b) influencing of the situation in Rhodesia and South Africa following a European Conservative guideline and
(c) the establishment of a powerful directional radio station aiming at the Islamic region and including the border populations of the Soviet Union.
"As far as can be judged by outsiders Crozier has initiated with his group the project 'Victory for Strauss' using the tactics applied in Great Britain, of major themes such as the communist, extremist subversion of government parties and trade unions, KGB manipulation of terrorism and damage to internal security."

Langemann presents a list of conspiracies which we know more about these days. Let's take a more in depth look into each of them and see who was involved specifically.
THE CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT in the United Kingdom refers to the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979 in which Crozier's Shield, a covert advisory committee, played a crucial role (64). The initial idea for Shield came from MI6 agent Sir Stephen Haskings, a friend of Crozier who had formerly been a SAS soldier and SOE officer. Crozier put together Thatcher's election campaign by adopting Jean Violet's Psychological Action program, a technique to find quick, short answers to three basic questions: What do people want? What do they fear? And what do they feel strongly about? Shield also completely convinced Thatcher about the severe threat of domestic communist subversion. After Crozier and Haskings handed her their paper 'The diabolical nature of the Communist conspiracy', Thatcher's reaction was, "I've read every word and I'm shattered. What should we do?" (65). Harry Sporborg and Cercle member Nicholas Elliot were the other two members of inner circle of Shield. Sporborg worked at Hambros Bank and used to be a deputy head of the SOE during WWII. Elliot was a former MI6 agent who specialized in sabotage and unconventional warfare. He also had been a director of Lonrho.
Shield was hardly a new phenomenon, and its success can actually be seen as the culmination of twenty years of manipulation by the British far-right to get a prime minister elected they truly desired. This far-right group, which was, and is, closely affiliated with the British establishment, had already been meddling a great deal in Britain's domestic politics since the election of Harold Wilson as prime minister in 1964. Although the aristocrats, centered around the royal court, have never embraced Labour, the serious economic recession of the late 1960s and early 1970s caused so much concern that many individuals within these circles actually began planning a coup. It started with a dirty tricks campaign against Wilson, mainly orchestrated by rogue elements within MI5 and MI6 and with overseas support of CIA head James Jesus Angleton. During his two terms in office, and especially during his second term from 1974 to 1976, Wilson was smeared with accusations that he was a homosexual, a supporter of the IRA, and that he was a KGB agent. Private armies and action groups were set up to take over essential services in case the country broke down. In March 1976 Wilson unexpectedly decided to step down. Publicly he claimed that he was physically and mentally exhausted, but also that this is what he had always planned to do at age 60. Privately he explained "business groups and other anti-democratic agencies", and also pointing to a rogue element in MI5, had made it absolutely impossible for him to run the country (66). His secretary, Baroness Marcia Falkender, supported Wilson's statements.
"MI5 were making a mockery out of us. Those people ought to be exposed for what they really are... but you can't identify them. We could be sitting in a room and you might be MI5 and I wouldn't know. Or I might have have been all these years and you wouldn't know." (67)
The group that was working to oust Wilson was the same group that got Thatcher elected. Lord Julian Amery, one time head of Le Cercle, was a good friend to both David Stirling and General Walter Walker, respectively the third and fourth person from the left. Crozier, another Cercle head, was involved in spreading KGB rumors about Wilson and later wrote Thatcher's election strategy. Interestingly, two men in the anti-Wilson plot were assassinated in 1979; Airey Neave (5th from left) in March and Earl Mountbatten (2nd from left) in August.
Among the people named that have been involved in the plot to get rid of Wilson were SAS founder David Stirling, Sir James Goldsmith (known Cercle associate), the 7th Earl of Lucan, Sir Val Duncan (chair of Rio Tinto Zinc; 1001 Club; Edmund de Rothschild associate), Cecil Harmsworth King (nephew Lord Northcliffe; MI5 agent; Bank of England), George Kennedy Young (ex-deputy director MI6; helped to overthrow Mossadeq; Monday Club; Kleinwort Benson; set up Tory Action; set up civilian armed resistance cells), Airey Neave (MI6/MI5 insider; set up Tory Action; set up civilian armed resistance cells), Army General Sir Walter Walker (set up private armies and Civil Assistance/Unison), Major Alexander Greenwood (set up private armies), the 4th Earl of Cromartie (WWII commander), Lord Mountbatten of Burma (uncle of Prince Philip; would have headed the provisional junta), and the Queen Mother. Angleton, a Knight of Malta, provided assistance from across the Atlantic (68).
Besides Brian Crozier, who was aware of the planned coup and actively supported it with his anti-communist lectures to military officers (69), a few other Cercle members have also played a supplementary role in the coup against Wilson and Labour in general. The president of Le Cercle after Crozier, Julian Amery, was a good friend of General Walter Walker and wrote the foreword of Walker's book 'The Next Domino'. Amery also was a member and later patron of the Conservative Monday Club, a center of anti-Labour activity. Additionally, Cercle member Anthony Cavendish was a member of the Unison Committee for Action, one of the anti-Labour action groups set up by George Kennedy Young and General Walter Walker (70). Cavendish also worked with James Goldsmith and was on good terms with Julian Amery. Cercle member Robert Moss was a protege of Brian Crozier and helped him internationally to spread the word of communist subversion. In 1975, Moss and Crozier, together with Viscount De L'Isle (Knight of the Garter; Privy Council) and others, were co-founders of the National Association for Freedom (NAFF), an anti-Labour and anti-Wilson pressure group that acted as a follow-up of GB 75 and the later Civil Assistance/Unison. Quite a number of NAFF members would find their way to prominent political positions under Thatcher (71).
Even after Wilson was ousted in 1976, many right-wing individuals were still not content with the new Labour prime minister James Callaghan. Only after three more years of underground politicking they were able to maneuver the hard-right Conservative Thatcher into office.
THE PROMOTION OF STRAUSS is a reference to articles written by Brian Crozier, his associate James Goldsmith, and others to improve the image of Franz Josef Strauss within and outside Germany. They denounced all the accusations against Strauss as KGB propaganda, again with testimonies from defectors of Czech intelligence, like they used in their campaign against Wilson (72). Although Strauss never made the Chancellorship, he was a well known German politician, and in terms of political convictions somewhere to the right of Margaret Thatcher. His home base was the hard-right Roman Catholic Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU), together with his co- Cercle friends Otto von Habsburg, Count Hans Huyn, and Alois Mertes.
He went to the Bohemian Grove in 1962 and gave a speech there (73). After a long career, riddled with numerous scandals, he died in 1988 while on a hunting trip with Prince Johannes von Thurn und Taxis. More scandals followed after his death, some involving his son.
These Cercle friends of Strauss are interesting people. Otto von Habsburg, who claimed his political views on Europe were very close to those of Strauss (74), is head of the Paneuropa Union (the second head since its founding in 1922), where he followed up the well known . Cercle founder Otto Habsburg. The twelve stars on the European flag literally are a reference to the Virgin Mary and her halo of twelve stars. Until recently, that claim could also be found in an introduction article on the Paneuropa website.
Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi. Anno 2006, Otto is an advisor to the Coundenhove-Kalergi Foundation, together with Count Hans Huyn, Jakob Coudenhove-Kalergi (nephew of Richard, the founder of the Paneuropa Union), Prince Carlo della Torre e Tasso (Italian branch of the Thurn und Taxis family), and Max Turnauer (ambassador of the Order of Malta in Liechtenstein). Nikolaus von Liechtenstein, the younger brother of Hans-Adam II, is an executive member of the the Coundenhove-Kalergi Foundation (75). The Paneuropa Union has a vast network of underground political organizations all over Europe, which include or included the European Centre of Documentation and Information, Mouvement d'Action pour l'Union de l'Europe, the Académie Européenne de Sciences Politiques, Ordre du Rouvre, the Institut Européen pour la Developpement, Cercle des Nations (renamed to Cercle de Lorraine and a much broader membership these days), and the Mont Pelerin Society. The amount of ties to the Vatican within these institutions, and in particular to Opus Dei and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, is absolutely staggering. Otto von Habsburg is closely associated with both organizations, not to mention his own Order of the Golden Fleece.
Count Huyn is a German aristocrat, and like Otto von Habsburg and Richard Coudenhove- Kalergi, descended from a prominent Austro-Hungarian family. His wife is a descendant of
Archduchess Maria Theresia of Austria (1717-1780), the first and only female head of the Habsburg dynasty. Huyn was a foreign policy advisor to his friend Franz-Josef Strauss from 1971 to 1976. In 1976, Huyn became a long time member of the Bundestag himself and would serve on many government committees. He would also write quite a number of books on Soviet strategy and occasionally speak out in favor of the placement of nuclear weapons in Germany or participation in the Star Wars program, without any regards for public opinion. Crozier acknowledges in his book that Count Huyn was one of three primary intelligence sources in Germany for his 61 intelligence group (more about that later). Huyn might have a long Cercle history behind him, because he was involved in overseeing the 1963 Treaty of Elisée in which Cercle founder Jean Violet played such a crucial role. As a devout Catholic, Huyn used to head the German department of the Catholic organization Aid to the Church in Need.
THE STORY OF RHODESIA and South Africa being manipulated by British Conservative politics will often produce the same names as those involved in ousting Harold Wilson.
In the late 19th century, the country later known as Southern Rhodesia was taken over through military force by the British South Africa Company (BSAC), founded by Cecil Rhodes (from which the name "Rhodesia" is derived). BSAC was mirrored on the British East-India Company. In 1953, after calls for independence, Southern Rhodesia became part of the Central African Federation (CAF), which also included Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland. In 1965, one year after the CAF had been dissolved and Northern Rhodesia had become the independent Zambia, the White minority government in Southern Rhodesia unilaterally declared itself independent from Britain. This way they hoped to stop any further reforms that would result in black majority rule. Initially, the White minority government did recognize the Queen of England although she would (and could) never accept the title "Queen of Rhodesia".
Two of the biggest supporters of the White minority government at the time were Cercle members Julian Amery and Lord Robert Cecil, today the 7th Marquess of Salisbury (76). From 1961 to 1981, Robert Cecil's father and grandfather presided over the Conservative Monday Club, a center of post-WWII imperialism (and other major supporters of the White minority government). Julian Amery was a member of the club. The 7th Marquess of Salisbury was a good friend of Julian Amery and their families have been involved with each other since the early 20th century. Although Julian's father was a very important individual, working closely with the Rothschilds in building up the state of Israel, the Amery family pales in comparison with the historical influence of the Cecil family. There are only one or two dynastic families that might compete in terms of influence they had on British affairs since the 16th century. In fact, under Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603), the Cecils are credited with having created the first known large scale spy network in Britain and Europe. It's possible however that they received some inspiration from Venice at the time.
Another important supporter of the racist illegal government in Rhodesia was Lonrho, a giant Pan-African raw materials corporation headed by reported Cercle-associate Tiny Rowland. Cercle member and MI6 agent Nicholas Elliot was a director of the company in the 1970s, although there seems to have been some friction with the Rowland camp (77). Ian Smith, head of the racist government in Rhodesia, had once helped Rowland to start up his mining business in Africa (78). After that Rowland had grown to become one of the most controversial figures ever to walk around on that continent. He has been accused of bribing numerous officials and working with British intelligence in supporting certain favorable regimes, one of them being UNITA in Angola (79). Together with an equally controversial Adnan Khashoggi, he was involved in selling top-quality military equipment to Libya and supplying it with mercenaries to build up its own special forces capability (80). Rowland used to be a member of John Aspinall's Clermont gambling club in the 1960s, together with Lord Lucan, and the earlier mentioned Sir James Goldsmith and SAS founder David Stirling (81). This group wanted to get rid of Wilson the day he set foot in the prime minister's office. They also loathed James Callaghan, the Labour follow-up of Wilson. Rowland, Lucan, and Aspinall were fascists (82). Sir James Goldsmith, the close associate of Brian Crozier, and David Stirling, a close private warfare buddy of Julian Amery (83) whose (Stirling's) niece married the 7th Marquess of Salisbury, were running the mercenary firm KAS Enterprises. Officially, KAS was hired to protect elephants and rhinos in southern Africa from poachers. But soon accusations arose that the firm was fighting the anti-apartheid movement, reportedly leaving 1,5 million dead. Most details about Operation Lock, as it was called, have been suppressed (84).
Conrad Gerber is another Cercle member with a connection to this region. He worked as an economist in the white minority government of Rhodesia in the 1970s, where he was involved in circumventing international sanctions to purchase oil for his country. He did this with controversial partners as John Deuss and Ted Shackley, the latter becoming one of his closest friends. So close, that Gerber was even present at Shackley's deathbed (85). According to drug lord Khun Sa, Shackley was in charge of Golden Triangle opium exports to the United States from 1965 to 1975 (86). Research into the Nugan Hand Bank and its follow-up Bishop, Baldwin, Rewald, Dillingham and Wong (BBRDW) seems to confirm that (87). Besides that, Shackley is credited with having operated a "Secret Team" of assassins, drug traffickers, and arms salesman, which consisted of General John Singlaub, Thomas Clines, Carl Jenkins, David Morales, Raphael Quintero, Felix Rodriguez, Edwin Wilson, Richard Armitage and likely a few others. After sanctions were lifted against Rhodesia in 1980, Gerber set up the very successful Petro-Logistics, which acts as a private intelligence group aimed at penetrating OPEC's oil secrets. The International Energy Agency (IEA) considers Petro-Logistics one of its most important sources, if not the most important source, when making oil production and reserves forecasts (88).
LANGEMANN'S LAST POINT, aiming directional radio stations at Islamic regions bordering the Soviet Union, has become a very familiar subject these days. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December 1979, so the Cercle having these discussions less than a month after is something that could have been expected. Several members of the Cercle played a prominent role in the Afghan war.
In 1998, Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security advisor to Carter, claimed that he and Carter actually had provoked the Afghan war by clandestinely supporting the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul, six months before the invasion of the Soviet Union (89). Ever since Putin came into office, Brzezinski and his son Mark restarted their war with Russia. Brzezinski is known to have visited Le Cercle at some point.
In 1986 CIA director William Casey, a member of Le Cercle and a Knight of Malta, began organizing a large scale anti-Soviet resistance operation in Afghanistan, which would last until the end of the war in 1988-1989 (90). His Saudi counterpart, Prince Turki Al-Faisal, another member of Le Cercle, financed a large portion of this operation (91). The BCCI has been named as a main conduit for all these undercover transactions. It was set up by Agha Hasan Abedi, whose membership in the 1001 Club indicates he was accepted by the British aristocracy (92). The by now well known Cercle president Julian Amery was an advisor to the BCCI in the 1980s (93).

The 61

In the early 1970s the CIA was heavily criticized for its role in the Vietnam War and Watergate. Reporters and investigating committees began looking into the agency and soon plenty of stories emerged about domestic spying, infiltration of the media, subversion of foreign governments, assassinating foreign leaders, and large scale experiments with mind control. Some revelations were highlighted more prominently than others. Additional doubts were cast on the CIA 's role in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. In the midst of all these reports, measures were taken to reduce the autonomy of the CIA. The ban on domestic spying was re-enforced while Congress and the Senate received far more influence over the appointment of CIA officials and the distribution of the CIA's budget. They requested numerous briefings and decided which clandestine operations were or weren't allowed. The CIA was not allowed anymore to subvert any foreign government or assassinate any leader it felt like. Authorization from Congress became mandatory. Furthermore, it was also largely prohibited from working with questionable characters to gather intelligence or aid in their coups.
This didn't fall well with many intelligence chiefs and associates like Brian Crozier. They claimed the CIA's (human) intelligence gathering and intervention capabilities had been destroyed almost completely; and even more so after Admiral Stansfield Turner in 1977 started to force half of the CIA's anti-Soviet staff into retirement. Crozier and his Cercle-associates went looking for a solution and came up with the idea to establish a transnational secret intelligence agency of their own. For security reasons this group initially didn't have a name, but within a few months it became known to insiders as The 61 (or more correct, 6I). Its purpose, according to Crozier:
"... a Private Sector Operational Intelligence agency, beholden to no government, but at the disposal of allied or friendly governments... Our main concerns would be:
To provide reliable intelligence in areas which governments were barred from investigating, either through legislation (as in the US) or because political circumstances made such inquiries difficult or potentially embarrassing.
To conduct secret counter-subversion operations in any country in which such actions were deemed feasible.
It was agreed that no outsiders should be made aware of the existence of this organization, except if, in the judgement of one of us, the person was deemed a suitable candidate for recruitment." (94)
It is often claimed that the privatization of intelligence was the result of increased Congressional oversight, which is true to a large degree. However, private intelligence organizations like Le Cercle, Antoine Bonnemaison's Centre, and probably quite a number of other organizations already existed before the CIA oversight crisis began. The Stay Behind networks and the combined Navy-CIA Task Force 157 also had (virtually) no Congressional oversight.
Members of The 61, in existence from 1977 to 1988, came from England, France, Germany, Czechoslovakia, South Africa, the United States, and likely some other countries. It forged links with Prince Turki of Saudi Arabia and the Shah of Iran. At least on some occasions, The 61 provided intelligence to the Pope. According to Crozier, there only was some "minor overlapping" between the Cercle and The 61. This seems to be misleading, as many of the key individuals of Le Cercle were part of The 61, including Brian Crozier, Jean Violet, Georges Albertini, Count Huyn, and General Stilwell. Others in the know were Nicholas Elliot, Robert Moss, William Wilson, General Fraser, and probably quite a number of others (95). Crozier told us more about the meeting that established The 61:
"The question was whether something could be done in the private sector - not only in Britain, but in the United States and other countries of the Western Alliance. A few of us had been exchanging views, and decided that action was indeed possible. I took the initiative by convening a very small and very secret meeting in London. We met in the luxurious executive suite of a leading City of London bank on the morning of Sunday 13 February 1977. Our host, a leading figure in the bank, took the chair. Three of us were British, four were American, with one German. Ill health prevented a French associate from attending; Jean Violet was with us in spirit.
Apart from the banker and myself, the other Briton was Nicholas Elliott. The German was a very active member of the Bundestag, whose career had started in diplomacy. He had a very wide understanding of Soviet strategy, on which he wrote several first rate books.

The Americans included two able and diligent Congressional staffers, and the Viennese-born representative of a big Belgian company. Also there was the remarkable General Vernon ('Dick') Walters, recently retired as Deputy Director of Central Intelligence..." (96)
The first questions many people will ask is which bank Crozier is talking about and who that chairman was. Crozier doesn't give these answers, but there seem to be only a few possibilities. One candidate is Cercle member Sir Peter Tennant of Barclays (one of the more aristocratic banks with historically many members of the Pilgrims Society, the 1001 Club, and the Order of St. John on its board), which would make all three of the British participants leading members of Le Cercle. Tennant's name appears sixty pages further in Crozier's book as one of the chairmen of Cercle sessions, but he gives zero details about the rest of this person's life. However, in 1977 Tennant was a director and industrial advisor to Barclays Bank, which used to be located in the City of London, near the Bank of England. He had been a long time trade representative of the City of London, the small historical financial district in central London.
However, there's another possibility, which might be more likely. At the start of World War II, Tennant had been recruited into Special Operations Executive (SOE) by Colonel Sir Charles Hambro, who would become head of the SOE in 1942. Sir Charles Hambro was chairman of Hambros Bank (another very aristocratic bank, represented in the Pilgrims Society and the 1001 Club) and a very good friend of both Winston Churchill and the Wallenberg family. Interestingly, Sir Hambro's deputy in the SOE, Henry "Harry" Sporborg, ended up in the small inner circle committee of Crozier's Shield. And according to Crozier, the Shield Committee, including himself, Sir Harry, and Nicholas Elliot met "in the boardroom of a City bank" (97) in mid 1978. There are some great parallels here with the meeting to establish The 61 only a year earlier. Elliot and Crozier were also present at that meeting, which also took place in a City bank. Is it possible that Sir Harry was a "leading figure" in a City bank? It turns out that's actually a very tough question.
Sir Harry was a long time director of Hambros Bank until about 1973, but certainly remained closely involved with Hambros until at least 1977 by heading one of its subsidiaries. His son Christopher had also come to Hambros in 1962 and was a director in the 1970s and beyond. There's been some talk that Sir Harry was a post-WWII MI6 agent. He has also been named a founding trustee of the Sue Ryder Foundation in the 1950s, together with MI6 agent Airey Neave, the earlier discussed anti-communist crusader who, like Shield, was closely involved in bringing Thatcher to power. Hambros, however, is located at Tower Hill, officially just outside the City. And together with lacking details of Sir Harry's involvement with Hambros in 1978, this is what makes identifying the chairman of the 61 meeting, and the bank it was held in, impossible at this moment. But maybe it would be more accurate anyway to say that Shield and The 61 were founded by veterans of the SOE, MI6 and the CIA.
Most of the other participants that helped to establish The 61 remain anonymous, although one can speculate about some of the names. The German delegate almost certainly is the aristocratic Cercle member Count Hans Huyn, who is known to have become an important member of The 61 (98). His background fits perfectly and has been discussed earlier. More information about this person can be found in the membership list attached to this article.
Fortunately, Crozier gives us the name of General Vernon Walters, who seems to have represented the US intelligence faction that was very upset with the changes in CIA oversight. Walters was a bit of a mystery man. Although one of the most important behind- the-scenes players in the post-WWII world, not a whole lot of research has been done on him.
With very little official education, Walters had become fluent in English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, and Chinese. He went to work for Army Intelligence  in 1941 and like Cercle member Kissinger, he became a protege of Fritz Kraemer in the post-war period. After the war he served for a while as an aide to Pilgrims Society member Averell Harriman, who, for example, co-founded the Psychological Strategy Board. In 1951 Walters became involved in setting up and running NATO's SHAPE headquarters in Paris. He was an aide and interpreter to Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Nixon, and provided Henry Kissinger's security in secret diplomatic missions. He was deputy director of the CIA from 1972 to 1976 under Richard Helms and George Bush. Walters left the CIA to become a private consultant until 1982 when he joined the Reagan administration as Ambassador at Large. He was sent all over the world. From 1989 to 1991 he was the US Ambassador to the UN. After that, at the time the Berlin wall came down, he was Ambassador to West-Germany. Walters has attended many Pan American conferences.
But there is more to General Walters. Like many leading members of Le Cercle, he was close to the Vatican interests. He was educated by the Jesuits at Stonyhurst College in England and later became a member of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (99), giving him instant access to the Vatican at all times. His participation in setting up The 61 seems to substantiate reports about his involvement in countering communist subversion in Europe and other parts of the globe, not the least in Italy (100). It has also been reported that South African intelligence named Walters as a key plotter in the JFK assassination (101). Although not widely published, Walters was a military attaché in Rome in 1963 where he worked with CIA station chief William K. Harvey in countering the massive communist and socialist influences in that country (which brought him into conflict with Kennedy; Harvey had his own, but related grudges against Kennedy, and especially his brother Robert) (102). The Gladio network Walters and Harvey controlled was crucial in this effort. Quite a bit of evidence has surfaced to show that Harvey, his protege Ted Shackley, and their pro-Vietnam, anti-Castro CIA gang, which included David Atlee Philips, together with mafia partners Johnny Roselli, Sam Giancana, Charles Nicoletti, Carlos Marcello, Santo Trafficanto, and Jimmy Hoffa were some of the key plotters and executers in the JFK assassination (103). The problems in Europe with the communists and socialists, and especially in Rome at the time, will probably explain the (alleged) role of Permindex members in the JFK assassination some day. Ironically, if the truth ever came out on the assassination, together with the explanation that Kennedy not only allowed the communists to remain in power in Cuba, but also endorsed the "communosocialist" takeover of Italy and soon other parts of Europe, quite a number of people might actually sympathize with the plotters, at least to a certain degree. That is, until the full interaction between government and the mafia becomes known.
Besides having been a co-founder of Crozier's 61, Walters also was a good friend of French intelligence chief Alexandre de Marenches (104), who by 1976 had set up a secret private intelligence network of his own, the Safari Club. The Safari Club's network included the Shah of Iran, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, Anwar Sadat of Egypt, Ashraf Marwan of Egyptian intelligence, and Kamal Adham of Saudi intelligence (105). Count de Marenches was the biggest rival of Jean Violet within the SDECE, but because he was part of the same hard-right intelligence network he counted many of the same friends and associates, including Franz-Josef Strauss (106), William Casey (107), and Baron de Bonvoisin (108). All of these individuals have been named as members of Opus Dei or the Knights of Malta.

More on the American Cercle members

In the late 1980s Iran-Contra whistleblower Gene Wheaton expanded on what General Walters and his associates had been doing since the the 1960s. Wheaton had been a former police officer, military criminal investigator, and security contractor. He also used to be a counter-terrorism consultant for the Rockwell Corporation, the Saudi Royal Family, and the Shah of Iran, among other things. All this was before he was brought into the "inner circle", which turned out to consist of people he didn't want anything to do with. In 2002 Wheaton recalled:
"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 their 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..." (109)
We've already seen that Shackley and especially Walters had become associated with Cercle activities around this same time. Carlucci also, who stands accused of involvement in the 1975 "anti-communosocialist" coup in Portugal of General Antonio de Spinola. He reportedly acted as an intermediary between Henry Kissinger and de Spinola, both members of Le Cercle, and gave the go-ahead for de Spinola's March 1975 coup (which ultimately failed) (110). Although usually very much understated, Spinola was a wealthy aristocratic fascist connected to the most powerful business monopolies in Portugal and its colonies. Through the CIA he worked with the Portuguese Stay Behind units, set up by fascist terrorists, and had begun implementing a regional strategy of tension (111).
When Crozier visited the CIA and the White House he met with some of the people that were part of the rogue group described above by Wheaton. In the Carter administration, of which he obviously was extremely critical, he was received by national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski and secretary of defense James Schlesinger. In the Reagan administration he met with General Walters, Robert McFarlane, Richard Pipes, Richard V. Allen, Kenneth deGraffenreid, William Casey, and Oliver North. He regularly met with Sven Kraemer, the son of Fritz Kraemer, and really liked Admiral John Poindexter, who recently became notorious for heading DARPA's Total Information Awareness Office (the organization with the charming logo of a pyramid and eye watching over the world) (112). Furthermore, Crozier has worked with Cercle member Donald Jameson (113), a top CIA specialist on the Soviet Union who set up the neocon Jamestown Foundation that handled Soviet Bloc intelligence defectors. Donald, who in his earlier career had crossed paths with Col. Philip Corso (114) and the remote viewing projects (115), became a business associate of Ted Shackley (116), probably around the time he became involved with one of Crozier's research projects. Crozier also counted Cercle member General Richard Stilwell among his personal friends (117).
Oliver North and Richard Stilwell have been named as insiders to the CIA drug trade to fund covert operations. Crozier's Cercle associates William Colby and William Casey were others (118). During the time Crozier visited these Reagan officials (except Colby), Stilwell was part of the secretive Special Operations Planning and Advisory Group (SOPAG), which included among its 11 members Air Force Generals Richard Secord and Leroy Manor (119), both named as insiders of CIA drug trade (120). Stilwell's group had full access to Top Secret materials and quietly advised secretary of defense Caspar Weinberger (soon a Pilgrims Society executive) and assistant secretary of defense Richard Armitage, who was named as a partner of Ted Shackley in CIA drugs from the Golden Triangle (121). SOPAG was the Pentagon's top group in worldwide counterinsurgency and special operations.
In his biography Crozier was "sorry to say" that North did not take him into his confidence about Casey's Iran Contra scheme (122). Of course, as the mainstream media, Crozier only refers to the hostage and arms aspects of the affair. The many accusations that Contras were paying for their guns with disproportionate amounts of cocaine, which were shipped to the United States, is conveniently left out. But one is left to wonder if Crozier really was that naive, judging by an almost hilarious article he wrote in January of 1990.
"Estevez revealed that Cuba had built up a multi-million-dollar drug trafficking network, with thousands of agents in the United States. He said Fidel Castro was personally involved in drug trafficking, with the aim of promoting violent crime, addiction and corruption in North America, while simultaneously financing terrorism in Latin America: a perfect definition of "narco-terrorism''... Escobar was living in Cuba with the full assistance of Fidel Castro. Another fugitive, the American financier Robert Vesco [1001 Club], was believed to be Escobar's number two... On February 10, 1988, Blandon [Medellin cartel baron] testified before a Senate sub-committee that Castro and Noriega were working together to promote "drug-financed guerrilla movements throughout Latin America''..." (123)
What Crozier did here, right after the Iran Contra investigations, is to take the largely unreported accusations against his US associates and blame them solely on communist Cuba. It is entirely possible that Crozier's accusations are true, but the few million dollars of Castro pales in comparison with the hundreds of billions we're talking about in CIA (and other agencies) drug money. In fact, in the court papers Crozier is using to blame Castro, there also are plenty of testimonies about Noriega being CIA during the 1970s and 1980s, and that he had several meetings with George Bush, Cercle member William Casey, and other CIA directors (124). Noriega, a product of the School of the Americas, actually was the middle-man between Escobar's Medellin Cartel and the CIA. Later affidavits from people involved in these operations tell the same story, and an awful lot of them had to pay with their lives for their courage to come forward. The death and general persecution rate among these whistleblowers has been truly astonishing. So, Crozier's press reports not only seems to be one sided, at times they act as pure disinformation.
Speaking of disinformation (or cooking information), one of Crozier's best friends since the 1980s is Richard Perle (125), who is largely responsible for selling the public the 2003 invasion of Iraq. To accomplish this he even promoted the alleged meeting between Mohammed Atta and Iraqi agents as a "well-documented" fact, which absolutely wasn't the case. If confirmed, which is probably never going to happen, that would be the only link between the 9/11 hijackers and Saddam Hussein. Ironically, this questionable intelligence report was received (and later disputed) through Czech intelligence, earlier used by the anti-Wilson and pro-Strauss crowd in the 1970s and early 1980s. Neoconservatives as William Safire, James Woolsey and William Kristol also used the Czech intelligence report to promote a war against Iraq (126).
Since about the time that Crozier became a leading member in the mid to late 1970s, Le Cercle seems to have forged closer links with the more hard-right elements in the US government (127). Besides the Reagan and Nixon administrations, Cercle members were involved with institutions as the Jamestown Foundation, the Heritage Foundation, the United States Global Strategy Council, the Committee on Present Danger, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Committee on Present Danger, the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, Americares, and the Israeli-US Jonathan Institute. All these groups were interwoven with the World Anti-Communist League and religious organizations as the Knights of Malta and the Moonies.
Seemingly one of the closest associates of mainly the British Cercle members was CIA officer Ray Cline (OSS 1943-1946 and worked in the Far-East with Paul Helliwell and Gen. Singlaub; good friend of Chiang Kai-shek's son; set up the Asian People's Anti-Communist League (APACL) in Taiwan and South Korea in 1955-1956; CIA station chief in Taiwan 1958-1962; deputy director CIA 1962-1966; CIA station chief in Bonn 1966-1969 where he oversaw the local Gladio forces; confirmed the authenticity of FM 30-31A & B, instruction manuals of the DIA which included false flag terrorist actions that were to be blamed on the USSR; director Department of State's Bureau Intelligence and Research 1969-1973; director world power studies at Georgetown's CSIS 1973-1986; co-founder of the WACL with Gen. Singlaub; representative of CAUSA, founded by Moonie Col. Bo Hi Pak). Cline is never mentioned in Crozier's biography even though both were involved in two very important organizations: the Jonathan Institute and the Foreign Affairs Research Institute (FARI), of which, interestingly, Crozier also forgets to mention his involvement. He also does not discuss the United States Global Strategy Council (USGSC), which was founded in the same period and headed by Ray Cline for most of its existence. The USGSC counted Cercle members General Richard Stilwell (128) and William Colby among the earliest members and there's probably more overlap (129). Let's take a look at these three institutions.
The Washington-based U.S. Global Strategy Council (USGSC) existed from 1981 to about 1995 and was a think tank focused on setting coherent long range strategic goals for the United States. Clearly a bastion of America's permanent government, it mainly focused on worldwide anti-communist subversion. It also pushed for the development of non-lethal weaponry (130) and the costly Stars Wars program. Star Wars was later accused of having served as a bogus front operation through which vast amounts of funds were diverted (131) into a variety of black programs. Interestingly, electromagnetic and psychotronic weapons are the top suspects these black programs allegedly dealt with (132).
The USGSC was part of the whole hawkish (or "total war") neoconservative movement that came to the forefront with Reagan and remained prominent with Bush, Sr. It temporarily left the White House with the election of Clinton and then came back in full force with the Bush, Jr. administration in 2000. The whole idea of a global war on terror, including the use of pre-emptive strikes, goes back to ideas that were proposed by this neocon group in the late 1970s and early 1980s. George Shultz is the most crucial player from the American side, which obviously is the most important. However, he had allies in other parts of the world, including leading Israeli politicians from both Likud and Labour, fascist terrorists from France, and also Cercle president Brian Crozier and his clique in Britain. They came together at two conferences about international terrorism sponsored by the Jonathan Institute, an Israeli think tank named after the brother of Netanyahu. It was a Mossad front, according to former SAS/MI5 agent Colin Wallace (133).
The first meeting was in June 1979. Crozier and his Cercle sidekick Robert Moss were two of the speakers at this conference of which the purpose was to blame all international terrorism on the USSR. Richard Pipes, the later associate of Crozier at the White House, also spoke at the conference. Ray Cline and George H.W. Bush of the CIA were there, just as retired General George J. Keegan who had recently stepped down as head of Air Force Intelligence. OAS terrorist Jacques Soustelle attended, together with Benjamin Netanyahu, Jack Kemp, and a whole range of international journalists who promoted the view that the USSR was behind worldwide terrorism (134).
The second Jonathan Institute's conference on terrorism, held in 1984, was even more influential as Reagan was now in power. Netanyahu, George Shultz, and Douglas Feith were said to have organized this second conference (135). Feith worked under Crozier's friend Richard Perle at the time. The policies set then, re-emerged stronger than ever almost 20 years later, after 9/11. George Shultz (Bechtel executive; secretary of state at the time; Bohemian Grove camp Mandalay; National Security Planning Group; chair advisory council J.P. Morgan Chase; ran Reagan's election campaign; largely put together the George Bush Jr. administration), one of the biggest movers and shakers in the neoconservative movement, gave the opening speech in which he claimed that "pre- emptive actions by Western democracies may be necessary to counter the Soviet Union and other nations that... have banded together in an international "league of terror."" (136) Caspar Weinberger (also from Bechtel; Defense Secretary at that time; National Security Planning Group; later Pilgrims Executive; member Bohemian Grove camp Mandalay), Jeane Kirkpatrick (co-chair USGSC), and Yitzhak Rabin (Labour prime minister) also spoke at the conference backing the claim that terrorism had spun out of control and that the Soviet Union was the cause of that. The only thing that was disagreed upon was if this movement supporting a global war on both terror and the USSR should be incorporated within the United Nations or not (137). Jacques Soustelle had become a board member of the Jonathan Institute by then (138), together with Shimon Peres (Labour prime minister) and Menachem Begin (Likud prime minister) (139). Crozier's close associate Lord Alun Chalfont (Privy Council; Conservative Monday Club; pro-apartheid; director pro-junta British-Chilean Council; council member of FARI with Cercle members / presidents Brian Crozier, Julian Amery, and Robert Moss, just as the aristocrat Sir Frederic M. Bennett; chair Institute for the Study of Terrorism, a clone of Crozier's anti-communist Institute for the Study of Conflict), together with intelligence connected religious extremists as Michael Ledeen and Arnaud de Borchgrave, were among the contributors to papers read at the conference (140).
Chalfont had already been working with Cercle presidents Brian Crozier and Julian Amery (advisor to the BCCI in the 1980s) in their Foreign Affairs Research Institute (FARI), together with Sir Frederic M. Bennett (owned a Rolls-Royce and four homes, one of them in the Cayman Islands; director Kleinwort Benson Europe (his mother was a Kleinwort); long time Lloyds underwriter; influential member of Parliament from the 1950s to the 1980s; member Monday Club; always warning people about the KGB threat and supported every regime that opposed the USSR; chair FARI in 1978; vice-president of the European-Atlantic Group; leading official in the private group Council of Europe in the late 1970s and 1980s; honorary director of the BCCI in Hong Kong until 1986; Member of the Privy Council since 1985; ridiculed his party (Conservatives) for their Euroscepticism after his retirement in 1987; supported Pinochet; Freeman of the City of London; visited Bilderberg) and Cercle member Robert Moss (141). Like Chalfont, Crozier and Moss were involved with the Jonathan Institute. FARI was set up in 1976 with funds coming from the pro-apartheid government in South-Africa (142) and reportedly also from Lockheed (143). Reports that it was linked to the CIA are rather obvious today (144). FARI gathered several anti-communist authors which spread their stories in the international press. Members spoke about terrorism being out of control while implying this was all organized from Moscow in an effort to destabilize the West. Many of the examples they mention in reality were the result of CIA, MI6, and Gladio special operations, most notably those in Italy. Some other acts of terrorism seem to have had little to do with the Soviet Union and instead were probably the result of extremist nationalism or freedom fighters. These alternative possibilities were however carefully ignored.
Conferences of FARI were attended by Crozier's money man Richard Mellon Scaife and Cercle members William Casey and Edwin Feulner (roommate of neocon warhawk and military-industrial complex insider John F. Lehman; president Heritage Foundation; Knight of Malta; trustee Mont Pelerin Society, a branch of the Paneuropa Union; IMF & World Bank insider; chairman Institute for European Defense and Strategic Studies in London; Bohemian Grove). Ray Cline of the CIA and the Jonathan Institute has been in attendance, just as General Daniel O. Graham of the CIA and DIA (145). Like Stilwell, both Graham and Cline were involved with the US Global Strategy Council. Cline was among the founders of the USGSC and chairman of the institute from 1986 to 1994.
The members of the USGSC (initially 70 or so) had close ties to the Military Industrial complex, including highest level (often retired) representatives of the Navy, the Air Force, the Army, the intelligence agencies, shady defense corporations as SAIC, private business groups, and unusual religious interests as the Moonies and Knights of Malta. Over the years, known members have included Cercle member William Colby (CIA director 1973-1976; deep insider of many black programs, including CIA drug trafficking; Opus Dei), Henry Luce III (of Time Magazine; president of the Pilgrims of the United States since 1997; grandfather bought and held on to the JFK Zapruder film), Clare Booth Luce (Dame of Malta), Ray Cline, Admiral Bobby Ray Inman (director ONI; director DIA; director NSA; deputy director CIA; director Wackenhut; director SAIC; Trilateral Commission; chairman of the "JPL Oversight Committee", which is not supposed to exist), Michael Alan Daniels (Special assistant for political science research at the Office of Naval Research 1969-1971; president USGSC 1986-1994; section vice president SAIC since 1986; chairman of SAIC's Network Solutions since 1995), General Brent Scowcroft (chair Presidential Commission on the MX Peacekeeper ICBM; co-founder and vice-chairman of Kissinger Associates from 1982 to 1989; American Ditchley Foundation; Atlantic Institute; CFR; Trilateral Commission; visited Bilderberg), General Daniel O. Graham (deputy director CIA under Colby 1973-1974; director DIA 1974-1976; one of the most important pushers of the Star Wars program; founding chair of High Frontier, Inc.; member advisory board CAUSA and member of the Moon-linked American Freedom Coalition), Edward Teller (seen as the father of the Hydrogen Bomb; hardliner and suspected of involvement in many black projects; major pusher of Star Wars; member Council for National Policy and the Committee on the Present Danger), Arnaud De Borchgrave (intelligence-connected hard-right journalist; good friend of Sun Myung Moon), Lynn Francis Bouchey (organizer of CAUSA operations in Central and South America), General E. David Woellner (chairman of the Sixth CAUSA-USA Foundation Conference and a defender of the Moon Cult), Lev Eugene Dobriansky (president of the Moonie-sponsored Global Economic Action Institute from 1987 to 1992. Head of the British branch of Global Economic was Cercle president Julian Amery; chair Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation 1994-2003, in which Cercle participants Edwin Feulner and Zbigniew Brzezinski were involved, just as Cercle president Brian Crozier), Jeane Kirkpatrick (co-chair USGSC; member President's Foreign Intelligence and Advisory Board and Defense Policy Review Board; member Council for National Policy and the Committee on the Present Danger; chair of Moon's Nicaraguan Freedom Fund; member National Advisory Council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, which has close leadership links to the Moonies and Le Cercle), General Maxwell Taylor (former chair Joint Chiefs; IDA), General Albert Wedemeyer (chief of staff to Lord Mountbatten in South-East Asia in 1944; chief of staff to Chiang Kai-shek, head of the KMT and later founder of Taiwan who was in bed with one of the major Chinese Triads), General Robert Schweitzer (served under Alexander Haig at NATO; served under Haig, Kissinger and Richard Allen at the NSC; chair Inter-American Defense Board 1982-1987; national strategy program director USGSC since 1987; friend of General Singlaub; publicly supported Oliver North after Iran Contra), Christopher Morris (chair and vice-president of M2 Technologies, which focuses on non-lethal weapons; research director at the USGSC, working directly under Cline, and later heading the council's Non-Lethality Policy Review Group; member of the 1995 CFR's Task Force on Non-Lethal Technologies, of which Dov Zakheim and Jason scholar Richard Garwin also were members), and Janet Morris (president & CEO of of M2 Technologies; also member of the 1995 CFR's Task Force on Non-Lethal Technologies; research director on non-lethal technologies at the USGSC 1993-1994; consultant at Los Alamos and close associate of Col. John Alexander).
General Stilwell, the Cercle member involved with the USGSC, deserves some more attention. It has already been discussed that he was a member of The 61 and the Special Operations Planning and Advisory Group (SOPAG), and seemingly an insider to the CIA drug trade in the 1980s. His involvement with CIA drugs might well go back to WWII and the early 1950s when he was involved in South-East Asia, including Burma, as a commander of Army forces and later regional CIA/OPC chief (146). More about Stilwell's history before he turned 65 can be read in his biography in the Cercle membership list. We'll focus on the last six years of his life, some time after he had been introduced to Le Cercle and The 61.
After Stilwell left the Defense Department in 1985, he set up Stilwell Associates, a private consulting firm that specialized in national security affairs. It had the CIA and the Defense Department among its clients (147). Because of this outside independent role Stilwell was able to claim in September 1987 he "was traveling at the request of no one" when Philippine authorities were worried about his presence in their country (148). Several months earlier his friend and SOPAG colleague General Jack Singlaub had also been peeking around on his own, allegedly searching for "sunken treasure" (149). In November 1986, Ray Cline and General Robert Schweitzer, like Stilwell both of the US Global Strategy Council, had also paid a visit to the Philippines. When the visit of Cline and Schweitzer was reported in the press, Cline stated that they were not official U.S. representatives and that they did not discuss the trip with the White House. But for some reason they did talk to former Marcos' defense minister, Juan Ponce Enrile, allegedly to persuade him not to mount a coup against the new sitting president Cory Aquino (150). However, in August 1987 Enrile was arrested (and later released) with alleged CIA agent Colonel Gringo Honasan for attempting to overthrow Aquino. Accusations of CIA involvement were widespread and were the result of decades long US support for Marcos.
Presidents like LBJ, Nixon, Reagan, and Bush (vice-president at the time) have strongly supported Marcos' severe dictatorship. The main reason was his strong anti-communist stance while allowing the US to operate Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Base on the island. In the early 1980s, as Marcos became older and his grip on the nation waned something typical happened. Reagan withdrew US support for his friend Marcos and key officials in Marcos' regime, mainly defense minister Enrile and police force head General Fidel Ramos, switched sides to the growing opposition. Marcos was driven out and evacuated by the United States to Hawaii. Cory Aquino came to power, but immediately it were individuals like Ramos and Enrile who were forcing, even threatening, Aquino to embrace the (partially new) ruling business and political oligarchy (151). A month after the failed August 1987 coup, Stilwell added that "unless Aquino acted decisively on military and political fronts - and embraced the right-of-center leaders in the private and public sector - there could be "a political breakdown" resulting in a coalition government with the communists within the next two years." (152) Philippine government officials were openly speculating that the "CIA guys in town" were part of a rogue group, "maneuvering outside the normal channels of operations", which played a role in the August 28 coup by the military. It was also openly alleged that the U.S. valued its Navy and Air Force bases in the country more than the freedom of the Philippine people (153).
Whatever role the US exactly played during the 1980s in the Philippines, what was going on here were private intelligence and likely direct intervention operations. Like The 61 charter said: "a Private Sector Operational Intelligence agency, beholden to no government, but at the disposal of allied or friendly governments." (154) The same group that was involved in creating and running The 61 was involved here in the Philippines, not to mention in all other parts of the world. The British had been doing these things since at least 1963 when a group consisting of Julian Amery (Cercle), David Stirling, George Kennedy Young, unknown Mossad agents, Billy McLean (Cercle), the House of Al-Faisal (Cercle) and Hussein bin Talal of Jordan (Cercle) were running a largely private war in the Yemens. (155) As for the US, these private operations exploded in the 1970s and got another boost right after 9/11. In both cases, the same anti-communist, radical Zionist, neoconservative group was involved in expanding these operations.
Around the time Stilwell left government service and set up Stilwell Associates he joined the Advisory Board of Americares, a large relief organization with heavy duty links to the pharmaceutical industry, the intelligence community, right wing politicians, and the religious fringe. Americares used the Knights of Malta to distribute supplies and to more easily move across international borders. In 1991, the year Stilwell would pass away, J. Peter Grace (Knights of Malta leader; CNP; 1001 Club; Pilgrims Society; AIFLD; W.R. Grace & Co.; Citibank), a long time colleague of Stilwell, was chairman of the advisory board while Zbigniew Brzezinski, a Cercle participant like Stilwell, was its honorary chair. The Moonie-connected Knight of Malta William E. Simon was another member of the advisory board. Robert C. Macauley is the founder and head of Americares, not to mention a childhood friend of George H.W. Bush, the son of a Knight of Malta. Although Macauley is not a Catholic, he did have pictures of President Reagan, Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa on his office walls (156).
In the early 1970s, Macauley had joined hands with Bruce Ritter, a Catholic priest who took care of runaway children in New York. Both were invited for an audience with the Pope in 1982, who gave the newly-established Americares the opportunity to give aid to Poland (157). This was purely a geopolitical move as the Vatican, for several years, had been funding a Catholic underground in Poland, and now that an economic crisis had broken out, Americares was chosen to bolster the image of both the Vatican and Reagan's Catholic Conservatives even more. At the same time, the Vatican began supporting Solidarnosc (Solidarity), a large group of dissident workers, with funds and a printing press. Roberto Calvi's Banco Ambrosiano was among the banks that had bankrolled these operations and the Vatican was coordinating their actions with officials from the Reagan administration, including General Alexander Haig, General Walters, and William Casey, all three members of the Knights of Malta (158). Reagan's representative to the Vatican, Le Cercle and The 61, William Wilson, who also was a Knight of Malta, was another one (159). Georges Albertini of the Cercle, a major French fascist with a series of Synarchist links, provided crucial intelligence gathered by The 61 on Poland to the Pope during this time (160).
Unfortunately for Macauley, in 1990, he was forced to break his association with the Catholic priest after this person was accused of sexual misconduct with some of the male runaways he was sheltering (161); a very common accusation in the Catholic Republican Paneuropa circles that is being dealt with in this article.
Some more Cercle members. King Hussein of Jordan used to receive millions from the CIA. Sultan Qaboos from Oman overthrew his father in 1970 (which was a good thing) with help from "British advisors" and privatized the oil economy. He is rumored to be gay by almost his entire population, which is quite a sin in an Islamic country. Both Hussein and Qaboos were advised by Cercle member Air Marshal Sir Erik Bennett. Turki from Saudi-Arabia is reported to have met his old protege Osama Bin Laden as late as July 2001, together with the CIA, and resigned 10 days before 9/11 as head of Saudi intelligence. Auchi was part of Saddam Hussein's inner circle and is standing here next to Prince Andrew at the Anglo-Arab Organization. Actually, it isn't known if former Nazi spy chief General Reinhard Gehlen attended Cercle meetings, only that he was very interested in the Cercle and that he recruited its founder, Jean Violet, as an intelligence agent. Details can be found in the membership list, which features very detailed biographies often with a number of newspaper excerpts.

The Paneuropa-Vatican network

Even though its members have been involved in intrigues around the world, the Cercle's main purpose has always been to discuss issues and possible action relating to European integration. The vision of the original French and German founders, as representatives of the Paneuropa movement, seems to have been a strong Catholic-dominated Europe, led by a Franco-German axis. Historically, you'll find a close cooperation between the Vatican-Paneuropa network (from which the Cercle emerged) and the right wing Christian Democratic parties in countries as Germany, Italy, France, and Belgium. It went the same way in Spain, although a democratic system did not exist there until after the death of Franco.
IN GERMANY the main players were CSU members Otto von Habsburg, Franz Joseph Strauss, Count Hans Huyn, and several of their aristocratic friends like the Thurn und Taxis and Thyssen-Bornemisza families. Their connections to Opus Dei and the Knights of Malta have already been discussed. Let's also not forget Paneuropa member Konrad Adenauer, the long time Chancellor of Germany who signed the 1957 Treaty of Rome for Germany. Adenauer, a co-founder of the Christian Democrat Union (CDU) - the national party of the Bavarian CSU - received the Magistral Grand Cross from the Knights of Malta and the Charlemagne award from the Paneuropa Union. Franz Josef Bach, the personal assistant of Adenauer, is likely to have played an important behind the scenes role as a long time organizer of Cercle meetings. Adenauer was a founding member of Le Cercle.
IN ITALY the Opusian Cercle member Giulio Andreotti was one of the main behind the scenes players from the late 1950s to the early 1990s. He started his career under Paneuropa supporter Alcide de Gasperi, one of the early builders of Europe and likely someone who was recruited into the Cercle. Statements from Roberto Calvi that Andreotti was the real head of the P2, with Francesco Cosentino and Umberto Ortolani just beneath him, are entirely possible (162). Although Licio Gelli, nicknamed "Italy's puppet master" for heading the P2, was a member of the Knights of Malta, like Andreotti and Ortolani, Gelli did not have the background to have been any kind of top man. Gelli's foreign puppet masters were Cercle member Henry Kissinger from the White House, NATO official Alexander Haig, and rogue CIA official Ted Shackley. Frank Gigliotti, a ranking US Mason and former OSS agent, was another one of Gelli's immediate instructors (163). Andreotti has numerous accusations against him that he worked with the mafia (and the CIA) to keep his Christian Democrat Party in power. There's also an accusation that he personally ordered an assassination to keep some personal secrets from leaking out. Andreotti was the first to acknowledge the existence of a European Stay-Behind army, named Gladio in case of Italy.
As for Italy's nobility, the earlier-mentioned Prince Carlo della Torre e Tasso is a board member of the Coudenhove-Kalergi Foundation and Prince Carlo de Bourbon, the Duke of Calabria, is head of the Vatican-recognized Italian branch of the the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St George. It's a Catholic chivalric order, but has recently also invited a small number of non-Catholics, including Cercle chairman Lord Norman Lamont (Privy Council; Rothschild; chair Oil Club) and Cercle member Anthony Cavendish (MI6; not of the Dukes of Devonshire). The controversial Cercle member Nadhmi Auchi (did illegal arms transfers for Saddam) has been awarded by the order. The Catholic Duke of Norfolk (together with the Cecils the most influential family in the history of Britain; British liaisons to the Vatican for centuries; Roxburghe Club member with the Cecils, Cavendishes, Rothschilds, Oppenheimers, and formerly Paul Mellon) and Lord Guthrie (SAS commander; Gold Stick to the Queen; Pilgrims Society; Knights of Malta; Rothschild) can also be found among the British members of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order (164). The controversial Duke of Savoy is another important family in Italy, but has not been tied directly to Paneuropa or Le Cercle.
CERCLE MEMBERS FROM BELGIUM have yet to be identified, but the group they must have come from is rather limited. Take former defense and prime minister Paul Vanden Boeynants and his sidekick Baron Benoît de Bonvoisin, whose father had been a director at Société Générale (still the major pillar of the Belgian economy and the Vatican-linked aristocracy) and an initial Bilderberg participant. Both were reportedly members of Opus Dei. Vanden Boeynants and Benoît de Bonvoisin were two of the founders of Cercle des Nations in 1969, an aristocratic Belgian club with Jean Violet as one of the few foreign members. Cercle des Nations was another hard-right offshoot of Paneuropa activities and had about 80 members when it first opened. Vanden Boeynants is also said to have been involved with Violet's Académie Européenne des Sciences Politiques while the headquarters of the Paneuropean Institut Europeen de Developpement was located in Baron de Bonvoisin's castle (165). Co-founder and vice-chairman of this institute was Paul Vankerkhoven, a side-kick of Otto van Habsburg who founded the Belgian branch of the World Anti-Communist League. Vankerkhoven was a co-founder of CEPIC in 1972, a secretive hard-right inner group of the Social Christian Party (PSC) of vanden Boeynants and Baron de Bonvoisin. To keep things short, this group, which includes the Belgian royal family of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and many high nobility figures, has at times tried to undermine Belgium's democratic process. One of these attempts was in the early 1970s. Another one in the early 1980s.
There's more going on in Belgium. According to victim-witnesses since the early 1980s, and especially testimonies made in the aftermath of the Dutroux affair, this group (without naming specific names) is involved in different pedophile rings. Some of these rings are set up to compromise politicians and businessmen; others seem to be just for "fun" and include child hunts at different domains and some very disturbing forms of mental and physical torture. Reports of involvement of Opus Dei and Knights of Malta figures are quite common. One report that might be relevant here involves a former PSC treasurer of the youth division, Jacques Thoma. He claimed that at some point he was invited to mass orgies by his superior (a CEPIC member and an associate of both Nihoul and suspected Gang of Nijvel members), which were explained to him as an Opus Dei initiation test, to which these people were trying to direct him. Later on, he was drugged and taken to a meeting where everyone was dressed in black robes and masks. The purpose of this meeting was "to be initiated into higher circles". A young girl had been sacrificed and participants drank her blood. Other girls from eastern Europe were also present. He tried to leave, but was drugged again. The next morning he woke up in his car. Still heavily traumatized ten years later, he did not dare to give an official testimony, because he had been intimidated (166).
Another case from Belgium involving the Vatican-Paneuropa network: Paul vanden Boeynants and Prince Albert (now King) was among the names mentioned in the Pinon Affair that began in 1979 (167). It involved parties at which minors were sexually abused. In June 1981 the editor of Pour Magazine was brought into contact with one of the participants in these parties and started an investigation. Within days he receives a telephone call from an attorney in Brussels who advises him to stop his investigation, because "panic has broken out in a certain political milieu". Ten days later the headquarters of Pour are destroyed by a fire (168).
Two individuals have been named as the person that threatened the editor. One is Jacques G. Jonet, formerly a political secretary of Otto von Habsburg and a leading figure in a whole string of Paneuropa-associated groups, including the Habsburg-founded Centre of Documentation and Information and Cercle des Nations. He co-founded several of these institutions and is reported to have been a close associate of Baron de Bonvoisin (169). A quick background check anno 2006 turns up that Jonet is the representative of the Belgian Order of Malta, while his wife is a member of its administrative council (170) (together with a few interesting family names). Both were present at the wedding of Prince Philip (son of King Albert II and Princess Paola Ruffo di Calabria) and Mathilde d'Udekem d'Acoz (Dame of Malta) in 1999 (171). It also turns out that Jonet is still involved with the Wilton Park conferences, together with the Grand Chancellor of the Order of Malta (172).
The other possibility at the time was Vincent vanden Bossche, a lawyer of numerous hard-right individuals who was part of the same milieu as Jonet. Like Jonet, he was a member of Cercle des Nations and Ordre du Rouvre, although his credentials are less impressive (173). It is entirely possible that both men were involved in trying to stop the editor of Pour from publishing the results of his investigation.
Keep in mind that in the first case mentioned (the alleged Opus Dei initiation) we were talking about secretive parallel cells within existing organizations, like those that had been created by this same group in Belgium's gendarmerie, and reportedly also in the military, political parties, and at one or more universities. Even though these reports of extreme child "abuse" initially seem farfetched, they come from more than half a dozen (known) witnesses. They also bear a remarkable similarity to the Franklin and Craig Spence cases, which revolved around the highest level Republican circles in the US. For a quick oversight of these cases you might want to take a look at the biography of Cercle member and Knight of Malta William Casey, who had an awfully close relationship with Larry King and Craig J. Spence. A separate article will appear on this Belgian group and its similarities to other cases.
SPAIN WAS headed by Franco until 1975, which was only partially approved by the reactionary Vatican-Paneuropa network. On the one hand, Franco was a good Catholic boy, treating the non-Catholics in his country as sub-human. On the other hand, because of Franco's totalitarian tendencies Spain remained isolated from the European integration process. That has been a major reason for the pressure on Franco to make reforms, allowing for a more democratic and pro-European Spain to emerge after his death (174). It is said that Franco initially contacted the head of the Paneuropa movement, Otto von Habsburg, to become his follow-up, as the Habsburgs had ruled the country in the past for nearly 200 years. After a long discussion Otto declined, instead suggesting that Prince Juan Carlos should become Franco's successor (175). And so it happened. Franco, Habsburg, and Carlos have all been named as members of the Knights of Malta. They also supported Opus Dei.
There's only one known Cercle member from Spain at the moment, Federico Silva Munoz. In 1967, Munoz, as Franco's Minister of the Interior, had blocked a bill that would have recognized the existence of Spain's small non-Catholic community. Most Opus Dei figures in government voted in favor of the bill, as part of the overall reform process (176). In October 1969, there was an almost complete overhaul of Franco's cabinet with only four members of the old cabinet remaining. One of the four cabinet members that was allowed to stay was Munoz (177), although he resigned five months later, allegedly because of a difference of opinion with the now dominant Opus Dei clique, headed by Franco's eminence grise Admiral Carrero Blanco and several others (178). Munoz remained a member of the Spanish Congress and became head of Campsa, the oil concern which had a monopoly on oil distribution in Spain (179). The struggle between the Falangists and Opusians continued in the years following, with the latter losing a lot of influence after Admiral Blanco had been assassinated in December 1973, allegedly by the ETA. This was the view of the newspapers at the time; not something later put forward by alternative researchers.
Franco passed away in 1975 and King Juan Carlos became the new head of government. After Carlos dismissed the fascist prime minister Carlos Arias Navarro in 1976, Munoz was among the few who were recommended by Carlos' highest advisory body, the Council of the Realm, to be made prime minister of Spain (180). However, Carlos picked the right wing, but far less reactionary, Adolfo Suarez, who reportedly was a member of Opus Dei (181). Munoz, in the mean time, had become head of the hard-right Unión de Centro Democrático (UCD) and in October 1976 he incorporated this party into the newly-created Alianza Popular (AP). The AP was a federation of several parties, which were all fascist or borderline fascist. It opted for a "more gradual" change to democracy than Suarez and his allies had planned for. Some co-founders with Munoz were former Franco ministers Gonzalo Fernandez de la Mora, Lopez Rodo (influential minister in the 1960s and early 1970s, who is said to have engineered the Opus Dei takeover of the Spanish government), and Manuel Fraga Iribarne (182). When the new constitution was approved in 1978, turning Spain into a parliamentary democracy, most members of the AP, as totalitarian as they were, decided to accept the constitution. Not Munoz and Fernandez de la Mora, who withdrew from the AP to continue with their Unión de Centro Democrático party, renaming it in January 1979 to Derecha Democrática Española (DDE). That same month they established a coalition with Fuerza Nueva of Blas Pinar and other ultrafascists; probably the most reactionary and dangerous political faction in Spain at the time (183). Munoz spoke out a few times against the new Spanish constitution in the months and years following (184), but soon disappeared in political obscurity. At some point he did become involved with Le Cercle, and that shows.
In 1983, Gonzalo Fernandez de la Mora, Munoz's political partner and good friend since they first met at a gathering of the Asociación Católica Nacional de Propagandistas in the  1940s (185), founded the fascist magazine Razon Espanola (Spanish Reason) and became its president. Munoz would regularly write articles for the magazine. Razon Espanola was founded on October 1, 1983 as an outgrowth of the Balmes Foundation, in turn established a few months earlier by a grant of the German Hanns Seidel Foundation (186), which has already been mentioned before. It is the political trust attached to the Christian Social Union of such Opus Dei and Cercle luminaries as Otto von Habsburg and Franz Josef Strauss. There have been accusations that the Foundation has supported the Contras in Latin America and Mobutu (a 1001 Club member like Herbert Batliner, King Juan Carlos and Prince Johannes von Thurn und Taxis) in Zaire (187). In case of Razon Espanola, it funded the magazine over a number of years until it was able to operate on its own. As you can read above, Fernandez and Munoz were friends of Strauss and when the BBC highlighted this in a panorama on Strauss in 1980, Brian Crozier, outgoing chairman of Le Cercle (which no reader of The Times knew) felt compelled to defend his associates (188). However, Crozier himself was a great supporter of the Franco regime and like Munoz, Fernandez de la Mora, or Blas Pinar, he deemed Spain's new constitution unworkable (189). In short, all these people are fascists, even though they always deny that.
In 1989, Cercle investigator David Teacher claimed that Munoz was a "senior Opus Dei member" (190). Judging by most of his career, Munoz was not in the camp that, at least in Spain, has traditionally been identified with Opus Dei. However, this religious group transcends political parties and Munoz's later involvement with Le Cercle, Strauss and the Hanns Seidel Foundation certainly made him a close associate of what has often been termed "God's Octopus".
THE PANEUROPA UNION and the Vatican never had to complain about France. Whether a president was Gaullist or socialist, at the very least they favored a strong Europe as a political and military counterweight to the United States; and even though Great Britain was accepted into the European Union, it was never able to wedge itself into the dominant Franco-German alliance. This mainly had to do with the French. All French presidents were staunch Roman Catholics, some even connected to Opus Dei, like Robert Schuman, Antoine Pinay, and Valery Giscard d'Estaing, with probably a few others we don't know it about.
The French have been the primary motor behind the European Union. Paneuropa member Robert Schuman, through Monnet, laid the foundation for the European Union with the 1949 European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). In the 1950s, Antoine Pinay founded Le Cercle with the Opusian Jean Violet and Otto von Habsburg. They immediately invited Konrad Adenauer, Robert Schuman and Jean Monnet. Monnet, although mainly connected to Anglo-American banking and political interests, was the Frenchman who organized the 1948 Congress of Europe with Joseph Retinger, came up with the idea of the ECSC, played an important role in the 1957 Treaty of Rome, and later set up his influential action committee.
The decade after the ECSC, Bilderberg, Le Cercle and the European Economic Community (EEC) had been created, Violet and Pinay arranged for the Franco-German alliance between de Gaulle and Adenauer. This was in January 1963 and just in time for a possible acceptance of Britain into the EEC. De Gaulle, however, vetoed Britain's entry anyway, which guaranteed Franco-German dominance of the EEC for the years to come.
Coudenhove and Habsburg adored de Gaulle not only for giving France a strong military and even its own nuclear arsenal, but also for his leadership role in furthering European integration (191). In 1969, however, after de Gaulle had steered Europe too much in an anti-NATO, anti-Anglo-American, and domestically too Conservative course, he had built up so much opposition against himself that he was forced (or forced himself) to resign. His more moderate right hand man, Georges Pompidou, a person in close contact with the Cercle and a long time employee of the Rothschild Bank, took over.
Pompidou's éminence grise became nazi-collaborator Georges Albertini, who worked at Banque Worms, coincidentally said to have been a major Synarchie front. Albertini worked with Jean Violet and Brian Crozier in both The 61 and the Cercle. He also briefed the Pope on several occasions. In 1973, at the recommendation of Georges Pompidou, Otto von Habsburg became the new president of the Paneuropa Union, as Coudenhove-Kalergi had died the year before (192). Pompidou himself suddenly died in 1974 and the interim president became Alain Poher, a member of Le Cercle who was president of the French Senate from 1968 to 1992. He had earlier served as acting president when Charles de Gaulle died, but lost the election to Pompidou. This time Poher lost the election to Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, a Knight of Malta and good friend of Jean Violet, who became the next president of France until 1981. Giscard, his father Edmond, together with associates as Prince Jean de Broglie, Robert Leclerc and members of Le Cercle are said to have introduced Opus Dei to France (193). More on Giscard in a minute.
Things changed in 1981, when the socialist Mitterrand became president of France. One family who couldn't appreciate the new socialist policies were the Rothschilds, who saw their family bank nationalized. They had to shift attention to New Court, their securities firm in New York at Rockefeller Center with stakes in corporations as TRW and Hughes Aircraft (194). But even though Mitterrand was a socialist, he also was a an ardent Catholic who favored European integration. Also, Georges Albertini already anticipated the victory of the socialists and brought Mitterrand's closest friend and confidant, Francois de Grossouvre, into the Cercle six months before the elections. When Mitterrand was elected in 1981, he appointed de Grossouvre as coordinator of security and intelligence (195). Four years later de Grossouvre and Admiral Pierre Lacoste, two leading officers in the French stay-behind networks (196), were among a small group that decided to sink the Rainbow Warrior in reaction to the protests of Greenpeace against French nuclear testing at Mururoa (197).
Mitterrand, known to have been greatly interested in Machiavelli, stayed a long time in office. Only in 1995 the more Liberal Jacques Chirac took over. Besides being the usual opportunist, Chirac has become a great supporter of European integration and of the failed 2005 European constitution. Before the voting process for the new constitution began, Chirac brought up the old issue of Britain's loyalty to the European Union, saying that if its citizens voted against, it would be clear that Britain felt more strongly about cooperation with the Commonwealth and the US. He then promoted the idea that any country who voted against the constitution could better leave the European Union (198). In April 2005, Chirac went on TV and openly stated that a no to the European Constitution "would halt the European project in its tracks, and pave the way to an unregulated, uncontrolled free-market world, dominated by the United States." (199)
Even after these strong statements, the person who oversaw the writing of the European constitution blamed Chirac for France's rejection of it. This person was Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, a long time political rival of Chirac, and claimed it was a mistake of Chirac to hand out the third part of the European Constitution to the French people for reviewing, because part III had already been ratified in previous treaties. Giscard literally begged Chirac not to do this (200). However, since the people of France had to revote on this section as part of the overall constitution, Chirac decided to include it in the mailings, possibly to avoid any accusations of conspiracy that would undermine his chances in the 2007 elections. This third part, which dealt with the major EU policies - the internal market, the economic and monetary union, employment, social policies, consumer protection, environment, agriculture, energy, research, etc. - was severely criticized by the French people, who always leaned to socialism and communism quite severely (which in no small part had to do with France's Vichy and neocolonial past). Back in 1957, at the time of the Treaty of Rome when a lot of these very liberal policies were agreed upon, the socialists had nothing to bring in, as the CIA, MI6, the SDECE and French Gladio units made sure that leftist elements, however strong they were, did not get any executive positions in government. The same thing happened in other countries.
As a good Opusian and Malteser Knight, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing already proposed a solution to the problem of getting the European constitution ratified.
"Let's be clear about this: the rejection of the Constitutional Treaty in France was a mistake, which will have to be corrected... the Constitutional Treaty will have to be given its second chance. When? When France has completed her great electoral debate, with the presidential and parliamentary elections which are due to be held 14 months' time, in spring 2007. How? By refocusing the debate on the only genuinely constitutional parts, that is to say, the first part, and the Charter of Fundamental Rights demanded by the European Left, neither of which have given rise to much protest. Then the third part could follow a parliamentary route, which is far better suited to its legal nature." (201)
Giscard enjoys the full support of his friend Otto von Habsburg, who agrees that the constitution should be reintroduced, albeit the more "comprehensible" early version of Giscard (202). Discussions about this have already been underway between Chirac and Merkel (of the CDU in Germany). Chirac is a Catholic, but seems to be less influenced by his fate than some of the politicians surrounding him. For example, Giscard and Habsburg strongly oppose any possibility of Turkish membership in the European Union, probably because that will interfere with their vision of a new Holy Roman Empire [update: in late November 2006, Pope Ratzinger all of a sudden saw no objections to Turkey joining the EU. It would be really interesting to know the reason behind this sudden and complete 180 degrees reversal. However, one thing seems to be certain: the reactionary Ultramontanists aren't getting what they want]. Chirac on the other hand is open to the idea that Turkey would eventually be allowed to join. Merkel agrees on this issue with Otto and Giscard, but is not part of their Opusian Bavarian clique. Edmund Stoiber, a protege of Strauss, tried to compete with her for the German chancellorship in 2005.

Franco-German vs. US-supported Anglo-German alliance

Besides individual politicians there's a very distinct group out there that supports the idea of Turkey becoming a full member of the European Union. That is the neoconservative crowd that rose to power in the early 1980s, was involved with the Jonathan Institute conferences and is now supporting the Project for the New American Century (PNAC). The Henry Jackson Society (HJS), founded in 2005, is an extension of PNAC, and includes some of the European partners of what is supposed to become the "New American Century". The Henry Jacksons work towards what they call "global liberal democracy"and favor an Anglo-German alliance for Europe, especially after the failed constitution in June 2005 (203). The society's principles are:
Liberal democracy should be spread across the world
The US and the EU – under British leadership – must shape the world more actively
Maintenance of a strong military with global expeditionary reach
Both William Kristol and Robert Kagan, founders of PNAC, are patrons of the Henry Jackson Society. Bruce Jackson is also a patron, and is the third of five directors of PNAC involved with the HJS. Jackson was a Military Intelligence officer who went to work for Lehman Brothers and Lockheed. He now is president of the non-profit US Committee on NATO. Some other patrons of the society are Richard Perle, General Jack Sheehan, James Woolsey, Hubertus Hoffmann, and Vytautas Landsbergis. Richard Perle, the good friend of Brian Crozier, has become known as the ultimate warmongerer. Marine Corps General Jack Sheehan, a former NATO intelligence chief who now works for Bechtel (like Shultz and Weinberger going back to the Jonathan Institute), has been accused of doing a lot of dirty tricks and black ops for his superiors in Washington and New York (204). Perle used to be chairman of the Defense Policy Board, the advisory body to the Pentagon. Sheehan is still a member. James Woolsey, the former CIA director under Clinton, is another member of the Defense Policy Board. Hubertus Hoffmann, from Germany, is a founder of the large World Security Network Foundation in New York and the General Capital Group in Germany. Like Alexander Haig, Henry Kissinger, Vernon Walters and Donald Rumsfeld, Hoffmann is a protege of Fritz Kraemer. The anti-communist Vytautas Landsbergis is a political leader from Lithuania.
The HJS itself has been named after Senator Henry Jackson, a Democrat who visited the first Jonathan Conference on international terrorism in 1979, together with Crozier, Moss, Chalfont, Pipes, Kemp, Cline, Bush Sr., Netanyahu, and others. He favored a hardline policy against the USSR and supported the war in Vietnam. Because Jackson constantly advocated increased military spending on weapons systems and at the same time received funding from Boeing, he became known as the "Senator from Boeing". Jackson has been a great supporter of the radical Zionist movement.
Henry Jackson was one of the early neoconservatives, a movement that transcends the historic division between the democrats and republicans, especially after the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) was founded in 1985. Henry Jackson's proteges Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz are an examples of that, just as Richard Perle favoring DLC democrat Joseph Lieberman for the 2008 US presidency. James Woolsey is another example of a neoconservative democrat, just at Senator Moynihan (worked for Pilgrim Averell Harriman in the 1950s, the person who helped to organize the Psychological Strategy Board; important United Nations official in the 1970s; important DLC operative; chairman of a 1997 Commission that shed some light on the inner workings of the Black and Deep Black Programs; friend of the Rothschild family), a person who attended the 1984 conference of the Jonathan Institute. Neoconservatives are hawks who put big business and geopolitical interests above anything else. Individual freedom means nothing and is seen as an ineffective.
Today's neoconservatives are linked to people like Julian Amery and Brian Crozier through organizations as the Jonathan Institute, Foreign Affairs Research Institute, Institute for the Study of Conflict, Le Cercle, Forum World Features, Encounter and the Congress for Cultural Freedom. The last three institutions are known to have been funded by the CIA. As already discussed, Richard Mellon Scaife played an important role in taking over funding of some of these institutions. In case of the Institute for the Study of Conflict, the CIA arranged a meeting between Scaife and Crozier when the latter was looking for funding. Since the 1990s, Scaife's foundations have been funding other news media and think tanks, all of them quite notorious. Some of the most important have been Strategic Investment, the Project for the New American Century and Newsmax. Someone like the neoconservative William Kristol provides another CIA link to the Project for the New American Century, of which he was a primary founder. William's father, Irving Kristol, co-founded Encounter magazine for the CIA, and his successor, Melvin Lasky, was a friend and political associate of Brian Crozier. Irving later also founded the National Interest (and Public Interest), a neocon foreign policy magazine with such notorious radical Zionists on the advisory board as Morton Abramowitz, Dov Zakheim, Conrad Black (1001 Club; another media tycoon) and Henry Kissinger. Former CIA head James Schlesinger has been chairman of the advisory council while Richard Pipes, Crozier's associate during the 1980s, was also involved with the magazine. These days Irving's son William is a political commentator for Fox News.
From left to right: Irving Kristol and his son William, Rupert Murdoch, Richard Mellon Scaife and business partner Lord Rees-Mogg, Brian Crozier and his friend Richard Perle, and CCF co-founder and Cercle president Julian Amery. According to Crozier, Murdoch's newspapers were under attack in 1980s by "militant trade unions". Seems Murdoch never forgave them.
These media outlets have in common that they are selling a fascist domestic and foreign policy agenda by spreading propaganda and clear cut disinformation. The problem is that it's neither fully CIA nor private. With all these radical Zionists and General Jack Sheehan as a patron of the Henry Jackson Society, it becomes tempting to refer to them in the terms Catherine Griggs, wife of Col. George Griggs, used: the Brotherhood, the Firm or the Joint.
This group also has not shied away from reporting on conspiracies and presenting themselves as the religious patriots fighting the "New World Order" and the United Nations. Examples of this kind of disinformation are carefully presented stories that suggest the "radical left" is the mastermind behind conspiracies as Waco, Oklahoma, CIA drugs, high technology sales to China, the murder of Clinton's associates and the murder of William Colby. "Alternative" news publications like Newsmax and Strategic Investment have been involved in spreading this kind of disinformation. Both magazines have counted heavy involvement of Richard Mellon Scaife and Lord William Rees-Mogg. Cercle member William Colby said something very interesting to his friend Senator John DeCamp about these individuals.
"At the time of his death, Bill [Colby] was working with Britain's Lord William Rees-Mogg... [Rees-Mogg] used to write that in the coming age of society, an elite of 5% of the total population would rule over the other 95% as virtual slaves. But Rees-Mogg is not just nasty-- he represents great power... On several occasions, when I saw Bill or spoke with him during the last year of his life, I'd ask him whether I should subscribe to his newsletter [Strategic Investment], or, whether he'd just give me a few copies to look over. He always told me not to waste my money. "Ask me about any situation your interested in, and I'll give you as thorough a briefing as I possibly can. But don't believe a word you read in that newsletter I'm writing for." Strange... Maybe his involvement with Rees-Mogg was more complicated than I ever speculated... And I recall another incident... Together with Rees-Mogg, the most savage press hound attacking Clinton was one Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, a Briton... [he] once called me, urgently demanding a meeting. I had never heard of him before, and so I asked Bill if he had ever heard of this fellow... Bill answered, rather ominously, as I now look back, "His name is Ambrose Evans-Pritchard. And," he said, "be very careful."" (205)

Rees-Mogg, as a member of the exclusive Other Club since 1973, is a close associate of the leading aristocratic families in Britain, including the Duke of Devonshire (Cavendish), Lord Carrington (Pilgrims president), Lord Rothschild and Prince Charles. Here they dine together with such individuals as Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Sir Edward Heath, and Sir Denis Thatcher (husband of). Lord Richardson of Duntisbourne (J. Henry Schroder; Bank of England; Morgan Stanley; BIS; Chemical Bank; Chase Manhattan; Rolls Royce; Ditchley; Group of Thirty; presided over G-10 meetings; Privy Council; Order of the Garter; Pilgrims Society) and Winston Spencer-Churchill (grandson of the famous PM; son of Pamela Harriman; had an extra-marital affair with the former wife of famous arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi; MP; involved in some projects with Cercle members) are other members of the Other Club, just as Cercle participants Baron Kelvedon, Lord Julian Amery and the 7th Marquess of Salisbury (206). The Rothschilds, Cecils, Drummonds (remember Monnet?), Dukes of Norfolk, Dukes of Devonshire, together with Harry Oppenheimer and Paul Mellon, could also be found in the same room with Rees-Mogg when the even more exclusive Roxburghe Club met (207). The Rees-Mogg and Evans-Pritchard connection with Richard Mellon Scaife and American Zionists in discrediting the American left seems to be an example of a "joint" operation.
Apparently there are at least two major power centers on the planet at this moment, with one relying primarily on economic and military dominance, and the other relying mainly on religious authority. The former is the radical Anglo-American-Israel alliance; the second the just as radical Vatican-Paneuropa network, which is dominated by Knights of Malta and a small coterie of Opus Dei associates. There are arguments for cooperation between these networks, especially in their fight against communism, socialism and nationalism. However, there does seem to be some disagreement on how the world should be organized. The Franco-German vs. the proposed neocon Anglo-German axis is just one indication of that. Otto von Habsburg's remark that "the Pentagon is now a Jewish institution as all key positions are occupied by Jews" (208) is another, and it's interesting that he has not been attacked over it by the normally over-alert Zionist clique. Some other examples have already been named in this article, but in general it's easy to spot the the tendency of the Vatican-Paneuropeans to denounce the neoliberal policies of the Anglo-Americans.
The neocon vs. Vatican-Paneuropa network. Le Cercle has historically been associated with the radical Vatican-Paneuropa group; Bilderberg more with the network drawn in red. However, many Bilderberg participants were not as hawkish as today's Zionist neocons. Through the Gladio networks and economic support, the US has always been very influential in Europe. The Vatican's peak influence in Washington was during the Reagan years and has always been strong in South America. In Britain there are very aristocratic Catholic families as the Dukes of Norfolk and the Earls of Perth who have been liaisons to the Vatican for centuries, as opposed to leading families as the Dukes of Devonshire (leading Whigs/liberals for centuries) and Marquesses of Salisbury (prominent defenders of the Church of England). Most of these families, even today, are religious with a capital R. Interestingly, the four families mentioned are all involved with the small Roxburghe book club for generation after generation, so they probably get along reasonably well. In fact, they should, as they've become pretty close relatives over the past five or six centuries during which they been struggling for power in Great Britain.

The dilemma of the British Tories (Conservatives)

As for Le Cercle, it has already been discussed that leadership went from the Vatican-Paneuropa network to members connected to the Anglo-American establishment. The Britons visiting Le Cercle can be divided in two groups: those who want Britain to join the European Union, like Brian Crozier; and the more recent heads as Jonathan Aitken and Lord Lamont, who have been crucial in the campaign to halt further British integration into the European Union. Lamont remains one of the leaders of the British eurosceptic movement with his Bruges Group. Most of the recent British visitors of Le Cercle, all Conservatives, also want to keep Britain out of the European Union. Aitken gave an explanation in September 2005:
"People have realised that the dream of a federal Europe with Britain at the centre of it has been a dream that has failed. I and a few others could see that it would fail and it has." (209)
Although likely a sincere statement, it's hard to take anything serious that Aitken says. He's a great nephew of the Hitler-intimate Lord Beaverbrook, whose son was a member of the questionable 1001 Club. He's also a MI6 agent involved in massive amounts of illegal arms sales, and even recruited his own 13 year old daughter to lie for him in court. Then, after his conviction and subsequent release, he still received a salary of about $15,000 a month from an unknown source. Out of jail it also turned out that Aitken had become even more religious and that he seemed to have switched from being an Anglican to a Roman Catholic. Uttering creepy sentences as "I am a man of unclean lips" he even went to do a personal Ignatian retreat to entrench the spiritual exercises of the Society of Jesus in his subconsciousness (210). And this a man who ran what the Independent called "one of the most influential, secretive, and... exclusive political clubs in the West" (211) and was described by Alan Clark as someone "who knows absolutely everybody in the world" (212).
After the European constitution was rejected by France and the Netherlands in May and June 2005 respectively, Lord Lamont, the present chairman of Le Cercle, wrote:
"The Europe of Delors [fervent Catholic socialist; received Charlemagne award], Mitterand [fervent Catholic socialist; received Charlemagne award] and Kohl [Christian Democrat; fervent Catholic; received Charlemagne award; illegally supported by funds from the Vatican] is dead. No means no. Europe's self-serving political elite will make a profound mistake and create an awakening of bitterness if they try to sidestep France's historic vote. Europe is a dysfunctional mess. Europe needs to go back to square one. Blair and the British Government in their role as the Presidency of the EU should renegotiate the existing treaties to create a looser free trade Europe of 25 countries." (213)
Although another very questionable person, Lamont is a serious eurosceptic and brings up many good points on his Bruges Group website. It's however one of Lamont's former bosses, until the year before he became head of Le Cercle, who draws most of the questions to him pertaining Britain's policy towards the European Union. Before becoming a very influential politician, Lamont worked at N.M. Rothschild & Sons and Rothschild Asset Management. In 1993, he briefly returned to N.M. Rothschild & Sons. At the time, Sir Evelyn de Rothschild personally appointed Lamont to his board, going against the advise of other board members. As the whole board was composed of staunch eurosceptics, outside observers began to wonder if this was going to hurt the family bank's business in mainland Europe (214). However, almost ten years later, in 2002, it turned out that Sir Evelyn set up and was actually funding the most influential pro-EU think tank in existence:
"Peter Mandelson, the former secretary of state for Northern Ireland, has found a new backer for his political ambitions in the shape of Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, the multi-millionaire banker... the two have become firm friends... So it is perhaps no surprise that de Rothschild has emerged as the mystery funder of Policy Network, a "super think tank" that boasts some of No 10's senior policy advisers on its board and is chaired by none other than Mandelson. The sum donated to date is said to be £250,000. The name of the donor is missing from the think tank’s accounts, but its directors have been privately concerned that they will look secretive if they continue to hide his identity... In June this year the de Rothschilds were among the organisers of a “progressive” leaders’ conference run by Policy Network at Brocket Hall in Hertfordshire, which attracted Clinton and the prime minister. In the evening, the gathering moved to Ascott House, de Rothschild’s home in Buckinghamshire, for a seated banquet for 100. The board of Policy Network — set up by a group of young Blairites in 2000 — reads like a Who’s Who of Labour’s inner circle." (215)
Maybe Sir Evelyn changed his mind. Unfortunately, he doesn't like to give interviews (216) so it is likely to remain anybody's guess. In general, members of the Rothschild family swing both to the left and right and there's really no telling what goes on in their heads. And not only through Lamont are they close to Le Cercle; through the earlier mentioned Other Club and Roxburghe Club the Rothschilds were/are in close contact with leading Cercle members Lord Julian Amery, Paul Channon (Baron Kelvedon; his daughter died from a heroin overdose in the mansion of Count Gottfried von Bismarck; very close friend of the Duke of Kent) and the Cecils. If there are other links they are unknown.
To finish up this section, the big question in England today seems to be what should be done with the European Union. Surrender it to the Franco-German alliance? Or continue the effort to join the Franco-German alliance, and possibly even to replace it with an Anglo-German one? In the long run, both strategies are risky. If Britain stays in the European Union it better gets some control over where all these radical Catholics are taking the continent. And if Britain withdraws from the European Union that decision might some day come to haunt them, as they have usually been the first target of a unified Europe. This is why Britain often adopted a policy to back the weakest power on the continent.

Religious extremism and concluding summary

It is the Vatican, together with a large chunk of its Catholic "black" nobility, most notably the Habsburgs, that has been dreaming of recreating the Holy Roman Empire. In an attempt to make that happen, after World War II, Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi and Otto von Habsburg (re)created their Paneuropa network across Europe in which many Opus Dei members and the more aristocratic Knights of Malta became involved. To accomplish their mission of rebuilding the old Holy Roman Empire, Opus Dei needed to get people of influence in their camp. That's why they have always focused on recruiting politicians, bankers and other men of influence (217). However, if we look at the Belgian model, described earlier, it seems there are separate cells within these extremist institutes in which some of the more powerful members are lured. If they bite, there will be no turning back. Unfortunately, investigations into these parallel groups are always sabotaged and shut down, usually by people involved in them.
Le Cercle, founded in the 1950s, started out as a branch of this extremely conservative Vatican-Paneuropa network, possibly as a counterweight to the liberal Anglo-American-oriented Bilderberg group. However, the Vatican always had support from influential persons in the United States, most notably individuals working at the CIA. With funds and leadership from these US officials it helped to set up and maintain the Stay Behind networks, whose job to suppress internal "communosocialist" influences was at least as important as their stay behind function in case of a communist invasion. Le Cercle worked in synergy with the Stay Behind networks, bringing the hard-right, often CIA-supported elements within the national European governments closer together.
It remains a bit of a mystery who came up with the money to set up Le Cercle. It has been reported that the CIA funded most of the European movement in the decades after WWII through a network involving the Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, the American Committee on United Europe (ACUE), and other fronts, switching at times their support for British policies to those of France (218). Details on CIA involvement in funding Le Cercle are missing although Alan Clark did report in the early 1990s that the Agency was involved (219). This shouldn't come as a surprise with all the reported Knights of Malta in the top levels of the CIA over the years: Donovan, Dulles, Angleton, McCone, Casey and Walters (acted as Casey's representative at some point). The father of George H.W. Bush, another CIA head, has also been named a Knight of Malta while William Colby has been called a member of Opus Dei. Colby and Casey at some point began attending meeting of Le Cercle.
The presence of these reactionary Catholic organizations is quite common in Le Cercle. Membership in many cases is still not undisputed public knowledge, but accusations among the seventy or so known Cercle members are numerous. The following Cercle participants have been named as Opus Dei members. For details look in the individual biographies in the Cercle membership list.

• Otto von Habsburg
• 
  
• Jean Violet
• 
  
• Antoine Pinay
• 
  
• Giulio Andreotti
• 
  
• Monsignor Alberto Giovanetti
• 
  
• William Colby
• 
  
• Alois Mertes
• 
  
• Franz Josef Strauss
• 
  
• Federico Silva Munoz

In addition, Cercle member Robert Schuman is known to have been a close sympathizer of Opus Dei, although no one seems to be sure if he was a member.
Among the associates of Cercle members, there also are numerous accusations of Opus Dei involvement. Violet's Belgian associates like Paul Vanden Boeynants and Baron de Bonvoisin are an example. Otto von Habsburg's Paneuropa network is filled with them, not the least of them the Giscard d'Estaing family who wrote the original EU Constitution. Jacques Santer, a former long time prime minister of Luxembourg and president of the European Commissioner, is known to have been very friendly to Opus Dei. Santer sat on the board of Nadhmi Auchi's General Mediterranean Holdings.
Others have also noticed the connection between Opus Dei and Le Cercle. Robert Hutchinson saw Le Cercle as an auxiliary organization of the Opus Dei-Paneuropa network. David Rockefeller, in his memoirs, hinted to the influence of Opus Dei in Le Cercle, or as he called it, the "Pesenti Group", and indirectly painted Otto von Habsburg and Jean Violet as allies of Opus Dei (220). A particularly interesting comment from David Rockefeller is that he, as one the founders of Bilderberg and one of the best connected globalists in the world, supposedly was only told about the existence of Le Cercle in 1967, and only at the exact moment that he was recruited (221).
What is really amusing is that Brian Crozier is quoted in Wikipedia's article on Opus Dei, stating that Opus Dei "is not, as its enemies either think or want others to think, a political party; nor is it a political pressure group..." This is just one of the numerous examples in which Crozier is technically correct, but is still trying to get people to draw the wrong conclusions (also notice the word "enemies"). Crozier is a really reliable source when you consider that he, a British intelligence agent, propagandist and Franco sympathizer, was deemed reliable enough to take over Le Cercle from its Opusian founders. But then again, nobody ever heard of Le Cercle.
Following now are the known Knights of Malta that can be found among the ranks of Le Cercle. Again, for details look in the individual biographies in the Cercle membership list attached to this article.

• Giulio Andreotti
• 
  
• Edwin Feulner
• 
  
• William Casey
• 
  
• William Wilson
• 
  
• Otto von Habsburg (honorary "professed")
• 
  
• Konrad Adenauer (honorary)
• 
  
• Reinhard Gehlen (honorary)
• 
  
• Antoine Pinay (honorary)
• 
  
• Alain Poher (honorary)

Also, through J. Peter Grace and Americares, Cercle members General Stilwell and Zbigniew Brzezinski certainly were as close to the Knights of Malta as you can get without actually becoming a member. Many associates of the Cercle were also Knights of Malta. Examples are Licio Gelli, official head of the P2; Count Alexandre de Marenches, a rival of Jean Violet who set up the Safari Club with CIA knights; and Prince Valerio Borghese, who led the aborted 1970 coup in Italy on behalf of the CIA. Borghese's closest associates were James Jesus Angleton and former Nazi General Otto Skorzeny, both also Knights of Malta.
Other Cercle members like Carlo Pesenti, Monsignor Brunello and Count Hans Huyn haven't been named as members of Opus Dei or the Knights of Malta, but were so close to the Vatican's reactionary establishment that it's likely that some day they'll also turn out to have belonged to one of these two groups. And if not, there are quite a number of other candidates in the Cercle ranks.
There also are three non-Catholic British Cercle participants that have become members of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George, a Catholic templar order headed by Prince Carlo de Bourbon, the Duke of Calabria. Like Opus Dei and the Knights of Malta, any possible deeper purpose of this order is not public knowledge.
Former Cercle president Jonathan Aitken seems to be the only person in Le Cercle involved with the Jesuits, which are generally seen as less reactionary than Opus Dei and the Knights of Malta. Additionally, a number of Cercle members have been involved with institutions with strong links to the Moonie cult. Among them are the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, which counted the involvement of Brian Crozier, Edwin Feulner and Zbigniew Brzezinski; and the Global Economic Action Institute, of which the London branch was chaired by Julian Amery, head of Le Cercle at the time the story came out.
At least 20 percent of the known members of Le Cercle belong to Opus Dei and-or the Knights of Malta, including most of the founders. And even those that do not belong to these organizations can be freakishly religious, like Colonel Billy McLean or the afore mentioned Jonathan Aitken. In the end, these people,
Religions in Europe. Yellow is Islam, green is Russian Orthodox, Red is Roman Catholic and blue is Protestant/other. Especially in the blue countries many people are not religious anymore for several generations; they usually consider themselves atheist or are open to a variety of spiritual ideas, mainly dealing with life after death and paranormal abilities. So called "New Age" (Pagan) religions are virtually non-existent  even though they are more composed and better educated than the average fundamentalist Muslim, might well be just as hard to reason with.
But religious extremism isn't the only thing that sketches the life of the average Cercle member. Taken together, Le Cercle is characterized by:

• an anti-democratic mindset
• illegal or covert arms sales
• undercover financial support
• money laundering
• drug trade
• organizing anti-communist, anti-socialist, and anti-nationalist coups
• organizing private intelligence and other covert action groups
• spreading of propaganda and disinformation
• a struggle for European unification

The usual excuse for projects like this is that these individuals are fighting the "bad guys" and therefore the end justifies the means. This is actually true in many cases, but what's really interesting though is that the persons involved in these projects tend to moral degenerates themselves and in the end you can't help but wonder if their own propaganda and covert operations contribute in keeping this worldwide circle of violence alive. It's a mistake to think people like this have built the democracy we live in today. They are actually restrained by it. Democracy has been built through a combination of scientific achievements and subsequent uprisings of people who thought they should benefit from these improvements. Over a period of time a reading and writing middle class was built. However, science and technology have reached a level now where it becomes increasingly important for the average citizen to become aware of, not what's going in the elected government, but what's going on in the halls of the permanent government.
In case of Le Cercle, many leading members still seem to have the mentality of a historical person like King Ferdinand II, the Holy Roman Emperor who ordered the Spanish Inquisition and was largely responsible for the Thirty Years' War. Ironically, this war ended with the Peace of Westphalia, responsible for the rise of the modern nation state, the end of the Holy Roman Empire and a severe decline in the influence of Otto von Habsburgs' ancestors. If individuals like this get their way with Europe, life could some day become very depressing. And if you're wondering if these people really are that dangerous, let's recap one example mentioned earlier in this article.
"The most talked-about subject in Spain last week was something that did not happen: the failure of the Cabinet to pass a bill that would at last grant a measure of religious freedom to Spain's tiny non-Catholic minority... For years, Spain's non-Catholics have almost been non-people, barred from participating in the mainstream of Spanish life. They were, in fact, not even officially recognized as having been born, married or buried... Interior Minister Camilo Alonso Vega, 77, who as Spain's top cop maintains that the Spanish are "the most unruly people in Europe", argued that religious freedom would only stir up trouble... On a more philosophical level, Public Works Minister Federico Silva Munoz, 43, contended that granting religious liberty to minority sects would shatter Spain's spiritual unity. The ministers connected with the military supported the views of Vega and Munoz..." (222)
Munoz, together with his good friend Fernandez de la Mora, was a Catholic extremists and the most die hard Francoist (fascist). At some point Munoz is invited to the Cercle. Soon thereafter his friend Fernandez de la Mora sets up the fascist propaganda rag Razon Espanola with financial support of the Bavarian, Opusian, Paneuropa clique consisting of Franz Josef Strauss, Otto von Habsburg, Count Hans Huyn (whose wife is a Habsburg descendant) and others. A few years earlier, The Times reported on Strauss' friendship with Munoz and Fernandez de la Mora, and Crozier immediately jumped in to defend his associates, claiming he had great respect for these individuals and that they were anything but fascist. Never mind that Crozier was an admirer of Franco and that a good number of his Cercle associates have worked with fascists during and after WWII, or were supporters of the Shah of Iran (including himself), Pinochet, Mobutu and the apartheid regimes in southern Africa.

So just remember, these are dangerous people and they are far too influential for us not to know about their activities.

Membership list

References

[1]1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', p.191: "The inspirer and long-serving organiser of the Pinay Cercle was Jean Violet..."
[2]1994, R.T. Naylor (Professor of Economics at McGill University), 'Hot Money and the Politics of Debt', p. 258: "Violet's political formation came in the 1930s in Le Comite Secret pour l'Action Revolutionnaire (CSAR). A far-right political cult modeled on a Freemasonic movement, complete with Masonic-style rites and rituals..., CSAR was sort of a predessor of Licio Gelli's P-2. It was intensely secretive in all but its admiration of Franco and Mussolini, and after the war some of its members were accused of being Nazi collaborators." Source cited by Naylor is 1984, Pierre Pean, 'V: Enquete sur l 'affaire des 'avions renifleurs'', p. 90. French author Philippe Bourdrel did a lot of work on CSAR.
[3]November 16, 1946, The Nation, 'The People's Front': "The French Synarchists founded several other secret organizations, of which the most important was the "Cagoule" (C. S. A. R."Comité secret d'action revolutionnaire), an extreme rightist military outfit whose members held commanding positions in the army. Pétain and his adviser, Loustaneau-Lacau, joined the C. S. A. R."
As I can't go through all the French and Spanish sources to write a separate article, I'll just dump some historical information on the political aspect of the Synarchist Movement of Empire in this endnote.
*) September 9, 2005, comment of Pierre Beaudry of Executive Intelligence Review on the first version of the article on Le Cercle: "You have not mentioned anything about the Synarchy International in connection with Jean Violet and Antoine Pinay [never heard of it at the time]... the CSAR that Jean Violet came out of was, in reality, the revolutionary arm of the Synarchy International... Also, it was the top synarchist banker, Francois Bloch-Lainé, of the Lazard Frères, of the Banque de Paris et des Pays Bas, and Banque Worms, who deployed Antoine Pinay to become Finance Minister in the government of de Gaulle, in 1958." I later ran into Hippolyte Worms (supposedly one of the original Synarchist SME members) via Cercle member Georges Albertini, an intelligence associate of Jean Violet. I also came across Jean Violet's good friend Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, whose father worked closely with Francois Bloch-Lainé. I think it's interesting that my work usually parallels that of EIR, although they usually draw conclusions I cannot support without far more evidence. EIR sees an organization like Le Cercle as the "right hand" of the Synarchy International. I'm not convinced of that, although I don't discount it either. I'm also not convinced of the fact that Synarchism is studied these days in high society, although it is certain that the Martinist and Synarchist Order still exists today in countries as Spain and France, and that they have recruited at least some important members. One of the things that struck me, as pretty much the last quick background check before ending this article, is the following text from LaRouche (2003, 'A short definition of Synarchism'): "According to another EIR article, the occult order behind Synarchism, known as Martinism, has an outer veneer of Catholicism, and a rotten core: Martinism, a mocking perversion of Catholicism..." This is one of those instances in which you don't know if EIR has based their claims on documentation, witnesses or personal opinion, but this would have been my guess after seeing the strong correlation between the Vatican (Opus Dei; SMOM) - Paneuropa network, supposedly former Synarchist members, and the fact that Synarchism existed/exists in the strongest Catholic milieu possible.
*) November 9, 1946, The Nation, 'The People's Front': "Synarchism [is] not to be confused with the organization that has spread over Mexico and found its roots in local political rivalries and clerical-agrarian reaction. Synarchism as a worldwide conspiracy is attempting to take over the functions of the fascists in those countries where the latter cannot operate openly or to ally itself with existing fascist groups. Michael Sordet, in a remarkably documented article, The Secret League of Monopoly Capitalism, published in the scholarly Swiss review, Schweiner Annalen (No. 2, 1946- 47), gives us a full description of the synarchist movement in Europe. He describes the synarchists as "the representatives of international high finance," who not only helped to bring fascism to power in Germany and to provoke the war, from which they reaped enormous profits, but who contributed to the defeat of France and the rise of Petain and his traitorous clique... Le Mouvement Synarchique d'Empire (M. S. E.) was founded in Paris in 1922... Its original promoters numbered seven, three of whom have since been identified as Baron Leo de Nervo, with connections in some fifty financial and heavy-industry enterprises... Maxime Renaudin, a financier known to represent international Catholic interests, and Jean Coutrot, a close friend of Marshal Petain. The M. S. E. is rigidly aristocratic in structure: members are recruited in powerful big-business circles and are expected to enrol new adherents from among their friends. Every precaution is taken to insure secrecy: if a person seems desirable because of his position, he is subjected without his knowledge to careful investigation that may last for several years before he is asked to join. The probe covers the most intimate details of his life-family relationships, love affairs, hobbies, opinions expressed in conversation, emotional stability, and so on. The candidate has no contact with the organization until the day he is invited to sign up; at that moment he makes the acquaintance of a single member, the person who solicits his application. Then he receives a copy of the "Pacte synarchiste revolutionnaire," a hundred-page booklet, bound with a sealed gold band which bears two identifying numbershis own and that of his sponsor. About the organizational set-up and the policy-making bodies, he is told nothing. Frenchmen in general learned of the existence of the M. S. E. in the summer of 1941 when Jean Coutrot died under mysterious circumstances which were never cIeared up. A collaborationist newspaper, l'Appel, which carded the announcement of his death, revealed at the same time that most of the ministers and generals in the Vichy entourage belonged to this secret society. Coutrot had told an intimate friend that the directing body of the M. S. E. consisted of four people, but he mentioned no names. What are the contents of the "Pacte synarchiste revolutionnaire," so vigilantly controlled? The most important section provides for the division of the world into five great federations imperiales, or societe mineures des nations. Metropolitan Britain and its colonies and dominions make up one. The federation of pan-American nations comprises the United States and the other countries of the Western continent with the exception of Canada. The pan-Eurasian federation consists of the Soviet Union, including all its Asiatic republics but excluding Finland and the Baltic states. The pan-European- African federation takes in Western Europe, including Finland, the Scandinavian and Baltic countries, and the African continent excluding the British colonies. China and Japan head the pan-Asiatic federation."
*) November 16, 1946, The Nation, 'The People's Front': "Despite the highly secret character of the M. S. E., the following men have been identified as members: Paul Baudoin [named as a major Opus Dei player], director of the Banque d'Indo-Chine and a friend of Mussolini, who with the help of the attractive Heltne de Portes became right-hand adviser to Premier Paul Reynaud in the last months before France's capitulation; Jacques Gudrard, a banker who held the post of Ambassador to Lisbon under the Vichy regime; Jacques Barnaud of the Banque Worms, a great favorite with Goring, who was responsible for handlng over to the Germans the major French chemical industries headed by the Francolor trust; Jacques Benoit- Mechin, author of a book on the Reichswehr, who was rewarded for his services to the German army by being named a director of the Banque Worms after the 1940 armistice; Pierre Pucheu, Vichy Minister of the Interior and organizer of the Franco-German steel cartel. Today the M. S. E. is attempting to restore those intimate ties between French and German industrialists which it had so painstakingly built up before the war... In his article in the Schweizer Anmalen, Sordet hints that the main base of operations of the Synarchists is shifting from Europe to the United States, and he names Admiral Leahy, Robert Murphy, and du Pont de Nemours not as members but as individuals they hope to use to make contact with influential Catholic and industrial groups here."
*) 1969, William L. Shirer, 'The Collapse of the Third Republic', p. 218-219: "Later Coutrot would be generally credited with being the man behind a technocratic movement called Synarchie, which to this day, despite many studies of it, remains - at least to this writer, who has pondered most of them - somewhat of a mystery... That some Synarchists organized as far back as 1922 a secret society with revolutionary aims has been established. It was called "Le Mouvement Synarchique d'Empire," or MSE, and its secret "Pact," containing "Thirteen Fundamental Points and 598 Propositions" for the Synarchist revolution, was discovered by the Vichy police in 1941 and published after the war... so far as one can make out from reading the lengthy document the movement would set up a sort of super monopoly capitalism, with competition abolished and endless plans drawn up for production and distribution, the whole - as well as the government - to be run by knowledgeable technocrats... That at one time the MSE was linked to the terrorist Cagoule [CSAR] also seems clear... this secret society of technocrats never got close to staging a revolution."
[4]1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come - Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei', p. 155: "Rumours of Nazi collaboration led to Violet's arrest following the war, but he was quickly released 'on orders from above'. Source cited by Naylor is 1984, Pierre Pean, 'V: Enquete sur l 'affaire des 'avions renifleurs'', p. 41.
[5]October 1989, #18, Lobster Magazine, 'Pinay 2: Jean Violet': "In 1951 he was approached by Antoine Pinay, who was a cabinet minister at that point. On behalf of some Swiss lawyer Pinay sought to clear up the matter of a Geneva-based firm that had seen its factory in Germany seized by the Nazis during the war. Violet resolved the problem and Pinay was so satisfied he recommend him to the new French intelligence organization, SDECE." The author of the article took this information from French authors Roger Faligot and Pascal Krop. Information in part confirmed by: Brian Crozier, Free Agent, p. 191-192: "The inspirer and long-serving organiser of the Pinay Cercle was Jean Violet, who for many years had been retained by the SDECE as Special Advocate... He [Violet] had developed a close friendship with Antoine Pinay, who had served as French Premier in 1951 under the unstable Fourth Republic."
[6]1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come', p. 155: "He joined Antoine Pinay's entourage in 1955. By this time Violet had become close to several Opusian personalities, among them Alfredo Sanchez Bella and Otto von Habsburg." Corroborating information: December 2001, Skepsis.nl, Sniffer Planes - Grandiose Pseudo-Scientific Swindle (translation from Dutch to English): "The Count [de Villegas] was a member of the Brussels-based Académie Européenne de Sciences Politiques, a kind of branch of the ultraconservative Paneuropa Union established by Otto von Habsburg, but of which Violet was the driving force, and where you could find Father Dubois and Bernard Marcken." Brian Crozier confirms Violet's role in Académie Européenne de Sciences Politiques, but never mentioned it was part of the Paneuropa network. Both authors seem to have taken this information from Pierre Pean, 'V: Enquete sur l 'affaire des 'avions renifleurs'' (1984). Furthermore, in his biography David Rockefeller presents Otto von Habsburg, Jean Violet, and Monsignor Alberto Giovanetti of Opus Dei as the reactionary triumvirate within Le Cercle in the late 1960s. Therefore claims that Violet joined Opus Dei, met up with Otto von Habsburg and Sanchez Bella, and acted as one of their agents in organizations like Le Cercle, Académie Européenne, and Cercle des Nations is more than likely.
[7]1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come', p. 153: "In 1949, the year after the Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia, he [Alfredo Sanchez Bella] co-founded with Archduke Otto von Habsburg the European Centre of Documentation and Information (CEDI), whose objective was to construct around the Spanish Borbóns a federation of European states united in Christianity and anti-Communism. This sounded very much like a modern resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire over which Charles V had reigned."
Also: 1990, Hugo Gijssels, 'De Bende & Co.', p. 174 (translated from Dutch to English): "CEDI was established in 1949 and is headed by Otto von Habsburg, who is chairman for life."
[8]November 4, 1969, Greeley Daily Tribune, 'Economic, Social Advancement Aims of New Franco Cabinet': "[Alfredo] Sanchez Bella, aside from his own talents as a diplomat, is the brother of Florencio Sanchez Bella, leader of the Opus Dei in Spain."
[9]1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come', p. 155: "In his journeys, Violet came to know Father Yves-Marc Dubois, a French Dominican who was in charge of international relations for his Order. But Dubois represented more than the foreign policy interests of the black friars of Faubourg Saint Honoré. He was described as a 'member of the Vatican's intelligence network, if not its head'... When in Paris, he [Dubois] stayed in the Dominican chapter house at 222 rue Faubourg Saint Honoré, in the Eighth Arrondissement, within walking distance of Jean Violet's apartment at 46 rue de Provence, in the Ninth Arrondissement." Original source: 1984, Pierre Pean, 'V: Enquete sur l 'affaire des 'avions renifleurs'', p. 49
[10]* June 29, 1997, The Independent, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club': "Formed in the Fifties, Cercle was intended to cement Franco-German relations, as a buffer to Soviet aggression during the Cold War."
* Sunday Observer on April 6, 2003: "Founded in the 1950s by France's Antoine Pinay and German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer Le Cercle..."
* June 18, 2004, Chancellery of HRH Crown Prince Alexander II of Yugoslavia, Reception in honor of the "Le Cercle" conference: "Le Cercle was founded in the 1950's by the former French Prime Minister Antoine Pinay, and Konrad Adenauer..."
* September 5, 2004, Sunday Times, 'Le Cercle of the elite': "The club, which has close links to the intelligence services, was founded in the 1950s by former French prime minister Antoine Pinay and former German chancellor Konrad Adenauer."
* Also, David Rockefeller in his memoirs claimed he was recruited in 1967 and that Kissinger had been attending earlier meetings of the Cercle. Therefore the Pinay Circle could not have been organized in 1969.
[11]April 1986, Issue 11, 'Appendix 2: the Pinay Circle': "The Pinay Circle was set up in 1969 around the former Prime Minister of France, Antoine Pinay. Pinay was very old and seems to have been little more than a figurehead. Its chief fundraiser and leading light is the former lawyer, Jean Violet."
[12]1990, Hugo Gijssels, 'De Bende & Co.', p. 174 (translated from Dutch to English): "Paul Vankerkhoven, renowned member of the Ordre du Rouvre, establishes in 1969 the 'Ligue Internationale de la Liberté (LIL), the Belgian branch of the 'World Anti-Communist League' (WACL). That same year he establishes in Brussels the select but controversial Cercle des Nations... possibly more important is his membership of the notorious extreme-right 'Centre Européen de Documentation et Information' (CEDI) of which Vankerkhoven is secretary-general."
(13] 1990, Hugo Gijssels, 'De Bende & Co.', p. 177
[14]The (2nd) Baron Kindersley appears on a January 1973 officers list of The Pilgrims of Great Britain. His name disappeared in 1976, the year that he died. Appointment to the Pilgrims board usually is for life.
[15]2003, Christopher Booker & Richard North, 'The Great Deception, The secret history of the European Union', p. 43: "... Monnet met up again with Arthur Salter. Their first encounter had been in London in 1914..." Christopher Booker, an author of several books, has written for the Sunday Telegraph since 1990 and was a founding director of Private Eye. Dr. Richard North has been a research director for the (eurosceptic) Europe of Democracies and Diversities group in the European Parliament. This book contains quite a bit of information on the life of Monnet.
[16]1981, Carroll Quigley, 'The Anglo-American Establishment' (digital version, which is not complete): "In 1936, at least eleven out of twenty-six members of the council were of the Milner Group. These included Lord Astor (chairman), L. Curtis, G.M. Gathorne-Hardy, Lord Hailey, H.D. Henderson, Stephen King-Hall, Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton, Sir Neill Malcolm, Lord Meston, Sir Arthur Salter, J.W. Wheeler-Bennett, E.L. Woodward, and Sir Alfred Zimmern." A reasonably detailed history on Arthur Salter has been compiled in Monnet's Cercle biography.
[17]January 21, 1930, New York Times, 'E. Walker as head of Transamerica': "Mr. Giannini will resign his present office and become chairman of the advisory committee of the corporation at the annual meeting of Feb. 8. Mr. Walker, after becoming chairman of the board, will remain chairman of the executive committee. He will resign the presidency of the Bancamerica-Blair Corporation. Jean Monnet of Bancamerica-Blair, will become vice-chairman of the Transamerica board."
December 10, 1931, New York Times, : "A. P. Glannini announced tonight that he personally would head a "fight to the finish" to oust Elisha Walker, chairman of the Transamerica Corporation, and "Wall Street domination" from the corporation which he founded. He made the statement after he had read a letter from Mr. Walker and James A. Bacigalupi to Transamerica's stockholders. He called the letter "an attack on my personal honesty and integrity"... He said the letter had been timed "to catch me unaware" as it was not released for publication until after he had left San Francisco tonight for Ventura and Santa Barbara, where he planned to carry on the battle for proxies on behalf of Associated Stockholders."
Giannini won his Transamerica fight in February 1932, which is when Walker had to resign as chairman. Monnet seems to have been fired at the same time. Monnet was also fired as a director of the Transamerica-controlled Bancamerica-Blair Corporation in March 1932.
[18]2003, Charles D. Ellis, James R. Vertin, 'Wall Street People: True Stories of the Great Barons of Finance', Volume 2, p. 28-30 (biography of Andre Meyer): "He brought with him, as Meyer knew he would, a network of contacts that was the envy of almost every investment banker in America. He was a director of Allied Chemical & Dye and American Steel Foundries, and was the main American adviser for Belgium’s great industrial dynasties, the Solvays and the Boëls. What’s more, he was the key investment banker for many of America’s leading glass companies. His prestige was such that wherever he went, this business followed... Murnane, in fact, was the only other individual at Lazard, other than Pierre David-Weill, whom Meyer could or would accept as a peer. He needed George Murnane, a lot more than Murnane needed him."
Additional information in Monnet's Cercle biography.
[19]2003, Christopher Booker & Richard North, 'The Great Deception, The secret history of the European Union', p. 21: "Following his lucrative spell in China, Monnet's career as a merchant banker had continued to be murky. On his return to America he had been investigated for tax evasion. In 1938 his company company had even come under suspicion by the FBI for having laundered Nazi money, although this inquiry was called off without any charges being laid."
[20]1976, Antony C. Sutton, 'Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler'
[21]2005, Pierre Beaudry of Executive Intelligence Review, Synarchy Movement of Empire (Draft), The Mennevee documents on the Synarchy, Book IV: "Joseph H. Retinger was born in Krakow in 1888 into a Polish family of Austrian descent. His family included no less than 9 University Professors and a Nobel Prize winner. Educated in a very strict Catholic observance, Retinger wanted to become a priest at the age of 17, but instead, he decided to become a Polish Secret Agent working for a so-called "Polish Independence."... At the age of four, Joseph's father died and a friend of the family, Count Andrei Zamoyski, a very high level Polish aristocrat, took the child under his tutelage, and brought him to Paris where he lived as a French citizen. Count Zamoyski had married Caroline de Bourbon, princess of the Two Sicilies, whose Spanish ascendancy is also related to the French Bourbon family... ." Most of his contacts in Paris, London, and Munich, during the 1909-1911 period, were aristocrats and oligarchs: the Marquis Boni de Castellane, Lord Charles Beresford, the Count de Castries (of Dien Bien Phu fame), Marshal Lyautey (famous for his Action Francaise failed coup of 1934), the Duchess of Ruthland, etc. were the people he worked for. In 1911, he was brought to London to study at the London School of Economics, where he was recruited as a British intelligence agent..." Retinger's work has mainly been in line with the Anglo-American interests, but at one point he did propose a plan to merge Austria, Hungary (like the old Austro-Hungarian empire) and Poland as a tripartite monarchy under the guidance of the Jesuit Order. He also was a Roman Catholic with good connections to the Jesuit Order. Just an all round strange guy.
[22]2003, Christopher Booker & Richard North, 'The Great Deception, The secret history of the European Union', p. 43: "Shortly after The Hague Congress, two of the most active campaigners for integration, Josef Retinger and Churchill's son-in-law Duncan Sandys, went to America to lobby for support for their campaign for European unity. Here they met two key figures, William J. 'Wild Bill' Donovan, founder in 1947 of the CIA [head OSS, SMOM], and his colleague Allen Dulles, later to become head of the CIA under President Eisenhower [OSS chief, SMOM]...A new organization was set up, the American Committee on United Europe (ACUE). From this time on, as academic research has established, the ACUE was used as a conduit to provide covert CIA funds, augmented by contributions from private foundations such as the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Institute, to promote the State Department’s obsession with a united Europe, in what one historian has called a’liberal conspiracy’. Over the next few years, ACUE funding was secretly channelled to a range of individuals and organisations working for European integration, from politicians such as Paul-Henri Spaak and trade unions to such influential British magazines as Lord Layton’s The Economist and the intellectual monthly Encounter. However, the major beneficiary of ACUE funding was the European Movement. Between 1949 and 1960, it was kept afloat almost entirely on $4 million of CIA money, these contributions amounting to between half and two-thirds of the Movement’s income. ACUE funds were also used for a range of other purposes in Europe, including the financing of anti-Communist parties. In 1948, for instance, the CIA paid $10 million to support the Italian electoral campaign of Alcide de Gasperi a staunch supporter of European integration. This substantial contribution was intended to help avert an Italian civil war in which the Communists might prevail." Information on the American Committee on United Europe (ACUE) was taken from the 2001 book 'The Hidden Hand' from Richard J Aldrich, a professor of politics at Nottingham University who had acquired a load of newly declassified files. June 24, 2001, The Mail on Sunday, 'CIA supported pro-Euro group': "AMERICA'S Central Intelligence Agency secretly funded the European integration movement and undermined British opposition, it can be revealed. Newly declassified files show the American secret service put at least $4 million - the equivalent of $28 million today - into the movement in the post-war period when it was on the verge of collapse. At the same time, it also provided secret backing for a programme to undermine staunch resistance to the plan in Britain from Labour and Conservative Governments. With the Anglo-American 'special relationship', the United States has often been seen as the antidote to European federalism. But it had a different agenda during the Cold War, when the CIA wanted a rapid approach to Western European integration as part of a strategy to combat the threat of Soviet expansion. By 1953, a top secret CIA report judged the acceleration of European unity to be one of its most successful covert operations. Details of the massive American interference in the creation of modern Europe are revealed in a new book, The Hidden Hand: Britain, America And Cold War Secret Intelligence, written by Richard J Aldrich, professor of politics at Nottingham University, and published by John Murray. In Washington, the European Movement was seen as the brainchild of Winston Churchill, who in 1943 offered his vision of a United Europe. But by 1950 Churchill and his son-in-law, Cabinet Minister Duncan Sandys, were believed to be 'dragging their feet'. When Sandys tried to disband the European Movement, the American Committee on United Europe (ACUE), led by Allen Dulles, later head of the CIA, forced him to stand down as its president. French politicians took over the lead role and, with ACUE help, set up a secretariat in Brussels with the goals of a free trade area using a single currency. The ACUE believed that: 'Britain will be forced sooner or later, and in a greater or lesser degree, to come along.'"
[23]2003, Christopher Booker & Richard North, 'The Great Deception, The secret history of the European Union', p. 58.
[24]July 25, 1969, Time Magazine, 'Seeking Unity--Slowly': "They were all there, those aging statesmen who years ago committed their dreams to the ideal of European unity. Jean Monnet, 80, "the father of the Common Market," last week convened a session of his nonofficial Action Committee for a United States of Europe in Brussels. Former Common Market President Walter Hallstein was there, along with veteran French Politicians Antoine Pinay and Maurice Faure and dozens of other ranking European statesmen. Together, they constitute a sort of European shadow government. They had come to Brussels in an attempt to spur Common Market bureaucrats and the respective ministers of the Six (Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands and West Germany) to start immediate negotiations to admit Britain to the economic community."
[25]2003, Christopher Booker & Richard North, 'The Great Deception, The secret history of the European Union', p. 89-91.
[26]November 29, 2002, the Telegraph, 'The Earl of Perth' (obituary): "John David Drummond was born on May 13 1907 into a family of Hungarian origin which, according to tradition, is descended from a Drummond who arrived in Scotland from Hungary during the 11th century... [his father] served as private secretary to the Prime Minister Herbert Asquith and attended the Paris peace conference in 1919, before heading the League of Nations until 1933 [with Monnet under him]; his final post was as Ambassador in Rome... [David] went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, before joining J Henry Schroder, the merchant bank. For a time he worked with Monnet, then a financial adviser to the Chinese government... Perth was a keen Europhile. Deeply conscious of his father's role on the international stage as the first secretary-general of the League of Nations, he arranged a meeting in his flat during the early 1960s between Edward Heath, the minister responsible for the EEC negotiations, and Jean Monnet, the "father" of European union... He was a keen promoter of Anglo-American relations, taking holidays in Florida and for three years chairing the Ditchley Foundation... director of the Royal Bank of Scotland... sworn of the Privy Council in 1957. As a prominent Roman Catholic, he represented Britain at the last and most solemn of nine Requiem Masses for Pope Pius XII in Rome in 1958. He went again in 1963 to represent the Queen at the Requiem for Pope John XXIII. He was for some years the Catholic vice-president of the Council of Christians and Jews."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/11/29/db2901.xml
[27]Known through his membership in the Roxburghe Club, ironically a book club. Membership list taken from: 1999, Donald Young and Quentin Keynes, 'The search for the source of the Nile - Correspondence between captain Richard Burton, Captain John Speke and others, from Burton's unpublished East African Letter Book' ("Dedicated and presented to the president and members of the Roxburghe Club"). Can be found at http://www.cypherpress.com/books/burton/burton.pdf. Membership has been quite secretive and very few references to the important members have existed, until this booklet was uploaded that is. The important families tend to be in the club for generation after generation. Some of these families also meet each other at the Other Club (July 29, 1997, The Times, Secret members of the Other Club).
* As for Paul Mellon, the late Pilgrims Society member: February 3, 1999, The Times, Paul Mellon obituary: "Mellon was widely honoured by academic and sporting institutions, including Oxford, Cambridge, the Jockey Club and the Royal Veterinary College. As one of the great book collectors of the world, he was a member of both the Grolier Society and the Roxburghe Club."
[28]1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', p.192
[29]The Bruges Group, 'Franco-German Friendship and the Destination of Federalism'. In this lengthy article, largely about de Gaulle's policies towards Britain, de Gaulle is quoted as having said: "England is, in fact, insular. She is maritime, she is linked to her exchanges, her markets, her supply lines to the most distant countries. She pursues essentially industrial and commercial activities and only slightly agricultural ones. She has, in all her doings, very marked, very original habits and traditions. In short, England's nature, England's structure, England's very situation differs profoundly from those of the continentals."
http://www.brugesgroup.com/mediacentre/index.live?article=110
[30]1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 29-33. The full name of "Le Centre" initially was Centre d'Observation du Mouvement des Idées. It brought together members of German, Dutch and French intelligence, together with a select number (30-40) of anti-communist scholars, businessmen and-or journalists. The Dutch intelligence officers were founders and leading officers in the Dutch Stay Behind network (Gladio) and the most important German General attending the "colloques" answered directly to General Reinhard Gehlen, the former Nazi spy master. SDECE agent Antoine Bonnemaison, founder of "Le Centre", met Brian Crozier on a plane in 1958. Crozier noticed that Bonnemaison was reading an "unusually warm" thank you letter from General Raoul Salan for his talks about psychological warfare to French troops in Algeria. A few years later Salan would be one the primary founders of the terrorist organization OAS that tried to assassinate de Gaulle and destabilize the cease fire in Algeria. Le Centre was founded in 1955 and ran until 1963, after which it was killed by de Gaulle. Bonnemaison then revived the group as Centre d'Observation du Mouvement des Idées. Funds now came from private French industrial enterprises as Péchiney and Air Liquide. After this privatization the membership became almost exclusively French, with Crozier usually as the only foreign participant.
[31]Ibid., p. 77
[32]Ibid., p. 191-192
[33]Ibid., p. 193
[34]Ibid., p. 97
[35]July 22, 2005, The Guardian, François Duchêne obituary
http://www.guardian.co.uk/eu/story/0,7369,1533935,00.html
The information about the Trilateral Commission came from the membership lists.
[36]1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 191: "In fact, neither Marenches nor Dickie Franks ever attended a Pinay Cercle meeting during the years I was involved with it: between 1971 and 1985."
[37]Ibid., p. 97
[38]November 1988, Issue 17, David Teacher for Lobster Magazine, 'The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe' (quoting from the 1980 Hans Langemann papers): "Gehlen, who was always interested in the undertaking [of the Pinay Circle], its figures, its personalities and its results, succeeded in recruiting Violet as a special agent and granted him 6000 DM a month for many years. He also claimed that this sum had been agreed with the former head of the SDECE, General Jacquier because Violet is also receiving the same sum from the SDECE." Teacher translated this from publications in Der Spiegel, No. 37, 1982, 'Victory for Strauss'.
[39]1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 62: "... in the late 1950s during my Economist years, ... I had been among the priviliged few journalists invited to his [Jock Whitney's] small lunches at the Connaught Hotel, and the more formal receptions at his residence in Regent's Park."
[40]John Hay Whitney's name appears as a vice president on the officers list of The Pilgrims of the United States until January 1982. He would die a few months later.
[41]This whole bio is described in Crozier's book Free Agent, including his involvement with Richard Mellon Scaife. Only the Foreign Affairs Research Institute (FARI) isn't mentioned.
[42]Ibid., p. 96
[43]1986, Antony Sutton, 'The Best Enemy Money Can Buy'. For examples and a partial timeline click here.
[44]1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 182: "[Reagan] also got to know Nelson Rockefeller when the latter was Governor of New York State, and shared my view that Nelson was more intelligent than his banker brother, David. He was critical of the role of David Rockefeller's Chase Manhattan Bank in easing technology transfers to the Soviet Union. Reagan also mentioned , with mild distaste, the role of the Trilateral Commission (in which David Rockefeller, Brzezinski and, incidentally, Edward Heath and Willy Brandt were involved) in sponsoring Jimmy Carter as a potential presidential candidate."
* The following report was written by computer expert Dominic Paul Baron, and was prepared for the London-based Foreign Affairs Research Institute of Crozier, Amery, and other Cercle members. August 15, 1978, Chronicle Telegram, 'U.S. vulnerable in computer war': "The United States, moreover, has been far too eager to supply the Soviet Union with sophisticated computer technology and training, Baron believes. "Computer companies in the West fall over each other in their enthusiasm to compete for the favors of the Soviet buying agencies,", writes Baron. "The western businessman's sheer naivete in dealing with the astute Soviet negotiators is quite depressing.""
[45]1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 134: February 5, 1978, Time: "A Soviet KGB agent told a Time correspondent in Cairo last week: 'Of all the operations that the Soviet Union and the US have conducted against each other, none have benefitted the KGB as much as the campaign to discredit the CIA. In our wildest scenarios, we could never have anticipated such a plus for our side. It's the kind of gift all espionage men dream about. Today our boys have it a lot easier, and we didn't have to lift a finger. You did all our work for us.'" A quote that couldn't have come at a more convenient time for the CIA as opinion of the CIA was at an all time low at this point.
[46]October 10, 1996, The Daily Mail, 'MoD 'scapegoat' is cleared of karate killing': "The manslaughter conviction of a SAS-trained former Army information officer who claims he was the victim of a dirty tricks campaign by the security services was quashed by the Court of Appeal yesterday. In a damning judgment, the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Bingham [Pilgrims Society], cleared 53-year-old Colin Wallace of the killing of antiques dealer Jonathan Lewis, who was found drowned in a river near his home in Arundel, West Sussex, in 1980... Outside court yesterday, Mr Wallace claimed the prosecution had been `disgraceful and totally dishonest' and that the police had suppressed evidence showing that Mr Lewis was killed by criminal members of the antiques trade in Brighton... The decision was the latest victory for the former Ministry of Defence official who claims that he may have been framed for the manslaughter, that he was thrown out of the Army for refusing to join an MI5 plot to topple Harold Wilson's government and whose warnings about child abuse at the infamous Kincora home in Belfast were ignored to protect an intelligence mole. Despite years of cover-up and government stonewalling, his allegations have one by one been vindicated... He also claimed to have worked in Northern Ireland on what he termed a 'psychological operation', which effectively involved inventing stories and planting them with journalists."
[47]March 6, 2003, De Standaard (prominent Belgian newspaper), 'Baron de Bonvoisin again to court': "Yesterday, the Black Baron Benoit de Bonvoisin, with three of his compagnions, has been referred to the Brussels penal judge in the affair of forged KGB documents. Together with de Bonvoisin, his brother Pierre, Eric Van de Weghe and Christian Amory have to stand trial."
http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelid=dst06032003_035. Turns out I can't access the full article anymore now that I wanted to translate it. Can't buy it either from the Netherlands without taking a full subscription. Amory, like Baron de Bonvoisin, featured prominently in the Gang of Nijvel affair, a program to destabilize the Belgium state.
[48]1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 243: "... the 'Coalition of Peace to Strength'. Among them were personal friends of mine, including the late General Richard Stilwell and Richard Perle..."
[49]Ibid., p. 193: "In Pinay's day, the old man himself presided over the meetings, but the chairmanship of each session was shared out among others, including Pesenti, Sir Peter Tennant, and myself."
[50]Franz-Josef Bach's leading role in the Cercle from at least 1980 to 1991 can be concluded from the following two sources:
1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 193: "In 1980, Violet, who had serious health problems, asked me to take over the Pinay Cercle. In practice, I mostly shared the burden with a leading German member of the Cercle, Franz-Josef Bach..."
1993, Alan Clark, 'Diaries', p. 369 (About Clark's 1991 experience with the Cercle): "The Cercle, an Atlanticist Society of right-wing dignitaries, largely compered by Julian Amery and Herr Franz-joseph Bach..."
[51]June 10, 1975, New York Times, 'Northrop Apologizes on Saudi Bribes; Senator Church Urges Sales Reforms'
[52]Ibid.
[53]1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 193: "In 1980, Violet, who had serious health problems, asked me to take over the Pinay Cercle."
[54]June 29, 1997, the Independent, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club': "For the past few years Mr Aitken has been chairman of Le Cercle..." Alan Clark's 1991 description of Aitken seems to indicate Aitken was being groomed to take over the Cercle.
[55]Lamont's biography at Benador Associates, for example: "Among his numerous international activities, he has since 1996 been Chairman of Le Cercle..." The info on Le Cercle in his biography on this site seems to have expanded since the last time I checked it. Maybe the webmaster updated it after I mailed him, asking if he had more info. No response, as usual with Le Cercle.
[56]Louis de Rothschild and Max Warburg sponsored Coudenhove's initial Paneuropa idea. 1984, prof. Kees van der Pijl, 'The Making of an Atlantic Ruling Class'. His original sources:
A) 1925, Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, 'Praktischer Idealismus'
B) 1958, Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, 'Eine Idee erobert Europa. Meine Lebenserinnerungen'
[57]March 1986, EIR, Special Report, 'Moscow's Secret Weapon: Ariel Sharon and the Israeli Mafia': "A third meeting scheduled for Nov.15, 1982 was to include Sharon, Kissinger, Lord Harlech (David Ormsby-Gore), Prince Johannes von Thurn und Taxis, former Secretary of State Alexander Haig, Lord Carrington, British Member of Parliament Julian Amery, Ernst Kux of Neue Zeurcher Zeitung, Robert Moss, Sir Edmund Peck, Armin Gutowski of the Hamburg West Germany World Economic Archives, and former British intelligence Mideast station chief Nicholas Elliot, then a senior MI-6 official. The Nov.15 meeting discussed the implementation of the New Venice project, through specific investments to be made in Israel, which was to significantly include massive investments in the West Bank. An EIR exposé of the meetings in early 1983, and opposition to the Begin government's West Bank and related policies by President Reagan, forced a delay in implementation of the policies. " Have no idea what the original source is.
[58]1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 193: "Within the wider Cercle, a smaller gathering called the Pinay Group met on occasion to discuss possible action."
[59]November 1988, Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting and translating from the Langemann papers): "One recent development is the establishment within the Circle of a command staff or of an inner circle which then works out particularly suitable means for action on current political questions."
[60]2002, David Rockefeller, 'Memoirs', p. 412-413: "Bilderberg overlapped for a time with my membership in a relatively obscure but potentially even more controversial body known as the Pesenti Group. I had first learned about it in October 1967 when Carlo Pesenti... took me aside..."
[61]November 1988, Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quote is from a 1972 ISC report): "Mr Crozier said that M. Violet, who had commissioned the report on behalf of the Pinay Committee, had come to London with M. Pinay during that week... Pinay had given Mr Crozier documents relating to their next project. M. Pinay had presented a copy of European Security and the Soviet Problem to President Nixon and Dr Kissinger in America. Earlier that week he had had a three hour session with President Pompidou, during which time he had presented him with a copy of the publication in French. Maitre Violet had also presented copies to a number of German politicians, mainly Christian Democrats, who are having the report translated into German. And he had shown a copy to the Spanish Minister and to the Pope. NSIC in New York had bought 500 of the ISC's initial print order, and another 500 had been bought by the American Bar Association. " Lobster tracked down some of the leaked documents of the Institute for the Study of Conflict, reported on earlier by Time Out. In the same article Lobster acknowledges that most of the documents were gone by the time they got to them.
[62]Ibid.
[63]Ibid.
[64]Crozier details the whole story in his book 'Free Agent'
[65]January 11, 2005, Daily Telegraph, Stephen Hastings' obituary: "Hastings's background in MI6 gave him a certain mystique, and he was often embroiled in controversy concerning Communist infiltration. In 1977 he raised a storm of protest by alleging that five prominent trades union officials were agents for Communist countries. This information was culled from tape recordings made by the Czech former spy and defector Joseph Frolik. The following year, before Mrs Thatcher came into office, Hastings and Brian Crozier wrote her a paper setting out "the diabolical nature of the Communist conspiracy" against Britain. Mrs Thatcher was appalled: "Stephen," she said, "I've read every word and I'm shattered. What should we do?...""
[66]2005, BBC, 'The plot against Harold Wilson' (documentary)
[67]Ibid.
[68]Names given of those preparing or promoting a coup on Harold Wilson.
*) February 22, 2002, The Independent, 'The Airey Neave File' (often taking names from old Searchlight Magazine material from earlier times): Airey Neave; George Kennedy Young; Chapman Pincher; General Sir Anthony Farrar-Hockley, General Sir Walter Walker; David Stirling.
*) January 9, 2005, The Observer, 'Desperate Lucan dreamt of fascist coup': 7th Earl of Lucan; Sir James Goldsmith.
*) 2005, BBC, 'The plot against Harold Wilson' (documentary): Lord Mountbatten of Burma; Earl of Cromartie; Cecil Harmsworth King; Queen Mother; General Sir Walter Walker; Edward Heath; Brian Crozier; Major Alexander Greenwood; Chapman Pincher; Lord Alun Chalfont; James Jesus Angleton.
*) March 13, 2006, The Daily Mail, 'A very British coup': Sir Val Duncan; Brian Crozier; General Sir Walter Walker; Colonel David Stirling; Lord Mountbatten of Burma; Queen Mother; Earl of Cromartie; Major Alexander Greenwood; Chapman Pincher; Cecil Harmsworth King.
[69]March 13, 2006, The Daily Mail, 'A very British coup': "Brian Crozier, the security expert who had made a study of communist insurgency in Britain and would later advise Margaret Thatcher, was twice invited to address officers at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. 'I took it upon myself to make them understand the problems of communism and that they might, at some time, have to intervene to destroy this danger,' he says. 'There was absolute silence as I explained how the trades unions were very heavily penetrated by communists and their sympathisers and were exerting a dangerous influence on the Labour Party, which largely depended on them. They wanted to hear every word I said.' After his speech, he received a number of private phone calls from very senior serving officers. 'I have never named them and I never will,' declares Crozier. 'They were standing ready to act if necessary. There were no "buts" about it. If things had gone on as they were, they would have moved.'"
[70]Winter 1998, Issue 34, Lobster Magazine, 'Back to the future: the 1970s reconsidered'
[71]1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 118: "I was one of the founder members [of the National Association for Freedom], with Lord De L'Isle as President, Michael Ivans of Aims of Industry, and Robert Moss, who became the first editor of the Association's journal, the Free Nation (later renamed to Freedom Today)." Crozier also mention the involvement of Winston Churchill, son of the famous prime minister. April 1986, Issue 11, Lobster Magazine, 'The National Association for Freedom': "Nugent's analysis fails most seriously in completely ignoring the military/intelligence input into NAFF. At various times NAFF attracted to its Council Robert Moss and Brian Crozier with links to CIA and MI6 via Forum World Features and ISC; Stephen Hastings MP (B), ex-MI6; Sir Gerald Templer (who was NAFF chair at one time and, as we showed above, played a role in the formation of Civil Assistance) (74); Sir Robert Thompson (B) who worked with Templer during the Malayan insurgency and who might claim to be Britain's leading counter-insurgency expert; Joseph Josten, Director of the Free Czech Intelligence News Agency (presumably funded by MI6) which played a role in the anti-Labour Party operations (see below); and W. E. Luke (B) and Hugh Astor (B) both with war-time experience in MI5."
[72]November 1988, Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith'. In his book 'Free Agent' Crozier gives his version of the affair.
[73]Have a list of Bohemian Grove Lakeside talks from the 1940s to the 1970s. Forgot the source.
[74]July 2005, The Trumphet, 'From the Editor: German Election Crisis—and a New Charlemagne' (quotes from other articles)
[75]Website of the Coudenhove-Kalergi-Stiftung
http://www.coudenhove-kalergi-stiftung.org/stiftung_stiftungsratsmitglieder1.asp
[76]*) September 5, 1996, The Independent, Amery's obituary: "He threw himself with zest into the role of a backbencher, intervening, in that great, rumbling voice of his, on a wide variety of subjects but, increasingly, in support of the rebel Rhodesian government headed by Ian Smith, thus showing he was his Imperialist father's son to the core... When Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister in 1979 his first major foreign challenge was the conference of Commonwealth Prime Ministers in Lusaka in the autumn, where the main topic was to be Rhodesia (the government of which was now headed by Bishop Abel Muzorewa, with Smith in close attendance). Rhodesia was the main subject in the adjournment debate of 25 July, the last occasion for discussion of the matter before the summer recess. The Prime Minister took great care over her speech, seeking to placate both those who wanted to bring Muzorewa and Smith down, and the many on the Conservative back benches who sympathised with them. She succeeded, with one exception. Amery alone in the debate divined instantly that she had decided to abandon the Muzorewa-Smith government and, in a bitter and powerful speech, he castigated her for so doing. It was to no avail."
*) March 30, 1997, The Independent, 'Courtiers down the centuries; Profile Robert Cranborne': "In 1978 domestic calm was shattered when Lord Cranborne's brother Richard was killed by guerrillas while filming in Rhodesia. The family were strong supporters of the white settlers - the name of the country's capital, Salisbury (after the 3rd Marquess), giving away the connection. Robert went to Africa to try to find out how his brother died. His brother's death seems only to have reinforced his public support for the whites. During the 1980s he helped organise a secret meeting between Ian Smith and Tory MPs, and backed sporting links with apartheid South Africa."
[77]Simon Regan, 'Who Killed Diana?': "Ironically, Sir James Goldsmith, was also an associate member of "Le Cercle" Goldsmith had been very much involved with Circle activities in Africa, and so had Tiny Rowland. It was very much in Rowland’s interests to keep left-wing governments out of Africa where the base of his fortune was made. Mainly in diamond mines which used, almost exclusively, slave labour." This undoubtedly means there's no evidence of Rowland's Cercle membership. It appears, by the way, that Nicholas Elliott wasn't really in the same camp as Rowland and Edward Du Cann. Elliott was among the Lonrho directors that wanted to get rid of Rowland in 1973. Also, Du Cann severely criticises Elliott in his biography.
[78]May 27, 1993, The Times, 'Talking of Tiny; Television': "Rowland emigrated to Rhodesia and went into mining with the help of his MP, one Ian Smith (the very same). Before you could say fool's gold Rowland had formed the London and Rhodesia Mining Company (Lonrho)."
[79]August 1984, Issue 5, Lobster Magazine, 'The Angolan hostages episode, and more': "It is said that Dr. Savimbi [founder and leader of UNITA] was recruited by British intelligence 1964-66.(Covert Action No 4 April/May 1979). Even stronger are his links to Lonrho. Its boss, 'Tiny' Rowland, has visited Savimbi at the residence in Rabat, lent by the King of Morocco to Unita's President; and Lonrho executives have visited Unita's headquarters at Jamba. As long ago as 1974 Rowland provided Savimbi with a Hawker Siddley 125 and two pilots. He also set up a small company, Armitage Industrial Holdings, from the Slater/Walker group, to transport arms and supplies to Unita. (British Intelligence and Covert Action p193). When Savimbi visited Britain in 1980, Lonrho paid for expensive receptions hosted by Tory MP Edward Du Cann, a Lonrho director, at which Savimbi met Tory MPs."
[80]August 16, 1992, Sunday Times, 'Gadaffi to buy 'SAS package' from Khashoggi': "Colonel Gadaffi, the Libyan leader, is recruiting disaffected former members of South Africa's special forces to train his commandos... Gadaffi is also seeking to buy large amounts of top-quality military equipment, including a sophisticated radar air defence system, American M-40 anti-tank weapons, and NBC combat suits designed to protect troops against the effects of nuclear, biological or chemical attack. According to documents obtained by The Sunday Times, the secret deal of special forces training and equipment for Libya has been negotiated by Adnan Khashoggi, the Saudi arms dealer recently involved in a controversial partnership between Gadaffi and Tiny Rowland... the relationship has blossomed, with both Khashoggi and Rowland promising Libya political influence in the West..."
[81]1999, Adam Curtis, 'The Mayfair Set' (broadcasted by BBC2). Documentary mentioned that David Stirling, Jim Slater, James Goldsmith, Tiny Rowland, and Lord Lucan were all members of the John Aspinall's Clairmont gambling club. The documentary received the BAFTA Award for Best Factual Series or Strand in 2000.
[82]*) January 9, 2005, The Observer, 'Desperate Lucan dreamt of fascist coup': "when he [Lucan] left Hatchards, the book under his arm was a Thirties translation of Hitler's political testament, Mein Kampf ... The Countess of Lucan confirmed this weekend that Lucan was an extremist in his politics: 'He did have very right-wing views, some might describe them as fascist. I didn't know he was indulging in extremist reading matter in 1972, although I knew he listened to recordings of Hitler's speeches at Nuremburg Rallies... he [Lucan] and his associates, who included casino owner and party host John Aspinall, and the tycoon Sir James Goldsmith, were increasingly convinced Britain had fallen victim to a socialist conspiracy. Daily Express journalist Charles Benson, one of Lucan's friends, said: 'He was very right wing and never watered it down in front of liberals. He would talk about hanging and flogging and niggers to get a reaction.' One biographer, Patrick Marnham, said: 'Seen from the Clermont Club [Lucan's favourite gambling haunt], the country was starting to resemble the less stable years of the Weimar Republic. Sir James Goldsmith began to develop his theory of "the Communist infiltration of the Western media". Over the smoked salmon and lamb cutlets, the talk turned to the pros and cons of a British military coup.'"
*) July 27, 1998, The Financial Times, 'The talented but ultimately unacceptable face of capitalism': "Mr Rowland, born Roland Walter Fuhrhop, of a German father and Anglo-Dutch mother in India in 1917, was a natural outsider and maverick. Educated first in Germany, then briefly in England, he was detained on the Isle of Man during the war, where he was suspected of Nazi sympathies."
*) According to Wikipedia, John Aspinall once claimed that Britain was in need of "a Franco-ite counter-revolution".
*) Also: March 13, 2006, Daily Mail, 'A very British Coup': "As for Colonel David Stirling,... he too believed the situation in Britain had become so serious that a military coup had to be an option. According to his friend, Major Alexander Greenwood, Stirling also offered a more informal way of handling the trades union agitators - provoking them into a confrontation. 'He thought: "Let's attack the leaders, let's get them run over by a bus - then they'll start thinking," ' says Major Greenwood, who had become a stockbroker after his Army career."
[83]1999, Adam Curtis, 'The Mayfair Set': "David Stirling was a close friend of Julian Amery's and together they were determined to find a way to stop Nasser... Stirling and Amery had diner with the foreign secretary, Alec Douglas Hume, at the White's Club in St. James's. They proposed a plan: a group of SAS men would mount an operation to fight the Egyptians, but they would do it privately."
[84]*) January 31, 1997, The Guardian, 'SAS linked to rogue force in South Africa': "The SAS has been linked to violence by a 'third force' that threatened to undermine South Africa's transition to majority rule, in a report considered so explosive it was suppressed by Nelson Mandela... It confirms the involvement of commando units in random violence, the use of poison - supplied by the Seventh Medical Division - by hit squads, and the supply of arms and training to the Zulu-dominated Inkatha movement... The truth commission document says evidence was given to Gen Steyn that destabilisation of the government and neighbouring countries was planned 'to enable the military to step in credibly to create order'. Preparations for this allegedly involved stockpiling arms in countries which included Kenya, Zambia, Mauritius and Portugal, to create 'springboards' for possible military action. It said there was 'a suggestion that there was close contact with the British SAS'... As reported by the Guardian, a group of SAS officers working for a private security firm in Britain [KAS] were hired by wealthy conservationists in the late 1980s to come to South Africa to fight elephant and rhinoceros poachers. They became involved with local intelligence agencies and reportedly took part in paramilitary training. The British security firm, Kas Enterprises, was owned by Sir David Stirling, the founder of the SAS, and taken over after his death by Sir James Goldsmith. The security firm's SAS mission to South Africa was headed by Ian Crooke, who led the SAS..."
*) September 24, 1999, Kleintje Muurkrant, '"People have been murdered under the cover of nature protection" - Attorney severely criticises the World Wide Fund for Nature' (translated from Dutch to English): "It looks like the WWF to a large degree is responsible for several projects, especially in South Africa, where in two fases respectively one and a half million people and subsequently ten thousand people were killed. In the first phase it was about the battle in the frontline states against the ANC [the major anti-apartheid movement], especially against the military wing. The war has been waged under the cover of nature protection and while protecting nature these people have lobbied the legislator to adopt a "shoot to kill" policy, whereby it became legal to shoot poachers in the field before arresting them. Afterwards you have to say that among the victims were quite a lot of ANC members... After 1990 the struggle shifted to the territory of South Africa [instead of the whole of southern Africa]. During that time these people trained a number of elite black units in the wildlife parks [of the WWF], like the anti-cattle thieves brigade and the crowbar-unit that turn out to responsible for the murder of several ten thousand inhabitants of the townships. This was part of the plan to create a civil war between the Bantus and the Zulus, that is to say that the ANC had to be set up against Inkatha [of Inkatha Freedom Party, the second largest anti-apartheid movement which mainly represented the Zulus] and that operation has been conducted with the intention of destabilizing southern Africa. I have seen that these projects were completely financed by the World Wide Fund for Nature. Of course a certain Prince [Bernhard] has been involved in that, who has walked around there with a suitcase full of money, but the question remains how much this man knew about the projects."
*) Executive Intelligence Review has published some information about the 1001 Club and Anglo-Dutch policies in southern Africa.
[85]September 3, 2003, Energy Bulletin, 'Petro-Logistics is very well connected in the gulf and the Black Sea': "Mr Gerber freely admits that he first learned about the oil business in the 1970's when he was helping his country, then known as Rhodesia and now called Zimbabwe, to circumvent international sanctions and procure illegal oil... Mr Gerber worked as an economist in the government of Rhodesia... Among his business associates and friends, Mr Gerber counted Theodore G. Shackley... Mr Shackley engaged in some oil trading after he retired from the CIA in 1979. Mr Gerber said he was at Mr Shackley's bedside just before he died last year. His client base, initially built around an oil trader who worked with Mr Shackley, eventually expanded to include official agencies, major oil companies -- both private and government-owned -- and other traders." John Deuss was the "oil trader who worked with Mr Shackley".
[86]1991, Bo Gritz (ISA and Delta Force commander), 'Called to Serve', p. 370. Khun Sa's interpreter, in the presence of all Khun Sa's top men, names Ted Shackley, Santos Trafficante (mafia boss), Richard Armitage, Daniel Arnold (CIA station chief in Thailand), and Jerry Daniels (CIA agent) as his former partners in the dope trade. This is recorded on video and audio tape.
Additional: March 1, 1988, The Fayetteville Observer, 'Gritz to publicize POW offer': "Gritz said Khun Sa is reputed to have 40,000 men, women and children under arms and will get out of the drug trade if the U.S. will aid his insurgency efforts. Gritz first met Khun Sa in Laos in December 1986. Gritz says he was sent there to find POWs by a man who works for the National Security Council. Gritz returned with video-taped conversations with Khun Sa, who said Amercian officials were involved in drug trafficking during the Vietnam War to finance unofficial wars against the communists in neutral Laos. Among those Khun Sa implicated, according to published reports, was Richard Armitage, currently assistant secretary of defense whose previous mission in Southeast Asia was to find American prisoners of war. U.S. officials told Gritz they didn't want to hear about drugs and suggested he forget the incident, Gritz claims. He said he was told if he persisted, he would serve 15 years as a felon for using a falsified passport. "I've used false passports many times, every time in pursuit of U.S. POWs," Gritz said, adding that U.S. officials knew about the practice. "Only James Bond goes overseas and uses his real name," Gritz said."
[87]August 17, 1983, Wall Street Journal, 'Bank's Links to Ex-CIA Men Detailed': "The Australian government report, prepared and released to Parliament in March by the Commonwealth-New South Wales Joint Task Force on Drug Trafficking, cites Mr. Shackley as one of the leading characters whose "background is relevant to a proper understanding of the activities of the Nugan Hand group and people associated with that group... The report refers to contacts between Mr. Shackley and Michael Hand, the currently missing former CIA operator who founded , owned and managed the Nugan Hand banking group. Mr. Hand's partner, Australian Frank Nugan, died of a gunshot wound in January, 1980, later ruled a suicide, and Nugan Hand failed a few months later. Investigations following Mr. Nugan's death and the failure of the bank revealed widespread dealings by Nugan-Hand with international heroin syndicates, and evidence of massive fraud against U.S. and foreign citizens. Many retired high-ranking Pentagon and CIA officials were executives of or consultants to Nugan-Hand... Among the high-level Pentagon and CIA officials associated with Nugan Hand were former CIA director William Colby [Le Cercle], who was its attorney... " More details can be found in Jonathan Kwitny's 'The Crimes of Patriots'. After Nugan Hand's cover was blown and the operation abandoned, the CIA redirected many of the Nugan Hand operations to another Pacific financial institution based in Hawaii, named Bishop, Baldwin, Rewald, Dillingham and Wong (BBRDW). By the end of 1980, BBRDW started setting up offices in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore, and Australia, all former Nugan Hand locations, staffing the offices with some of the same personnel. Investigator Rodney Stich (2006, 'Those Ugly Americans', p. 343) went looking for the files of the BBRDW and found an envelope with names of important persons who had an account at the BBRDW under an alias. These included Richard Armitage (of Gritz's videotape), William Casey (Le Cercle) and two accounts of George Bush Sr. (who refused Khun Sa's offer to stop the massive heroin trade in return for basic economic and diplomatic support).
[88]June 28, 2005, Wall Street Journal, 'A Cartel and Its Snake oil - The Saudis claim to have huge oil reserves. Do they really?': "As a result, the world's most reliable source for OPEC production is a little company called Petrologistics, located over a grocery store in Geneva. Conrad Gerber, the principal, claims to have spies in every OPEC port. For all we know, Mr. Gerber is making up his numbers, but everyone -- including the Paris-based International Energy Agency -- takes him seriously, since OPEC produces nothing better." Review about the 2005 book of Matthew Simmons, 'Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy'.
[89]January 15-21, 1998, Le Nouvel Observateur, Interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski: "According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention... That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter. We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire... Nonsense! [that Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace] It is said that the West had a global policy in regard to Islam. That is stupid. There isn't a global Islam. Look at Islam in a rational manner and without demagoguery or emotion. It is the leading religion of the world with 1.5 billion followers. But what is there in common among Saudi Arabian fundamentalism, moderate Morocco, Pakistan militarism, Egyptian pro-Western or Central Asian secularism? Nothing more than what unites the Christian countries."
[90]September 23, 2001, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 'How a holy war against the Soviets turned on the US': "In 1986, Director of Central Intelligence William Casey stepped up the war against the Soviet Union by taking three significant, but at that time highly secret, measures. He persuaded the U.S. Congress to provide the Afghan fighters known as Mujaheddin, "holy warriors" in Arabic, with American-made Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to shoot down Soviet planes and to send U.S. advisers to train the guerrillas. Until then, no U.S.-made weapons or personnel had been used directly in the war effort. U.S.-financed weapons provided to the Afghans until then had been generally of Warsaw Pact manufacture, to provide deniability of U.S. support for the Mujaheddin. The CIA, Britain's MI6 intelligence service and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) also agreed on a provocative plan to launch guerrilla attacks into the then Soviet Republics of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, the soft Muslim underbelly of the Soviet state from where Soviet troops in Afghanistan received their supplies... Casey was delighted with the news, and on his next secret trip to Pakistan crossed the border into Afghanistan with the late Pakistani President Zia al-Haq to meet the Mujaheddin groups... Third, Casey committed CIA support to a long-standing ISI initiative to recruit radical Muslims from around the world to come to Pakistan and fight alongside the Afghan Mujaheddin. The ISI had promoted this idea since 1982, and by now all the other players had their reasons for supporting it."
[91]September 1, 1991, Washington Post, 'Pakistan's illicit economies affect BCCI bank...': "According to diplomatic sources, Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Turki bin Faisal -- working with Pakistan's main intelligence agency -- distributed over $1 billion in cash to Afghan guerrillas during the late 1980s... The financial transactions were handled principally between Saudi intelligence and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), the main liaison between the United States, Saudi Arabia and the Afghan guerrillas, the sources said... As for drug trafficking, the sources acknowledged that Pakistan's ISI routinely condoned heroin manufacture and sales by some Afghan guerrilla groups. But they said there were also occasions when ISI cooperated with U.S. government efforts to eradicate poppy fields in Afghanistan."
[92]*) February 22, 1992, The Seattle Times: "Former CIA Director William Casey met secretly over several years with the Pakistani head of the illicit Bank of Credit and Commerce International, a television report to be aired this weekend alleges. A CIA spokesman denied the allegation, which is included in a 90-minute NBC News report on BCCI to be broadcast tomorrow morning... The NBC report, quoting unnamed BCCI sources, alleges Casey had secret meetings with Abedi every few months from 1984 through 1986 in a $2,000-per-night presidential suite at the Madison Hotel in Washington. The two men discussed the Iran-contra arms-for-hostages transactions and CIA arms shipments to the rebels in Afghanistan, the report says." More information on Abedi can be found in the 1001 Club membership list of PEHI.
*) December 13, 2003, The Guardian, 'Smart money' (a combined review of Loretta Napoleoni's 'Modern Jihad: Tracing the Dollars Behind the Terror Networks' and Jeffrey Robinson's 'The Sink: Terror, Crime and Dirty Money in the Offshore World'): "William Casey, Reagan's CIA chief, used Pakistan and its BCCI bank as fronts to train Afghan rebels against the Soviets. Covert operations required a "black network" within the bank and its state equivalent, the notorious ISI. The bank financed and brokered covert arms deals, complete with full laundry service. The short and logical step from there was a BCCI/ISI/CIA move into drug smuggling to feed the needy, and leaky, money pipeline to the Mujahedin. The Pakistan-Afghan connection became the biggest single supplier of heroin to the US, meeting 60% of demand, with annual profits a stratospheric $100-$200 billion."
[93]August 7, 1991, Washington Post, 'BCCI Adept at Courting the Powerful and Rich': "In Britain, two senior Conservative members of Parliament and one former member listed themselves as consultants to BCCI -- part of what has been described as a global network of highly placed advisers. They are Sir Julian Ridsdale, a former defense minister; Julian Amery; and former Parliament member Sir Frederic Bennett, an honorary director of BCCI in Hong Kong until 1986 who received $10,000 a year from BCCI, according to the Sunday Observer. Amery declined to tell the Observer how much he received and could not be reached for comment here, but he has said he advised the bank on international affairs." Bennett was an important aristocrat whose biography can be found in the membership list of Le Cercle attached to this article (in Amery's). Bennett is an unconfirmed member of Le Cercle, but was heavily involved in the adventures of Brian Crozier and Julian Amery..
[94]1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 135-136
[95]Ibid., info about The 61 is spread over the whole book.
[96]Ibid., p. 135
[97]Ibid., p. 142
[98]Ibid., p. 189-190: "In addition to our own [61] network, we gained access to a number of existing networks, both private and official. In Germany, we had three prime sources. One was the ex-diplomat turned politician, Count Hans Huyn, a close friend of the Bavarian leader, Franz Josef Strauss, and a leading authority on Soviet policy."
[99]1997, Robert Hutchinson, Their Kingdom Come, p. 359: "Casey's first reaction was to fly to Rome and consult the Pope. He and two other members of Reagan's inner team, Alexander Haig and Vernon Walters, were Knights of the Sovereign Order of Malta, which gave them instant and confidential access to the papal apartments."
[100]2005, Daniele Ganser, 'Nato Secret Armies', p. 70-71: "Vernon Walters advised them, a notorious CIA Cold Warrior 'who has been involved directly or indirectly in the overthrow of more governments than any other official of the US government'.[42] Walters declared that if Kennedy allowed the PSI [Partito Socialisto Italiano] to win the elections the US should invade the country... Kennedy had allowed Italy to shift to the left. As the Socialists were given cabinet posts the Italian Communists, due to their performance at the polls, also demanded to be rewarded with posts in the cabinet and in May 1963 the large union of the construction workers demonstrated in Rome. The CIA was alarmed and members of the secret Gladio army disguised as police and civilians smashed the demonstration leaving more than 200 demonstrators injured. [46] But for Italy the worst was yet to come. In November 1963, US President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, under mysterious circumstances. And five months later the CIA with the SIFAR, the Gladio secret army and the paramilitary police carried out a right-wing coup d'etat which forced the Italian Socialists to leave their cabinet posts they had held only for such a short period. Code-named 'Piano Solo' the coup was directed by General Giovanni De Lorenzo whom Defence Minister Giulio Andreotti [Le Cercle] of the DCI [hard-right Democrazia Christiana Italiana] had transferred from chief of SIFAR to chief of the Italian paramilitary police, the Carabinieri. In close cooperation with CIA secret warfare expert Vernon Walters, William Harvey, chief of the CIA station in Rome, and Renzo Rocca, Director of the Gladio units within the military secret service SID, De Lorenzo escalated the secret war."
[101]June 1992, Issue 23, Lobster Magazine, 'Heritage of Stone; JFK and JFK': "Nearly ten years ago former BOSS [South African intelligence] agent Gordon Winter replied to a letter from Steve Dorril about BOSS's view of the assassination with the answer that BOSS files had attributed it to 'a General named Walters'. In 1963 Vernon Walters was Military Attaché in Rome. (It may be a coincidence that in Walters' autobiography there is nothing at all on what he was doing in 1963.) Also in Rome in 1963 as CIA station chief was William Harvey, who, it is widely reported, hated the Kennedys."
[102]February 15, 2002, Palm Beach Daily News, 'War hero, statesman to be buried at Arlington': "When Eisenhower later became president, he selected Gen. Walters to serve as his staff assistant. During the Kennedy administration, he served as a military attache to Brazil and later, Italy." I noticed the same problem as Dorril. Not only in Walter's autobiography, but also in his Who's Who there are one or more gaps in his biography in the early 1960s. Also, hardly anywhere in the newspapers his involvement in Rome is mentioned.
[103]This is more or less the conclusion that can be drawn from the work of Wim Dankbaar. In 2006, a three-hour documentary was broadcasted on Dutch prime time television based on Dankbaar's research (good thing I put aside my prejudices and just watched it). The investigation for the documentary was headed by Peter R. de Vries, Holland's most famous crime reporter. Normally de Vries investigates well known public cases, usually in cooperation with the police. In short, the three hour documentary laid down almost the whole JFK conspiracy and verified the possibility of James Files' basic claims. The documentary was incredibly impressive, contrasting next day's news reports which were hopelessly superficial. One or two weeks after the broadcast of the initial documentary, de Vries did a short follow up and proved the (prominent) critics wrong that Files couldn't have used a Remington Firebolt and couldn't have left a teeth mark in the casing of the bullet. De Vries found an owner of a Remington Firebolt, inquired about the guns accuracy, fired it, and left his teeth mark in the casing. Very impressive reporting... and yet it is so simple to do for the mainstream media. One of the documentary's conclusions was that Kennedy's body could be dug up to see if the bullet contained mercury, as was claimed by Files and hinted to by at least one forensic expert looking at the photos. Dankbaar was referred to Files by FBI agent Zack Shelton. Although Files could well remain a controversial figure, it is known that he has worked for the CIA and as a hitman for Charles Nicolette.
Claims that the JFK assassination was the work of a joint mafia-CIA operation are almost universal, the reason for the assassination being that Kennedy was far too soft on communism in countries as Italy and for refusing to give crucial air support in the Bay of Pigs invasion. In 1975 the Church Committee was established to investigate the wide range of abuses reported about the CIA. George De Mohrenschildt (best friend of Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas) and Charles Nicolette were murdered on March 29, 1975. Sam Giancana was assassinated on June 19, 1975. Jimmy Hoffa disappeared in July 1975. Johnny Roselli was murdered in September 1976.
[104]2002 (third edition), John Cooley, 'Unholy Wars', p. 17: "... de Marenches, a big, bluff man who his close American friend, General Vernon A. Walters, a Cold Warrior and CIA official called a "real French Kissinger,"..."
Additionally: November 23, 1992, Washington Times, 'Anti-Everybody': "Vernon Walters... could be found overseas last week being inducted into the Al-Mamlaka al-Maghribiya's Royal Academy. That's Kingdom of Morocco, for short... Gen. Walters, a resident of Virginia, was sponsored for the honor by Alexandre de Marenches... Gen. Walters is a personal friend of Morocco's King Hassan II." At least one meeting of Le Cercle has been held in Morocco.
[105]2002 (third edition), John Cooley, 'Unholy Wars', p. 15
[106]November 1988, Issue 17, David Teacher for Lobster Magazine, 'The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe': "Strauss was a close friend of Alexandre de Marenches and was a frequent visitor to the SDECE's headquarters during Marenches' time."
[107]2002 (third edition), John Cooley, 'Unholy Wars', p. 106: "Before he left, de Marenches warned Reagan that the rank-and-file staff of the CIA, where a mutual friend, William Casey, would soon be taking over as chief, was not to be trusted."
[108]Website of Baron de Bonvoisin: "Largely because of B. de B, Raes was forced to resign in 1990... B. de Bonvoisin was highly regarded by the head of the French secret services, Alexandre de Marenches, but the latter had no esteem for Albert Raes... [bashes Albert Raes a bit more]... he [Raes] tried to associate B. de B with the extreme right, a trick often used by the Soviet secret services."" On the same page: "Professor Lode Van Outrive concluded that: " Several times the Americans tried to convince Raes to concentrate first and foremost on the Eastern block countries whereas he seemed more interested in targeting extreme right wing movements. This clearly bothered the Americans who got him to resign.""
http://www.baronbenoitdebonvoisin.com/Anglais/benoit.html
Bonvoisin has been caught faking KGB files that were ment to prove a vast left conspiracy against him.
[109]January 2002, interview by Matt Ehlingfor for Declassified Radio (which doesn't exist anymore). http://sf.indymedia.org/print.php?id=113300
[110]*) April 23, 1975, Winnipeg Free Press, 'Mini-Cold War Weakens Portugal, NATO Ties': "Carlucci's image has been tarred with allegations that he is a top CIA operative assigned to destabilize Portugal and reverse the Socialist thrust of the revolution..."
*) 1977, Phil Mailer, 'Portugal, the Impossible Revolution', chapter 8: "For three days the left and workers' group exercised total power. An article about Spinola in the Parisian paper Temoignage Chretien (March 6) had said that US ambassador Frank Carlucci (who had CIA connections) had given the go-ahead for a right-wing take-over in Portugal. Otelo's [head moderate MFA] remark on March 11 that 'Carlucci had better have plans to leave the country or face the con-sequences' was seen as related to the failed coup. Kissinger, according to a Sunday Times (London) report, had sanctioned the use of the CIA."
*) December 22, 1977, The Charleston Gazette, 'Envoy May Be Named CIA Deputy Director': "The Carter administration plans to appoint Ambassador Frank C. Carlucci, currently the United States envoy to Portugal, as Deputy Director of Central Intelligence..."
[111]For detailed information on Spinola look in the membership list, where a number of original sources are quoted.
[112]1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 184-185
[113]Ibid. p. 230-231: "I had put together an impressive team of helpers in America [in tracking down and interrogating two Cuban defectors]. Robert Moss was one of them... Others who helped were... Donald Jameson; who for many years had been the CIA's top specialist on the Soviet Union. Apart from his fluent Russian, he also spoke Spanish and had a special interest in Latin America." This was about 1985.
[114]March 7, 1997, The Augusta Chronicle, 'Defector caught up in dispute - Former intelligence officer denies US prisoners of war taken in Korean wars': "At least two former U.S. intelligence officers say Mr. Rastvorov told them in separate conversations after his defection that he knew U.S. troops captured in the 1950-53 Korean War had been taken to Siberia and exploited by Soviet intelligence. One of those conversations is summarized in a long-secret White House memo that was declassified last spring... Publicity about the memo prompted the Pentagon to contact Mr. [Yuri] Rastvorov to see how much he knew. At a private meeting last Oct. 10, Mr. Rastvorov denied having any knowledge about U.S. POWs in Siberia. Further, he said that the statements in the White House memo were not his, and that he did not recall that any of the debriefings he underwent with U.S. officials in the 1950s dealt with POWs... Philip Corso, an intelligence officer in Korea during the war and later a National Security Council staff member in the Eisenhower White House, is equally emphatic that Mr. Rastvorov told him in a Jan. 28, 1955, debriefing that Americans had been taken to Siberia as part of a covert Soviet intelligence operation... Separate from Mr. Corso's assertions, Donald Jameson, a retired CIA officer, has said he recalls Mr. Rastvorov telling him in the 1950s that U.S. POWs had been taken to the Soviet Union and that Mr. Rastvorov had estimated it was 10 to 15 aviators. Mr. Jameson helped handle the Rastvorov debriefing after his defection."
[115]January 25, 2003, The Gold Coast Bulletin, 'Focus': "The experiment was only one episode in a remarkable research program run by the Defence Intelligence Agency and CIA from 1972 until 1996. The project, known variously as Grill Flame, Sun Streak, and finally Star Gate, explored a variety of parapsychological phenomena but especially one known as 'remote viewing', the process by which someone in, say, Maryland visualises an office in the Kremlin and describes it both in words and drawings... The outlines of Star Gate have been sketched before, but new details of the project have come to light in 73,000 pages of previously classified records released by the CIA last November and made available just this month. (An additional 20,800 pages are undergoing review, and 17,700 pages were deemed too sensitive to release.)... In 1972, the CIA gave the institute $50,000 to study remote viewing. Russell Targ, who joined the project in 1972... Two years later, the institute received the geographical co-ordinates of a "Soviet site of ongoing operational significance.'' The target was Semipalatinsk, in what is now Kazakhstan. A remote viewer provided a layout of a cluster of buildings and drew a puzzling, 'damned big crane'. He identified the underground facility as storage for Soviet missiles. Satellite photos verified the viewer's report, according to Donald Jameson, then a senior CIA Soviet specialist, who called the event a 'turning point'. One group within the agency refused to look at the Semipalatinsk data, objecting to the unscientific methodology. Another group called the process 'demonic'. When the CIA cut the program in 1975, the funds shifted first to the Air Force and then, in 1980, to the Defence Intelligence Agency. Between 1979 and 1994 Fort Meade's viewing site conducted roughly 250 projects involving thousands of missions." (With all these (in this case Catholic) religious extremists in the top tiers of the CIA it's no wonder these projects were seen as "demonic".)
[116]*) December 14, 2002, New York Times, 'Theodore Shackley, Enigmatic C.I.A. Official, Dies at 75': "In 1979, Mr. Shackley retired from the C.I.A. and founded Research Associates International Ltd., a Bethesda consulting firm specializing in analyzing risks and protecting executives".
*) 2002, Chief Executive Publishing (more detailed date and a headline were not given; scanned from some book or document, judging by one or two common OCR errors): "In 1986, deals with the Soviets were lucrative, wrote Donald F.B. Jameson, a former member of the CIA and vice president of Research Associates International, a risk assessment firm in Arlington, Va. "The Soviets pay above-market prices and pay promptly. Negotiating can be trying, even for the big boys," he wrote in Chief Executive in a spring article titled, 'Trading with the Soviets'..."But if you have what they want and are persistent, you may well end up with a good deal, and after having done one deal, others usually follow. Trading with the Soviets is a race that goes to the strong," Jameson said."
*) Additional: July 23, 1998, Michael Ruppert, 'The POWs, CIA and Drugs': "A former CIA officer told me in 1995 that Ollie North was leasing office space for his 1995 Senate run from Shackley's company, Research Associates International, in Rosslyn, Virginia."
[117]1993, Brian Crozier, Free Agent, p. 243: "... the 'Coalition of Peace to Strength'. Among them were personal friends of mine, including the late General Richard Stilwell and Richard Perle..."
[118]*) July 23, 1998, Michael Ruppert, 'The POWs, CIA and Drugs': "The ISA, which ran Gritz's mission, was created by Army General Richard Stilwell. It has been repeatedly linked to drug smuggling by sources including the daughter of Col. Albert Carone who served as Oliver North's bagman and bill-payer during the eighties. Records left behind after Carone's death in 1990 and eyewitness statements clearly indicate that Carone handled both drugs and drug money for CIA, North and the NSC. Carone's personal phone book contains the home addresses and telephone numbers of William Casey [Le Cercle; Wackenhut legal counsel; CIA; SMOM; Bohemian Grove camp Mandalay], Gambino crime boss Pauly Castellano and Stilwell [Le Cercle]." (Ruppert has written a full report about the Albert Carone affair. Carone was a Knight of Malta and highest level insider to the Genovese crime family)
*) Colby was a director and attorney to the Nugan Hand Bank, which laundered large amounts of drug profits. August 17, 1983, Wall Street Journal, 'Bank's Links to Ex-CIA Men Detailed': Among the high-level Pentagon and CIA officials associated with Nugan Hand were former CIA director William Colby, who was its attorney... "
*) Additional: Michael Ruppert is probably the most central person in CIA drug investigations, having written about virtually all of the others writers and interviewed most of the witnesses. These witnesses include: Cele Castillo, Mike Levine, Dee Ferdinand, David Sabow, Brad Ayers, Tosh Plumley, Bo Abbott, Daniel Sheehan, Gene Wheaton, John Mattes, Jack Terrell, Winfred Richardson, Michelle Cooper, Bill Tyree, Dois G. "Chip" Tatum, Col. Edward Cutolo, Col. Bo Gritz, Al Martin, David MacMichael and Ralph McGehee.
[119]December 5, 1986, Philadelphia Inquirer, 'Secord lost position over disclosure form': "Secord was removed from an unpaid position on the Special Operations Planning and Advisory Group, an 11-member panel dominated by retired senior generals who advise the secretary of defense and his top military and civilian officials on special and covert operations policy... Current members of the group, all retired from active duty, include:... Air Force Lt. Gen. Leroy Manor... They advise the secretary of defense, Caspar W. Weinberger; the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, Richard L. Armitage, and the commander of the Joint Special Operations Agency, Air Force Maj. Gen. Thomas Kelly." More detailed quote in General Stilwell's bio in the membership list.
[120]*) Secord was operational head of the covert private arms network set up by Casey and North in 1984. He was involved with Shackley in Nugan Hand. September 11, 1988, Washington Post, 'The ultimate conspiracy theory': "Serving first as the CIA's East Asia operations chief and later as assistant deputy director of clandestine operations, Shackley (with his trusty aide Clines) supposedly stole tons of U.S. weapons from South Vietnam and stashed them in Thailand. Later, Sheehan claims, Shackley, Clines, Secord and a member of the "shooter team" named Rafael "Chi-Chi" Quintero siphoned off millions of dollars in Southeast Asia opium profits and laundered them through the mysterious Nugan Hand bank of Australia."
*) August 17, 1983, Wall Street Journal, 'Bank's Links to Ex-CIA Men Detailed': "Among the high-level retired Pentagon and CIA officials associated with Nugan Hand were former CIA director William Colby, who was its attorney; three-star Gen. LeRoy J. Manor, former chief of staff for the pacific, who headed its Philippine operation..."
*) Additional: September 21, 1980, Boston Globe, letter from a reader to the editor: "I fail to understand why an article such as "Heroin, banking and the CIA" would be relegated to page 42 (Sept. 7). The incredible details in Alan Berger's well-written article are front-page material. The implications, for example, in the connection between Gen. Ray Manors involvement with the defunct Nugan Hand International banking front and his responsibility as a CIA member to analyze the Iranian hostage incident are frightening, to say the least."
[121]1991, Bo Gritz (ISA and Delta Force commander), 'Called to Serve', p. 370. See reference 85 for more info.
[122]1993, Brian Crozier, Free Agent, p. 185
[123]January 28, 1990, Sunday Times, 'How the Colombian cocaine chain leads to Fidel Castro'
[124]*) January 28, 1990, Washington Post, 'The Case Against Noriega': "On Monday, November 14, 1983, Noriega's entourage took off for Washington... all expenses paid by the U.S. government. Almost two whole days, however, were set aside for the institutions that already had long-standing working relations with Noriega. At CIA headquarters in Langley, Noriega was swept off for a meeting with CIA Director William Casey. Back in Panama, Noriega would later boast about his four-hour lunch with Casey..."
*) August 23, 1991, The Miami Herald, 'Noriega: CIA, DEA OKd Deals': "Manuel Noriega says he had good reasons for allowing drugs and guns to slip through Panama: The last seven CIA directors, including George Bush, asked him to help with the guns, while four directors of the Drug Enforcement Administration sought his help on the drugs... The weapons shipments were destined for Nicaragua and Honduras, the papers said. Besides Bush, the CIA directors who asked Noriega to allow them to travel through Panama included Richard Helms, William Colby, James Schlesinger, Stansfield Turner, William Casey and William Webster... The DEA directors who purportedly asked Noriega to allow drugs to pass through his country included Terrance Burk, Francis Mullen, Jack Lawn and John Ingersoll... Diane Cossin, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office, said the prosecution will present evidence that links Noriega's BCCI money and drugs."
[125]1993, Brian Crozier, Free Agent, p. 243: "Among them were personal friends of mine, including the late General Richard Stilwell and Richard Perle..."
[126]*) November 22, 2001, San Antonio Express-News, 'Ex-CIA chief picks Baghdad as next U.S. target Case builds against Iraq': "Woolsey and Richard Perle, a defense official in the Reagan administration, say the destruction of Saddam's government is the next logical step for the United States' anti-terror campaign. The rationale for toppling Saddam, their argument goes, stretches back several years and isn't linked to a specific incident... Mohammed Atta, who was believed to be the ringleader behind the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings, met with Iraqi intelligence officials in Prague, Czech Republic, several months before the strikes."
*) May 13, 2002, Seattle Times, 'Steam rises over meeting that may not have occurred': "Five months before the Sept. 11 attacks, a man who may have been Mohammed Atta met in the Czech capital of Prague with a man who may have been an Iraqi intelligence agent. Or maybe he didn't. If that sounds uncertain, so is the shadowy battle going on in Washington, D.C., and Prague over whether the meeting took place and what happened if it did... Government ministers in Prague reported the meeting soon after the terrorist attacks. U.S. officials seized on the report. But intelligence officials in Prague then began leaking stories that the meeting did not happen after all. The Czech government seems confused: The Foreign Ministry denies the meeting happened; the Interior Ministry insists it did. In the past two weeks, U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have said that they, too, now doubt the meeting took place. The Bush administration refuses to comment on the record. White House officials are said to be furious at the leaked denials. Hawks rail against what they see as a covert campaign by doves, especially in the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency, to derail an attack on Iraq. "The evidence (for the meeting) is overwhelming, as convincing now as it was then," said Richard Perle, chairman of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board. "People who are raising questions now are just slinking about, not doing so openly. Why? They have their own policy agenda, which is to limit the president's options."... In December, New York Times columnist William Safire called it an "undisputed fact" and said it took place at a hotel. Four months later, he reported that it was a "fact" but said the meeting was at the airport. Reports to the contrary were a "disinformation campaign," Safire said. In an article titled "The U.S. Must Strike at Saddam Hussein," Perle called the meeting "well-documented." Former CIA Director James Woolsey used it to buttress a call for an attack on Iraq, as did Weekly Standard Editor William Kristol in a similar article."
*) September 8, 2002, Agence France Presse, 'Mohammed Atta met Saddam prior to September 11: US official': "Mohammed Atta consulted Saddam Hussein prior to leading the suicide attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, according to Richard Perle, an advisor to the US defense secretary. "Mohammed Atta met Saddam Hussein in Baghdad prior to September 11. We have proof of that, and we are sure he wasn't just there for a holiday," Perle told Italy‘s business daily "Il Sole 24 Ore". "The meeting is one of the motives for an American attack on Iraq," added Perle, who is chairman of the Defense Policy Board and consultant to US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, a leading advocate of an attack on Iraq. "The main objective of the American administration is to avoid weapons of mass destruction falling into the wrong hands," said Perle."
[127]According to David Rockefeller, who was invited to the Cercle in the late 1960s, only he and Kissinger would generally attend from the United States. Both of these men had some issues with Cercle members.
[128]June 1993, Lobster Magazine, Issue 25, Dr. Armen Victorian, 'Non-lethality: John B. Alexander, the Pentagon's Penguin': "The United States Global Strategy Council is an independent think tank, incorporated in 1981. It focuses on long-range strategic issues. The founding members were Clare Boothe Luce, General Maxwell Taylor, General Albert Wedemeyer, Dr. Ray Cline (Co-chair), Jeane Kirkpatrick (Co-chair), Morris Leibman, Henry Luce III, J. William Middendorf II, Admiral Thomas H. Moorer USN (retd), General Richard Stilwell (retd.), Dr Michael A. Daniles (President), Dr. Dalton A. West (Executive Vice President). Its Research Directors were Dr. Yonah Alexander, Dr Roger Fontaine, Robert L. Katula and Janet Morris."
[129]May 26, 1983, Daily Oklahoman, 'Edwards Made Council Chief': "Rep. Mickey Edwards, Oklahoma City Republican, on Wednesday was named chairman of the United States Global Strategy Council. In an inaugural address, he said the organization must form ""a comprehensive global strategy'' and then ""sell it'' to the public. The conservatively oriented organization was formed about five months ago. It's purpose: ""To create an improved climate for sophisticated global strategic thinking by initiating strategy research, by publicizing the importance and potentials of global strategy and by proposing alternative strategic options on current and future global problems to policymakers, legislators and the public.'' The 74-member council includes William E. Colby, former CIA director; Arnaud De Borchgrave, author and columnist; Lt. Gen. Daniel O. Graham, director of High Frontier and former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency; retired Adm. Bobby Inman, former deputy director of the CIA; retired Lt. Gen Brent Scowcroft, who headed the Presidential Commission on the MX; Dr. Edward Teller, nuclear physicist; and Clare Booth Luce, author, former congresswoman and former ambassador to Italy. Edwards told the group that U.S. goals are ""often foggy'' and that the nation sometimes helps its enemies."
[130]February 17, 1994, Christian Science Monitor, 'Nonlethal Weapons Offer a Faustian Bargain': "Over the past few years, a new kind of nonviolent-weapons research has quietly gained a foothold in the Pentagon and at the laboratories that have long designed this nation's most destructive arms... Disabling effects are achieved through such temporary expedients as anti-traction agents, calmatives, stun guns, and supercaustics. More long-lasting changes result from using laser weapons, high-powered microwaves, and nonnuclear EMP... Among nonlethality's most ardent proponents is Ray Cline, a former CIA deputy director who after his retirement established a United States Global Strategy Council to promote a ``national nonlethality initiative'' and other policies to advance American interests in an uncertain new global order. Co-chaired by conservative luminaries like former United Nations ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick and an array of former generals, admirals, and defense secretaries, the council formed a nonlethality policy review group in 1990 that bent the ears of Vice President Dan Quayle, Chief of Staff John Sununu, and National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, persuading the Bush administration to establish a Nonlethality Task Force under the secretary of defense."
[131]*) March 13, 1992, The Plain Dealer, 'Scientist says Star Wars is huge waste': "[describing Star Wars:] Nine years and $25 billion later, all we have is a still-expanding, high-risk, space-age national security pork barrel for contractors and top government managers... Star Wars was born in deception and raised in cynicism. In "Teller's War," William J. Broad, a reporter for the New York Times, details the false data reported on the X-ray laser, the first purported breakthrough in antimissile research... The point of SDI has been to keep the research and development money flowing... Multiple contractors are assigned to do the same work - and then to do it again and again. As a rule, the studies are not read. They get stored at different locations outside the Pentagon until room is needed for new ones. Then they are sometimes destroyed without the notice required by law... For example, my research was frustrated because about 3,000 documents were illegally destroyed in Huntsville, Ala., because of a lack of storage space... Approximately 200 studies from five major contractors showed that Star Wars, at a net cost of more than $1.37 trillion, would let through from 2% to 10% of enemy missiles at least. Other contractors estimated that an antimissile project that cost from $539 billion to $737 billion would deflect only 65% to 70% of enemy missiles... Star Wars officials mask how funds are spent, often shifting money from one program to another in what was informally known as a system of "IOUs" and "taxes." SDIO regularly gave projects only 50% to 80% of the funds they had been allocated. When the program managers would ask for the balance, they were often told the money had been spent elsewhere. As far as Congress knew, the Pentagon had allocated the money as directed. Hundreds of millions have been secretly diverted this way. I was present once when Dr. Edward Teller of the University of California Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory said he needed $20 million for more studies of an already completed experiment on the X-ray laser. The SDI director, Lt. Gen. James Abrahamson, responded to the effect: "You've got it. I'll give you an IOU. Just go ahead."... The free-electron laser passed initial laboratory tests in late 1983 with flying colors, only to be cut back and eventually mothballed in 1991 because it threatened a competing higher cost alternative being developed at the Livermore laboratory. SDI administrators have bypassed low-cost tests involving actual ballistic missiles because they would have reduced the need for more paper studies. This occurred with the free-electron laser in 1983, as well as with the Mid-infrared Chemical Laser, and the Sealight Beam Director in 1990." The author of this article was Aldric Saucier, who was persecuted for publicly criticizing Star Wars. Many US newspapers attacked the Pentagon and the White House in 1992 for persecuting this scientist although few described in any detail the diversion of funds.
*) March 2, 1992, New York Times, 'Scientist Said to Assert Fraud in 'Star Wars'': "Defense Secretary Dick Cheney has been ordered by a special council to investigate assertions made by a Pentagon scientist that officials of the "Star Wars" anti-missile defense program had violated the law and engaged in "gross waste of funds," The Washington Post reported in Monday's issue... The Post said the Office of Special Council had issued the directive on Friday after having found a "substantial likelyhood" that Mr. Saucier's accusations were well-founded. It added that the directive had also conferred "whistle-blower" states on Mr. Saucier, who was dismissed last month from his job with the Star Wars project [after complaining too loud]." Aldric Saucier does not seem to have been alone in his criticism on Stars Wars.
*) October 31, 1986, Chicago Sun-Times, 'No way to test SDI, experts in survey say': "A majority of the nation's scientific elite in fields basic to strategic defense research doubt that President Reagan's proposed "star wars" system can be tested enough to guarantee it will thwart a full-scale nuclear attack, a survey showed yesterday. The survey, released by Sen. William Proxmire (D-Wis.), an opponent of the Strategic Defense Initiative, was conducted by a Cornell University research unit among the 663 members of the National Academy of Science with expertise in such fields as physics, chemistry, mathematics and engineering. The survey received results from 451 NAS members, or about 71 percent of those contacted. Of those responding, 78 percent said prospects were either extremely poor or poor that a survivable and cost-effective SDI system could be built within the next 25 years. Four percent said the odds of success were better than even. Eighty-seven percent said they considered it improbable or highly improbable that an integrated SDI system could be tested sufficiently to provide confidence it would work as intended the first time it had to defend against a full-scale attack. The survey also found that 60 percent said the annual SDI budget should be $1.5 billion or less, while 7 percent thought it should be greater than the $3.5 billion approved by Congress this year. Reagan had sought $5.3 billion in the current fiscal year."
*) Augustus 18, 1993, New York Times, 'Lies and Rigged 'Star Wars' Test Fooled the Kremlin, and Congress': "Four former Reagan administration officials said officials in the "Star Wars" project deceived Congress and the Soviet Union. One deception was a rigged test in June 1984, when an interceptor missile like this one, launched in the Pacific, hit a target missile launched from California... "We put a beacon with a certain frequency on the target vehicle. On the missile we had a receiver."" Other cases of this kind of deception have been reported. Some were even carried out in the early 1990s, after the Soviet Union was gone.
[132]1995, Alex Constantine, 'Psychic Dictatorship in the U.S.A.', chapter two: Blue Smoke & Lasers. This chapter has been used in part as a guide for the above references. In the chapter Constantive goes a bit more into the evidence that Star Wars was a front for the development of some of these EM weapons.
[133]April 1987, Issue 13, Lobster Magazine, Book review of the Jonathan Institute's 'Terrorism: how the West can win': "This book is mostly junk, mere propaganda. I had it with me to read on the train when I visited Colin Wallace. I showed him the list of contributors and mentioned the Jonathan Institute. "Oh, a Mossad front, you mean", he said, and put it down. A Mossad front? I don't know. But misinformation at worst, wilfully partial at best, this sort of crude propaganda can only do the Israeli state harm in the long run."
[134]*) May 6, 1980, The Gleaner, 'Soviets and terrorism': "The Jonathan Institute of Jerusalem, Israel, has published a pamphlet on "International Terrorism: The Soviet Connection". The pamphlet consists of a number of presentations made at the Jerusalem Conference on International Terrorism held July 2-5 last year... The first contributor, professor Richard Pipes of Harvard, ... stated "The Soviet Union has enjoyed great success with terror and profited from it in many ways... We must expose its support of terrorism as widely as possible, and make the public aware of Soviet complicity... Brian Crozier, Director of the Institute for the Study of Conflict in London [and still chairman of Le Cercle], discussed the direct support that the Soviet Union has given to terrorist movements... Mr Crozier declared that the Soviets have provided training for terrorists within the USSR. He goes on to note the use of proxies by the Soviets Libya for example benefited from one of the biggest arms deals in history, an estimated $12 billion worth of arms were sold here by the Soviets in 1976... The other contributors, Ray S. Cline,... Robert Moss [le Cercle],... Jack Kemp, Major General George J. Keegan, and Senator Henry Jackson also look closely at Soviet involvement in terrorism."
*) June 23, 1984, Washington Post, 'His brother's keeper': "This weekend at the Four Seasons Hotel, the Jonathan Institute, which is named after Netanyahu's slain brother, will begin its second conference on International Terrorism. Netanyahu helped organize the private, Israeli-based institute whose public board includes people like Shimon Peres and Menachem Begin. George Bush and the late Sen. Henry Jackson spoke at the institute's first conference on terrorism in 1979, on the third anniversary of Jonathan Netanyahu's death."
*) 1991, Webster Griffin Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin, 'George Bush - The unauthorized biography': "Then there was the GOP delegation, which was led by George Bush. Here were Bush activist Ray Cline, Major General George Keegan, a stalwart supporter of Team B, and Professor Richard Pipes of Harvard, the leader of Team B. Here were Senator John Danforth of Missouri and Brian Crozier, a "terrorism expert." Pseudo-intellectual columnist George Will ("Will the Shill") was also on hand, as was Rome-based journalist Claire Sterling... International participation was also notable: Annie Kriegel and Jacques Soustelle of France, Lord Alun Chalfont, Paul Johnson, and Robert Moss of the United Kingdom, and many leading Israelis. The keynote statement was made by Prime Minister Begin..."
*) August 21, 1986, The Times, 'Review of 'Terrorism - How the West can win': "[The Jonathan Institute's] first conference in 1979 gathered 50 distinguished speakers"
[135]February 24, 2006 issue, Executive Intelligence Review (EIR), ' Netanyahu's Fascist Record: All Roads Lead to Shultz': "As the story goes, Netanyahu left Shultz's office and set up a meeting with his friend Doug Feith to discuss how to organize the conference. (Feith would be one of the authors of the "Clean Break" document that was written for Netanyahu more than a decade later, when he would become Prime Minister of Israel.) The Washington conference, held on June 24-27, 1984, was a mega-event. Some 36 experts on terrorism spoke during the four-day conference, including the self-described universal fascist Michael Ledeen, and many others from the U.S. neo-con stable who would later play an essential role in spreading the intelligence lies that were used for the invasion of Iraq."
http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2006/3308schultz_bibi.html
[136]June 25, 1984, Boston Globe, 'Shultz says West must move to counter world terrorism': "Secretary of State George P. Shultz said last night that pre- emptive actions by Western democracies may be necessary to counter the Soviet Union and other nations that he claimed have banded together in an international "league of terror.""
[137]June 26, 1984, Philadelphia Daily News, 'Seeing Red - U.N. aide links Kremlin to terror': "Weinberger was asked about a proposal by former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to create a new international organization to fight terrorists. "We've got a U.N. organization that might well be called upon to deal with matters of this kind," Weinberger replied."
[138]April 15, 2005 issue, Dean Andromidas for Executive Intelligence Review, 'How Wolfowitz and the Neo-Cons Sabotaged First 'Oasis Plan'': "Along with George Shultz, Soustelle became a board member of Netanyahu's Jonathan Institute for the Study of Terrorism." (According to Tarpley and Chaitkin, Soustelle had attended the first Jonathan Institute conference)
http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2005/3215wolfie_v_nuke.html
[139]June 23, 1984, Washington Post, 'His brother's keeper': "Netanyahu helped organize the private, Israeli-based [Jonathan] institute whose public board includes people like Shimon Peres and Menachem Begin."
[140]April 1987, Issue 13, Lobster Magazine, Book review of 'Terrorism: how the West can win': "This is a collection of papers read at the 1984 Jonathan Institute conference on terrorism held in Israel, and because these were originally papers there is no documentation: what we have is 230 pages of assertions. The contributors range from current "experts" on terrorism - Paul Johnson, Michael Ledeen, Claire Sterling, Lord Chalfont, Arnaud de Borchgrave - to a group of US government officials including Kirkpatrick, Schultz, Meese and Webster of the FBI."
[141]February 1984, Issue 3, Lobster Magazine, 'American Friends: the Anti-CND Groups': "In 1981 FARI published an absurd booklet by their chairman Sir Frederick Bennett MP claiming Russian money was being used by CND."
September 1986, Issue 12, Lobster Magazine, 'The British Right - scratching the surface - Digression 2': "When Gable wrote his memo FARI was being funded by the South African government (although it is possible that Gable was unaware of this), and its Council included four men who have appeared in Searchlight: Julian Amery (connection with the Italian fascist party, MSI, in March 1979), Lord Chalfont (connections with Chile, August 1979), and Robert Moss and Brian Crozier (all over issue 18, 1975)."
[142]March 20, 2004, Daily Telegraph, Obituary of Geoffrey Stewart-Smith: "In 1974 he had sought to distance his Foreign Affairs Circle from the World Anti-Communist League because of the WACL's strong anti-Semitic element, saying: "We wouldn't touch them with a barge pole." However, he later admitted that another of his organisations, the Foreign Affairs Research Institute, had been mainly funded by the apartheid government in South Africa. The admission came in 1987 when Stewart-Smith appeared at the London Bankruptcy Court, disclosing debts of pounds 150,388 and no assets."
[143]April 1986, Issue 11, Lobster Magazine, 'Wilson, MI5 and the Rise of Thatcher - Covert Operations in British Politics 1974-1978 - Appendix 3': "FARI was also reported to be receiving money from the US company Lockheed (Counterspy November 1981)"
[144]Ibid.: "FARI was said to have "strong CIA links" by Gerry Gable in a memo leaked to the New Statesman."
[145]*) Ibid.: "Nevertheless FARI has grown and grown. In 1980 it began organising an annual 'balance of power' conference in Britain, attracting some of the top level figures on the new right: Feulner of the Heritage Foundation, Ray Cline of NSIC, Frank Barnet of NSIC and the Committee for the Present Danger, General Daniel Graham ex-'Team B', DIA etc."
*) http://www.ajweberman.com/monica.htm: "In June 1978, FARI co-sponsored a conference in Brighton, England with the CIA-connected Institute for the Study of Conflict. Among those who attended was Richard Mellon Scaife. Also attending the conference was William Casey, who would later be appointed head of the CIA by Ronald Reagan." The information on this page seems to be very good.
[146]December 27, 1991, Milwaukee Journal, Obituary of Richard Stilwell: "From 1949 to 1952, served as chief of Far East Division of the CIA and later took command of a regiment in Korea."
[147]Ibid.: "At his death, [Stilwell] was president of Stilwell Associates, a consulting firm in Arlington, Va., with the Defense Department and the CIA among his clients."
[148]September 16, 1987, Philadelphia Inquirer, 'U.S. backing for Philippine junta alleged': "Last month, another American visitor to the islands raised further suspicions of U.S. covert involvement. That visitor was Richard G. Stilwell... Stilwell visited the Philippines for 10 days in August, leaving the country shortly before the Honasan uprising."
[149]Ibid.: "Singlaub came to the Philippines in November and early this year on visits that he described as purely private, a search for sunken treasure. But when the visits were disclosed in the Philippines, Singlaub immediately left Manila amid reports that his real purpose may have been linked to covert operations." Large excepts in Stilwell's biography.
[150]December 7, 1986, Washington Post, '2 Americans advised Enrile against attempting coup': "A former CIA official and a retired general traveled to the Philippines last month and counseled then-defense minister Juan Ponce Enrile against leading a coup attempt against President Corazon Aquino. Former Central Intelligence Agency deputy director Ray Cline, now a research professor at Georgetown University and head of the U.S. Global Strategy Council, confirmed yesterday that he and retired general Robert Schweitzer made the trip. But Cline denied a report by U.S. News & World Report magazine that he made the trip "secretly" with the "knowledge and encouragement" of the White House. Cline said that he and Schweitzer met with Enrile and other officials, but he said he was not an official U.S. representative and did not discuss the trip with the White House. Enrile served as deposed President Ferdinand Marcos' defense minister and was kept in the post by Aquino after he helped lead the coup that overthrew Marcos last February. She forced Enrile to resign last month after persistent speculation on a coup attempt."
[151]Detroit Free Press (MI) December 8, 1986, 'Shake-up occurred after military memo faulted Aquino': "President Corazon Aquino's reorganization of the government last month took place after military leaders gave her an 11-page memorandum that criticized "inactivity and/or inadequacies" of her administration and demanded military and civil reforms. The top-secret document, a copy of which was made available to Knight-Ridder Newspapers, was described by one senior military official who requested anonymity as a way to "gently coerce" Aquino. "We are telling her what to do," said another military figure who also requested anonymity, "and there is an implied threat all through it about what will happen if she doesn't." The document was signed by Gen. Fidel Ramos, the armed forces chief of staff, and all six service commanders, and endorsed by then-Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile, dismissed from the cabinet after he was linked to a coup plot last month... "Ramos wrote about 60 or 70 percent of that document," said one military official who participated in several of the top- level meetings that led to the creation of the memorandum. "But he was so tense by that time that I think he didn't really know which way was up." The official spoke on condition of anonymity."
[152]September 16, 1987, Philadelphia Inquirer, 'U.S. backing for Philippine junta alleged'
[153]Ibid.
(154]1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 135-136
(155]*) Mostly documented in 1999, Adam Curtis, 'The Mayfair Set' (broadcasted on BBC2). This documentary does not discuss the role of George Kennedy Young, Billy McLean and the Mossad.
*) May 1990, Issue 19, Lobster, 'The final testimony of George Kennedy Young - Introduction' (written by Young himself): "However Nasser did get his uppance. Young had already left MI6 for merchant banking when Mossad approached him to find an Englishman acceptable to the Saudis to run a guerrilla war against the left-wing Yemeni regime and its Egyptian backers. 'I can find you a Scotsman', replied Young, and over a lunch in the City introduced Colonel Neil ('Billy') Maclean to Brigadier Dan Hiram, the Israeli Defence Attache. The Israelis promised to supply weapons, funds and instructors who could pass themselves off as Arabs, and the Saudis eagerly grasped the idea. Maclean's irregulars restored the Imam's rule and Nasser pulled out his troops whose morale had been badly shaken by the Yemeni practice of sending back captured troops with their lips cut cut off in a ghastly grin."
More details in the 1001 Club article on PEHI.
[156]August 11, 1991, Hartford Courant, 'Americares' success hailed, criticized charity uses clout and connections...'. Large excerpts can be found in the biography of General Stilwell in the PEHI membership list accompanying this article.
[157]Ibid.
[158]1997, Robert Hutchinson, Their Kingdom Come, p. 355-359
[159]1993, Brian Crozier, Free Agent, p.186: "After the first election victory but before taking office, Reagan had appointed another of his Californian friends, William A. Wilson, to liaise both with the Pinay Cercle (see Ch. XV) and with The 61." Wilson was personal representative of President Reagan to the Vatican 1981-1984 and United States Ambassador to the Vatican 1984-1986. For details on Wilson's membership in the Knights of Malta see the membership list.
[160]Ibid., p. 197: "Von Machtenberg had telephoned both reports to me, and I immediately passed them on to the appropriate authorities. They were relayed to 10 Downing Street, the White House, and the Elysée. Albertini, who had alerted the latter, also, with my encouragement, passed the intelligence on to the Vatican (always a factor in any crisis affecting Catholic Poland, birthplace of Pope John Paul II)."
[161]August 11, 1991, Hartford Courant, 'Americares' success hailed, criticized charity uses clout and connections...': "The alliance between Macauley and Ritter led to an audience with Pope John Paul II in Rome in 1982. (Ritter left Covenant House in February 1990 after accusations of sexual misconduct with some male runaways he was helping). The meeting with the pope gave life to AmeriCares. Although Macauley started AmeriCares in 1979, the organization did not go on its first relief mission until 1982, when the pope asked Macauley to send aid to his native Poland." More information in Stilwell's biography.
[162]1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come – Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei', p. 263-264: "P2 was formed in the late 1960s, allegedly at the behest of Giordano Gamberini, a Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Italy and friend of Gulio Andreotti. But he was much closer to Francesco Cosentino, who also was well introduced in Vatican circles. Either Andreotti or Cosentino, or perhaps both, were said to have suggested the creation of a small cell of trusted right-wing personalities in key national sectors, but especially banking, intelligence and the press, to guard against what they perceived as 'the creeping communist threat'. The person Gamberini chose to develop the P2 Lodge was a small-time textile magnate from the Tuscan town of Arezzo, midway between Florence and Perugia, who after two as a Freemason had risen to the Italian equivalent of Master Mason. His name, of course, was Licio Gelli. But the P2's top man, according to Calvi, was none other than Andreotti, followed in line of command by Cosentino and Ortolani[Umberto Ortolani; secret chamberlain of the Papal Household; member of the inner council of the Knights of Malta; said to be a member of Cardinal Giacomo Lercano; met with Licio Gelli, Roberto Calvi, and others in Rome in December 1969]. Andreotti always denied Calvi's allegation. But the fact remains that Calvi feared Andreotti more than Gelli or Ortolani. As for Cosentino, he died soon after the P2 hearings began."
[163]2005, Daniele Ganser, 'Nato's Secret Armies', p. 74: "Frank Gigliotti [one-time assistant to a hypnotist; Presbyterian clergyman; worked with teenaged boys, for whom he organized a social club named the Guiseppe Mazzini Club; recruited by the OSS; active in Italy] of the US Masonic Lodge personally recruited Gelli and instructed him to set up an anti-Communist parallel government in Italy in close cooperation with the CIA station in Rome. 'It was Ted Shackley, director of all covert operations of the CIA in Italy in the 1970s', an internal report of the Italian anti-terrorism unit confirmed, 'who presented the chief of the Masonic Lodge to Alexander Haig'. According to the document, Nixon's Military adviser General Haig [later Pilgrims Society executive], who had commanded US troops in vietnam and thereafter from 1974 to 1979 served as NATO's SACEUR, and Nixon's National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger [Le Cercle] 'authorized Gelli in the fall of 1969 to recruit 400 high ranking Italian and NATO officers into his lodge'. (60)... the secretive anti-Communist P2 members list confiscated [in 1981] counted at least 962 members, with total leadership estimated at 2,500... 52 were high-ranking officers of the Carabinieri paramilitary police, 50 were high-ranking officers of the Italian Army, 37 were high-ranking officers of the Finance Police, 29 were high-ranking officers of the Italian Navy, 11 were Presidents of the police, 70 were influential and wealthy industrialists, 10 were Presidents of banks, 3 were acting Ministers, 2 were former Ministers, 1 was President of a political party, 38 were members of parliament and 14 were high-ranking judges. Others on lower levels of the social hierarchy were mayors, Directors of hospitals, lawyers, notaries and journalists."
[164]http://www.constantinian.org.uk/. You can't link directly to the relevant pages of this site. The names mentioned in this article can be found in the history of the organization and are spread throughout reports of the order's activities.
[165]1990, Hugo Gijssels, De Bende & Co., p. 174 (translated from Dutch to English): "Finally, Paul Vankerkhoven is also co-founder and vice chairman of 'l'Institut Européen de Développement', of which the seat is located in the castle of baron de Bonvoisin."
[166]A combination of two sources describing the same police documents.
*) 1999, Annemie Bulté, Douglas De Coninck, & Marie-Jeanne Van Heeswyck, 'The X-Files - What Belgium was not supposed to know about the Dutroux case', p. 345-346 (only available in Dutch and French and generally hard to get at the moment). This book does not give specific names (anywhere in the book) and does not mention Opus Dei.
*) The French summary of the Dutroux X-Files made by investigative reporter Jean Nicolas who at some point gained access to the Dutroux and King Albert dossiers, consisting of more than 20.000 pages and many tape recordings of witnesses. Specific file numbers: pv. 250.Z156 (8 January 1997) and pv. 466.Z156 (16 January 1997). These file numbers match those given by the investigative reporters of the book 'The X-Files' who worked for mainstream newspapers as De Morgen. The French summary also gives a few more details, including Thoma's statement that he was told this was part of an Opus Dei initiation. The hints about one or two of the perpetrators given in the book 'The X-Files' match those named the French document.
[167]2001, Jean Nicolas and Frédéric Lavachery, 'Dossier Pédophilie - Le scandale de l'affaire Dutroux', p. 193. The authors have included an uncensored transcript of a meeting between Christine Doret, Jean-Claude Garot and André Pinon that was taped without the knowledge of participant/witness Doret. Other authors have reported on this tape, but censored the names. The descriptions of the persons involved match with the names given in other publications. 1990, Hugo Gijssels, De Bende & Co., p. 135 adds about Boeynants "In a May 1988 interview with Vrij Nederland [Free Holland] Congressman [now Senator] Hugo Coveliers [of Belgium] declares without any sign of doubt that Vanden Boeynants is mentioned in the Pinon dossier as one of the participants in the sex-parties. Vanden Boeynants, who has a habit of bombarding the press with demands for explanations and legal threats, lets these serious accusations blow over without response. He does not react in any way."
[168]1990, Hugo Gijssels, De Bende & Co., p. 129-130
[169]Ibid.
[170]*) http://www.orderofmalta.org/eur_paese.asp?idlingua=5&paese=2: "DELEGATION DE L'ORDRE AUPRES DU GOUVERNEMENT: BELGIQUE Domaine du Fuji, 21 - B 1970 Wezembeek - Oppem Tél: +322.731.30.60 - Fax: +322.782.16.00 E-mail: jacques.jonet@skynet.be"
*) Jonet was recently raised to peerage.
http://www.ordredemaltebelgium.org/belg_representations.html:
"Représentations diplomatiques de l'Ordre et autres organisations : Belgique Représentant (1 janvier 2002) Le Baron Jonet Domaine de Fuji, 21 - B-1970 Wezembeek-Oppem Tél.: +32.2.731.30.60 Fax: +32.2.782.16.00 E-mail : jacques.jonet@skynet.be"
*) Jonet's wife: http://www.ordredemaltebelgium.org/belg_org_admin.html:
"CONSEIL D'ADMINISTRATION DE L'ASSOCIATION BELGE DE L'ORDRE DE MALTE
Administrateurs membres du Comité de Direction
Le Prince Baudoin de Merode, Président
Le Baron de Barsy, Coadjuteur
Le Baron Arnoud Papeians de Morchoven, Chancelier
La Baronne Jonet, Hospitalier
Le Comte Jean-Pierre de Beauffort, Trésorier.
Administrateurs
Le Comte de Borchgrave d'Altena Merghelynck... "
[171]http://www.nettyroyal.nl/guestlist.html.
[172]http://www.wiltonpark.org.uk/general/friends.aspx
[173]1990, Hugo Gijssels, De Bende & Co., p. 129-130
[174]Some examples of Opus Dei's influence on the Franco dictatorship from the 1957 to the 1970:
*) February 9, 1960, The Times, 'Spanish Newspaper Ownership - Acquisitions by Opus Dei': "The acquisition of substantial holdings in Madrid and provincial newspapers is among the recent moves of Opus Dei, a Roman Catholic secular society which is becoming a force to watch in Spanish political life... Since General Franco's Cabinet reshuffle in February 1957, members of Opus Dei have penetrated into a number of key positions in the government and seats of learning."
*) July 30, 1969, Star News, 'Spanish Catholic Lay Group May Hold Key to Future': "Now that 76-year-old chief of state Francisco Franco has named Prince Juan Carlos to succeed him, one of the most stabilizing forces in the transition to a post-Franco era will be a little-known and less understood organization called Opus Dei... Though the extent of their influence is not fully known, informed sources estimate that three or four major banking chains, vast real estate holdings and several key industries are in their hands. In addition, Opus Dei people are said to control two Madrid daily newspapers, a considerable share of the provincial press, a national press agency and a broadcasting station. Opus Dei's University of Navarro the only private university in Spain, turns out some of the country's most skilled journalists... Much of .the credit for Spain's rapid economic advance during the last decade goes to Opus Dei members. At present, five or six of Franco's cabinet members are generally regarded as being in the Opus Dei camp, thereby constituting the largest minority in the cabinet. The number of lower-ranking government officials with strong Opus Dei leanings is believed to run into the hundreds."
*) August 26, 1969, The Times, ''Resign' call in Spain': "All the key economic ministries [in Spain] are controlled by Opus Dei members, or sympathizers."
*) October 30, 1969, The Times, 'Riot as Franco alters Cabinet': "The Spanish government officially announced the names of General Franco's new Cabinet tonight, and confirmed earlier speculation that members of the powerful Roman Catholic lay organization Opus Dei will dominate Spain's future... Only four of the 18 Cabinet posts are unaffected... One of the most significant changes in the appointment of Senor Gregorio Lopez Bravo [Opus Dei], the former Minister of Industry, to be Minister of Foreign Affairs... Senor Lopez Bravo is widely credited in the Spanish capital with being pro-British, pro-European and pro-American. He will therefore carry the hopes of many Spaniards for a solution to problems such as the Gibraltar dispute, entry into the European Common Market and the question of continued American use of military bases in Spain. Senor Lopez Bravo has visited Britain twice in recent months and is and is well regarded there in British business circles... There is no doubt in Madrid that most of the new non-military ministers are members of Opus Dei... At the very least it is a victory of the 48-year-old [pro-Europe] Senor Loreano Lopez Rodo, a member of Opus Dei and hitherto Minister without Portfolio, who not only retains his authority to supervise various ministries, but is also reported to have gained the post Secretary to the Presidency, equivalent in authority to that of Vice-President." Alfredo Sanchez Bello, brother of the head of Opus Dei in Spain, became Minister of Information and Tourism. Federico Silva Munoz was one of the four ministers who remained in office.
*) April 15, 1970, Winnipeg Free Press, 'Franco Tips Power To Opus Dei': "When Franco named his new government last October he broke precedent by giving the bulk of the power to a single group, the Roman Catholic lay organization Opus Dei. Public information officials of Opus Dei acknowledge that at least three members of their movement hold key spots in the cabinet... Other sources say at least 10 of the 19 cabinet ministers have close ties to Opus Dei... Opus Dei, for example, was influential in Franco's decision to name Prince Juan Carlos as his successor [through Otto von Habsburg]. But even while it was working for his selection, Opus Dei took the precaution of planting its men in the entourages of the other two pretenders to the throne; Juan Carlos' father, Don Juan, the Count of Barcelona; and Prince Hugo de Bourbon Parma. Prince Juan Carlos has had an Opus Dei priest as his confessor and by official account has studied under Opus Dei professors. Most of his advisers are reported to be Opus men."
*) October 30, 1970, The Times, 'After Franco - the question that is still unanswerable; Hugh Thomas writes that Opus Dei, the 'New Templars', control Spain': "The arrival in power of the first members of Opus Dei was soon followed by Spain's application for association with the Common Market... But the last government reshuffle, in October 1969, coincided with a new hardening of the regime in many respects - for example, press censorship."
[175]German Wikipedia article on Otto von Habsburg
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_von_Habsburg
[176]February 24, 1967, Time Magazine, 'Struggle for Freedom': "The most talked-about subject in Spain last week was something that did not happen: the failure of the Cabinet to pass a bill that would at last grant a measure of religious freedom to Spain's tiny non-Catholic minority... For years, Spain's non-Catholics have almost been non-people, barred from participating in the mainstream of Spanish life. They were, in fact, not even officially recognized as having been born, married or buried—since Spain acknowledged those milestones only when they were sanctioned by the Catholic clergy... Castiella, who has championed the bill for ten years, nevertheless pressed on with his familiar argument: granting religious freedom was not only the right thing to do morally but also the right thing for Spain if it wants to become a respected member of the world community. Several of the ministers who are identified with the Opus Dei laymen's organization supported him. But the opposition quickly closed ranks. Interior Minister Camilo Alonso Vega, 77, who as Spain's top cop maintains that the Spanish are "the most unruly people in Europe", argued that religious freedom would only stir up trouble, just as the earlier measures granting workers and students more freedom resulted in the present rash of strikes and student riots. On a more philosophical level, Public Works Minister Federico Silva Munoz, 43, contended that granting religious liberty to minority sects would shatter Spain's spiritual unity. The ministers connected with the military supported the views of Vega and Munoz..."
[177]October 30, 1969, The Times, 'Riot as Franco Alters Cabinet': "The Spanish Government officially announced the names of General Franco's new Cabinet tonight, and confirmed earlier speculation that members of the powerful Roman Catholic lay organization Opus Dei will dominate Spain's future... Only four of the 18 Cabinet posts are unaffected... The new Cabinet is as follows... Public Works. - Federico Silva Munoz (unchanged)."
[178]April 11, 1970, The Times, 'Resignation of Spanish Minister': "One of General Franco's "technocrat" ministers resigned today, possibly as the result of a deep ideological split in the government, reliable sources said. Senor Federico Silva Munoz, aged 46, Minister of Public Works since June, 1965, was said to have given his resignation to the General this morning... The present Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Senor Gonzalo Fernandez de la Mora, was said to have been chosen as the new Minister of Public Works. Like most of the present Cabinet, and unlike his predecessor, he is known to be a sympathizer with, if not a member of, the powerful Roman Catholic lay organization Opus Dei... [Munoz] is also thought, as a technocrat without any strong political orientation, to have been opposed to the reactionary political attitude of of Vice-President Carrerro Blanco and some other ministries." Interesting, Munoz was among the most reactionary politicians of the post-Franco government.
[179]October 11, 1976, The Times, 'Suarez regime challenged from the right as new party is launched by Franco era politicians': ";Senor Silva Munoz, now head of Campsa, the oil concern;"
[180]July 4, 1976, The Modesto Bee, 'King Juan Carlos names new premier of Spain': "A third name submitted to the monarch by the Council of the Realm, his top advisory body, was that of Federico Silva Munoz, 52, a Christian Democrat and former public works minister."
[181]Winter 1986, Issue 25, Covert Action Information, 'Knights of Darkness - The Sovereign Military Order of Malta': "Recognition of the importance of Opus Dei at the highest levels of SMOM had already been established in the summer of 1976 when King Juan-Carlos, himself a Knight of Malta, chose Adolfo Suarez, a member of Opus Dei, as new chief of government following the death of Franco. (Point de Vue, January 14, 1983; Paris.)"
[182]October 11, 1976, The Times, 'Suarez regime challenged from the right as new party is launched by Franco era politicians'. Munoz, Fernandez de la Mora, Fraga, and Rodo are mentioned as founders of Allianza Popular, together with two other anonymous ex-Franco ministers.
[183]January 10, 1979, El Pais, 'Silva Muñoz unites with the ultraright to be presented at the elections' (translated from Spanish):"Federico Silva, Gonzalo Fernández de la Mora, Raimundo Fernández Cuesta, Blas Piñar, José Antonio Girón and other political leaders have formed a coalition named Union of the Right [that] involves all political forces to the right of the coalition Fraga-Areilza-Osorio, in other words, the Derecha Democrática Española and the gathering of national forces [a reference to Pinar's New Force, which had the aim of "gathering the national forces"]." This is a rough translation (as my Spanish is very rusty) from "... Girón y otros dirigentes políticos han formado una coalición unitaria que se llamará Unión de Derechas y que agrupa a todas las fuerzas políticas situadas a la derecha de la coalición Fraga-Areilza-Osorio, es decir, la Derecha Democrática Española y las llamadas fuerzas nacionales."
[184]December 1, 1979, El Pais, 'The Constitution is a permanent factor of distortion, according to Federico Silva' (translated from Spanish): "The Constitution that was passed and that we accepted, even though we don't agree with most aspects of it, will continue be a permanent factor of distortion on the national life and of the life of the right[-wingers] in particular, says Federico Silva Munoz, promoter of Derecha Democrática Española, in a declaration to the European Press Agency. Their [political] group will celebrate their first national congress on the 8th and 9th of this month."
[185]September-October 1997, Issue 85, Razón Española (translated from Spanish): "I met Federico in the 1940s at a conference of the National Catholic Association of Propagandist to which he belonged, and from then on we were united in great friendship." http://www.galeon.com/razonespanola/re85-sil.htm
[186]Ibid (translated from Spanish): "The Balmes Foundation was founded in 1983, supported by grants made by the German Hans Seidel Foundation. Its [Balmes Foundation] main purpose was to establish the magazine Razon Espanola on October 1, 1983. Without that initial German impulse, maintained in a decreasing way, our publication, which didn't have even minimal support of the Spanish Administration, would have been impossible. The name of Federico Silva is indissolubly linked to this magazine, in which he collaborated as an objective and neutral columnist over several years."
[187]Can't get access any time soon to the sources the articles below refer to, so these will have to do for now:
*) November 1987, Issue 14, Lobster Magazine, 'US involvement in the Fiji coup d'etat': "Another foreign influence in Fijian politics has been the Hans Seidel Foundation, the foreign arm of Franz-Josef Strauss' Christian Social Union, which has an impressive building in Suva. HSF functions as a West German version of NED/PDU, works closely with the Heritage Foundation, and in Fiji has been involved in aid projects, television programming, and assistance to the Alliance Party. The foundation is regarded with considerable suspicion in Fiji. It is credited with spending millions of dollars on a Fijian grassroots cultural revival which has been thin cover for fostering the Taukei movement."
*) 1989, Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, '': ". "The Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung, the political trust attached to Strauss' Christian Social Union party, is an important group in international parapolitical manipulation. Active in Latin America for the Contras,(3) supporting Mobuto in Zaire, involved in the Fiji coup in 1987, it was caught diverting state development aid from Germany into right-wing party coffers in Ecuador in the same year."
*) January 1991, International Affairs (RIIA magazine), 'Foreign Political Aid: The German Political Foundations and Their US Counterparts': "The Seidel Foundation supported the personal links established between the CSU leader, Franz Josef Strauss, and such African politicians as President Mobutu of Zaire and President Eyadema of Togo."
*) 1995, Catholics for a Free Choice, 'Opus Dei: The Pope's Right Arm in Europe': "The Hanns-Seidel Foundation, based in Germany, is accredited with and receives funding from the European Union. The foundation is linked with the CSU (the Bavarian Christian Democrat) party of the late Fritz Pirkl, who was in the European Parliament and served on the boards of directors of Hanns-Seidel and the Rhine-Danube Foundation. Together with Limmat, Hanns-Seidel has funded Opus Dei’s extensive operations in the Philippines, including the Centre for Research and Communication. The centre’s "self-declared task is to form the future economic and political elite of the country," writes Opus Dei critic Peter Hertel.[38] "Under President Corazon Aquino, Opus members have put a decisive stamp on the country’s Constitution."[39]"
[188]May 30, 1980, The Times, 'A Strauss Profile', reply from Brian Crozier.
[189]November 2, 1982, Brian Crozier in The Times, 'Is democracy such a good thing?': "We all have our intellectual assumptions, and the prevailing assumption in the West is that party democracy is necessarily good and dictatorship necessarily bad... The cause of relief was that the fragile flower of Spanish democracy was being saved - the important thing being the salvation of party democracy, not whether party democracy is necessarily good for Spain or will necessarily solve Spain's problems, which is at least open to doubt if hard facts mean anything. Since Franco died in 1975, inflation and unemployment have soared in Spain. So have terrorism and non-political crime. Moreover, the politicians have saddled their country with an unworkable constitution..."
[190]November 1988, Issue 17, David Teacher for Lobster Magazine, 'The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe'
[191]February 5-6, 2004, European Navigator/Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe, Otto von Habsburg in an interview with European Navigator replies to the question what he thinks were the key players in European integration (translated from French): "Charles de Gaulle in the first place. Certainly one of the big visionaries of Europe... There are a lot of difficulties with the French, but we cannot make it without them. They are an essential element to us and without De Gaulle... France would have collapsed completely."
[192]Paneuropa Jugend Bayern, 80 Jahre Paneuropa (translated from German):
"At the 1973 general meeting in Straßburg [Austria], Otto von Habsburg was finally elected as international president [of the Paneuropa Union] at the suggestion of French president and excited Paneuropean Georges Pompidou after he [Otto] had occupied the office temporarily for a year."
http://www.paneuropajugend-bayern.de/80%20Jahre%20Paneuropa.pdf
[193]*) August 1984, Issue 5, Jonathan Marshall for Lobster Magazine, 'Brief Notes On The Political Importance Of Secret Societies': "[Opus Dei] was said to have influenced Robert Schumann, Antoine Pinay and Paul Baudoin, former President of the Banque de L'Indochine and Vichy Foreign Minister. Above all, however, Opus Dei made inroads through Baudoin's protege Edmond Giscard, who shared a variety of colonial enterprises with the BIC group. Edmond, father of Valery, was President of the Banque des Interets Francais (BIF), of which minority control rested with Opus Dei's Banco Popular Espanol. Another Opus Dei connection was forged through the treasurer of Valery Giscard d'Estaing's Independent Republican Party, the Prince Jean de Broglie. De Broglie was President of a Luxembourg firm, Sodetex S.A., an affiliate of the Spanish textile firm Matesa, which was at the centre of an enormous Opus Dei-linked financial scandal that rocked the Spanish government in the late 1960s. There is evidence that the Opus Dei-Matesa network siphoned off money for the campaign of Giscard..."
*) Additional: 1994, R.T. Naylor (Professor of Economics at McGill University), Hot Money and the Politics of Debt, p. 267: "Pinay was installed by Bobby Leclerc in 1969 as president of the Compagnie de Guarantie des Investissements Industriels et Financiers in Geneva, which used Pinay's name to attract French funds. Leclerc also had good relations with... Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. Not least important of Leclerc's activities was his role, with Prince Jean de Broglie, cofounder of Giscard's Independent Republican party, in the administration of Sodatex, the Luxembourg-based holding company through which the principals of the notorious MATESA were looting Spanish government subsidy money in the 1960s... After the MATESA scandal broke,... came charges that Sodatex was the center of a huge arms- and drug-dealing operation across the French-Luxembourg border. All this assured that, when de Broglie was gunned down in a Paris street in 1976, the subsequent exposure of links to Sodatex set off a run on Bobby Leclerc's bank." Original source of Naylor is: 1982, Jesus Ynfante, 'Une Crime sous Giscard'.
[194]December 14, 1981, Time Magazine, 'The Rothschilds are roving': "Banque Rothschild is being nationalized by the socialist government of French President François Mitterrand, along with the country's other major banks and holding companies... Unaffected by the nationalization are the nonbank personal holdings of Baron Guy and Cousins Baron Alain and Baron Elie, including New Court Securities, a U.S. investment firm based in New York City, which will now receive more of the family's attention and money. And beginning Jan. 1, 1982, New Court will change its name to a more golden sounding sobriquet: Rothschild Inc. Founded with $2 million in 1967, New Court today manages a portfolio worth more than $1 billion, including funds from such corporate clients as General Foods, TRW and Hughes Aircraft... That bullishness on America's prospects is shared by Co-Chairman Guy, who has been commuting monthly since last June between Paris and New Court's offices in New York City's Rockefeller Center. Guy will not move permanently to the U.S., and Cousin Elie's son Nathaniel, 34, a graduate of the Harvard Business School, is a prime candidate to direct U.S. operations eventually. Says Guy: "My great-grandfather sent one of his sons, my grandfather Alphonse, to America in 1848. After returning to France, Alphonse pleaded with his father that the U.S. was the coming country and that there should be a House of Rothschild there. It's an enormous pity that my grandfather's advice was not heeded. As far as I'm concerned, we should have had a Rothschild bank in the U.S. since the middle of the 19th century. Our involvement in America now is really 100 years late in arriving.""
[195]1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 217-218: "At the Cercle meeting in Washington in December 1980, Georges Albertini had brought along a quiet Frenchman named Francois de Grossouvre. This was an impressive example of his foresight. De Grossouvre, a physician, was the closest friend and confidant of the Socialist leader and presidential candidate Francois Mitterrand. For many years, Grossouvre had carried out special missions for Mitterrand. By nature and training, he was self-effacing. He played no part in our debates, but listened carefully, taking notes. Five months later, Francois Mitterrand narrowly defeated Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in France's presidential elections. One of his first actions was to appoint de Grossouvre as his coordinator of security and intelligence. Shortly after, having obtained his direct line from Albertini, I went to see him in his modest office in the Elysée Palace."
[196]2005, Daniele Ganser, 'NATO's Secret Armies', p. 101: "[The SDECE's] name changed to Direction Generale de la Securite Exterieure (DGSE) and Admiral Pierre Lacoste became its new Director. Lacoste continued to run the secret Gladio army of the DGSE in close cooperation with NATO..." Ganser, p. 90: "Maybe the most famous member of the French secret anti-Communist Rose des Vents [French Stay Behind/Gladio] army was Francois Grossouvre who in 1981 became the adviser of Socialist President Francois Mitterand for secret operations."
[197]October 6, 1985, New York Times, 'Greenpeace ship reaches test site': "The Greenpeace flagship has arrived off the coast of the French nuclear test site in the South Pacific, where it joined another protest ship from the organization... The Greenpeace replaced the Rainbow Warrior, which was blown up on July 10 by French agents in New Zealand's Auckland harbor... Meanwhile, the largest opposition newspaper in Paris, Le Figaro, reported Friday that Mr. Mitterrand must have known of plans to sink the Rainbow Warrior, which was preparing to lead the Mururoa protest. Mr. Mitterrand's Socialist Government acknowledged secret service responsibility for the sinking last month. Defense Minister Charles Hernu and Adm. Pierre Lacoste, the head of the secret service, resigned because of the scandal. Le Figaro, without citing its sources, said the decision to mine the Rainbow Warrior was made in June in a meeting at the Elysee Palace attended by Mr. Hernu, Admiral Lacoste and the presidential adviser, Francois de Grossouvre. It was ''not believable'' that Mr. de Grossouvre failed to inform Mr. Mitterrand of the sabotage plans, Le Figaro contended."
[198]July 14, 2004, Bloomberg News, 'France's Chirac Pledges Referendum on EU Constitution': "At the EU leaders summit in June when the constitution was agreed, Chirac said he views the U.K. referendum as a final test of whether Britain's allegiances are to Europe, the U.S. or its former empire. He also floated the idea in April of forcing any country that rejects the constitution to leave the EU." http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=
a_IiyRfhymT4&refer=top_world_news
[199]April 15, 2005, BBC, 'Chirac makes case for EU treaty': "President Jacques Chirac has taken part in a live TV debate in France to try to persuade its people to vote in favour of the proposed EU constitution... Mr Chirac warned a No vote against the new constitution - designed to streamline institutions to make decision-making easier in an enlarged union of 25 countries - would be a disaster for Europe... It would halt the European project in its tracks, and pave the way to an unregulated, uncontrolled free-market world, dominated by the United States. He said it would be in the interest of Anglo-Saxon countries or the US to stop "European construction" and that France would be weakened if it voted No." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4442823.stm
[200]June 16, 2005, BBC, 'EU: What kind of club?': "It is startling for example that Valery Giscard d'Estaing, the grandee who chaired the convention that wrote the constitution, now says it was mistake to send a copy of the 448-page document to every French home. He told the New York Times that he had begged President Chirac not to do this. "It is not possible for anyone to understand the full text," he pronounced."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4096334.stm
[201]February 28, 2006, speech at the London School of Economics entitled 'The Political Future of Europe' http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/LSEPublicLecturesAndEvents/
pdf/20060228-GiscarddEstaing.pdf
[202]2005, Ausgabe 2-3, Eurojournal pro management, p. 14, committee member Otto von Habsburg: "The original wording of the Constitution draft by Giscard d'Estaing was quite short and comprehensible. So why did it fail to convince the voters? This is plain: a campaign launched with the help of a book thick with legal terminology which, the bureaucrats hoped, voters would read and comprehend. Much money was spent, but nothing was gained. A Commission full of aged politicians to work on the draft which spoilt it just as "too many cooks spoil the broth". Giscard d'Estaing knew what would happen with his initial draft, and later photographs show the expression of a man in desperation who knew that should this revamped version fail, then he would be responsible anyway... No attempt was made to reach out to future generations as did the late pope John Paul II or as Pope Benedict XVI now does; two old men who somehow managed and manage to enthuse the masses. It is therefore no wonder that the battle was lost; the idea however still lives on, but we need new politicians to bring the idea home to voters."
[203]The following documents are accessible through the Henry Jackson website.
*) September 29, 2005, Marko Attila Hoare for the Henry Jackson Society, 'Turkey, the EU and the Armenian Genocide': "Turkey is at a delicate stage in the transition to democracy, which it is the duty of democratic Europe to assist. Yet this may require some commensurate reform of consciousness on the part of Western Europe. Turkey needs the EU to help it reform its consciousness; but for the same reason, the EU needs Turkey."
*) June 10, 2005, Hendrik Puschmann for the Henry Jackson Society, 'Five Reasons Why Europe Needs Anglo-German Leadership': "The defeat of the Constitutional Treaty in France has caused great damage to French leadership potential in Europe, which arguably has been at the heart of the European project from the outset... now that France has effectively propelled herself out of the driving seat, this will have to change if the European Union is to be safeguarded against the danger of disintegration. We believe that the only way to do so is to replace the Franco-German axis, the quasi-proverbial 'motor' of European integration that broke down on 29th May, with an Anglo-German one... Germany would have to abandon her focus on Franco-German cooperation, enshrined as a de facto doctrine since the foundation of the Federal Republic. Britain would have to undergo much greater transformation even. She would have to commit once and for all to a strong Europe, and that means a final devotion to the pooling of sovereignty... an Anglo-French alliance would suffer from both countries’ strongly developed international ambitions and military potential. By comparison, a London-Berlin axis looks like a natural symbiosis. Britain clearly would be senior partner, much as France was of old, but the weights would not be quite so crassly off balance... Post-war Germany has historically been an Atlanticist nation, standing firmly by the side of the United States and the United Kingdom. Recent anti-American moves by the Berlin government, most prominently the denial of even token support for Operation IRAQI FREEDOM (or TELIC) and the subsequent transformation of Iraq, were primarily motivated by domestic factors, that is, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (unlike Tony Blair) playing to public opinion in order to secure his re-election."
[204]According to Catherine Griggs in her 6+ hour videotaped interview of about 1998.
[205]Sen. John DeCamp, 'The Franklin Cover-Up,' second edition, p.387-388 (Feb. 2006 edition)
[206]July 29, 1997, The Times, 'Secret members of the Other Club'. Gave a list of members as of January 1994. Apparently there are about 90 members in total.
[207]See reference 27.
[208]November 20, 2002, Der Standard, 'Das Pentagon ist heute eine jüdische Institution'
http://derstandard.at/?url=/?id=1136970. The English Wikipedia article on Otto von Habsburg has taken over the quote.
[209]September 2, 2005, ePolitics interview with Jonathan Aitken.
http://www.epolitix.com/EN/Interviews/200508/8da73ee9-7d41-46f9-a47f-
4db3234c49ac.htm
[210]June 12, 1999, The Tablet, 'Jonathan Aitken says Sorry': "Earlier he had given an assistant editor of The Tablet access to a revealing text in which he bares his soul. "I am a man of unclean lips." The speaker is Jonathan Aitken, and he is referring quite explicitly to his perjury, for which he was sentenced on Tuesday to eighteen months in prison... The trouble with Jonathan Aitken is that the public will never take him seriously again. He held a press conference to launch his libel action against the Guardian and Granada television with these words, "I will cut out the cancer of bent and twisted journalism with the simple sword of truth", only to be impaled upon his own sword. The Guardian were able to uncover evidence to prove that he had lied over the question of who had paid his hotel bill in Paris. It might seem a small matter, but on it hung allegations of taking secret commission for multi-million-pound arms dealings, over which Aitken had lied not only to the press but also apparently to his own Government. The deceit even involved the corruption of Aitken's own daughter, 13 at the time of the hotel incident, whom he had persuaded to sign a false statement saying she was in Paris. Corruption of the young, and self-enrichment from arms dealings, are commonly put high on the list of mortal sins. How do you emerge from a reputation as a mega-liar?... he has been a church-goer for years. It is a surprise, however, to hear that he has done the Alpha course, not once but three times, graduating from a humble student to a helper who pours coffee. Even more astonishing, he has done Ignatian retreats. His first experience was in the Westminster retreats in daily life, for MPs and others working at Westminster, and in due course he went away to the Coach House in Inverness to make an individually directed eight-day retreat with the Jesuit Gerry W. Hughes... stripped as a bankrupt of his Rolex watch, still able to draw from an unspecified source living expenses of 11,400 [pounds] a month."
http://www.thetablet.co.uk/pages/jonathanaitken
[211]June 29, 1997, The Independent, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club'
[212]1993, Alan Clark, 'Diaries', p. 369 (About Clark's 1991 experience with Le Cercle): "There is a distinguished attendance list, and Jonathan Aitken, who knows absolutely everybody in the world has, amusingly and indiscreetly, guided me through it."
[213]2005, Lamont's comment on the rejected European Constitution for the Bruges Group. http://www.brugesgroup.com/mediacentre/releases.live?article=8757
[214]July 2, 1995, Sunday Times, 'Rothschild rues its blues under the bed': "Last week it started to look as if Rothschild was planning to make a bid to become the government itself when John Redwood, a former Rothschild fund manager, launched his campaign to become the Tory party leader with Norman Lamont, a Rothschild director, at his side. But Rothschild's position as the hotbed of Tory Euro-sceptic activity is understandably raising some eyebrows both within the bank and outside... And whatever the political views of some in the bank, to project a Europhobic image while trying to win business from all over Europe is a far-from-brilliant marketing concept. Lamont's appointment, more than any other of the political refugees to appear on the Rothschild board, was made despite the opposition of senior Rothschild corporate financiers. Sir Evelyn, however, is renowned for making these sort of appointments without reference to anyone. "
[215]September 22, 2002, Sunday Times, 'Rothschild bankrolls Mandelson think tank'
[216]September 1, 2001, Karina Robinson for The Banker, 'A hard nut to crack': "Karina Robinson talks to NM Rothschild's chairman Sir Evelyn de Rothschild and finds a man reluctant to give much away... The next hour (actually, the next 40 irritating minutes since I did not last the hour) was spent being told that everything is "going well," "doing well" and "with our name we can get in anywhere"... the meeting was set up by the bank's public relations firm. It seems an odd strategy to push forward someone who appears disinterested in communicating." Journalist Karina Robinson gave Sir Evelyn de Rothschild the award of being the 'most condescending' person she interviewed in recent times.
[217]April 24, 2006, Bloomberg News, 'Opus Dei, Vilified in 'Da Vinci Code,' Runs Global MBA Schools': "Opus Dei is seeking more high-powered members by funding pizza parties and seminars on embryonic research, physician- assisted suicide and evolution near U.S. Ivy League campuses. And it's targeting lawyers and bankers through monthly meetings at St. Mary Moorfields church in the City of London financial district... Some members, such as Eduardo Guilisasti, chief executive officer of Santiago-based Vina Concha y Toro SA, Latin America's biggest winery, advance the effort by giving their entire paycheck to help run Opus Dei's more than 100 technical and management schools from Spain to Mexico, to Vietnam, Guilisasti says... In the basement of a six-story concrete building on the outskirts of Rome, young men and women in suits scurry around a simulated office, fetching documents from laser printers and hashing out business presentations. The fake corporate environment has a name: Junior Consulting. Along with the Centro ELIS trade school upstairs, it's the brainchild of Opus Dei... Cisco...; Vodafone Group...; Nokia... all sponsor courses at Centro ELIS... Centro ELIS has received about 800,000 euros ($990,000) in Italian government funds to spawn at least 16 similar schools in China, Ecuador, Uruguay, Vietnam and other countries, says Pierluigi Bartolomei, director of Centro ELIS's technical school... Opus Dei also keeps a low profile at its IESE Business School. The school, which has campuses in Madrid and Barcelona, is a branch of the University of Navarra. Escriva founded the Pamplona, Spain-based university in 1952. Some executives say they had no idea they were associated with Opus Dei's activities. "I know nothing about the Opus Dei connection,"says Peter Sutherland [Pilgrims Society], chairman of both Goldman Sachs International and BP Plc, Europe's biggest oil company, who is a member of IESE's international advisory board... Like Centro ELIS, IESE is cultivating corporate connections. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP... Nissan Motor Co... Alcatel SA... and Banco Santander Central Hispano SA, Spain's biggest bank, also provide funding, according to IESE's Web site. Citigroup Inc., the world's biggest financial services company, and Morgan Stanley, the third-biggest U.S. securities firm by market value, are listed as "supporting companies.'' The school says such support helps develop research programs, train faculty and finance scholarships and construction. Citigroup has sponsored student activities and backed events in IESE's MBA program, says Eric Weber, IESE's associate dean for executive education and an Opus Dei supernumerary." There are many other articles like, but few named indicidual businesses.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000088&sid=afC6cxjKOvr0&refer
=culture
[218]See reference 22.
[219]1993, Alan Clark, 'Diaries', p. 373 (About Clark's 1991 experience with Le Cercle): "This entire outing is a right-wing think (or rather thought) tank, funded by the CIA, which churns Cold War concepts around."
[220]2002, David Rockefeller, 'Memoirs', p. 412-413: "Members of the Pesenti Group were all committed to European political and economic integration, but a few - Archduke Otto of Austria, the head of the house of Hapsburg and claimant to all the lands of the Austro-Hungarian empire; Monsignor Alberto Giovanetti of the Vatican and a prominent member of Opus Dei, the conservative Catholic organization; and Jean-Paul León Violet, a conservative French intellectuel - were preoccupied by the Soviet threat and the inexolerable rise to power of the Communist parties of France and Italy."
[221]Ibid.: "Bilderberg overlapped for a time with my membership in a relatively obscure but potentially even more controversial body known as the Pesenti Group. I had first learned about it in October 1967 when Carlo Pesenti... took me aside..."
[222]February 24, 1967, Time Magazine, 'Struggle for Freedom'
Cercle references in books (click for relevant excerpts)
[1]1990, Xan Fielding, 'One Man in His Time - The life of Lieutenant-Colonel NLD ('Billy') McLean, DSO'
[2]1993, Alan Clark, 'Diaries', p. 369-374
[3]1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 99; p. 186; p. 190-194; p. 217-218; and p. 241
[4]1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come – Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei', p. 153-158
[5]2002, David Rockefeller, 'Memoirs', pages 412-413
Cercle references in newspaper or magazine articles (Lobster Mag. articles not reproduced)
[1]June 29, 1997, The Independent, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club'
This is basically the news story that got the word out about Le Cercle in a mainstream British newspaper, more than 40 years after it was established. This article disappeared in the Independent's archives without any discussion in the public (internet) domain.
[2]July 10, 1997, An Phoblacht/Republican News
[3]May 2001, Punch Magazine, 'Spooks in the House' (thanks to Lobster Magazine)
[4]April 6, 2003, The Observer, 'So, Norman, any regrets this time?'
[5]June 18, 2004, Chancellery of HRH Crown Prince Alexander II of Yugoslavia, Reception in honor of the "Le Cercle" conference
[6]September 5, 2004, Sunday Times, 'Le Cercle of the elite'
[7]June 21, 2005, Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia - London / Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 'Ambassador talks to major foreign policy-security group'
A question to the Embassy for additional information was ignored.
More references
[1]Known historical Cercle meetings (these days it meets one a year in Washington and once a year at an overseas location)
[2]Known historical Cercle participants

Special thanks to the four Davids
David Icke
I watched one of his DVDs maybe two years back and heard him mention Le Cercle and the Safari Club. So, obsessed as I am with names and places, I added them to my existing list of other low profile and clandestine groups. Several months later I found out the importance of these organizations and together with that, came across Lobster for the first time. So, without Icke this article might never have been created in the first place.
David Teacher
For all his early work on Le Cercle that was published in Lobster. In 1991, Lobster announced that David would soon publish a book on Le Cercle in France, soon to be followed by a book in English. Unfortunately, that was the last we heard from David, a translator at the EU in Brussels. The names he mentioned in Lobster have been crucial in putting together this article.
David Guyatt
For his article 'Circle of Power' and for one of his emails going around the net in which he mentioned that author Robert Hutchinson (briefly) adressed Le Cercle in his book 'Their Kingdom Come'.
David "88"
For giving unlimited and free access to a variety of databases. David's databases were crucial in making this article as extensive as it is now.

And finally, let's not forget an email from April 19, 2006 with the advise to look at David Rockefeller's biography. This kickstarted a second, and far more detailed, look into Le Cercle.
Author: Joël van der Reijden
Written: November 18, 2006
Update: November 19, 2006
Version: 1.01
Original report of PEHI on Le Cercle: July 26, 2005 (replaced by the current one)

Le Cercle

Incomplete membership list
continually updated

Adenauer, Konrad
Sources: 2002, David Rockefeller, 'Memoirs', pg. 412-413, referring to the Pesenti Group; April 6, 2003, The Observer, 'So, Norman, any regrets this time?'; June 18, 2004, Chancellery of HRH Crown Prince Alexander II of Yugoslavia, 'Reception in honor of the "Le Cercle" conference; September 5, 2004, Sunday Times, 'Le Cercle of the elite'
Adenauer was a lawyer and a member of the Catholic Center party. Became lord mayor of Cologne 1917. Became a devout follower of the Paneuropa Union, set up in 1923 by Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, son of an Austro-Hungarian diplomat. The Paneuropa was also quickly embraced by the Habsburgs, the Vatican, and the soon to be founded Opus Dei. Member of the provincial diet of Rhine province from 1917 to 1933, when he was dismissed by the National Socialist (Nazi) regime. Twice imprisoned, in 1933 and 1944, by the Nazis. Co-founder of the Christian Democratic Union (1945) and its president from 1946 to 1966. Attended the May 1948 Congress of Europe, which was convened by the United Europe Movement in The Hague. It was organized by Jean Monnet with the help of Joseph Retinger. Its chairman was Winston Churchill while Alcide de Gasperi, Paul Henri Spaak, Leon Blum, and Robert Schuman attended the conference. Chancellor of the Federal Republic of West Germany 1949-1963. Served as his own foreign minister 1951-1955. Took up Hans Globke in his secretariat and made State secretary and his most important National Security Advisor from 1953 to 1963. Globke was a former catholic Nazi collaborator (including persecution of the Jews), who wasn't allowed to join the Nazi party, because of his strong catholic affiliation. That's the only reason Globke's career (and freedom) survived during the de-nazification program right after WWII. Globke, often seen as Adenauer's Eminence Grise, brought Reinhard Gehlen in contact with Adenauer. Adenauer had also taken up Franz-Joseph Bach, a later organiser of Cercle meetings, to run his secretariat. Adenauer was hardline in his policies towards the USSR. Secretly contacted by Monnet and Schuman over the "Schuman Plan" (Monnet Plan) in 1950 to establish the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1951. After Adenauer agreed, the plan went public. Negotiated the 1952 West German peace treaty with the Western Allies and obtained recognition of West Germany's full sovereignty through the Paris Pacts (ECSC) and through an agreement with the USSR in 1955. Friend of Charles De Gaulle. Received the Charlemagne award in 1954. In 1956, Adenauer chose former Nazi general Reinhard Gehlen as the initial chief of the BND, West Germany's post-war intelligence agency that succeeded the Gehlen Organization. Earlier, Adenauer had allowed Gehlen to run his Gehlen Organization, undoubtedly at the recommendation of the CIA. The political architect of the astounding West German recovery (quite possibly through the Bormann flight capital), he saw the solution of German problems in terms of European integration, and he helped secure West Germany's membership in the various organizations of what has become the European Union. One of the signers of the Treaty of Rome in 1957, which founded the European Economic Community. In 1961 his party lost its absolute majority in the Bundestag, and he formed a coalition cabinet with the Free Democrats. In 1962 a cabinet crisis arose over the government's raid of the offices of the magazine Der Spiegel, which had attacked the Adenauer regime for military unpreparedness. Resigned from public office in 1963. Adenauer received the Magistral Grand Cross personally from SMOM (The Sovereign Military Order of Malta) Grand Master Prince Chigi.

Aitken, Jonathan
Sources: 1993, Alan Clark, 'Diaries', p. 369-374; July 10, 1997 An Phoblacht/Republican News, 'Editor's Desk'; February 1, 1998, News Confidential, 'Jonathan Aitken MI6, CIA?'; 18 June 2000, Sunday Telegraph / Lobster Magazine, Issue 40, winter 2000-2001
Great nephew of Hitler-intimate Lord Beaverbrook, whose son ended up in the 1001 Club. Attended the 1990 Pinay meeting in Oman and the June 2000 meeting in Lisbon. Served as a war correspondent (and MI6 agent) during the 1960s in the Middle-East, Vietnam, and Biafra (short-lived state next to Nigeria). For 18 years he was on the backbenches. Then became a Conservative Member of Parliament in 1974. Admirer of Richard Nixon, who attended meetings of the Cercle after having left the White House. In the 1980s Aitken was a director of BMARC, a company that exported weapons to intermediary countries, who sold these weapons again to the intended countries (Iraq in that case). CEO of TV-Am and chairman of Aitken Hume Plc, a banking and investment group. In 1992 he was appointed as Minister of State for Defense. During this time he stood in close contact with co-Le Cercle member and MI6 head of Middle-East affairs Geoffrey Tantum. Aitken has been a chairman of Le Cercle. Protege of Lord Julian Amery, another former head of Le Cercle with a very significant zionist family history. In 1994, he joined the Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, but resigned in 1995 to defend himself against accusations that whilst Minister of Defence Procurement (1993) he violated ministerial rules by allowing an Arab businessman to pay for his stay in the Ritz Hotel Paris (and a stay in Geneva). After telling lie, after lie, after lie, he was jailed in 1999 for 18 months (eventually he served 7), supposedly because he told a lie under oath about a 1500 pound bill. In the end it turns out that Aitken was lobbying for 3 arms contractors, GEC, Marconi and VSEL, in an effort to sell many, many millions worth of arms to Saudi-Arabia. His Saudi business contact was Said Ayas, who worked for Prince Mohammed, son of King Fahd. Through multiple offshore companies in Switzerland and Panama, submarines, howitzers, medium-range laser guided bombs, Black Hawks, and EH101 helicopters were sold and shipped. In 1997 he was asked to resign as chairman of Le Cercle, but within a few years a report surfaced he had been taken up again in this group. Chaired many Parliamentary committees and business groups including The British Saudi Arabian Parliamentary Group. One of the few people who had to resign from the Privy Council. Often the media has been confused about Aitken being an Anglican or a Roman Catholic. June 12, 1999, The Tablet, 'Jonathan Aitken says Sorry': "This week the fall of Jonathan Aitken, once a star in British politics, was complete when he was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Earlier he had given an assistant editor of The Tablet access to a revealing text in which he bares his soul. "I am a man of unclean lips." The speaker is Jonathan Aitken, and he is referring quite explicitly to his perjury, for which he was sentenced on Tuesday to eighteen months in prison. He is, of course, quoting Isaiah 6:5, but he hastens to add, "I'm not for one second comparing myself to Isaiah"... The trouble with Jonathan Aitken is that the public will never take him seriously again. He held a press conference to launch his libel action against the Guardian and Granada television with these words, "I will cut out the cancer of bent and twisted journalism with the simple sword of truth", only to be impaled upon his own sword. The Guardian were able to uncover evidence to prove that he had lied over the question of who had paid his hotel bill in Paris. It might seem a small matter, but on it hung allegations of taking secret commission for multi-million-pound arms dealings, over which Aitken had lied not only to the press but also apparently to his own Government. The deceit even involved the corruption of Aitken's own daughter, 13 at the time of the hotel incident, whom he had persuaded to sign a false statement saying she was in Paris. Corruption of the young, and self-enrichment from arms dealings, are commonly put high on the list of mortal sins. How do you emerge from a reputation as a mega-liar?... he has been a church-goer for years. It is a surprise, however, to hear that he has done the Alpha course, not once but three times, graduating from a humble student to a helper who pours coffee. Even more astonishing, he has done Ignatian retreats. His first experience was in the Westminster retreats in daily life, for MPs and others working at Westminster, and in due course he went away to the Coach House in Inverness to make an individually directed eight-day retreat with the Jesuit Gerry W. Hughes." Ignatian retreats refers to the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus. Gerry Hughes is a well known religious author; his name appears in prayer located on the website of the Jesuit Centre of Ignatian Spirituality, Malta. This same news report also claimed: "... stripped as a bankrupt of his Rolex watch, still able to draw from an unspecified source living expenses of 11,400 [pounds] a month"Aitken, like his follow-up chair at Le Cercle, Lord Lamont, is a serious eurosceptic. September 2, 2005, ePolitix, 'Jonathan Aitken - former Conservative minister': "The times have also changed in that there is no constitution referendum coming, the debate now is not should we go forward with more European integration, it is now should we come out of Europe... People have realised that the dream of a federal Europe with Britain at the centre of it has been a dream that has failed. I and a few others could see that it would fail and it has. The Conservative Party, a party that said under Heath "we are the party of Europe" is now the party of changing our relationship with Europe which is a very healthy thing. So I think that the views of the early eurosceptics has been vindicated."

Albertini, Georges
Sources: 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 217-218
Born in 1911. Went to school with Georges Pompidou, a later president of the France. Teacher in History and Geography. Militant and leader of the Section Française de l'Internationale Ouvrière (SFIO) from 1933 to 1939, an important communist/socialist party, and part of Leon Blum's Popular Front. Just before the war, he became a fascist. Joined the Rassemblement National Populaire (RNP), the Vichy Laval-supporting group of Marcel Deat, which was founded early in 1941. Deat was another SFIO-socialist-turned-Fascist. Both Deat and his assistant, Georges Albertini, ended up working for Pierre Laval, Marshal Petain's premier and one of the biggest nazi collaborators of the Vichy regime. Albertini, within a few years second-in-command of the RNP, worked closely with Jean Bichelonne, Vichy's Secretary of Industrial Production 1942-1944 and supposedly a major player in the Synarchie. Patron of Cercle Européen, together with Deat. Jailed in Fresnes in September 1944. Supposedly first met with Hippolyte Worms in jail in September 1944, who, according to EIR quoting French intelligence documents from the 1930s, was identified as one of the original 12 members of the secret Synarchist Movement of Empire (SME). Albertini was sentenced to 5 years of forced labor and an additional 5 years of regular jail, but was released prematurely. According to former Cercle president Brian Crozier, who described Albertini as a friend: "From my SDECE friend, Antoine Bonnemaison, I learned that he [Albertini] was initially condemned to death but reprieved." Released after a few years and went to support De Gaulle, free enterprise and the market economy. Political advisor to Hippolyte's Banque Worms since 1951, and received regular payment since 1962. Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 103: "For many years he held two jobs: In the mornings he was political advisor to the merchant bank and business consortium, Worms. In the afternoons, he crossed the Boulevard Haussman to run his fortnightly Est & Quest, the most authoritative publication in the French language on the problems of Communism." In 1956, some time before it actually happened, Albertini accurately predicted the seizure of the Suez Canal by Colonel Nasser (who was advised, in part, by escaped Nazis). Thereby he saved millions for the investors in Compagnie Universelle du Canal de Suez, securing his job at Banque Worms practically for life. One of Albertini's post-war associates was the anti-communist marxist Boris Souvarine, who was employed by Banque Worms since the 1930s while editing La Critique Sociale. Souvarine also worked for Les Nouveaux Cahiers, a bimonthly magazine founded in March 1937, which is said to have been a Synarchie front to weaken the fascist resistance of the anti-communist left. Frequently went to South-America. Met with Filippo Anfuso in Paris in January 1957, who was a former member of Mussolini's Grand Council of Fascism and a leading neo-fascist. Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 103 & 214: "He [Albertini] had built up a huge network of informants and helpers and was increasingly consulted by those in high offices of state to which he had ceased to aspire. Moreover, he and Georges Pompidou had been at school together, and during the Pompidou presidency [1969-1974] and beyond he was a true éminence grise for the Elysée [French presidential office]... Under President Pompidou, both Albertini's network and Jean Violet's Cercle had continued the modest London-Paris axis." Albertini ran some kind of private anti-communist outfit in France, with which the IRD severed its relations in the late-1960s after a change in leadership. The new leadership, as opposed to Crozier, still regarded Albertini as a Fascist. In partnership with Albertini, Brian Crozier's Institute for the Study of Conflict (ISC) published 'Le Monde des Conflicts' in the 1970s, the French version of the ISC's 'Conflict Studies'. Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 217-218: "AT THE CERCLE meeting in Washington in December 1980, Georges Albertini had brought along a quiet Frenchman named Francois de Grossouvre. This was an impressive example of his foresight. De Grossouvre, a physician, was the closest friend and confidant of the Socialist leader and presidential candidate Francois Mitterrand. For many years, Grossouvre had carried out special missions for Mitterrand. By nature and training, he was self-effacing. He played no part in our debates, but listened carefully, taking notes. Five months later, Francois Mitterrand narrowly defeated Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in France's presidential elections. One of his first actions was to appoint de Grossouvre as his coordinator of security and intelligence. Shortly after, having obtained his direct line from Albertini, I went to see him in his modest office in the Elysée Palace." De Grossouvre is said to have been the head of the French Stay Behind network. According to Brian Crozier, when his 61 intelligence network was alarmed in March 1981 by a possible invasion of Poland by the Soviet Union, Albertini was the one who informed the Vatican about the situation. At the time the Reagan administration was working with the Vatican to undermine Soviet authority in Poland. Died in 1983.

Al-Faisal, Prince Turki
Sources: 1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come – Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei', p. 153-158; June 21, 2005, Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia - London / Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 'Ambassador talks to major foreign policy-security group'
Also spelled as Turki bin Faisal. Born in 1945. Son of King Faisal, who was assassinated in 1975, and grandson of King Ibn Saud. His father King Faisal was a major force behind the Arab oil embargo against the United States in 1973. He is a nephew of the late King Fahd al-Saud, head of the House of Saud until his death in 2005. Faisal studied at Princeton, Cambridge, and Georgetown (Jesuit) Universities. Chairman King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies. Co-Founder King Faisal Foundation. Supposedly promotes a peaceful version of Islam. Big fan of expensive cars. He is a visitor of DAVOS and headed the Saudi foreign intelligence services from 1977 to September 1, 2001, which is when he "asked" to be replaced. As the head of Saudi intelligence during the 1980s, Prince Turki was a partner of Cercle member William Casey in supporting the Afghan resistance against the Soviet invasion. September 1, 1991, Washington Post, 'Pakistan's illicit economies affect BCCI bank...': "According to diplomatic sources, Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Turki bin Faisal -- working with Pakistan's main intelligence agency -- distributed over $1 billion in cash to Afghan guerrillas during the late 1980s... The financial transactions were handled principally between Saudi intelligence and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), the main liaison between the United States, Saudi Arabia and the Afghan guerrillas, the sources said... As for drug trafficking, the sources acknowledged that Pakistan's ISI routinely condoned heroin manufacture and sales by some Afghan guerrilla groups. But they said there were also occasions when ISI cooperated with U.S. government efforts to eradicate poppy fields in Afghanistan." Some of the major Mujahedeen warlords were Abdul Rasul Sayyaf (abbu Sayyaf), Burhanuddin Rabbani, and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. One of the spiritual founders of militant Islam was Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, a Muslim Brotherhood member who believed in a "clash of civilizations", not unlike Samuel Huntington. Bin Laden was an associate of all these people. After Prince Turki resigned from his position as head of Saudi intelligence, ten days before 9/11, he became the Saudi Ambassador to Great Britain. December 5, 2002, Daily Telegraph, 'Saudi snare': "On closer examination, though, Prince Turki's appointment raises grave doubts. Some believe that he has been sent here in order to confer diplomatic immunity on him from law suits in America brought by the families of September 11 victims... Should the Saudi royal family be planning an exit strategy in the event of a popular uprising, then Prince Turki would certainly be the man to conduct it. He has scores of chits to call in with his long-time friends in the British establishment. Thus, in the current political climate, the SAS might be likelier to assist in a rescue mission for the House of Saud than America's Delta Force. On the same basis, London is a safer haven for their funds these days than New York: fewer questions asked." Because of the role of Saudi Arabia in 9/11, his old ties to Bin Laden and Wahabism have been re-examined. Turki Al-Faisal was named in a lawsuit from relatives of several hundred September 11 victims. In this lawsuit it is alleged that Prince Turki struck a deal in 1998 with the Taliban in Afghanistan whereby Saudi Arabia would stop trying to extradite bin Laden in exchange for a promise that he would not attack the kingdom (anymore). Members of the Saudi royal family, including Prince Turki, Prince Mohammed al-Faisal, and Prince Sultan, as well as Khalid bin Mahfouz are are also accused of having supplied the Bin Laden terror network with trucks and money, whether the kingdom was blackmailed or not. Had several meetings with bin Laden (and other Afghan anti-Soviet warlords/opium dealers), although he rejects any suggestion that he had dealings with the al-Qa'eda leader since the latter founded the terror group in the early 1990s. Faisal is named in a huge 911 law suit that has been launched by the victim's families against a number of Saudi princes, banks, and charities that are alleged to have funded the terrorists responsible for the attack. Faisal, together with the ISI and the CIA, played a major role in bringing the Taliban to power. In public, Faisal defends western intelligence agencies by never mentioning the role of the CIA or MI6 in financing the Bin Laden network. He did, however, talk about it at a meeting of the CFR. Wolf Blitzer of CNN interviews Faisal in January 2001 (aired February 1, 2001): "The last time I met him [Osama Bin Laden] was perhaps early 1990. It was after the soviets withdrew and he was back in the Kingdom, and he came to say hello, and he had other projects in mind which I turned down at the time, because they were so extraordinary and unacceptable." (what kind of projects, Blitzer didn't ask) November 05, 2001, The New Yorker, 'The House of Bin Laden': "Both Al-Fagih [Saad Al-Fagih, a London-based surgeon and Saudi dissident, who heads a group called Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia] and Abdel Bari Atwan [editor of Al-Quds al-Arabi, an Arabic daily newspaper in Britain, interviewed Osama bin Laden in November, 1996, and is well acquainted with people close to bin Laden] claim that bin Laden's mother has twice met with her son since he moved to Afghanistan, in 1996. Atwan said that a trip in the spring of 1998 was arranged by Prince Turki al-Faisal, then the head of Saudi intelligence. Turki was in charge of the "Afghanistan file," and had long-standing ties to bin Laden and the Taliban. Indeed, Osama, before becoming an enemy of the state, had been something of a Turki protege, according to his biographers. Prince Turki, Al-Fagih said, "made arrangements for Osama's mother and his stepfather to visit him and persuade him to stop what he was doing... he didn't promise anything... The second trip, according to Al-Fagih, occurred last spring [2001]...They wanted to find out his intentions concerning the royal family. They gave him the impression that they wouldn't crack down on his followers in Saudi Arabia" as long as he set his sights on targets outside the desert kingdom." November 1, 2001, The Guardian, 'CIA agent alleged to have met Bin Laden in July': "Two months before September 11 Osama bin Laden flew to Dubai for 10 days for treatment at the American hospital, where he was visited by the local CIA agent, according to the French newspaper Le Figaro... [French] Intelligence sources say that another CIA agent was also present; and that Bin Laden was also visited by Prince Turki al Faisal, then head of Saudi intelligence, who had long had links with the Taliban, and Bin Laden. Soon afterwards Turki resigned, and more recently he has publicly attacked him..." Dr. Muhammad al-Massari, head of the head of the London-based Saudi opposition group (which is just a more focused Pan-Arabic hideous pro terror group than Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda), Committee for the Defence of Legitimate Rights (CDLR), in a November 2003, published by the neocon Jamestown Foundation: "Never forget that the al-Sauds were once a small and irrelevant tribe. By aligning themselves with the Wahabi movement they evolved, over two and a half centuries, into the powerful establishment we see today. The legitimacy of the regime has always rested on its claim to be Islamic. That has been undermined, so everything else is coming under question... The [Saudi] regime invited the U.S. and it has to pay the price... There are two types of people in the regime who support bin Laden: 1) Some are sincerely fed up with the corruption and lack of respect for Islam. 2) The others hope to use the Jihadis for their "power game" inside the royal family. Turki Al-Faisal, the ex-intelligence chief and current Saudi ambassador in London, is one of the prime suspects... Al Qaeda has now become a jackass suitable for carrying any load... The connections are ideological and mostly informal. It is very difficult to forge operational connections. The real point is that Western intelligence can not penetrate these groups. We are talking about two divorced worlds with diametrically opposed cultures. Western intelligence is used to using bars, prostitutes and dancing clubs to entrap people, and of course the Jihadists have nothing to do with these things. Even Saudi intelligence, many of whose officers are devout classic Wahabists, has a hard time penetrating these groups. I knew someone in Kabul, and he told me that almost every one in Kabul knew, just before 9/11, that something big was going to happen in America. But of course Western intelligence had no clue." Since the London bombings al-Massari finally had some problems for being pro-terror, but London remains a relative safe haven for terrorists; many tend to be MI5 and MI6 informants. Al-Faisal was present with his wife at the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles on April 9, 2005. Partial guest list published in the Sunday Times of April 10, 2005: "The King of Bahrain; The King and Queen of the Hellenes; Prince and Princess Constantijn of the Netherlands; The Crown Prince and Princess of Norway; Prince Radu of Hohenzollern and Princess Margarita of Romania; Prince Turki al-Faisal and Princess Nouf bint Fahd of Saudi Arabia; Prince Bandar bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia; Crown Prince and Princess Alexander of Yugoslavia [Le Cercle]." Zac Goldsmith, son of the late billionaire Sir James Goldsmith [Cercle associate], and Lord Rees-Mogg were among the staff at the wedding. In July 2005 Turki al-Faisal became Saudi Ambassador to the United States as a follow-up to Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who resigned after 20 years in that post. August 8, 2005, The Independent, 'Attacks in London: Home Office denies Saudi warning of imminent attack': "Prince Turki al-Faisal, the Saudi ambassador to the UK, said yesterday that details of a possible plot to attack London " obtained from terror suspects under interrogation " had been given to British intelligence four months ago. Insiders denied receiving detailed intelligence, with one saying: 'It has been suggested a number of times that somehow or other the Metropolitan Police was aware the attacks were going to happen but did nothing. You only have to use common sense. Do you really believe that if the Metropolitan Police had such detailed intelligence they would do nothing about it or tell the public? 'There was certainly a close liaison between the Saudi Arabian intelligence authorities and the British intelligence authorities some months ago when information was passed to Britain about a heightened terrorist threat to London.'" Both Prince Bandar and Turki Al-Faisal are close to the Bush family. In the 1990s Faisal worked closely with western intelligence trying to estimate the threat posed by Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction. Supported the Iraq invasion and in 2005 he still thought the Iraqis were now "masters of their fate". At least a member of Le Cercle since 1997, but his membership probably goes back further. Spoke to Le Cercle in June 2005, where he gave his full support for the Bush Administration's agenda and denounced Al-Qaeda and the Israelis. June 27, 2004, The Telegraph, ' Saudi envoy's Zionist claims 'are offensive'': "The Saudi ambassador to London has reinforced controversial claims by the kingdom's royal family of a link between "Zionists" and recent al-Qaeda terror attacks in the country. In a television interview, to be broadcast today, Prince Turki al-Faisal is asked about comments made by Crown Prince Abdullah, Saudi Arabia's de facto leader, that "Zionist hands" have been behind the attacks... Prince Abdullah made his original remarks when he addressed a conference of leading Saudi officials and academics last month after an attack on contractors at the Yanbu oil facility that left six Westerners - including two Britons - dead. "Zionism is behind it," he said. "It has become clear now. It has become clear to us. It is not 100 per cent, but 95 per cent that Zionist hands are behind what happened." In his interview today, Prince Turki contends that Saudi Arabia has been subjected to concerted attacks by "so-called 'experts' with Zionist connections" for 50 years, and particularly since the terror atrocities of September 11, 2001... He insists that the regime is doing everything it can to root out terrorists and rejects claims that the Saudi royal family's days are numbered." Earlier, on April 27, 2004, Prince Turki said to the CFR: "To respond to the two first allegations, one must look into the phenomenon of al Qaeda and its figurehead, [Osama] bin Laden. Though a Saudi by birth, he developed his ideology and methodology in Afghanistan, under the tutelage of a radicalized cult of the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization I assume every one here knows." In 2005 and 2006, Al-Faisal warned that oil prices could rise to $200 if the United States would decide to attack Iran.

Amery, Lord Julian
Sources: November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting from the Langemann papers); 1993, Alan Clark, 'Diaries', p. 369-374; 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', page 193; June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour' (claims Amery was chair before Aitken); February 1, 1998, News Confidential, 'Jonathan Aitken MI6, CIA?'
Son of Leopold Amery (1873-1955), who concealed his whole life the fact that he was a Jew. However, Leopold was extremely pro-Zionist and Churchill once said of him that he regarded the Empire as his own personal property. As political secretary to the War Cabinet (appointed by Lord Milner) he was the author of the final draft of the Balfour Declaration which committed Britain to establishing a Jewish 'National Home' in Palestine (this letter was sent to Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild). He was highly significant in helping to create the Jewish Legion, the forerunner of what later became the Israeli army. As Dominions Secretary in the mid-1920s, he sympathetically presided over a seminal period in the growth of the Jewish community in Palestine. The senior Leopold Amery is described as "a passionate advocate of British imperialism"; he was on the staff of the Times, and wrote a 7 vol. history of the South African War for the Times; served in the Cabinet from 1916-1922; MP 1911-1945; first Lord of Admiralty 1922-1924; Secretary of State for India 1940-1945, and arranged for India to have independence. Trustee of the Rhodes Trust. Supporter of Rothschild/Warburg-financed Paneuropa Union of Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi. The envisioned Paneuropa Union did not include the British Empire. Cercle co-founder Otto von Habsburg became Coudenhove's successor while Leo's son would become head of the Cercle some day.
His second son, Julian Amery, the later Cercle chairman, was born in 1919 and educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, before starting work as a left wing war correspondent in the Spanish Civil War from 1938 to 1939. Attache on British missions to Belgrade, Ankara, Sofia and Bucharest 1939-1940. Julian was an MI6 operative, although it isn't really known what he has been doing in this function. During WWII, he enlisted as a sergeant in the RAF, but was rapidly transferred to the Army, with the rank of Captain, and sent to the Middle East. Amery was a close associate of Lt.-Col. Billy McLean, a later Cercle member (and devout christian), since these days. Another rapid transfer sent him to Yugoslavia, to liaise with the partisans fighting Germany. In 1944 he was in Albania, working with the Albanian Resistance. Churchill’s personal representative to Chiang Kai-Shek (a notorious Triad leader, Opium smuggler, and all-round criminal) in 1945 (at the time that Baron Robert Rothschild was present there, at his own request, as secretary at the embassy in Chungking, the headquarters of Chiang Kai-shek's government; Jean Monnet had earlier bridged Kai-Shek's Chinese economy with the West). In 1950 he became a Conservative member of parliament. Married Harold Macmillan's daughter in 1950, although politically he was often at odds with him. Co-founder of the CIA-sponsored Congress for Cultural Freedom and met on 24/25 June 1950 with other founders as Melvin J. Lasky of Encounter, Arthur Koestler, Richard Lowenthal and others. Representative to the Round Table Conference on Malta in 1955. Representative to the Council of Europe 1950-1956. Parliamentary Under-Secretary for War under Macmillan 1957-1958. Same function at the Colonial Office 1958-1960. Member of the Rhodesia and Nyasaland Club in the 1950s and 1960s. Member of the Other Club since 1960, over the years together with the Duke of Devonshire (Cavendish), the 7th Marquess of Salisbury (Le Cercle), Lord Carrington (Pilgrims Society president), Lord Richardson of Duntisbourne (major Pilgrims Society member), Lord Rothschild, Lord Rees-Mogg, Prince Charles, Paul Channon (Le Cercle), Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Sir Edward Heath, Sir Denis Thatcher, and Winston S. Churchill. Member of the Privy Council since 1960. Secretary of State for Air 1960-1962. Minister of Aviation 1962-1964. With his friends David Stirling and Billy McLean, and help from the Cercle-affiliated royal houses of Jordan and Saudi Arabia, he set up a private SAS war in Yemen in the early 1960s in an effort to get Nasser out. 1999, Adam Curtis, 'The Mayfair Set' (broadcasted on BBC2), videoclip of a Julian AMery speech: "The prosperity of our people rests really on the oil in the Persian Gulf, the rubber and tin of Malaya, and the gold, copper and precious metals of South- and Central Africa. As long as we have access to these; as long as we can realize the investments we have there; as long as we trade with this part of the world, we shall be prosperous. If the communists [or anyone else] were to take them over, we would lose the lot. Governments like Colonel Nasser's in Egypt are just as dangerous." Stimulated considerable controversy by his enthusiasm for the Anglo-French Concorde project in the early 1960s. At this time De Gaulle first rejected British entry into the European Union January 1, 1992, The Times, 'Secret war waged on protesters; 1961 Cabinet Papers': "Harold Macmillan's government conducted a secret war against the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament during the autumn of 1961. R.A. Butler, the home secretary, told the cabinet that evidence should be obtained against the movement's organisers showing "a definite intention to commit breaches of the law". Searches would be made the day before the protests at the homes of CND members, he said. "Evidence might become available which would warrant the immediate arrest of some its main organisers on charges of conspiracy." Julian Amery, the secretary of state for air, said if any of the demonstrators gained access to an airfield "forceful action including the use of fire-hoses and police dogs will be taken."" Out of Parliament 1966-1969. Minister of State at Public Buildings and Works under Heath 1970. Minister of State at at Housing 1970-1972. Minister of State at the Foreign Office when Great Britain joined the European Union under Heath in 1973. Foreign Office 1972-1974. Since then served in the backbenches in Parliament until his retirement in the 1990s. From about 1970 to 1992 Amery was an active member and Patron of the Conservative Monday Club, where he became friendly with general Sir Walter Walker, subsequently writing the foreword for Walker's 1980 anti-Soviet book 'The Next Domino'. President of the Conservative Monday club was Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, the 5th Marquess of Salisbury, from 1961 to 1972 (KG; PC; married into Cavendish family). His son, the 6th Marquess of Salisbury, took over in 1974 and ran it until 1981. The 7th Marquess of Salisbury (since 2003) is a member of Le Cercle while the third son of the 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, the supposed co-ordinator of the Round Table, is known to have been a member of the Pilgrims Society. The Cecils also are generational members of the Roxburghe Club, putting them in touch with the old ruling families of Britain, including Howard, Cavendish, Rothschild, Oppenheimer, and Mellon. February 22, 2002, The Independent, 'The Airey Neave File': "Critics of British policy in Ulster maintained that British intelligence became involved in treasonable policies. In 1987, the Labour MP Ken Livingstone used the cover of parliamentary privilege to suggest in the House of Commons that Airey Neave was a co-conspirator with MI5 and MI6 in disinformation activities involving the controversial whistle-blowing spies Colin Wallace and Peter Wright. He also alleged that, a week before his murder, Neave sought to recruit a former MI6 officer to set up a small group to involve itself in the internal struggles of the Labour Party... These were not the wildest allegations. There were improbable tales about how Neave, and others, had a decade earlier planned to set up an "army of resistance" to the Labour government of the Wilson era to "forestall a Communist take-over" and talked of assassinating Tony Benn should he become prime minister. Yet such was the febrile atmosphere of that Cold War epoch that some sceptics gave credibility to the possibility. This was, it must be remembered, the time, about 1970, when Auberon Waugh - fed by various sources, including his MI6 agent uncle Auberon Herbert - produced a series of clearly defamatory articles in Private Eye openly alleging that the former prime minister Harold Wilson was a KGB agent. Even as late as 1975, when Mrs Thatcher became leader of the Conservative Party, groups of senior Tories were secretly gathering to hear spy-writers such as Chapman Pincher [and Brian Crozier, an old friend with whom he worked] address them on the "grave dangers facing Britain from the left"... It was in response to such beliefs, according to claims by the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, that plans for secret armed cells to resist a more left-wing Labour government were drawn up by a group that included George Kennedy Young - the ex-deputy director of the British intelligence service MI6 and a notorious racist and anti-Semite - and Airey Neave. The claim gained unexpected credence when, despite official MoD denials, two former British Army generals - Sir Anthony Farrar-Hockley, the former Nato commander of Allied Forces Northern Europe, and General Sir Walter Walker, another former head of Nato's forces - confirmed that a secret armed network of selected civilians was set up in Britain after the war and was secretly modernised in the Thatcher years and maintained into the 1980s. Moreover, Searchlight alleged, Neave and Young were key figures in an extreme-right group called Tory Action, which was at the centre of a smear campaign, involving the secret services, aimed at discrediting the Labour government in Britain in 1975." Like the Cecils, Amery was one of the most prominent supports of Ian Smith's racist white-minority government in Rhodesia in the 1970s. Smith's pro-business Rhodesian government had broken itself of from the Wilson government in 1965 to keep the wealthy white minority rule in place. Corporations like Lonrho supported this decision until the situation in the mid 1970s became untenable. Attacked Thatcher in 1979 in a bitter and powerful speech over her decision to abandon the Rhodesian Muzorewa-Smith government (Sept 5, 1996, The Independent, Amery's obituary). May 17, 2002 issue, Jeffrey Steinberg for Executive Intelligence Review, 'Ariel Sharon: Profile of an Unrepentant War Criminal': "On Nov. 15, 1982, a final meeting took place on several real estate purchases, mostly through Arab middle-men, to push the massive expansion of Jewish settlements throughout the West Bank at a handsome profit. Attending the meeting at Sharon's ranch were: Kissinger [Cercle], Lord Harlech (Sir David Ormsby-Gore), Johannes von Thurn und Taxis [1001 Club], Tory Parliamentarian Julian Amery [Cercle], Sir Edmund Peck, and MI-6 Mideast mandarin Nicholas Elliot [Cercle]." Appointed president/chairman of Le Cercle at the suggestion of Brian CRozier in 1985 and remained in this post until the early 1990s. Known to have attended the 1990 Cercle meeting in Oman. Present at a January 22, 1986 dinner hosted by Margaret and Denis Thatcher in honor of Shimon Peres. Jacob Rothschild and his wife, Mrs. Montefiore, Sir Geoffrey Howe, and Leon Brittan were among the few dozen guests. Chairman of the London branch of the Global Economic Action Institute, which which was funded by Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church. July 6, 1986, Sunday Times, 'Top Thatcher aides linked to Moonie cult': "Two of Mrs Thatcher's top advisers, the head of the No 10 policy unit, Brian Griffiths, and her former economics guru, Professor Sir Alan Walters, have unwittingly joined an organisation funded by the Moonie cult along with a senior backbench Conservative MP. Both Griffths and Walters are listed as standing committee members of a free-market organisation called the Global Economic Action Institute, which holds economic and political conferences around the world. Following accusations by a cult monitoring group in the United States, the institute admitted last week that it was funded by the Moonie organisation. Also on the standing committee of the institute is the president of the Moonie church, Dr Mose Durst, who is listed as a senior director of the institute. The London arm of the institute is chaired by Julian Amery, the Conservative MP for Brighton Pavilion. The headquarters of the organisation are on Fifth Avenue in New York... In 1981 a British jury accepted that the controversial Moonie organisation - officially called the Unification Church - split families and used brainwashing to recruit and keep its predominantly young membership... Walters said that although he was told 'some time ago' by the institute's chairman, Robert Anderson, that the church was one of the funders of the institute, he felt that the actions of the institute should be judged on their own merit and he would not be resigning. Walters last week called for a more tolerant attitude towards the religion although he said that he was not a member." May 19, 1989, The Times, 'Social charter 'treat to employment': "Mr Julian Amery (Brighton Pavilion, C) said that Britain should agree to join the European Monetary System, not just when the time was right, but when British inflation was lower and there had been time to study the consequences of other EC countries abandoning their exchange controls." This would have put him at odds with Margaret Thatcher and later Cercle chairman Lord Norman Lamont. Consultant to the extremely corrupt Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) in the 1980s. August 7, 1991, Washington Post, 'BCCI Adept at Courting the Powerful and Rich': "In Britain, two senior Conservative members of Parliament and one former member listed themselves as consultants to BCCI -- part of what has been described as a global network of highly placed advisers. They are Sir Julian Ridsdale, a former defense minister; Julian Amery; and former Parliament member Sir Frederic Bennett, an honorary director of BCCI in Hong Kong until 1986 who received $10,000 a year from BCCI, according to the Sunday Observer. Amery declined to tell the Observer how much he received and could not be reached for comment here, but he has said he advised the bank on international affairs." Sir Frederic Mackarness Bennett (owned a Rolls-Royce and four homes, one of them in the Cayman Islands; director Kleinwort Benson Europe (his mother was a Kleinwort); long time Lloyds underwriter; influential member of Parliament from the 1950s to the 1980s; member Monday Club; always warning people about the KGB threat and supported every regime that opposed the USSR; chair FARI in 1978; vice-president of the European-Atlantic Group; leading official in the private group Council of Europe in the late 1970s and 1980s; honorary director of the BCCI in Hong Kong until 1986; Member of the Privy Council since 1985; ridiculed his party's (Conservatives) for their Euroscepticism after his retirement in 1987; supported Pinochet; Freeman of the City of London; has been to Bilderberg) was a member of relatively high society. In October 1998 Bennett wrote in The Times: "Sir, Of course it is true that Britain owes General Pinochet (reports, October 19, 20; letters October 20) and his then Government a deep debt of gratitude for the attitudes and actions by Chile from the onset of the Falklands war and throughout the conflict. It is undeniable that they shortened the war, and saved many British servicemen's lives." Lord Norman Lamont of Le Cercle also defended Pinochet; Cercle member Kissinger helped him to power. Became a Baron in 1992. Mentor to Jonathan Aitken, a later chairman of Le Cercle and another member of the Privy Council. Consistently voted against the return of the death penalty. Announced he would leave the House of Commons in January 1991 to spent more time with his wife, who was ill. Lady Catherine Amery, Julian's wife, died in July 1991. At the memorial services were present: the Duke of Devonshire (Cavendish; Roxburghe Club), the Marquess of Salisbury (Cecil; Roxburghe Club), Viscount and Viscountess Cranborne (Cecil; Cercle; Roxburghe Club), Lord Charles Cecil, Philippa Viscountess Astor, Paul Channon (Cercle), Sir Erik Bennett (Cercle), Dr Omar Al-Zawawi (personal advisor to the Sultan of Oman of the Cercle), Jonathan Aitken (Cercle), Nicholas Elliott (Cercle), and Winston S. Churchill (MP). The Times described him after has retirement announcement: "Julian Amery has trod the boards for 40 years. Like many of his generation, he had a good war, and has been defending the British empire ever since. To listen to him orate is to return to the pre-war House of Commons; plummy and proud, he could have stepped neatly out of the pages of Chips Channon's diaries. More recently, hidden behind a camel-driver's beard, he has said ``a few words'' over the grave of his chief enemy, Russian communism." Died in December 1996. Robert Cecil, a good friend of his, wrote an obituary: "The evening before his memorial service, Julian Amery's children held a party in his house in Eaton Square... As we drank, the sense of Julian Amery's spirit in the room was overwhelming. It seeped from the faded green paint on the walls; from the well-used but elegant furniture; from the photographs of foreign monarchs and statesmen on the tables; from the presents they had given lying about the room, golden swords and daggers, oriental carpets, arcana from all over the world. Above all, it seeped from us: British Cabinet ministers and politicians, spies, adventurers, servants of Empire, post-imperial servants of the Crown in foreign lands, Omanis, Afghans, Romanians, Albanians, Persians, Jordanians, Americans. Some, including the British, were political exiles. Some were high in their countries' governments... He was a British politician who never became a member of the Cabinet, an Air Minister who later became Minister of Housing and Minister of State at the Foreign Office. He was caricatured by the press as a white supremacist, a right-winger, an anachronism. And for them it must have been true. He had a plummy voice to prove it. In fact, Amery was a politician with a certain idea of this country. He was a patriot who believed in a British mission to the world, but who was convinced that our place was in Europe. He was a romantic, reared on the romance of Empire and of the great game, but who made a study of the realities of power. He believed in British culture and tradition, but he sympathised with the traditions of the peoples of the book."
The older brother of Julian, John Amery, was a gun-runner for General Franco (Knight of Malta) and an Italian intelligence officer. He met with Jacques Doriot, a French Fascist leader and was recruited by the Nazis. In November 1942, he began making pro Adolf Hitler broadcasts in Berlin. In April 1943 Amery established the Legion of St. George and attempted to persuade British prisoners to fight for Germany against the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front. In the final months of the war Amery moved to Italy where he made propaganda speeches on behalf of Benito Mussolini. He also made broadcasts on Italian radio. Amery was captured by Italian partisans in Milan in April 1945, and soon afterwards was handed over to the British authorities. After being interviewed by MI5 John Amery was tried for high treason and hanged.

Andreotti, Giulio
Sources: October 1989 – Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe'; 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', pages 186, 191-193, and 241; 2002, David Rockefeller, 'Memoirs', pg. 412-413, referring to the Pesenti Group
Born in 1919. Former Italian prime minister, Knight of Malta (SMOM), and and great sympathiser of Opus Dei (other sources claim he is, or was, a member). June 28, 2001, Wall Street Journal, 'Knights of Malta Seek Respect From U.N. as Bona Fide Nation': "Count Marullo, whose 12,000 knights world-wide include King Juan Carlos of Spain and former Italian Premiers Francesco Cossiga and Giulio Andreotti, is bent on making the world pay more serious attention to all these trappings of sovereignty." May 18, 1992, New York Times: "In one of the most hotly debated acts of his papacy, Pope John Paul II beatified the Spanish founder of the conservative Opus Dei religious movement today, elevating Msgr. Jose Maria Escriva de Balaguer to a status just short of sainthood only 17 years after his death. The crowd overflowing St. Peter's Square numbered more than 200,000 and was one of the biggest ever seen at the Vatican -- testimony to the reach and influence that inspire many liberal Catholics to label Opus Dei a sinister and powerful force for conservatism in the church and elsewhere. One of the guests at the occasion was Italy's caretaker Prime Minister, Giulio Andreotti." 1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come – Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei', p. 208: "Of the five [most important anti-communists of Italy], Andreotti took precedence in matters of policy, being nearest to the power structures of the Church and the Free World's political systems. Andreotti was the closest layman to Paul VI and he had his admirers in every capital of the Western Alliance... Andreotti had been on an Opus Dei retreat at the Castle of Urio on Lake Como, in northern Italy, and was received at the Villa Tevere by Escrivá de Balaguer." Graduated in Law in 1941 and later specialized in Canon Law (Roman Catholic Law). When Andreotti was head of the Catholic University Students' Federation from 1942 to 1944, he served as an assistant to Monsignor Montini, the later Pope Paul VI from 1963 to 1978. Co-founder of the still illegal Christian Democratic Party in 1943, together with the Paneuropean Alcide de Gasperi, who had a more dominant role in the founding. The Christian Democratic Party was the dominant party in Italy from 1948 to 1992. National delegate of the youth group of the Christian Democrat Party in 1944-1945. Became a member of the National Council of the Christian Democrat Party in 1945. Deputy in the Constituent Assembly since 1946 and would remain so throughout his entire political life. Under-secretary of State 1947-1954, until 1953 under de Gasperi. Minister for the Interior in January 1954. Minister of Finance 1955-1958. Secretary of the Treasury 1958-1959. Minister of Defense 1959-1966 under 5 different prime ministers. 2005, Daniele Ganser, 'NATO's Secret Armies', p. 70-71: "On election day in April 1963 the CIA nightmare materialised: The Communists gained strength while all other parties lost seats.... the Socialists were also given cabinet posts in the Italian government under Prime Minister Aldo Moro of the left-wing of the DCI [Christian Democratic Party]... Kennedy had allowed Italy to shift to the left. As the Socialists were given cabinet posts the Italian Communists, due to their performance at the polls, also demanded to be rewarded with posts in the cabinet and in May 1963 the large union of the construction workers demonstrated in Rome. The CIA was alarmed and members of the secret Gladio army disguised as police and civilians smashed the demonstration leaving more than 200 demonstrators injured. (46) But for Italy the worst was yet to come. In November 1963, US President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, under mysterious circumstances. And five months later the CIA with SIFAR, the Gladio secret army and the paramilitary police carried out a right-wing coup d'état which forced the Italian Socialists to leave their cabinet posts they had held only for such a short period. Code-named 'Piano Solo' the coup was directed by General Giovanni De Lorenzo whom Defence Minister Giulio Andreotti of the DCI had transferred from chief of SIFAR to chief of the Italian paramilitary police, the Carabinieri. In close cooperation with CIA secret warfare expert Vernon Walters, William Harvey, chief of the CIA station in Rome, and Renzo Rocca, Director of the Gladio units within the military secret service SID, De Lorenzo escalated the secret war. Rocca first used his secret Gladio army to bomb the offices of the DCI and the offices of a few daily newspapers and thereafter blamed the terror on the left in order to discredit both the Communists and the Socialists. (47)" Andreotti earned the label "the most powerful man in Rome, after the Pope" in the 1960s. Minister for Industry and Trade 1966-1968. Head of the Christian Democratic Party 1968-1972. Appointed by president Guiseppe Saragat on July 11, 1970 to try to form a new government with the four parties of the center-left coalition. In December 1970 another right-wing coup called Operation Tora Tora was about to happen, but it was called off at the last moment. Knight of Malta Prince Valerio Borghese, rescued by Knight of Malta James James Angleton at the end of World War II, was the leader of the coup. Stefano Delle Chiaie was another leading figure in the coup, which was supported by right wing elements in the CIA and NATO. Italian Prime Minister 1972–1973. Minister of Defense March-November 1974. Denied the existence of Gladio in 1974. Minister for the Budget and Economic Planning 1974-1976 under Aldo Moro. Prime minister of Italy 1976-1979. Again denied the existence of Gladio in 1978. 2005, Daniele Ganser, 'Nato's Secret Armies', p. 80: "Italy was in shock [over the kidnapping of Aldo Moro in 1978]. The military secret service and acting Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti immediately blamed the left-wing terrorist organization Red Brigades for the crime and cracked down on the left. 72,000 roadblocks were erected and 37,000 houses were searched. More than 6 million people were questioned in less than two months. While Moro was held captive his wife Eleonora spent the days in agony together with her closest family and friends and even asked Pope Paul IV [not a supporter of Opus Dei], a long-standing friend of her husband, for help. 'He told me he would do everything possible and I know he tried, but he found a lot of opposition.'" In March 1981, Italian police raided the villa of Licio Gelli, a Knight of Malta and the ultra-right leader of the P2 Lodge. 2005, Daniele Ganser, 'Nato's Secret Armies', p. 74: "Frank Gigliotti [one-time assistant to a hypnotist; Presbyterian clergyman; worked with teenaged boys, for whom he organized a social club named the Guiseppe Mazzini Club; recruited by the OSS; active in Italy] of the US Masonic Lodge personally recruited Gelli and instructed him to set up an anti-Communist parallel government in Italy in close cooperation with the CIA station in Rome. 'It was Ted Shackley, director of all covert operations of the CIA in Italy in the 1970s', an internal report of the Italian anti-terrorism unit confirmed, 'who presented the chief of the Masonic Lodge to Alexander Haig'. According to the document, Nixon's Military adviser General Haig [later Pilgrims Society executive], who had commanded US troops in vietnam and thereafter from 1974 to 1979 served as NATO's SACEUR, and Nixon's National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger [Le Cercle] 'authorized Gelli in the fall of 1969 to recruit 400 high ranking Italian and NATO officers into his lodge'. (60)... the secretive anti-Communist P2 members list confiscated [in 1981] counted at least 962 members, with total leadership estimated at 2,500... 52 were high-ranking officers of the Carabinieri paramilitary police, 50 were high-ranking officers of the Italian Army, 37 were high-ranking officers of the Finance Police, 29 were high-ranking officers of the Italian Navy, 11 were Presidents of the police, 70 were influential and wealthy industrialists, 10 were Presidents of banks, 3 were acting Ministers, 2 were former Ministers, 1 was President of a political party, 38 were members of parliament and 14 were high-ranking judges. Others on lower levels of the social hierarchy were mayors, Directors of hospitals, lawyers, notaries and journalists." Although Gelli's files had vanished by the time his villa was raided, the index of his files was discovered, and some of the headings included Giulio Andreotti's name. Roberto Calvi's [Knight of Malta, "God's banker", and found hanging below a bridge in the City of London] widow pointed to Giulio Andreotti as the true head of P2. 1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come – Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei', p. 263-264: "P2 was formed in the late 1960s, allegedly at the behest of Giordano Gamberini, a Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Italy and friend of Gulio Andreotti. But he was much closer to Francesco Cosentino, who also was well introduced in Vatican circles. Either Andreotti or Cosentino, or perhaps both, were said to have suggested the creation of a small cell of trusted right-wing personalities in key national sectors, but especially banking, intelligence and the press, to guard against what they perceived as 'the creeping communist threat'. The person Gamberini chose to develop the P2 Lodge was a small-time textile magnate from the Tuscan town of Arezzo, midway between Florence and Perugia, who after two as a Freemason had risen to the Italian equivalent of Master Mason. His name, of course, was Licio Gelli. But the P2's top man, according to Calvi, was none other than Andreotti, followed in line of command by Cosentino and Ortolani [Umberto Ortolani; secret chamberlain of the Papal Household; member of the inner council of the Knights of Malta; said to be a member of Cardinal Giacomo Lercano; met with Licio Gelli, Roberto Calvi, and others in Rome in December 1969]. Andreotti always denied Calvi's allegation. But the fact remains that Calvi feared Andreotti more than Gelli or Ortolani. As for Cosentino, he died soon after the P2 hearings began. The truth of the matter, [professor] Javier Sainz said, is that the P2 Lodge was part of a secret right-wing network created with the Vatican's blessing as part of the Occident's bulwark against communism. The P1 Lodge was in France and the P3 Lodge was in Madrid. The P3 was headed by a former minister of Justice, Pio Cabanillas Gallas [cabinet minister under Franco, the dictator of Spain until 1975; secretary of the Council of the Realm, Franco's highest advisory body; Minister of Information and Tourism; remained influential in government after Franco's death; Minister of Culture; Minister of Justice 1981-1982; more centrist than Cercle member Munoz; member of the European Parliament]". Minister of Foreign Affairs 1983-1989. Supported the installing of American nuclear missiles in Europe. Prime Minister of Italy 1989-1991. On August 3, 1990, after having been put under pressure by Italian judge Felice Casson, Andreotti was the first person to admit that there existed a secret army of "stay-behind" units in Italy. In the case of Italy this unit was called Gladio and it had been involved in terrorist attacks on its own citizens, while blaming it on left-wing groups. This is how it kept the communist influence out of Europe. It soon turned out that these were hidden away in the secret services of most western countries. In 1993, Andreotti was investigated for corruption and accused of protecting the Mafia. Indicted in 1995, he also went to trial in 1996 for ordering the murder of a journalist said to have incriminating information. In 1999, he was acquitted of both sets of charges, a decision that ultimately was upheld on appeal. 1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come – Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei', p. 350: "In 1994 Andreotti's friend and former foreign trade minister, Claudio Vitalone, brother of the lawyer Wilfredo with whom Carboni had been in almost hourly phone contact while shadowing Calvi's flight to London, was charged with ordering Pecorelli's [journalist who informed Andreotti beforehand he was putting out some damaging information on him] slaying. Accused with him were Mafia bosses Gaetano Badalamenti and Pippo Calò. Andreotti, friend of three popes who claimed never in his long career of public service to have forsaken his Catholic principles, joined them at trial, accused of issuing the contract against Pecorelli. Magistrates in Palermo had already stunned the world by accusing 'Uncle Giulio' of 'protecting, assisting and consorting with the Cosa Nostra' in return for electioneering support that helped maintain the Christian Democrat Party and Andreotti at the apex of Italian political life for more than three decades." Has been named as a member of the controversial Order of Zion, if it even exists or existed. Other rumors about the Order of Zion have named Cercle members Alain Poher and Otto von Habsburg.

Auchi, Nadhmi
Sources: April 6, 2003, The Observer, 'So, Norman, any regrets this time?'; September 5, 2004, Sunday Times, 'Le Cercle of the elite'
Auchi's business empire, which has assets worth more than £1bn, is held offshore in structures whose ownership is difficult to penetrate. His holding firm, General Mediterranean Holdings SA, is registered in Luxembourg, and the Luxembourg and EU politician Jacques Santer sits on its board (In 1999, the Santer (EU) Commission resigned from their posts after charges of corruption. Santer is a Bilderberger and a supporter of Opus Dei). Lord Lamont, the Rothschild associate who headed Le Cercle, used to be another employee of General Mediterranean Holdings. Billionaire Nadhmi Auchi is widely regarded as a corrupt supporter of Saddam Hussein's regime who got his money from doing deals, especially illegal arms transfers for Saddam. Auchi is a central figure in the U.N. oil-for-food program where both U.S. Congress and a special U.N. investigation are looking into massive corruption and a missing $10 billion. Auchi is a member of Saddam Hussein's inner circle and was tried alongside Saddam Hussein for his involvement in a conspiracy to assassinate an Iraqi prime minister in the 1950s. Auchi used money from military contracts in Iraq to establish close political, business and banking contacts in Britain, Luxembourg, and the U.S. The Observer has discovered that Auchi met Saddam's number two, Tariq Aziz, as recently as October 2002 at a gala dinner in Beirut. But Auchi also has links with British intelligence, through the former senior MI6 officer Anthony Cavendish (Le Cercle), who acts as a consultant to Auchi's business empire. During the Gulf War II, Auchi was reported to have full run of the palace in the Green Zone and met with "everyone important," including CPA top leader Paul Bremer. Attempts by a French investigating magistrate to have Auchi arrested during corruption inquiries had been blocked by Britain since July 2001. In November 2003, Auchi was honoured by the catholic Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George and the Royal Order of Francis I. In April 2004 he was briefly arrested. In November Auchi, 66, was given a 15-month suspended sentence and fined £1.4m by a French court for receiving illegal commissions to help Elf build an oil refinery in Spain. Despite this setback, Auchi, a British citizen who lives in London, is forging ahead with the rebuilding of Iraq, his birthplace. The May 2004 Defense Department report said: "His first business coup was to broker a deal to sell Italian frigates to the Iraqi defense ministry, for which he received millions of dollars in commission. The deal to buy the ships and other military equipment from the Italian naval shipyards, Catiri Navali Riunit, sparked an Italian parliamentary investigation into alleged bribes. Investigators discovered that a Panamanian company owned by Auchi, the Dowal Corporation, was used to funnel alleged illegal payments." In the 1980s, he was investigated for his part in alleged bribes to the corrupt leaders of post-war Italy. In the 1990s, the Belgium Ambassador to Luxembourg claimed that Auchi's bank held money Saddam and Colonel Gadaffi had stolen from their luckless peoples. Auchi is chairman of Anglo-Arab Organization (AAO). The July 2004 meeting was attended by Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, Michael Howard (Le Cercle), the Conservative Party leader and leader of the opposition, king Abdullah of Jordan, Sheikh Badawi (Islamic College of London), together with many political, business and media elite. During the 2004 AAO conference Auchi said: " [the organisation, at its core] is the desire to build on, and further enhance, the fruitful, warm and productive relations which have existed over so many centuries between the United Kingdom and the Arab world." Auchi stressed AAO's important role in furthering interfaith dialogue as well as supporting initiatives aimed at "further integration of the welcomed British Arab community into mainstream society." On one of the pictures Auchi is shaking hands with Prince Andrew and king Abdullah. Another ambiguity of his relations with the UK is demonstrated by one of his mementos, hanging in pride of place in his office - a portrait of the houses of parliament which 130 MPs of all parties have signed. It was presented to him by the science minister, Lord Sainsbury, "on behalf of Tony Blair" at the 20th anniversary ceremony of his GMH company.

Bach, Dr. Franz Josef
Sources: 1993, Alan Clark, 'Diaries', p. 369-374; 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', page 193; June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour'
Born in 1917. Personal assistant to Konrad Adenauer (ran his office), who was chancellor of the Federal Republic of West Germany from 1949 to 1963. CDU (Conservative) member of the Bundestag from 1969 to 1972. German ambassador to Iran. Commercial and financial advisor to the Siemens Corporation, which later went into business with Northrop, the General Telephone and Electronics Corporation, and the Nippon Electric Company in Iran. At about the time Bach retired from the Bundestag, he went to work for the swiss-based Economic and Development Corporation (EDC), an unacknowledged lobbying group for Northrop. The EDC received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Northrop. When Bach was interviewed over the phone during the 1975 Church Committee hearings about bribes that had been paid by the Northrop Corporation, he stated that he received no payments from Northrop or the EDC. On the other hand, he had been named as a shareholder of EDC and acknowledged that he had "advised them [EDC] about political things - the stability of a country, whether it was going to be an industrial country or not, whether it was going to be stable or not... I go to the country, see the country and make a report." (June 10, 1975, New York Times, 'Northrop Apologizes on Saudi Bribes; Senator Church Urges Sales Reforms') He refused to say what countries he had worked on, but said it did not involve Germany. He "could not remember" exactly if he started to work for the corporation when he still was a member of the Bundestag. In March 1975, Bach and other senior members of EDC were invited to the headquarters of Northop. Senator Church said about the Northrop arrangement: "an intelligence network like a government would emply to get inside information, to pull the strings... the records itself show that Northrop has been doing it." (June 10, 1975, New York Times, 'Northrop Apologizes on Saudi Bribes; Senator Church Urges Sales Reforms') Northrop officials had described it "a way of live, a necessary evil." EDC, founded in 1971, described itself as a company that tries "to seek economic relations with developing countries with the purpose of encouraging the economic development of these countries" (June 10, 1975, New York Times, 'Northrop apologizes on Saudi Bribes; Senator Church Urges Sales Reforms'). In 1972, Bach wrote a report for Andreas Froriep, a Zurich lawyer who ran the EDC. Froriep did acknowledge that he regularly relied on advise from people like Franz Josef Bach, "whose knowledge and expertise is of a unique nature" (July 27, 1975, New York Times, 'The F-16 and how it won Europe'). By 1975, Northop's F-17 had lost from its General Dynamics competitor who had built the F-16. Alan Clark about the 1990 meeting of Le Cercle: "The Cercle, an Atlanticist Society of right-wing dignitaries, largely compered by Julian Amery and Herr Franz-joseph Bach, staged one or two conferences a year and this one was travelling to Oman at the hospitality of the Ruler." In his 1993 biography, Brian Crozier wrote: "In 1980, Violet, who had serious health problems, asked me to take over the Pinay Cercle. In practice, I mostly shared the burden with a leading German member of the Cercle, Franz-Josef Bach, who had run Adenauer's secretariat and later served as ambassador in Tehran." Died in 2001.

Bennett, Sir Erik
Sources: 1993, Alan Clark, 'Diaries', p. 369-374
Born in 1928. Briefly served as an adviser to King Hussein of Jordan before moving to Oman in the early 1970s. In Oman he became an officer successfully helping Sultan Qaboos fight Marxist rebels in Dhofar. Became a commander (Air Marshal) of Oman's Air Force in 1974, and still was in 1990 when Le Cercle held a meeting in Muscat in 1990. Alan Clark about the 1990 Le Cercle meeting: "I had a good meeting with Erik Bennett. He is a courtier of the very highest class. What are the characteristics? The voice, the intonation, the clarity of diction. The superficial speaking well of all and everyone. The way all communication occurs by the lightest of implied comment. Smooth, unwrinkled skin, and limitless endurance through ceremonial tedium. Also, in Erik's case, intelligence and wit. He has set up a draft letter 'from' HM inquiring about surplus military equipment sales after (EB said) 'rapprochement with Iraq'. I substituted 'a clearer determination of unpredictability in the region', which he admitted was preferable." When the Sultan's car was rammed from behind by a speeding car in Salalah, where he likes to spend the summer, on September 11, 1995, Bennett was sitting right next to him, and was seriously injured. Qaboos' deputy premier for economics and finance Qais Al Zawawi was killed in the crash. Bennett wasn't married.

Botta, Colonel
Sources: October 1989 – Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe'
Swiss Military Intelligence Chief of Provisions. Attended the June 28-29, 1980 Zurich meeting of the Pinay Circle.

Brzezinski, Zbigniew
Sources: 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', pages 186, 191-193, and 241
MA in Political Science of McGill University in 1950. PhD from Harvard University in 1953. Institute government and research fellow of the Russian Research Center at Harvard University 1953-1956. Guest lecturer at numerous private and government institutions since 1953. Participant in many international conferences since 1955. Assistant professor of government and research associate Russian Research Center and Center International Affairs at Harvard University 1956-1960. Associate professor of public law and government at Columbia University 1960-1962. Member of the faculty of the Russian Institute 1960-1977. Member of the Joint Committee on Contemporary China at the Social Science Research Council 1961-1962. Director of Research Institute of International Change 1962-1977. Member of the Policy Planning Council of the Department of State from 1966 to 1968. Always been very anti-communist. Columnist of Newsweek 1970-1972. Director of the Council on Foreign Relations from 1972 to 1977. Set up the Trilateral Commission at the request of David Rockefeller in 1973. Director of the Trilateral Commission 1973-1976. National Security Advisor to Carter 1977-1981. January 15-21, 1998, Le Nouvel Observateur, Interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski: "According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention... That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter. We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire... Nonsense [that Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace]! It is said that the West had a global policy in regard to Islam. That is stupid. There isn't a global Islam. Look at Islam in a rational manner and without demagoguery or emotion. It is the leading religion of the world with 1.5 billion followers. But what is there in common among Saudi Arabian fundamentalism, moderate Morocco, Pakistan militarism, Egyptian pro-Western or Central Asian secularism? Nothing more than what unites the Christian countries." Cercle members William Casey and Turki Al-Faisal would step up the funding of the Afghan resistance in the early 1980s under Reagan. Advisor to Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. Professor of public law and government at Columbia University 1981-1989. According to Nexus Magazine, the following statement was made more than 25 years ago in a book which Brzezinski wrote while a professor at Columbia University: "Political strategists are tempted to exploit research on the brain and human behaviour. Geophysicist Gordon J. F. MacDonald [JASON scholar] -specialist in problems of warfare-says accurately-timed, artificially-excited electronic strokes 'could lead to a pattern of oscillations that produce relatively high power levels over certain regions of the Earth... In this way, one could develop a system that would seriously impair the brain performance of very large populations in selected regions over an extended period..." Trustee and counselor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) since 1981. Co-chair of the CSIS Advisory Board (located at the Jesuit Georgetown University, from which Brzezinski holds honorary degrees). Member of the President's Chemical Warfare Commission in 1985. Member of the NSC's Defense Department Commission on Integrated Long-Term Strategy 1987-1988. Member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board 1987-1989. Co-chairman of the Bush National Security Advisory Task Force in 1988. In 1991, identified as a member of the advisory council of Americares (former honorary chair), together with Cercle member general Richard Stilwell. J. Peter Grace is chair of the advisory council and it counts heavy involvement of the Bushes and SMOM. August 11, 1991, Hartford Courant, 'Americares' success hailed, criticized charity uses clout and connections...': "Other international relief agencies marvel at AmeriCares' ability to cut red tape, navigate complex international protocol, perform in the public spotlight and simultaneously claim some of the lowest administrative expenses among groups of its kind... Much of AmeriCares' success comes from its ability to harness three potent forces: powerful political connections, alliances with influential religious figures and groups and cooperative ventures with businesses... Knowledgeable former federal officials, many with backgrounds in intelligence work, help AmeriCares maneuver in delicate international political environments. Its connections with the Roman Catholic Church have brought AmeriCares an influential ally in the Knights of Malta, a Catholic group that helps deliver relief supplies. And its ventures with pharmaceutical companies have filled AmeriCares' warehouses with donated supplies... n the international relief community, where there is an expectation that groups will operate altruistically and free of political motives, some complain about the way AmeriCares aggressively seeks media coverage and appears to design its missions to benefit conservative political causes... Photographs on the office's forest-green walls show [Robert C.] Macauley [wealthy; founder and chairman of AmeriCares] with former President Reagan, Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa... Macauley's friendship with [George W.] Bush dates back to childhood... Bush's son, Jeb, and the president's grandson, George P. Bush, went with AmeriCares to Armenia in 1988 to help survivors of a devastating earthquake... The president's brother, Prescott S. Bush Jr. of Greenwich, is a member of AmeriCares' advisory board... The chairman of the advisory committee is J. Peter Grace Jr... Retired Army Gen. Richard G. Stilwell, former deputy undersecretary of defense in charge of intelligence under Reagan, is also on the advisory committee. Another member is William E. Simon... Simon was also president of the Nicaraguan Freedom Fund, a now defunct private group formed by the Washington Times newspaper to send aid to the contras. (The Washington Times is owned by a group that includes officials of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church.) Gordon J. Humphrey, a retired Republican senator from New Hampshire who was a member of the Senate foreign relations committee, is also on the committee. And Zbigniew Brzezinski, the conservative former national security adviser for President Carter, is honorary chairman of the AmeriCares board of directors."... "Personally I have some questions about the way they focus," said one longtime worker in international aid. "They're connected into the American Republican power elite. You might say they work in areas where there is a large anti-communist benefit."... criticism has come from writers who contend that AmeriCares made shipments of aid to the contras in Nicaragua... Among the aid AmeriCares sent to Nicaragua in 1985 was newsprint for La Prensa, the anti-Sandinista newspaper... A review of AmeriCares' well publicized airlift missions shows that the organization sends aid rapidly and frequently to "hot spots" of public attention, places where disaster aid from America might reflect favorably on the U.S. government... In 1988, AmeriCares sent a series of airlifts to Armenia in the Soviet Union to help survivors of an earthquake. "That did more for the image of the United States than anything in recent history," Macauley said... In the early 1970s, at a time when his interest in international aid was beginning to coalesce into AmeriCares, Macauley heard about a Catholic priest named Bruce Ritter who was struggling to help runaway children on the streets of New York City... The alliance between Macauley and Ritter led to an audience with Pope John Paul II in Rome in 1982. (Ritter left Covenant House in February 1990 after accusations of sexual misconduct with some male runaways he was helping). The meeting with the pope gave life to AmeriCares. Although Macauley started AmeriCares in 1979, the organization did not go on its first relief mission until 1982, when the pope asked Macauley to send aid to his native Poland. AmeriCares' contacts with important Catholic figures brought it a valuable ally in the Knights of Malta, a Catholic organization that has helped distribute AmeriCares supplies. The Knights of Malta, formally known as the Sovereign Military Order of Knights Hospitallers of St. John and Jerusalem, is a worldwide Catholic charity founded in the 11th century to care for soldiers in the Crusades. Today, the group is based in Rome. J. Peter Grace, a member of AmeriCares' advisory board, is president of the American chapter of the Knights of Malta, based in New York City. William Simon, another AmeriCares advisory committee member, is also a member... The Knights of Malta make AmeriCares' job easier because of its worldwide network of volunteers, said Johnson, the president of AmeriCares. Members of the group, many of whom are independently wealthy, can be trusted to deliver the aid to its intended destination and do so more efficiently than AmeriCares, he said. "By using the Knights, there's very little opportunity for diversion," Johnson said. "They've all made their fortunes. Now they're interested in charity."... Because almost 50 countries afford the Knights of Malta the same status as a sovereign nation, they are often exempt from fees for border crossings and can pass customs inspections more easily. "The host country will generally waive inspection and duty," said Thomas L. Sheer, executive director of the American chapter of the Knights of Malta and an assistant to J. Peter Grace. "We can use that diplomatic status to move right through customs and to not pay customs fees. We can exploit that, particularly within a time of crisis."... Despite his ties to the Roman Catholic Church, Macauley is not Catholic, although he describes himself as a religious man. "They say I'm a right-wing Catholic conservative," Macauley said. "I'm not a Catholic, even though I go to Mass almost every day. I'm a very devout Protestant, I guess you'd call it." AmeriCares also receives small donations from Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network and the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church. AmeriCares has kept the commitment to Poland it began at the behest of the pope. "We go to Poland every week, either by ship or by plane," Macauley said. Between 1982 and this March, AmeriCares sent $94 million in aid to Poland, almost a quarter of all the aid it has dispensed. When the pope called on Macauley to help Poland, Macauley turned to corporate America for help... To get donations for Poland, he and some colleagues sat down with lists of the boards of directors from the nation's largest pharmaceutical companies. Among them, the group found, they knew at least one person on every board." Wrote a book titled 'The Grand Chessboard' in 1997, which describes a kind of upcoming 'Clash of Civilizations' and how the should isolate China and Russia from the mineral reserves of the Middle-East. Some of his main points were:
1) "About 75 per cent of the world's people live in Eurasia, and most of the world's physical wealth is there as well, both in its enterprises and underneath its soil. Eurasia accounts for 60 per cent of the world's GNP and about three-fourths of the world's known energy resources."
2) "The most immediate task is to make certain that no state or combination of states gains the capacity to expel the United States from Eurasia or even to diminish significantly its decisive arbitration role."
3) "It is also a fact that America is too democratic at home to be autocratic abroad. This limits the use of America's power, especially its capacity for military intimidation… Democracy is inimical to imperial mobilization."
4) "Moreover, as America becomes an increasingly multi-cultural society, it may find it more difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign policy issues, except in the circumstance of a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat."
Former member of the National Advisory Council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, together with Jeane Kirkpatrick, Jack Kemp, senator Claiborne Pell, senator Bob Dole, Richard Pipes, and Cercle member Edwin Feulner, Jr. Brian Crozier, former Cercle head, sits on the International Advisory Council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. Still a significant influence in Washington today and generally respected by both neoconservatives and liberals. Anno 2006, a member of the advisory committee of the American Committee for Peace in the Caucasus (ACPC), which is advocating against Russian intervention in Chechnya (used to be co-chair). Other members of the advisory board include neocons Frank Gaffney, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., William Kristol (PNAC), Robert McFarlane, Richard Perle (friend of Cercle chair Brian Crozier), Richard Pipes (associate of Brian Crozier in the Reagan years), Caspar Weinberger, and James Woolsey. September 9, 2004, ACPC member Richard Pipes in a New York Times article called 'Give the Chechens a land of their own': "A clever arrangement secured by the Russian security chief, Gen. Alexander Lebed, in 1996 granted the Chechens de facto sovereignty while officially they remained Russian citizens. Peace ensued. It was broken by several terrorist attacks on Russian soil, which the authorities blamed on the Chechens (although many skeptics attributed them to Russian security agencies eager to create a pretext to bring Chechnya back into the fold)... This history makes clear how the events in Russia differ from 9/11. The attacks on New York and the Pentagon were unprovoked and had no specific objective. Rather, they were part of a general assault of Islamic extremists bent on destroying non-Islamic civilizations. As such, America's war with Al Qaeda is non-negotiable. But the Chechens do not seek to destroy Russia - thus there is always an opportunity for compromise... Russia, the largest country on earth, can surely afford to let go of a tiny colonial dependency, and ought to do so without delay."
Mark Brzezinski, Zbigniew's son, was accused of undermining Ukrainian elections in 2004 (together with the NDI, Eurasia Society, and George Soros). Soros has been accused of doing the same in Georgia and Russia, and having caused the financial instability in Asia in 1997.

Brunello, Monsignor
Sources: October 1989 – Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe'
Vatican prelate and BNG agent. Can't find anything about this person, besides what has been claimed by the original author.

Burnside, David Wilson Boyd
Sources: June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour'; July 10, 1997 An Phoblacht/Republican News, 'Editor's Desk'
A Northern Ireland politician, and was Ulster Unionist Party Member of Parliament for South Antrim. In the 1970s Burnside served as Press Officer for the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party. After the collapse of Vanguard he joined the Ulster Unionists. In 1984 David Burnside was recruited by the British Airways Chairman Lord King to become the company's head of public relations. In this role Burnside is widely acknowledged to have become one of the most powerful PR men in Britain, speaking for King, administering a £5 million budget and receiving numerous PR awards both in the UK and around the world. British Airways was witnessing the emergence of a dangerous rival, Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic. Virgin, which began with one route and one Boeing 747 in 1984 was beginning to emerge as a serious threat on some of BA's most lucrative routes. In 1991, King is reported to have told Burnside and CEO Colin Marshall to "do something about Branson". This began the campaign of dirty tricks, masterminded by Burnside, which ended in Branson suing King and British Airways for libel in 1992. In January 1993, following the settlement and investigations by BA's lawyers the board decided to sack Burnside. He was awarded a settlement of approximately £400,000 and free first class travel on BA for four years. He later reentered politics and had some criticism on the IRA.

Casey, William
Sources: June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour' (named as once a regular)
Irish-American catholic from Queens, born in 1913. Graduated from the Jesuit Fordham University in New York in 1934 and St. John's University School of Law in 1937. Also attended the Catholic University of America. After law school, he joined the Research Institute of America in Washington. Chairman of the board of editors of the Research Institute of America 1938-1949. Joined the Navy in 1943. In 1943, William Donovan, founding head of the OSS, hired Casey to organize the OSS secretariat. After that, he was sent to London and was soon managing the infiltration of Allied agents into Nazi Germany from there. At one point he had 150 agents reporting directly to him from occupied Europe. These included Richard Helms, like Casey, a later director of the CIA; and John Singlaub, a later Army general deeply involved in anti-communist warfare. Allen Dulles, William Colby, James Jesus Angleton, and David Bruce were among his OSS colleagues during WWII. December 17, 1986, Chicago Sun-Times, '...perhaps, but secrecy is vital to foreign policy': ""Great secrecy was necessary," Winston Churchill told a cheering Parliament, as he revealed the first Nazi surrender at the close of World War II, capitulation in Italy. It followed months of top-secret talks between German commanders and Office of Strategic Services "spy master" Allen Dulles, later the celebrated director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Historians have suggested that Dulles' triumph, code-named Operation Sunrise, was diplomatically flawed, that excluding the Soviets from those meetings - for the sake of secrecy - triggered the initial distrust between Allies that led to the Cold War. But in [March] 1945, few Americans would have doubted that ending the fighting was worth a spat with "Uncle Joe" Stalin. Sunrise was a milestone in the annals of U.S. secret intelligence, marking the start of that postwar crypto-diplomacy twilight zone where secret agents often supplant striped-pants ambassadors. And William J. Casey was there, privy to the secret as one of the best and brightest of young OSS executives. Now, 40 years later, he is the latest of Dulles' unenviable successors as head of the CIA." After the war, Casey was offered senior jobs in U.S. intelligence, but turned them down because he thought he should establish his financial independence first. Developed his publishing business and thrived as a tax lawyer, making a personal fortune estimated at between $8 and $12 million, and earning a reputation as a corporate dealer willing to take almost any risk if the potential return was worth it. Published a series of about 20 books explaining the intricacies of complex legislation. Special counsel of the small business committee of the U.S. Senate 1947-1948. Associate general counsel at the European headquarters of the Marshall Plan 1948. Jean Monnet from France (and initial member of Le Cercle) was one of the key players here. Lecturer tax law New York University 1948-1962. Lecturer Practicing Law Institute of New York City 1950-1962. Co-founder of Capital Cities in 1954, together with Thomas E. Dewey, who went from crime fighter to crime backer (Lucky Luciano & Meyer Lansky). Another founder of Capital Cities was Lowell Thomas, who was a close friend and business contact of CIA director Allen Dulles. Thomas reportedly was also connected to Lansky's mafia. Capital Cities grew so powerful that it was able to buy the entire ABC TV network in 1985, which was ten times as big. Casey supposedly still had a significant interest in the company through a blind trust created when he became CIA director in 1981. Cap Cities/ABC was bought in 1996 by Walt Disney, who changed its name back to ABC. Partner in Hall, Casey, Dickler & Howley 1957-1971. Founded the National Strategy Information Center in 1962, with alleged CIA links, to push for increased military spending. Member General Advisory Committee on Arms Control 1970-1971. Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission 1971-1973. April 29, 1974, Time, 'Their Own Best Witnesses': "John Mitchell, 60, the former U.S. Attorney General, and Maurice Stans, 66, the former Secretary of Commerce, had in a measure won their gamble-though not necessarily their cases. They had indeed been their own best witnesses against the Government's charges that they had plotted to gain special favors in Washington for Financier Robert Vesco, 38, in exchange for the moneyman's secret $200,000 cash contribution to Richard Nixon's 1972 presidential campaign... It simply never occurred to him, insisted Mitchell, that Vesco had given the $200,000 in order to get help in his struggle with the Securities and Exchange Commission (which eventually charged Vesco and 41 associates with perpetrating a $224 million stock fraud)... Mitchell freely admitted, as the prosecution charged, that after Vesco's donation was received he set up a meeting between the financier's lawyer and William Casey, then head of the SEC." Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs 1973-1974. Member of the Council on Foreign Relations since the 1970s. Member of the Atlantic Council of the United States. President of the Export-Import Bank of the U.S. 1974-1975. Member President Ford's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board 1974-1976. Member of the in 1976 revived Committee on Present Danger, a reactionary anti-communist think tank that included people like John F. Lehman, Clare Booth Luce, Paul H. Nitze, Richard Perle (friend of Brian Crozier, head of Le Cercle at that time), Richard Pipes, (a later associate of Crozier), Eugene Rostow, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt (former Chief of Naval Operations), George Shultz, Richard Stilwell (Le Cercle), Richard Allen, Jeane Kirkpatrick, and David Packard. Co-founder of the Jamestown Foundation in 1984, together with the Cercle member Donald Jameson. The Jamestown Foundation's purpose was to protect and sponsor a group of high-level international defectors as they travelled the United States speaking out against the tyranny of communism. Today, the Jamestown Foundation has three program areas: China, Russia/Eurasia, and Terrorism, and counts the involvement of Glen Howard (SAIC; DoD; National Intelligence Council; Mid-East and Central-Asia oil consultant), James Woolsey, Zbigniew Brzezinski (attended at least one Le Cercle meeting), Dick Cheney, and Frank Carlucci. Counsel at Rogers & Wells 1976-1981, the law firm that represented Wackenhut. Outside legal advisor to Wackenhut during this time. Campaign manager of Ronald Reagan in 1980. Robert Keith Gray, chair of Hill & Knowlton, the all-powerful (described by critics as a "secret government") Washington-based lobbying firm, was deputy director of communications in Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign. Gray reported directly to Casey. Sen. John DeCamp, 'The Franklin Cover-Up,' second edition, p.178-179: "Said to be Harold Anderson's [chair Larry King's Franklin Credit Union advisory board and part of Larry King's Nebraskan homosexual, pedophile, and ritual sacrifice ring] closest friend in Washington," Gray is also reportedly a specialist in homosexual blackmail operations for the CIA. Gray's own sexual proclivities were the subject of an article in the July-August 1982 issue of the The Deep Backgrounder, entitled "Reagan Inaugural Co-Chairman Powerful 'Closet Homosexual'?" The Deep Backgrounder tabloid featured exposes of homosexual networks in Washington, D.C.; its contributing editor was former CIA official Victor Marchetti. During the Watergate era, Robert Keith Gray served on the board of Consultants International, founded CIA agent Edwin Wilson [of Shackley's secret team]. When Wilson and fellow agent Frank Terpil got caught running guns abroad, Gray tried to deny his connection with Wilson. "Yet ten years before," according to Peter Maas' book Manhunt, "in a top secret Navy review of Wilson's intelligence career, Gray described Wilson as a person of 'unqualified trust,' with whom he'd been in contact 'professionally two or three times a month' since 1963." Sen. John DeCamp goes on to quote from the book 'Secret Agenda' of Jim Hougan: "According to fugitive ex-CIA officer Frank Terpil, CIA-directed sexual blackmailing operations were intensive in Washington at about the time of the Watergate scandal. One of those operations, Terpil claims, was run by his former partner, Ed Wilson. Wilson's base of operations for arranging trysts for the politically powerful was, Terpil says, Korean agent Ton Sun Park’s George Town Club. In a letter to the author, Terpil explained that ‘Historically, one of Wilson’s Agency jobs was to subvert members of both houses [of Congress] by any means necessary... Certain people could be easily coerced by living out their sexual fantasies in the flesh... A remembrance of these occasions [was] permanently recorded via selected cameras... The technicians in charge of filming. . .[were] TSD [Technical Services Division of the CIA]... The unwitting porno stars advanced in their political careers, some of [whom] may still be in office." Besides Terpil, affidavits written and signed by Col. Edward P. Cutolo (assassinated) and special forces soldier William Tyree (in jail for murdering his wife. Cutolo - his boss -, and others, confirm Tyree was framed) confirm part of this story. Cutolo and Tyree talked about Operation Watch Tower, one of the many government-sanctioned drug-importing operations (from Escobar's Colombia to Noriega's Panama, over sea), and Operation Orwell, which was a specific program to spy on politicians and other important people to make sure A) that no outsiders were aware of Operation Watch Tower B) that the Army would have advance warning if anyone might want to expose the operation, and C) that some dirt could be gathered on those who might some day be in a position to expose Operation Watch Tower. Edwin Wilson was Cutolo's and Tyree's superior officer. Cutolo said something highly interesting in his affidavit: "I was notified by Edwin Wilson that the information forwarded to Wash. D.C., was disseminated to private corporations who were developing weapons for the Dept. of Defense. Those private corporations were encouraged to use the sensitive information gathered from surveillance on U.S. Senators and Representatives as leverage to manipulate those Congressmen into approving whatever costs the weapons systems incurred... As of the date of this affidavit, 8,400 police departments, 1,370 churches, and approx. 17,900 citizens have been monitored under Operation Orwell. The major churches targeted have been Catholic and Latter Day Saints [Mormons]... Per orders from Edwin Wilson, I did not discuss the implementation of Operation Orwell with my staff or others outside of the personnel assigned to surveillance. The only matter discussed with Operation Orwell personnel was what the SATs needed to know in order to carry out their mission. Certain information was collected on suspected members of the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderberg group... Among those that information was collected on were Gerald Ford and President Jimmy Carter. Edwin Wilson indicated that additional surveillance was implemented against former CIA director George Bush, who Wilson named as a member of the Trilateral Commission. I do not have personal knowledge that Ford, Carter, or Bush were under surveillance." According to the affidavit, Wilson was involved in parallel operations with people like Thomas Clines, Robert Gates and William Casey. Col. Cutolo expressed his concerns to superiors that Wilson was talking too much. A few years later Wilson ended up in jail. Cutolo ended up dead. Ton Sun Park, the owner of the George Town Club where Wilson ran his sexual blackmail scheme, was an associate of radical cult leader Sun Myung Moon. October 31, 1978, a report printed for the use of the Committee on International Relations, 'Investigation of Korean-American Relations': "During 1976, the subcommittee also received information about an apparent attempt by Moon and his followers--along with Tong-sun Park--to buy a controlling interest in the Diplomat National Bank (DNB), which opened in Washington D.C., in December 1975. Neil Salonen, president of the UC of America, was called to testify concerning this and other allegations. Salonen said he had bought DNB stock at the suggestion of Pak Bo Hi, but denied the UC was in any way involved in financing the DNB stock purchases." Moon has been a major anti-communist activist and is connected to all the reactionary elements within this movement, most notably those involved with the World Anti-Communist League. These include Cercle members Count Hans Huyn and Otto von Habsburg in Bavaria, Germany, Paul Vanden Boeynants in Belgium, and Arnaud de Borchgrave, Rev. Jerry Falwell, George Bush, John Singlaub, and many others in the United States. Moon has also been tied to sexual blackmail rings. December 20, 2002 issue of Executive Intelligence Review (EIR), 'The 'No Soul' Gang Behind Reverend Moon's Gnostic Sex Cult': "The sex is a specialty of Moon's own Gnostic "family" cult. Remember the Congressional Madam scandals of the 1970s, featuring Tong Sun Park and Suzy Park Thomson? That was just the tip of the iceberg of "The Reverend" Moon's sexual-favors operation. Military intelligence officers who investigated Unification Church operations in Washington in the 1970s and '80s, report that the recruitment device used on ranking, conservative political and military officials was to hold weekly orgies, arranged by Col. Bo Hi Pak, the Unification Church official who was a top officer of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA). The special treat at these affairs were the "Little Angels"—Korean schoolgirls brought over by Moon as a singing group. The photo files from these sessions are reported to be a powerful influence in certain circles to this very day." DeCamp again, p. 179-180: "Gray’s associate Wilson was apparently continuing the work of a reported collaborator of Gray from the 1950’s—McCarthy committee counsel Roy Cohn [of Permindex, according to EIR; and connections to Fascist International in Europe since the early 1950s], now dead of AIDS. According to the former head of the vice squad for one of America’s biggest cities, ‘Cohn’s job was to run the little boys. Say you had an admiral, a general, a congressman, who did not want to go along with the program. Cohn’s job was to set them up, then they would go along. Cohn told me that himself.’ The first president of Tong Sun Park’s George Town Club, where Wilson’s sexual blackmail operations were reportedly run, was Robert Keith Gray. The first president of Tong Sun Park's George Town Club [in Washington], where Wilson's sexual blackmail operations were reportedly run, was Robert Keith Gray. Gray maintained his intelligence connections during the Reagan Administration, according to an affidavit filed... by Daniel Sheehan for the Christic Institute. The affidavit states that when CIA chief Casey, national security adviser Robert McFarlane, and NSC staff member Lt. Col. Oliver North were devising a method to circumvent a congressional ban on arming the Contras, they turned to Gray and Company. Gray employee Rob Owen set up a private group to solicit funds for the Contras. Owen was called before Congress, to testify on how he delivered bags of cash to the Contras [in return for the dope?]. In February 1989, Hill and Knowlton's Charles Perkins rushed to New York, for a fraction of the firm's usual fee, to help with public relations for Covenant House. The youth organization's director, Father Bruce Ritter, was alleged to have molested youth who took refuge with him." Larry King (not the one from CNN), the person who headed the Nebraskan pedophile, homosexual, and ritual sacrifice ring, greatly admired Casey. September 7, 1988, interview of the Metropolitan with Larry King (as quoted by Sen. John DeCamp in his book 'The Franklin Cover-Up,' second edition, p.175): "I know some of the people I admire aren't very popular. Ed Meese. The late Bill Casey of the CIA. And I love former Chief Justice Burger [Pilgrims Society]. Those are the people I really like to talk to. Bill Casey... I just thought so very highly of him." On page 327 and 329, Sen. John DeCamp, who has claimed he is barred from discussion large portions of the Franklin Affair case, adds some more context: "Larry King, FBI agent Gerry Wahl, Alan Baer, Harold Andersen, and former Omaha Police Chief Robert Wadman have all been reported as collaborators with this Satanic military-based ring. King reportedly told Paul's captors at Offutt, "He's young-but you trained him good." A member of Nebraska's Concerned Parents group reported hearing from two North Omaha witnesses that "King used to send limousines down to Offutt Air Base to pick up CIA agents for parties." Larry King reported his own adoring relationship to the late CIA Director William Casey in a Sept. 7, 1988, interview in the Omaha publication Metropolitan... Paul Bonacci reports the following "Monarch"-related activities, often involving his "Commander" at Offutt AFB, Bill Plemmons, and Lt. Col. Michael Aquino..."Although most people who attended Larry King's parties, were not aware of his pedophile network, Casey seems to awfully close involved with this person and some of the accused. In fact, his working partner George Bush Sr. (Julie Walters report, p.12; DeCamp adds "This was not the last time that the name of George Bush would surface in the Franklin affair") has been named as a member of the homosexual pedophile ring while Reagan's daughter was also close to King. DeCamp, p. 55: "It was the most impressive party I had ever witnesses... The attendance by top politicians was remarkable... At the center of the excitement was Larry King. Draped over him like a blanket throughout the evening was a heavyset woman, who I learned was Maureen Reagan, the president's daughter... I got to wondering... how does he do this supposedly on a salary of $16 thousand a year?" The Franklin Credit Union scandal (which laundered money for the CIA) broke in November 1988. Within a year, in June 1989, a new scandal broke with close ties to the Franklin Credit Union and Larry King's pedophile/homosexual/ritual sacrifice network. Craig J. Spence, who seemed to have had the same clandestine job as Larry King, albeit in Washington instead of Nebraska, was investigated for illegally having organized a midnight White House tour and for running a pedophile/homosexual extortion network. Casey is known to have attended parties of Spence. Also, later on, Spence would have remarked just before his death that "Casey's boys" were after him. June 30, 1989, Washington Times, 'Power broker served drugs, sex at parties bugged for blackmail': "Craig J. Spence, an enigmatic figure who threw glittery parties for key officials of the Reagan and Bush administrations, media stars and top military officers, bugged the gatherings to compromise guests, provided cocaine, blackmailed some associates and spent up to $20,000 a month on male prostitutes, according to friends, acquaintances and records... The man, a business associate of Mr. Spence who was on the White House tour [arranged by Spence and attended by two male prostitutes], said: "He was blackmailing people. He was taping people and blackmailing them."... After arriving in Washington in the late 1970s, Mr. Spence was hosting parties during the early Reagan years attended by, among others... former CIA Director William Casey [and] Gen. Alfred M. Gray [named by Kay Griggs as one of the top players in a network of criminal covert ops and sexual blackmail], the commandant of the Marine Corps... The businessman said this week that he did not know exactly what work Mr. Spence did, but that he often bragged about his contacts with Japanese businessmen and political leaders, particularly Mr. Nakasone. He described Mr. Spence as "strange," saying that he often boasted that he was working for the CIA... The businessman also said he attended a birthday bash for Roy Cohn at Mr. Spence's house. He said Mr. Casey was at the party." Roy Cohn, as an aide to Senator Joseph "reds under the bed" McCarthy, was accused in the early 1950s as an associate of the post-WWII Fascist underground of Skorzeny, Schacht, and Naumann while visiting Europe. Cohn, together with some members of the Fascist International, was later named by EIR as an initial director of Permindex, a corporation set up in 1958 which is suspected of having been a front organization in the planning of the John F. Kennedy assassination. As mentioned earlier, Cohn supposedly "ran the little boys". Arnaud de Borchgrave is also known to have attended a party at Spence's house. De Borchgrave, an intelligence-connected anti-communist radical and good friends with Sun Myung Moon, is a descendant of an obscure Belgian noble family. An unknown member of this family has coincidentally been named by one of the Belgian X-File witnesses, who came out in the aftermath of the Dutroux affair. Count Alexandre de Marenches, a good friend of Casey and Vernon Walters, is a cousin of the De Borchgrave family. November 13, 1989, Washington Times, 'In death, Spence stayed true to form': "Craig J. Spence, the once-powerful lobbyist who entertained and influenced Washington's elite, died Friday... On a mirror in Room 429 of the Ritz Carlton Hotel, Mr. Spence on Friday left his final enigma in the form of a suicide note... During the past few weeks, Mr. Spence told several friends that the call-boy operation was being investigated by the U.S. Attorney's Office and other federal authorities as a possible CIA front. He told the friends that the CIA used the service to compromise other federal intelligence officials and foreign diplomats... One friend quoted him as saying, "Casey's boys are out to get me," an apparent reference to former CIA Director William Casey, now deceased. Mr. Casey and Mr. Spence were friends, and the former CIA director attended parties hosted by the former lobbyist... During a lengthy interview at a Manhattan apartment in August, Mr. Spence frequently alluded to deep mysteries. "All this stuff you've uncovered (involving call boys, bribery and the White House tours), to be honest with you, is insignificant compared to other things I've done. But I'm not going to tell you those things, and somehow the world will carry on." February 2, 1990, Washington Times, 'Prostitutes corroborate Frank stories': "Penthouse magazine's anxiously awaited account of sexual adventuring by congressmen quotes a female prostitute as corroborating Steven L. Gobie's earlier story that Rep. Barney Frank knew Gobie was operating a bordello in the congressman's Capitol Hill apartment... The magazine [Penthouse] said Mr. Spence had agreed to "provide lurid details of Washington's bisexual wonderland." But before the interview could occur, Mr. Spence committed suicide in Boston on Nov. 10... According to Gobie, Mr. Spence told him, "Do you know what kind of power you can have over people if you've got something on them? . . . I need boys and girls for people in government and high-level businessmen for my parties, for individuals, for whatever comes up." The magazine quoted Gobie as saying Mr. Spence was "the most dangerous man I'd ever met. If he hadn't turned into such a crackhead, he could have blackmailed half this town. He used to say, 'Hey, foreign intelligence agencies are doing it.'" Casey is known to have visited Bohemian Grove camp Mandalay around 1980. Important adviser to Reagan 1981-1987. Director CIA 1981-1987. In the early 1980s, Casey was able to funnel almost $200,000 to Brian Crozier, the former head of Le Cercle who undermined the Labour government of Harold Wilson, for his 61 efforts. Crozier met with Casey, a member of Le Cercle, on several occasions during this time period. Casey and Oliver North supposedly never told Crozier about the Iran Contra affair, or drug imports for that matter. Spartacus Schoolnet: "On 16th March, 1984, William Francis Buckley, a diplomat attached to the U.S. Embassy in Beirut was kidnapped by the Hezbollah, a fundamentalist Shiite group with strong links to the Ruhollah Khomeini regime. Buckley was tortured and it was soon discovered that he was the CIA station chief in Beirut. Buckley had also worked closely with William Casey in the secret negotiations with the Iranians in 1980. Buckley had a lot to tell his captors. He eventually signed a 400 page statement detailing his activities in the CIA. He was also videotaped making this confession. Casey asked Ted Shackley for help in obtaining Buckley’s freedom... 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... 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 William Francis Buckley was already dead (he had died of a heart-attack while being tortured). Ted Shackley recruited some of the former members of his CIA Secret Team to help him with these arm deals." Besides arms shipments in return for the hostages, the Republicans of the Reagan team, including Casey and Bush Sr., also arranged with the Iranians to have the hostages released after the US elections, as this would almost certainly guarantee that Jimmy Carter would lose. This scandal would be called the October Surprise. Rodney Stich, 'Those Ugly Americans: 20th and 21st Centuries', p. 108 & 137: "One of the key meetings [of Iran Contra and the October Surprise conspiracy] occurred at the PepsiCo International Headquarters building in Barcelona, Spain in late July 1980. One of my CIA sources was present with Casey at that meeting, arranging for procurement and shipment of the arms from various European locations to Iran via Israel. The final meeting occurred in Paris on the October 19, 1980, weekend... Salinger described his conversations with respected American journalist, David Andelman, who was the ghostwriter of the 1992 memoirs of Alexandre de Marenches, French spy chief [and friend of Gen. Vernon Walters; and like Casey and Walters, a member of SMOM; Arnaud de Borchgrave is related to one of De Mareches' Belgian cousins]. At Salinger’s request, Andelman asked Marenches about the alleged Paris meetings involving Casey and Bush. Salinger wrote in his book, “Andelman came back to me and said that Marenches had finally agreed [that] he organized the meeting, under the request of an old friend, William Casey.... Marenches and Casey had known each other well during the days of World War II. Marenches added that while he prepared the meeting, he did not attend it.” Andelman testified to this admission before the House October Surprise task force in December 1992, but as with other creditable witnesses, this testimony was ignored so as to deny the existence of this crime." Casey modeled himself on the likes of Allen Dulles and John McCone (Bohemian Grove camp Mandalay), who ran things in the 1950s and early 1960s before serious questions were raised about the morality of covert action on a global scale. He thought Walter Bedell Smith, Allen Dulles, John McCone, Richard Helms, and George Bush were all great CIA directors. Bobby Ray Inman (director ONI; director DIA; director NSA; director Wackenhut; director SAIC) was his deputy director at the CIA in 1981 and 1982. He resigned in 1982 after a heated dispute with Casey (and Sharon) about limiting Israel's access to satellite data from locations over 250 miles from Israel itself. Inman was afraid that Israel would set the Middle-East on fire and Caspar Weinberger (Pilgrims Society executive in late 1980s and 1990s) supported this notion. According to Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein, Casey gave Pope John Paul II unprecedented access to CIA intelligence, including spy satellites and agents. In a 2006 interview Inman claimed that Casey intensely disliked George Bush, Sr. In 1981, Casey was called upon to co-ordinate the Polish Crisis where the Solidarity movement had risen up against the Soviet regime. This movement was largely organized by Opus Dei and funded through Calvi's (and Pesenti's) Banco Ambrosiano (according to Calvi, to the tune of $1 billion over several years). As a member of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, Casey immediately decided to fly to Rome, together with co-SMOM members general Alexander Haig (Pilgrims Society executive) and general Vernon Walters. Unfortunately for Casey, he was under investigation by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and couldn't go. Instead, he send Vernon Walters who visited the Vatican about a dozen times in the next five months. Walters arranged for Reagan to meet the Pope in June 1982. During the same time, Alexander Haig and William Clark were conferring with Cardinal Casaroli (Pro-Opus Dei, if not a member; Vatican Secretariat of State during the 1980s; seen by Calvi as one of his enemies and Calvi supposedly had "compromising documents" on him; appointed the "three wisemen" in July 1982 to "investigate" the Vatican Bank's dealings with Calvi's Banco Ambrosiano. Among the three was former UBS chair and white collar criminal Philippe De Weck) and Archbishop Achille Silvestrini (under-secretary of Casaroli) in another part of the Vatican. Casey couldn't attend these meetings too, as Israel had just invaded Lebanon. On other occasions Casey would rarely visit Europe or the Middle-East without first stopping in Rome for a meeting with the Pope. Casey loved to take foreign policy advise from Cardinal John J. Krol, Archbishop of Philadelphia; Cardinal Terence Cooke of New York, the successor of Cardinal Francis Spellman and the Grand Protector and Spiritual Advisor of the Military Order of Malta; Archbishop (later Cardinal) Pio Laghi, former the Vatican's top man in Buenos Aires. All of these Cardinals were strong Opus Dei supporters. Casey, with support of the Vatican, harnessed radical Islam to counter the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. This way he hoped to contain the Soviets in the Hindu Kush mountains while the radical Muslims would be too busy to turn on some of the Middle-East dictators sponsored by the West. He convinced the Saudis to largely bankroll this operation. Under Casey the CIA supplied the Mujahedin with 30mm anti-tank guns, .50 caliber sniper rifles (provided with a self-destructive round if the gun was to be left behind), special forces Parapoint systems, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, and training courses by ISA and Delta Force special forces. With the British MI6 and Pakistani ISI, the CIA agreed to mount guerilla actions in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The Afghan opposition leader with whom these operations were coordinated was Gulbuddin Hikmetyar. Casey also committed the CIA to support an ISI operation that recruited Muslims from all over the world to come to Pakistan and fight with the Mujahedin in Afghanistan. December 13, 2003, The Guardian, 'Smart money' (a combined review of Loretta Napoleoni's 'Modern Jihad: Tracing the Dollars Behind the Terror Networks' and Jeffrey Robinson's 'The Sink: Terror, Crime and Dirty Money in the Offshore World'): "William Casey, Reagan's CIA chief, used Pakistan and its BCCI bank as fronts to train Afghan rebels against the Soviets. Covert operations required a "black network" within the bank and its state equivalent, the notorious ISI. The bank financed and brokered covert arms deals, complete with full laundry service. The short and logical step from there was a BCCI/ISI/CIA move into drug smuggling to feed the needy, and leaky, money pipeline to the Mujahedin. The Pakistan-Afghan connection became the biggest single supplier of heroin to the US, meeting 60% of demand, with annual profits a stratospheric $100-$200 billion." The BCCI was set up by Agha Hasan Abedi of the obscure and elite 1001 Club, mainly tied to the financial interests in London. The shady MI6 operative, Privy Counsellor, and Cercle chairman Julian Amery was an advisor to the BCCI. His protege Jonathan Aitken, the follow-up chair of Le Cercle, has been accused of massive illegal arms with the Saudis. 2002 (third edition), John Cooley, 'Unholy Wars', p. 110-111: "With President Reagan and CIA Director William Casey, a new era began. On January 21, 1982, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) which had largely avoided drug matters, was plunged squarely into them. Attorney-General William French Smith announced that the FBI, instead of the DEA, would henceforth control anti-drug campaigns inside the United States. This effectively ended hitherto secret cooperation between the two services. It moved the DEA, which was struggling to control drug trafficking both inside and from outside the United States, further away from the main power centers in the Afghanistan war: President Reagan’s National Security Council (NSC) and Casey’s CIA. Casey was now able secretly to engineer an exemption, sparing the CIA from a legal requirement to report on drug smuggling by CIA officers, agents or other “assets.” Attorney Smith granted exemption in a secret memorandum on February 11, 1982, two months after President Reagan had authorized covert CIA support for the Nicaraguan anti-Communist Contra army. Investigative work in Washington in the late 1990s has disclosed that Casey realized that the CIA would face a serious legal dilemma if federal law continued to require it to report drug smuggling by its agents. On March 2, 1982, Casey thanked Smith for the exemption which, Casey wrote, helped to protect intelligence sources and methods. After many details of CIA knowledge, if not control, of large-scale cocaine traffic from South America became public, President Clinton’s administration in 1995 quietly rescinded the CIA narcotics exemption. The Contra-cocaine issue arose again in 1996 with investigative articles by a reporter for a California newspaper. Despite CIA denials, the Agency’s inspector-general, Frederick P. Hitz, compiled a two-volume investigative report. He admitted that the CIA did indeed know about Contra drug trafficking and covered it up. The second volume reportedly was even more damning for the CIA, but at this writing it hasn’t been released." 2002 (third edition), John Cooley, 'Unholy Wars', p. 108-110: "All close observers of the war knew that the drug smugglers carried weapons into Afghanistan and took drugs back with them. Heroin laboratories began to spring up in the rear of the various Afghan battle­fronts... The Soviet account quotes the American Left-liberal magazine, Rolling Stone, reporting on a powerful narcobusiness network, including vast new fields of opium poppies on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border, created during the jihad. It was “complete with well-planned routes and a whole network of dozens of factories” to process the opium into morphine base and heroin. “Western experts” [names and nationalities unspecified] supervised creation of the labs in camps of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s [very radical and an associate of Bin Laden] group. However -and here, interestingly, the Russian view of the wartime drug traffic diverges from the Western one — “the real ‘King of Heroin,’” said Shvedov’s Russian team, “is considered to be Gaylani who has far surpassed Hekmatyar in narcobusiness and controls the overwhelming majority of the operations of the opium mafia.” The CIA, the Russians added, was working closely with both Hekmatyar and Gaylani... Sayad Ahmed Gaylani, called “Effendi Juan” by compatriots, headed the NIF [National Islamic Front of Afghanistan]. He was a wealthy Afghan aristocrat, supporter of the exiled king, Zahir Shah. Gaylani had a strong bent for business. In 1952 he married a woman of the royal dynasty, the Durranis. He wisely invested profits from holding the sales franchise for Peugeot cars in Kabul. At the same time, he kept the religious prestige attached to his descent from the Qadiriya brotherhood, one of the mystic Sufi orders of South Asian Islam... The Soviet intelligence report on Gaylani’s NIF found that it “has significant financial resources. Besides the aid from various foundations in the USA, Western Europe and Arab countries, it makes profit on selling drugs and exacting taxes from the population."" Gailani is, an American-educated commander, is one of more than a dozen Mujahedin rebel groups in Afghanistan. He's a Pashtun royalist seeking the return of King Mohammed Zahir Shah, who is in exile in Rome. September 30, 2001, Star Tribune, 'Drug trade filled coffers of Taliban, Bin Laden group': "Alfred McCoy, a professor of Southeast Asian history at the University of Wisconsin, said U.S. and Pakistani intelligence officials sanctioned the rebels' drug trafficking because of their fierce opposition to the Soviets. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a rebel leader who received $1 billion in covert CIA funds, was a major heroin trafficker, according to McCoy. Afghan opium production ballooned from 250 tons in 1982 to 2,000 tons in 1991." Earlier, it is known that the CIA, in collaboration with other US intelligence groups and special forces, was importing hundreds of tons of heroine in the US from the Golden Triangle in Shan Land, Burma. The money was largely laundered through the Nugan Hand Bank in Australia. Ted Shackley, Richard Armitage, and mafia boss Santos Trafficante were as those that handled the heroin coming from the Golden Triangle. William Colby, Casey, George Bush, and again Shackley were named in the Nugan Hand Bank affair. The far less well known follow-up of the Nugan Hand Bank was Bishop, Baldwin, Rewald, Dillingham and Wong (BBRDW). Rodney Stich, 'Those Ugly Americans: 20th and 21st Centuries', p. 342 & 343: "In March 1996, I acquired several boxes containing hundreds of CIA documents generated from the CIA’s secret operation in Hawaii, and within these boxes I found highly sensitive material, including notes that Rewald had made while the titular head of BBRDW. Certain notes and information provided to me by Rewald divulged CIA drug related activities, including drug money laundering. As I gathered from looking over the material and by talking with Rewald, he was unaware of much of the CIA activities originating out of BBRDW... Deeply imbedded in these documents was an envelope labeled “Lawyer- Client information.” The information was dynamite, divulging secret activities, including CIA drug trafficking, and CIA funding of secret overseas bank accounts for high U.S. officials. The information in this envelope included information from the “Green Book” that the CIA sought to get from Rewald while he was in the hospital recovering from the combination suicide and assassination attempt. The notes in the envelope listed high-level people with secret CIA-funded accounts. The names on the left side of the notes were the aliases Rewald used to identify the people on the right for which there were secret bank accounts opened and funded by the CIA through BBRDW.... Irwin M. Peach [=] George Bush... Mr. Bramble [=] George Bush... Mr. Branch [=] Richard Armitage... Mr. Denile [=] William Casey... Rewald‘s notes also indicated that fictitious names were used to hide money for B.K. Kim, Philippines’ President Ferdinand, and Imelda Marcos, among others." Rodney Stich, 'Those Ugly Americans: 20th and 21st Centuries', p. 340: "In November 1984, CIA Director William Casey complained to the Federal Communication Commission about the ABC television network for having aired a show featuring CIA agent Scott Barnes. In the television presentation Barnes said he was asked by two CIA agents in Honolulu to kill Ronald Rewald. This airing had the danger of revealing the CIA role in BBRDW and could expose an endless number of other covert CIA proprietaries and operations..." June 29, 1999, Michael Ruppert, 'Don't Blink!': "ABC's Peter Jennings, by the way, had been doing a series of investigative reports on the CIA drug bank (and successor to the Nugan Hand bank) Bishop, Baldwin, Rewald, Dillingham and Wong [BBRDW] when the buyout was initiated. Cap Cities (not surprisingly) secured SEC approval in record time and effectively and immediately silenced Peter Jennings who had previously refused to back down from Casey's threats. Thereafter ABC was referred to as "The CIA network." I have no doubt that the ABC "object lesson" was front and center for CNN founder Ted Turner and Time-Warner when Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell and (CIA vet) John Singlaub put the pressure on in the wake of April Oliver's 1998 "dead bang accurate" Sarin gas stories connecting CIA to the killing of American defectors." Rodney Stich, 'Those Ugly Americans: 20th and 21st Centuries', p. 326: "Parker said that [Michael] Hand [of Nugan Hand Bank] and Vice President George Bush were in frequent contact after Bush became vice president, and while Australian authorities were searching for Hand. Parker stated that CIA Director William Casey frequently met with Hand in Panama in the early 1980s concerning arms sales and drug trafficking. Parker stated that he and Hand took over one of the drug trafficking operations for the CIA in Central and South America. He said that Hand’s experience in developing the Golden Triangle drug operations for the CIA made him useful in expanding the drug operations from Central and South America into the United States...." Casey, like his CIA predecessors, worked closely with drug smuggler Manuel Noriega (trained at the School of the Americas, a US-based assassination school) from Panama and the different cocaine/heroine cartels, like Medellin and Cali. The profits were used for all kinds of black ops. January 28, 1990, Washington Post, 'The Case Against Noriega': "On Monday, November 14, 1983, Noriega's entourage took off for Washington... all expenses paid by the U.S. government. Almost two whole days, however, were set aside for the institutions that already had long-standing working relations with Noriega. At CIA headquarters in Langley, Noriega was swept off for a meeting with CIA Director William Casey. Back in Panama, Noriega would later boast about his four-hour lunch with Casey..." In 1988, Noriega fell out of favor in Washington after some disputes about drug and arms profits. Therefore the US invaded Panama and brought Noriega to trial on drug trafficking charges. Some important revelations were made during this trial. September 4, 1991, Washington Post, 'Noriega Defense Team Vows to Detail Secret U.S. Deals': "More than 20 months after he was toppled by a U.S. invasion, Manuel Antonio Noriega will go to trial on drug trafficking charges in federal court Thursday, and his defense lawyers vow to disclose new details about the former Panamanian dictator's secret dealings with the Central Intelligence Agency and high-level U.S. government officials... Court papers filed here describe Noriega as the CIA's "man in Panama" whose activities were conducted with the full consent and knowledge of the U.S. intelligence community for more than two decades... No written records tie Noriega directly to drug trafficking, prosecution sources said. But 60 to 80 government witnesses -- many of them convicted drug traffickers, arms dealers and other felons -- are expected to testify that he took multimillion-dollar payoffs from the Medellin drug cartel to turn his country into a "safe haven" for shipment of cocaine from Colombia to the United States... But most importantly, the motion describes Noriega's pivotal role in assisting CIA efforts to arm Nicaraguan contra guerrillas. Without citing new evidence, it calls that effort a "guns-for-drugs" policy in which drug-sale proceeds were used to finance shipment of arms to the contras. In addition, the filings -- with heavy deletions from the security officer -- allude to two meetings with Bush in 1976 and 1983 and numerous others with such figures as the late CIA director William J. Casey and former National Security Council aide Oliver L. North." August 23, 1991, The Miami Herald, 'Noriega: CIA, DEA OKd Deals': "Manuel Noriega says he had good reasons for allowing drugs and guns to slip through Panama: The last seven CIA directors, including George Bush, asked him to help with the guns, while four directors of the Drug Enforcement Administration sought his help on the drugs... The weapons shipments were destined for Nicaragua and Honduras, the papers said. Besides Bush, the CIA directors who asked Noriega to allow them to travel through Panama included Richard Helms, William Colby, James Schlesinger, Stansfield Turner, William Casey and William Webster... The DEA directors who purportedly asked Noriega to allow drugs to pass through his country included Terrance Burk, Francis Mullen, Jack Lawn and John Ingersoll... Diane Cossin, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office, said the prosecution will present evidence that links Noriega's BCCI money and drugs." June 24, 1985, Miami Herald: "Also involved in the anti-Sandinista [Contra] effort are several of Reagan's millionaire friends including beer tycoon Joseph Coors and industrialist J. Peter Grace... Grace spokesman Fred Bona said his boss "may have" asked the Central American chapters of the 900-year-old Knights of Malta order to help distribute privately collected humanitarian aid among Nicaraguan refugees. Grace heads the group's U.S. chapter. Former Treasury secretary William Simon and CIA Director William Casey also belong to the Knights of Malta. Simon and Grace declined comment on whether they had ever discussed with Casey alternate ways to help the contras. Simon heads the Nicaraguan Freedom Fund, a private aid group initially launched by the Unification Church-owned [Moonies] newspaper The Washington Times which received a letter from President Reagan dated May 30, 1985, expressing "wholehearted" support for its activity on behalf of the contras... While the contras get humanitarian aid from these groups, they rely mainly on retired Army Maj. Gen. John Singlaub and his World Anti-Communist League for private military aid." Celerino Castillo, 'Powderburns - Cocaine, Contras, & the Drug War': "The American Public would quickly lose interest in the Iran Contra scandal... Had they discovered our government hired and protected a squad of drug traffickers, and they gave them free passes into the U.S., the story might have ended very differently... My informants were perfectly placed... They fed me the names of Contra pilots. Again and again, those names showed up in the DEA database as documented drug traffickers. When I pursued the case, my superiors quietly and firmly advised me to move on to other investigations... I'll never forget Corr's [U.S. ambassador to El Salvador] response. "It's a White House operation, Cele. Stay away from it."" Cele, a high level DEA agent, was assigned to represent the DEA in El Salvador at the height of the Contra war. It was there that he began to record intelligence on how known drug traffickers, with multiple DEA files, used hangars four and five at Ilopango airfield to ferry cocaine north and weapons and money south. Hangars four and five were owned and operated by the CIA and the National Security Council. He found out that the traffickers were also being given US visas by the CIA, in spite of their well known activities. Castillo also documented and spoke out about CIA and National Security Agency abuses in a manner utterly consistent with his heritage and the reats of his life. Then Cele discovered that the Contra flights were under the direct supervision of US Lt. Col. Oliver North and had the additional protection of Felix Rodriguez (a retired CIA agent) who ran hanger 4 at Ilopango. Castillo was repeatedly warned that the drug profits were being utilized to support the Reagan-Bush backed right-wing "Contras" in Nicaragua and surrounding countries and that he should stop his investigations. December 1998, Michael Ruppert, 'Only the Godfather': "... a lingering and persistent body of evidence persists which indicates that Jim Sabow was murdered because he caught the CIA flying drugs onto a base where he was Chief of Air Operations. Much of the evidence indicates that the cocaine arrived on the same C-130s which had been given to the Forest Service. In a 1993 segment of her news program Eye to Eye, Connie Chung covered the Sabow death in detail and showed evidence of the murder by introducing statements from Sabow's brother, a medical doctor, that Sabow had been unconscious and aspirating blood for minutes before a shotgun was rammed so far down his throat that it sheared off the uvula. In that same segment, veteran Air America and CIA pilot Tosh Plumley stated that he flew loads of cocaine as large as 2,000 kilos onto El Toro in the years and months prior to Sabow's death - for the CIA. Plumley stated clearly that he was flying C-130s operated by the Forest Service and their contractors. In later conversations with this writer Plumley admitted that he routinely flew loads as large as 2,500 kilos onto military installations in California and Arizona for the CIA." 1991, Bo Gritz (ISA commander and Delta Force), 'Called to Serve', p. 341: "I remembered the time in Panama in 1976, when I was commanding Special Forces in Latin America from headquarters at Fort Gulick in the Canal Zone. We had obtained information through our intelligence channels that Manuel Noriega was not only allied with the communists, but was also a drug smuggler. I recommended - and we had the means - to terminate Noriega "with extreme prejudice," since he was clearly hurting America and was behind the sabotage of our military facilities within the Canal Zone. Surprisingly enough, I was personally told to keep my hands off Noriega, that he was "of immense value at the highest levels of our government." July 23, 1998, Michael Ruppert, 'The POWs, CIA and Drugs': "The ISA, which ran Gritz's mission, was created by Army General Richard Stilwell. It has been repeatedly linked to drug smuggling by sources including the daughter of Col. Albert Carone who served as Oliver North's bagman and bill-payer during the eighties. Records left behind after Carone's death in 1990 and eyewitness statements clearly indicate that Carone handled both drugs and drug money for CIA, North and the NSC. Carone's personal phone book contains the home addresses and telephone numbers of William Casey [Le Cercle], Gambino crime boss Pauly Castellano and Stilwell [Le Cercle]." 2004, Michael Ruppert, 'Crossing the Rubicon', p. 164: "A retired NYPD Detective, also a “made” member of the Genovese crime family, Carone spent his entire working career as a CIA operative... For more than 25 years before his mysterious death in 1990, Al Carone served as a bagman and liaison between George Bush, CIA Director Bill Casey, Oliver North, Richard Nixon [Le Cercle] and many other prominent figures including Robert Vesco [1001 Club], Manuel Noriega and Ferdinand Marcos." Carone, a member of the Knights of Malta, was good friends with Santos Trafficante, Sam Giancana, Vito Genovese, and William Casey. Casey used Carone as a "cut out" to pass sensitive insider information to Mob capo Pauley Castellano, says his daughter, Dee. Carone was the bagman for Casey and Oliver North in many of their drug trafficking exploits. Casey was deeply involved in the BCCI, the bank whose extreme money laundering practices were exposed in 1991. 1992, Senator John Kerry and Senator Hank Brown, Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, part 11: "In the case of BCCI, former CIA officials, including former CIA director Richard Helms and the late William Casey; former and current foreign intelligence officials, including Kamal Adham and Abdul Raouf Khalil; and principal foreign agents of the U.S., such as Adnan Khashoggi and Manucher Ghorbanifar, float in and out of BCCI at critical times in its history, and participate simultaneously in the making of key episodes in U.S. foreign policy... On February 23, 1992, NBC News broadcast the allegation that former Director of Central Intelligence William Casey met secretly for three years with Abedi [1001 Club; head of the BCCI], that such meetings took place every few months at the Madison Hotel in Washington, D.C., and that they discussed matters relating to U.S. arms deals to Iran and the arming of Afghani rebels... The BCCI official explicitly described meetings between Casey and Abedi at the Madison Hotel in the mid-1980's... The late Cyrus Hashemi, an Iranian expatriate living in London, is a key figure in the "October Surprise" allegations charging that William Casey and other members of President Reagan's election team in 1980 engaged in negotiations with Iran, whereby Iran would delay the return of U.S. hostages held in Iran until after the November, 1980 election, in return for the U.S. providing Iran with needed arms for its war against Iraq." A legal case brought before the District Court of Washington, D.C. in 1983, 12 citizens of Nicaragua and 12 members of the U.S. Congress sued President Reagan, CIA Director William Casey, former Secretary of State Alexander Haig, Secretary of State George Shultz, Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Thomas Enders, Vernon Walters, Caspar Weinberger, Nestor Sanchez, and John Negroponte for violations of the law respecting U.S. support of the Contras. After being dismissed, the case was appealed to the Court of Appeals. The judge who filed the opinion on Aug. 13, 1985 affirming the dismissal was then Circuit Court judge and now U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia (spoke at the Bohemian Grove). Casey is reported to have been a good friend of George Shultz, Vernon Walters, Alexandre de Marenches, and Ronald Reagan. In his book 'The Conspirators' Al Martin claims that CZX Productions, which supposedly stood for "Casey, (adm.) Zumwalt, X-Files", was an Office of Naval Intelligence cut-out and one of the blackest parts of the Iran Contra dope affair. True or not, doing a bit of background checking (only one reference has turned up), it turns out that Dietrich Reinhardt, a shady Iran-Contra operative now connected to the flight school of Rudi Dekkers (dope-trafficking terrorists), was a partner in that firm. Martin also claims CZX and Casey made Oliver North head of the "National Programs Office," whose existence still is not confirmed. The NPO supposedly controlled much of the dope trafficking operations, the building of the US "Civilian Inmate Labor Camps", and the operations to some day overthrow the US government. Admiral Zumwalt, an associate of Casey since the 1970s and a major anti-communist warhawk, is part of a secret ONI group called "Goal Oversight Development" (GOD), according to Martin. No proof or other rumors exist about this group, but according to Martin GOD has/had almost unlimited powers to intimidate and assassinate people. December 17, 1986, The Times Union, 'CIA chief listed stable': "Casey, 73, continued to undergo diagnostic tests designed to determine the cause of two minor cerebral seizures he suffered Monday, the hospital said. Casey had been scheduled to testify Tuesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee on the arms sale to Iran and the diversion of proceeds to the Nicaraguan rebels... Earlier, CIA spokeswoman Kathy Pherson said agency officials who talked with Casey on Monday found him "lucid and pretty cheerful" and "joking with the nurses."... Casey remained mentally clear throughout the episodes, a hospital doctor said." December 30, 1986, San Jose Mercury News, 'Casey's condition is stable': "CIA Director William Casey continues to recover at Georgetown University Hospital where he underwent surgery Dec. 18 for the removal of a cancerous brain tumor, a spokeswoman said today... Hospital spokeswoman Cynthia Byers said Casey's condition remains stable and he is "fully conscious and sitting up periodically."" In January 1987 the operation was deemed successful, but it turned out he had other cancers that were spreading to other parts of his body (supposedly, he was already a year under treatment for prostate cancer). He died in May 1987 of pneumonia, a few weeks after Congress had begun looking into Casey mental health to determine if he could testify from his bed. In reaction to his death, Senator Patrick Leahy, the former vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said: "Casey probably knew more than anyone about the Iran-Contra affair, with the possible exception of fired White House aide Oliver North... And of course that we'll never know, because he didn't really tell us much about it before he died." July 11, 1987, San Jose Mercury News, 'Plan labeled 'Government within our government': "William Casey, the late CIA director, seized upon the Iran arms dealings as a way to create a secret contingency fund to finance a wide range of covert operations outside regular government channels, Lt. Col. Oliver North told Congress Friday. Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, termed the scheme a "secret government within our government," and Sen. William Cohen, R- Maine, said the disclosure was "perhaps the most serious revelation" of the 2-month-old hearings into the Iran-Contra affair... North rejected the characterization of Senate committee chief counsel Arthur Liman that the operations were a "CIA outside of the CIA." But House Intelligence Committee Chairman Louis Stokes, D-Ohio, told reporters "that's what it amounted to," and charged that a main reason for the scheme was a desire to avoid any oversight by Congress." In 1996 the neocon Center for Security Policy (CSP) created a compartment named William J. Casey Institute. It was tasked with studying "the nexus between international financial, energy, trade and technology flows and traditional U.S. national security policy concerns." Just one week before Casey got his seizures (he was already dying of cancer) he allegedly wrote an affidavit, with Cercle member Nixon as his witness, that in part outlined the CIA's involvement in the drug trade to finance covert ops. He also gave his justifications for it (which basically constituted a big "fuck you" to Congress and everyone else who might not agree) and certainly didn't forget to mention Bill Clinton's role in it (while forgetting the role of all his political allies, or other groups within the government). The document was leaked to the daughter of Albert Carone and has since then been classified Top Secret. According to Mike Ruppert, the document is factually correct, but it could still be a fake.

Cavendish, Anthony
Sources: 1993, Alan Clark, 'Diaries', p. 369-374; June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour' (named as an old member); September 5, 2004, Sunday Times, 'Le Cercle of the elite' ("thought to include")
Not a family member of the Dukes of Devonshire. Former MI6 officer. Worked with George Kennedy Young and James Goldsmith in the past. Member Unison Committee for Action, which was set up in 1973 to counter the threat from Labour Unions, which supposedly were infiltrated by Soviet intelligence. Army general Walter Walker and MI6 head George Kennedy Young were involved with this group. Has been a long time friend of the former MI6 Director General (1973-1978) Sir Maurice Oldfield. In his memoirs, that have been partly censored by the British government, he defends Oldfield from charges that he was a Soviet mole. December 28, 1987, The Times: "Mr Cavendish, who left MI6 in 1953, has been trying to publish his book Inside Intelligence, to defend the reputation of his former friend and colleague, the late Sir Maurice Oldfield, ex-MI6 chief and Security Co-ordinator for Mrs Thatcher in Northern Ireland. The book contains many references to Sir Maurice, disputing allegations that he had homosexual relations with young men while he was Ulster security chief. It also details past MI6 covert operations, authorized by the Labour Government in the 1950s, which have been published in other books... Mr Julian Amery, Conservative MP for Brighton, Pavilion, who also received a copy of Mr Cavendish's book, declined to comment on the book itself but said that the Government's attitude towards publications by intelligence agents were 'wildly overdone'." Supposedly, he also made the claim that 50% of MI6 is gay (In any case, Maurice Oldfield admitted that he "from time to time engaged in homosexual activities."). Known to have corresponded with Julian Amery in the 1990s, a former chairman of Le Cercle. Invested as a Knight First Class in the catholic Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George in 2001. Promoted within the ranks of the Royal Order of Francis I, part of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order, to Knight Commander in 2005. Consultant to Nadhmi Auchi's business empire, who also has been honored by the Sacred Military Constantinian Order. He was still acting as a consultant in 2003 and could easily still do that today. Granta Magazine, issue 24: "In 19--, Anthony Cavendish was made the -------------- officer of -----, the British ------. In 194-, he personally oversaw the illegal invasion of ------- that resulted in the deaths of ----------- of --------------. What did Cavendish finally see that we are not allowed to know now—over forty years later? And why has the British government spent hundreds of thousands of pounds trying to keep us from finding out?"

Cavendish, Andrew
Sources: 1993, Alan Clark, 'Diaries', p. 369-374
Not a family member of the Dukes of Devonshire. The younger of Le Cercle member and MI6 officer Anthony Cavendish. Major in the Life Guards. Served in the Sultan of Oman's Armoured Force. Friend of Alan Clark, who wrote about the 1990 Cercle meeting: "Andrew appeared, tall and beautiful as ever. He moves among the delegates with a very faint smile on his face, but his eyes are always watching. What experience in childhood, what gene, makes him instinctively so observant, and from which side of the family does this gene come?... I detached myself from the group and we had supper together. Andrew told me of his tales, and of the mood among the Military. Oman is a long way from Iraq, and their traditional apprehension is of Iranian muscle, their principal irritant is South Yemen. But the men, many of them, think privately of Saddam as a hero, who is leading the West a dance."

Cecil, Robert Gascoyne (7th Marquess of Salisbury)
Sources: June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour' ; July 10, 1997 An Phoblacht/Republican News, 'Editor's Desk'; 18 June 2000, Sunday Telegraph / Lobster Magazine, Issue 40, winter 2000-2001
Member of the very powerful Cecil family that has produced numerous members of the Order of Garter and the Privy Council, starting with Sir William Cecil in the 1500s. They intermarried with elite blue blood families as de Vere, Arundel, Plantagenet, and Cavendish. Sir William Cecil was a student of John Dee, the official founder of Enochian Magic. The family forged links with the Republic of Venice around 1600 and built Hatfield House, which still is the family's residence, in 1607. William Cecil and his protege Sir Francis Walsingham devised an intricate spy network during the latter years of Elizabeth I's reign that succeeded in uncovering numerous Catholic plots against the monarch. Some people of that time have stated Cecil himself was a plotter behind these assassinations. Sir William Cecil’s daughter, Anne, married Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford and a member of what was quite possibly the bluest of blue blood families in existence. De Vere had worked for William Cecil and the throne since a young age and was later rumored to have written the works of Shakespeare. Lady Diana Cecil married the 18th Earl of Oxford.
The 3rd Marquess of Salisbury was the Chancellor of Oxford University from 1869 to 1903, a fellow of All Souls, a British prime minister for 14 years, a member of the Order of the Garter, and a member of the Privy Council. Carrol Quigley described the Rhodes secret society and the Round Table Group (All Souls, Oxford) as the 'Cecil Bloc'. The 3rd Marquess of Salisbury and his family were really the prime movers behind this network. The 3rd Marquess of Salisbury grew to like Benjamin Disraeli, who he had previously distrusted as a Jew. Disraeli eventually became a housefriend to the Cecils and was invested into the Order of the Garter. Baron Lionel de Rothschild was another close friend of Disraeli. One of Cecil's sisters was the mother of Arthur J. Balfour (who wrote a letter to Lionel de Rothschild in November 1917 declaring that the British government stood behind zionist plans to build a Jewish national home in Palestine) and Gerald W. Balfour. Even today, the Hatfield House is the Hertfordshire home of the family, built between 1609 and 1611 by the1st Earl of Salisbury, a Privy Councillor and Knight of the Garter who was the Chief Minister to James I.
The 5th Marquess of Salisbury (KG; PC; married into Cavendish family) was president of the Conservative Monday Club from 1961 to 1972. This was the center of the pro-colonial movement in Britain, which even prepared for a coup against the "KGB-infiltrated" Labour government of Harold Wilson in the 1970s. General Walter Walker and later Cercle chairman Julian Amery were among the members of this club. His son, the 6th Marquess of Salisbury, took over the Conservative Monday Club in 1974 and ran it until 1981. September 13, 1965, The Times, letter of the 5th Marquess of Salisbury, 'Government in Rhodesia - Arguments against majority rule': "[Churchmen] fall into the all too common error of assuming that the only form of Government compatible with the Christian way of life is majority rule. Actually, at any rate, in the case of primitive peoples, that has, I believe, never been so: nor, judging by our experience with other African states which have recently gained their independence, is it so now. Democracy is the most difficult of all sytems to work. It requires the highest degree of civilization. Can anyone who knows Rhodesia say that the average African in that country is ready for it yet? It could no doubt be argued - though I am sure that the signatories of the letter would not use such an argument - that majority rule is more important than the Christian way of life. But do they really expect anyone who has personal experience of Rhodesia to believe that the people of that country, whether white or black, would benefit either spiritually or materially by the introduction of majority rule at the present time?"
Lord Cranborne and later 7th Marquess of Salisbury. Born in 1946. Attended Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford and became a merchant banker before going to work on the family estates. He began using Robert as his preferred Christian name from his 21st birthday. In 1970, aged 23, he married Hannah Stirling, niece of Lt Col David Stirling. Stirling was the co-founder of the SAS, founder of GB 75 (seemingly a short-lived psyop in 1974), worked with MI6 at times, ran Television International Enterprises which ran a security service for overseas heads of state, was gold stick to the queen, and headed Operation Lock, a pro-apartheid assassination program in Southern Africa. Cecil was selected, unexpectedly, as Conservative candidate for South Dorset in 1976, where his family owned lands, despite the presence of several former MPs on the shortlist. He spoke at the 1978 Conservative Party conference to oppose sanctions on Rhodesia, which had broken off from England illegally to maintain its fascist white-minority regime. He won the seat in the 1979 general election, the seventh consecutive generation of his family to sit in the Commons, and in his first speech urged Ian Smith to stand aside in favour of Abel Muzorewa. He attracted a general reputation as a right-winger, especially on matters affecting the Church of England. Member of the Other Club since 1981, together with the Duke of Devonshire (Cavendish), Lord Carrington (Pilgrims Society president), Lord Richardson of Duntisbourne (major Pilgrims Society member), Lord Julian Amery (former head Le Cercle), Lord Rothschild, Lord Rees-Mogg, Prince Charles, Paul Channon (Le Cercle), Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Sir Edward Heath, Sir Denis Thatcher, Winston S. Churchill (grandson of), and several dozen others. Took an interest in Northern Ireland, and when Jim Prior announced his policy of 'Rolling Devolution', resigned an unpaid job as assistant to Douglas Hurd. Lord Cranborne became known as an anti-communist through activities in support of Afghan refugees in Pakistan in the early 1980s, and sending food parcels to Poland (a joint operation of the Vatican, Opus Dei, SMOM and the CIA). He was involved in efforts to fund the Afghan resistance. His strong opposition to any involvement by the Republic of Ireland in Northern Ireland led him to oppose the Anglo-Irish Agreement and contributed to his decision to retire from Parliament in 1987. However, he had made a useful friendship with John Major while in Parliament. After the 1992 general election, Major utilised a rarely-used process known as a writ of acceleration, to call Lord Cranborne up to the House of Lords in one of his father's junior baronies. Lord Cranborne was summoned as Baron Cecil of Essendon (his father's most junior dignity), though continued to be known by his courtesy style of Viscount Cranborne. He served for two years as a junior Defence Minister before being appointed as Leader of the House of Lords. In 1994, he became a member of the Queen's Privy Council. When Major resigned to fight for re-election as Conservative Party Leader in July 1995, Lord Cranborne led his re-election campaign. He was recognised as one of the few members of the Cabinet who were personally loyal to Major, but continued to lead the Conservative Peers after Labour won the 1997 general election. March 30, 1997, The Independent, 'Courtiers down the centuries; Profile Robert Cranborne' (Lord Cranborne at the time and confidante of Prime Minister John Major): "At least for a few weeks more, a Cecil is in a position the family knows well: very close to the seat of power. It may be a slight exaggeration to say that he is running the government, but Lord Cranborne, Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the Lords, is spending the election as chief of staff at No 10 Downing Street. The peer, who has emerged as something of an icon to the Conservative right, is not only the link between Central Office and No 10, but has day-to-day responsibility for the latter... As one (well-bred) Tory puts it: "Robert has a remarkably close relationship with the Prime Minister. He is an engaging figure with considerable charm. People rather like glimpsing into his solid, English, aristo world of which they are not a part. They find it rather intoxicating. The truth is that they all fall for the toffs - even Thatcher fell for Ridley."... After the Guards it was the City and in 1970 he married, causing a family crisis because his bride, Hannah Stirling (daughter [actually niece] of the founder of the SAS), was a Roman Catholic. The Cecils take the defence of Protestantism and the Church of England seriously and Robert's mother, Mollie, took time to be reconciled. A compromise was reached and the two sons (the "heir and the spare") were brought up as Anglicans, the three daughters as Roman Catholics. In 1978 domestic calm was shattered when Lord Cranborne's brother Richard was killed by guerrillas while filming in Rhodesia. The family were strong supporters of the white settlers - the name of the country's capital, Salisbury (after the 3rd Marquess), giving away the connection. Robert went to Africa to try to find out how his brother died. His brother's death seems only to have reinforced his public support for the whites. During the 1980s he helped organise a secret meeting between Ian Smith and Tory MPs, and backed sporting links with apartheid South Africa. For a decade Lord Cranborne had a habit of turning up in war zones, places he found intriguing, according to friends, because of his fascination with military history. Often visits were combined with business trips. He is thought to have done well financially during the 1970s although, as one observer remarks, "it's almost impossible to know with that family who's inherited and who's made money". Friends see him as a sort of 19th- century Romantic figure, popping up in support of the mujahedin's opposition to Soviet expansionism or to back Polish dissidents... Ironically, for someone now seen as a champion of the right, he did not prosper under Margaret Thatcher, perhaps because his Toryism is of a more "trad right" hue... But eight years in the Commons had not been wasted. For one thing Lord Cranborne had become good friends with a Conservative MP of more humble origins who was to go on to become the Prime Minister [John Major]... Mr Major joined later in the 1979 parliament and got on well with Lord Cranborne who, far from patronising the young MP, invited him to Cranborne for the weekend... Inviting Lord Cranborne to his Downing Street flat, Mr Major has more than once apologised for bringing a man used to inhabiting the great houses of England to such humble surroundings. When John Major won the last election he speeded Lord Cranborne into the House of Lords and, after a mere two years as a defence minister in the Lords (salvaging the VE-Day span-fritters fiasco), he was catapulted into the Cabinet with a direct line to the premier. Mr Major relies on him for advice, knowing that, unlike most of the other ministers around him, Lord Cranborne, who will never be party leader, is not a threat. He has thrown himself with enthusiasm into the job of leading the Lords... Meanwhile, his political salon at Cranborne Manor, and in London, attracts many of the most colourful right-wing thinkers, with a sprinkling of hard-line Unionists from the organisation he helped to found, the Friends of the Union... He is a fierce Eurosceptic, who, despite speaking excellent French, sincerely prefers Dorset to the Dordogne. Yet he has not actively engaged with the parliamentary sceptics... He practises politics only in the rather detached manner of someone who knows that his historical duties have been fulfilled and that he can always return to cultivate a rather substantial garden. "His agenda," says a close friend, "is rather different from the normal one. It looks 100 years ahead."" When the new Prime Minister Tony Blair proposed the removal of the hereditary element in the House of Lords, Lord Cranborne negotiated a pact with the government to retain a small number (later set at ninety-two) of hereditary peers for the interim period. For the sake of form this amendment was formally proposed by Lord Weatherill, Convenor of the Cross-Bench Peers. However, Lord Cranborne gave his party's approval without consulting the Leader, William Hague (invited to Le Cercle), who knew nothing and was embarrassed when Blair told him of it in the House of Commons. Hague then sacked Lord Cranborne, who accepted his error, saying that he had "rushed in, like an ill-trained spaniel". All former Leaders of the House of Lords who were hereditary peers accepted Life Peerages to keep them in the House in 1999. Lord Cranborne, who had received the life Barony of Gascoyne-Cecil, remained active on the backbenches, until the House adopted new rules for declaration of financial interests which he believed were too problematic. Cranborne is known to have attended meetings of Le Cercle in the 1990s and 2000. Very good friend of Cercle chairman Julian Amery. Took 'Leave of Absence' on November 1, 2001. Therefore out of the House when he succeeded his father as 7th Marquess on July 11, 2003. Good friend of Lord Lamont, the Rothschild employee and Cercle chair. Member of the Other Club, together with the Duke of Devonshire (Cavendish), Lord Carrington (Pilgrims Society president), Lord Rothschild, Lord Rees-Mogg, Prince Charles, Lord Richardson of Duntisbourne (major Pilgrims Society member), Lord Julian Amery (Cercle head), Paul Channon (Le Cercle), Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Sir Edward Heath, Sir Denis Thatcher, and Winston S. Churchill (grandson of). Member of the Grillion's Club, together with the Duke of Norfolk (Howard), the Duke of Devonshire (Cavendish), the Earl of Perth (Drummond), Lord Carrington, Lord Richardson of Duntisbourne, Nicholas Baring (vice chair Baring Brothers until 1989) and John Major. Like his father and a number of ancestors, a member of the Roxburghe Club, together with the several generations of the Dukes of Norfolk, the Dukes of Devonshire, the Earls of Perth, the Rothschilds, Oppenheimers, Lord Rees-Mogg, and formerly Paul Mellon.
His uncle and namesake was chairman of the Supreme Economic Council of the Versailles Peace Treaty, member of the Pilgrims Society, first chairman of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, and a principal draftsmen of the League of Nations Covenant in 1919. The 3rd Marquess of Salisbury was possibly the most important founder of Quigley's Round Table. An older generation Robert Cecil, either the 1th Viscount of Chelwood or the 5th Marquess of Salisbury, is supposed to have said: "The Blood of Christ was replaced by the blood of the German war dead. From the Mayas to the Nazis, the shedding of blood to attract the attention of indifferent powers was the magic significance of human sacrifice. He would have sacrificed the happiness of the whole human race if ordered to do so by the mysterious Force whose commands he obeyed." This is very similar to what Lord Lothian said to the New York Pilgrims on the eve of WWII: "At bottom we are fighting a defensive war. We are trying to prevent the hordes of paganism and barbarism destroying what is left of civilized Europe." It is also similar to what Fritz Kramer supposedly said according to his son: "[He] publicly denounced Hitler's National Socialists as barbarian pagans and their communist rivals as proletarian thugs. He sometimes carried his small German imperial flag with its Christian cross of Malta into their street demonstrations..."

Channon, Paul
Sources: 1993, Alan Clark, 'Diaries', p. 369-374; June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour'
Born in 1935. Member of the aristocratic Guinness family from Ireland. Conservative member of parliament for Southend West until 1997 at which time, he stood down and was created a Life Peer. On 7 July 1972, Mac Stíofáin (one of the more violent leaders of the IRA) led an IRA delegation to a secret meeting with members of the British government, led by Secretary of State for Northern Ireland William Whitelaw, at Cheyne Walk in London. This was the Chelsea home of Paul Channon. Other IRA leaders in attendance were Dáithí Ó Conaill, Martin McGuinness, Gerry Adams, Seamus Twomey and Ivor Bell. Very much in charge, Mac Stíofáin spelled out the three basis demands of the Provisionals: (1) The future of Ireland to be decided by the people of Ireland acting as a unit; (2) a British government Declaration of Intent to withdraw from Ireland by January 1975 and (3) the unconditional release of all political prisoners. Member of the Other Club since 1973, together with the 7th Marquess of Salisbury (Le Cercle), the Duke of Devonshire (Cavendish), Lord Carrington (Pilgrims Society president), Lord Richardson of Duntisbourne (major Pilgrims Society member), Lord Rothschild, Lord Rees-Mogg, Lord Julian Amery (former Cercle chairman), Prince Charles, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Sir Edward Heath, Sir Denis Thatcher, and Winston S. Churchill. Channon's daughter Olivia was found dead in 1986 after a heroin overdose in the bed of Count Gottfried von Bismarck, a German nobleman living and partying in London. Von Bismarck has been described as: "... looking a bit strange. Pale, thin and sweating a lot but full, as ever, of brilliant and obscure conversation. He knows an awful lot about 19th and 20th century German and English history - much more than most English - but he definitely came across as a darkly complex man." President of the Board of Trade and Secretary of State for Trade and Industry 1986-1987. Secretary of State for Transport 1987-1989. Sir Richard Loose, Sir Adam Butler and Paul Channon had been at university together and they were the ministers of state at the foreign office, the defence ministry and the department of trade during the same time. Seems to be a willing servant of the Lockerbie coverup. During his time as trade minister he allowed a chlorine plant to be sold secretly to Iraq by the British company Uhde Ltd, in the knowledge that it was likely to be used to make mustard and nerve gas, which was used in the war with Iran. Channon also instructed the export credit guarantee department (ECGD) to keep details of the deal secret from the public. Attended the 1990 Pinay meeting in Oman. Present at the memorial service of former Cercle president Julian Amery. Created a life peer as Baron Kelvedon. The Duke of Kent is a good friend of his and they shared their birthday parties at the home of Paul Channon in October 2005. The Queen attended the party. Prince Charles and Camilla, and the widow of the Duke of Devonshire (Cavendish) were expected by the Daily Mail to attend the party.

Clark, Alan
Sources: 1993, Alan Clark, 'Diaries', p. 369-374; June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour'; April 6, 2003, The Observer, 'So, Norman, any regrets this time?'
Studied law. He did not practice however, and instead became a military historian. Controversial, irreverent, charming and vain, Alan Clark was one of the most colourful British politicians during the 1980s and 90s. Clark entered Parliament as MP for Plymouth Sutton in 1974 and served in various junior ministerial posts at the departments of Employment, Trade and Defence during the Thatcher governments of the 1980s. He attended the 1990 Pinay meeting in Oman. Clark was involved in the Arms-for-Iraq scandal, which eventually caused a landslide towards Tony Blair. At the same time he has cited in a divorce case in South Africa where it was revealed he slept with both the wife and her two daughters. He temporarily left politics, but he returned to Parliament as member for Kensington and Chelsea in the election of 1997. He died in 1999 of a brain tumor, a year before his book 'Diaries' was published, in which talked about the Pinay Circle being funded by the CIA. To date he is the only Member of Parliament to be accused of being drunk at the despatch box. To journalist Frank Johnson, Alan Clark is supposed to have said that: "Yes, I told him, I was a Nazi; I really believed it to be the ideal system, and that it was a disaster for the Anglo-Saxon races and for the world that it was extinguished. Oh yes, I told him, I was completely committed to the whole philosophy. The blood and violence was an essential ingredient of its strength, the heroic tradition of cruelty every bit as powerful and a thousand times more ancient than the Judaeo-Christian ethic."

Colby William E.
Sources: November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting from the Langemann papers); October 1989 – Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe'; 1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come – Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei', p. 153-158; June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour' (named as a regular)
William E. Colby, the son of an army officer, was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on 4th January, 1920. He attended Princeton University and graduated in 1940. In 1941 Colby joined the United States Army and in 1943 the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). The OSS trained him for special missions, and he served behind enemy lines in France and on one occupation helped to destroy a German communication centre in Norway. After the war Colby obtained a law degree from Columbia University in 1947. After working for a short time in a law firm, Colby joined the CIA. He served in Stockholm (1951-1953) and then in Rome (1953-1958), where he helped to arrange the defeat of the Communist Party in the Italian general election. Colby is said to have become both a member of Opus Dei and the Knights of Malta during his intelligence days and is known to have been a staunch Roman Catholic. In his 1978 autobiography, Honorable Men, Colby explains that he was sent to Scandinavia by Gerry Miller, chief of the CIA Western Europe desk, to build the Stay-Behind networks in Scandinavia. Some of his own words: "[After WWII there was] undertaken a major program of building, throughout those Western European countries that seemed likely targets for Soviet attack, what in the parlance of the intelligence trade were known as 'stay-behind nets', clandestine infrastructures of leaders and equipment trained and ready to be called into action as sabotage and espionage forces when the time came... [This was carried out] with the utmost secrecy... Therefore I was instructed to limit access to information about what I was doing to the smallest possible coterie of the most reliable people, in Washington, in NATO, and in Scandinavia." 2005, Daniele Ganser, 'Nato Secret Armies', p. 169-170: "'Berlingske Tidende can reveal that Absalon is the Danish branch of the international Gladio network. This has been confirmed by a member of Absalon to Berlingske Tidende who wishes at present to remain unnamed', a Danish daily newspaper sensationally headlined its discoveries in 1990. (6 [November 25, 1990, Danish daily Berlingske Tidende, 'Ogsa Danmark havde hemmelig haer efter anden verdenskrig']) The source, named Q by the newspaper, confirmed what Colby had revealed in his book. 'Colby's story is absolutely correct. Absalon was created in the early 1950s', the source Q related... 'Colby was a member of the world spanning laymen catholic organization Opus Dei, which, using a modern term, could be called right-wing. Opus Dei played a central in the setting up of Gladio in the whole of Europe and also in Denmark', Q claimed. 'The leader of Gladio was Harder who was probably not a Catholic. But there are not many Catholics in Denmark and the basic elements making up the Danish Gladio were former [World War II] resistance people...(7 [Ibid])'... When another group of Danish journalist insisted to be given at least the name of a Danish CIA contact person, Colby revealed that 'his Danish contact person' for the Gladio net had been Ebbe Munck, a central figure of the Danish secret service and a former member of the resistance movement who later had entered diplomacy [immediately after WWII] to become an advisor to the Danish Queen Margarethe [II]. (10 [November 26, 1990, Danish daily Information, 'Mere mystik om dansk Gladio'])" Colby was CIA station chief in Saigon from 1959 to 1962 and headed the agency's Far East division from 1962 to 1967. Then from 1968 to 1971 he directed the Phoenix program during the Vietnam War. It is estimated that as many 60,000 supporters of the National Liberation Front were killed during the Phoenix program, although Colby put the number at 20,587. Colby also maintained that the deaths arose in combat and were not the result of a criminal assassination program, as critics of Project Phoenix labeled it. Attorney of the Nugan Hand Bank, a money laundering center of heroin profits, mainly from the Golden Triangle, and run by different US intelligence agencies. After Nugan Hand's cover was blown and the operation abandoned, the CIA redirected many of the Nugan Hand operations to another Pacific financial institution based in Hawaii, named Bishop, Baldwin, Rewald, Dillingham and Wong (BBRDW). By the end of 1980, BBRDW started setting up offices in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore, and Australia, all former Nugan Hand locations, staffing the offices with some of the same personnel. On 4 September 1973 President Richard Nixon appointed Colby director of the CIA. In 1973, he was questioned at a Senate hearing about the 40 Committee he was a member of. Here he admitted that Henry Kissinger was its chairman at that moment. When in 1975 both houses of Congress set up inquiries into the activities of the intelligence community, Colby handed over to the Senate committee chaired by Frank Church details of the CIA's recent operations against the left-leaning government in Chile. The agency's attempts to sabotage the Chilean economy had contributed to the downfall of South America's oldest democracy and to the installation of a military dictatorship. His testimony resulted in his predecessor, Richard Helms, being indicted for perjury. Colby was attacked by right-wing figures such as Barry Goldwater for supplying this information to the Frank Church and on 30 January 1976 president Gerald Ford replaced him with Admiral Stansfield Turner. In retirement Colby published his memoirs Honorable Men. This resulted in him being accused of making unauthorized disclosures, and was forced to pay a $10,000 fine in an out-of-court settlement. In 1996 (age 76), after reportedly going out canoeing in the middle of the night, Colby died under suspicious circumstances near his home in Rock Point, Maryland. He did not mention any canoeing plans to his wife, which he usually did, nor was it normal for him to go boating at night at a rain swollen river while leaving his computer on, dinner at the table, and the door unlocked. Colby was found with no lifejacket, which he always wore when on the water, according to his wife. Some people claim that Colby was preparing to leak sensitive information to them. Steven Greer of the Disclosure Project and Kay Griggs of Colonel George Griggs were among those who claimed that. Also, Colby had lent his name to a small right-wing magazine called Strategic Investment, which blamed everything from Oklahoma and Iran Contra drug imports to the death of Vince Foster solely on Clinton. The editors of this magazine suggested that Colby was murdered for giving the magazine credence and because Colby was going to give them information on a conspiracy between Vince Foster and Clinton. However, Colby reported to his friend Senator John DeCamp that he should not believe one word he, or anyone else, wrote in Strategic Investment. Sen. John DeCamp, 'The Franklin Cover-Up,' second edition, p.387-388: "At the time of his death, Bill was working with Britain's Lord William Rees-Mogg, and his American sidekick, James Dale Davidson, publishing a series of newsletters, on international events, financial opportunities, and politics [Strategic Investment]. In fact, he was working on an article for one of those newsletters when he died. Rees-Mogg and Davidson are strange birds... After all, he [Rees-Mogg] used to write that in the coming age of society, an elite of 5% of the total population would rule over the other 95% as virtual slaves. But Rees-Mogg is not just nasty-- he represents great power... On several occasions, when I saw Bill or spoke with him during the last year of his life, I'd ask him whether I should subscribe to his newsletter, or, whether he'd just give me a few copies to look over. He always told me not to waste my money. "Ask me about any situation your interested in, and I'll give you as thorough a briefing as I possibly can. But don't believe a word you read in that newsletter I'm writing for." Strange. But, then again, Bill Colby spent his entire adult life in the shadow world of spies and counter-spies. Maybe his involvement with Rees-Mogg was more complicated than I ever speculated... And I recall another incident... Together with Rees-Mogg, the most savage press hound attacking Clinton was one Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, a Briton... [he] once called me, urgently demanding a meeting. I had never heard of him before, and so I asked Bill if he had ever heard of this fellow.... Bill answered, rather ominously, as I now look back, "His name is Ambrose Evans-Pritchard. And," he said, "be very careful." Colby advised Sen. DeCamp to drop his investigation into the Franklin child abuse and satanism case, because he would certainly be silenced. Instead, Colby recommended that DeCamp write a book and let the world know what he came across. Rees-Mogg, by the way, is a member of the extremely elite Roxburghe Club, together with the Cecils, Howards, Cavendishes, Rothschilds, Oppenheimers, and formerly Paul Mellon. According to Steven Greer, Colby received access to extraterrestrial material, together with a black budget of about $50 million. In the mid 1990s, Colby, of the opinion that the covert projects were out of control, decided to transfer a large sum and a revolutionary energy device to Greer's CSETI. But before he was able to do that, he was assassinated. The colonel who was the go-between between Colby and CSETI, and one of Colby's best friends, soon died of cancer. Greer and one of his closest associates also contracted cancer in that time period. Greer was the only one to survive.

Cradock, Sir Percy
Sources: June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour'
Born in 1923. Studied Law at Cambridge. Joined the British Foreign Office in 1954. Counsellor in Beijing. Charge d'Affairs in Beijing 1966-1969. Head of the Assessments Staff in the Cabinet Office. Ambassador in Beijing 1978-1984. In this position he opened and headed the Sino-British negotiations of 1984, which led to the agreement that the socialist system of the Chinese Republic would not be practiced in Hong Kong for 50 years, starting in 1997 when Hong Kong would have to be given back to China. Hong Kong would keep its capitalist system and its way of life. Foreign Policy Adviser (especially on British-Soviet relations) to Margaret Thatcher 1984-1992. Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, the coordinating board between the intelligence agencies (MI5, MI6, Defense Intelligence Staff) and politicians, in the late Thatcher and early Major years (until 1992). Said to have believed that the slow collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989-1990 was a deliberate Communist hoax. June 26, 1991, The Times: "Sir Percy Cradock, the prime minister's top intelligence adviser, has become a fondly regarded face in the Pentagon... There is a more prosaic reason for defence secretary Richard Cheney's interest in the man who directs British intelligence traffic through the corridors of Downing Street: Mr Cheney is conducting a bureaucratic battle to control his own spies, and on the strategies necessary for inter-service fighting, Sir Percy is considered a modest master." Made a secret mission to Peking to lay the ground for John Major's visit in 1991, the first by a major Western leader after the Tiananmen Square massacre. The purpose of this visit was to clear the differences of opinion over Hong Kong. Retired from government service in 1992. Member of the Privy Council since 1993. Member of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George. Honorary Fellow of St. John's College, University of Cambridge. The most prominent critic of the liberalising policies of Lord Christopher Patten (Pilgrims Society), the last Governor of Hong Kong. His argument was that Patten, fully backed by the John Major government, caused unnecessary trouble by fiddling with plans to create a more representative government in Hong Kong. According to Sir Percy, if the old line had been adhered to, Hong Kong would be enjoying a smoother transition in 1997. Spoke at the Cercle in 1997.

Crozier, Brian Rossiter
Sources: November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting the Langemann papers); 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', pages 186, 191-193, and 241; June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour'
Worked as a journalist for many different papers since 1936. Great supporter of the Truman Doctrine of Containment, which was first introduced in 1947 by George Kennan for the CFR's Foreign Affairs. Didn't think the Truman Doctrine went far enough and was of the opinion that this policy did not take into account Soviet clandestine subversion in the West. Reporter in Saigon and Singapore in 1952 and 1953, covering the French Indochina War and the Malayan Emergency for Reuters and the Australian Associated Press. Here he made his first intelligence contacts with the British and French. Joined the Economist in 1954 and became editor of the Economist Foreign Report in 1958. Used his intelligence contacts for background info and scoops while writing for The Economist until 1964, the Sunday Times, and the BBC. Invited into John Hay "Jock" Whitney's circle of dining friends at the Connaught Hotel, when this person was ambassador to Great Britain from 1957 to 1961. Also invited at Whitney's residence in the London area. Whitney was a Rockefeller-associate, a friend of the British royal family, a CIA cooperator, and in a 1973 membership list of the Pilgrims Society, he appears as a vice president of this club, together with David K.E. Bruce (head of the Bruce family, of Robert the Bruce) and Winthrop W. Aldrich, an uncle of the Rockefeller brothers. Crozier became an anti-communist activist in 1958, working with the CIA, MI6, and IRD (Information Research Department; secret anti-communist intelligence organization of the Foreign Office 1946-1977) on projects he supported. Got his own office at the IRD after some time. In their book on the IRD, Lashmar and Oliver note that "the vast IRD enterprise had one sole aim: To spread its ceaseless propaganda output (i.e. a mixture of outright lies and distorted facts) among top-ranking journalists who worked for major agencies, papers and magazines, including Reuters and the BBC, as well as every other available channel. It worked abroad to discredit communist parties in Western Europe which might gain a share of power by entirely democratic means, and at home to discredit the British Left". Also began to work with the intelligence agencies of France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Morocco, Iran, Argentina, Chile, and Taiwan. Invited to Antoine Bonnemaison's (a French colonel and SDECE agent specialized in psychological warfare) Centre de Recherche du Bien Politique in 1959, which initially was a secret discussion group involving intelligence officers, academics, businessmen, a few politicians, and trade union leaders of France, Germany, and the Netherlands. Besides countering communist subversion the "colloques" were aimed at Franco-German rapprochement. Crozier was a member of Interdoc, a European anti-communist subversion group in which the Dutch BVD officers who attended the "colloques" (and likely Le Cercle) played an important role. When Bonnemaison's Centre de Recherche was killed by de Gaulle in 1963, Bonnemaison set up the Centre d'Observation du Mouvement des Idées, this time financed by French corporations. The group lost its international character, and only Crozier remained a regular participant from outside France. In 1964, soon after he left the Economist, Crozier became an official consultant to the IRD and was approached by the CIA's Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) to reconstruct, commercialize, and take over their features services. Crozier turned down the offer, because he was writing for dozens of international newspapers, was giving lectures, and was working on a book. Some time later he did accept an offer to travel to South America and prepare a report on the CCF's Spanish-language services. Didn't know much about the CCF at the time, besides that it had been described to him as "very rum". Worried about Salvador Allende in Chile at the time, who described as a communist-oriented demagogue. Allende would be overthrown by the US in the 1970s. In 1965, Crozier was notified that his recommendations of professionalizing the Spanish-language services were accepted by the CCF. Therefore the CIA's CCF had attracted John Hay Whitney to gather the necessary funds to accomplish this. Brian Crozier now accepted the part-time job to reconstruct Forum Service (funded by the CCF), made it Forum World Features (FWF), and became its president until the early 1970s. Crozier wasn't to happy that John Hay Whitney had changed most of the terms that were orally accepted to, but nevertheless accepted the position. Whitney bought FWF in 1966. Richard Mellon Scaife bought FWF in 1973, until he quickly dissolved in 1975, just before Time out magazine exposed the role of FWF as a counter to communist propaganda. The International Herald Tribune (IHT) did a follow up article, which Crozier, as he would later do with Lobster's articles on Le Cercle, described as a "curious mixture of fact and fantasy." And of course, the author, Bernard Nossiter, turned out to be a KGB asset. In 1967 Crozier published his biography on Franco, for which he had lived a year in Madrid. July 10, 1967, Brian Crozier in The Times, 'Can the personal system of government survive?': "Today, the killing of the rich and the burning of churches must have lost much of their old appeal. In fact, more Spaniards than ever before now have a stake in prosperity and progress. Why, then, are so many Spaniards indifferent or hostile to the regime that has brought them stability and a taste of affluence?" October 28, 1967, The Times, 'Franco: the passion to survive' (review of Crozier's book): "[Franco] was never an orator like Hitler or Mussolini, or a theorist like de Gaulle; nor is he, despite the propaganda of the Left, a "fascist dictator". Rather, as Mr. Crozier points out, it was Franco who smashed Spanish fascism- something the Republic failed to achieve. In his main purpose - to improve the material conditions of all Spaniards - Franco believed implicitly in Order and Discipline as the essential prerequisites of progress; and it is as the enemy of Order that he fears Communism - of which, Mr. Crozier reveals, he began to make a careful study as early as 1928... [Franco's] regime, despite its faults - it is vastly less oppressive than those of eastern Europe - has given his people the longest period of peace, stability, and progress in modern Spanish history. If it was not for love of him that they voted overwhelmingly in his favour in last year's Referendum, it was certainly for fear of what might take his place." December 21, 1973, Brian Crozier for The Times, 'Prime Minister's assassination may push Spain even farther to the right': "General Franco is still a hate-symbol of the international left, which has never forgiven him his victory..." November 2, 1982, The Times, 'Is democracy such a good thing?': "We all have our intellectual assumptions, and the prevailing assumption in the West is that party democracy is necessarily good and dictatorship necessarily bad... The cause of relief was that the fragile flower of Spanish democracy was being saved - the important thing being the salvation of party democracy, not whether party democracy is necessarily good for Spain or will necessarily solve Spain's problems, which is at least open to doubt if hard facts mean anything. Since Franco died in 1975, inflation and unemployment have soared in Spain. So have terrorism and non-political crime. Moreover, the politicians have saddled their country with an unworkable constitution... No doubt one should make allowances after a dictatorship of 40 years, but the assumption that democracy is going to work in Spain does, I think, remain to be proved. Within a year of Franco's death, more than 500 political groups had registered... In France, a big majority voted against [Cercle associate] President Giscard d'Estaing's desire to extend his own mandate - and landed the French people with a socialist-communist coalition they did not want. In Germany, Herr Helmut Kohl [funded by fringe Vatican interests] came to power by a constitutional device which leaves him dependent on the support of Herr Schmidt's former coalition partners, the Liberals, who will probably be wiped out at the general elections next March. Against this dismal record, it might be a sound principle to value freedom and good government rather than party democracy..." May 2, 1985, The Times, Spain's Soldiers waiting for their orders: "Contrary yo received opinion, the attempted coup four years ago was not to be a coup d'état but rather a coup de force. The army had no intention of taking over the government, but rather of forcing King Juan Carlos to suspend constitutial rule with army backing, for a limited period, so that various problems, especially terrorism, could be brought under control without allowing the civilian politicians to continue, as the plotters saw it, to make a mess of things. In other words, it was to be a temporary takeover on the Turkish model..." In 1970, after consulting with Leonard B. Schapiro, an intelligence-connected anti-communist London School of Economics professor, Crozier set up the Institute for the Study of Conflict (ISC). The main object of the institute was to expose Soviet subversion worldwide. Page 96 of Crozier biography: "Throughout my period as Director, the Institute for the Study of Conflict was involved in exposing the fallacies of 'détente' and warning the West of the dangers inherent a policy of illusion." Tried to get initial funding by John Hay Whitney (through this person's financial advisor, John Train, a very close associate of Sir James Goldsmith), the CIA, the IRD, and MI6, but failed. Received some initial, but very limited funding from BP and Shell. Soon thereafter, through his CIA contacts, he met with the now quite controversial Richard Mellon Scaife, who granted $100,000 a year to Crozier's ISC. Scaife was part heir to the Mellon fortune, a major shareholder in Gulf Oil, and the person who took over Crozier's FWF in the early 1970s. When the ISC took off, Crozier developed a closer relationship with the CIA and met with its representatives about 4 times a year in Langley. In 1975, Crozier helped set up a Washington-based Institute for the Study of Conflict (WISC). George Ball, a close friend of Jean Monnet and next to David Rockefeller a long time permanent attendee of Bilderberg, became chairman of the WISC. Approached by Jean Violet in 1971, after this person had read a March 1971 interview with Crozier that appeared in the US News and World Report. Violet, a member of Opus Dei, and French, German, and Vatican intelligence, was funded and supported by Carlo II Pesenti, a person whose business empire was sponsored by the Vatican, and Otto von Habsburg, head of the Paneuropa Society and a member of Opus Dei and the Knights of Malta. Francois Duchene, one of Jean Monnet's closest associates; Crozier's former Economist colleague; and head of the elite International Institute for Strategic Studies, which describes itself as "the world's leading authority on political-military conflict," introduced Violet to Crozier as a person who represented "a powerful consortium of French business interests." (Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 97) According to Crozier, it took many years before he would find out that Violet worked as a Special Advocate for French intelligence involved in psychological warfare for French interests. Involved with the Pinay Circle between 1971 and 1985. The ISC received assignments from the "Pinay Committee". In 1980 Violet asked him to take over the presidency of Le Cercle. In 1981 the Cercle-linked Heritage Foundation was funding Brian Crozier's International Freedom Fund. In 1985 Julian Amery became the new president of Le Cercle, at the recommendation of Crozier. In 1976, Brian Crozier set up a covert advisory committee called 'Shield', in order to secretly brief Margaret Thatcher and her closest colleagues on security and intelligence. The idea came from Sir Stephen Hastings, a Conservative member of parliament who had been a SAS soldier and SOE agent during WWII, before being recruited in MI6. Shield was composed of Crozier; Hastings; Conservative backbencher and WWII MI6 agent Nicholas Elliott; and Harry Sporborg of Hambros Bank, who was a deputy head of the SOE during WWII. Lord Carrington (Order of the Garter, Privy Council, president Pilgrims Society, chairman Bilderberg; Kissinger Associates) was among the very few officials that were briefed, but opposed almost everything that Crozier's group wrote down. Crozier adopted Jean Violet's 'Psychological Action' programme, which was a technique to find quick, short answers to three basic questions: What do People want? What do they Fear? And what do they feel strongly about? After reading Crozier's short answers to these questions, she said to him: "From now on, Brian, these are my ideas." According to Hastings obituary in the Daily Telegraph of January 11, 2005: "Hastings's background in MI6 gave him a certain mystique, and he was often embroiled in controversy concerning Communist infiltration. In 1977 he raised a storm of protest by alleging that five prominent trades union officials were agents for Communist countries. This information was culled from tape recordings made by the Czech former spy and defector Joseph Frolik. The following year, before Mrs Thatcher came into office, Hastings and Brian Crozier wrote her a paper setting out "the diabolical nature of the Communist conspiracy" against Britain. Mrs Thatcher was appalled: "Stephen," she said, "I've read every word and I'm shattered. What should we do?... In 1986 Hastings successfully sued the Observer for libel following allegations that he had been one of two Conservative MPs involved in an MI5 plot to oust Harold Wilson.""Thatcher subsequently was elected in 1979, 1983, and 1987. Council member of the Foreign Affairs Research Institute (FARI), together with Julian Amery (later Cercle head), Lord Chalfont (Jonathan Institute; anti-communist associate of the Cercle and Crozier), Robert Moss (Le Cercle), founder Geoffrey Stewart-Smith (Conservatice MP; adventures were allegedly sponsored by MI5; leading member of the Conservative Monday Club; chairman of its foreign affairs study group of the Monday Club in 1966; editor of East West Digest, an anti-communist magazine sent free to all MPs at the time), Sir Frederic Mackarness Bennett (owned a Rolls-Royce and four homes, one of them in the Cayman Islands; director Kleinwort Benson Europe (his mother was a Kleinwort); long time Lloyds underwriter; influential member of Parliament from the 1950s to the 1980s; member Monday Club; always warning people about the KGB threat and supported every regime that opposed the USSR; chair FARI in 1978; vice-president of the European-Atlantic Group; leading official in the private group Council of Europe in the late 1970s and 1980s; honorary director of the BCCI in Hong Kong until 1986; Member of the Privy Council since 1985; ridiculed his party's (Conservatives) for their Euroscepticism after his retirement in 1987; supported Pinochet; Freeman of the City of London; has been to Bilderberg), and air vice marshal Stuart Menual. Edgar O'Ballance of the International Institute for Strategic Studies was a scholar at FARI. FARI was said to have strong links to the CIA (which, of course, it had), and besides receiving money from the pro-apartheid government in South-Africa, reportedly also received funds from Lockheed. March 20, 2004, Daily Telegraph, Obituary of Geoffrey Stewart-Smith: "In 1974 he had sought to distance his Foreign Affairs Circle from the World Anti-Communist League because of the WACL's strong anti-Semitic element, saying: "We wouldn't touch them with a barge pole." However, he later admitted that another of his organisations, the Foreign Affairs Research Institute, had been mainly funded by the apartheid government in South Africa. The admission came in 1987 when Stewart-Smith appeared at the London Bankruptcy Court, disclosing debts of pounds 150,388 and no assets." In 1980, FARI began organising an annual 'balance of power' conference in Britain, which attracted people like Edwin Feulner (president of the Heritage Foundation; member Le Cercle; Knight of Malta), Ray S. Cline (OSS 1943-1946 and worked in the Far-East with Paul Helliwell and Gen. Singlaub; good friend of Chiang Kai-shek's son; set up the Asian People's Anti-Communist League (APACL) in Taiwan and South Korea in 1955-1956; CIA station chief in Taiwan 1958-1962; deputy director CIA 1962-1966; CIA station chief in Bonn 1966-1969 where he oversaw the local Gladio forces; confirmed the authenticity of FM 30-31A & B, instruction manuals of the DIA which included false flag terrorist actions that were to be blamed on the USSR; director Department of State's Bureau Intelligence and Research 1969-1973; director world power studies at Georgetown's CSIS 1973-1986; co-founder of the WACL with Gen. Singlaub; representative of CAUSA, founded by Moonie Col. Bo Hi Pak; the Jonathan Institute; founder of the US Global Strategy Council in 1981 and headed it from 1986 to 1994; great supporter of non-lethal weapons), Frank Barnett (founder National Strategy Information Center in Washington in 1976, a think tank dedicated to the preservation of containment militarism; member Committee on Present Danger), and General Daniel O. Graham (Republican Roman Catholic; deputy CIA director to William Colby in 1972-1974; director DIA 1974-1976; consultant American Security Council 1978-1981; founding chair High Frontier, Inc. 1981-1995, an organization intended to promote Star Wars; member USGSC under Ray Cline; member advisory board CAUSA; member of the Moon-linked American Freedom Coalition; director National Religious Broadcasters, together with Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson). In June 1978, FARI co-sponsored a conference in Brighton, England with Crozier's Institute for the Study of Conflict. Richard Mellon Scaife and William Casey (Cercle member) were among the participants. FARI in the late 1970s reported that the Navy of the USSR had shifted its focus from anti-carrier to anti-submarine warfare. It reported that the communists were trying to recruit men in the US Army, mainly blacks and Puerto Ricans. It also warned for the vulnerability of the West to a meltdown of the computer grid. August 15, 1978, Chronicle Telegram, 'U.S. vulnerable in computer war': "The United States, moreover, has been far too eager to supply the Soviet Union with sophisticated computer technology and training, Baron believes. "Computer companies in the West fall over each other in their enthusiasm to compete for the favors of the Soviet buying agencies,", writes Baron. "The western businessman's sheer naivete in dealing with the astute Soviet negotiators is quite depressing."" Following is an article from an author of the FARI group. It shows how Crozier and associates imply that the Soviet Union was behind terrorism worldwide. January 13, 1982, The Frederick Post, 'Terrorism a world war': "(The following commentary is by Col. Ronald Waring, author of five books on politico-military subjects and two novels. He has published numerous articles in professional military journals. He currently serves as a governor of the Foreign Affairs Research Institute, London.)... Looking back, the year 1981 should go down in history as The Year of the Terrorist. It started with the attempted murder and serious wounding of President Reagan, to be followed shortly afterward by the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II. In early October there was the brutal murder of President Sadat of Egypt. Finally, on Dec. 17, U. S. Army Brigadier General James Dozier was kidnapped by the Italian Red Brigade in Verona, Italy. While acts of violence against world leaders have made banner headlines, the deaths by terrorism of literally hundreds of men and women all over the world go almost unnoticed. In Northern Ireland thousands have died by bomb and bullet, in Spain and in Italy more are shot down. Virtually all over Europe, terrorists' bombs bring death and destruction. In Lebanon, terrorism has escalated into civil war, while in the bloody arena of Central America trucks go round collecting the corpses of those murdered by terrorist gangs. Only a few years ago we would have been sickened and horrified by all this, but today we have come to accept it as almost routine. Almost every country has its terrorist organizations and they are proliferating like dragons' teeth. In West Germany there is the Red Army Faction, which recently attempted to assassinate the Commander of the U. S. Army in Europe and has attacked other U. S. Military personnel in Germany. They are loosely linked with the remnants of the Baader Meinhoff Gang and are well organized and deadly. In Germany, too, there is the Grey Wolves Organization among the Turkish "guest workers" there. At first it was thought that it was they who had launched Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who attempted to kill the Pope. Now it is generally believed that Agca was manipulated by a far deeper and more complicated plot, directed from Moscow. Italy has become the home of terrorism and kidnapping. The notorious Red Brigades are only one of many Italian terrorist organizations, one of which planted a bomb at the Bologna railway station a year ago that killed 85 people. In Spain, the Basque separatists and militant Marxist ETA carry out a systematic campaign of murder, kidnapping and bombings. In Ireland the objectives of the IRA and the Provisional IRA are roughly the same; that is, the expulsion of the British from Ireland and the unification of Ireland as a Marxist socialist state. The political objective of most terrorist organizations is the imposition of some form of extreme left-wing government. Some terrorism is attributable to far-right groups, but Left and Right become meaningless political terms, and we find ideologically left wing groups cooperating with rightists in a common objective, the destruction of organized society and civilization. Throughout the Middle East, various guerrilla and terrorist organizations operate generally under the Palestine Liberation Organization, and, operating from bases in Lebanon and Jordan, make attacks on Israeli territory. Earlier this year, a Pakistani group organized by the son of Ali Bhutto, the former President of Pakistan, carried out a spectacular skyjacking. This organization calls itself Al Zulfikar and is run from Kabul in Afghanistan by Murtaza Bhutto. It is, of course, ideologically on the far left. Polisario is operating on the borders of Morocco, armed, supplied and trained largely by Libya's Col. Gadaffi. This has now become a formidable military force which has inflicted defeats on Moroccan regular army units, occupied towns and large tracts of country. Again largely Marxist-oriented, their ultimate aim is to topple the King of Morocco. In the Americas there are numerous Marxist terrorist organizations. In Guatemala more than 4,000 leftist guerrillas are trying to overthrow the government. In El Salvador five identified groups, which have formed the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, are fighting a guerrilla war. They are largely financed, armed and supplied by Cuba. On the other side rightist "death squads" have killed some 3,000 people in the past two years. In Brazil, in Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia and the Argentine, terrorist organizations exist on a greater or smaller scale. In Puerto Rico there are at least five groups which have carried out terrorist attacks in Puerto Rico, and in the United States. These groups demand independence for Puerto Rico: in 1979 they attacked and ambushed a U. S. Navy vehicle and killed two servicemen, and in 1975 they set off a bomb in a New York restaurant, killing four people. The CIA reported 760 acts of international terrorism in 1980, and the Associated Press in a worldwide survey identified some 50 major terrorist groups. The numbers of assassins, bombers, kidnappers, skyjackers and terrorist killers now runs not just into battalions, but into divisions and armies. They are to be found everywhere in almost every country. The idea that murder for a political motive, if not quite respectable, is somehow more a misdemeanor than a crime is pernicious nonsense. An attack is being mounted against our society, no less deadly than a war for those that it touches. In fact it is a form of warfare, and we should combat it to the limit of our power." In February of 1977, Crozier created The 61, together with Nicholas Elliott, general Vernon Walters (Graduated from Stonyhurst College, a 400-year-old Jesuit secondary school in Lancashire, England, without going to University; Still managed to become fluent in 8 languages, including Russian and Chinese; Knight of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta; lifelong bachelor and did not drink alcohol; Protege of Fritz Kraemer; aide to Pilgrims Averell Harriman and Henry Kissinger; co-founder and deputy chief of staff of SHAPE; BOSS (South-African intelligence) supposedly attributed the JFK murder to him; Military Attaché in Rome in 1963, which is generally overlooked in his biographies; deputy director CIA 1972-1976; Sent all over the world on to confidential missions by Ronald Reagan, together with co-SMOM member and Pilgrim Alexander Haig; Acted as a replacement of DCI William Casey for some time, making at least a dozen undercover missions to the Vatican; CFR) and "a leading figure in a major City of London bank" [p. 135]. Sir Peter Tennant is likely to have been the anonymous host, "a leading figure in the bank", that chaired Crozier's "very secret" Sunday morning , February 13, 1977 meeting at the executive suite of the anonymous "leading City of London bank", that established the private sector intelligence group The 61. The meeting was attended by three British (Crozier, Elliott, and the anonymous banker), four Americans (Gen. Walters; a Viennese born American who represented a big Belgian corporation; and two Congressional staffers), and one German (a member of the Bundestag and anti-Soviet author, probably Cercle member Count Hans Huyn). Jean Violet could not attend because of ill health. Crozier proposed the creation of a "Private Sector Operational Intelligence agency, beholden to no government, but at the disposal of allied or friendly governments for certain tasks which, for one reason or another, they were no longer able to tackle." Its main purpose would be to circumvent national legislation, avoid possible political embarrassments, and to conduct more effective non-violent counter-subversion operations. All members agreed on the fact that this organization should be created and that it should be kept very secret to any outsiders. The target figure for The 61 became $5 million a year, although it isn't known how these funds were gathered. The 61 supplied secret intelligence about the Communist empire (and its subversion) to specific people in the White House, the British government, the French government, and the Vatican. March 13, 2006, The Daily Mail, 'A very British coup': "Brian Crozier, the security expert who had made a study of communist insurgency in Britain and would later advise Margaret Thatcher, was twice invited to address officers at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. 'I took it upon myself to make them understand the problems of communism and that they might, at some time, have to intervene to destroy this danger,' he says. 'There was absolute silence as I explained how the trades unions were very heavily penetrated by communists and their sympathisers and were exerting a dangerous influence on the Labour Party, which largely depended on them. They wanted to hear every word I said.' After his speech, he received a number of private phone calls from very senior serving officers. 'I have never named them and I never will,' declares Crozier. 'They were standing ready to act if necessary. There were no "buts" about it. If things had gone on as they were, they would have moved... [article gives many details about the plot]." It was exposed in 1982 by the Langemann Papers. Crozier wrote 'The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Empire'. Claims he was a good friend of Richard "Prince of Darkness" Perle and general Richard Stilwell, the latter was a known Cercle participant and an expert in guerilla warfare. Brian Crozier and his protege Robert Moss were participants in the 1979 conference on international terrorism of the Jonathan Institute, a think tank set up in memory of Lt. Col. Jonathan Netanyahu, brother of Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud party. Netanyahu helped organize the private, Israeli-based institute whose public board included people like Shimon Peres (Labour prime minister) and Menachem Begin (Likud prime minister). May 6, 1980, The Gleaner, 'Soviets and terrorism': "The Jonathan Institute of Jerusalem, Israel, has published a pamphlet on "International Terrorism: The Soviet Connection". The pamphlet consists of a number of presentations made at the Jerusalem Conference on International Terrorism held July 2-5 last year... The first contributor, professor Richard Pipes [associate of Brian Crozier] of Harvard, ... stated "The Soviet Union has enjoyed great success with terror and profited from it in many ways... We must expose its support of terrorism as widely as possible, and make the public aware of Soviet complicity... Brian Crozier, Director of the Institute for the Study of Conflict in London [and still chairman of Le Cercle], discussed the direct support that the Soviet Union has given to terrorist movements... Mr Crozier declared that the Soviets have provided training for terrorists within the USSR. He goes on to note the use of proxies by the Soviets Libya for example benefited from one of the biggest arms deals in history, an estimated $12 billion worth of arms were sold here by the Soviets in 1976... The other contributors, Ray S. Cline [former deputy director CIA; member WACL; founder of the US Global Strategy Council in 1981 and headed it from 1986 to 1994], Executive Director of the Centre for Strategic Studies at Georgetown University, Robert Moss [le Cercle], Editor of the Economist Foreign Report, Congressman Jack Kemp, Major General George J. Keegan [chief Air Force Intelligence at the 7th Air Force in Vietnam, 1967-1969; head Air Force Intelligence 1971-1977; retired in 1977; directly after his retirement claimed that the USSR was working on charged-particle beam weapons; vice chair Coalition for Peace through Strength 1980-1993], and Senator Henry Jackson [neocon pro-zionist democrat; the Henry Jackson Society, founded in 2005, is named after him] also look closely at Soviet involvement in terrorism." Some other participants in the 1979 conference were former CIA director George Bush, journalists George Will, Rome-based journalist Claire Sterling (published the book Terror Network in 1980, which claimed the IRA, ETA, PLO, and Red Brigade were all controlled by the USSR), Jacques Soustelle (allegedly responsible for the transfer of nuclear technology to Israel; founder of OAS that tried to destabilize Algeria and assassinate de Gaulle), and Lord Alun Chalfont (Privy Council; Conservative Monday Club; pro-Apartheid; director pro-junta British-Chilean Council; Foreign Affairs Research Institute with Crozier, Amery, and Moss; chairman second Jonathan conference). Jacques Soustelle later became a board member, just as George Shultz. The second Jonathan Conference on international terrorism, organized in 1984, was opened by a keynote speech of secretary of state George P. Shultz (Bechtel executive and according to Dr. Greer part of a UFO insider study group; Bohemian Grove camp Mandalay; National Security Planning Group; chair advisory council J.P. Morgan Chase; ran Reagan's election campaign; largely put together the George Bush Jr. administration; etc.), who was a key organizer of the meeting with Douglas Feith and Benjamin Netanyahu. He claimed that "pre- emptive actions by Western democracies may be necessary to counter the Soviet Union and other nations that... have banded together in an international "league of terror."" This was the real birth of the War on Terror and a policy of pre-emptive strikes, which became standard almost 20 years later after 9/11. Caspar Weinberger (Also from Bechtel; Defense Secretary; National Security Planning Group; later Pilgrims Executive; member Bohemian Grove camp Mandalay) suggested that the United Nations might be called upon to deal with terrorism. Jeane Kirkpatrick, U.N. Ambassador at the time and still a very influential neoconservative, disagreed with that last notion and said it would be better to create a whole new organization to deal with international terrorism and "the power behind it, the Soviet Union". Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (worked for Averell Harriman in the 1950s; important United Nations official in the 1970s; important DLC operative; chairman of the 1997 Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy, which shed a little bit of light on the inner workings of the Black and Deep Black Programs, the latter officially known as Unacknowledged Special Access Programs; friend of the Rothschild family) and Yitzhak Rabin (Labour prime minister) supported Kirkpatrick. Senator Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, "told the conference that Iraq is shopping for a new nuclear reactor and is fortifying the atomic plant site bombed by Israel in 1981. He said he also has information that "unwitting" American firms provided Iraq with several components for chemical weapons used against Iran in the 44-month war between the two countries." Among the other participants were Israel's Minister of Defense Moshe Arens; Senators Alan Cranston (president of the World Federalist Society), Alfonse D'Amato (leading figure in Iran-Contra investigation), and Paul Laxalt (lieutenant governor Nevada 1962-1966; general chairman National Republican Party 1983-1987; chair of Ronald Reagan for President in 1976, 1980, and 1984; co-chairman George Bush for President in 1988 and 1992); Rep. Jack Kemp; William Webster (director FBI 1978-1987; director CIA 1987-1991; partner Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy since 1991; director Anhauser-Busch); presidential counselor Edwin Meese (Heritage Foundation); Michael Ledeen (CIA connected Zionist extremist); Arthur Goldberg; Eugene Rostow; columnist George Will and television newsmen David Brinkley. July 31, 1993, The US Economist, 'Free Agent' book review: "The trouble is that all extremists see the world through distorting glasses. Brian Crozier's squint so far right that one can ask how much of what he saw was in his own head... He believes its Labour Party in the 1970s had "largely been taken over by the subversive left"; that in the nation "the dominant role, increasingly, was played by extreme-left Labour MPs and constituency managers"; that subversion would be Mrs Thatcher's "greatest problem" in power. And so on. "Bonkers," one (rightish) Labour MP wrote to him of such views; "a radical incomprehension of the Labour movement . . . contradicted by manifest facts."... Be grateful it has gone no further. For Mr Crozier, 1975-78 was a "critical" time, when Britain, via the then-ruling Labour Party, risked far-left takeover. He several times lectured army officers on their response. One bunch gave him a five-minute ovation... Should a journalist feed secret services? Or, like Mr Crozier, visit the Elysee "ostensibly to gather material for an article"; in fact to spy on de Gaulle? Should western spooks run "press" agencies? Mr Crozier's agency did not lie; that is, put out crude invention. But here is a man who calls even IRD analyses "rigorously accurate". Judge that by his account of Chile before the CIA/Pinochet coup of 1973. It is as if a puritan's account of Soho were offered as a guide to London." Crozier was among those intelligence and army officers, supported by Lord Mountbatten (husband of Queen Elizabeth II; founder 1001 Club; lifelong associate of Sir Evelyn de Rothschild), general Walter Walker (counter subversion specialist in countries like Burma and Malaya; NATO commander-in-chief; like some others in Le Cercle, he believed the Soviet collapse was not the end of Soviet subversion of the West), and colonel David Stirling (founder of the SAS; founder GB75, which was intended to intervene against "communist" labor unions in the event of widespread strikes, and basically to shove Harold Wilson's government aside; associate of James Goldsmith, Tiny Rowland, and Lord Robert Cecil, all members or associate members of Le Cercle). Scholar at the Heritage Foundation 1983-1995. August 21, 1991, The Times, 'On guard: world security in the wake of Moscow coup': "Sir, The amazing thing about the fall of President Gorbachev is not that he has fallen but that he lasted as long as he did. He had tried to square an ideological circle: declaring his allegiance to Lenin while attempting to undo the system Lenin created, and keeping the Leninist party in power. As his removal by the hardliners confirms, the system was unreformable. It was absurd to suppose that it could be reformed, and folly on the West's part to help a deeply unpopular and unelected leader to keep Lenin's party in power. With the hardliners (appointed by him) in charge in the Kremlin, the cold war will now be resumed. The only hope for a break with the past lies with Boris Yeltsin, Eduard Shevardnadze and others who broke with the party. But the obstacles they face are daunting: the army, the KGB and the interior forces. Perhaps, by now, President Bush may be regretting his parting words after his visit to Moscow: "God bless the USSR."" Gorbachev fought to preserve a socialist government and the unity of the Soviet Union, while Shevardnadze advocated further political and economic liberalisation. He feared the nationalists. Shevardnadze returned briefly as Soviet Foreign Minister in November 1991 but resigned with Gorbachev the following month when the Soviet Union was formally dissolved. Yeltsin rose to power. In the aftermath of Iran-Contra and the BCCI scandal, in which leading members of the US establishment were (mostly behind the scenes) exposed as the largest drug traffickers on earth, Crozier decided to do blame the communists of doing the same thing, without mentioning the revelations about the much bigger scale trade of his US buddies. January 28, 1990, Sunday Times, 'How the Colombian cocaine chain leads to Fidel Castro'. "Estevez revealed that Cuba had built up a multi-million-dollar drug trafficking network, with thousands of agents in the United States. He said Fidel Castro was personally involved in drug trafficking, with the aim of promoting violent crime, addiction and corruption in North America, while simultaneously financing terrorism in Latin America: a perfect definition of ``narco-terrorism''... By then the drug trade was bringing Castro's regime an estimated $10m a month. Another beneficiary was the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. It emerged for the first time that the leading role in the drug traffic was played by Pablo Escobar Gaviria, now the most wanted of the Medellin cartel fugitives in Colombia. Escobar was living in Cuba with the full assistance of Fidel Castro. Another fugitive, the American financier Robert Vesco, was believed to be Escobar's number two. The American authorities had tried unsuccessfully to extradite Vesco from Costa Rica and the Bahamas... On February 10, 1988, Blandon [Medellin cartel baron] testified before a Senate sub-committee that Castro and Noriega were working together to promote ``drug-financed guerrilla movements throughout Latin America''. He saw Castro himself brokering an agreement in Havana to end a $5m ``misunderstanding'' between the Medellin cartel and Panama... There is little reason to doubt that Ochoa a friend of Fidel's brother and defence minister, Raul Castro was indeed involved in drug smuggling. But this was not the issue. His sin, in Castro's eyes, was that he was bypassing the mechanism controlled by the Castro brothers. Moreover, he had unwisely emulated the Castro brothers in the dispensation of patronage to friends and aides. This is the view of Arturo Cruz Jr, the son of a former Nicaraguan contra leader, and one-time friend of the glamorous Fawn Hall, former secretary to Colonel Oliver North. Not only did the execution of Ochoa remove a potential rival, it also enabled Castro, at no cost to himself, to improve his image at a time when continuing financial and military assistance from the Soviet Union may be in doubt, and when Castro's relations with Mikhail Gorbachev are notoriously under strain." November 23, 1991, The Times, Brian Crozier: "Sir, The outcry against a single European currency is puzzling. It would (will?) make travelling much easier: no more hurried reference to pocket calculators, no more middlemen's high percentage profits... All Europeans would welcome a responsibly and impartially governed central bank where an ecu (if that is to be its name) would be worth the same in 2001 as in 1991." Wikipedia quoted Brian Crozier, seemingly as someone with an "objective" look at Opus Dei: "Another historian, Brian Crozier, states that Opus Dei "is not, as its enemies either think or want others to think, a political party; nor is it a political pressure group...Opus Dei was not a group to be conciliated by being given a share in power, as the Monarchists were, or the Falange, or the Army." Distinguished visiting fellow Hoover Institute, Stanford, California, 1996-2001. Member of the International Advisory Council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, whose leadership is involved with the Moonies. Cercle member Edwin Feulner sits on the National Advisory Council of the VCMF, and Cercle participant Zbigniew Brzezinski used to. According to Crozier, "neo-colonialism" is a term invented by the communists.

Duncan, Alan
Sources: June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour'; 18 June 2000, Sunday Telegraph / Lobster Magazine, Issue 40, winter 2000-2001; April 2, 2003, The Guardian, 'War in the Gulf: Billionaire linked to Labour arrested in London: France demands extradition of Iraqi friend of UK politicians'
Before beginning his political career he became a millionaire as a trader of oil and refined products first with Shell and then with an independent commodity company, but he remained involved in politics as an active member of Battersea Conservative Association. Between the years of 1984 and 1986 he lived in Singapore. Member of Parliament for Rutland and Melton. since 1992. From 1993 to 1995 he sat on the Social Security Select Committee, his first governmental position was as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of Health, a position he obtained in December 1993 and resigned from in January 1994 after it was revealed that he had made a 50,000 pound profit exploiting right-to-buy legislation to buy his neighbour's council house in Westminster. When co-Le Cercle member and arms dealer Jonathan Aitken sued the Guardian two years ago, Alan Duncan defended Aitken by stating he was a "good and honourable man. I think he has struck a rich vein and good for him for taking a stand. There is not enough courage around and he has shown he's got it" (another Cercle member, Michael Howard, did the same). In July of 1995 he was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Chairman of the Conservative Party, Dr Brian Mawhinney. In June 1997 he was entrusted with the positions of Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party and Parliamentary Political Secretary to the Party Leader. In June 1999 he was made Shadow Trade and Industry Spokesman. Attended the June 2001 meeting of Le Cercle in Lisbon, Portugal. In September 2001, he was appointed a Frontbench Spokesman for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs. In November 2003, he became Shadow Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs. In September 2004, he was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for International Development. He now sits on the front bench as Shadow Secretary of State for Transport, a position he has held since May 2005. Described as a libertarian, wishing to minimize the role of the state and abolish laws against drugs. He is on the council of the Conservative Way Forward group. Duncan is a passionate fighter against AIDS. In 2004 he said: "The poor of the world need deeper debt relief, better aid, and freer and fairer trade." Duncan is openly gay since July 2002. Together with Nadhmi Auchi and Prince Andrew he is a member of the Anglo-Arab Organization. Auchi is the chairman. April 2, 2003, The Guardian: "[Auchi's] Le Cercle meetings - originally a cold war group of businessmen and politicians - have brought him into contact with political figures such as Lord Lamont and the Tory MP Alan Duncan, and with intelligence officers such as the former MI6 officer Anthony Cavendish and the former head of MI6's Middle East division, Geoffrey Tantum."

Elliot, Nicholas
Sources: November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting the Langemann papers); October 1989 – Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe'; June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour'
Elliot was an officer in MI6's 'Section D', which was created when WWII broke out. Its purpose was to perform more violent operations than usual, like sabotage and unconventional warfare. In 1962 / 1963, MI5 head Arthur Martin, after having interviewed the Russian defector Anatoli Golitsin, arranged for Kim Philby (MI6 officer - head of Soviet Affairs who turned out to be a communist spy) to be interviewed in Beirut in 1963 by Nicholas Elliot. Due to some of the comments made by Philby during the interview, Elliott got the impression that he had been tipped off to expect a visit from MI5. In turn, this led Arthur Martin to believe there still was a high-level communist spy within MI5. In January 1963, Philby fled to the USSR, a very short time after his interview with Elliot. Elliot also sat on the board of directors of Lonrho during the time. Edward Du Cann, some time chairman of the Conservative Party and, until 1991 chairman of Lonrho, published his autobiography in 1995, 'Two Lives', which received little attention. He wrote: "Yet another dissident was Nicholas Elliot, a director of MI6, the man who botched Commander Crabb's underwater investigation of the Soviet cruiser Ordzhonikidze at the time of Kruschev's visit to the UK in 1956. A former head of station in Beirut, he travelled there in 1963 to obtain the traitor Kim Philby's confession. He succeeded in this, but then allowed his old friend from MI6 to escape to Soviet Russia. On the face of it these were two of the most monumental blunders perpetrated by British Intelligence since the War. Presumably the reality must have been different from the way in which the public perceived these events or he would surely have been dismissed in disgrace. For a while, until the shareholders of Lonrho dismissed him for his disloyalty to Rowland by an overwhelming majority, we were both directors of Lonrho. I never heard him make a single contribution of substance at any of our Board meetings. I always sat as far away from him as possible: he suffered badly from halitosis." May 17, 2002 issue, Jeffrey Steinberg for Executive Intelligence Review, 'Ariel Sharon: Profile of an Unrepentant War Criminal': "On Nov. 15, 1982, a final meeting took place on several real estate purchases, mostly through Arab middle-men, to push the massive expansion of Jewish settlements throughout the West Bank at a handsome profit. Attending the meeting at Sharon's ranch were: Kissinger [Cercle], Lord Harlech (Sir David Ormsby-Gore), Johannes von Thurn und Taxis [1001 Club], Tory Parliamentarian Julian Amery [Cercle], Sir Edmund Peck, and MI-6 Mideast mandarin Nicholas Elliot [Cercle]." Elliott has also been a Council Member of the Wilkinson / McWhirter / Ivens group, the Research Foundation for the Study of Terrorism. Elliot worked closely with co-Le Cercle member Brian Crozier, who included him in Margaret Thatcher's Shield committee and in 'The 61'.

Feulner, Edwin J., Jr.
Sources: November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting from the Langemann papers); June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour' (named as once a regular)
Born in 1941. Feulner has studied at the University of Edinburgh, the London School of Economics, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University, and Regis University. Has been a roommate of the very influential John F. Lehman, and both later attended the Bohemian Grove. Feulner has attended the Bohemian Grove's Cave Man camp. Treasurer Philadelphia Society 1964-1979 and president 1982-1983. Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) 1965-1966. Public affairs fellow at the Hoover Institution 1966-1968. Confidential assistant to Nixon's Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird 1969-1970. Campaign manager of the [Philip M.] Crane for Congress Committee 1972. Administrative assistant to U.S. Congressman Philip M. Crane 1970-1974. Member of the US delegation to the IMF/World Bank 1974-1976. Executive director of the Republican Study Committee of the House of Representatives 1974-1977. President of the Heritage Foundation since 1977, Washington’s leading public policy organization/think tank, to which the Bechtels are major contributors. Unlike most other think tanks, Heritage not only suggests ideas but actively pushes them in Congress. Following are the words of Heritage vice presidents Stuart Butler and Kim Holmes, published in the 1995 Annual Report issued in the spring of 1996:
Butler: Heritage now works very closely with the congressional leadership.... Heritage has been involved in crafting almost every piece of major legislation to move through Congress.
Holmes: Without exaggeration, I think we've in effect become Congress's unofficial research arm.... We truly have become an extension of the congressional staff, but on our own terms and according to our own agenda.
Butler: That's right. As Kim knows, things have been happening so fast on Capitol Hill we've had to sharpen our management skills to take full advantage of the opportunities. There has also been an unprecedented demand on us to "crunch the numbers" for the new congressional leadership. Vice chairman of the trusteed of Manhattan Institute Policy Studies 1977-1986. Chairman Institute for European Defense and Strategic Studies in London 1977-1996. Attended a meeting in Washington of Le Cercle in 1979, the covert European group set up by a mixture of Vatican intelligence, Opus Dei luminaries, and the Pan Europa leadership. Treasurer Mont Pelerin Society 1979-1996, which is a branch of the Paneuropa Union. Trustee Lehrman Institute 1981-1990. Member of the public delegation to the 2nd Special Session on Disarmament of the United Nations in 1982. Chairman of the US Information Agency 1982-1991. Member US Advisory Committee on Public Diplomacy 1982-1994. Member of the Carlucci Commission on Security and Economic Assistance 1983. Distinguished fellow of mobilization concepts at the Development Center of the National Defense University 1983-1989. Consultant to White House Counselor Edwin Meese, the seventy-fifth Attorney General of the United States from 1985 to 1988. Member of the national advisory board of the Center for Education and Research in Free Enterprise at the Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University 1985-1996. Chairman Citizens for American Education Foundation 1985-1989. Consultant for Domestic Policy to President Reagan in 1987. Director Sequoia National Bank 1987-1999. Member of the Sarah Scaife Foundation since 1988, which has been named after the mother of Richard Mellon Scaife. The Sarah Scaife Foundation is is financed by the Mellon industrial, oil and banking fortune, and Richard Mellon Scaife has been chairman since 1973. The Sarah Scaife Foundation is one of the biggest donators to Conservative and (formerly) anti-communist causes, often having worked in tandem with the CIA. On January 18, 1989 President Reagan conferred the Presidential Citizens Medal on Feulner as "a leader of the conservative movement." Member of the US Committee on Improving Effectiveness of the United Nations 1989-1993. Vice chairman of the National Economic Growth and Tax Reform "Kemp" Commission 1995-1996. Member of the advisory committee of the American Political Channel 1994-1996. Counselor to vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp in 1996. President Mont Pelerin Society 1996-1998. Member of the board visitors of the George Mason University 1996-2004. Member of the Congressional Policy Advisory Board 1997-2001. Senior vice president Mont Pelerin Society 1998-2000. Again treasurer Mont Pelerin Society since 2000. Distinguished visiting professor of Hanyang University in Seoul since 2001. Member of the Gingrich/Mitchell Task Force on United Nations Reforming in 2005. Member of the National Advisory Council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, together with Jeane Kirkpatrick, Jack Kemp, senator Claiborne Pell, senator Bob Dole, Richard Pipes, and formerly Zbigniew Brzezinski. Former Cercle head Brian Crozier is a member of the International Advisory Council of the VCMF. By Georges Magazine he was ranked nr 45 in a list of the 50 most influential politicians. Greenspan was one, Cheney was two. Member of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, according to his Who's Who. Member of the Union League (New York City), Metropolitan Club, Reform Club (London), Bohemian Club (San Francisco), and several clubs. Not a member of the CFR as of 2006.

Fraser, Charles Alan
Sources: November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting from the Langemann papers)
South African General. Chief of the South African Army and G.O.C. Joint Combat Forces back in the 1960s and 1970s. Has written a dissertation on 'counter-insurgency measures' and how to avoid a communist revolution. The book he wrote around 1968 has set South-Africa's general counter-revolution policy up until the wall came down. Fraser believed that this counter-revolution "war" had to be fought by politicians for at least 80%. People who had a better lifestyle than the communists could offer, wouldn't be interested in a revolution. He was a close personal friend of the Shah and introduced Brian Crozier, as a representative of The 61, to this person at some point.

Gallois, General Pierre Marie
Sources: 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', page 241
One of the main French sovereignist thinkers, and a staunch supporter of De Gaulle. Member of the Planning Group at SHAPE at the time it was founded. French Air Force General. Present at the October 1957 Bilderberg meeting in Italy, for which he had written the following text: "For each of the powers of the Alliance which do not possess nuclear weapons the question is this: might it find itself in such a situation that an incident of major importance for its own security or independence might be considered minor not only by guaranteeing atomic powers, but also by the other member countries of the Alliance? This assessment of the major or minor nature of a threat against Western countries must be estimated according to a new criterion the size of the nuclear risk. Even if a vast airborne nuclear exchange appears improbable, or even impossible, and if everyone knows that they were being blackmailed with fear, it is clear that everyone would weigh the size of the stake and of the risk. And in such a calculation it is very likely that countries not directly and immediately threatened might consider some enemy intervention of major importance for the country against which it is directed to be only a minor incident." Some time head of the French Air Force. Mostly known as the architect of the French nuclear deterrence. Brian Crozier wrote in 'Free Agent', page 241: "We agreed that the best way to mobilise Mitterrand on this issue was to persuade him to invite General Gallois to brief him on the SS-20 [nuclear ballistic missile] danger. We both knew Pierre Gallois. I had translated his important Conflict Study analysing the SS-20 threat, and interpreted for him at Pinay Cercle meetings. Jean Violet gave him a 'genius' rating." Later went into the aeronautic industry with Marcel Dassault, the aircraft maker, and became one of the most prominent architects of the French Air Force revival, working on the Mirage IV. Has written a lot about geopolitical issues. About the Balkan and Iraq bombings Gallois said that while some of our targets were clearly of a military nature, such things as water purification plants, sewage treatment plants, and fertilizer plants serve only to impoverish the population, not to promote military objectives. About the economic sanctions on Iraq, Gallois said they were "cruel, cowardly, ineffective, and stupid." April 16, 2004, Frontpage Magazine interview with Kenneth Timmerman, who has spent twenty years reporting on Europe and the Middle East: "Iraq was a special case. I was invited in the late 1980s to visit the Iraqi Army staff college, and was surprised when I saw a plaque donated to the college by visiting French general Pierre-Marie Gallois, the “father” of the French strategic nuclear force. Many in the French Gaullist elite saw in Saddam Hussein an Iraqi De Gaulle, a fellow spirit: someone willing to stand up to superpowers, and take his country on a “third way.” That third way, of course, led directly through Paris, in opposition to Washington." In 2001 a group of traditional Gaullists, including Gallois, signed a declaration calling on true Gaullists to vote for the candidate “who most respects the political choices made by the founder of the 5th Republic.” Without actually mentioning the name of the former Interior Minister, Jean-Pierre Chevènement, it is clear whom they mean. They also very explicitly denounced “the way in which the so-called Gaullist party has abandoned its traditions” and said quite clearly that they “do not find in the decisions taken by the president of the Republic (i.e. Chirac) any respect for the founding principles affirmed by General de Gaulle.” The Fifth Republic emerged from the ashes of the French Fourth Republic (1945-1958), replacing a weak and factional parliamentary government with a stronger, more centralized system. The office of the president, which had recently been occupied by De Gaulle, gained much more strength in the new system.

Gehlen, General Reinhard
Sources: November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting from the Langemann papers; probably an associate member)
Hans Langemann 1980 paper: "Gehlen, who was always interested in the undertaking [of the Pinay Circle], its figures, its personalities and its results, succeeded in recruiting Violet [the Circle founder and Otto von Habsburg- and SDECE agent] as a special agent and granted him 6000 DM a month for many years. He also claimed that this sum had been agreed with the former head of the SDECE, General Jacquier because Violet is also receiving the same sum from the SDECE." Major General Reinhard Gehlen headed the Foreign Armies East section of the Abwehr (German intelligence), directed towards the Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Worked closely with the SS Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), the controlling agency of the Gestapo and German State Security (SD). 1971, Heinz Hohne & Hermann Zolling, 'The General was a Spy', p. 50-53: "Moreover another SS man appeared with increasing frequency at Gehlen's side - SS-Sturmbannfuhrer [Major] Otto Skorzeny, commander of the SS Special Service Formations. In November 1944 Skorzeny was commissioned to set up a resistance organisation in the Soviet rear areas and gain contact with anti-communist partisans... Skorzeny accordingly had to consult Gehlen if he was to gain contact with the partisans... He [Gehlen] visualized an intelligence organization, run by FHO and the RSHA, covering the whole of Eastern Europe deep into the Soviet Union and making use of all racial groups in the east... Without realising it, Gehlen had thus patented the post-war organisation which later bore his name... He, Skorzeny and Hengelhaupt in concert assembled all possible information about the existence of East European resistance groups... Gehlen ultimately became so close an ally of the RSHA that, during the death-throes of Adolf Hitler's regime he, together with the SS officers Skorzeny and Prutzmann, was charged with military direction of that macabre partisan and resistance organization known as "Werewolf", intended to spread panic among the enemy." Werewolf was dreamed up in the Autumn of 1944 by Heinrich Himmler, in cooperation with Skorzeny, Gehlen, and a few other high level German officers. It was to act as an early Stay-Behind army in case parts of Germany would be occupied by the Allies. Skorzeny's men gave intensive lessons in sabotage, demolitions, small arms, survival and radio-communications to these new Werewolf regiments, but in the end the lack of central command and sufficient resources made sure this operation was not effective. October 6, 1975, Star-News (Pasadena, CA), 'Plot to Kidnap Stalin Bared': "More than 500 paratroops and other special units led by SS Capt. Otto Skorzeny were ready in 1942 [after German tanks had almost reached Moscow] to fly from a German airfield in Poland to kidnap Soviet dictator Josef Stalin from the Kremlin, a Danish newspaper reported Sunday... Quoting an unnamed Danish pilot who served in the German air force during World War II, the paper said the plan was called off only because the dearth of agents in Moscow made it impossible for German intelligence to say with 100 per cent certainty when Stalin would be in his Kremlin command bunker... All Skorzeny needed was the final go-ahead from intelligence chief Heinrich Gehlen. But the signal never came." Gehlen had begun planning his surrender to the United States at least as early as the fall of 1944. At that time, after D-Day, the United States had begun setting up an operation to recover valuable German officers and scientists. It was first called Operation Overcast, renamed in 1946 to Paperclip. Operation Apple Pie was another project to locate and interrogate key German personnel, this time of the RSHA (SS Reich Security Main Office) and members of the German Army Staff who were knowledgeable about Soviet industrial and economic matters. From 1948 to 1950 there was a program called Bloodstone, which involved the recruiting of anti-communist individuals in eastern Europe, including nazis. Scientists and military officers like Wernher von Braun (father of the US space program and missile technology), General Walter Dornberger (head Peenemunde, where jews who worked there were horribly treated; also head of Braun's research there), Franz Six (led a nazi special forces group that assassinated opponents; went to train US special forces after a brief sentence), Emil Augsburg (SS major; same job as Franz Six), Willi Krichbaum (SS colonel; in charge of the deportation of the Hungarian Jews since 1944; shot Raoul Wallenberg), Walter Rauff (SS colonel; involved in the holocaust), Kurt Blome, General Walter Schreiber, Heinrich Rupp, Otto Skorzeny, Klaus Barbie, and others were brought to the US (or stationed elsewhere with CIA and Gehlen Org support) and either went to work in the new Military-Industrial Complex or went to work for US intelligence and special forces. Some scientists had already left for the US and were already working in the Military Industrial Complex. Theodore von Karmann and Edward Teller were among the people in this group. What happened to Martin Bormann (who liquidated most of the assets of the Third Reich and transported it overseas) and his secret police aide general Heinrich Muller is not known. Officially they died in Berlin in 1945 while journalists like Paul Manning maintain that both successfully escaped from Europe and became leaders in the post-WWII Fascist underground. This was initially done through ODESSA (also referred to as "Die Spinne", or "The Spider") and Deutsche Hilfsverein, the CIA/SMOM-approved Nazi-ratlines, set up by the Nazis, that smuggled Nazis to the Middle-East, Spain, or South-America. Besides Bormann and Muller, Adolf Eichmann, Josef Mengele, and Erich Priebke are among the Nazis that escaped using this (controversial) network. The ODESSA network brought Nazis, with support of high level officers in the CIA and the Vatican mafia (SMOM; through catholic monasteries), to Genoa, Italy, as part of the ratlines (with at least one alternative route). From there the whole Third Reich is said to have reorganized itself as a new underground Fourth Reich. Supposedly, one of the later umbrella organization of the Fascist International in South America became La Arana (according to journalist Paul Manning). Even though this faction still might have had some influence, this new "Forth Reich" was not dominated anymore by Germanic Pagans (of the Thule Society, inspired by Blavatsky and such) that opposed the Catholic church and Freemasonry. Starting in March 1945, Dulles and Casey were involved in Operation Sunrise: negotiations with SS general Karl Wolff that finally brought an early end to the Italian campaign. In early March 1945 a group of Gehlen's senior officers microfilmed their holdings on the USSR. They packed the film in steel drums and buried it throughout the Austrian Alps. On May 22, 1945 Gehlen and his top aides surrendered to an American Counter-Intelligence Corps (CIC) team. At first locked up, they were soon discovered by higher ups in the US intelligence community. Gehlen was invited to the US from mid-1945 to February 1946 to discuss what to do with his information on Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. In the end it was decided at these meetings, held at the army's Fort Hunt in Virginia, that Gehlen's spy organization would be kept intact through CIA funds. Gehlen's group, including his immediate staff of about 350 agents, went back to Germany in February 1946, and became known as the Gehlen Organization. They became the CIA's eyes and ears in Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union. Hundreds of German army and SS officers were released from internment camps to join Gehlen's headquarters in the Spessart Mountains in central Germany. When the staff grew to 3,000, the Gehlen Org moved its headquarters to a twenty-five-acre compound south of Munich, Bavaria, operating under the innocent name of the South German Industrial Development Organization. Gehlen oversaw some of the post WWII recruiting programs (ratlines) of Nazis by the CIA. On November 17, 1948 SMOM (The Sovereign Military Order of Malta) awarded one of its highest honors, the Grand Cross of Merit, to Reinhard Gehlen. In 1948, Reinhard Gehlen's brother was in Rome serving as the secretary to Thun Hohenstein. Conveniently for Reinhard, who was negotiating with the U.S. for the preservation of his Nazi colleagues, Thun Hohenstein was chairman of one of SMOM's grand magistral charities, the Institute for Associated Emigrations, and had arranged for two thousand SMOM passports to be printed for political refugees. Thun Hohenstein was also related to the leading German Knights of SMOM. In the early fifties it was estimated that the Gehlen Org employed up to 4,000 intelligence specialists in Germany, mainly former army and SS officers, and that more than 4,000 V-men (undercover agents) were active throughout the Soviet-bloc countries. August 11, 1954, Winnipeg Free Press, 'Hitler's Shadow Man Takes Top Spy Role': "Bruce Rothwell, foreign correspondent who wrote this story from Berlin, says his telephone was tapped while he and his staff were gathering the facts on General Gehlen. And during one important conversation, the line was disconnected... Gehlen, "The Man in the Shadows," already leads a $3,000,000 secret service from Munich paid for by the Americans. Now he will absorb the security organisation left headless by Dr. Otto John, who disappeared into Communist East Germany a fortnight ago... John, who feared tho rise of ex-Nazis in Germany, went into the East Zone accompanied by a pro-Communist psychiatrist. For some time there had been a struggle for supremacy between Gehlen's organisation and John's... Until late last night Gehlen was negotiating with officials of Dr. Adenauer's Government. It seems he has won an outright victory. Over 30 intelligence services... will come under Gehlen's hand. All this power goes to a man who is unknown to the German public... Bonn officials refuse even to say if he in married. News photographers have been trying vainly for five years to photograph him." The following year, in 1955, the Gehlen Organization became the BND, the official German intelligence service. Gehlen remained its head. May 17, 1984, Boston Globe, 'Death of a Nazi': "In the perverse climate of the Cold War years, Nazis such as [SS Col. Walter] Rauff, Reinhardt Gehlen, Otto Skorzeny and Klaus Barbie made themselves so useful to western intelligence services that they were able to transform the struggle against the Red Menace into a prolongation of the Fascist enterprise." General Foertsch, one of general Gehlen highest level deputies, was invited to Antoine Bonnemaison's (a French colonel and SDECE agent specialized in psychological warfare) Centre de Recherche du Bien Politique in the 1950s, which was a secret discussion group involving intelligence officers, academics, businessmen, a few politicians, and trade union leaders of France, Germany, and the Netherlands. Besides countering communist subversion the "colloques" were aimed at Franco-German rapprochement. Foertsch was a German general who was accused of serious war crimes, but after his release became very instrumental in building up the new German military under Adenauer. Paul Manning, p. 212: "When Colonel Nasser became president of Egypt [in late 1954], he asked the CIA for assistance in establishing a similar organization in his country. The CIA did not wish to become involved, and so referred him to General Gehlen, then chief of the West German federal intelligence organization, which was in fact maintained by the CIA. But Gehlen ducked the request, suggesting that former SS General Otto Skorzeny, son-in-law of Hjalmar Schacht, one-time Minister of Finance for Hitler [now worked with Aristotle Onassis], should be approached. Skorzeny, who made his headquarters in Spain, did not want the assignment either, for he was doing too well as an engineer and businessman in Spain [his secret Paladin group, located in Madrid, supposedly was a mercenary group], and was also owner of a large farming establishment outside of Dublin. But, urged by Schacht, he had Heinrich Mueller in Brazil send him a team of secret police specialists, who all arrived in Cairo as a German mission led by Skorzeny, who promptly returned to Spain after introductions had been made." In 1954, in the middle of the McCarthy affair, a strange story appeared about a new "nazi-communist" political underground. Many people believed that the Gehlen Organization had thoroughly been penetrated by the Soviets, as many operations and foreign agents were betrayed. Even though a communist alliance with the Nazis seems far-fetched, the following article does seem to confirm the existence of a post-war underground Nazi movement, led by some of the individuals mentioned earlier. March 31, 1954, The Chronicle Telegram, Ohio: "[Werner] Naumann [former State Secretary in Goebbels's Ministry of Propaganda] recalled the Nazi splinter parties behind him in an attempt to resurrect the Nazi movement. He praised Senator McCarthy and denounced President Eisenhower. Finally he was arrested by the British on charges of plotting to overthrow the West German government [his group was often referred to as "Naumann's Circle"]... Reporter Magazine charges that the "explicit aim of the Naumann group was to establish a Totalitarian West German Government oriented toward the Soviet Union." Naumann used a Dusseldorf export-import firm, the H. S. Luch Company, as a front for a world wide political network which kept in touch with Nazi exiles in Spain and Argentina, as well as pro Nazis in other countries. For example, Col. Otto Skorzeny, the rescuer of Mussolini, and Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, Hitler's former financial wizard, are connected with the company in Spain [where Skorzeny ran an underground mercenary group called Paladin, in Madrid]... Two members of the Nazi-Communist underground in Spain also took in Senator McCarthy's two junior G-men. Roy Cohn and David Schine, during their comic-opera, spy-hunting junket throughout Europe last year." Roy Cohn was later named by EIR as an initial director of Permindex, a corporation set up in 1958 which is suspected of having been a front organization in the planning of the John F. Kennedy assassination. During the 1980s even information surfaced that Cohn had ran a pedophile ring to subvert members of the US government (see William Casey bio in Le Cercle list). Schacht, the godfather of Hitler with Fritz Thyssen, used to be great friends with Pilgrims Society Wall Street and City of London bankers. January 1982, Mae Brussell: "Gehlen pioneered the setting up of dummy fronts and cover companies to support his farflung covert operations... By the time the Gehlen Organization became part of the West German state, Gehlen already had his agent-in-place in the United States. He was Otto Albrecht von Bolschwing, who had been a captain in Heinrich Himmler’s dreaded SS and Adolph Eichmann's superior in Europe and Palestine. Von Bolschwing worked simultaneously for Dulles' OSS. When he entered the U.S. in February, 1954, he cleverly concealed his nazi past. He was to take over Gehlen's network not only in this country but in many corners of the globe. He became closely associated with the late Elmer Bobst [Pilgrims Society; SMOM; anti-Jewish; accused of sexual abuse granddaughters and great-granddaughters] of Warner-Lambert Pharmaceutical, a godfather of Richard Nixon's political career, which brought him inside Nixon's 1960 campaign for the presidency. In 1969 he showed up in California with a high-tech firm called TCI that held classified Defense Department contracts. His translator for German projects was Helene van Damme, Governor Ronald Reagan's appointments secretary." Gehlen remained head of the BND until his retirement in 1968. He produced numerous reports claiming a Soviet invasion of the west was imminent; that the Soviets were building a fleet of flying wing jet fighters; that the Soviets were planning a huge submarine fleet to starve Europe into submission; etc, which heightened the tensions between the two power blocs. Many are of the opinion that some of these reports were exaggerated to justify the existence of Gehlen's Nazi spy outfit. Doubts have also been raised over the effectiveness of the Gehlen Org in providing intelligence on Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.

Gerber, Conrad
Sources: April 19, 2005, 18:30, Executives International, 'Forum Dinner - "The Barrel at $99?"' (Guest Speaker: Mr. Conrad Geber)
Studied economics, law, and diplomacy at the University of Cape Town and at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Internationales in Geneva. Worked as an economist in the government of Rhodesia. Admits that he first learned about the oil business in the 1970s when he was helping to circumvent international sanctions against Rhodesia and to procure illegal oil for his country. Started Petro-Logistics in 1980, shortly after the United Nations lifted sanctions against the country. Chairman and CEO of Petro-Logistics ever since, a firm that collects and analyses data on the world's supplies of oil. His company uses tricks from intelligence work to pierce the curtain of secrecy raised by oil-producing countries, especially the members of OPEC in the Persian Gulf. He tracks tanker loadings at major oil ports, relying on a network of about two dozen closely guarded sources. The tanker data is combined with tips from oil executives and synthesized into regular reports for his clients. Gerber's ability to move markets is well known. "Petro-Logistics estimates have a significant market impact, as they are widely recognized as an important source on OPEC supply," said Fatih Birol, the chief economist for the International Energy Agency (IEA), an organization based in Paris that is one of Mr Gerber's clients. Petro-Logistics, meanwhile, "is very well connected in the gulf and the Black Sea," said David Knapp, the senior editor for global markets at the Energy Intelligence Group, a publishing and information services company. Mr Knapp used to work at the International Energy Agency, where he said he relied on Mr Gerber's reports. Petro-Logistics is not the only group to rely on tanker tracking for supply data. Lloyd's Marine Intelligence Unit, part of the Informa Group, uses a network of 900 agents at 2,000 ports and cities, said Andrew Lorimer, manager of oil trade analysis for the unit, which is based in London. Lloyd's also publishes an estimate for seaborneoil on a regular basis. Among his business associates and friends, Mr Gerber counted Theodore G. Shackley, one of the CIA's most famous spymasters, who led efforts to battle Fidel Castro when he was station chief in Miami in the early 1960's. Shackley engaged in some oil trading after he retired from the CIA in 1979. Mr Gerber said he was at Mr Shackley's bedside just before he died last year. Fellow of the London Energy Institute. Member of the Club de Nice (for Energie et Géopolitique). Member of Le Cercle and President of CRES (the Centre de Recherches Entreprises et Sociétés), a consulting firm based in Geneva.
Ted Shackley, son of a Polish immigrant mother, went to work as an Army Counter Intelligence Corps officer in Germany in 1945, trying to recruit Polish agents. He himself was recruited into the CIA in 1953, and started to work for William Harvey (worked with mafia bosses Santo Trafficante and Johnny Roselli; CIA station chief in Rome in 1963 while Gen. Vernon Walters was military attaché in Rome) in the CIA's Berlin Station. Involved in overthrow of the socialist Guatemalan government of Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán in 1954. In 1962, Shackley was appointed by William Harvey (started ZR/RIFLE in November 1961, an assassination plot on Castro, which involved the recruitment of mob bosses Johnny Roselli, Santos Trafficante, Sam Giancana, and Meyer Lansky, and was originally negotiated by CIA chief Allen Dulles; demoted in February 1963 by Robert Kennedy and sent to Rome to become Chief of Station there, and just as DCI Allen Dulles, his Harrimanite deputy Bissell, and CIA deputy Director Charles Cabell (whose brother was the mayor of Dallas at the time Kennedy was shot).; he developed an extreme distaste for the Kennedy's) as deputy chief of JM/WAVE, the heavily funded CIA station in Miami that oversaw the operation to overthrow Fidel Castro. In April of that year, Shackley was involved in delivering supplies to Johnny Roselli (mob boss; murdered in September 1976, at the time of the Church committee; Roselli had been named as a participant in the JFK assassination) as part of the plan to assassinate Fidel Castro. Recruited Félix Rodríguez, who later organized the capture and execution of Che Guevara in Bolivia. CIA assassin David Morales first worked under Shackley at JM/WAVE, just as David Atlee Phillips, who, according to James A. Files was the co-handler of Lee Harvey Oswald and himself, together with mafia assassin Charles Nicolette, subordinate to Sam Giancana, one of the mafia bosses who was employed by DCI Allen Dulles in the anti-Castro war. Porter Goss, who knew Barry Seal and later became a CIA director, went to work under Shackley at JM/WAVE, just as Frank Sturgis, who would be convicted for his role in Watergate. After the Bay of Pigs fiasco, when Harvey was ousted, Shackley became head of Operation Mongoose, and quite possibly of Executive Directives, a worldwide assassination program. Responsible for gathering intelligence and recruiting spies in Cuba. During this time, he worked closely with mob figures as Sam Giancana (also murdered in June 1975, at the start of the Church Committee), John Roselli, and Santos Trafficante, all of them suspected of having been involved in the assassination on JFK. Headed JM/WAVE until 1965. In 1966, Shackley was placed in charge of the CIA's secret war in Laos. Thomas G. Clines was appointed his deputy. He formed the Military Assistance Group-Special Operations Group (MAG-SOG) political murder unit; Gen. John K. Singlaub was a commander of MAG-SOG; Oliver North and Richard Secord were officers of the unit. According to mainstream journalist Joel Bainerman in 'The Crimes of a President', Shackley and his Secret Team (in Laos), which included Thomas G. Clines, Carl E. Jenkins, David Morales, Raphael Quintero, Felix Rodriguez and Edwin Wilson, became involved in the drug trade at this time. They did this via General Vang Pao, the leader of the anti-communist forces in Laos. Vang Pao was a major figure in the opium trade. To help him, Shackley used his CIA officials and assets to sabotage the competitors. Shackley and Clines also helped Vang Pao to obtain financial backing to form his own airline, Zieng Khouang Air Transport Company, to transport opium and heroin between Long Tieng and Vientiane (Mekong Delta). Shackley used the dope proceeds in turn to fund his hit squads and other covert operations. Vang Pao gained a monopoly over the heroin trade in Laos, but in the late 1970s his army was defeated by the communists. At that moment Khun Sa and his independent Shan state in Burma rose to prominence. Virtually all the Opium produced (and turned into heroin) was either produced in the areas he controlled or was transported over his territory, which meant a tax had to be paid and he was able to stop it. Delta Force and ISA commander Bo Gritz, who was initially searching for POWs, made contact with this person in December 1986. He not only found out that Khun Sa was not aware of any POWs, but also that the only reason this person was selling opium was to fund his war against the communists. Khun Sa offered to stop virtually all the opium coming from the Gold Triangle (he controlled it) if the US would A) recognize his Shan state (to stop the continuous warfare against him) B) help the Shan State with the development of a normal agricultural economy. Gritz took Khun Sa's written offer, specifically addressed to vice president George H.W. Bush, to Washington. Through his contact Bill Harvey (not the associate of Shackley) at the National Security Council Staff, Gritz was informed to drop the issue, because no one was interested in stopping it. After Gritz refused to do that he and his teammate were persecuted. In reaction Gritz returned to Khun Sa's remote camp with a small special forces team. The did an interview with the druglord (who was respected, not feared, by his people) which was videotaped. Khun Sa told his secretary to read the names of his American customers. They were Theodore Shackley (in charge of U.S. Golden Triangle opium business from 1965 to 1975), Santos Trafficante (Mafia don in Miami and Cuba and an employee of the CIA in the subversion of Cuba. Trafficante assisted in trafficking the heroin inside the U.S. and when it was there, in distributing it), Richard Armitage (at the time the Assistant Secretary of Defense and head of the rescue effort of POWs from South-East Asia, which he continually sabotaged. Later a PNAC signer and George W. Bush's Deputy Secretary of State. Armitage handled all the financial transactions with banks like the Nugan Hand), Daniel Arnold (CIA station chief in Thailand and Armitage successor in the heroin and weapons trade), and Jerry Daniels (CIA agent who also was a replacement of Armitage. Died under suspicious circumstances). According to Daniel Sheehan of the Christic Institute (Gritz noticed how much their information overlapped with his own): "From late 1973 until April of 1975, Theodore Shackley, Thomas Clines and Richard Armitage disbursed, from the secret, Laotian-based, Vang Pao opium fund, vastly more money than was required to finance even the highly intensified Phoenix Project in Vietnam. The money in excess of that used in Vietnam was secretly smuggled out of Vietnam in large suitcases, by Richard Secord and Thomas Clines and carried into Australia, where it was deposited in a secret, personal bank account (privately accessible to Theodore Shackley, Thomas Clines and Richard Secord). During this same period of time between 1973 and 1975, Theodore Shackley and Thomas Clines caused thousands of tons of US weapons, ammunition, and explosives to be secretly taken from Vietnam and stored at a secret "cache" hidden inside Thailand." This money, with the help of Raphael Quintero, found its way into the Nugan Hand Bank in Sydney, a money laundering center of heroin profits, mainly from the Golden Triangle (opium from this location was managed by Shackley, Armitage, and Santos Trafficante) and run by different US intelligence agencies. After Nugan Hand's cover was blown and the operation abandoned, the CIA redirected many of the Nugan Hand operations to another Pacific financial institution based in Hawaii, named Bishop, Baldwin, Rewald, Dillingham and Wong (BBRDW). By the end of 1980, BBRDW started setting up offices in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore, and Australia, all former Nugan Hand locations, staffing the offices with some of the same personnel. August 17, 1983, Wall Street Journal, 'Bank's Links to Ex-CIA Men Detailed': "Few men have had more to do with U.S. covert operations in the cold war than Theodore G. Shackley. Before he retired from the Central Intelligence Agency after 30 years' service in September 1979, Mr. Shackley had led the secret war against Cuba, the secret war in Laos, been CIA station chief in Saigon at the height of the Vietnam war and then No. 2 man running the clandestine services division at CIA headquarters in Langley... The Australian government report, prepared and released to Parliament in March by the Commonwealth-New South Wales Joint Task Force on Drug Trafficking, cites Mr. Shackley as one of the leading characters whose "background is relevant to a proper understanding of the activities of the Nugan Hand group and people associated with that group. The report says that Mr. Shackley had worked closely with Mr. Wilson in the CIA since 1955 and that Mr. Shackley "continued a close relationship with him (Wilson) whilst Wilson was employed by (U.S.) Naval Intelligence from 1971 to 1976, and after that." The report refers to contacts between Mr. Shackley and Michael Hand, the currently missing former CIA operator who founded , owned and managed the Nugan Hand banking group. Mr. Hand's partner, Australian Frank Nugan, died of a gunshot wound in January, 1980, later ruled a suicide, and Nugan Hand failed a few months later. Investigations following Mr. Nugan's death and the failure of the bank revealed widespread dealings by Nugan-Hand with international heroin syndicates, and evidence of massive fraud against U.S. and foreign citizens. Many retired high-ranking Pentagon and CIA officials were executives of or consultants to Nugan-Hand... both Mr. Chavez [CIA] and Mr. Shackley were working for A.P.I. Distributors, an international trading firm funded with $500,000 lent by Mr. Wilson. According to the report, it shared office space in Houston with a Wilson company that helped sell 20 tons of plastic explosives to Libya, for which Mr. Wilson was convicted. A.P.I. was headed by Thomas Clines, who had just retired after 30 years with the CIA, most recently as training director of the clandestine services branch under Mr. Shackley. Another former covert agent, Rafael "Chi Chi" Quintero, also was an executive at A.P.I... Among the high-level Pentagon and CIA officials associated with Nugan Hand were former CIA director William Colby, who was its attorney... " July 23, 1998, Michael C. Ruppert at FTW: "I have met Bo Gritz twice through my close friend, Mrs. Francis Gary (Sue) Powers... That Bo brought back utterly damning videotaped interviews with opium warlord Khun Sa in which Khun Sa described the roles of Shackley, Armitage, Clines, and the CIA in heroin trafficking also cannot be disputed." Case No. 98-CV-11829 JLT, September 29, 1998, deposition of Desiree A. Ferdinand, daughter of the late Colonel Albert Carone who provided a link between the CIA, DIA, and mafia groups involved in the distribution of drugs: "Frank Nugan and Michael Hand, my father was good friends with. Nugan Hand Bank. It was a bank used in the Hong Kong area to launder different monies. There were General Leroy Manner was involved. General Stilwell [Le Cercle] was involved. A man by the name of Paul Hollywell was involved. It was an operation where drug monies in different accounts from certain people were absconded with. One through Nugan Hand bank and they were used for operations that were not sanctioned by the U.S. government, black operations." Like Colby, Shackley heading Operation Phoenix in Vietnam for a while. Head of the CIA's Western Hemisphere Division from 1972 to 1976, and played a major role in the 1973 Chile coup where Pinochet was put into power. In 1976 a Cuban airliner with 73 passengers was blown up, killing all on board. Luis Posada Carriles has been the main suspect all these years, a CIA agent who worked under Shackley in Operation 40, a top secret assassination and sabotage group of the CIA which was directed against Cuba. CIA Associate Deputy Director of Operations from 1976 to 1977, while serving under DCI George H.W. Bush. Retired from the CIA in 1979 after Stansfield Turner took over as DCI from Bush. Went to work for Systems Services International Inc., International Research and Trade Ltd., and API Distributors Inc., recently set up and managed by his ex-CIA buddies Edwin P. Wilson, Thomas G. Clines, and Rafael Quintero. Already in late 1970s this network of companies was investigated by Justice officials who suspected it of illegally selling high-tech military equipment to Iran, Egypt, Libya, and Turkey. When Shackley was still in the CIA, he tried to limit these investigations, which wasn't appreciated by Stansfield Turner. Founded Research Associates International in September 1980, which specialized in providing intelligence to business. It was incorporated by Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge, the law firm that also represented API, IRT, and SSI. Initially, Research Associates International shared the same office with SSI and IRT. Former CIA chief Donald Jameson, who is known to have attended a 1980 Le Cercle meeting in Zurich, became a vice president of Research Associates International. July 23, 1998, Michael Ruppert, 'The POWs, CIA and Drugs': "A former CIA officer told me in 1995 that Ollie North was leasing office space for his 1995 Senate run from Shackley's company, Research Associates International, in Rosslyn, Virginia." Shackley was hired by oil baron John Deuss to organise shipments of oil to South Africa, then under a global oil embargo that Deuss cheerfully flouted. Became a very close friend of (later) Le Cercle member Conrad Gerber, who founded Petro-Logistics in 1980. Petro-Logistics would become the primary source of supposedly reliable data to the International Energy Agency (IEA), doing anything its power to penetrate OPEC's oil secrets. Suspected of involvement in the October Surprize, doing his part in defeating the Carter reelection campaign.

Giovanetti, Monsignor Alberto
Sources: 2002, David Rockefeller, 'Memoirs', pg. 412-413, referring to the Pesenti Group
Priest at the Vatican. Prominent member of Opus Dei and a virulent anti-communist, according to David Rockefeller in his 2002 memoirs. Defender of pope Pius XII, who has been accused of not standing up enough to Hitler during WWII.

Grossouvre, Francois de
Sources: 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 217-218
Born in 1918. During World War II, François de Grossouvre was a member of Joseph Darnand's Service d'ordre légionnaire (SOL), a Vichyst militia. He left in 1943 to fight in the Vercors region. After Liberation, it was discovered that he had in fact infiltrated the SOL on behalf of Organisation de résistance de l'armée (ORA) of which he was a member. Often considered a strange man who reveled in the secrecy. He was a doctor who had never practiced his profession because of his wealth. Went into politics after WWII. Some sources say De Grossouvre first met with Francois Mitterrand in 1959. The Times, in 1994, stated that De Grossouvre first met with Mitterrand on a plane to China in 1962. Around this time, De Grossouvre held the largely ceremonial post of head of the Committee of Presidential Hunts, which organizes occasional informal gatherings in the countryside for the French President. In any case, De Grossouvre became a good friend to Francois Mitterrand. 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 217-218: "AT THE CERCLE meeting in Washington in December 1980, Georges Albertini had brought along a quiet Frenchman named Francois de Grossouvre. This was an impressive example of his foresight. De Grossouvre, a physician, was the closest friend and confidant of the Socialist leader and presidential candidate Francois Mitterrand. For many years, Grossouvre had carried out special missions for Mitterrand. By nature and training, he was self-effacing. He played no part in our debates, but listened carefully, taking notes. Five months later, Francois Mitterrand narrowly defeated Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in France's presidential elections. One of his first actions was to appoint de Grossouvre as his coordinator of security and intelligence. Shortly after, having obtained his direct line from Albertini, I went to see him in his modest office in the Elysée Palace. We had reacted with alarm to Mitterrand's victory, but de Grossouvre reassured me... 'One thing you need to understand about Francois Mitterrand is that he has a visceral hatred of the communists.' He did not explain the nature of this hatred which, later history suggests, probably reflected less an opposition to their policies than of Mitterrand's perception of the Communists as the main obstacle to his authority. Not for nothing was Mitterrand known as Le Florentin, in reference to his interest in Machiavelli and Florentine history. In his long career, he had been everything from apparently extreme Right to apparently extreme Left." Became Counselor for Police Affairs and Special Services in 1981, chosen by newly-elected president François Mitterrand, and charged with overseeing national security and other sensitive matters, in particular those concerning Lebanon, Syria, Tunisia, Morocco, Gabon, the Gulf countries, Pakistan and the two Koreas. As emissary to the Arab nations no one ever knew if he made an official or unofficial visit. He was also was a leading officer in the French branch of Gladio, "NATO's" stay behind paramilitary secret armies during the Cold War. 2005, Daniele Ganser, 'NATO's Secret Armies', p. 90-91: "Maybe the most famous member of the French secret anti-Communist Rose des Vents [French Stay Behind/Gladio] army was Francois Grossouvre who in 1981 became the adviser of Socialist President Francois Mitterrand for secret operations. During the Second World War Grossouvre had enrolled in a fascist Vichy-backed militia that he later claimed to have infiltrated on behalf of the resistance. After the war the military secret service recruited him for the Rose des Vents secret army. SDECE agent Louis Mouchon who had himself recruited many secret soldiers for the network recalled how Grossouvre had been contacted: 'Our responsible man in Lyon, Gilbert Union, who during the war had carried out missions for the BCRA, was a passionate car driver and at that time had died on the road. To replace him, the SDECE had recruited, in 1950, Francois de Grossouvre.' Mouchin elaborated that Grossouvre was not only chosen for his wartime experience but as well for his contacts: 'His business, the A. Berger et Cie Sugar company, offered ample opportunities to stage fronts. He really had excellent contacts.' As special adviser of President Mitterrand, Grossouvre influenced French secret warfare in the beginning of the 1980s but was eased out of his main responsibilities in 1985 as his cloak-and-dagger style became intolerable to Mitterrand's staider colleagues. Yet the personal relations to Mitterrand allegedly remained good and when in late 1990 after the pan European Gladio discoveries President Mitterrand in the midst of the scandal had to close down the French Gladio network 'he had first consulted his "grey eminence", Francois Grossouvre'. By the time of Grossouvre's death his participation in the secret war was no longer a secret. 'He was recruited into the French espionage service and helped to organise Gladio, an Americanbacked plan to create an armed resistance movement in Western Europe against a Russian invasion', the British Economist noted in his obituary after Grossouvre, aged 76, had dramatically shot himself in the Elysee Palace on April 7, 1994." October 6, 1985, New York Times, 'Greenpeace ship reaches test site': "The Greenpeace flagship has arrived off the coast of the French nuclear test site in the South Pacific, where it joined another protest ship from the organization... The Greenpeace replaced the Rainbow Warrior, which was blown up on July 10 by French agents in New Zealand's Auckland harbor... Meanwhile, the largest opposition newspaper in Paris, Le Figaro, reported Friday that Mr. Mitterrand must have known of plans to sink the Rainbow Warrior, which was preparing to lead the Mururoa protest. Mr. Mitterrand's Socialist Government acknowledged secret service responsibility for the sinking last month. Defense Minister Charles Hernu and Adm. Pierre Lacoste, the head of the secret service, resigned because of the scandal. Le Figaro, without citing its sources, said the decision to mine the Rainbow Warrior was made in June in a meeting at the Elysee Palace attended by Mr. Hernu, Admiral Lacoste and the presidential adviser, Francois de Grossouvre. It was ''not believable'' that Mr. de Grossouvre failed to inform Mr. Mitterrand of the sabotage plans, Le Figaro contended." In the 1970s and 1980s, Greenpeace chairman David McTaggart was actively involved in opposing France's nuclear testings at Mururoa. In 1985, some time after the Rainbow Warrior scandal, De Grossouvre officially ended his functions as adviser to the president and was shoved aside for some reason. Remained chairman of Presidential Campaigns, an honorary position. However, he kept all the benefits of his previous position: office, secretary, car, apartment, bodyguard. Supposedly, François Mitterrand never fired those who had disappointed him nor those whom he no longer needed. He saved his victims from disgrace by making them wait for an explanation that would never come, and isolated them in their idleness. Not everyone is convinced that the friendship between de Grossouvre and Mitterrand had also ended privately. After his dismissal from Mitterrand's office, De Grossouvre worked as counsellor for arms trader Marcel Dassault, who headed Avions Marcel Dassault. Allegedly committed suicide on April 7, 1994 at his office at Élysée (presidential palace), although some, such as Captain Paul Barril, claimed that he had been murdered. It was the first time in the history of the Republic that a colleague of the Chief of State killed himself in the presidential palace. April 10 1994, The Sunday Times: "Mitterrand was preparing to be interviewed for a live national television broadcast on Aids on Thursday when, for the second time in less than a year, his aides told him that a man he had trusted and worked with for more than 30 years had committed suicide. Like Pierre Beregovoy, the former Socialist prime minister who shot himself last May, Grossouvre was reported to have left no note... It also emerged that, like Beregovoy, Grossouvre was linked to one of the murkiest episodes in Mitterrand's rarely scrutinised past: his friendship with the late Roger-Patrice Pelat, a Socialist businessman who died of a heart attack in 1989 while awaiting trial on charges of fraud and corruption. To the dismay of Mitterrand's entourage, Grossouvre agreed to be interrogated last September by Thierry Jean-Pierre, the young judge who is investigating a Pounds 2m payoff that Pelat allegedly received as the middleman in a North Korean construction contract that was awarded to French companies. Pelat was also the man who supplied a generous interest-free loan to Beregovoy. The loan caused the former prime minister political embarrassment when details were disclosed shortly before his party's crippling defeat in the March 1992 elections. Grossouvre was questioned in connection with cartons of Pelat's files that mysteriously went missing. He was never charged, and his willing co-operation with a judge whose motives are questioned by Mitterrand aides appears to have increased his isolation at the Elysee... In an article in Le Monde on Friday,... [Edwy] Plenel was told that over the years Grossouvre had accumulated a number of files that he kept in a "safe place''. When he told Mitterrand last year that he was writing his memoirs, the president demanded that he hand over the files, which Grossouvre refused to do, Plenel wrote."

Habsburg, Otto von
Sources: 1999, David Guyatt, 'Circle of Power' (mentions Habsburg as a founding member); Simon Regan (Scallywag), 'Who Killed Diana?' (mentions Habsburg as a founding member); 2002, David Rockefeller, 'Memoirs', pg. 412-413, referring to the Pesenti Group; other books only confirm the close relationship between Otto von Habsburg, Jean Violet, and other figures of the Cercle and Pan-Europa Union.
Born in Lower Austria in 1912 as a member of the Royal House of Habsburg, who have been allies of the Vatican for many centuries. Eldest son of Archduke Karl and Princess Zita von Bourbon-Parma. The Habsburg dynasty was, and is, very close to the Thurn und Taxis family (1001 Club) and the Vatican. During WWI his family lost the throne to the Habsburg kingdom. The Austrian parliament officially expelled the Habsburg dynasty and confiscated all of its property. Opposed the Nazi Anschluss of Austria in 1938 and went to the US (with help of the Knights of Malta). Spent most of the war years in Washington (1940-1944), after escaping from Austria to Portugal with a visa issued by the Portuguese consul in Bordeaux. He became friends with FDR, George F. Kennan (the father of the Containment policy), Felix Frankfurter, Winston Churchill and other important individuals. One of his main opponents at the time was Pilgrims Society member Lord Halifax (important to UN and pro-Nazi), who bluntly asked him: "Are you pursuing your intrigues even here?". Cordell Hull, pro-Vichy and pro-UN, was another opponent of Otto. Part of a mainstream bio: "A member of Koudenhove-Kalergi's Paneuropa Union since 1936 [24 years old then], Dr. Otto von Habsburg represented the organization in Washington D.C. beginning in 1940. In close collaboration with his brothers, the Archdukes Rudolf, Robert and Karl Ludwig, he convinced President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill to regard Austria as a victim state of Nazi aggression. Based on this recognition, Archduke Robert and Winston Churchill, who favored a postwar reconstitution of a Danube confederation forged the Moscow Declaration of 1943, which prepared for Austria's independence at the conclusion of the war." The Paneuropa Union was founded in 1923 in Vienna by Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, the son of an Austro-Hungarian (Habsburg) diplomat. Early leading members were Aristide Briand and Austrian chancellors Ignaz Seipel and Karl Renner. Opus Dei was founded in 1928 and at least in later times this group's objectives would essentially merge with those of the Paneuropa Union: 1) keep the Soviets out of Europe, and 2) create a Roman Catholic-oriented European superstate. Kalergi was of the opinion that Britain should be kept out of Paneuropa since it managed an autonomous empire. Unlike Russia, Turkey belonged to Asia and also should not be included in Paneuropa, according to Kalergi. The Paneuropean Union is also responsible for the 12 stars on a blue ground as official symbol for Europe, which symbolizes the stars of the virgin Mary. After the war Otto lived in exile in France and Spain. In Spain he received a secondary formal education by Benedictine fathers. An article in Lobster Magazine claimed that the impoverished Otto was subsidized to the tune of £50,000 a month by MI6 chief Stewart Menzies from 1939 to 1953. In 1949, together with Opus Dei member Alfredo Sanchez Bella (August 21, 1964, The Frederick News, 'Rev. Dr. Thorning Returns From Europe': "In Rome, Father Thorning was the guest of Spanish Ambassador Alfredo Sanchez Bella"; November 4, 1969, Greeley Daily Tribune, 'Economic, Social Advancement Aims of New Franco Cabinet': "[Alfredo] Sanchez Bella, aside from his own talents as a diplomat, is the brother of Florencio Sanchez Bella, leader of the Opus Dei in Spain."; Bella was Ambassador to Rome until November 1969), Otto founded the European Centre of Documentation and Information (CEDI), "whose objective was to construct around the Spanish Borbóns a federation of European states united in Christianity and anti-Communism. This sounded very much like a modern resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire over which Charles V had reigned. Like the Spanish empire of old, the envisaged Catholic federation was intended to have large-spectrum antennae in Latin America and the United States. CEDI was believed to be an auxiliary operation of Opus Dei. Although headquartered in Munich, it held its annual general meetings at the Monastery of El Escorial, near Madrid, and it continued functioning throughout the Cold War. Its tentacles spread among Catholic Monarchist circles throughout western Europe... [Otto] reportedly became one of Opus Dei's most treasured Old Guard supernumeraries. Like Opus Dei, CEDI published no membership lists, but the president of its Belgian chapter, Chevalier Marcel de Roover, was known to have close ties with the Belgian royal family. Indeed, Archduke Otto's nephew, Lorenz von Habsburg, son of international banker Karel von Habsburg, married Princes Astrid of Belgium [daughter of King Albert II, who stands accused of child abuse in the Pinon Affair, not unlike other members of the royal family; chairwoman Belgian Red Cross; patron Belgian Kids Foundation for Pediatric Research. The support committee of the Belgian Kids Foundation includes the wife of Count Maurice Lippens, who [the husband] stands accused of some of the most horrific child abuse practices. The support committee is presided over by Count Jean Pierre de Launoit, whose name once appeared on a list of people accused of involvement in trade in children and drugs. Nobody has been prosecuted], daughter of King Albert II. Astrid's aunt, the former Queen Fabiola, was related through the House of Aragon to the Spanish Borbón family. Professor Luc de Heusch of the Free University of Brussels, an expert on Sacred Kingship, maintained tha Queen Fabiola, a disciple of Escrivá de Balaguer [founder of Opus Dei], 'introduced Opus Dei to the Catholic aristocracy of Europe.' An idea of the company gathered from the membership of a sister organization, the Pan-European Union, headquartered in Zurich. An idea of the company CEDI kept can be gathered from the membership of a sister organization, the Pan-European Union, headquartered in Zurich. Also headed by Archduke Otto, among its members were two Belgian prime ministers, an Italian industrialist close to the Vatican, a former French prime minister, his legal counsellor, an aide to Valery Giscard d'Estaing, the secretary of Giscard's Independent Republican Party... the deputy head of NATO's intelligence division, a director of West German intelligence, the Spanish ambassador to the European Community and Alfredo Sanchez Bella." (1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come', p.153-154). CEDI stood in close contact with the Belgian Cercle des Nations, which was a gathering place for Brussels fascist aristocracy which was founded in 1969. On the next page Hutchinson writes: "Otto is chairman for life of the CEDI. Married Princess Regina Von Sachsen-Meiningen in 1951 with the blessing of Pius XII. Vice-president of the Internationale Paneuropa-Union 1957-1972, working under Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi. His Opusian associate Jean Violet founded the Pinay Circle (Le Cercle) in the 1950s, one of the most influential behind-the-scenes anti-communist and pro-Europe organizations, which was, and is, riddled with questionable intelligence operatives. Otto's CSU (Bavaria) and CDU (the rest of Germany) party friends, Franz-Joseph Strauss (a hard-right politician), Count Hans Huyn (intermarried with Habsburg family), and Alois Mertes (important German politician in early 1980s) have all been leading members of both Le Cercle and the ultraconservative anti-communist faction in German politics. They are all suspected of having been members of Opus Dei. In 1959, Otto received the Knight Grand-Cross of Honour and Devotion of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta with the Cross of Honorary Professed Member. One of Otto's political secretaries, Jacques G. Jonet, is named as a co-founder of low-profile ultraconservative/fascist European-integration groups as Ordre du Rouvre, the Institut Européen pour la Paix et la Sécurité (IEPS), the Société Internationale de Wilton Park (Wilton Park conferences), and Cercle des Nations. Opusian Cercle founder Jean Violet was one of the few French members of Cercle des Nations (1990, Hugo Gijssels, 'De Bende & Co.', p. 130), together with Belgium's controversial hard-right aristocracy. Jonet was named as an individual that attempted to crush the Pinon investigation of the late 1970s and early 1980s, in which leading Cercle des Nations members like the Opusian Paul Vanden Boeynants, not to mention members of the Royal House of Belgium (counts Opus Dei and SMOM members in the family), were accused of child abuse. Jonet has been named as a member of Mouvement d'Action pour l'Union de l'Europe (MAUE), the Habsburg-founded Centre of Documentation and Information (CEDI), and CEPIC (of the Opusian Baron de Bonvoisin and Paul Vanden Boeynants, both named as child abusers in the Dutroux X-Files by a combination of X1, X2, and X3). Jonet is suspected of membership in Opus Dei and is the representative of the Belgian Order of Malta, while his wife is a member of the administrative council (anno 2006). In 1961, Otto finally renounced all claims to the Austrian throne and was eventually allowed to return to his home country in 1966. CEDI, earlier founded by Otto von Habsburg, had a secretary general named Paul Vankerkhoven, who became a member of the Ordre du Rouvre, the ultra right-wing catholic magazine Chantiers-Occident, and the fascist Cercle des Nations. Vankerkhoven was a co-founder and vice-chairman of l'Institut Europeen de Developpement, headquartered in the castle of the earlier-mentioned Baron de Bonvoisin. Vankerkhoven also founded the Belgian branch of the ultra-reactionary World Anti-Communist League (WACL), the 'Ligue Internationale de la Liberte' (LIL). The WACL was sponsored by the Sun Myung Moon sect and aristocrats like Count Hans Huyn and Otto von Habsburg were involved with it in Germany, at least in the late 1980s. Otto co-founded the Académie Européenne de Sciences Politiques, located in Brussels, somewhere in the 1960s or early 1970s. It was an ultraconservative Paneuropa affiliated group, managed by the Opusian Cercle founder Jean Violet and Paul Vanden Boeynants, also Opus Dei, is said to have been one of its prominent members. When Franco's regime was challenged in the late 1960s by members of Opus Dei and other reformer, Franco designated Prince Juan Carlos as king of Spain at the moment Franco died. It has been claimed that Franco initially invited Otto von Habsburg to become the new king, but Otto refused and recommended Juan Carlos. Franco, Juan Carlos, and Otto von Habsburg all were Knights of Malta. When Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi died in 1972, Otto followed him up as provisional president of the Internationale Paneuropa-Union. At the suggestion of French president, Paneuropa- and Cercle member Georges Pompidou Otto was elected official president in 1973. He still served in this position anno 2006. January 2004, Contemporary Review, 'Otto von Habsburg and the future of Europe': "Archduke Otto was the right-hand man of Count Coudenhove-Kalergi, and when the Count died in 1972, the leadership of Paneuropa fell to him. Since then he has been the President. When interviewed in 1986, Otto von Habsburg was insistent that Paneuropa still had work to do, and would not be subsumed in the European Community (as it then was) itself. " Anno 2006, Otto is an advisor to the Coundenhove-Kalergi Foundation, together with Count Hans Huyn, Jakob Coudenhove-Kalergi (nephew of Richard, the founder of the Paneuropa Union), and Prince Carlo della Torre e Tasso (Thurn und Taxis). Nikolaus von Liechtenstein (younger brother of Hans-Adam) is an executive member of the the Coundenhove-Kalergi Foundation. In December 1973 Otto gave a speech to the Benedictine monks at the Woodside Priory School on San Francisco's peninsula. Hosts for the luncheon were Phil Gregory of Raytheon (Philip L. Gregory; one of the buyers of Raytheon in the 1940s, with what would become his wife (Raytheon was originally founded by Vannevar Bush in 1922-1925; Pilgrims Society member and president-descendant Charles Francis Adams IV would sit on the board of Raytheon from 1938 to 1997); executive director of Raytheon, first in New England and then in California until 1979; founded the Semiconductor Equipment Materials International (SEMI) with two colleagues in 1970, the non-profit group that presents semiconductor manufacturers trade forums worldwide; president, chairman, and executive director of SEMI; he and his wife traveled extensively in building SEMI internationally; among their tours was a trip in the early 1970s to Beijing, China, right after Kissinger, Rockefeller, and Nixon had "opened it up"; his wife was active in numerous catholics groups, including the Legion of Mary) and Bill Keady Jr., president of Advalloy (November 19, 1973, San Mateo Times, 'Dr. Von Habsburg to Speak'). Also reported by the San Mateo Times of that day: "Two distinguished visitors will be in the Bay Area next month and both will be guests of honor at Dec. 6 events at the Fairmont Hotel... Dr. Otto von Habsburg, son of the last emperor and king of Austria-Hungary, will be honored by the Woodside Priory School at a formal dinner dance... That noon, Monsignor John Patrick Carroll-Abbing, founder and president of Boys' Towns of Italy, will attend the Oscar de la Renta fashion show and luncheon benefiting Girls' Town of Italy (a part of Boys Towns)." Member of the European Parliament for the CSU 1979-1999, the party of his reactionary Opusian Cercle friends Franz-Joseph Strauss, Count Hans Huyn, and Alois Mertes. Among the foreign policy advisors to the Hanns Seidel Stiftung (Hanns Seidel Foundation) since 1975 (established in 1967), as well as the Kuratoriums Mitglied of the Ludwig Frank Stiftung (Ludwig-Frank Foundation). The Hanns Seidel Foundation, based in Germany, receives funding from the European Union. The foundation is a geopolitical trust attached to the Bavarian CSU party (the Bavarian Christian Democrats) of the Strauss, Mertes, Huyn, and Edmund Stoiber. It was active on all continents in funding anti-communist militias. July 2005, The Trumphet, 'From the Editor: German Election Crisis—and a New Charlemagne': "Here is what Mr. Armstrong’s Plain Truth staff wrote, September 1979: “On the United Nations, he [Otto] has declared that the organization is dominated by ‘anti-European illiterates, despots and cannibals.’... “Possibly von Habsburg’s most controversial suggestion has been his recipe for dealing with national emergencies. In the April 1978 issue of his conservative publication Zeitbühne, he suggested that in certain emergency situations (such as nuclear blackmail or other major acts of terrorism) governments should let a strongman take over for a period of nine months, allowing him to suspend laws and ‘take all measure necessary for the maintenance of the life of the population.’... Interestingly, von Habsburg counts Bavarian leader Franz Josef Strauss among ‘the few full-blooded politicians’ who ‘in the case of serious national crises are able to accept responsibility because of their clear-sightedness and indomitableness.’ Von Habsburg says he is ‘personally pretty close to his [Strauss’s] ideas in many ways on the European unity subject"... The zenith of Habsburg power came in the 16th century under Emperor Charles v. Chosen by electors in 1519 at the age of 20, Charles was crowned Holy Roman emperor by Pope Leo x in October 1520. He ruled until 1556 and is considered to have been the greatest monarch to bear the imperial crown since Charlemagne. He was the last emperor to vigorously attempt to realize the medieval idea of a unified empire embracing the entire Christian world... Christopher Hollis, in the foreword to von Habsburg’s book The Social Order of Tomorrow, points out that Otto ‘would like to see Europe resume her essential unity, and in the symbolism of that unity he thinks that the imperial crown of Charlemagne and of the Holy Roman Empire might well have its part to play.’ “Inter-European unity has long been a quest of the Habsburg dynasty. Otto himself often speaks of the similarities between the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and his view of a coming United States of Europe. In this regard, Otto has stressed the importance of religion in the formation of a united Europe. He regards Christianity as Europe’s bulwark: ‘The cross doesn’t need Europe, but Europe needs the cross.’" The pope has also spoken out against Liberal Anglo-Saxon politics. Otto was a member of the Hilfskomitee Freiheit für Rudolf Hess (Freedom for Rudolf Hess Committee), which advocated the release of the former Thulist and number two in Hitler's early regime. Hess had secretly flown to England in May 1941, almost certainly trying to establish a peace between Hitler and the British Empire (through the opponents of Churchill affiliated with the British royal family) so both could attack Russia. Unfortunately for Hess, he was caught. After the war he was held in a prison until his death, mainly because the Soviet Union did not approve of his release. The Action Committee for the Freedom of Rudolf Hess made it to the international news a few times in the 1970s. SMOM member Kurt Waldheim, the secretary general of the United Nations who had to resign in 1986 after he was accused of war crimes, was a favorite of Otto. Otto was honored by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in February 1988. On 19 August 1989 he was the Patron of the Paneuropean-Picnic in Sopron, which was a protest against the Iron Curtain. Since 1988 he worked on the extension of the Paneuropa Union into the countries behind the Iron Curtain, on the independence of the Baltic States from Moscow, and of Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzgovina and Macedonia from Belgrade (Serbia). He is considered an enemy of the Serbs. When Croatia (90% roman catholic) and Slovenia (84% roman catholic) withdrew from Yugoslavia, the Vatican immediately supported the action, together with the German government. 1994, Jean-Paul Picaper, 'Otto de Habsbourg: Memoires d'Europe', pp. 209-210 (Otto to a Figaro correspondent): "If German recognized Slovenia and Croatia so rapidly, even against the will of [then German foreign minister] Hans-Dietrich Genscher who did not want to take that step, it's because the Bonn government was subjected to an almost irresistible pressure of public opinion. In this regard, the German press rendered a very great service, in particular the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Carl Gustav Strohm, that great German journalist who works for Die Welt." In the late 80s and early 1990s, Otto invited leaders from Croatia and Slovenia to the European Parliament. He visited these countries and stated they should prepare themselves for a place in the European Union. Habsburg and his allies warned about Milosevic, who had just become a prominent former-communist socialist nationalist and wanted to unite all land where a significant amount of Serbians (mainly eastern orthodox christians) lived. Civil wars followed in which the Serbians ultimately were driven back south and east into Serbia. German, US, an UK intelligence services, together with special forces, were secretly funding the (also quite brutal) opposition to Serbia. NATO also bombed the Serbs twice. Otto had called for the bombing of Belgrade (capital of the Serbs) in 1993. Some fear that Otto would like to see Serbia removed from the map, as he blames this nation for the downfall of his beloved Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 2005 Carla Del Ponte, chief prosecutor of the UN international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, claimed that the Vatican protected suspected war criminal general Ante Gotovina, a hero in Croatia. Before becoming a general in the Croatian army, Gotovina fought in the French Foreign Legion; then became a close collaborator of the hard-right Jean-Marie Le Pen. In good tradition of the Nazi ratlines, the Vatican allegedly hid him in a monastery. September 20, 2005, The Telegraph, 'Vatican accused of shielding 'war criminal'': "Carla del Ponte, the chief prosecutor of the UN international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, said she believed that Gen Ante Gotovina was being sheltered in a Franciscan monastery in his native Croatia... She said: "I have information he is hiding in a Franciscan monastery and so the Catholic Church is protecting him. I have taken this up with the Vatican and the Vatican refuses totally to co-operate with us." In July, Mrs del Ponte travelled to Rome to share her intelligence with the Vatican's ''foreign minister'', Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo. He refused to help, telling her the Vatican was not a state and thus had "no international obligations" to help the UN to hunt war criminals. Mrs del Ponte complained: "They said they have no intelligence and I don't believe that. I think that the Catholic Church has the most advanced intelligence services."" In 1989, he said to the European Parliament: "The [European] Community is living largely by the heritage of the Holy Roman Empire, though the great majority of the people who live by it don’t know by what heritage they live." Otto has met with Pope John Paul II to discuss at length the subject of European integration. In early 2006 he met with the new pope, Benedikt XVI (Ratzinger), whom he had already known. From September to December 2004 he travelled to Kosovo, Zurich, Rome, Vienna, Tyrol, Madeira, Croatia, London, again to Vienna, Paris, Strasbourg, Spain, Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Budapest, and three times to Hungary. In November 2002 the Austrian weekly Zur Zeit published an interview with Otto von Habsburg in which he had said: "If we consider America's internal politics, then we find that it is split in two halves. On the one hand, the Defense Department, in which the key positions are held by Jews; the Pentagon is today a Jewish institution. On the other hand, the blacks are in the State Department: for instance, Colin Powell or especially Condoleezza Rice. It is an internal conflict between hawks and doves. Currently, the Anglo-Saxons, that's to say the white Americans, are playing a relatively minor role." On April 20, 2005 National Public Radio (NPR) interviewed Otto and asked him about these comments. He confirmed what he said earlier and added: "There are many nationalities making up America. There are four states that in twenty years will have a majority of Spanish language [citizens]; and I don't think that's a catastrophy. It's a very good thing. I'm already well located. I have many children and all my children speak Spanish too." In the interview he's clearly hinting two or three times to the fact that he wants northern Africa to become part of the European Union. Otto thinks the rejected 2005 EU Constitution should be rewritten and reintroduced. Made a speech in German and French praising Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (former French president; like Habsburg, a good friend of Opusian Cercle founder Jean Violet; prominent member Paneuropa Union; received the Charlemagne award; Knight of Malta; Giscard's father had close connections to the Synarchy and Opus Dei) when this person was head of the Draft Treaty that should have established a Constitution for Europe. 2005, Ausgabe 2-3, Eurojournal pro management, p. 14, committee member Otto von Habsburg: "The original wording of the Constitution draft by Giscard d'Estaing was quite short and comprehensible. So why did it fail to convince the voters? This is plain: a campaign launched with the help of a book thick with legal terminology which, the bureaucrats hoped, voters would read and comprehend. Much money was spent, but nothing was gained. A Commission full of aged politicians to work on the draft which spoilt it just as "too many cooks spoil the broth". Giscard d'Estaing knew what would happen with his initial draft, and later photographs show the expression of a man in desperation who knew that should this revamped version fail, then he would be responsible anyway... No attempt was made to reach out to future generations as did the late pope John Paul II or as Pope Benedict XVI now does; two old men who somehow managed and manage to enthuse the masses. It is therefore no wonder that the battle was lost; the idea however still lives on, but we need new politicians to bring the idea home to voters." Giscard's initial draft version delegated a lot of authority to the EU presidency, who would be elected to serve for five years instead of the previous method of a six month rotation between all EU members. The European Council, the body made up of the heads of state of the member countries, would do the electing on the basis of Qualified Majority Voting. Giscard, who now favored the name United Europe, made many other proposals and was widely attacked for trying to reduce the influence of smaller EU countries, the commission and the European Parliament. Giscard did not see an EU president being directly elected by the European people "for another 50 years." Like Otto, Giscard d’Estaing is absolutely against Turkey joining the European Union. Tuesday 28 February 2006, Valery Giscard d'Estaing, speech at the London School of Economics entitled 'The Political Future of Europe' (transcript posted at website of LSE): "Let's be clear about this: the rejection of the Constitutional Treaty in France was a mistake, which will have to be corrected. Was the mistake due to the over-complicated presentation of the draft, or the choice of a referendum [public vote...] at a time when politicians were highly unpopular? It doesn't much matter. Everyone has accepted the democratic verdict, whatever their regrets. But the main victim has been a Treaty, which, according to the opinion polls, the French were not against. At a time when second chances are the order of the day, the Constitutional Treaty will have to be given its second chance. When? When France has completed her great electoral debate, with the presidential and parliamentary elections which are due to be held 14 months' time, in spring 2007. How? By refocusing the debate on the only genuinely constitutional parts, that is to say, the first part, and the Charter of Fundamental Rights demanded by the European Left, neither of which have given rise to much protest. Then the third part could follow a parliamentary route, which is far better suited to its legal nature." In this speech Giscard proposed that the two first parts of the Constitution could be subject to a new referendum, whereas the third and more controversial part would be subject to a parliamentary vote. On May 23, 2006 the Financial Times quoted Giscard d'Estaing as saying: "It is not France that has said no. It is 55 per cent of the French people - 45 per cent of the French people said yes... I wish that we will have a new chance, a second chance, for the constitutional project." Otto concurs and added in 2006 "A short, clear constitution text must go", suggesting the average person in the EU is interested in reading the document. April 09, 2002, Christian Science Monitor, 'Europe, prepare to greet Islam': "For centuries, the ruling Habsburgs defended the Continent against the expansion of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Now Mr. von Habsburg makes it clear that all nations bordering the Mediterranean Sea – including those in North Africa and the Middle East – have a place in his broad vision for tomorrow's Europe." In other interviews Otto indeed claimed that as far as he is concerned, Africa starts with the Sahara. The small strip above it should still be included in Europe. Otto is also happy to see that Central and Eastern Europe starts to have more and more influence in the rest of Europe. When Otto von Habsburg visited the United States in April 2005, one of the few people he spoke with in private was Henry Kissinger. Also interviewed by a few newspapers during his visit to the United States. April 18, 2005, Washington Times, 'Habsburg, 92, has eye on future': "The Cosmos Club's windows were ablaze with light... talk centered on Archduke Otto's lifelong quest to build and expand the European Union. "Ten new states have recently been admitted, and we are waiting for others, especially Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and the Ukraine," he told a reporter... Archduke Otto, amazingly hale and hearty at 92, readily admitted the EU was "already too big and unwieldy" but said that shouldn't matter: "The new [member states] will be better Europeans than the old because they know the totalitarian alternative. They will enrich us enormously." Later, he praised the Ukrainians for courageously taking to the streets to ensure democratic rule." Official supporter of Europe for Christ, which was founded in July 2005 and aims to insert the values of catholicism in the European constitution and the life of Europeans. The Vatican was "surprised" in 2003 that there was no specific reference to God and Christianity in the proposed EU constitution, even though the general importance of religions and spirituality on human society was in fact mentioned. Otto supports the Vatican on this issue. In November 2005 Otto denounced Putin as a KGB dictator and spoke in favor of Khodorkovsky, the famous oligarch, being released. Bavaria is known to have made large investments in Russia since the Oligarchs came to power. February 5-6, 2004, European Navigator/Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe, Otto von Habsburg interview in which he replies to the question what he thinks were the key players in European integration (translated from French): "Charles de Gaulle in the first place. Certainly one of the big visionaries of Europe... I will certainly also say Adenauer. Adenauer with his Rhenish vision because the Rhine plays a fundamental role in this Europe... Coudenhove, certainly; and... Schuman... I put them at the same level... Coudenhove said: "You know, it is awfully difficult to make Europe with the English, but without them, it is impossible" That is very true. And in case of France, that's also true. There are a lot of difficulties with the French, but we cannot make it without them. They are an essential element to us and without De Gaulle... France would have collapsed completely." February 5-6, 2004, European Navigator/Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe, Otto von Habsburg interview in which he replies to the question what he thinks about Jean Monnet (translated from French): "Jean Monnet had a role, an important role, but he certainly was not the only one... the relations between Monnet and Coudenhove were not exactly very intimate... I was on the side of Coudenhove during the whole time, because I agreed with his vision. Jean Monnet was rather a technocrat and Coudenhove was a prophet and a visionary. It was that big of a difference, in my opinion." In the end the only differences between Monnet and Otto seem to be that Otto is taking things slower and has traditionally not really been concerned with Britain entering the European Union, as this was not an original Paneuropean objective. Otto von Habsburg has been named as a member of the Order of Malta, a member of Opus Dei, and a member of the Mont Pelerin Society (a branch of the Paneuropa Union). Prominent Catholic and a patron of the Augustan Society. Former sovereign of the Order of the Golden Fleece, which has now become his son. King Juan Carlos of Spain is head of the only other Order of the Golden Fleece. Has also been named as a member of the controversial Order of Zion, if it even exists, or existed. Other rumors about the Order of Zion have named Cercle members Alain Poher and Giulio Andreotti. Otto and his wife reside at the Villa Austria in Pöcking, Bavaria, Germany.
Otto von Habsburg's oldest son, Karl Habsburg (b. 1961), who is to be the future head of the Habsburg family, married Baroness Francesca von Thyssen-Bornemisza in 1993. Baroness Francesca is the daughter of Baron Hans Heinrich von Thyssen-Bornemisza, who was a member of the 1001 Club. They had three children in the 1990s, whose godmother is Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, the wife of the late Prince Johannes von Thurn und Taxis. Karl is president of the Pan Europa Union in Austria and currently serves as the elected OVP Party representative of Austria to the European Parliament. His son Georg von Habsburg is a Hungarian diplomat to the EU and his daughter, Countess Walburga Douglas, is a Pan Europa representative, politician and author.
The Habsburg Empire did not entirely end after WWI. Currently HSH Prince Hans Adam II of Liechtenstein is a Habsburg monarch. He also has close ties to the Vatican, is a member of the Knights of Malta, and at least a supporter of Opus Dei. Hans Adam's younger brother sits on the board of the Coudenhove-Kalergi Foundation, together with Otto von Habsburg, Count Hans Huyn, Jakob Coudenhove-Kalergi (nephew of Richard, the founder of the Paneuropa Union), and Prince Carlo della Torre e Tasso (Thurn und Taxis). Hans Adam is known to have a lot of interest in the UFO/alien issue. He had an interesting conversation about this subject with Dr. Steven Greer. According to Greer, Hans Adam is a radical end-of-the-world fanatic who privately claims aliens have invented all the world's religions. According to Greer, Hans Adam claimed to him that one of his brothers was kidnapped by aliens. Greer says he has spoken to people in the US who claimed Hans Adam's brother indeed was abducted; not by aliens, but by a human stagecraft team to bring him aboard of a certain agenda.

Hague, William J.
2002 UK Parliament record (Register of Members' Interests)
Born in 1961. Went to Magdalen College, Oxford, and while there he was president of both the Conservative Association (OUCA) and the Oxford Union, a noted breeding-ground for political hopefuls and high-flyers. At Oxford, Hague studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) and graduated with first-class honours. Following Oxford Hague went on to study for an MBA at INSEAD (Elite French business school). Before entering Parliament, he worked for Shell UK and McKinsey & Co. Elected to Parliament in 1989. Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Lord Norman Lamont from 1990 to 1993, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer and chairman of Le Cercle. Entered the Cabinet in 1995 as Secretary of State for Wales. Member of the Privy Council since 1995. Leader of the Conservative Party from 1997 to 2001, in succession to John Major. When prime minister Tony Blair proposed the removal of the hereditary element in the House of Lords in 1998, Lord Cranborne (Cecil family), without consulting Hague, negotiated a pact with the government to retain a small number of hereditary peers for the interim period, which was later set at 92. Hague was embarrassed when Blair told him of it in the House of Commons and sacked Lord Cranborne. Seen as a political lightweight by many, and was widely mocked for his claim that he drank 14 imperial pints (8 litres) of beer in a day in his youth. Chairman of the International Democrat Union (IDU) 1997-2002, the global alliance of Conservative, Christian Democrat and like-minded parties. Went to Bilderberg in 1998. Deputy chairman of the IDU since 2002, under Australia's prime minister John Howard. Shadow Foreign Secretary and Senior Member of the Shadow Cabinet since 2005. UK Parliament record about William Hague: "27 June-1 July 2002, to Morocco, flights and accommodation for my wife and me paid for by Le Cercle, a political group which organises conferences. (Registered 17 July 2002)" Director AES Engineering, Rotherham.

Howard, Michael
Sources: 18 June 2000, Sunday Telegraph / Lobster Magazine, Issue 40, winter 2000-2001
He was called to the Bar (Inner Temple) in 1964 and specialized in employment law and planning issues. The late 1960s saw his promotion within the Bow Group where he became Chairman in 1970 shortly after the general election in which he was again defeated at Edge Hill. Howard entered the Government early, becoming Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Trade and Industry in 1985 with responsibility for regulating the financial dealings of the City of London. This junior post became very important as he oversaw the Big Bang introduction of new technology in 1986. After the 1987 election he became Minister for Local Government where he became involved in two major political controversies. On behalf of the Government, he accepted the amendment which became Section 28, and defended its inclusion. He then guided through the House of Commons the Local Government Finance Act 1988 which brought in Mrs Thatcher's new system of local taxation, officially known as the Community Charge but almost universally nicknamed the poll tax. Howard personally supported the tax and was respected by Mrs Thatcher for minimizing the rebellion against it within the Conservative Party. After a period as Minister for Water and Planning in 1988/89, in which time he was responsible for implementing water privatization in England and Wales, Howard was promoted to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Employment in January 1990 when Norman Fowler resigned "to spend more time with his family". Howard therefore took on responsibility for legislation abolishing the closed shop. He campaigned vigorously for Mrs Thatcher in the leadership contest following her resignation in November 1990. He retained the same cabinet post under John Major and made many attacks on trade union power as part of the 1992 general election campaign. His work in the campaign led to his appointment as Secretary of State for the Environment in the reshuffle after the election. He undertook some diplomacy to encourage the United States to participate in the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, but was soon after appointed as Secretary of State for the Home Department in a 1993 reshuffle initiated by the sacking of Norman Lamont. His tenure as Home Secretary was especially notable for his tough approach to crime, which he summed up in the soundbite "Prison works". When he was Home Secretary he released high-level drug dealer John Haase from prison just 10 months into an 18-year sentence, along with his associate Paul Bennett. Haase's criminal career began with armed robberies in the 1970s. He moved on when he realised there was much more money to be made in heroin. He took control of the British end of the southern route for heroin smugglers, which runs from Afghanistan to Britain via Turkey and the Balkans. A member of Haase’s gang, Simon Bakerman, imprisoned for running an amphetamine factory, is Michael Howard’s cousin. His reputation was dented in 1996 when a critical inquiry into a series of prison escapes was published. In advance of the publication Howard made statements to assign blame to the prison service. Ann Widdecombe, his former junior minister in the Home Office, made a statement to Parliament about the dismissal of then Director of the Prison Service, Derek Lewis and famously remarked of Howard that "there is something of the night about him", a bitter and widely quoted comment that fatally damaged his 1997 bid for the Conservative Party leadership. The comment was taken as a "bitchy" reference to his dour demeanour, which she was implying was sinister and almost Dracula-like, related to his Romanian ancestry. Attended the June 2001 meeting of Le Cercle in Lisbon, Portugal. President and founding chairman of the Atlantic Partnership. After the 2001 General Election Howard was recalled to frontline politics when the Conservatives' new leader, Iain Duncan Smith, appointed him as Shadow Chancellor. After Duncan Smith was removed from the leadership by the parliamentary party, Howard was elected unopposed as leader of the party in 2003. In February 2004, Howard called on Tony Blair to resign over the Iraq war, because he had failed to ask "basic questions" regarding WMD claims and misled Parliament. In July the Tory leader stated that he would not have voted for the motion that authorised the Iraq war had he known the quality of intelligence information on which the WMD claims were based. At the same time, he said he still believed in the Iraq invasion was right because "the prize of a stable Iraq was worth striving for". His criticism of Blair did not earn Howard sympathies in Washington, where President Bush refused to meet him; Karl Rove is reported to have told Howard: "You can forget about meeting the president full stop. Don't bother coming." Howard is an old friend and cabinet colleague of Cercle member and Arms dealer Jonathan Aitken. Governor of the Ditchley Foundation.

Howell, Lord David
Sources: June 18, 2004, Chancellery of HRH Crown Prince Alexander II of Yugoslavia, 'Reception in honor of the "Le Cercle" conference
Baron Howell of Guildford. Born in 1936. Educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge. After five years as a journalist he unsuccessfully contested the constituency of Dudley in the 1964 General Election. Member of Parliament for Guildford from 1966-1997. Served in four other Government posts under Mr. Heath, including Minister of State for Energy and Minister of State for Northern Ireland. Member of the Privy Council since 1979. Secretary of State for Energy 1979-1981. Secretary of State for Transport 1981-1983. Writes a fortnightly column for The Japan Times in Tokyo since 1985. Regularly writes for the International Herald Tribune, E-biz Chronicle (New York) and to other newspapers and journals. Chairman of the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs since 1987-1997. Chairman of the UK-Japan 21st Century Group 1989-2002, the high level bilateral forum between leading UK and Japanese politicians, industrialists and academics. Member of the international advisory board of Swiss Bank Corporation from 1989-1996. Has been to the the Trilateral Commission several times since the 1990s. Advisory director and senior adviser to the board of SBC Warburg Dillon Read, London 1996-2000. Created a life peer as Lord Howell of Guildford in 1997. Chairman of the House of Lords European Sub-Committee on Common Foreign and Security Policy 1999-2000. Awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Sacred Treasure of Japan in 2001. European Consultant to Japan Central Railway Company, to Mitsubishi Electric, Europe, BV and to the Kuwait Investment Authority. 2003 panelist of the Atlantic Partnership. Howell's website, 2003: "With the support of the Atlanticist and free market-minded new members there is every chance of turning the EU away from its centralist obsessions and even repatriating powers to national parliaments." President of the British Institute of Energy Economists (BIEE) since 2004. Attended a meeting of Le Cercle in Belgrade, Serbia on June 18, 2004. Upon taking his post at the BIEE, Howell wrote: "I am delighted and honoured to take on this role. There can be no doubt that after a decade of relatively problem-free energy flows there are now major dangers ahead on both the supply side and on the generation and distribution sides. For the UK the situation is about to change radically. We will shortly become again, after many years, a net importer of both oil and natural gas, the latter being supplied by new contracts with Norway, Russia , Algeria and possibly Iran. This takes these aspects of energy supply right back into the heart of international politics in the most sensitive areas on earth. Meanwhile , here at home, we now have to make crucial new decisions on nuclear power. It is no longer a question of ‘keeping options open’ on nuclear power generation. Decisions have to be made now for a decade ahead. Investment in offshore windfarms cannot conceivably fill the gap which will be left by any nuclear closures. Finally, we now have to move towards a new generation of techniques for conservation and low energy consumption. There is much work to be done." At a Chatham House meeting in April 2005. October 19, 2006, subject matter of Lord Howell's speech to the Japan Society: "A new structure of International Relations is now in the making. As American power and influence diminishes, it will be replaced not by another bloc or superpower, such as The European Union or China, but by a complex new mesh or web of relationships between nations large and small. A vital strand in this new pattern will be the linkage between the UK and Japan. This linkage has the capacity to re-shape global affairs, including energy security and influence on both Middle Eastern and Asia-Pacific stability, to an extent far greater than hitherto realised. Lord Howell will explain how this scene will develop." Member of the advisory council of New Europe, a cross-party eurosceptics group. Deputy Opposition Leader in the House of Lords and spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the House of Lords. May 17, 2006, Viva Le Canada, 'The Commonwealth as the Ideal Model for International Relations in the 21st Century': "The Lord Howell argues that the Commonwealth is becoming a completely transformed entity and that an enlarged and reformed version of it should be centre stage in addressing the problems of the new international order... The Commonwealth normally refers to 53 member countries, formerly members of the British Empire. The Commonwealth's membership includes both republics and monarchies. The Head of the Commonwealth is Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Headquarters are at Marlborough House in London. Her Majesty also reigns as monarch directly in a number of states, known as Commonwealth Realms, notably the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and others. The Commonwealth's 1.8 billion citizens, about 30 per cent of the world's population, are drawn from the broadest range of faiths, races, cultures and traditions. About half of this population are less than 25 years old. Members range from vast democratic countries like India, Canada and Australia to smaller city states like Singapore. The Commonwealth has three intergovernmental organisations: the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Commonwealth Foundation, and the Commonwealth of Learning."

Huyn, Count Hans
Sources: November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting the Langemann papers)
Hans Huyn was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1930. A descendant of a noble Austro-Hungarian family that was involved in the defense of this Habsburgian empire in the 19th century. Studied in Munich, Paris, and South-Africa in Law, History, Philosophy, and Languages. Started his career in diplomacy, and was involved in some of the early negotiations dealing with the European Economic Community (EEC). Married Rosemary Gräfin Huyn in 1959, a descendant of Archduchess Maria Theresia of Austria (1717-1780), the first and only female head of the Habsburg dynasty. From 1963 to 1965, as an officer in the German Foreign Service, he was involved in European affairs and the Treaty of Elysée, also known as the Franco-German Treaty of 1963. This treaty was established as a result of clandestine meetings between De Gaulle, Pinay, Adenauer, and Strauss, with Jean Violet as a go-between. Retired from the Foreign Service in 1965 and became a journalist and lecturer. Government director of the Bundesfinanzverwaltung (Federal Finance Commission) in the late 1960s. Foreign policy advisor to Franz-Joseph Strauss in the Bundestag from 1971-1976, and Brian Crozier described him as a close friend of Strauss. Co-founder of the anti-communist Europäischen Konferenz für Menschenrechte und Selbstbestimmung (European Conferences on Human Rights) in Bern, Switzerland, in 1974. The ECHRS's 1974 topic titles included 'A Soviet handbook on war as an instrument of policy' and 'The whole of Europe must be kept free from communist dictatorship'. Entered the Bundestag in 1976 and has been reelected 4 times since then. During his career in the Bundestag he was a member of the Foreign Committee, the Committee on Germany's Domestic Affairs, and the Defense Committee. Acting chairperson of the Subcommittee for Disarmament and Arms Control. In the spring of 1978 he wrote an article in the Journal of International Relations, titled "Rhodesia and Southern Africa: Decision for the Future of the Free World". Presented a paper called "Countering subversion, neutralism and pacifism" at the second annual world balance of power conference in July 1982. In 1982 (August 17), the Miami Herald described Count Huyn as a "foreign affairs and defense expert for the Christian Democratic Party". At that time, he accused Chancellor Helmut Schmidt's government of not having investigated properly the possible use of slave labor by the Soviets a to build a Siberian natural gas pipeline to Western Europe. September 20, 1982, Miami Herald, 'Schmidt Fears Soft Attitude Towards U.S.': "A conservative member of Parliament, Hans Graf Huyn, said the United States would get "considerably easier agreement" to the planned stationing of U.S.-made medium-range nuclear missiles under a Christian Democrat government... Huyn's, whose party has close links with the Christian Democrats, also said the Christian Democrats would not be moved by the mass protests expected here if the NATO missiles are stationed as planned at the end of 1983." On August 16, 1984, the Philadelphia Daily News described Count Huyn as the "parliamentary foreign policy spokesman for the CSU, the second biggest party in the coalition government". The CSU (of Bavaria) was also the party of Otto von Habsburg. The CSU's national party was Franz-Joseph Strauss' CDU. Huyn countered some claims of a Polish-Soviet cardinal. Argued for German participation in the American Star Wars program in 1985. Member of the World Anti-Communist League. Member of Parliament in 1990. In 1990, Huyn favored more trade with the Soviet Union and the rest of the Warsaw Pact, except for high technology. He claimed Gorbachev remained a socialist in heart and soul and that therefore his perestroika would fail. April 9, 1990, Washington Times, 'Official figures indicate Soviet economy collapsing': "A series of official reports from Moscow confirm recent dire predictions that the Soviet economy is heading for collapse. "The economic situation has never been as disastrous as it is today," said Hans Huyn, a West German expert on Soviet affairs and a member of the Bonn legislature. "We are witnessing the complete collapse of Soviet-style socialism. I think the real Russian revolution is still to come."... "It is a chaotic and disastrous situation," Mr. Huyn said. Soviet President Mikhail "Gorbachev has already failed with perestroika, so there will be further change. If labor and economic unrest combines against the leadership, that could be the start of a civil war," he said." Cercle visitors Zbigniew Brzezinski and Count Hans Huyn were among important media spokesman during the crumble of the Soviet Union and its descent into anarchy. Supported the South African Apartheid policies in Namibia, before its independence in 1990. Involved with Radio Free Europe. Huyn headed the german department of the Catholic aid organization 'Aid to the Church in Need' (kirche-in-not.org) from 1988 to 2005. Besides giving human aid, the main purpose of this organization seems to be to spread Catholicism to all corners of the world. At the moment, Huyn is worrying about the rise of Putin and the communist influence in Russia. He seems to have a lot of respect for Henry Kissinger. Anno 2006, advisor to the Coundenhove-Kalergi Foundation, together with Otto von Habsburg, Jakob Coudenhove-Kalergi (nephew of Richard, the founder of the Paneuropa Union), and Prince Carlo della Torre e Tasso (Thurn und Taxis). Nikolaus von Liechtenstein (younger brother of Hans-Adam) is an executive member of the the Coundenhove-Kalergi Foundation. Count Huyn has written quite a number of books on East (Soviet) - West policy.

Iliescu, Ion
Sources: April 6, 2003, The Observer, 'So, Norman, any regrets this time?'; September 5, 2004, Sunday Times, 'Le Cercle of the elite'
Born in Romania. Studied in Moscow and became a communist politician in Romania. He served as Minister of the Youth Problems in 1967. However, in 1971, he was marginalized by Nicolae Ceausescu and he was sacked from all his political functions. Iliescu was the main political profiteer (and leader) of the revolution that overthrew Nicolae Ceausescu in December 1989, as he assumed leadership. Said to have been a KGB agent, which Ceausescu of course didn't know. Iliescu was the President of Romania for eleven years, from 1990 to 1996, and 2000 to 2004. His final term ended in December 2004, and his successor is Democrat leader Traian Basescu. Currently, Ion Iliescu is a Senator from SDP party. It is unknown when Iliescu visited Le Cercle, but as far as we know this would not have been that unusual after the wall came down.

Jameson, Donald "Jamie" F.B.
Sources: November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting from the Langemann papers);
Junior CIA officer in his mid-20s at the end of WWII, mingling with the displaced persons crowded into West German camps. Recruited some of these people to infiltrate back into the Soviet, which wasn't very successful. Chief of the Soviet division of the CIA's Operations Directorate in the 1950s and 1960s. Expert on the USSR and defectors. Interviewed Yuri A. Rastvorov, the 1954 Soviet defector, who supposedly told him that the Soviets held maybe 10 to 15 US prisoners of war from Korea. Coincidentally, a person called Col. Philip Corso said he arranged the interrogation of Rastvorov. In telephone interviews in 1994 and 1995, Corso recalled in detail his encounter with Rastvorov and said the defector told him several hundred American POWs had been sent to Siberia in rail cars during the war. Corso has maintained that the Eisenhower administration chose not to force the issue with Moscow out of concern that a confrontation might escalate into all-out war. March 7, 1997, The Augusta Chronicle, 'Defector caught up in dispute - Former intelligence officer denies US prisoners of war taken in Korean wars': "At least two former U.S. intelligence officers say Mr. Rastvorov told them in separate conversations after his defection that he knew U.S. troops captured in the 1950-53 Korean War had been taken to Siberia and exploited by Soviet intelligence. One of those conversations is summarized in a long-secret White House memo that was declassified last spring... Publicity about the memo prompted the Pentagon to contact Mr. [Yuri] Rastvorov to see how much he knew. At a private meeting last Oct. 10, Mr. Rastvorov denied having any knowledge about U.S. POWs in Siberia. Further, he said that the statements in the White House memo were not his, and that he did not recall that any of the debriefings he underwent with U.S. officials in the 1950s dealt with POWs... Philip Corso, an intelligence officer in Korea during the war and later a National Security Council staff member in the Eisenhower White House, is equally emphatic that Mr. Rastvorov told him in a Jan. 28, 1955, debriefing that Americans had been taken to Siberia as part of a covert Soviet intelligence operation... Separate from Mr. Corso's assertions, Donald Jameson, a retired CIA officer, has said he recalls Mr. Rastvorov telling him in the 1950s that U.S. POWs had been taken to the Soviet Union and that Mr. Rastvorov had estimated it was 10 to 15 aviators. Mr. Jameson helped handle the Rastvorov debriefing after his defection." Senior CIA Soviet specialist. Retired from the CIA in 1973. Went to a Cercle meeting in 1980 in Zurich, Switzerland, together with general Richard Stilwell. Consultant on Oil and on Soviet Affairs in the 1980s. December 14, 2002, New York Times, 'Theodore Shackley, Enigmatic C.I.A. Official, Dies at 75': "In 1979, Mr. Shackley retired from the C.I.A. and founded Research Associates International Ltd., a Bethesda consulting firm specializing in analyzing risks and protecting executives". Vice president of Research Associates International in the 1980s, a firm founded by the very controversial CIA officer Theodore Shackley, who is closely linked to Cercle activities, not to mention illegal dope and oil trade. 2002, Chief Executive Publishing (more detailed date and a headline were not given; scanned from some book or document, judging by one or two common OCR errors): "In 1986, deals with the Soviets were lucrative, wrote Donald F.B. Jameson, a former member of the CIA and vice president of Research Associates International, a risk assessment firm in Arlington, Va. "The Soviets pay above-market prices and pay promptly. Negotiating can be trying, even for the big boys," he wrote in Chief Executive in a spring article titled, 'Trading with the Soviets'..."But if you have what they want and are persistent, you may well end up with a good deal, and after having done one deal, others usually follow. Trading with the Soviets is a race that goes to the strong," Jameson said." July 23, 1998, Michael Ruppert, 'The POWs, CIA and Drugs': "A former CIA officer told me in 1995 that Ollie North was leasing office space for his 1995 Senate run from Shackley's company, Research Associates International, in Rosslyn, Virginia." Vice-president of the Jamestown Foundation, which was founded in 1984 (with the help of Cercle member William Casey) to protect and sponsor a group of high-level international defectors as they travelled the United States speaking out against the tyranny of communism. Today, the Jamestown Foundation has three program areas: China, Russia/Eurasia, and Terrorism, and counts the involvement of Glen Howard (SAIC; DoD; National Intelligence Council; Mid-East and Central-Asia oil consultant), James Woolsey, Zbigniew Brzezinski (attended at least one Le Cercle meeting), Dick Cheney, and Frank Carlucci. Has been a member of the ultra conservative National Security Advisory Council (NSAC) of the Center for Security Policy, together with Ed Feulner, Dick Cheney, Richard Perle (good friend of former Cercle chairman Brian Crozier), Edward Teller, Frank Gaffney, and Jeanne Kirkpatrick. Jameson was at a conference on 15 November 1991 where former KGB and CIA officers spoke together in public for the first time. President of Jameson Associates in Great Falls, Va. in 1994. Writer and consultant on international finance and politics to various financial institutions and governments. Probably involved to some extent in the remote viewing programs. January 25, 2003, Gold Coast Bulletin: "In 1972, the CIA gave the institute $50,000 to study remote viewing. Russell Targ, who joined the project in 1972, recalls a CIA official telling him: "You are wasting your time looking at churches and swimming pools in Palo Alto." Two years later, the institute received the geographical co-ordinates of a "Soviet site of ongoing operational significance.'' The target was Semipalatinsk, in what is now Kazakhstan. A remote viewer provided a layout of a cluster of buildings and drew a puzzling, 'damned big crane'. He identified the underground facility as storage for Soviet missiles. Satellite photos verified the viewer's report, according to Donald Jameson, then a senior CIA Soviet specialist, who called the event a 'turning point'. One group within the agency refused to look at the Semipalatinsk data, objecting to the unscientific methodology. Another group called the process 'demonic'. When the CIA cut the program in 1975, the funds shifted first to the Air Force and then, in 1980, to the Defence Intelligence Agency. Between 1979 and 1994 Fort Meade's viewing site conducted roughly 250 projects involving thousands of missions." General Albert Stubblebine was a key sponsor of the research at Fort Meade.

Karageorgevitch, Crown Prince Alexander II
Sources: June 18, 2004, Chancellery of HRH Crown Prince Alexander II of Yugoslavia, 'Reception in honor of the "Le Cercle" conference
Born in 1945. Descendant of Serbian royalty. Son of Peter II of Yugoslavia, the last King of Yugoslavia. Born in London. Godparents were King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II. Current pretender to the abolished thrones of Yugoslavia and Serbia. By marrying a Roman Catholic, Alexander lost his place in line of succession to the British Throne, which he had held as a descendant of Queen Victoria. The couple divorced in 1985. Crown Prince Alexander married Katherine Clairy Batis, the daughter of Robert Batis and his wife, Anna Dosti, legally on September 20, 1985, and religiously the following day, at St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church, Notting Hill, London. Alexander first came to Yugoslavia in 1991. He moved to Yugoslavia after Slobodan Miloševic was deposed in 2000. In March 2001 Yugoslavian citizenship was given to him by the government and property seized from his family, including royal palaces, were returned. Alexander is a proponent of establishing parliamentary monarchy in Serbia within its current borders and sees himself as the rightful king. Hosted a 2004 meeting of Le Cercle.

Kelly, Crosby M.
Sources: 1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come – Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei', p. 155
Born in 1918. BA, University Arizona, 1939. Postgrad., University Mexico, 1940. Best known as a public relations pioneer. Worked at Ford Motor Co. 1941-1948. Worked at several other companies the following 7 years. Assistant to the CEO at Litton Industries 1955-1965, a large defense contractor in the United States, bought by the Northrop Grumman Corporation in 2001. Worked at the Department of State in 1962. Head of the American delegation to the International Congress Air Force Associations, Turin, Italy, 1964. Chairman of Crosby M. Kelly Associates Ltd. 1965-1973. Chairman President Advertising Measurements, Inc. 1965-1970. Chairman of Performance Measurements Co., Detroit, 1968-1970. Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy 1969. Senior vice president at Litton Industries, Inc. 1973-1976. According to Len Horowitz, Litton Industries was given over $5 billion in military contracts during the first term of the Nixon administration, $10 million of which went towards the development of AIDS-like viruses. Vice president of communications at Rockwell International 1976-1978. Instructor at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School Business 1978. Again Chairman of Crosby M. Kelly Associates Ltd. 1978-1986. President of the Sage Institute in Portland, Oregon, 1980-1983. Director Western World Insurance Co. Guest lecturer European Institute Business Administration Fontainebleau, France, 1966. Robert Hutchinson: "Crosby Kelly made no bones about his political leanings. ‘I am a Rightist, Conservative and anti-Communist,' he told Hodgson. He was said to be a sometime CIA operative. He had designed and launched the sales campaign for the first Ford motorcar produced after the Second World War, and was among Robert McNamara's original 'whiz kids' at Ford. For thirteen years he had been on the board of Litton Industries. Kelly told Violet he would not invest a penny until satisfied that the invention was capable of finding water. [reference to the Sniffer Device affair]" Died in 1986.

Kissinger, Henry Alfred
Sources: October 1989 – Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe'; 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', pages 186, 191-193, and 241; June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour'; 2002, David Rockefeller, 'Memoirs', pg. 412-413, referring to the Pesenti Group; April 6, 2003, The Observer, 'So, Norman, any regrets this time?'; September 5, 2004, Sunday Times, 'Le Cercle of the elite'
Henry Kissinger was born in the Bavarian city of Fuerth. He was a son of Louis and Paula Stern Kissinger. The elder Kissinger was a school teacher and after Hitler's rise to power, the family immigrated to London in 1938. After a short stay, they moved to Washington Heights in New York City. Recruited by Fritz Kraemer during WWII. Served in the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps 1943-1946. According to Hersh, Kissinger stayed on active duty in West Germany after the war and was eventually assigned to the 970th CIC Detachment, whose functions included support for the recruitment of ex-Nazi intelligence officers for anti-Soviet operations inside the Soviet bloc. Captain in the Military Intelligence Reserve 1946-1949. Went to Harvard in 1947, where he was picked by the Rockefellers, three of whom were overseers there at the time. Executive director Harvard International Seminar 1951-1969. Became an consultant to the Operations Research Office in 1951. According to Hersh, that unit, under the direct control of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, conducted highly classified studies on such topics as the utilization of former German operatives and Nazi partisan supporters in CIA clandestine activities. Became a consultant to the Director of the Psychological Strategy Board in 1952, a covert arm of the National Security Council. The first director (and primary founder) was Gordon Gray, who served in this position from June 1951 to May 1952. Under Eisenhower, on September 2, 1953, the role of this department was expanded and the name became Operations Coordinating Board (OCB). Became an consultant to the Operations Coordinating Board in 1955, which was then the highest policy-making board for implementing clandestine operations against foreign governments. JFK would abolish the OCB in 1961 although a similar unacknowledged structure would remain operational. Became known as the most trusted aide to Nelson Rockefeller in the mid 1950s, who by then had served as Eisenhower's Special Assistant for Cold War Planning and overseer of all the CIA's clandestine operations. Member of the Department of Government, Center for International Affairs, Harvard University, 1954-1969. Study director of nuclear weapons and foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations 1955-1956. Director Special Studies Project for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund 1956-1958, which worked out basic cold war policy manifestoes (hardline). They were in large part adopted by successive administrations in Washington. Author of 'Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy', released in 1957. Consultant Weapons Systems Evaluation Group of the Joint Chiefs of Staff 1959-1960. Consultant National Security Council 1961-1962. Consultant RAND Corporation 1961-1968. Consultant United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency 1961-1968. Consultant to the Department of State 1965-1968. Right-hand man to Nelson Rockefeller during the 1968 Republican nomination campaign. Nixon's National Security Advisor 1969-1973. Chairman of the secretive Forty Committee, the covert apparatus of the National Security Council, from at least 1969 to 1976, which oversaw the CIA's clandestine operations. Nelson Rockefeller, even in his Senate bio, has been named as an (earlier) chairman of the Forty Committee. As head of this committee Kissinger had access to more information than the other members and he is said to have distorted it at times. During this same time period Kissinger also set up and headed the Washington Special Action Group (WSAG), another very important foreign policy group. Committee Secretary of State 1973-1977. Made two secret trips to China in 1971 to confer with Premier Zhou Enlai. Together with David Rockefeller involved in setting up the National Council for US-China Trade in 1973. Negotiated the SALT I and ABM treaty with the Soviet Union. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973. Made other secret trips to China in later years to make extremely sensitive intelligence exchanges. Robert C. McFarlane was among those who went to China with Kissinger, in his case between 1973 and 1976. Negotiated the end of the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Said to have played a role in the 1973 Augusto Pinochet coup. Approved President Suharto's invasion of East-Timor in 1973, which resulted in a bout 250,000 dead communists and socialists. Oversaw the drafting of 'National Security Study Memorandum 200: Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security and Overseas Interests', which was completed in December 1974 and adopted as official U.S. policy by President Gerald Ford a year later. The title of NSSM 200 is enough to make it controversial. Suspected of having been involved in Operation Condor which started around 1975 and was an assassination and intelligence gathering operation on 3 continents. Set up the Iran-US Business Council with Hushang Ansary. A meeting of the Iran-US Business Council in 1976 included Peter G. Peterson, Paul Volcker, and David Rockefeller. Director Council on Foreign Relations 1977-1981. Together with Cyrus Vance and David Rockefeller he set up the US-China Business Council in 1979, the successor to the Council for US-China Trade. Annual visitor of Bilderberg since at least the 1970s. Annual visitor of the Trilateral Commission since the late 1970s. Visited Le Cercle. Member of the Pilgrims Society. Visitor of Bohemian Grove camp Mandalay. May 17, 2002 issue, Jeffrey Steinberg for Executive Intelligence Review, 'Ariel Sharon: Profile of an Unrepentant War Criminal': "On Nov. 15, 1982, a final meeting took place on several real estate purchases, mostly through Arab middle-men, to push the massive expansion of Jewish settlements throughout the West Bank at a handsome profit. Attending the meeting at Sharon's ranch were: Kissinger [Cercle], Lord Harlech (Sir David Ormsby-Gore), Johannes von Thurn und Taxis [1001 Club], Tory Parliamentarian Julian Amery [Cercle], Sir Edmund Peck, and MI-6 Mideast mandarin Nicholas Elliot [Cercle]." Founder of Kissinger Associates in 1982, a secretive consulting firm to international corporations. Some of the first members to join Kissinger Associates were Brent Scowcroft (vice-chairman), Lawrence Eagleburger (president), Lord Carrington, Lord Roll of Ipsden, and Pehr Gyllenhammar. Some served until 1989, others were still active for Kissinger Associates in the late 1990s. 1992, Senator John Kerry and Senator Hank Brown, Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, part 20:: "Beginning in the fall of 1986, and continuing through early 1989, BCCI initiated a series of contacts with perhaps the most politically prominent international and business consulting firm in the United States -- Kissinger Associates." Chairman National Bipartisan Commission on Central America 1983-1984. Set up the America-China Society in 1987, together with Robert McFarlane and Cyrus Vance. Appointed chairman of AIG's advisory council in 1987. Received the Charlemagne award in 1987. Director of the Atlanta branch of the Italian Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL) from 1985 to 1991. This was during the 1989 BNL Affair (Iraq Gate) in which it became known that the Atlanta branch had made $4 billion in unreported loans to Iraq. After the revelation, the money was said to be used by the Iraqis to buy food and agriculture equipment, but in reality they were buying loads of military equipment. His consultancy firm, Kissinger Associates, set up the China Ventures fund with CITIC in 1989, which would be in the same year that he defended the Tiananmen Square massacre, arguing against sanctions being placed on China. Director of the Financial Services Volunteer Corps (FSVC), which was founded in 1990 by Pilgrims Society members Cyrus Vance and John C. Whitehead. Paul Volcker has been among the chairmen of the FSVC, which describes itself as "a not-for-profit, private-public partnership whose mission is to help build sound banking and financial systems in transition and developing countries." In 1990, he sat on boards of American Express, Union Pacific, R.M. Macy, Continental Grain, CBS, and the Revlon Group. Also a consultant to ABC news at this time. Member Atlantic Council of the United States. Member of the Council of Advisors of the United States-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce. Trustee of the Center Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Arthur F Burns Fellowship, the Institute of International Education, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Honorary Governor of the Foreign Policy Association. Patron of the Atlantic Partnership and the New Atlantic Initiative. Chairman of the Eisenhower Exchange Fellowships, the Nixon Center, and the American Academy in Berlin. Co-chairman of the Editorial Board of 'The National Interest' magazine. Chancellor of the College William and Mary. Honorary chairman World Cup USA 1994 (Kissinger has attended football matches with his friend and colleague Etienne Davignon). Honorary chairman of the National Interest, a neocon foreign policy magazine founded by Irving Kristol, who also founded the CIA's magazine Encounter. Members of the advisory council of the the National Interest have included Morton Abramowitz, Dov Zakheim, John Mearsheimer, Conrad Black and James Schlesinger. Daniel Pipes has been a long time contributor to the National Interest. Co-founded the privately-funded American Academy in Berlin in 1994, together with Richard Holbrooke, Richard von Weizsäcker, Fritz Stern, and Otto Count Lambsdorff. Named Honorary Knight Commander of St. Michael and St. George, 1995. Director Freeport-McMoRan 1995-2001. Director of Conrad Black's Hollinger International Inc. Member of J.P. Morgan's International Advisory Council. Former member of the Advisory Council of Forstmann Little & Co. and American Express. Advisor to China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC). Member of the Europe Strategy Board of Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst. Director of Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation. Chairman of the International Advisory Board of the American International Group (AIG), a partner of Kissinger Associates. Also chairman of the Advisory Boards of AIG Asian Infrastructure Funds I & II and a director of AIG Global. In 1997, Kissinger became the central advisor to the Business Coalition for US-China Trade, a group of about a 1000 leading companies willing to invest in China. In 2000, Henry Kissinger was quoted by Business Wire: "Hank Greenberg, Pete Peterson and I have been close friends and business associates for decades." Maurice Greenburg is head of AIG and Peter G. Peterson is head of The Blackstone Group, which is the other major partner of Kissinger Associates. Peterson is also a former chairman of Lehman Brothers. Kissinger is a friend of Lynn Forester and introduced her to Sir Evelyn de Rothschild at the 1998 Bilderberg conference. They would soon become married. After Pulitzer Price winning journalist Peter Arnett produced a CNN report on Operation Tailwind (a Vietnam operation in which US Special Forces allegedly killed US defectors with Sarin) in 1998, Kissinger and his friends called up CNN to demand that the news network should distance itself from the story (a story which CNN initially approved) and made sure that the producers of the show were publicly humiliated and fired. Arnett was fired again by NBC and National Geographic in March 2003 immediately after he said the Bush Administration was looking for a plan B now that Iraqi resistance turned out to be much more intense than expected. Within 24 hours the Daily Mail hired him. When Henry Kissinger is invited to speak at the United Nations Association on April 11, 2001 Lord Jacob Rothschild is flanking his side. Picked as the initial head of the 9/11 investigating committee in 2003, although he turned out to be too controversial to remain in that position. Henry Kissinger is a patron of the Open Russia Foundation since 2001, together with Lord Jacob Rothschild. The Foundation was set up by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a controversial oligarch, later locked up by Putin. Honorary trustee of the Aspen Institute. Director of the Board of Overseers of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), together with Madeleine Albright, Maurice Greenberg, Henry Kissinger, Felix Rohatyn, and James Wolfensohn. John Whitehead, Tom Brokaw, and Winston Lord have all been chairmen of the Board of Overseers. When Otto von Habsburg visited the United States in April 2005, one of the few people he spoke with, besides the general meetings, was Henry Kissinger. Because of previous international attempts by European and South American judges to question him, he is known to take legal advice before traveling to certain countries in either continent.

Lamont, Lord Norman
Sources: April 6, 2003, The Observer, 'So, Norman, any regrets this time?'; June 18, 2004, Chancellery of HRH Crown Prince Alexander II of Yugoslavia, 'Reception in honor of the "Le Cercle" conference; September 5, 2004, Sunday Times, 'Le Cercle of the elite'; Parliamentary biography; biography at Benador Associates
Born in 1942. Graduated from Cambridge University. Chairman Cambridge University's Conservative Association in 1963. Worked for eleven years for N.M. Rothschild & Sons in the financial City of London 1968-1979. Also director of Rothschild Asset Management during this time. Conservative member of Parliament 1974-1998. Opposition Spokesman on Prices and Consumer Affairs 1975-1976. Opposition Spokesman on 1976-1979. Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Energy 1979-1981. Minister of State at the Department of Trade and Industry 1981-1985. Member of the Queen's Privy Council since 1982. Minister of Defence Procurement 1985-1986. Financial Secretary to the Treasury 1986-1989. Chief Secretary to the Treasury 1989-1990. Campaign manager of John Major in 1990. Chancellor of the Exchequer (Treasury Secretary) under John Major 1990-1993. Chairman of the G7 group of Finance Ministers and the European Union Finance Ministers in 1992. British negotiator at Maastricht. Lamont is former vice-president and now co-chairman of the Bruges Group, an independent think tank that describes itself as: "Set up in February 1989, its aim was to promote the idea of a less centralised European structure than that emerging in Brussels. Its inspiration was Margaret Thatcher's Bruges speech in September 1988." The opinion of the Bruges Group about the 2005 EU Constitution: "The EU Constitution will significantly alter the European Union. If adopted, it will move the EU even further away from our vision of a free trading, decentralised, deregulated and democratic Europe of nation-states." Lamont about the rejected 2005 EU Constitution: "The Europe of Delors [fervent Roman Catholic socialist; received Charlemagne award], Mitterrand [fervent catholic socialist; received Charlemagne award] and Kohl [fervent catholic; received Charlemagne award] is dead. No means no. Europe's self-serving political elite will make a profound mistake and create an awakening of bitterness if they try to sidestep France's historic vote. Europe is a dysfunctional mess. Europe needs to go back to square one. Blair and the British Government in their role as the Presidency of the EU should renegotiate the existing treaties to create a looser free trade Europe of 25 countries." Lamont and the Bruges Group support the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and think Britain should rejoin that. Its four remaining members, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland, have negotiated their own trade agreements with the EU, which allow them access to the single market. Switzerland and especially [the crown of] Liechtenstein are more oriented towards the EU then Norway and Iceland. Lamont handled Russia's negotiations with international financial institutions on behalf of Presidents Gorbachev and Yeltsin, and also represented Russia in negotiations to join the IMF. These negotiations were started in 1988 and after Yeltsin announced in 1991 to privatize the Russian economy, funds from the IMF started flowing in. The Rothschilds later turned out to be close business associates of the leading Russian oligarchs, who bought up the Russian media and raw material corporations for a dime and a nickel in the aftermath of the IMF negotiations. Allegations of fraud were numerous in the years following and one of these scandals seemed to have led to the death of 1001 Club member Edmond Safra. Director of N.M. Rothschild and Sons Ltd 1993-1995. July 2, 1995, Sunday Times, 'Rothschild rues its blues under the bed': "Last week it started to look as if Rothschild was planning to make a bid to become the government itself when John Redwood, a former Rothschild fund manager, launched his campaign to become the Tory party leader with Norman Lamont, a Rothschild director, at his side. But Rothschild's position as the hotbed of Tory Euro-sceptic activity is understandably raising some eyebrows both within the bank and outside... Lamont's appointment, more than any other of the political refugees to appear on the Rothschild board, was made despite the opposition of senior Rothschild corporate financiers. Sir Evelyn, however, is renowned for making these sort of appointments without reference to anyone. Whatever the outcome of the leadership election, many at the bank now hope that Lamont's reign at Rothschild where he earns around Pounds 25,000-Pounds 30,000, considerably less than many believe will soon be terminated." Strangely, Sir Evelyn was exposed in 2002 for funding Policy Network, the primary think tank for New Labour, which is very pro-Europe (September 22, 2002, Sunday Times, 'Rothschild bankrolls Mandelson think tank') Became chairman of Le Cercle in 1996 (he still was in 2005). Good friend of Lord Robert Cecil of Le Cercle. Member of the Royal Order of Francis I of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order, together with several other Cercle members. May 13, 2005, London Evening Standard, 'London Knight Life': "Many of the recent additions, awarded the Royal Order of Francis I for services to industry, science and the arts, aren't even Catholic. These include Baroness Thatcher, the Duke of Westminster, Lord Lamont and the enigmatic Islamic art collector Professor Nasser David Khalili, one of Britain's richest men, who proudly wears his order on a turquoise silk ribbon at official functions. All members are encouraged to donate to the order's spiritual and charitable works." Chairman of the Oil Club of independent oil corporations. Member House of Lords since 1998. Vice Lords Select Committee, Chairman House of Lords Select Committee on EU. Served as a director of Scottish Re since December 2001. Director of the Balli Group plc, a commodities trading company that specialized in steel, petrochemicals and non-ferrous metals. Director of Scottish Annuity & Life Holdings Ltd., Banca Commerciala Robank, European Growth and Income Trust, and Jupiter Finance and Income Trust. Chairman of the East European Food Fund. Advisor to Rotch Property Group Ltd., one of Britain's largest private property companies. Advisor to the Monsanto Corporation and to the Government of Romania. Director of the Luxembourg banking company Compaigne Internationale de Participations Bancaires et Financieres (CIPAF), which is a subsidiary of General Mediterranean Holdings, owned by Cercle member and Saddam associate Nadhmi Auchi. Vice Chairman of the International Nuclear Safety Commission (Chaired by Mikhail Gorbachev). Member of the Neoconservative Benador Associates. In February 2005 it was reported that John Major and Norman Lamont were holding up the release of papers on Black Wednesday under the Freedom of Information Act. Black Wednesday refers to September 16, 1992 when the government was forced to withdraw the Pound from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) by currency speculators - most notably George Soros who earned over USD$1 billion in doing so. December 10, 2000, The Guardian, 'Revealed: Pinochet drug smuggling link': "The Chilean army and secret police have spent almost two decades secretly flooding Europe and the US with massive shipments of cocaine. The trafficking began during the 17-year dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet and continues to this day, a year-long investigation for The Observer has established. Twelve tons of the drug, with a street value of several billion pounds, left Chile in 1986 and 1987 alone. The drugs, destined for Europe, have often been flown to Spanish territory by aircraft carrying Chilean-made arms to Iraq and Iran. Distribution to Britain and other European countries has been controlled by secret police stationed in Chilean embassies in Stockholm and Madrid. The revelations will come as an embarrassment to the Conservative Party, which criticized Pinochet's arrest in London in 1998 and backed his fight to avoid deportation to Spain on charges of murder and torture. The news will be particularly unwelcome to Lord Lamont, the former Chancellor, who was in Santiago last week to deliver a letter of support to the former dictator from Lady Thatcher. Under Conservative governments, large quantities of British arms were sold to Chile, and British firms such as Royal Ordnance collaborated with the development of Chile's weapons potential. There can be no doubt that Pinochet, whose power was absolute between the 1973 coup and his surrender in 1990, was a party to trafficking." Lamont pressed Home Secretary Robin Cook for Pinochet's release from captivity in England, claiming it was something the people of Chile had to deal with themselves. Has visited Bilderberg. Chairman of the British Iranian Chamber of Commerce since March 2004. Arrived in Iran in May 2004 as co-chairman of a mission to strengthen the ties between Iran and the United Kingdom and to increase UK foreign investment into Iran. During this time the neocons in the United States, led by Dick Cheney et al, are continually threatening to bomb Iran. Lord Lamont in February 2006, BBC radio, 'Any Questions?': "Well I think the idea of Iran getting a nuclear weapon is alarming. I think also President Ahmadinejad of Iran is a rather threatening person because of what he has said. Having said that I think we ought also to understand that there is an Iranian perspective which we don't always see in these matters. The first is that I think Iran actually has a deep sense of insecurity. The history of Iran has been interfered with by foreign countries. They remember how a prime minister, Mossadegh, was removed because he wanted - by the Americans and the British - because he wanted to nationalize oil. They remember above all the Iran/Iraq War in which Iraq with Western weapons invaded them, half a million people died. They're surrounded by countries with nuclear weapons as well. Second point I would just make about Iran is Iran is not nearly as anti-West, anti-American or as religious as it appears from the members of the government you see on television. After 9/11 there were demonstrations in favor of America in Tehran. President Khatami, the president of Iran at that time, actually made the strongest, most eloquent condemnation I've heard from anybody. Now the one thing I'm certain of is that sanctions will not work and we will find ourselves getting into a situation from which there is no exit. America already has sanctions because of the hostage crisis that maintained them ever since. I think a far better policy in the past would have been if we'd had no sanctions against Iran, we'd encouraged full economic ties, trade with Iran, admitted them to the World Trade Organization. It may now be too late. I don't think Iran is going to invade anybody but I think Iran - Iran has been a major beneficiary of the Iraq War, that is one of the problems which has emboldened, made them more confident. But I think in the past we have ostracized them, we have kept them at bay. I think Jack Straw has handled this very, very well because he's kept a dialogue going and although we are in a difficult situation I hope that Straw and the Europeans will still continue to maintain contact and still try to find a diplomatic solution, even though it is backed up with ultimate sanctions... I think they do want to have nuclear energy but I think they are - there was a program begun under the Shah but I think they probably do want to develop for the security reasons that I've outlined. And I think the awful thing is you would find that a huge part of the population of Iran agreed with that, I don't think you would find that - they see the West as interfering in their region. Dimbleby: But do you therefore believe that they represent - you described your perspective - do you believe - to go back to the question as it were in a yes or no - that they do represent a threat - it does represent a threat to world peace or not? Norman Lamont: I think Iran is a significant power in the region and its power has been increased by the Iraq world, a Shia belt has formed stretching Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon - I don't think they're going to wage an aggressive war against somebody, I really don't believe that, I don't think they will. But they have leverage via Hamas, Hizbollah. I think we do need to continue talking to them. I think unfortunately we are in the grip of history and forces that have put us in this position." One of Lamont 2003 House of Lords speeches: "I first declare an interest in that I am a director of a company which was specifically formed to participate in the reconstruction of Iraq, although nothing that I say is likely to enhance the prospects of that company. At the time I strongly supported the war both in this House and outside, but subsequently I changed my mind because I gradually came to believe that the country was misled about the reasons for the war. Of course, I am not saying that the Prime Minister acted in bad faith. I am not saying that the Prime Minister misled the country intentionally, but that he was so keen to go to war that he seemed to lose all critical faculty. The fact that his motives were right does not in any way modify or justify the consequences. I watched with disbelief the evidence that unfolded from the Hutton inquiry and read with concern the conclusions of the Butler report. I find it impossible to resist the conclusion that No. 10 was desperate to grasp at any evidence to support a decision that it desperately wanted to make. Like other noble Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Butler, for his excellent report... To watch last week the Republican Convention in New York was to watch a gathering in denial that seems to have turned this war into a fantasy. We know that the two governments were wrong and out of touch with reality before the war. The question is: are they any more in touch with reality now?... The invasion of Iraq has been discredited also by the subsequent chaos hugely influenced by Iraqi exiles who have their own agenda. The "American appointed government" control only part of Baghdad; even there its Ministers are car-bombed and assassinated. According to the press, Baquba, Samara, Kut, Mahmoudiya, Fallujah and Ramadi are all outside government authority. In their efforts to retain and regain control the Iraqi Government re-employ some of Saddam's generals and re-recruit his secret police. Mr Allawi has said that he wants to slash some throats."

Lowenthal, Gerhard
Sources: October 1989 – Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe'
In the 1980s, Lowenthal was the anchorman on current affairs programmes for ZDF television, the major German TV network. Died in 2002. Probably a relative of Richard Lowenthal, co-founder of the CIA's Congress for Cultural Freedom with Julian Amery and others.

Luchsinger, Fred
Sources: November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting from the Langemann papers); October 1989 – Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe'
Editor of the Neue Zurcher Zeitung in the 1980s. Recipient of the Freedom Prize 1985. Member of International Society for Human Rights, Resistance International, WACL, CAUSA, the Jonathan Institute, Konservative Aktion and the European Institute on Security. Attended the 1980 Zurich meeting of the Pinay Circle.

McLean, Neil "Billy" L.D.
Sources: 1990, Xan Fielding, 'One Man In His time: The Life of Lieutenant-Colonel N.L.D. ("Billy') McLean', p. 205
Colonel Billy Mclean & later co-Pinay Circle member Julian Amery were dropped in North-Albany in April 1944 as part of the British resistance against the Italian and German fascists. They worked with the Albanian resistance of Ihsan Toptani. After their task was accomplished they all became passionate anti-communists. In 1946, McLean was stationed as an intelligence officer somewhere near the Karakoram mountains. He was an MI6 officer for most, if not all, of the post-war period. After the war he became a member of Parliament who regularly travelled to different parts of the world to counter Communism. In 1962, Yemen was taken over by a communist regime and the Egyptian Nasser was supporting them by bombing Saudi-Arabia (who supported the deposed Imam). Already retired deputy head of MI6, George Kennedy Young, was approached by Mossad agents to find the right person to lead a guerrilla war against the Yemeni rebels, Young introduced Colonel McLean to the Israelis. Mclean's guerrilla war would eventually bring down the Yemeni regime and drive Nasser back to his own country. Very good friend of Julian Amery for all of his life. 1990, Xan Fielding, 'One Man In His time: The Life of Lieutenant-Colonel N.L.D. ("Billy') McLean', p. 205: "There was another institution which gave Billy particular pleasure. It was called Le Cercle, and outside the circle nothing was known about it but the name. Its origins and membership were (and still are) as deeply cocooned in mystery as those of the most exclusive Masonic lodge. It appears to have been founded by the French statesman, Antoine Pinay, and when he retired Julian Amery took over the chairmanship. It seems to have been a small assembly of European and American Conservatives meeting on an ad hoc basis once or twice a year, for two or three days at a time, to exchange views on world affairs. Because of his knowledge and understanding of the Middle East and North Africa, Billy was a most acceptable candidate for membership, which, in due course he acquired. He had already attended several meetings -- in Bonn, Munich, Washington and elsewhere -- and looked forward to attending more." 1990, Xan Fielding, 'One Man In His time: The Life of Lieutenant-Colonel N.L.D. ("Billy') McLean', p. 100: "It was at one of his many public meetings in the Highlands that the chairman, a personal friend of his [Billy], spotted that something was wrong with him, cancelled the meeting, and advised him to go home. Daska [his wife] put him to bed, hoping he would get some sleep, and watched over him. But he stayed awake, reading the Bible. He looked rather odd and told her he had had a revelation: there was dirty work afoot, a conspiracy against him; certain factions in the constituency were plotting to kill him; the Freemasons and Scottish Nationalists were actually going to crucify him - he had been shown the very hill they had chosen for the ceremony. Thoroughly alarmed, Daska sent for a doctor, who gave him a sedative which ensured him a good night's rest. But in the morning he seemed as confused as before. He told Daska that everybody had taken against him and only God was on his side. Seeing no improvement in his condition, she arranged for him to be transferred to a nursing home in London for specialist treatment. When the ambulance came to fetch him he grew more agitated than ever and cried out: 'They're going to take me away! Daska, don't leave me!... On arriving at the nursing home he at once asked for a Bible. The specialist advised Daska not to let him have it; instead she gave him Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. This did the trick, or at least must have helped, for by the time he had read all eight volumes he was cured... At the end of a fortnight he was able to leave the hospital and, after a short holiday in Portugal, was back to light parliamentary duties by the first week of November." The doctors assumed he became paranoid through a combination of heavy moodswings (seemingly normal for Celts), nervous exhaustion, and possibly alcohol. Attended Cercle meetings until his death in 1986. While he was dying Dasha did everything she could to get a catholic priest on his bedside, in which she finally succeeded. Officially, Billy belonged to no church, but he was most sympathetic to the Roman catholic church. A memorial after his death was attended by Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia and his wife, representatives of the King of Jordan (Le Cercle), King Leka of the Albanians, the Imam of Yemen, the Crown Prince of Ethiopia, the Speaker of the House of Commons, and several Army officers.

Mertes, Dr Alois
Sources: 1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come – Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei', p. 153-158
Born in 1921. Studied at universities in Bonn and Paris. Joined the West German foreign service in 1951. Served in Paris and Moscow before being named head of the external security department in the Foreign Ministry. Elected to Parliament in 1972 as a Conservative Christian Democrat (CDU/CSU), where he served until returning to the Foreign Ministry in 1982. Contributed to the 1982 Trilateral Commission meeting. Parliamentary State Secretary (State Minister) at the Federal Foreign Office in Bonn in 1984. Ambassador Erdmann began his diplomatic career in 1984 as the personal assistant of Dr. Alois Mertes. Robert Hutchinson: "Both Strauss and Mertes were said to be linked to Opus Dei, though Mertes later denied it." Favored close relations with the United States and was very critical of Ostpolitik. Wrote 'Drei Deutsche in Russland: Osterman, Cancrin, Hass' in 1983. Count Osterman (1686-1747) was a German-born Russian statesman who came to prominence under Tsar Peter I of Russia (Peter the Great). Count Cancrin (1774-1845) was a German-born Russian Minister of Finance for 21 years. Mertes died in 1985.

Monnet, Jean
Sources: 2002, David Rockefeller, 'Memoirs', pg. 412-413, referring to the Pesenti Group
Roman catholic. Born in Cognac, France in 1888, in a family of cognac merchants. Abandoned his university-entrance examinations in 1904. Worked in the City of London at J.G. Monnet & Co., his father's company London branch 1904-1906. Represented J.G. Monnet abroad in Scandinavia, Russia, Egypt, Canada, and the United States 1906-1914. Sent to Canada in 1910 to open new markets for the family business. Here he hooked up with the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) and the Lazard Freres banking house. Due to his negotiations, J.G. Monnet's subsidiary United Vineyard Proprietors Co. started shipping large amounts of brandy to HBC, which this company sold on to the native Indians, a trade prohibited by law. At the time, HBC, a centuries old bastion of the British Empire, was headed by Privy Councillor Lord Strathcona who was replaced in 1914 by Sir Thomas Skinner (not much written about him). In 1916, Pilgrims Society executive Lord Kindersley, a long time Lazard partner (chair at some point) and Bank of England director, became head of the company. Around this time, the Keswicks of the Pilgrims Society and Jardine Matheson started to gain a controlling interest in the HBC. Monnet was grateful for the deal with HBC, because he found it tough to compete on the legal market with better-known firms as Hennessy. When WWI broke out Monnet tested unfit for military service. In September 1914, one month after WWI started, Monnet managed to meet up with France's prime minister René Viviani. He convinced Viviani of a plan to coordinate the use of Allied ships bringing supplies to beleaguered France. As a result, Monnet was sent to London to set up the International Supply Commission, which organized the Anglo-French pool of ships to supply the Allied forces in France. According to Monnet, he arranged the meeting with the prime minister through his father's corporate lawyer. According to some outside writers, the HBC was responsible for arranging this meeting through its high level French contacts. In any case, in London Monnet arranged a $200 million contract for HBC to ship 13 million tons of goods to France on which HBC would take a 1% commission. Chef de Cabinet to France's economics minister Etienne Clementel in 1916. In 1917 he was instrumental in setting up the Inter-Allied Maritime Transport Council, to further improve the coordination of Allied shipping. He wanted this council to have full authority, but didn't get his way. He had, however, created his first supranational body. Before creating the Inter-Allied Maritime Transport Council, he had diner with Arthur Salter, who would become his lifelong friend, discussing the creation of this supranational body. Salter was a person closely involved with Quigley's Roundtable and his ideas of a federal Europe, which he would write down in 1931, would be adopted by Monnet, almost to the letter. Salter mentioned he was part of "small and secret committee" of economists who advised multiple prime ministers up to the outbreak of WWII. John Maynard Keynes (Cambridge Apostles member, just as Lord Victor Rothschild and Aldous Huxley; friend of J.P. Morgan & Co. chairman and CFR chair Russell C. Leffingwell) and Lionel Curtis (supposedly Round Table; primary founder RIIA) were involved in this committee. (Salter was educated at Oxford. First met Monnet in 1914. Had diner with Monnet in 1917, talking about the Inter-Allied Maritime Transport Council. Secretary of the Supreme Economic Council at Versailles in 1919, which also counted the involvement of Monnet from the French side. Head of the economic and financial section of the League of Nations secretariat, and in the League secretariat at Geneva, where he worked for stabilization of the currencies of Austria and Hungary, the former Habsburg empire. Arthur Salter wrote 'The United States of Europe' in 1931, a collection of papers which advocated a federal Europe within the framework of the League of Nations. Author and journalist in London in the early 1930s. Went to China in the early 1930s to advise the Chinese government on reorganizing its railways. Monnet was in China at the same time, working on the same issue. Appointed Gladstone professor of political theory and institutions at Oxford University in 1934, and became a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, supposedly the core of Quigley's Round Table. Carroll Quigley wrote in his 1981 book 'The Anglo-American Establishment': "In 1936, at least eleven out of twenty-six members of the council were of the Milner Group. These included Lord Astor (chairman), L. Curtis, G.M. Gathorne-Hardy, Lord Hailey, H.D. Henderson, Stephen King-Hall, Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton, Sir Neill Malcolm, Lord Meston, Sir Arthur Salter, J.W. Wheeler-Bennett, E.L. Woodward, and Sir Alfred Zimmern." Also according to Quigley, Salter was also one of seven board members of the Montague Burton Chair of International Relations at Oxford in the 1930s, together with the Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, of the family that supposedly coordinated the Round Table. MP for Oxford University from 1937-1950. Vice chairman of the Franco-British Economic Coordination Committee just before WWII. Appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1941. Appointed deputy director-general of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration in 1944. Minister of State for Economic Affairs at the Treasury, and Minister of Materials in 1952.) Appointed to represent France at the Allied Supreme Economic Council at the Versailles Peace Conference of 1919, where he worked with Pilgrims Society members as Lord Robert Cecil, Lord Milner, Nicholas Murray Butler, John and Allen Dulles, David Bruce, Elihu Root, and Russell Leffingwell. First deputy secretary general of the League of Nations 1919-1923. Sir Eric Drummond, the 16th Earl of Perth, was the original secretary general. Saw the League as a failure primarily because each member had a veto right. Rejoined the family business in 1923 to save it from a financial crisis. Obtained a loan from the HBC, which he was told he could treat as a gift, and saved his family's company. In 1925, Monnet moved to America to accept a partnership in Blair & Co., a New York bank which had done bonanza business in the war effort. Elisha Walker was head of the firm. Served as the company's representative in France and made a small fortune. Monnet's papers reveal that he received business referrals from Dulles and Lazard Brothers' banker Robert whose sister-in-law was Lady Nancy Astor. Monnet's work for Blair & Co. also brought him into the law offices of Blair’s attorney, John J. McCloy (Pilgrims Society) at Cravath, Swaine & Moore. Appointed vice president of Blair & Co. in 1928. Lost his small fortune in the great depression that started in 1929. A loan of the Lazard Bank, arranged through former Hudson Bay Company chairman Sir Robert Kindersley, helped Monnet back up on his feet. Monnet would only be able to fully repay the loan in the late 1950s/early 1960s. Blair & Co. merged with Bank of America in 1929, forming Bancamerica-Blair Corporation, which was owned by the Transamerica Corporation of Amadeo Peter Giannini (Bohemian Grove; largest competitor of the East Coast establishment). Elisha Walker was appointed chairman of Transamerica Corporation in January 1930; Jean Monnet became vice-chairman of Transamerica. Giannini retired to Italy, only remaining chairman of Transamerica's Advisory Board. On September 23, 1931, Walker announced that Transamerica would be selling most of its nation-wide banking assets, because of the financial crisis and because the board expected that nation-wide banking wouldn't be allowed anymore in the future. It is also announced that Lee, Higginson & Co., a Wall Street investment bank which started to fund the Nazis around this time, would be taking a majority control in Transamerica. Monnet's future investment partner, George Murnane, was among three directors of Lee, Higginson that were appointed to the board of directors of Transamerica, while Monnet remained vice chairman. In addition to the Gianninis, 19 directors were dropped from the Transamerica board. The following day Giannini announced that he wouldn't allow the sell off of Bank of America for what he termed a "ridiculously low" price. On December 10, 1931 the New York Times reported: "A. P. Glannini announced tonight that he personally would head a "fight to the finish" to oust Elisha Walker, chairman of the Transamerica Corporation, and "Wall Street domination" from the corporation which he founded. He made the statement after he had read a letter from Mr. Walker and James A. Bacigalupi to Transamerica's stockholders. He called the letter "an attack on my personal honesty and integrity"... He said the letter had been timed "to catch me unaware" as it was not released for publication until after he had left San Francisco tonight for Ventura and Santa Barbara, where he planned to carry on the battle for proxies on behalf of Associated Stockholders." Giannini won his Transamerica fight in February 1932, which is when Walker had to resign as chairman. Monnet seems to have been fired at the same time. Monnet was also fired as a director of the Bancamerica-Blair Corporation in March 1932. In November 1932, the Chinese Minister of Finance, Tse-Ven Soong (christian family; Green Gang triad family; governor of the Central Bank of China; sister married Chiang Kai-Shek; other sister sister married Sun Yat-sen, the person who established the Republic of China; still another sister was secretary to Sun Yat-sen) on behalf of Chiang Kai-Shek (the ruling Shanghai-based anti-communist pro-western warlord; member of the Green Gang Triad and close to its Soong family. This Green Gang was involved in the opium and gold smuggle, the sex trade, slave-girl trade, brothels, assassinations, and in keeping an eye on labor unions; would create the Taiwanese republic/police state after he lost the battle against the communists in the years after WWII), invited Jean Monnet to act as chairman of an East-West non-political committee in China for the development of the Chinese economy. Railroads played a central role in these economic developments. Monnet accepted, and in 1933 he took his assistant, David Drummond (the future 17th Lord Perth; from a catholic Hungarian family which emigrated to Scotland in the 11th century; two members of this family were among the eight original founders of the Order of the Thistle; son of Sir Eric Drummond, Monnet's superior at the League of Nations; raised by the Duke and Duchess of Norfolk, a very old catholic aristocratic family; later Privy Councillor; later chair of the Ditchley Foundation for 3 years; later representative of the Queen to the Vatican; arranged a meeting in his own flat during the early 1960s between Edward Heath, the minister responsible for the EEC negotiations, and Jean Monnet; became a member of the extremely elite Roxburghe Club, together with members of the Cecil, Cavendish, Howard, Mellon, Rothschild, and Oppenheimer families), to China where he lived until 1936. After some preliminary investigations Monnet found that his basic task would be the partnership of Chinese capital with foreign companies. This concept led to the formal inauguration of the Chinese Development Finance Corporation (CDFC), which was made up of the main Chinese private banks teamed with four government controlled ones. It was John Foster Dulles (Pilgrims Society) of Sullivan & Cromwell who provided the financial backing for Monnet's next investment company, Monnet, Murnane & Co., in 1935. Dulles wrote about Monnet to his partner W.N. Cromwell: "... one of the most brilliant men that I know" and "an intimate friend [who] has the full confidence of many of the most important financial people". George Murnane (vice president New York Trust Company; deputy commissioner for France in the American Red Cross; director Allied Chemical & Dye of the Speyer family; partner in Lee, Higginson & Co.1928-1935, a Wall Street investment firm once set up by Opium trade families who around this time were financing the Nazis; main advisor for the Belgian Solvays and Boëls in the United States; colleague of Robert Bosch who oversaw his interests at Mendelssohn Bank/NAKIB in Amsterdam since 1934; appointed chair of the American Bosch Corporation in 1935; in November 1940 he was designated by the Wallenbergs' Enskilda Bank as the sole voting trustee with complete power to vote the American Bosch stock at stockholders' meetings in the US. If Murnane would have died, John Foster Dulles would have taken his place; appointed director of North American Corp. in 1938; his firm Monnet, Murnane & Co. was briefly investigated in 1938 by the FBI for supposedly having traded with the Nazis; became a Lazard partner in 1944, personally picked by Andre Meyer; Trustee emeritus of the Rockefeller University; died in 1969) was a very well known investment banker and a former colleague of Monnet at Transamerica. They hired Frenchman Henri Mazot as an agent to set up their Shanghai office of Monnet, Murnane & Co., within the French concession of that town. Monnet tried to include Britain into the cooperation, rather than letting it conduct business on its own. Unfortunately for Monnet, many British diplomats felt he was looking after his own interests. Around this time Monnet wrote: "[Britain] is the one that best understands China and whose actions most benefit it." When Monnet returned to the United States in 1936 he was investigated for tax evasion. In 1938, Monnet, Murnane & Co. was briefly investigated by the FBI, suspected of having laundered Nazi money. The investigation was called off and no charges were laid, but today it is known that the Dulles brothers and Murnane's Lee, Higginson & Co. certainly were involved in trade with the Nazis, just as Monnet's later close friend, Clarence Dillon of Dillon, Read & Co. 2003, Christopher Booker & Richard North, The Great Deception, The secret history of the European Union, p. 21: "Following his lucrative spell in China, Monnet's career as a merchant banker had continued to be murky. On his return to America he had been investigated for tax evasion. In 1938 his company company had even come under suspicion by the FBI for having laundered Nazi money, although this inquiry was called off without any charges being laid." Appointed chairman of the Franco-British Economic Coordination Committee in 1939. Reunited with his friend Arthur Salter at the outbreak of WWII, who became vice chairman of the Franco-British Economic Coordination Committee. In December 1939, Jean Monnet was sent to London to oversee the collectivization of the two countries' war production capacities. When the French government fled Paris in June 1940, De Gaulle went to London to prepare for the French government's departure to North-Africa to continue the war from there. While in London, De Gaulle was approached by Jean Monnet who proposed to him the creation of a Franco-British Union. The two nations would be joined indissolubly as one, complete with a single government, joint armed forces, common citizenship, and even a single currency. Monnet had written: "The two governments declare that in the future France and Great Britain will no longer be two nations but a single Anglo-French Union. The constitution of the Union will entail common organisations for defence, foreign policy and economic affairs... The two Parliaments will be officially united." Monnet and a very enthusiast De Gaulle discussed the plan with Sir Robert Vansittart, Lord Halifax, and others who proposed it to Churchill. Churchill wasn't convinced, but after the positive reactions from his cabinet members all he crossed out was the common currency plan; everything else was approved and the British officials proposed the plan to the French government, still headed by Paul Reynaud. Unfortunately for Reynaud, his vice-premier Marshal Petain and his allies in government reacted with intense hostility to the plan, claiming it was a British plot to wrestle control over France. In the aftermath of this conflict, Reynaud resigned and Marshal Petain came to power, creating the Vichy state. The catholic anti-republican Petain government arranged an armistice with the Germans and soon actively collaborated with them. Britain was doomed, according to Petain. In August 1940, Jean Monnet was sent to the United States by the British government as a member of the British Supply Council, in order to negotiate the purchase of war supplies. He became particularly close to Harry Hopkins, FDR's right-hand man and a Soviet agent, according to the post-war ultra-conservative Le Cercle intelligence group. Through Hopkins he became President Roosevelt's personal advisor on Europe. After the war, the elitist John Maynard Keynes would say that Monnet probably shortened the war by a year. Went to Algiers in 1943 for the United States and British Munitions Assignment Board, which supplied the Free French forces with arms, headed by the two presidents, general Henri Giraud (supported Pétain and the Vichy government, but refused to cooperate with the Germans; supported by Robert D. Murphy, FDR's chargé d’affaires to the Vichy government who later became Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs and vice chair of the Operations Coordinating Board (OCB) under Eisenhower; mainly supported by FDR who was interested in supporting the anti-nazi elements in the pro-catholic anti-republican Vichy government) and general Charles De Gaulle (mainly supported by Churchill, who was responsible for keeping him in the picture; very much disliked by FDR), two bitter opponents which had to work together in this organization. According to his New York Times obituary, Monnet initially supported Giraud, who was ousted as co-president by De Gaulle within a year. After Giraud seemed to become the underdog, Monnet became a supporter of De Gaulle, who seemingly didn't held his previous support of Giraud against him. In 1943, while in Algiers, Monnet started to work closely with Harold MacMillan, Churchill's political representative to the Mediterranean. Both Macmillan and Monnet weren't fond of De Gaulle's high-handedness, but were of the opinion he was the only person to lead the French government in exile effectively. Monnet and Macmillan co-created the Comité Francais de Libération Nationale (CFLN), which was to be headed by De Gaulle in the end. At the same time, in Algiers, David Rockefeller, as a low-level Army Intelligence officer with almost unlimited connections, stood in close contact with both De Gaulle's and Giraud's aide-de-camp. In his 2002 memoirs, Rockefeller seemed to indicate he was more of a fan of Giraud than of De Gaulle, stating that by 1943 De Gaulle still was an obscure politician virtually none of the military officers liked. During a meeting on 5th August 1943, Monnet, who by this time had started brainstorming about post-WWII European integration, declared to the Comité Francais de Libération Nationale (CFLN): "There will be no peace in Europe, if the states are reconstituted on the basis of national sovereignty with its implications of prestige politics and economic protectionism... The countries of Europe are too small to guarantee their peoples the necessary prosperity and social development... the nations of Europe [must] form a federation of a European entity which will forge them into a single economic unit..." Went back to Washington in the 1944-1945 period. Immediately after the 1945 liberation, Monnet proposed a "global plan for modernization and economic development" to the French government. As Planning Commissioner of the National Economic Council from 1945 to 1952, appointed by De Gaulle, he carried out essential work for the reconstruction of the French economy. Henri Rieben, a later close associate of Jean Monnet, explained to the Empire Club of Canada in the 1967 speech 'Napoleon Failed—Will We Succeed? - Towards a United States of Europe': "Jean Monnet and General de Gaulle had probably at that time [1943-1945] come into conflict over two issues: national sovereignty--Germany... For a country which has fallen into the abyss, a striving to accomplish a mission will help it regain its selfesteem. But, de Gaulle added, this mission must not be such that the nation becomes diluted in a European entity... De Gaulle also feared Germany..." In early 1947, U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall (Pilgrims Society) created a team of officials to map out a strategy for economic support to Europe. Key members of this group were George Kennan, Dean Acheson, and Will Clayton, all three of the CFR and-or Pilgrims Society. Especially Kennan and Clayton had many consultations with Jean Monnet over this issue before they came up with the Marshall Plan, a scheme which gave economic aid to countries in Europe that renounced communism and opened up their markets (including economic assets) to the United States. In response to the Marshall Plan, 17 nations agreed to attend a Paris conference on July 12, 1947 and created the Committee for European Economic Co-operation (CEEC). As vice-chairman, Monnet was the key player in the CEEC, more so than its chairman, Oliver Franks. Pilgrims Society member and later permanent Bilderberg member George Ball worked for Monnet at the CEEC, advising how the CEEC case for economic aid could best be presented in the US. In 1948, the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) was created to administer the distribution of the Marshall Plan funding. Monnet pushed hard to create an executive council with supranational powers, but because of opposition by the British, Sweden, and Switzerland, the OEEC council remained intergovernmental. One of the main supporters of the Marshall Plan was the League for Economic Cooperation (ELEC), founded by Joseph Retinger (MI6; Vatican connections; knew many many people internationally; organized Bilderberg with his good friend Prince Bernhard) in 1946. In May 1948, the Congress of Europe was convened by the United Europe Movement in The Hague. It was organized by Jean Monnet with the help of Joseph Retinger; it's chairman was Winston Churchill while Alcide de Gasperi, Paul Henri Spaak, Leon Blum, Robert Schumann, and Konrad Adenauer, the latter soon to be chancellor of West-Germany, were among the attendants. The congress called for the creation of a Council of Europe, but was too large and unwieldly to reach any decisions on this issue. It was, however, agreed upon that the European Movement should be set up. Seven Resolutions on Political Union were adopted at the The Hague Congress. Resolution number seven stated: "The creation of a United Europe must be regarded as an essential step towards the creation of a United World." Retinger and Churchill's son-in-law Duncan Sandys, went to America after this congress to lobby for support for their campaign for European unity. Here they met two key figures, William Donovan (head OSS; founder in 1947 of the CIA; SMOM) and Allen Dulles (OSS; CIA; SMOM). These two very senior members of the intelligence community had recently joined in support of Coudenhove, an ally of the Habsburg family, to form a Committee for a Free and United Europe. But, as a result of the meetings with Sandys and Retinger, Coudenhove, who considered that he alone should lead any unity movement, was now dropped, amid some acrimony. A new organization was set up, the American Committee on United Europe (ACUE), which would be used as a conduit for covert CIA funds, augmented by contributions from private foundations such as the Ford and Rockefeller foundations, to support many important organizations in Europe that were pro-capitalist, anti-communist, and working towards European integration. This covert contribution never formed less than half the European Movement's budget until the 1960s. Allen Dulles, general Walter Bedell Smith (CIA; very good friend of prince Bernhard), and Mrs. John J. McCloy were among the ACUE's board members. In 1949, Monnet realised that the friction between Germany and France for control of the Ruhr, the important coal and steel region, was rising to dangerous levels. France was attempting to keep control over Germany's economy. The solution to this state of affairs could not however be the federation, because France, proud of its so-recently recovered sovereignty, rejected it. For this reason Monnet, together with a few collaborators, drafted a revolutionary proposal: to pool, under the control of a European government, Franco-German coal and steel resources. John Foster Dulles, the old friend and business associate of Monnet, called it "brilliantly creative." Monnet went looking for a prominent politician to promote his plan; he ended up with Schuman, France's foreign minister. The top secret Monnet Memorandum to Schuman stated: "By pooling basic production and the establishment of a new High Authority, whose decisions will be binding on France, Germany and the countries that join them, this proposal will lay the first concrete foundations of a European federation, which is indispensable to the maintenance of peace". Schuman, after having secretly conferred with Adenauer, accepted the proposal and rendered it public on May 9, 1950, not informing anyone the original text came from Monnet. Dean Acheson was among the handful that knew about the top secret plan before it went public. One year later, with the Treaty of Paris, six countries (France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg) founded the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). The model of "Europe's government" was almost exactly the same as Monnet's friend, Arthur Santer, had proposed twenty years earlier. President of the European Coal and Steel High Authority 1952-1955. Received the Charlemagne award in 1953. First met Henri Rieben in 1955. Rieben collaborated with the Steel Division of the UN's European Economic Commission on the preparation of a report, published in 1949, which, in terms of metallurgy, was a kind of precursor of the Monnet/Schuman Plan. Rieben defended his thesis 'From agreements of metalwork masters to the Schuman Plan' in 1952, under the guidance of Professor Firmin Oulès and Philippe de Selliers de Moranville, head of the Steel Division and member of an elite Belgian family. Monnet wrote a paper, calling for the establishment of the European Defence Community, a supranational European Army. He gave this paper to the French premier Rene Pleven, who introduced it as his own idea. It ultimately was rejected by a Gaullist French parliament which was more in favor of the intergovernmental NATO. In 1955, Monnet was disturbed by the failure of his European Defence Community (EDC), which was rejected by France. He decided to change his work strategy radically and founded the Action Committee for the United States of Europe, together with Henri Rieben. The Ford Foundation website wrote: "In the past the Foundation has assisted European agencies concerned with Atlantic-community problems—for example, the Center of Documentation of the Action Committee for the United States of Europe, headed by Jean Monnet—and similar groups in the United States." January 27, 1960, The Oneonta Star, 'In Europe political unity plans growing': "The Action Committee for the United States of Europe has recommended that the three executive organizations which head the Economic Community, the Coal and Steel Community, and Euratom be replaced by a single president and controlling board... Now Washington is worried... [The EEC] might close European markets to American goods. The United States is therefore seeking a merger of its own economic interests with those of Britain and the Continent, and with Canada, in a new overall organization to which other nations, especially. Japan, could be admitted." July 3, 1962, San Mateo Times, 'Today and Tomorrow by Walter Lippmann': "The committee has now spoken out unequivocally in favor of British membership in the European Economic Community and in a European political union. It has declared itself against the separatism of General de Gaulle which would lead to "profitless adventures and preserve that spirit of superiority and domination which not so long ago led Europe to the brink of destruction and could now engulf the world." At the same time the action committee declares for a partnership between the new Europe and North America, for a "relationship of two separate but equally powerful entities, each bearing its share of common responsibility in the world."... For if Great Britain and the Scandinavian countries and the European neutrals and the Commonwealth are all outside the Common Market, and in rivalry with it, it will be presumptuous of the Six to call themselves "Europe." and there will be little prospect of a partnership between Europe and the United States." March 26, 1967, The Fresno Bee: "Members of the Action Committee for the United States of Europe, which is headed by Jean Monnet of France, the "eminence grise" of the movement for unification of Western Europe. They [members] include Willy Brandt, West German vice chancellor and foreign minister; Pietro Nenni, Italian vice premier; Herbert Wehner, West German minister for all-German affairs—Socialists — and Rainer Barzel, leader of the Christian Democratic party in the West German Bundestag; Mariano Rumor, secretary general of the Italian Christian Democratic party; and Guy Mollet, head of the French Socialist party."" June 25, 1969, San Mateo Times, 'French Foreign Minister Opposed De Gaulle': "One of the more interesting cabinet appointments made by new French President Georges Pompidou is his selection of Maurice Schumann [Roman catholic who worked closely with Robert Schumann, De Gaulle and the UN in the aftermath of WWII] to be his foreign minister... In 1962 he [Maurice Schumann] became minister for development under Pompidou who then was premier. After a month, he quit in protest against De Gaulle's nationalistic policies... Also contributing to the "European" flavor of the new cabinet was the appointment of Valery Giscard d'Estaing to the post of finance minister. Giscard d'Estaing, a finance minister under De Gaulle for four years and a possible presidential candidate seven years from now, recently joined the action committee for the United States of Europe. This is an international group led by Jean Monet which favors both British membership in the Common Market and the political integration of Europe." August 16, 1969, The Gleaner, 'Britain's new bid to enter the ECM': "The Action Committee for the United States of Europe met for the first time in London on March 11, and expressed the belief that nothing is more important than to strengthen and continue the European integration which the Six have already begun by ensuring that Great Britain joins in. Both the main contenders for the office of President of France [Cercle members Alain Poher and Georges Pompidou] are vying with each other in their declarations that they want Britain in the Common Market, provided she will accept the terms of the Treaty of Rome. The West German Foreign Minister has expressed the belief and hope that negotiations for Britain's entry might begin before the end of the year; his colleague in the Finance Ministry, Herr Strauss [Cercle member], has urged immediate negotiations between Britain and the Six." Monnet chaired his Action Committee from 1955 to 1975, after which it lost its influence. July 25, 1969, Time Magazine: "They were all there, those aging statesmen who years ago committed their dreams to the ideal of European unity. Jean Monnet, 80, "the father of the Common Market," last week convened a session of his nonofficial Action Committee for a United States of Europe in Brussels. Former Common Market President Walter Hallstein was there, along with veteran French Politicians Antoine Pinay and Maurice Faure and dozens of other ranking European statesmen. Together, they constitute a sort of European shadow government." Vice president of the Action Committee for the United States of Europe was Max Kohnstamm, who failed trying to revive the committee after Monnet's death. Kohnstamm had become the initial 1973 European chairman of the Trilateral Commission, which was founded by David Rockefeller. Kohnstamm visited the Trilateral Commission until the 1990s and Jean Monnet Association is still represented today. Kohnstamm also became a president of the European Policy Centre, which is allied with the King Baudouin Foundation. First met the extremely influential Pilgrims Society member C. Douglas Dillon (of Dillon, Read & Co.; Rockefeller associate; married into European nobility; vice chair CFR) in 1956 when the latter was US ambassador to France. Monnet, although not invited to attend the signing of the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community, did play an important role in the negotiations. Ernst H. van der Beugel (honorary secretary general of Bilderberger; vice chair of the Netherlands Institute for Foreign Affairs; Harvard lecturer) in his 1966 book 'From Marshall Aid to Atlantic Partnership' (foreword by Henry A. Kissinger): "Monnet and his Action Committee were unofficially supervising the [Treaty of Rome] negotiations and as soon as obstacles appeared, the United States diplomatic machinery was alerted, mostly through Ambassador Bruce [Pilgrims Society; descendant of Robert de Bruce of Scotland]... who had immediate access to the top echelon of the State Department... At that time, it was usual that if Monnet thought that a particular country made difficulties in the negotiations, the American diplomatic representative in that country approached the Foreign Ministry in order to communicate the opinion of the American Government which, in practically all cases, coincided with Monnet's point of view." Monnet's high-level friends, who assisted him in these strong-arm tactics, included President Eisenhower, Dulles, McCloy, Bruce, George Ball, and C. Douglas Dillon. When John Foster Dulles died in 1959 Jean Monnet came to the US to attend his funeral. Visited C. Douglas Dillon at this time and lunched with president Eisenhower. With behind-the-scenes lobbying and help from influential people like Douglas Dillon and John Tuthill (became head of the Atlantic Institute in the 1960s), Monnet managed to replace the OEEC in 1961, dominated by the British and their intergovernmental politics, with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). He also initiated a proposal, via Douglas Dillon, to include Canada and the United States in the OEEC/OECD as to further dilute the influence of Britain. Founding board member of the Per Jacobsson Foundation, which was established in 1963 to carry forward the work of Per Jacobsson (League of Nations; BIS; IMF) in international cooperation in the monetary and economic field. Some other directors of the Per Jacobsson Foundation in the 1960s to early 1970s were Viscount Harcourt (Pilgrims; IMF; World Bank; chair Morgan Grenfell & Co.), Gabriel Hauge (Pilgrims; chair Manufacturers Hanover Trust; treasurer CFR; Bilderberg steering committee) Herman J. Abs (chair Deutsche Bank), MarinusW. Holtrop (chair BIS and the Nedelandse Bank); (Lord Salter (Privy Council; League of Nations), Lord Cobbeld (Privy Council; Bank of England), David Rockefeller (Pilgrims), Lord Arthur Salter (Monnet's longtime friend and associate in establishing the United States of Europe; supposed Roundtable member; associated with Oxford and All Souls; Privy Council; League of Nations), Allen Sproul (Pilgrims; NY Fed), Maurice Frère (BIS; Sofina; Banque Nationale de Belgique; family today owns Frère-Bourgeois Group), Albert E. Janssen (Chair Société Belge de Banque), Samuel Schweizer (chair Swiss Bank Corporation), and others. Eugene R. Black (Pilgrims; Chase; World Bank; Fed; Brookings; Bilderberg) and Marcus Wallenberg were among the chairmen of the foundation. Banks in Austria, France, Italy, Norway, Finland, Ireland, Canada, United Arab Republic, Pakistan, India, the Philippines, New Zealand, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Chile, and Japan were also represented on the board of the Per Jacobsson Foundation. In 1961, the 17th Lord Perth, who went with Monnet to China in the early 1930s, arranged a meeting between Jean Monnet and Edward Heath (As Lord Privy Seal 1960-1963 responsible for the initial talks to bring Britain into the European Common Market; head Conservative party 1965-1975; Conservative prime minister UK 1970-1974; very committed to the EU; a close Sun Myung Moon associate) in his own apartment. This aristocratic and catholic Lord Perth was chairman of the Ditchley Foundation at some point, and in good family tradition, at times a liaison to the Vatican for the British queen. Edward Heath signed the United Kingdom into the European Union in January 1972, which became effective a year later. Jean Monnet and Paul-Henri Spaak were at his side during this signing. In earlier times, Monnet and his associates kept Britain out of the European Common Market, although Heath had been an early advocate of Britain joining the EU. December 13, 1972, New York Times: "Mr. Kissinger talked the other day to President Pompidou privately about the monetary, trade and political questions between the U.S. and the European Common Market, and the related question of money and commerce between these two and Japan. He also had a talk in Paris with Jean Monnet, the architect and philosopher of European unity, and Monnet will be going to Washington late in January to carry on these conversations." Died in 1979. April 24, 1981, the New York Times published an interview with Lazard banker Felix Rohatyn: "A hero, Mr. Rohatyn said, is Jean Monnet, who guided the creation of the European Common Market. ''Monnet never had a voice in the French Government,'' he said. ''But he accomplished a great deal. I don't flatter myself into thinking I'm Jean Monnet. But I believe that ideas in themselves have great power, if you have a platform that has legitimacy." Otto von Habsburg has stated that his ally and predecessor at the Pan-Europa Union, Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, was a prophet and visionary, while Monnet was a technocrat. Because of this, Habsburg said, Monnet and Coudenhove-Kalergi didn't get along very well.

Moss, Robert
Sources: November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting from the Langemann papers); 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', pages 186, 191-193, and 241.
Moss was a protege of British disinfo specialist Brian Crozier since 1969. Moss was a journalist who gained fame suggesting that Soviet agents secretly controlled a network of left and liberal groups in the US. He has been accused of spreading disinformation at times. In 1970-1971 he was involved in setting up of the Cercle associated Institute for the Study of Conflict. By 1974 Moss had written a couple of ISC 'conflict studies' - 2 on Chile, 2 on Uruguay and 1 on Northern Ireland. In 1973, he was working with CIA front Institute for General Studies (IGS) in Chile and makes the first public call for a military government in Chile in CIA-funded magazine SEPA (March 1973). In 1975, he is a founding member of the Washington Institute for Study of Conflict - ISC's US branch. Founder member and then director of National Association for Freedom (NAFF) in 1975, together with Brian Crozier and Viscount De L'Isle. Stephen Hastings and Chapman Pincher were at NAFF, just as MP Sir Frederic Bennett. During this time, he worked as a journalist for The Economist. Wrote the supposedly CIA sponsored paper, 'Chile's Marxist Experiment' in 1975. Council member of the Foreign Affairs Research Institute (FARI), together with Julian Amery (later Cercle head), Lord Chalfont (Jonathan Institute; anti-communist associate of the Cercle and Crozier), Brian Crozier (head Le Cercle; Moss' mentor), founder Geoffrey Stewart-Smith (Conservatice MP; adventures were allegedly sponsored by MI5; leading member of the Conservative Monday Club; chairman of its foreign affairs study group of the Monday Club in 1966; editor of East West Digest, an anti-communist magazine sent free to all MPs at the time), Sir Frederic Mackarness Bennett (owned a Rolls-Royce and four homes, one of them in the Cayman Islands; director Kleinwort Benson Europe (his mother was a Kleinwort); long time Lloyds underwriter; influential member of Parliament from the 1950s to the 1980s; member Monday Club; always warning people about the KGB threat and supported every regime that opposed the USSR; chair FARI in 1978; vice-president of the European-Atlantic Group; leading official in the private group Council of Europe in the late 1970s and 1980s; honorary director of the BCCI in Hong Kong until 1986; Member of the Privy Council since 1985; ridiculed his party's (Conservatives) for their Euroscepticism after his retirement in 1987; supported Pinochet; Freeman of the City of London; has been to Bilderberg), and air vice marshal Stuart Menual. For more information on FARI see the biography of Lobster. Speechwriter for Margaret Thatcher in 1976 and was a close associate, possibly a member, of Crozier's Shield committee. Visited Argentina, addressed the Air Force on the value of the Argentine military government as a model for the rest of the continent. In 1976, he visited Angola with Evan Davies (MI6, Churchill's bodyguard, Saudi National Security Advisor). He sat on the editorial board of US 'new right' journal Policy Studies and wrote the cover story for first issue. In 1979, he was a participant at the Jonathan Institute's first conference on international terrorism from whence a good deal of the 'Soviets behind world terror' line has emerged. Moss has also been involved with the Royal Institute for International Affairs and the Heritage Foundation. In 1980 he wrote the book 'The Spike', together with the ultra-conservative Arnaud de Borchgrave, who is a good friend of Sun Myung Moon. The Spike dealt with KGB infiltration in the West.

Munoz, Federico Silva
Sources: October 1989 – Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe'
Born in 1923. State lawyer in his early career. Member of the Asociación Católica Nacional de Propagandistas (ACNP) and known to have been very involved in Catholic activities. At the ACNP he first met Gonzalo Fernandez de la Mora, like Munoz, a fascist. They became great friends and close political associates for the rest of their lives. Has been a banker. Ministor of Public Works under Franco (Knight of Malta; always very afraid of a possible Masonic conspiracy) June 1965 - April 1970. During this time he was an opponent of a bill sponsored by an aging Franco, which was supported by the Vatican, that would give civil rights to Spain's non-Catholic people. February 24, 1967, Time Magazine, 'Struggle for Freedom': "The most talked-about subject in Spain last week was something that did not happen: the failure of the Cabinet to pass a bill that would at last grant a measure of religious freedom to Spain's tiny non-Catholic minority... For years, Spain's non-Catholics have almost been non-people, barred from participating in the mainstream of Spanish life. They were, in fact, not even officially recognized as having been born, married or buried—since Spain acknowledged those milestones only when they were sanctioned by the Catholic clergy... Opposition quickly closed ranks. Interior Minister Camilo Alonso Vega, 77, who as Spain's top cop maintains that the Spanish are "the most unruly people in Europe", argued that religious freedom would only stir up trouble, just as the earlier measures granting workers and students more freedom resulted in the present rash of strikes and student riots. On a more philosophical level, Public Works Minister Federico Silva Munoz, 43, contended that granting religious liberty to minority sects would shatter Spain's spiritual unity. The ministers connected with the military supported the views of Vega and Munoz..." Most Opus Dei connected members in Franco's regime supported the bill. The army was normally associated with the Falange, the Fascist party of Franco. Munoz was among the few that survived the reorganization of Franco's cabinet in October 1969, which became dominated by Opus Dei members. At the time Franco was under pressure by Opusian European-oriented businessmen and technocrats. Franco also designated Prince Juan Carlos, a Knight of Malta, as his successor during this reorganization. October 30, 1969, The Times, 'Riot as Franco Alters Cabinet': "The Spanish Government officially announced the names of General Franco's new Cabinet tonight, and confirmed earlier speculation that members of the powerful Roman Catholic lay organization Opus Dei will dominate Spain's future... Only four of the 18 Cabinet posts are unaffected... The rise of Opus Dei, represented by young technocrats, is believed to signal the final languishing of the Fascist-rooted Falange as a significant element in the Spanish power structure... There is no doubt in Madrid that most of the new non-military ministers are members of Opus Dei, which only counts 20,000 members in all Spain. A spokesman for the organization told me today: "The victory is not for Opus Dei but for people who happen to be members. Our movement has no political policy." Nevertheless, the evidence would seem to be against this often repeated claim." Munoz resigned as Minister of Public Works in April 1970 for reasons that weren't entirely known. April 11, 1970, The Times, 'Resignation of Spanish Minister': "One of General Franco's "technocrat" ministers resigned today, possibly as the result of a deep ideological split in the government, reliable sources said. Senor Federico Silva Munoz, aged 46, Minister of Public Works since June, 1965, was said to have given his resignation to the General this morning... The present Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Senor Gonzalo Fernandez de la Mora, was said to have been chosen as the new Minister of Public Works. Like most of the present Cabinet, and unlike his predecessor, he is known to be a sympathizer with, if not a member of, the powerful Roman Catholic lay organization Opus Dei... [Munoz] is also thought, as a technocrat without any strong political orientation, to have been opposed to the reactionary political attitude of of Vice-President Carrerro Blanco [Franco's eminence grise; close allies with the CIA since the Dulles brothers; described as the main patron of Opus Dei in Spain; became Franco's prime minister in June 1973; hated by most of the population; assassinated in December 1973, apparently by the ETA] and some other ministries." In December 1973, after the assassination of Franco's eminence grise, Admiral Blanco, who had become de facto ruler of Spain with the approval of Franco, Opus Dei influence was pushed back, at least temporarily. In 1974, as a member of the Cortes Generales (the Spanish Parliament), Munoz was among the first to propose a slight amendment to the principles of Franco's rule to decrease tensions between the Franco regime and the Catholic church. At the time this was still seen domestically as heresy, and internationally as evidence of another internal power struggle. Franco died in 1975 and King Juan Carlos, a Knight of Malta and supporter of Opus Dei, became the new Head of State and was in charge of Spain's process towards democracy. He initially kept the Francoist hardliner Carlos Arias Navarro, who had succeeded Admiral Blanco, as president/prime minister. Navarro promised a change to democracy, but he was fired in 1976 by Carlos, because of a lack of faith by the opposition that he was really interested in carrying out these promises. Munoz subsequently appeared on a short list of Carlos' highest advisory body to be made prime minister of Spain. Carlos, however, opted this time for the more centrist, but still conservative, Adolfo Suarez Gonzalez, whom he thought would be best suited to unite the different factions within the government. July 4, 1976, The Modesto Bee, 'King Juan Carlos names new premier of Spain': "A third name submitted to the monarch by the Council of the Realm, his top advisory body, was that of Federico Silva Munoz, 52, a Christian Democrat and former public works minister." July 6, 1976, San Mateo Times, 'Boycott Stalls Spanish Cabinet': "Opposition members predicted technocrats of the Catholic lay organization Opus Dei who ran Spain in the 1960s were on the way back in. But political sources said Suarez was trying to balance his cabinet by naming one or two leftists... [on the other hand, I guess] The one name that seemed to come up most often [for consideration of a post in the cabinet] was that of Federico Silva Munoz, a public works minister under Franco." Munoz does not seem to have made it to the cabinet of Suarez. Suarez, said to be an Opus Dei member, created the Unión de Centro Democrático (UCD), which was joined by the Christian Democratic Party and other right-wing groups. It also worked with the Socialists (PSOE) and Communists (PCE). Munoz headed the newly created right-wing Christian Democratic group Unión Democrática Española (UDE) in 1976 and co-founded the Alianza Popular (AP), a continuation of Franco's fascist Falange Party, in October 1976 to challenge the Suarez government and the UCD. It was a federation of several parties, which were all fascist or borderline fascist. AP opted for a "more gradual" change to democracy. A few other important co-founders of the AP were Munoz's sidekick Gonzalo Fernandez de la Mora (member Privy Council of Count Juan de Bourbon, father of King Juan Carlos, since 1959), Laureano Lopez Rodo (influential minister in the 1960s and early 1970s, who is said to have engineered the Opus Dei takeover of the Spanish government; preferred selecting ministers with proto-"Thatcherite" neoliberal economic views), and Manuel Fraga Iribarne. According to Fernandez, Munoz was the first president of AP although Fraga is usually seen as the most important founder and leader of the party (who also became president at some point). As expected, the AP was quite unpopular. A new Spanish constitution was approved in July 1978, replacing Franco's "Fundamental Laws" and turning Spain into a Parliamentary Monarchy. Hours before the constitution was passed, two senior military officers were assassinated, supposedly by the Grapo, an extreme leftists group. Many were sceptical of that claim. On November 1, 1978 the final version of the constitution was approved with an overwhelming majority. Founding members like Silva Munoz and his sidekick Gonzalo Fernandez de la Mora, seemingly the most hardline of this already fascist group, left the AP federation soon after, while Fraga decided to accept the constitution. Munoz and Fernandez continued with their UCD party which became Derecha Democrática Española (DDE) in January 1979. That same month the DDE began negotiations with Fuerza Nueva (New Force) of ultrafascists Blas Pinar and José Antonio Girón, and Raimundo Fernández Cuesta. January 10, 1979, El Pais, 'Silva Muñoz unites with the ultraright to be presented at the elections' (translated from Spanish):"Federico Silva, Gonzalo Fernández de la Mora, Raimundo Fernández Cuesta, Blas Piñar, José Antonio Girón and other political leaders have formed a coaliton named Union of the Right [that] involves all political forces to the right of the coalition Fraga-Areilza-Osorio, in other words, the Derecha Democrática Española and the gathering of national forces [a reference to Pinar's New Force, which had the aim of "gathering the national forces"]." This is a rough translation (as my Spanish is very rusty) from "Federico Silva, Gonzalo Fernández de la Mora, Raimundo Fernández Cuesta, Blas Piñar, José Antonio Girón y otros dirigentes políticos han formado una coalición unitaria que se llamará Unión de Derechas y que agrupa a todas las fuerzas políticas situadas a la derecha de la coalición Fraga-Areilza-Osorio, es decir, la Derecha Democrática Española y las llamadas fuerzas nacionales." This alliance would fall apart almost immediately over a power struggle of who was going to get the top posts. Both groups were completely against the constitution. December 1, 1979, El Pais, 'The Constitution is a permanent factor of distortion, according to Federico Silva' (translated from Spanish): "The Constitution that was passed and that we accepted, even though we don't agree with most aspects of it, will continue be a permanent factor of distortion on the national life and of the life of the right in particular, says Federico Silva Munoz, promoter of Derecha Democrática Española, in a declaration to the European Press Agency. Their [political] group will celebrate their first national congress on the 8th and 9th of this month."
Earlier, in mid November 1978, just after the final approval of the constitution, Manuel Fraga had formed a coalition with José María de Areilza and Alfonso Osorio Garcia while Munoz and Fernandez began teaming up with all their (even more) fascist friends. The coalition between Fraga, Areilza and Osorio, although more oriented towards cooperation with the outside world, was anything but left-wing. Fraga was a prominent Franco minister since the 1940s and is a great supporter of the old regime until this day, even cautioning left-wing prime minister Zapatero not to bow to pressure to reinvestigate still living members of the regime. It has been said that Fraga played a central role in the 1976 Montejurra assassinations, carried out by Gladio agents as Stefano Delle Chiaie. Fraga was a mentor to, and responsible for José María Aznar's appointment as head of the Popular Party in 1989. Aznar was prime minister of Spain from 1996 to 2004. Count Areilza was Franco's ambassador to Argentina from 1947 to 1950. During this time he stood in contact with a close friend, the Belgian fascist Pierre Daye, who helped Peron with the transfer of Nazis from Europe to Argentina. After that, Areilza became an ambassador to Washington (and France), where he lobbied for economic support for his country. Like Fernandez de la Mora, Areilza used to be a member of the Privy Council of Don Juan de Bourbon, the father of King Juan Carlos. Both Fraga and Areilza were contributors to the May 1986 Madrid meeting of the Trilateral Commission and Areilza was president of the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe from 1981 to 1983. In early 1977, Areilza set up an earlier Popular Party (not to be confused with the later one that evolved from the Allianza Popular) and made Pio Cabanillas Gallas, who has been named as (later) head of the P3 Lodge in Madrid (alleged sister of the exposed P2), its chairman. Osorio had been president of RENFE, the national railroad corporation of Spain before he was appointed by King Juan Carlos to important Cabinet posts. He has also was vice president of British Petroleum (BP) in Spain and a member of the Knights of Malta.
In October 1989, David Teacher in Lobster Magazine named Munoz a "present" member of Le Cercle and a senior member of Opus Dei. Opus Dei was usually associated with the less fascist factions who were interested in bringing about a more democratic Spain. However, Opus Dei members are known to have been involved with Blas Pinar's ultrafascist party, not to mention the Belgian ultrafascists. Furthermore, the efforts of Fernandez de la Mora and Munoz were sponsored by Opus Dei and the Cercle. Munoz became an important columnist of Razón Española (Spanish Reason), which was founded on October 1, 1983 as an outgrowth of the Fundación Balmes (Balmes Foundation), in turn founded a few months earlier by a grant of the German Hanns Seidel Stiftung (Foundation). The Hanns Seidel Foundation was the political trust attached to Strauss' Christian Social Union (CSU) party, and was/is considered an important Opus Dei front for international political manipulation. At the time this foundation and magazine were founded, the social-democrat Felipe González Márquez had become prime minister. Márquez quite liberal, privatizing vast portions of the Spanish economy, but the old Cercle clique seem to have been of the opinion that he was not right wing enough. Also, the Roman Catholic radicals often criticize too liberal economies, probably to minimize the influence of the Anglo-Americans. Razón Española is a fascist magazine and EIR has spent a little bit of time on it. No. 115, September-October 2002, Razón Española, 'La imagen de España en el Perú' reads: "Seis meses más tarde, el 3 de septiembre de ese año, Inglaterra, tomando como excusa que Alemania había recuperado el llamado corredor de Dantzig, inicia la Segunda Conflagración Mundial, entre 1939 y 1945." Translated that is: "Six months later, on September 3 of that year, England began the 1939-1945 Second World War, using as an excuse Germany's recovery of the so-called Danzig Corridor." (thanks to Luis Vásquez Medina, writing for EIR). Razón Española has at least one sister newspaper in Peru, which is surrounded by some of the worst fascists in that country. La Razón in Peru is one of the few media outlets over there that supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Munoz died in 1997 and an obituary was written in Razón Española, #85, by his lifetime associate Gonzalo Fernández de la Mora, who had founded the magazine and subsequently became its president. Munoz and Fernandez are known to have been friends with the Bavarian Franz Josef Strauss. When the BBC on May 12, 1980 broadcasted a documentary on Strauss, and highlighted his friendship with Munoz and Fernandez, Brian Crozier felt he should speak out in favor Strauss. On May 30, 1980 The Times posted his comments: "Tom Bower made much of the fact that Strauss' foreign friends include two ex-ministers of General Franco, Silva Munoz and Fernandez de la Mora... neither Silva Munoz nor Fernandez de la Mora is an extremist: the former was a conspicuously successful "technocratic" minister of public works and the latter is a brilliant political analyst."

Additional info: Jose Maria Aznar, prime minister of Spain from 1996 to 2004, was the protege of Manuel Fraga.

Narjes, Karl-Heinz
Sources: November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting from the Langemann papers)
Born in 1924. LLD from the University of Hamburg in 1952. Joined the German Foreign Service in 1955. Deputy chef de cabinet of the president Commission of the European Communities 1958. Chief of Staff for the EEC Commission's president, Prof. Hallstein, in 1963. Head of the EEC Commission's public relations division 1967-1969. Minister of Economy and Transport in Schlewig-Holstein from 1969 to 1972. In 1972 he was elected to the German Bundestag. Dr. Karl-Heinz Narjes was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz first class in 1977. In 1979 he attended a Pinay Circle meeting. In 1981 he was nominated European Community Commissioner, responsible for common market issues, tariff union, industrial innovation, environment, consumer issues and nuclear security. From 1984 until 1988 he was responsible for industrial policy, technology and research. During the same time, 1984-1988, Narjes was also a vice-president of the European Commission. Narjes has attended the Trilateral Commission and has been working on the internal market liberalization of the European Union.

Nixon, Richard
Sources: October 1989 – Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe'; June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour' (went to Le Cercle after leaving the White House); April 6, 2003, The Observer, 'So, Norman, any regrets this time?'; September 5, 2004, Sunday Times, 'Le Cercle of the elite'
In 1934 he graduated second in his class [Whittier College], and went to Duke University law school, where he received a full scholarship. During World War II, Nixon served in the United States Navy. He could have been exempt from military service because of his Quaker religion, but volunteered anyway. He later said he hated Hitler and was horrified by the attack on Pearl Harbor. Nixon served as a Cargo Officer in the South Pacific theater. He rose to the rank of Lieutenant Commander and his superiors praised him as an excellent officer and leader. Nixon was elected to the United States House of Representatives from California in 1946. In the House, Nixon served on a committee that helped to implement the Marshall Plan which aided war-torn Europe. He also helped in the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act which set up controls over labor unions. He proposed a bill to facilitate servicemen's voting that was passed by both houses and signed into law. Nixon climbed the political ladder swiftly, making his name as an anti-Communist and a rough, no-holds-barred campaigner. In 1948, Nixon won both the Republican and Democratic nomination for re-election to the House. Nixon was elected to the United States Senate in 1950, defeating actress turned congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas, whom Nixon accused during the campaign of having communist sympathies. In 1952 he was elected Vice President on Dwight D. Eisenhower's ticket, although he was only 39 years old. In 1960, he ran for President on his own but lost to John F. Kennedy, ironically a friend of Nixon's (in contrast to Eisenhower). In the election of 1968, he completed a remarkable political comeback by defeating Hubert H. Humphrey to become the 37th President of the United States. He promised to end the Vietnam war, but that took many years. William Colby, 'Honourable Men', p. 395: "Certainly, in Track II in 1970 it [the CIA] sought a military coup [in Italy by Gladio], at the direct order of President Nixon." The coup was cancelled at the last moment. In 1972 Nixon was re-elected in one of the biggest landslide election victories in U.S. political history, defeating George McGovern and garnering over 60% of the popular vote. He carried 49 of the 50 states, trailing only in Massachusetts. Nixon was eventually investigated for the instigation and cover-up of the burglary of the Democratic Party offices at the Watergate office complex. He resigned over it in 1974.

Pandolfi, Filippo Maria
Sources: November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting from the Langemann papers)
Filippo Pandolfi born in 1927 in Bergamo, Italy, and holds a degree in literature and philosophy. He speaks Greek, Latin, French, and English in addition to his native Italian and managed a publishing house from 1952 until his election to Parliament. A Christian Democrat member of the Italian Parliament for more than twenty years, has held several important ministerial portfolios, including Finance (1976-1978), Treasury (1978-1980), Industry and Commerce (1980-1981 and 1982-1983), and Agriculture (1983-1988). In these ministerial posts he dealt with many central European Community issues, including the value-added tax, the European Monetary System, and the Common Agricultural Policy. He has played a central role in fostering the competitiveness of European industry, has expanded the EC investment in R&D in the member countries, and has established centers of excellence in many areas of technology. Pandolfi was a member of the Carnegie Group in 1991-1992.

Pesenti, Carlo II
Sources: 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', page 193; 2002, David Rockefeller, 'Memoirs', pg. 412-413, referring to the Pesenti Group
The three major family-owned companies in 1928 were Pirelli, a rubber and Tire producer owned by the Pirelli family, Italcementi, a producer of cement owned by the Pesenti family, and FIAT, a car company owned by the Agnelli family. The history of these three family groups is remarkably similar. Pirelli was founded in 1872 by Giambattista Pirelli, Italcementi was set up in 1865 by Carlo I Pesenti, and FIAT in 1899 by Giovanni I Agnelli. The first went public on the Milan stock exchange in 1922, the second in 1925, and the third in 1924. Each of them soon acquired control of their product market with shares between 60 and 80 percent of the domestic market and then expanded outside their industry. The Pirellis expanded in the electric sector and abroad; the Pesentis invested in banks and insurance companies; the Agnellis mostly invested in the mechanical and electrical components sectors, and in real estate.
Born in 1907. Graduated in Engineering at Milan Polytechnic. Appointed to the board of directors of Italcementi in 1940-1942. General manager and managing director of Italcementi 1942-1967. It has been alleged that Italcementi came under Vatican control after WWII. In 1946 he reorganized the Group into four branches: Italcementi retained the core business of cement manufacture; Sacelit headed the cement-based construction elements sector; CIDI was active in the hydrated lime industry whilst all the financial participations were concentrated in the hands of the newly incorporated Italmobiliare. General manager of Italmobiliare 1946-1955, which has been named as one of the primary companies in business with the Vatican Bank (IOR), next to Banco di Roma (vice-president was SMOM member Prince Massimo Spada in the late 1960s), and the Banco di Santo Spirito. Authors Giuseppe Turani (1980) and Giovanni Galli (1984) have argued that the many acquisitions of Italmobiliaire were financed with monopolistic profits enjoyed by the group in the cement industry and with unlimited credit obtained through strong political connections with the ruling (catholic) Christian Democratic party and the Vatican. By 1953, Italmobiliare had gained control of an important stake in a traded company producing machinery, Franco Tosi, after subscription to its major capital increase, it had acquired a 38 percent controlling stake in a traded insurance company RAS (Riunione Adriatica di Sicurtà; a sister company to the Generali, owned by Allianz since 1984; president was SMOM member Prince Massimo Spada in the late 1960s; included among its directors members of the Giustiniani family (descendants of the malevolent emperor Justinian), the Doria family (chief Genoese financiers of the Spanish Hapsburgs), and the Duke of Alba (descendant of the brutal Spanish marcher-lord whom the Genoese bankers sent to the Netherlands four centuries ago to crush their independence)) and obtained indirect control of its traded subsidiary l’Assicuratrice Italiana (Prince Massimo Spada, senior layman at the Vatican Bank and SMOM member since 1944, was vice president and managing director of the L'Assicuratrice Italiana in the late 1960s). In this early period, the group also owned several non-traded banks, including Banca Provinciale Lombarda and Credito Commerciale. It also gained control over IBI in 1967. In 1952 Carlo was on the Board of Directors of 28 companies. Managing director Italmobiliaire 1955-1967. In 1960 he was on the Board of Directors of 38 companies. Honored by Italy's president as a Knight of the Order of Labor Merit in 1962. Chairman Italcementi and Italmobiliaire since 1967. David Rockefeller has written that Carlo Pesenti took him apart at an investment forum in October 1967 and invited him to join meetings of Le Cercle. Rockefeller referred to Le Cercle as the "Pesenti Group." Chaired some of the meetings of Le Cercle, according to Brian Crozier, likely somewhere in the 1960s and 1970s. Also set the agenda for Le Cercle meetings over an unknown period. In his 2002 book 'Memoirs', almost certainly talking about Le Cercle, David Rockefeller wrote: "Bilderberg overlapped for a time with my membership in a relatively obscure but potentially even more controversial body known as the Pesenti Group. I had first learned about it in October 1967 when Carlo Pesenti, the owner of a number of important Italian corporations, took me aside at a Chase investment forum in Paris and invited me to join his group, which discussed contemporary trends in European and world politics. It was a select group, he told me, mostly European... I accepted his invitation... Pesenti set the agenda for our thrice-yearly meetings, and Maître Violet, who had close connections with the Deuxième Bureau of the Services des Renseignements (the French CIA), provided lengthy background briefings. Using an overhead projector, Violet display transparency after transparency filled with data documenting Soviet infiltration of governments around the world and supporting his belief that the threat of global Communist victory was quite real. While all of us knew the Soviets were behind the "wars of national liberation" in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, I was not personally convinced the Red Menace was quite as menacing as Maître Violet portrayed it to be, but my view was a minority one in that group. Even though I found some of the discussions fascinating, the ultraconservative politics of some participants were more than a bit unnerving." In 1967, at the apex of its expansion, the Pesenti group was involved in cement industry, construction and real estate, mechanical and automotive sector, banking and insurance. At that time the Pesenti family was second in wealth only to the owners of Fiat group, the Agnelli family (rivals of the Pesenti family). In the early 1970s the Pesenti's vast business empire started to crumble and they had to sell some of their companies. In 1972 Carlo Pesenti was on the Board of Directors of 33 companies. Has been a director of companies like Falck, Bastogi, IBI, Banca Provinciale Lombarda, RAS, Efibanca, and Franco Tosi. Italcementi is currently the fifth largest global cement producer. Italmobiliare was also heavily involved in the infamous bankruptcy of Banco Ambrosiano, being its largest minority shareholder at the time of its collapse in 1982. Carlo II Pesenti died in 1984 during court proceedings against him and other executives of Italmobiliare for fraud related to Banco Ambrosiano.
His son Giampiero Pesenti took over the business empire. The Pesenti group went into financial distress in the 1980s and had to refocus on the cement sector by selling all control stakes in banks and insurance companies. Giampiero Pesenti is chairman of Italcementi, vice chairman of Fondazione Italcementi, head of Italmobiliare, and chairman of the RCS Mediagroup. Giampiero is a director of Pirelli, together with the Pirelli and Benetton families; and RAS, together with a De Benedetti family member.

Pinay, Antoine
Sources: Lobster articles; 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', pages 186, 191-193, and 241; 1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come – Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei', p. 153-158; 2002, David Rockefeller, 'Memoirs', pg. 412-413, referring to the Pesenti Group; April 6, 2003, The Observer, 'So, Norman, any regrets this time?'; June 18, 2004, Chancellery of HRH Crown Prince Alexander II of Yugoslavia, 'Reception in honor of the "Le Cercle" conference; September 5, 2004, Sunday Times, 'Le Cercle of the elite'
Mayor of Saint-Chamond from 1929 to 1977. Served in the French National Assembly for nearly fifteen years before being named Premier. October 1989, Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'Pinay 2: Jean Violet': "In 1951 he [Jean Violet] was approached by Antoine Pinay, who was a cabinet minister at that point. On behalf of some Swiss lawyer Pinay sought to clear up the matter of a Geneva-based firm that had seen its factory in Germany seized by the Nazis during the war. Violet resolved the problem and Pinay was so satisfied he recommend him to the new French intelligence organization, SDECE. Violet duly became an SDECE operative, utilizing a global network of contacts to assist that agency in its work.(2) ..." Pinay was Prime Minister of France from March to December 1952. During his time as prime minister he tried, with Jean Monnet and others, to establish a European NATO Army, under the European Community of Defense (CED). It failed. Attended the first Bilderberg meeting in 1954, which he helped to establish. 1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come', p. 153-158: "Rumours of Nazi collaboration led to Violet's arrest following the war, but he was quickly released 'on orders from above'. [2] Shortly afterwards, he offered his services to SDECE, the French counter-espionage establishment referred to in the trade as La Piscine (the Swimming Pool). He joined Antoine Pinay's entourage in 1955. By this time Violet had become close to several Opusian personalities, among them Alfredo Sanchez Bella and Otto von Habsburg..." Co-founder of Le Cercle, which initially was called Cercle Pinay, together with Jean Violet and Archduke Otto von Habsburg in the 1950s. Pinay was France's Minister of Foreign Affairs 1955-1956; Jean Violet was part of his staff. Helped bring about Gen. Charles de Gaulle's return to power in 1958. Finance Minister in the cabinet of General Charles De Gaulle 1958-1960. Initially Pinay supported De Gaulle's right-wing leanings, but when De Gaulle granted Algeria its independence, Pinay strongly disagreed. Resigned in January 1960. De Gaulle would later survive several assassination attempts. Pinay remained widely popular in French political circles after leaving government, but rebuffed overtures to run for president in 1965 and 1969. Pinay defended the Apartheid in Africa and was either a member of Opus Dei or strongly influenced by this Catholic cult. August 1984, Issue 5, Lobster Magazine, 'Brief Notes On The Political Importance Of Secret Societies': "In France, Opus Dei has had a particularly notable influence going back as far as 1938. It became strong in the army and among ex-Vichyites and right-wing Catholic integristes. It was said to have influenced Robert Schumann, Antoine Pinay and Paul Baudoin..." 1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come', p. 155: "Various sources claim that Pinay was an Opus Dei supernumary, most recently Nicolas Dehan in 'Un étrange phénomène pastoral: l'Opus Dei', Le Sel de la Terre No. 11, Paris, Winter 1994-95, p. 139." 1994, R.T. Naylor (Professor of Economics at McGill University), Hot Money and the Politics of Debt, p. 267: "Pinay was installed by Bobby Leclerc in 1969 as president of the Compagnie de Guarantie des Investissements Industriels et Financiers in Geneva, which used Pinay's name to attract French funds. Leclerc also had good relations with... Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. Not least important of Leclerc's activities was his role, with Prince Jean de Broglie, cofounder of Giscard's Independent Republican party, in the administration of Sodatex, the Luxembourg-based holding company through which the principals of the notorious MATESA were looting Spanish government subsidy money in the 1960s... After the MATESA scandal broke,... came charges that Sodatex was the center of a huge arms- and drug-dealing operation across the French-Luxembourg border. All this assured that, when de Broglie was gunned down in a Paris street in 1976, the subsequent exposure of links to Sodatex set off a run on Bobby Leclerc's bank." Pinay died in 1994 at the age of 102.

Poher, Alain
Sources: November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting from the Langemann papers - "'The reporting from this [Le Cercle] complex which also included the French statesman Poher...)
Born in 1909. Educated at Lycées Louis-le-Grand et Saint-Louis (Paris), Paris Faculty of Law. Also received degrees in Political Science and Engineering. Deputy-head of section at the Central Administration of the Ministry of Finance. Won the Resistance Medal and the Croix de Guerre for his efforts in WWII. Chairman of the Ministry of Finance Liberation Committee in 1944. Head of Social Services at the Ministry of Finance since January 1945. Mayor of Ablon-sur-Seine in 1946. Chef de Cabinet to the Minister of Finance, Robert Schuman, June-November 1946. Rapporteur-general for the Finance Commission of the Council of the Republic 1946-1948. Secretary of State for Finance and Economic Affairs in the government of Robert Schuman for a few days in September 1948. Secretary of State for the Budget in the Govt. of Henri Queuille September-November 1948. Commissioner-general for German and Austrian Affairs 1950-1952, French delegate and president of the International Ruhr Authority. Elected Senator for Seine-et-Oise department as member of the Mouvement Républicain Populaire (MRP) Parliamentary group in 1952. Held many leadership positions in the Mouvement Républicain Populaire in the 1950s and 1960s. Member of the Joint Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community 1952-1958. President of Transport Commission and chairman of the Joint Assembly's Common Market Commission 1954-1957. President of the Higher Trade Council in 1953. President of the Franco-German Governmental Commission for the Canalisation of the Moselle River 1955-1956. Secretary of State for the Naval Forces in the government of Félix Gaillard 1957-1958. Chairman of the Christian Democrat Group in the European Parliament 1958-1966. President of the European Parliament 1966-1969. President, Euro-African Parliamentary Assembly (CEE-EAMA: African and Madagascan States Associated With the EEC) 1967-1969. President of the French Senate 1968-1992. Acting president in April-June 1969, when Charles de Gaulle resigned. Attempted to formally run for the office, but lost to Georges Pompidou and re-assumed his Senate position once Pompidou was sworn in on June 20, 1969. Received the Robert Schuman Prize in 1971. The 1982 book 'Holy Blood, Holy Grail' reads: "By the early 1970s the Prieure de Sion had become a modest cause celebre among certain people in France. There were a number of magazine articles and some newspaper coverage. On February 13th, 1973, the Midi Libre [French newspaper] published a lengthy feature on Sion, Sauniere and the mystery of Rennes-le Chateau. This feature specifically linked Sion with a possible survival of the Merovingian bloodline into the twentieth century. It also suggested that the Merovingian descendants included a ‘true pretender to the throne of France’, whom it identified as M. Alain Poher... As far as we know, M. Poher never commented, one way or the other, on his alleged connections with the Prieure de Sion and/or the Merovingian bloodline. In the genealogies of the “Prieure documents’, however, there is mention of Arnaud, Count of Poher, who, sometime between 894 and 896, intermarried with the Plantard family the direct, descendants supposedly of Dagobert II... We could even trace the Merovingian bloodlines up to the present day to Alain Poher, to Henri de Montpezat (consort of the queen of Denmark), to Pierre Plantard de Saint-Clair, to Otto von Habsburg, titular duke of Lorraine and king of Jerusalem." Other rumors about the Order of Zion have named Cercle members Otto von Habsburg and Giulio Andreotti. Served again as acting president when Georges Pompidou died in office in April 1974. Went back to his Senate position when Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was sworn in as president on May 27, 1974. President of the Association of Mayors of France 1974-1983. Honorary Founding President of the Association des Liberté in 1977. President of the Association For Research and Information on Development Aid (ARIAD) in 1980. Contributed to a Trilateral Commission meeting of April 1989 in Paris. Member of the Honorary Committee of the French Organization for the European Movement. Vice-President of the Association for the Study of European Issues. Member, Honorary Committee, European Centre for Economic and Trade Research (CEREC). Member, Commission for International Exchanges in the Communal Domain. Member, Commission for the Study of Transport in the Common Market. Member, Patronage Committee of the European Centre for Observation by Opinion Polls (CEROS). Member, Steering Committee of the Association Française pour le Conseil des Communes d'Europe (French Association for Advice to the Communes of Europe). Member, Patronage Committee of the "Général Pierre Koenig" Foundation. Member, Standing Committee of the Higher Council for Tourism. Member, Board of the Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe. Member, Board of the Robert Schuman Foundation. Founder member, "Economie et Progrès" Association. Member, Honorary Committee of the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism (LICRA). Received the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Sovereign Order of Malta.

Qaboos, Sultan
Sources: 1993, Alan Clark, 'Diaries', p. 369-374; April 6, 2003, The Observer, 'So, Norman, any regrets this time?'; September 5, 2004, Sunday Times, 'Le Cercle of the elite'
Oman has long established ties with the British Empire based on a 1798 Treaty of Friendship, and was a British protectorate since 1891. The current Sultan of Oman, Qaboos, hosted a 1990 Pinay Cercle meeting in Oman. Qaboos spent his youth in Salalah where he was educated. At the age of 16, his father sent him to a private educational establishment in the United Kingdom. In 1960, he entered the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst as an officer cadet. Here he was a classmate of Timothy Landon, a future SAS officer who would become one of Sultan Qaboos's closest advisors. Having passed out of Sandhurst he joined a British infantry battalion on operational duty in Germany and also held a staff appointment with the British Army. After his military service, Qaboos studied local government in England and went on a world tour before returning home. The next six years were spent in Salalah studying Islam and the history of Oman and its people. Despite the wealth that Oman accumulated through its vast petroleum reserves, Qaboos's father refused to use this money for the benefit of his subjects, and the country essentially remained a feudal monarchy, run at Said's whim. In 1965, the province of Dhofar revolted, this time with the support of China and some of the nationalist Arab states, followed by an assassination attempt in 1966, which had a marked effect on Said causing him to become even more erratic in governing the country. Reportedly, even wearing eyeglasses was discouraged, and the Sultan meted out punishments to people who appeared in his dreams. No one was safe from the sultan's paranoia, and even his own son, Qaboos was kept under virtual house arrest at the Sultan's palace in Salalah. "With the help of British advisors," (according to state.gov) Qaboos rose to power after overthrowing his father, Sa’id ibn Taimur, in 1970. The new Sultan abolished many of his father's harsh restrictions, established a modern government structure, and launched a major development program to upgrade educational and health facilities, build a modern infrastructure, and developed the country's natural resources, mainly oil. Oil was first discovered in Oman in the western desert in 1964. The Petroleum Development of Oman (PDO) began production in August 1967. Today, the Omani Government owns 60% of PDO, while Royal Dutch Shell owns 34%. The first immediate problem that Qaboos faced was an armed Communist insurgency from South Yemen, and with the help of British military officials, like Sir Erik Bennett, he quickly defeated the incursion with little external aid. Sir Erik Bennett became his Air Marshall in 1974 and the British still have a strong presence around the Sultan until this day. Oman joined the Arab League and the United Nations in 1971. Oman's GDP grew 339% in the Sixties reaching a peak growth of 1,370% in the Seventies. Qaboos had a narrow escape from death in the evening of Sept. 11, 1995, when his four-wheel drive vehicle was rammed from behind by a speeding car in Salalah, where he likes to spend the summer. He had stopped the car in the middle of the road and walked over to listen to the complaints of a shepherd. Then came the crash. Qaboos survived. But in the back of the car, his deputy premier for economics and finance Qais Al Zawawi was killed. Qais' elder brother Omar, sitting next to him, was seriously wounded. In the front seat next to the Sultan was Air Marshal Sir Erik Bennett, then 67, who was also seriously injured. September 2004, volume 8, no. 3, Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA): "According to one Omani source, the sultan used to drive around at night by himself or with a friend "incognito." According to this same source, the car crash Qaboos survived was not an accident but a deliberate assassination attempt, and that many arrests were made following it." Qaboos has a number of enemies, including some members of prominent families, mainly Sunnis. Qaboos is a member of the relatively tolerant version Islam, Ibadhism. Another quote from the MERIA article: "... many Omanis (Ibadhis, Sunnis, and Shi'as) believe that Qaboos has indeed acted against the precepts of Islam in one important respect. Sultan Qaboos has been reported by several sources to be a homosexual... What Omanis think about this issue is hard to determine. Although I have been following Omani affairs for over two decades, only three Omanis have discussed this subject with me openly... All three agreed that the Sultan is generally believed to be homosexual by Omanis; All three agreed that Omanis only discuss this subject with trusted relatives and friends..." As Qaboos is the Sultan of Oman, he traditionally holds absolute power. He holds the portfolios of the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, Defense Minister and Finance Minister. Despite his wealth and power, he is generally regarded as a benevolent ruler who pursues moderate ideological goals. At least to the West, he is known for his selflessness and generosity, and in General Tommy Franks's 2004 book 'American Soldier', he described the sultan as a true friend to the United States in the War on Terror, with "no guile, no secret agenda". In the last few years, Oman has taken some steps towards democracy. Free and fair parliamentary elections (in which women have voted and stood as candidates) have been held and the Sultan has pledged greater openness and participation in government. Oman relies on oil revenue for as much as 75 percent of its export earnings and 40 percent of its gross domestic product, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. 1993, Alan Clark in his 'Diaries' about the 1990 Cercle meeting: "Last night our delegation had dinner with the Ruler, Sheikh Qaboos, at the Barakha Palace. The drive was nearly a mile long, and every palm tree was floodlit... Qaboos had put me on his left, with Julian in the place of honour on the Ruler's right hand. He is intelligent, quick, almost feline in his responses, and commands the most perfect English — a mixture of Sandringham and Miss Newman. In contrast to the other Ruling Families on whom I had called in August, he is not frightened of Saddam. And his contempt for the oily little King of Jordan, who is, was palpable... Qaboos is delightful company. Wholly royal in manner and deportment, but never remote. He engages with you. Detached yes, but so different from the Windsors (except the dear QM) who are all of them remote — and obtuse."

Rockefeller, David
Sources: 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', pages 186, 191-193, and 241; 1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come – Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei', p. 153-158; 2002, David Rockefeller, 'Memoirs', pg. 412-413, referring to the Pesenti Group
Born in 1915 and youngest son of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Descendant of the German-Jewish Roggenfelder family which came to the United States in 1722. Attended school in New York City and graduated with a bachelor's degree in English history and literature from Harvard University in 1936. This was followed with a Ph.D. (1940) in economics from the University of Chicago and a study at both Harvard and the London School of Economics. Married Margaret "Peggy" McGrath in September 1940 and they raised six children, including son David Rockefeller Jr. Along with his brothers - John D. III, Nelson, Laurance, and Winthrop, David Rockefeller established the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) in 1940. Became a trustee of The Rockefeller Institute (later transformed into a university) for Medical Research in 1940. Trustee Rockefeller University 1940-1995. Secretary to New York City Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia 1940-1941. Assistant regional director of the United States Office of Defense, Health and Welfare Service 1941-1942. Enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1942. Military Intelligence officer in North Africa and Southern France 1942-1945. Set up an intelligence network in Algiers and was an insider to the battle between Charles De Gaulle and Henri Giraud for control over the French resistance. First became friends with William Paley (Pilgrims) and C.D. Jackson in Algiers. Met with ambassador Robert Murphy, a staunch Giraud supporter. Met David Bruce in 1945, head of the OSS. He would meet Bruce and his wife again in 1973 in China, where he would be invited for dinner. Assistant Military Attaché in Paris in the last 7 months of the war. Joined Chase National/Manhattan Bank in 1946 as an assistant manager under Winthrop W. Aldrich (Rockefeller intermarried) in the Foreign Department. Assistant manager in the Foreign Department, Chase National Bank 1947-1948. David Rockefeller, 'Memoirs', pg. 149: "I received a visit one morning in early spring 1947 from the new president of the Carnegie Endowment for International peace... After the usual pleasantries Hiss told me I had been elected to the board of the Carnegie Endowment, and he hoped I would agree to serve... I was flattered to be asked to join the Endowment's prestigious board, which included such luminaries as General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Thomas J. Watson, the founder of IBM. John Foster Dulles, the eminent international lawyer, was chairman... I had known him and his family since my college years. Foster had a reputation of being cold, austere, and puritanical, but the man I knew had a sense of humor and could be a wonderful companion. His daughter Lillias had been part of a small group of friends during my college years and one of Peggy's closest friends. In fact, when I was courting Peggy in the 1930s, she always stayed with the Dulleses at their New York town house. When I mentioned Hiss's offer to Nelson, he told me in confidence that a high-level FBI official had warned him there was reliable information indicating Hiss was a Soviet agent. I reported this to Foster, who said he didn't believe it... I accepted his judgment and joined the endowment's board in May 1947. A year later the spy charges against Alger Hiss would become front-page news." Played a major role in the development of the Morningside Heights neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan as president (1947-1957) and then chairman (1957-1965) of Morningside Heights, Inc. Second vice president Chase National Bank 1948-1949. Director of the Museum of Modern Art 1948-1958. Vice president Chase National Bank 1949-1952. Vice-president Council on Foreign Relations 1950-1970. Chairman of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research 1950-1975. In 1953, at this position, he recruited Detlev W. Bronk as president of the Rockefeller Institute and head of its medical research program. Bronk, a biophysicist, appeared on the initial membership list of the MJ-12 study group. Senior vice president of Chase National Bank with responsibility for supervising the economic research department and customer relations in the metropolitan New York area, including all the New York City branches 1952-1955. Attended the first Bilderberg meeting in 1954 and was one of its founders. When Chase National and the Bank of the Manhattan Company merged in 1955, David Rockefeller was appointed an executive vice president in charge of the bank development department. In 1957, he became vice chairman of the Board of Directors with responsibility for the administrative and planning functions of the bank as a whole. Briefly chairman of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in 1958. Again chairman of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in 1962-1972, and again in 1987-1993. Life trustee of the University of Chicago (which his grandfather helped to establish) and an honorary trustee of International House (New York), established by his father. In 1958 David Rockefeller helped establish the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association (D-LMA), serving as its chairman 1958-1975. 2002, David Rockefeller, 'Memoirs', pg. 448-449: "In late 1959 we were guests of Stavros [1001 Club] and Eugenie Niarchos for a week's sail through the Aegean aboard their three-masted schooner, The Creole... I had met Stavros six years earlier when he came to Chase's headquarters for a business meeting... Even though Stavros and I had little in common, we developed a good personal relationship and became business partners in many real estate deals in the United States, including the purchase of Rockefeller Center.... Our friends Jack [H.J. Heinz II; Pilgrims Society and Bilderberg organizer] and Drue Heinz of Pittsburgh were also on that 1959 voyage, as were Hans (Heini) Heinrich and Fiona Thyssen-Bornemisza [1001 Club], whom we met for the first time. Heini was the grandson of the famous August Thyssen, the "Rockefeller of the Ruhr," founder of Germany's Vereinigte Stahlwerke... Our cruise brought out the fact that we were all interested in art... The following May [1960]... we all flew to Lugano to spend the weekend with the Thyssens. When we arrived at Heini's home, the Villa Favorita, we were awestruck... It was the most beautiful private [art] collection we have ever seen." Primary founder of the Dartmouth Conferences in 1960, which was initiated at Dartmouth College in an effort to prevent U.S.-Soviet nuclear conflict. Only influential private citizens with no government positions were supposed to meet here. President Chase Manhattan 1961-1969. David Rockefeller, 'Memoirs': "Given the similarity in our interests, I was disappointed that Jack [John J. McCloy] and I never developed a close personal relationship... Frequently at gatherings I attended, Jack related the story of his first contact with my family. He had worked his way to college and law school in part by tutoring during the summer and had travelled to Maine in the summer of 1912, three years before I was born, hoping to get a job on Mount Desert Island. One of the families he decided to contact was mine... [he was] turned away... Nelson [Rockefeller] reportedly told him the "family had used its influence" to make him chairman and that one of his jobs was to ensure that "David would succeed him when he retired." It seems quite possible that Nelson made the comment or one quite similar to it. He could be quite high-handed and no doubt thought he was doing me a favor. But if Nelson made a statement of this kind, it certainly was not the result of a family decision or a request from me. It would have been highly inappropriate for anyone in the family to make such a demand. Unfortunately, if the story was true, it may have permanently altered Jack's attitude toward me... Quite possibly Jack could never look at me without remembering the long, dusty walk up the hill in Seal Harbor and the big wooden door being closed quietly but firmly in his face." In 1962, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey began plans to build the World Trade Center, which was pushed hard for by David and Nelson Rockefeller. Founding member of the Commission on White House Fellows, 1964. David had a two and a half hour meeting in Moscow with Nikita Khrushchev in the summer of 1964. He reported to president Johnson that Khrushchev would like to do more trade with the United States and David recommended that more credit should be extended to the Russians. Met Khrushchev's successor, Leonid Brezhnev, soon afterwards. Also met Chou En-lai in the 1960s, to discuss economic cooperation. Other leaders David met with are Deng Xiaoping, Nasser, Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, the Shah of Iran, etc. David is on very good terms with Nelson Mandela and they regularly meet each other. It's interesting to note that Mandela is one of George W. Bush's fiercest critiques. Instrumental in the formation of the International Executive Service Corps and chairman 1964-1968. Founder Americas Society in 1965 (then called Council of the Americas). Helped found the Rockefeller Family Fund in 1967. Helped form The Business Committee for the Arts in 1967. 2002, David Rockefeller, 'Memoirs', pg. 413: "Bilderberg overlapped for a time with my membership in a relatively obscure but potentially even more controversial body known as the Pesenti Group [likely Le Cercle]. I had first learned about it in October 1967 when Carlo Pesenti [Vatican sponsored; Banco Ambrosiano shareholder], the owner of a number of important Italian corporations, took me aside at a Chase investment forum in Paris and invited me to join his group, which discussed contemporary trends in European and world politics. It was a select group, he told me, mostly European... Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, and Konrad Adenauer were founding members of the group, but by the time I joined, they had been replaced by an equally prominent roster that included Antoine Pinay... Giulio Andreotti... and Franz-Josef Strauss... The discussions were conducted in French, and usually I was the sole American present, although on a few occasions when the group assembled in Washington, Henry Kissinger, at the time President Nixon's national security advisor, joined us for dinner. Members of the Pesenti Group were all committed to European political and economic integration, but a few - Archduke Otto of Austria... Monsignor Alberto Giovanetti of the Vatican and a prominent member of Opus Dei... and Jean-Paul León Violet... - were preoccupied by the Soviet threat and the inexolerable rise to power of the Communist parties of France and Italy. Pesenti set the agenda for our thrice-yearly meetings, and Maître Violet, who had close connections with the Deuxième Bureau of the Services des Renseignements (the French CIA), provided lengthy background briefings. Using an overhead projector, Violet display transparency after transparency filled with data documenting Soviet infiltration of governments around the world and supporting his belief that the threat of global Communist victory was quite real. While all of us knew the Soviets were behind the "wars of national liberation" in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, I was not personally convinced the Red Menace was quite as menacing as Maître Violet portrayed it to be, but my view was a minority one in that group. Even though I found some of the discussions fascinating, the ultraconservative politics of some participants were more than a bit unnerving. My Chase associates, who feared my membership could be construed as "consorting with reactionaries," eventually prevailed upon me to withdraw." Chairman and CEO of the board of Chase Manhattan 1969-1981. Chairman Council on Foreign Relations 1970-1985. In May 1973 Chase Manhattan Bank opened it Moscow office at 1 Karl Marx Square, Moscow. Chairman of the Overseas Development Council of the US-USSR Trade and Economic Council, Inc., which was founded in 1973. Founder of the Trilateral Commission in 1973. 2002, David Rockefeller, 'Memoirs', pg. 207: "We [Chase; mid 1970s] approached three banks in the Rothschild Group. Since both Evelyn de Rothschild, chairman of L.M. Rothschild, and Leon Lambert, chairman of Banque Lambert (a Rothschild through his mother), were personal friends, I had positive initial conversations with them." Chairman Trilateral Commission 1977-1991. Founded the New York City Partnership in 1979 and was chairman 1979-1988. Chairman Chase Manhattan Bank Advisory Committee 1981-1999. Trustee Carnegie Endowment International Peace since 1981. President of the Harvard College Board of Overseers; life trustee of the University of Chicago; one of the most important members of the Bilderberg committee; visitor of the Bohemian Grove Stowaway camp; member American-Australian Association; chairman Americas Society 1981-1992; chairman Rockefeller Group 1981-1995. Helped to establish the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University in 1994. Chairman of Rockefeller Center Properties 1996-2001; became a director of the Shinsei Bank in 2000; chairman Rockefeller University; chairman of the Museum of Modern Art; member International Council of J.P. Morgan Chase; wrote 'Unused Resources and Economic Waste' (1940), 'Creative Management in Banking' (1964), and 'Memoirs' (2002); major shareholder of Atlantic Richfield Petroleum and International Petroleum Corporation (also a napalm manufacturer). David is the last of the "Fortunate Five" brothers. Winthrop died in 1972 after having been devastated by a chemotherapy procedure; John D. III died in a 1978 car crash; Nelson died in 1979 in bed with his mistress. Laurance died in 2004 of natural causes. David and Laurance were members of the Peace Parks foundation. David has attended meetings of Le Cercle and is a member of the Pilgrims Society.

Schuman, Robert
Sources: 2002, David Rockefeller, 'Memoirs', pg. 412-413, referring to the Pesenti Group
Roman catholic. Born in Luxembourg in 1886. Moved to France in 1919 and was elected to the Chamber of Deputies. A moderate conservative he joined the more liberal Popular Republican Movement in 1940. In 1940 Schuman was arrested by the Gestapo, but escaped. In 1942 he joined the French Resistance. French prime minister 1947-1948. French foreign minister 1948-1953, in successive cabinets of Queuille, Bidault, Pleven, Faure, and Pinay. Attended the May 1948 Congress of Europe, which was convened by the United Europe Movement in The Hague. It was organized by Jean Monnet with the help of Joseph Retinger. Its chairman was Winston Churchill while Alcide de Gasperi, Paul Henri Spaak, Leon Blum, and Konrad Adenauer attended the conference. Presented the Schuman Plan in 1949, which became the basis for the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) that was established in 1952. Cercle member Jean Monnet was the person who had written the entire "Schuman Plan"; Schuman was only a frontman. Founding member of the initial Le Cercle group ("Pesenti Group"), according to David Rockefeller. In 1958 Schuman was elected president of the European Assembly in Strasbourg. Knight of the Order of Pope Pius IX. Intensely religious man and was strongly influenced by the writings of Pius XII, St Thomas Aquinas and Jacques Maritain. August 1984, Issue 5, Lobster Magazine, 'Brief Notes On The Political Importance Of Secret Societies': "In France, Opus Dei has had a particularly notable influence going back as far as 1938. It became strong in the army and among ex-Vichyites and right-wing Catholic integristes. It was said to have influenced Robert Schumann, Antoine Pinay and Paul Baudoin..." According to many articles in different languages Schuman was a great supporter of Opus Dei and could well have been a member. Died in 1963.

Schwarzkopf, H. Norman
Sources: 1993, Alan Clark, 'Diaries', p. 369-374
Attended the 1990 Pinay meeting in Oman. Born in Trenton, New Jersey to Norman Schwarzkopf, Sr., he graduated from West Point in 1956, and earned a masters degree in missile engineering from the University of Southern California in 1964. After graduating from West Point and receiving a commission in the infantry, Schwarzkopf had assignments in the United States and Germany before going back to school to earn his masters in guided missile engineering. Schwarzkopf then returned to West Point as a member of the faculty. Following Schwarzkopf's first year as a member of the faculty at West Point he requested a reassignment to Vietnam. Schwarzkopf served as an adviser to the Vietnamese airborne division during his two combat tours in the Vietnam War and received the Purple Heart after being injured. Schwarzkopf made general in 1978, and in 1983 was deputy commander during the US invasion of Grenada, and in 1988 was appointed to the U.S. Central Command. In 1990 he was chosen to run Operation Desert Storm, and was responsible for the "left hook" strategy that went into Iraq behind the Iraqi forces occupying Kuwait, and widely credited with bringing the ground war to a close in just four days. He was personally very visible in the conduct of the war, giving frequent press conferences, and was dubbed "Stormin' Norman." He was awarded the United States Republican Senatorial Medal of Freedom and the British Order of the Bath. Schwarzkopf has visited the Bohemian Grove.

Spinola, Gen. Antonio de
Sources: October 1989 – Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe'
Born in an old aristocratic and wealthy family in 1910. Entered Colégio Militar in 1920, a military school in Lisbon, Portugal. Joined joined Portugal's Military Academy in 1928. Fought as a volunteer for General Francisco Franco in the 1930s Spanish civil war. Fought with Hitler's armies on the Russian front in World War II. August 14, 1996, Chicago Tribune, 'General Spinola, led coup in Portugal': "Gen. Spinola was encouraged in his military career by dictator Antonio Salazar [dictator of Portugal 1932-1968; strong Roman Catholic; supported by the former King Manuel II of Portugal; close friend of Ian Smith, who headed the illegal Rhodesian white minority government], a family friend. Trained under Spanish dictator Gen. Francisco Franco and Hitler's Russian front generals, Gen. Spinola earned a reputation for toughness and valor and became Portugal's most decorated officer. A hero of the old regime's wars against independence movements in the African colonies..." Service in Angola 1961-1964 where he reached the rank of Brigadier-General. Governor and Chief of the Army Forces in Portuguese Guinea 1968-1973. Here he followed a policy of bombing defenceless villages, destroying crops and burning hayfields at the end of the dry season to prevent the resistance (and anyone else) to construct huts for the rain season. Invited to become Minister of the Colonies in 1973, but refused. Vice Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces 1974. Director of Companhia Uniao Fabril (CUF), which dominated Guinea-Bissau's economy, had large interests in Africa, and owned 10 percent of Portuguese industrial capacity. Director of Champalimaud, a steel and banking giant, also with extensive interests in Africa. Champalimaud and CUF were seen as two of maybe 5 or 6 companies that controlled virtually the whole economy of Portugal at the time. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the continuing wars in the colonies not only began to take a heavy toll on the morale in the Portuguese Army, but also with the citizens at home. The economy in Portugal also suffered from the war and the large corporations in Portugal criticized Marcello Caetano, the follow up of dictator Antonio Salazar, for not pushing hard enough free market (or better, monopolist) policies. In February 1974, Spinola's book 'Portugal and the Future' was published in which Spinola claimed the colonial wars could not be won by force. Instead, he argued that a moderate black elite should be created in the colonies who would cooperate within a federation, headed by Portugal. The book, published by Companhia Uniao Fabril (CUF), became enormously popular in the weeks ahead. In March 1974, Spinola was fired by Caetano for writing the book. His superior General Francisco da Costa Gomes was also fired for his support of Spinola. On April 25, 1974, the Movement of the Armed Forces (MFA), a group of of lower-ranking officers opposing the colonial war and the fascist regime (who took advantage of the book's momentum), headed a coup against Caetano. Spinola knew about the upcoming coup. The plotters intended to make him commander of the armed forces while the more moderate Gomes would be head of the transitional government. In the end, the coup succeeded, but the plotters had failed to capture Caetano, who then demanded he would only surrender if Spinola became his successor. According to Caetano, Spinola was "the only man who could save" Portugal. To avoid a bloodbath, the plotters accepted, and Spinola became head of the national junta of the MFA. He became president of Portugal in May 1974. Spinola, however, strongly disagreed on most points with the with MFA and was generally only interested in a "renovation" of the economy and the policy pertaining to the colonies. He completely resisted the MFA's efforts in giving independence to the colonies, but he forced to comprise in almost every instance because of the powerful influence of moderates and the left. The people of Portugal had risen up en masse after Caetano had been driven out, had dismantled the secret police and taking out their frustration on anyone who had ever repressed them or caused some kind of grief. Socialism and Communism became very strong movements and Spinola, together with his fascist friends, did everything in their power to contain and reverse the situation. Spinola met with Nixon, a later Cercle participant, in the Azores (considered a key location for NATO forces) in June 1974. In July 1974, Spinola appointed a former fascist cabinet member as ambassador to the UN, which provoked large street demonstrations. Spinola confined leftists troops to their barracks on July 6-7 and send troops considered right-wing to break up leftist demonstrations. An Economic reform bill was issued on July 6 that limited the right to strike, strengthened private property, and encouraged foreign investment. Thousands of civil servants demonstrated against law on July 8. Spinola was ousted in late September 1974, presumably after having attempted to take full control of the government. The MFA had prevented this and installed the more moderate General Costa Gomes, their first choice. October 7, 1974, Winnipeg Free Press, 'Why Spinola Bowed Out': "With his resignation, President Antonio Spinola of Portugal has lost a long ideological battle with the Movement of the Armed Forces [MFA] which reluctantly brought him to power... According to young officers of the Movement [MFA], a coup d'etat was planned by right-wingers, some of them protesting loyalty to Gen. Spinola, who had been storing arms, indulging in economic sabotage, and creating an emotional climate of tension [sounds like Gladio]... So the Movement surrounded the presidential palace with tanks, took over the national radio and ordered newspapers to suspend publication. A sniper's rifle with telescopic sights is said to have been found in a house opposite the home of the prime minister, Brigadier Vasco Goncalves... Estimates of the right-wingers who have been detained vary from 70 to more than 300. Those arrested include Franco Nogueira, a longserving foreign minister to the late dictator Antonio Salazar,... Nuno Alves Caetano, son of the prime minister who was deposed by the April 25 coup, and Antonio Champalimaud, heir to Portugal's most powerful banking and industrial empire and son of Gen. Spinola's economic adviser... Gen. Spinola wanted to increase press censorship, ban strikes, enhance his own power and disband the Movement's co-ordinating committee. The Movement believed that if it allowed this to happen, its promises of democracy would not be carried out and the elections in March would be called off. Many of the members of the Movement not only believed that it was a disaster to appoint Gen. Spinola; they also believed that if real disaster was to be averted, he had to be removed. They feared that he would take Portugal back to something akin to what is now called the 'ancien regime' with a dictatorship ruling in the interests of the capitalisl interests... The young officers of the Movement are erroneously cast as left-wing and a few may be; but the majority at the centre of the Movement includes monarchists and conservatives." October 3, 1974, Winnipeg Free Press, 'Leftist Takeover Feared': "Top Portuguese financier Antonio Champalimaud warned in an interview published here of the dangers of a "totalitarian" takeover in Portugal "on orders of Moscow"... Turning to the economic situation, the financier said that it was essential for Portugal to collaborate with other nations and in particular extend its link with the Common Market." This sounds very much like a propaganda effort ala Le Cercle of which Spinola is said to have attended meetings. In March 11, 1975 Spinola tried to get back with a vengeance with a (failed) right-wing coup attempt, aided by Nixon's national security advisor Henry Kissinger (Le Cercle) and US ambassador to Portugal Franck Carlucci (CIA). Spinola and 18 others fled to Spain and then to Brazil. The attempted rightist coup by Spinola caused another major leftist countermovement, a wave of nationalizations of banks and other businesses, and the seizure of many large farms in southern Portugal. 1977, Phil Mailer, 'Portugal, the Impossible Revolution', chapter 8: "For three days the left and workers' group exercised total power. An article about Spinola in the Parisian paper Temoignage Chretien (March 6) had said that US ambassador Frank Carlucci (who had CIA connections) had given the go-ahead for a right-wing take-over in Portugal. Otelo's [head moderate MFA] remark on March 11 that 'Carlucci had better have plans to leave the country or face the con-sequences' was seen as related to the failed coup. Kissinger, according to a Sunday Times (London) report, had sanctioned the use of the CIA." April 23, 1975, Winnipeg Free Press, 'Mini-Cold War Weakens Portugal, NATO Ties': "[Soviet] Ambassador Kalinin's task has been made easy by U.S. and North Atlantic Alliance hostility toward the ruling leftwing military, who have made it clear that they cannot govern Portugal without sharing power with the Portuguese Communist party... Moscow is carefully moving into the power vacuum caused by the loss of influence and prestige during its [the US's] long association with the deposed dictatorship and its apparent support for Gen. Antonio de Spinola. Spinola's hostility to his former revolutionary associates led to an attempted coup last month... [US ambassador] Carlucci's image has been tarred with allegations that he is a top CIA operative assigned to destabilize Portugal and reverse the Socialist thrust of the revolution... Recently Dr. Kissinger contradicted the essence of the Carlucci speech in which he had expressed a measure of understanding for the idealism of the officers who deposed Portugal's rightist dictatorship last year... Ruling military moderates, among them senior advisers of President Francisco da Costa Gomes, are frankly distressed by a situation forcing them to strengthen Portugal's ties with the Soviet Union because "Nobody in the West is willing to help us so long as Washington remains aloof." They added: "Before our revolution, nobody wanted to help us because we were a right-wing colonialist dictatorship. Now that we are freeing the colonies and trying to create a pluralistic democracy, nobody wants to help us because we're left-wing." Aginter Press was the name of the CIA-supported Stay Behind network in Portugal. It was founded in 1966 by Guerin Guerin Serac (anti-communist Catholic; did assassinations and terrorism for Franco; co-founder OAS that tried to assassinate De Gaulle and destabilize peace in Algeria; worked for Portugal's secret police; friend of Florimond Damman, who was appointed by Cercle founder Jean Violet to run the Belgian Académie Européenne des Sciences Politiques) and Stefano Delle Chiaie (fascist; friend of Licio Gelli, official head P2; P2 member; undermined Italian politics by assisting in coups and terrorism; associate of Prince Valerio Borghese, who worked with former Nazi commander Otto Skorzeny; associate of former Nazi officer Klaus Barbie; involved in Operation Condor and the cocaine wars in the Americas) to counter leftist influences in Portugal. They supported Spinola. 2005, Daniele Ganser, 'NATO's Secret Armies', p. 121: "Upon learning that left-wing officers within the Portuguese military were planning a coup to start the 'Revolution of the Flowers', Aginter operatives plotted with right-wing General Spinola against the Portuguese centrists. Their plan was to occupy the Portuguese Azores islands in the Atlantic and use them as an independent territory and offshore base for covert operations against the Portuguese mainland. Unable to realize their plan Aginter Press was swept away together with the dictatorship when on May 1, 1974 the left-wing of the Portuguese military took over power and ended the dictatorship which had lasted for almost half a century. Three weeks after the revolutionary coup, on May 22, 1974, special units of the Portuguese Police on the orders of the new rulers broke into the Aginter Press headquarter in the Rua das Pracas in Lisbon in order to close down the sinister agency and confiscate all material. But by then the premises were deserted. With good relations to the intelligence community all Aginter Press agents had been warned and had gone underground and nobody was arrested. Leaving their offices in a hurry some documents were left behind. The special police units were able to collect a large amount of criminal evidence, proving that the CIA front Aginter Press had very actively engaged in terrorism." Spinola was able to return to Portugal in 1976. Appointed Field Marshal in 1981. Named a member of Le Cercle in 1989 by Lobster Magazine. Died in 1996.

Stilwell, Gen. Richard Giles
Sources: November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting the Langemann papers - spelled wrongly, like a couple of other names)
The original (translated) text named a DIA-affiliated General D. Stinwell as a participant of the 1980 meeting in Zurich. The proper name must have been Stilwell (often spelled as Stillwel), because the name Stinwell doesn't exist, especially not as a general. The "D" seems to refer to "Dick", like he was often called, and even how his name was often written down on official occasions. His son, who had the same name also used the name "Dick" himself (only a colonel). The name of Paul Volcker was also spelled wrong in the text ("Volker").
Born in 1917. Graduated from West Point. Graduate of the Army War College and was a commandant of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, a post that the Army reserves for its most promising officers. Joined the U.S. Army in 1938. Commander of U.S. forces in China, Burma and India during World War II. Appointed in January 1946 as assistant military advisor to secretary of state James F. Byrnes, who was a U.S. member of the Council of Foreign Ministers, the quadripartite organization designed to deal with post-war problems. As an outgrowth of this assignment, Stilwell became special military advisor to the American ambassador in Italy from 1947 to 1949. In this position, his staff responsibilities encompassed the Trieste question, finalization of the Italo-Yugoslav boundary and Italian rearmament. Chief of the Far East Division of the CIA from 1949 to 1952, and head of the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC). His area of responsibility included Burma, China, Indochina and Korea. This was one of the most, if not thé most, important CIA/OPC division at the time, since the Korean war had just started and the French were fighting in Indochina. In early 1951 the first of many airdrops were made to the remnants of the anti-communist KMT army in Burma. The KMT, led by Chiang Kai-shek, lost the battle for China in 1949 to Mao had his communist army. Chiang retreated to the island now known as Taiwan, but several other KMT armies withdrew from China via the south-west, into Burma. The Burmese army fought the KMT and drove them into Laos and a small area near the Thai border. The situation looked very bleak for the KMT, until early 1951, when they started receiving weapons, food, and training from the CIA to prevent a possible communist take over of South-East Asia. 1972, Alfred W. McCoy, 'The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia': "The first signs of direct CIA aid to 'the KMT appeared in early 1951, when Burmese intelligence officers reported that unmarked C-46 and C-47 transport aircraft were making at least five parachute drops a week to KMT forces in Mong Hsat. (143) With its new supplies the KMT underwent a period of vigorous expansion and reorganization. Training bases staffed with instructors flown in from Taiwan were constructed near Mong Hsat..." The KMT never successfully invaded China, but they did manage to take control of the Shan State's (eastern Burma) opium production, which increased from about 40 tons in the early 1950s to about 300 to 400 tons in 1962. In these early days, KMT controlled opium was sold to the general Phao Sriyanonda of the Thai police, a CIA agent, who redistributed the opium through his airplanes, motor vehicles, and naval vessels, which were provided to him by the CIA. 1972, Alfred W. McCoy, 'The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia': "The KMT shipped bountiful harvests to northern Thailand, where they were sold to General Phao Sriyanonda of the Thai police, a CIA client. The CIA had promoted the Phao-KMT partnership in order to provide a secure rear area for the KMT, but this alliance soon became a critical factor in the growth of Southeast Asia's narcotics traffic... Usually the KMT dealt with the commander of the Thai police, General Phao, who shipped the opium from Chiangmai to Bangkok for both local consumption and export. (160)... In 1951 a CIA front organization, Sea Supply Corporation, began delivering lavish quantities of naval vessels, arms, armored vehicles, and aircraft to General Phao's police force. (194) With these supplies Phao was able to establish a police air force, a maritime police, a police armored division, and a police paratroop unit. " The OPC, founded in 1948 and not responsible to the DCI until 1950, was a secret continuation of the tasks of the OSS, having been established in accordance with NSC 10/2. According to its secret charter, the OPC's responsibilities included "propaganda, economic warfare, preventive direct action, including sabotage, antisabotage, demolition and evacuation procedures; subversion against hostile states, including assistance to underground resistance groups, and support of indigenous anti-communist elements in threatened countries of the free world." The OPC was largely created by the State Department's George Kennan (CFR), who came up with the policy of Containment around the same time. Head of the OPC was Frank Wisner, a veteran of the OSS, who initiated Operation Mockingbird (to subvert the foreign and domestic media), was involved in Operation Bloodstone (one of the programs that involved the recruiting of former German Nazi officers and diplomats who could be used in the covert war against the Soviet Union), and was a co-planner of the coups which brought down Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran and Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala. By 1952, the OPC had 4,000 agents in forty-seven stations with a budget of $82 million. Money for the project was drawn from untraceable government accounts, such as those of the CIA, and laundered through American corporations whose leaders had expressed a willingness to work with Wisner and the OPC. Gehlen was deeply involved in the OPC project. Stilwell was in command of a regiment in Korea in 1953. Instructor at the Army War College in Korea 1954-1956. Chief of staff of the Presidential Mission to Far East in 1954. Chief of strategic planning at SHAPE 1956-1958. Left SHAPE in June 1958 to become Commander of the Western Area, Germany. In 1959, he drafted his recommendations for a special Presidential Committee under General William Draper reporting to President Eisenhower: that the U.S. help develop "higher level military schools" with political-economic curricula in the Third World, to encourage local armies to become "internal motors" for "socio-political transformation". He later formed a group of retired military personnel called the 'Gray Eagles', whose intent was to train third world armies. Member of the Council on Foreign Relations since at least 1961. Member of the Atlantic Council. Involved in 1962 in creating the big business and CIA-affiliated American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD), aimed at taking control over trade union movements in Latin America. The AIFLD used to be chaired by Pilgrims Society, 1001 Club, and SMOM member J. Peter Grace. Stilwell's partner in creating the statutes of the AIFLD was Col. Edward G. Lansdale, a some time NSA director and designer of Operation Mongoose in 1961 and Operation Northwoods in 1962. Stilwell went on to command Army units in Vietnam and the the United States. Stilwell was at least informed of the 1963 Ngo Dinh Diem coup before it happened, and may have had an active role in planning it. Chief of operations of the U.S. Military Assistance Command in Vietnam in 1963. Chief of staff of U.S. Military Assistance Command, under general William C. Westmoreland, in Vietnam 1964-1965. Chief of the Joint U.S. Military Advisory Group in Thailand 1965-1967. Commanding general of the 1st Armored Division at Fort Hood, Texas 1967-1968. Deputy commander general at the 3rd Marine Amphibious Force. Commanding general of the XXIV U.S. Army Corps 1968-1969. In 1969, as opposition to the Vietnam war grew, Stilwell was the one who personally quashed the reports of dissenting colonels, and who, though he was not in intelligence at the time, went through the intelligence reports, tidying them up. Deputy chief of staff of military operations of the U.S. Army and senior Army member of the U.S. delegations Military Staff Committee of the United Nations 1969-1972. Commanding general of the 6th U.S. Army, San Francisco 1972-1973. Commander-in-Chief of UN and American forces in Korea from 1974 to 1976. Member of the in 1976 revived Committee on Present Danger, a reactionary anti-communist think tank that included people like John F. Lehman, Clare Booth Luce, Paul H. Nitze, Richard Perle (friend of Brian Crozier, head of Le Cercle at that time), Richard Pipes, (a later associate of Crozier), Eugene Rostow, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt (former Chief of Naval Operations), George Shultz, William Casey (Le Cercle), Richard Allen, Jeane Kirkpatrick, and David Packard. Friend of General John K. Singlaub, who set up the American chapter of the World Anti-Communist League (WACL). President of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers in the late 1970s. June 16, 1978, Washington Post, 'Intelligence Bill Called 'Overreaction' to Abuses': "Former U.S. intelligence officers protested yesterday that a Senate plan for restructuring the nation's intelligence community would come close to stopping all covert operations. Continuing a series of intelligence-establishment complaints about the omnibus bill, the Association of Former Intelligence Officers assailed it at a Senate hearing as far too restrictive, "an overreaction to a few abuses of the past," in the face of a growing Soviet threat. Association President Richard G. Stilwell, a retired Army general who once served as the Central Intelligence Agency's chief of covert actions for the Far East, said his organization also feels that the bill is mislableled in being called "the National Intelligence Reorganization and Reform Act of 1978."... The head of the retired spy group, which claims more than 2,500 members, was even more critical of proposed controls on surveillance of foreign intelligence operations in this country. The Senate has already approved legislation to require the issuance of judicial warrants for such surveillance. Stilwell denounced the idea, insofar as it applies to "agents of foreign powers," as "incredible . . . unnecessary" and even "unconstitutional." He said it ought to be called "An Act to Convey Fourth Amendment Rights on the Soviet Embassy and all KGB Officers in the United States and All Other Foreigners."" Stilwell went to the January 1980 Le Cercle Meeting in Zurich. In November 1980, as one of the national security advisers to the newly elected Reagan, Stilwell co-wrote a report called 'Strategic Guidance' that claimed the United States had to be ready to use force on its own without its allies and that no part of the world would be outside US interest. Then he came up with the idea to administer lie-detector tests to civilian staff on a regular basis before giving them access to sensitive information. Stilwell was Deputy Under-Secretary of Defense for Policy from 1981 to 1985. Brian Crozier, a friend, Cercle chairman, and founder of The 61 secret intelligence group, wrote in his 1993 book (p.177): "A four-star general, Dick Stilwell had served with distinction in Vietnam. Under President Reagan, he was appointed Assistant Defense Secretary. While in this post, he joined the inner group of The 61... (He was not related to General "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell, who had liaised with Chiang Kai-shek during World War II: an assumption frequently made, to the annoyance of Dick Stilwell.)" Stilwell's 1991 obituaries concur, sometimes after a correction, that he was not related to General Joseph Stilwell. May 15, 1994, The Washington Times, 'Crozier, covert acts, CIA and Cold War': "I hesitate to envision the reaction of the late Gen. Richard G. Stilwell, with whom I worked in the 1980s, should he see himself publicly identified as a "61-er."... But Mr. Crozier is one of the heroes who spent a lifetime keeping the barbarians outside the gate. He, of all people, deserves a gloat over his victory." In 1981, Stilwell was involved in the creation of the Washington-based U.S. Global Strategy Council (USGSC), together with media-magnate and Pilgrims Society member Henry Luce III (his grandfather bought and held on to the JFK Zapruder film; President of the Pilgrims of the United States since 1997), and former CIA deputy-director Ray Cline (a member of the World Anti-Communist League - WACL). As deputy under-secretary of defense from 1981 to 1985, he created SFD-K, a secret intelligence group which mainly operated in South-East Asia and was involved in trying to rescue US POWs in North Korea and North Vietnam. After it was exposed in the early 1980s, Stilwell began patroning (some sources claim he founded it) Intelligence Support Activity (ISA), a top secret special forces unit set up under Jimmy Carter to retrieve South-East Asia POWs and to conduct the most secret and sensitive special operations around the world. It trained and worked with Delta Force and DEVGRU (the follow-up of Seal Team 6) and had no Congressional oversight. The DIA and Navy tried to gain control over ISA in later years. July 23, 1998, Michael Ruppert, 'The POWs, CIA and Drugs': "The ISA, which ran Gritz's mission, was created by Army General Richard Stilwell. It has been repeatedly linked to drug smuggling by sources including the daughter of Col. Albert Carone who served as Oliver North's bagman and bill-payer during the eighties. Records left behind after Carone's death in 1990 and eyewitness statements clearly indicate that Carone handled both drugs and drug money for CIA, North and the NSC. Carone's personal phone book contains the home addresses and telephone numbers of William Casey [Le Cercle; Wackenhut legal counsel; CIA; SMOM; Bohemian Grove camp Mandalay], Gambino crime boss Pauly Castellano and Stilwell [Le Cercle]." 2004, Michael Ruppert, 'Crossing the Rubicon', p. 164: "A retired NYPD Detective, also a “made” member of the Genovese crime family, Carone spent his entire working career as a CIA operative... For more than 25 years before his mysterious death in 1990, Al Carone served as a bagman and liaison between George Bush, CIA Director Bill Casey, Oliver North, Richard Nixon [Le Cercle] and many other prominent figures including Robert Vesco [1001 Club], Manuel Noriega and Ferdinand Marcos." Carone, a member of the Knights of Malta, was good friends with Santos Trafficante, Sam Giancana, Vito Genovese, and William Casey. Casey used Carone as a "cut out" to pass sensitive insider information to Mob capo Pauley Castellano, says his daughter, Dee. Carone was the bagman for Casey and Oliver North in many of their drug trafficking exploits. Deputy Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci, in a memo to Stilwell, described the ISA in 1982 as "Our own CIA... uncoordinated and uncontrolled". On February 4, 1983, a short cancellation notice was sent to a number of Defense Department officials at the request of Stilwell. The memo asked recipients to "remove and destroy immediately" any copies of two Defense Department directives in their possession--the top secret and confidential versions of a directive titled "The Defense Special Plans Office." As Stilwell explained in a memo two days earlier, "The directives were charter documents establishing a DoD activity whose establishment subsequently was not authorized by Congress." Chairman of the DoD Security Review Commission in 1985. Member of the Special Operations Planning and Advisory Group (SOPAG) in the mid-1980s, together with general Richard Secord. It had been set up in 1983 by Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Fred Ikle, and was chaired by general John Singlaub. Aderholt and Singlaub would both play a role in fund-raising for the contras and arranging their resupply. December 5, 1986, Philadelphia Inquirer, 'Secord lost position over disclosure form': "Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord, considered a key figure in the Iran arms-contra aid controversy, was quietly dropped from his last Pentagon post a year ago because he refused to complete a personal financial- disclosure report, Defense Department officials said yesterday. Secord was removed from an unpaid position on the Special Operations Planning and Advisory Group, an 11-member panel dominated by retired senior generals who advise the secretary of defense and his top military and civilian officials on special and covert operations policy... According to R. Lynn Rylander [former executive director of SOPAG] and others, the panel was created in late 1983 to help Pentagon officials expand the role of Army Green Berets, Navy SEALS and Air Force Air Commandos in missions to aid anti-communist insurgencies and counterinsurgencies - including the Nicaraguan rebels, known as contras... Rylander described the special advisory group, which meets six to 10 times a year, as "totally non-sinister . . . merely a policy advisory group divorced from operational matters." An informed Defense Department official, however, said that the group was empowered to review all Pentagon covert operations, and one panel member said the group could consider such sensitive issues as military relations with the CIA. Both the panel member and the Defense Department official asked not to be identified. Current members of the group, all retired from active duty, include: Army Lt. Gen. Sam Wilson, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency; Army Central Command Gen. Robert Kingston; Air Force Lt. Gen. Leroy Manor, a Southeast Asia commando leader during the Vietnam War; Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eugene C. Meyer; Army Gen. Richard Stilwell, a Korean War commander; Army Lt. Gen. William Yarborough, special forces commander in the Kennedy administration, and Army Brig. Gen. Donald D. Blackburn, former commander of the 77th Special Forces Group. They advise the secretary of defense, Caspar W. Weinberger; the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, Richard L. Armitage, and the commander of the Joint Special Operations Agency, Air Force Maj. Gen. Thomas Kelly." General Edward Lansdale and general Harry Aderholt were other members of the panel. Secord was one of the key players in Iran Contra, and heavily involved with Shackley and the Nugan Hand Bank, which laundered billions of dollars of dope money coming from the Golden Triangle. Daniel Sheehan of the Christic Institute and Wall Street Journal journalist Jonathan Kwitny both exposed Secord's role in this bank. September 11, 1988, Washington Post, 'The ultimate conspiracy theory': "Serving first as the CIA's East Asia operations chief and later as assistant deputy director of clandestine operations, Shackley (with his trusty aide Clines) supposedly stole tons of U.S. weapons from South Vietnam and stashed them in Thailand. Later, Sheehan claims, Shackley, Clines, Secord and a member of the "shooter team" named Rafael "Chi-Chi" Quintero siphoned off millions of dollars in Southeast Asia opium profits and laundered them through the mysterious Nugan Hand bank of Australia." General Leroy Manor was head of the Philippine branch of the Nugan Hand Bank (name given by: August 17, 1983, Wall Street Journal, 'Bank's Links to Ex-CIA Men Detailed). Air Force colonel and CIA insider Fletcher Prouty wrote that general Sam Wilson of the DIA, also a member of the Special Operations Planning and Advisory Group, was aware of the use of drugs to pay some troops in Burma during WWII. Richard Armitage was one of the most important players in handling the financial aspects of the heroin trade in the Golden Triangle. On the other hand, Col. Bo Gritz, who exposed several of these dope dealers, named general Yarborough as one of his personal heros. President of Stilwell Associates from 1986 to his death in 1991, a consulting firm that specialized in national security affairs. It counted the Defense Department and the CIA among his clients (December 27, 1991, The Milwaukee Journal, Obituary of Stilwell). Consultant to the secretary of defense and to the CIA at the time of his death. Dick Cheney was secretary of defense in these years and William Webster was DCI. In 1987, one year after setting up his company, he travelled to the Philippines, where at that moment a coup against president Corazon C. Aquino was in the final stages of its planning. Aquino, a moderate socialist, was not very popular with either the Reagan administration or the communists. The coup would fail. September 16, 1987, Philadelphia Inquirer, 'U.S. backing for Philippine junta alleged': "In part because of the heavy U.S. military presence - as well as memories of four decades of American colonial rule and Washington's longtime support of Ferdinand E. Marcos - Filipinos are markedly wary of American intervention in their affairs... No available evidence directly links any U.S. officials to the political upheaval here. Lack of documented evidence, however, has not been enough to check the spread of reports of improper U.S. involvement. For example, according to an official familiar with the operations of the U.S. Embassy, such reports were fueled early this year by the presence of Maj. Gen. John K. Singlaub, a key figure in the channeling of funds to the contra forces in Nicaragua and a leader of the World Anti-Communist League. Singlaub came to the Philippines in November and early this year on visits that he described as purely private, a search for sunken treasure [some have alleged that the Golden Lilly, an enormous Japanese war loot that was mostly buried in the Philippines, has been dug up over the decades to finance covert operations. Col. Lansdale, another close associate of Stilwell, is said to have been a key figure in this process]. But when the visits were disclosed in the Philippines, Singlaub immediately left Manila amid reports that his real purpose may have been linked to covert operations. "Such presence in the country over the past year has made a lot of people suspicious," the official said. "There has been some right-wing American involvement in this country."... Last month, another American visitor to the islands raised further suspicions of U.S. covert involvement. That visitor was Richard G. Stilwell... Stilwell visited the Philippines for 10 days in August, leaving the country shortly before the Honasan uprising. He visited the islands of Cebu, Negros and Mindanao - islands that have been fertile ground for both the 23,000- member communist New People's Army (NPA) and right-wing separatist movements. Sources in Manila indicated that his mission was to look into a "contra- type" operation against the NPA. In an telephone interview from his consulting office in Washington, Stilwell denied that there was any official U.S. backing for his trip. "I was traveling at the request of no one," he said. "I had a compelling desire to see it firsthand." Stilwell however, did not deny that he was circulating a report on his findings in the U.S. military and intelligence community. In his report, Stilwell said that unless Aquino acted decisively on military and political fronts - and embraced the right-of-center leaders in the private and public sector - there could be "a political breakdown" resulting in a coalition government with the communists within the next two years. "Washington is worried" about that, he said, adding that the United States "very desperately wants her (Aquino) to succeed, wants to preserve her as the one unifying symbol of the non-communist populace."... He reiterated that Washington's overriding interest was the establishment of a stable democracy. "The U.S. interest in the bases," he said, "is less than, or subsumed to, the emergence of the Philippine government as a member of the free world."... Another official who closely follows event in the U.S. Embassy noted that embassy personnel could not be sure what individual Americans were doing in the Philippines. "The problem," the official said, "is that in the post-Iran era, people in the embassy aren't so sure any more that there is not some offshoot group operating here that they don't know anything about." One senior aide to Aquino said internal intelligence reports indicated that more than 150 CIA operatives were active in the Philippines. Last year, according to Reagan administration sources, President Reagan issued a ''finding" authorizing covert CIA operations in the Philippines. It is unclear exactly what that decision allows, but according to sources in Washington, Reagan's move would authorize the CIA to step up surveillance, counterrevolutionary training and assistance programs, and to sponsor and fund pro-U.S. groups in the Philippines. In a meeting Friday with several U.S. Embassy officials, a high-level Philippine government official described his own suspicion that a "lost command" of the CIA, maneuvering outside the normal channels of operations, played a role in events surrounding the Aug. 28 military revolt. In an interview later, the official said he met with the U.S. Embassy representatives at their request. They wanted to know, he said, "about perceptions of U.S. involvement in the events of the last two weeks." The palace official said he responded that "there was a general feeling that the U.S. was involved." He said he was not convinced that the United States had no role in the events and recalled, "I asked them why some CIA types were in town over the last eight weeks and what were they doing here." He said the U.S. officials did not answer that question directly but instead responded that Reagan "made this very strong statement" in support of the Aquino government. Still, the palace source said he believed that American involvement could not be ruled out. "They never tell you what they are up to," he said. "These CIA guys who are in town, we perceive as part of the lost command."" In 1991 Stilwell was identified as a member of the Advisory Committee of Americares, the largest US relief organization tied to the Knights of Malta and the Bush family. August 11, 1991, Hartford Courant, 'Americares' success hailed, criticized charity uses clout and connections...': "Other international relief agencies marvel at AmeriCares' ability to cut red tape, navigate complex international protocol, perform in the public spotlight and simultaneously claim some of the lowest administrative expenses among groups of its kind... Much of AmeriCares' success comes from its ability to harness three potent forces: powerful political connections, alliances with influential religious figures and groups and cooperative ventures with businesses... Knowledgeable former federal officials, many with backgrounds in intelligence work, help AmeriCares maneuver in delicate international political environments. Its connections with the Roman Catholic Church have brought AmeriCares an influential ally in the Knights of Malta, a Catholic group that helps deliver relief supplies. And its ventures with pharmaceutical companies have filled AmeriCares' warehouses with donated supplies... in the international relief community, where there is an expectation that groups will operate altruistically and free of political motives, some complain about the way AmeriCares aggressively seeks media coverage and appears to design its missions to benefit conservative political causes... Photographs on the office's forest-green walls show [Robert C.] Macauley [wealthy; founder and chairman of AmeriCares] with former President Reagan, Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa... Macauley's friendship with [George W.] Bush dates back to childhood... Bush's son, Jeb, and the president's grandson, George P. Bush, went with AmeriCares to Armenia in 1988 to help survivors of a devastating earthquake... The president's brother, Prescott S. Bush Jr. of Greenwich, is a member of AmeriCares' advisory board... The chairman of the advisory committee is J. Peter Grace Jr... Retired Army Gen. Richard G. Stilwell, former deputy undersecretary of defense in charge of intelligence under Reagan, is also on the advisory committee. Another member is William E. Simon... Simon was also president of the Nicaraguan Freedom Fund, a now defunct private group formed by the Washington Times newspaper to send aid to the contras. (The Washington Times is owned by a group that includes officials of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church.) Gordon J. Humphrey, a retired Republican senator from New Hampshire who was a member of the Senate foreign relations committee, is also on the committee. And Zbigniew Brzezinski, the conservative former national security adviser for President Carter, is honorary chairman of the AmeriCares board of directors."... "Personally I have some questions about the way they focus," said one longtime worker in international aid. "They're connected into the American Republican power elite. You might say they work in areas where there is a large anti-communist benefit."... criticism has come from writers who contend that AmeriCares made shipments of aid to the contras in Nicaragua... Among the aid AmeriCares sent to Nicaragua in 1985 was newsprint for La Prensa, the anti-Sandinista newspaper... A review of AmeriCares' well publicized airlift missions shows that the organization sends aid rapidly and frequently to "hot spots" of public attention, places where disaster aid from America might reflect favorably on the U.S. government... In 1988, AmeriCares sent a series of airlifts to Armenia in the Soviet Union to help survivors of an earthquake. "That did more for the image of the United States than anything in recent history," Macauley said... In the early 1970s, at a time when his interest in international aid was beginning to coalesce into AmeriCares, Macauley heard about a Catholic priest named Bruce Ritter who was struggling to help runaway children on the streets of New York City... The alliance between Macauley and Ritter led to an audience with Pope John Paul II in Rome in 1982. (Ritter left Covenant House in February 1990 after accusations of sexual misconduct with some male runaways he was helping). The meeting with the pope gave life to AmeriCares. Although Macauley started AmeriCares in 1979, the organization did not go on its first relief mission until 1982, when the pope asked Macauley to send aid to his native Poland. AmeriCares' contacts with important Catholic figures brought it a valuable ally in the Knights of Malta, a Catholic organization that has helped distribute AmeriCares supplies. The Knights of Malta, formally known as the Sovereign Military Order of Knights Hospitallers of St. John and Jerusalem, is a worldwide Catholic charity founded in the 11th century to care for soldiers in the Crusades. Today, the group is based in Rome. J. Peter Grace, a member of AmeriCares' advisory board, is president of the American chapter of the Knights of Malta, based in New York City. William Simon, another AmeriCares advisory committee member, is also a member... The Knights of Malta make AmeriCares' job easier because of its worldwide network of volunteers, said Johnson, the president of AmeriCares. Members of the group, many of whom are independently wealthy, can be trusted to deliver the aid to its intended destination and do so more efficiently than AmeriCares, he said. "By using the Knights, there's very little opportunity for diversion," Johnson said. "They've all made their fortunes. Now they're interested in charity."... Because almost 50 countries afford the Knights of Malta the same status as a sovereign nation, they are often exempt from fees for border crossings and can pass customs inspections more easily. "The host country will generally waive inspection and duty," said Thomas L. Sheer, executive director of the American chapter of the Knights of Malta and an assistant to J. Peter Grace. "We can use that diplomatic status to move right through customs and to not pay customs fees. We can exploit that, particularly within a time of crisis."... Despite his ties to the Roman Catholic Church, Macauley is not Catholic, although he describes himself as a religious man. "They say I'm a right-wing Catholic conservative," Macauley said. "I'm not a Catholic, even though I go to Mass almost every day. I'm a very devout Protestant, I guess you'd call it." AmeriCares also receives small donations from Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network and the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church. AmeriCares has kept the commitment to Poland it began at the behest of the pope. "We go to Poland every week, either by ship or by plane," Macauley said. Between 1982 and this March, AmeriCares sent $94 million in aid to Poland, almost a quarter of all the aid it has dispensed. When the pope called on Macauley to help Poland, Macauley turned to corporate America for help... To get donations for Poland, he and some colleagues sat down with lists of the boards of directors from the nation's largest pharmaceutical companies. Among them, the group found, they knew at least one person on every board." Chairman of the Korean War Veterans Memorial advisory board. Personal military decorations included two Silver Stars, the Distinguished Service Medal, the Bronze Star, the Legion of Merit and the Purple Heart, as well as awards from Vietnam, Greece, Italy, Belgium, France, the Soviet Union, Thailand and South Korea. According to Al Martin in an interview with Uri Dowbenko, "Stilwell was also very close to Armitage, Carlucci, and Pete Peterson." According to Al Martin, in his 'The Conspiritors', Stilwell was part of William Casey's (Le Cercle) "Restricted Access Groups". Died in 1991. His son and namesake, who also used the name "Dick", died in a car accident in 2002. His son was a retired colonel.

Strauss, Franz Josef
Sources: November 11, 1977, supposed White House memo K3100092255 on Strauss visiting Cercle Violet in 1977; October 1989 – Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe'; 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', page 192; 1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come – Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei', p. 153-158; 2002, David Rockefeller, 'Memoirs', pg. 412-413, referring to the Pesenti Group
Strauss studied germanistics, history and economics at the University of Munich from 1935 to 1939. In World War II, he served in the german Wehrmacht, on the Western and Eastern Fronts. While on furlough, he passed the German state exams to become a teacher. After suffering from severe frostbites at the Eastern Front at the end of 1942, he served as an Offizier fuer wehrgeistige Fuehrung (kind of political officer) at the anti-aircraft artillery school in Altenstadt, near Schongau. After the war, he was appointed deputy Landrat (county president) of Schongau by the American occupiers and was involved in founding the local (Bavarian) CSU there in 1945, in which Count Hans Huyn and Otto von Habsburg became involved. The national CSU was the CDU. He became a member of the first Bundestag in 1949 and, in 1953, Federal Minister for Special Affairs in the second cabinet of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, in 1955 Federal Minister of Nuclear Energy (supported the idea that Germany should build nuclear weapons), and in 1956 defense minister, charged with the build-up of the new Bundeswehr. Became chairman of the CSU in 1961.Great orator, not unlike Hitler. Forced to step down as defense minister in 1962, in the wake of the Spiegel scandal (he lied to parliament). Held a lakeside talk at the Bohemian Grove in 1962. Minister of finance 1966-1969, in the cabinet of Kurt Georg Kiesinger. August 16, 1969, The Gleaner, 'Britain's new bid to enter the ECM': "The Action Committee for the United States of Europe met for the first time in London on March 11, and expressed the belief that nothing is more important than to strengthen and continue the European integration which the Six have already begun by ensuring that Great Britain joins in. Both the main contenders for the office of President of France [Cercle members Alain Poher and Georges Pompidou] are vying with each other in their declarations that they want Britain in the Common Market, provided she will accept the terms of the Treaty of Rome. The West German Foreign Minister has expressed the belief and hope that negotiations for Britain's entry might begin before the end of the year; his colleague in the Finance Ministry, Herr Strauss, has urged immediate negotiations between Britain and the Six." After the SPD provided the Chancellor in 1969, Strauss became one of the most vocal critics of Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik. Rival of Helmut Kohl (and Helmut Schmidt). The aristocrat Count Hans Huyn was his foreign policy advisor in the Bundestag from 1971 to 1976, and was likely a person involved in creating The 61. Huyn was a good friend of Strauss. From 1978 until his death in 1988, Strauss was minister-president of Bavaria, possibly the most memorable figure to ever hold that office. After Strauss became minister-president of Bavaria, he slowly retreated from German national politics. A major aim of Le Cercle was to influence West German elections to ensure that Franz Joseph Strauss, the ultra right wing leader of the Christian Social Union Party, became Chancellor of Germany. It failed. Strauss was a close friend of Alexandre de Marenches and was a frequent visitor of the SDECE's headquarters during Marenches' time. In late 1977 he went to a meeting of Le Cercle. The Hanns Seidel Stiftung (Foundation), the political trust attached to Strauss' Christian Social Union (CSU) party, is an important group in international parapolitical manipulation. Active in Latin America for the Contras, supporting Mobuto in Zaire, involved in the Fiji coup in 1987. It was caught diverting state development aid from Germany into right-wing party coffers in Ecuador in 1987. Strauss and CSU were the main beneficiaries of identified Pinay Circle activities; i.e. the promotion of right-wing European politicians through Brian Crozier, Robert Moss, Fred Luchsinger of the Neue Zurcher Zeitung and Gerhard Lowenthal, anchorman on current affairs programmes for ZDF television, the major German network. In the end, all Cercle's activities have not brought the desired 'regime change'. Strauss was a great supporter of the Paneuropa Union. July 2005, The Trumphet, 'From the Editor: German Election Crisis—and a New Charlemagne': "The late Herbert W. Armstrong met with Mr. Strauss in 1970. Here is what Mr. Armstrong’s Plain Truth staff wrote, September 1979: “In the World Tomorrow television studios on April 2, 1970, Strauss reemphasized a theme that has been constant throughout his career—the urgent need, from his perspective, of a strong united Europe. Asked why he felt a united Europe was essential to the free world, he answered: ‘A united Europe is more essential now for the free world than it would have been anytime before. … Big powers have been established, the United States of America, Russia, Japan. I think that small and medium-sized European states are no longer able to face what the future demands from all of us. … “‘Therefore my political friends and I have been pleading for years and years now for a united Europe. … We need a strong Europe, a Europe with an attractiveness, a Europe with a fascinating cultural, economic, financial power, and a Europe which is also ready and prepared and capable of taking a greater share of the burden in Atlantic defense.’” The Plain Truth later quoted a Sunday Telegraph article about Strauss, which said that as Germany’s chancellor, “he will go for a tougher and more disenchanted view of détente [peace through negotiation]; a strengthening of nato’s defenses and a much stronger European profile within that alliance, including a new European nuclear profile” (July 9, 1979). (Mr. Stoiber has also been a proponent of German nuclear power.) “Strauss, who more than any man can lay claim to being the architect of the Bundeswehr [Germany’s army], is certain to voice his opinion on this issue and others loud and clear!” (Plain Truth, op. cit.)... In his book [The Grand Design], Strauss wrote, “An alliance of the great power of America with the great power of Europe is another matter. Both of them have an unlimited capacity for development in the economic, financial and technical spheres, and their alliance would enable Europe to return to its true historical function. Europe could again fulfill the historical role which it began to lose at the end of the First World War and which at the end of the Second World War appeared to have gone forever.”... That 1979 Plain Truth article contained some more history we must review... Interestingly, von Habsburg counts Bavarian leader Franz Josef Strauss among ‘the few full-blooded politicians’ who ‘in the case of serious national crises are able to accept responsibility because of their clear-sightedness and indomitableness.’ Von Habsburg says he is ‘personally pretty close to his [Strauss’s] ideas in many ways on the European unity subject... “On the United Nations, he [Otto] has declared that the organization is dominated by ‘anti-European illiterates, despots and cannibals.’... “Possibly von Habsburg’s most controversial suggestion has been his recipe for dealing with national emergencies. In the April 1978 issue of his conservative publication Zeitbühne, he suggested that in certain emergency situations (such as nuclear blackmail or other major acts of terrorism) governments should let a strongman take over for a period of nine months, allowing him to suspend laws and ‘take all measure necessary for the maintenance of the life of the population.’" President of Deutsche Airbus during the 1980's. Died while hunting with Prince Johannes von Thurn und Taxis in 1988. In later years, it came out that Strauss was very corrupt: he accepted bribes, expensive gifts, and visited brothels, which other people paid for him. He and some of his friends have also been suspected of taking bribes from companies like Thyssen, to arrange export licenses for the weapons industry. Strauss also maintained contact with DDR Stasi-spy Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski, with whom he arranged a 3 billion mark deal in 1983 to save the economy of the DDR, a move nobody expected of him. Max Strauss, his oldest son, is an acquaintance of Dieter Holzer and Holger Pfahls, BND agents and politicians who were under investigation for illegal weapon sales for Thyssen. In 2005, Angela Merkel of the CDU, the national sisterparty to Stoiber's Bavarian CSU, became the new chancellor of Germany. Immediately it became clear that the CDU's stance toward Putin is far more hardline than Chancellor Schroder's, who actually was on good terms with Putin. Stoiber, who really wanted to be chancellor himself, only partially supported Merkel, but eventually agreed to become Merkel's Minister of Economic Affairs. Edmund Stoiber was Strauss' political protege, and is now head of the Catholic Christian Social Union (CSU). He's a friend of Pope Benedict XVI and of Austria's extreme-right leader, Jörg Haider. Strauss and Stoiber have done a lot to built up Germany's and Bavaria's economy, including a high-tech industry.

Talal, Hussein bin
Sources: April 6, 2003, The Observer, 'So, Norman, any regrets this time?'; September 5, 2004, Sunday Times, 'Le Cercle of the elite'
King of Jordan from 1952 to 1999. The country defied the west and the other allied leaders by siding with Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War. In 1994 King Hussein led negotiations to end the official state of war with the State of Israel resulting in the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace. The king wrote three books: Uneasy Lies the Head (1962), about his childhood and early years as king, My War With Israel (1969), and Mon Métier de Roi. King Hussein was an avid amateur radio operator. He also loved to fly airplanes (prop and jet) as well as helicopters. February 18, 1977, Washington Post, 'CIA Paid Millions to Jordan's King Hussein': "The Central Intelligence Agency for 20 years has made secret annual payments totaling millions of dollars to King Hussein of Jordan, The Washington Post has learned... President Ford took no steps to stop the covert payments. Last hear Hussein was paid approximately $750,000 by the CIA. President Carter learned of the payoffs earlier this week after this newspaper began its investigation. He ordered that the payments be stopped... The secret arrangement with Hussein had not been disclosed to Carter by the CIA or by any member of the previous administration, including President Ford, former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, or former CIA Director George Bush... As justification for the direct cash payments to Hussein, the CIA claimed that Hussein was allowing U.S. intelligence agencies to operate freely in his strategically placed Middle Eastern country. Hussein himself provided intelligence to the CIA and forwarded money from the payments to other government officials who provided intelligence or cooperated with the CIA. Nonetheless, some CIA officials considered the payments nothing more than "bribes" and reported the matter to President Ford's oversight panel... The payments were first made to Hussein in 1957 during the Eisenhower administration. The initial payments apparently ran in the millions of dollars but they were sharply curtailed to the $750,000 level last year. Hussein was only 21 when he first became a beneficiary of CIA funds. It was a time when Jordan was virtually a ward of the United States and Hussein had little money to support his lifestyle, which earned him the reputation as a "playboy prince." Hussein has a well-publicized taste for sports cars and airplanes. As once previously reported, the CIA has provided Hussein with female companions. The agency also provided bodyguards for Hussein's children when they were abroad in school... Over the years, Hussein has maintained friendly relations with the United States and his country has been the recipient of substantial military and economic aid - about $200 million in loans and grants last year alone. The "No Beef" payments to Hussein were made outside the conventional channel of military and economic assistance. Well-placed sources said that nonetheless the United States has not been able to direct Hussein's overall policy decisions. He has not been a "puppet," the sources said, but he has rarely drifted outside the U.S. orbit."

Tantum, Geoffrey
Sources: June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour' (named as secretary of the Cercle); 23 May-5 June 2001, Punch Magazine, 'Spooks in the House'; September 5, 2004, Sunday Times, 'Le Cercle of the elite' ("thought to include")
An MI6 officer since 1969 who has served in Jordan, Aden and Kuwait. From 1992 until his retirement in late 1995, Tantum was head of MI6's Middle East section. He met with Jonathan Aitken every six weeks. The minister and the MI6 officer traded information and contacts candidly about the Middle East as Aitken had maintained close contact with his Arab business associates. May 21, 1998, The Guardian, 'Aitken lied 'to hide intelligence role'': "The former minister [Aitken] will say he was involved in at least 11 meetings with Geoffrey Tantum, the SIS director responsible for Saudi Arabia, and that, during his weekend at the Paris Ritz on September 17-19, 1993, he was discussing with the Saudis threats from Iranian submarines." Tantum was mentioned as the secretary of Le Cercle in 1997.

Tennant, Sir Peter Frank Dalrymple
Sources: 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', page 193
Born in 1910. Went from Marlborough to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was senior modern language scholar and took a First in that subject two years later. In 1933 he was elected to a fellowship at Queens', and to a university teaching post. Spoke most European languages well, specializing in the Scandinavian tongues; his ear was so keen and his Swedish so perfect that he could not only pass in Stockholm for a native, but could imitate several regional accents as well. His first wife, whom he married in 1934, was Swedish. Colonel Sir Charles Hambro (head of Hambro Bank; close friend of Churchill and the Wallenbergs; head of the SOE 1942-1943; his son went to live with the Wallenberg family during WWII; Knight Commander, Order of the British Empire; corresponded with Leopold Amery in the early 1950s) recruited him into the Special Operations Executive in summer 1940. Both were among its earliest members. Involved in German code breaking early in WWII. Among his many tasks, he helped Sefton Delmer (the Lord Beaverbrook agent who used to be in contact with Hitler's inner circle) with material for his black broadcasts to the German armed forces. He had a spy inside the German legation, for whom he secured British nationality and a new life after the war. Order of the British Empire in 1945. In the spring of 1945 the Foreign Office moved Tennant to Paris, where he spent five years with the title of Information Counsellor. This was, again, a propaganda task, but without the clandestine undertones of his work in Stockholm. Deputy commandant of the British sector in Berlin 1950-1952. Overseas director of the Federation of British Industry (FBI) 1952-1963. In his role at the Federation of British Industry he was much involved in the early debates over Britain and Europe and wrote a very prescient report on the negotiations that led up to the Treaty of Rome of 1957, which established the European Economic Community. In 1954, Humphrey Trevelyan, the British charge d'affaires in Beijing, and Sir Peter Tennant, the overseas director of the Federation of British Industry (FBI), met the Chinese vice-minister for foreign trade, Lei Renmin. As a result of this meeting, and an earlier meeting between Anthony Eden and Zhou Enlai, the Sino-British Trade Committee was established. Companion of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George since 1958. Deputy director-general of the Federation of British Industry from 1963 to 1965. Special adviser to the Federation of British Industry 1964-1965 (the Confederation of British Industry since 1965, a political pressure group which represents about 200,000 businesses in the UK). Director-general of the British National Export Council 1965-1971. Gave a speech to the British Canadian Trade Association in May 1967. Knight Bachelor of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George since 1972. Became a director of C. Tennant, Sons & Co. in January 1972. Joined Barclays Bank International as an Industrial Advisor in February 1972, located at the time at Lombard Street in the City of London, together with the Bank of England and Lloyds. Barclays is one of the primary Pilgrims Society dominated banks; examples are Pilgrims Gordon Adam, Sir Julian Crossley, Lord Carrington, and David Band. The Buxton and Oppenheimer families of the 1001 Club also have been involved with Barclays. Barclays replaced N. M. Rothschild & Sons when they withdrew from their daily gold fix ritual in 2004. Became a director of Prudential Assurance in January 1973. Identified as a director of Barclays International in 1973. Still identified as a Industrial Advisor to Barclays Bank International in 1976 and in 1978. Attended meetings of the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry and became its president in 1976. Remained president until at least the early 1980s. Member of the Council of the Corporation of Foreign Bondholders 1974-1975. Contacted by George W. Ball in August 1976 to co-organize a fundraising to save Canterbury Cathedral from decay. Ball, a Pilgrims Society member closely connected to the major globalist powers in the US, Britain, and France already had recruited Elliot L. Richardson (vice president of the Pilgrims Society since 1979 until at least the mid 1990s; Partner in Milbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy; closely associated with the NSA's legendary PROMIS software), Arthur H. Sulzberger (New York Times publisher who is said to have been recruited in the Mockingbird network; Pilgrims Society member; died in 1968?!), John Lindsay (Scroll & Key; NY mayor; brother Robert V. Lindsay, a J.P. Morgan and Morgan Guarantee Trust employee from 1949 to 1989, was a Pilgrims Society executive since 1991 until at least the mid-1990s, who also sat on the boards of the Fluor Corp. and Russell Reynolds Associates, Inc.), and Walter Cronkite (famous CBS managing editor; Bohemian Grove Hill Billies camp and said to have lent his voice to the Bohemian Owl). Head of a 19-men trade mission to the Caribbean in December 1976, where he met with government officials in Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, and Barbados. Chaired some of the meetings of Le Cercle, according to Brian Crozier, likely somewhere in the 1960s and 1970s. Likely to have been the anonymous host, "a leading figure in the bank", that chaired Crozier's "very secret" Sunday morning , February 13, 1977 meeting at the anonymous "leading City of London bank", that established the private sector intelligence group The 61. Present at the meeting were Brian Crozier, Nicholas Elliott, General Vernon Walters, and several other unidentified people from Germany and the United States. Jean Violet was supposed to attend, but couldn't make it due to ill health. Chairman of the British Committee of the European Cultural Foundation. Joined the board of the International Energy Bank in 1981, which was founded in 1973 by Société Financière Européene (30%), the Bank of Scotland (15%), Barclays International (15%), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (15%), Republic National Bank of Dallas (15%), and Banque Worms (10%). The bank financed worldwide oil and gas explorations, starting with the United States and Europe. November 20, 1986, Daily Telegraph: "The Media Monitoring Unit was conceived and created last year by a small group of self-described Right-of-centre political activists. The driving force is Julian Lewis (part of Crozier's 61)... He runs a political pressure group called Policy Research Associates which pops up now and again in debates on such matters as council corruption, trade union law and CND. Lord Chalfont is a patron as is Norris McWhirter, who founded the Freedom Association, and Edward Leigh, MP... The increasing activity of the PRA and the decision to form the monitoring unit is indicative of a more aggressive approach in Right-of-centre circles to getting across its message... To get the unit off the ground he approached Sir Peter Tennant, 75, a senior City businessman and adviser to the CBI. Tennant in turn drew together a nucleus of sympathisers, mostly from the City, who put up the £25,000-or-so to hire a director, buy a video recorder and publish the report..." Member of the Council for Industrial Design, the academic council of Wilton Park, and the Gabbitas Thring educational trust. Amateur painter and yachtsman. Died in 1996.

Twetten, Thomas
Sources: Simon Regan, 'Who Killed Diana?'
CIA Deputy Director of Operations. Retired in 1995 after a 34 year career at the CIA's clandestine services. Twetten spent the majority of his career in Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East. 1992, Pete Brewton, 'The Mafia, CIA and George Bush', quoting CIA agent Hemmings, who worked under Twetten: "Twetten's decision and that of London station is highly suspect and negligent, as they knew, as I did, that the British government was, along with the British arms industry, Tiny Rowland, Ashraf Marwan and Adnan Khashoggi, his partner, deeply involved in such [arms] trafficking. Obviously, Twetten also knew that North, Shackley, Clines, Hakim, Robert Sensi, and Cyrus Hashemi, and Farhad Azima were also involved in such trafficking, as all these individuals were part of the same network; as him... My refusal to alter my testimony to fit the cover story then, and later in 1989 as a Senate witness, brought me under intense pressure to remain silent or else!! Death, unemployment and loss of access to my children were all used as weapons and threats." April 27, 1992, Time Europe, 'Pan Am 103: Why Did They Die?': "Thomas Twetten, who now commands the CIA's worldwide spy network, was then [1988] chief of Middle East operations based in Langley. He was also Ollie North's CIA contact." In February 1998 it was revealed that he was working outside his office or jurisdiction in a plot by Iraqi Generals to murder Saddam. Supposedly, Clinton himself had approved a feasible death plot. Mysteriously, all the names of the plotters were leaked from Washington and the plot was thwarted. MI6 were actively involved on an operational level directly with Twetten. In all some 120 officers were shot as a result.

Violet, Jean
Sources: November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting from the Langemann papers); October 1989 – Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe'; 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', pages 186, 191-193, and 241; 1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come – Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei', p. 153-158; June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour'; 2002, David Rockefeller, 'Memoirs', pg. 412-413, referring to the Pesenti Group
1994, R.T. Naylor (Professor of Economics at McGill University), 'Hot Money and the Politics of Debt', p. 258: "Violet's political formation came in the 1930s in Le Comite Secret pour l'Action Revolutionnaire (CSAR). A far-right political cult modeled on a Freemasonic movement, complete with Masonic-style rites and rituals..., CSAR was sort of a predecessor of Licio Gelli's P-2. It was intensely secretive in all but its admiration of Franco and Mussolini, and after the war some of its members were accused of being Nazi collaborators. In the 1950s, with his own record pronounced clean, Violet became a collaborator of French intelligence, and an active supporter of Opus Dei." CSAR has been named as one of the more important fronts for the Synarchist Movement of Empire (SME). The CSAR undermined the regular French government and worked to establish what would become the pro-catholic anti-republican Vichy government. October 1989, Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'Pinay 2: Jean Violet': "In 1951 he was approached by Antoine Pinay, who was a cabinet minister at that point. On behalf of some Swiss lawyer Pinay sought to clear up the matter of a Geneva-based firm that had seen its factory in Germany seized by the Nazis during the war. Violet resolved the problem and Pinay was so satisfied he recommend him to the new French intelligence organization, SDECE. Violet duly became an SDECE operative, utilizing a global network of contacts to assist that agency in its work.(2) ..." Violet became involved in psychological warfare for French interests. As a close friend of Antoine Pinay, Violet was a primary founder of Cercle Pinay in the 1950s, which counted the involvement of his close ally Otto von Habsburg. 1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come', p. 153-158: "Rumours of Nazi collaboration led to Violet's arrest following the war, but he was quickly released 'on orders from above'. [2] Shortly afterwards, he offered his services to SDECE, the French counter-espionage establishment referred to in the trade as La Piscine (the Swimming Pool). He joined Antoine Pinay's entourage in 1955. By this time Violet had become close to several Opusian personalities, among them Alfredo Sanchez Bella and Otto von Habsburg... Many Pan-European members belonged to a right-wing association that had little formal structure but became known as the ‘Pinay Group'... Although it met under the auspices of Pinay, the co-ordinator for the Group was Jean Violet, a right-wing Gaullist and friend of Giulio Andreotti [Opus Dei; SMOM]. The Pinay Group was said to be another Opus Dei auxiliary operation, and its principal protagonists, Pinay and Violet, were variously reported to be connected with the Work... In his journeys, Violet came to know Father Yves-Marc Dubois, a French Dominican who was in charge of international relations for his Order... He [Dubois] was described as a 'member of the Vatican's intelligence network, if not its head'. [3]" Violet would cross Dubois path on a regular bases over many years. October 1989, Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'Pinay 2: Jean Violet': "Violet's early post-war deeds also featured a Roman Catholic priest, Father Yves Dubois. Both men figured in the creation of an Institute d'Etudes Diplomatiques, whose student body featured a young Yugoslavian refugee by the name of Jovanovitch. This individual would later acquire U.S. citizenship, call himself Daniel Boyer, and specialize in advising US and French businessmen interested in operating overseas. He would also cross Violet's path at regular intervals. (3) ... The Violet-Dubois combination proved durable and effective. As the Cold War raged, the pair acted as a conduit for SDECE funds used to maintain clandestine Vatican networks in Eastern Europe. During the Algerian war of independence (1954-62) Violet turned up at the United Nations, as part of the French delegation, and worked to shore up the support for France in the course of its traumatic struggle with Algerian nationalists. Not surprisingly, Father Dubois was also present, as part of the Vatican delegation, and he coordinated initiatives with Violet. Finally the man now known as Boyer was in the background; he has admitted to being in contact with Violet during this period." 1997, Robert Hutchinson, 'Their Kingdom Come', p. 153-158: "Violet's boss, General Paul Grossin... was said by some to have transferred fees owing to Violet directly to Father Marmier's 'charities' [anti-Soviet] in Poland. [1]... According to Count Alexandre de Marenches,... Violet was 'given the heave' because he cost the French government more than any other spy on SDECE's long list of secret agents. De Marenches further claimed that Violet had been a triple agent working in addition for the Vatican and the West German BND." 1980, Langemann papers: "Gehlen, who was always interested in the undertaking, its figures, its personalities and its results [of Le Cercle], succeeded in recruiting Violet as a special agent and granted him 6000 DM a month for many years... In our conversations with Violet the Pinay Circle was never mentioned in any depth. However, on General Gehlen's orders, I did once give him, 30,000 DM for this aim." Said to have been involved in the 1970 smear of President Pompidou's wife (the Markovic affair). Approached Brian Crozier in March 1971, after reading an interview with him in the US News and World Report. Francois Duchene, Crozier's former Economist colleague, a director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and one of Jean Monnet's closest associates, introduced Violet to Crozier as a person who represented "a powerful consortium of French business interests." (Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 97) Violet, without giving Crozier ever all the details surrounding his intelligence background, suggested that Crozier's ISC should put together a Study Group to inform Western leaders about the problems inherent the 'détente' process (relaxation of tensions with the USSR), a policy recently pioneered by Henry Kissinger, with the support of David Rockefeller. Violet introduced Crozier to Carlo Pesenti, who in October 1967 had informed and invited David Rockefeller to Le Cercle, and his Cercle. Violet and Crozier's ISC produced the 'European Security and the Soviet Problem' report in January 1972, which was funded by Carlo Pesenti and informed Western political circles about the USSR's subversion techniques. Kissinger, Nixon, Pompidou, Spanish and German ministers, and the Pope all received copies of the report. Launched the quarterly jounal Le Monde Moderne around this time with funds from Carlo Pesenti. At about the same time, Violet, together with Otto von Habsburg, founded the Académie Européenne des Sciences Politiques, a Brussels-based ultra-conservative Paneuropa think tank. Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 99: "Another of Violet's initiatives at that time was undertaken from Brussels. The operator Violet had chosen was an eccentric man, with the delectable name of Florimond Damman. Having made a small fortune from property deals, he ran a tiny business outfit with the grandiloquent name of Académie Européenne des Sciences Politiques. The three of us - Damman, Violet and I - drafted an appeal for 'Peace without Frontiers', in which we defined our concept of a true détente." The fascist Belgian prime minister Paul Vanden Boeynants, who was a key player in the Belgian far-right shadow state that emerged in the 1970s; and Count Alain de Villegas, key player in Violet's Sniffer Device affair, a mystic, and a staunch believer that the UFO phenomenon is real, were among the members of Académie Européenne des Sciences Politiques. Damman was a member of the World Anti-Communist League (WACL) and a friend of CIA agent Carl Armfelt, who was a rabid anti-communist propagandist active in northern Europe, suspected of involvement in illegal arms deals. Like with Pinay, Violet became a good friend of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, who had become a member of Pinay's political party in 1956. His father, Edmond Giscard d'Estaing, was a close associate of Jean Frederich Bloch Laine, the Lazard banker who supposedly was a key member in the French Synarchist Movement of Empire. Post WWII, Edmond had some very significant connections to Opus Dei through his close associate Prince Jean de Broglie, who had many connections to both Opus Dei and people in the Paneuropa movement. Edmond also got people on the board of his bank, Banque des Interets Francais, who supposedly were some of the most influential Opus Dei members in Europe. Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, a member of the Paneuropa Union, was president of France from 1974 to 1981. In 1980, Violet, in ill health, asked Crozier to take over the presidency of Le Cercle. Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 191-192: "It was not until the spring of 1993 that I learned the details of Jean Violet's real secret service role when General De Gaulle was in power. A background document was given to me by of of Violet's ex-colleagues. Ironically, a few years before Gabriel Decazes [pseudonym] and I started spying on De Gaulle [about 1965], Violet was masterminding a Service Spécial to promote the General's objectives in defense and foreign policy. The document began with a paragraphy of wistful praise for Britain's remarkable achievements in intelligence and clandestine action. But France, too, offered a precedent: Louis XV [de Bourbon; 1710-1770; his grandson was overthrown during the French revolution] had set up a special service know to the few who were aware of it as the Secret du Roi. This service reported directly to the King, bypassing the Foreign Ministry of the day. Only two people were aware of de Gaulle's latter-day model: General Grossin, the then head of the SDECE [from 1957 to 1962], and a certain 'Monsieur X'. It required no great deductive powers to assume that Monsieur X had to be Maître Violet, but Jean refused to comment when I asked him. My other source, however, confirmed my supposition. No wonder, in retrospect, that Violet's shadowy role and apparently bottomless purse stirred resentful envy among his colleagues and poisoned Alexandre de Marenches's mind against Violet, whom he had never met. By far the dominant theme in de Gaulle's foreign policy (as Violet interpreted it) was Franco-German reconcillation. A genius at (non-violent) operations of influence, Violet played an historically key role between 1957 and 1961 in bringing about this rapproachement, which is the real core of the European Community. He had developed a close friendship with Antoine Pinay, who had served as French Premier in 1951 under the unstable Fourth Republic. At a lower level, a complementary role was played by his SDECE colleague Antoine Bonnemaison. Violet was the go-between in secret meetings between Pinay and the West-German Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, which culminated in the Franco-German Treaty of January 1963 [Treaty of Elysée]... The Pinay Cercle was a natural offshoot of Jean Violet's Franco-German activities. To describe it as a 'forum' is strictly accurate. There were no members in the formal sense. It was an informal group of broadly likeminded people, who met twice a year, once in Amerika, once in Europe. Usually, some distinguished figure was invited to speak... Within the wider Cercle, a smaller gathering called the Pinay Group met on occasion to discuss possible action." Violet is said to have been involved with the Mont-Pelerin Society, another influential Pan-Europa outfit.

Violet, Paul
Sources: October 1989 – Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe'
Son of Le Cercle founder and president Jean Violet. One of president Chirac's closest advisors, at least in the 1970s and 1980s. Le Canard Enchaîné, a French satirical magazine, once termed Paul Violet Chirac's 'adjudant'. Anno 2006, he's national secretary of the Mouvement Républicain et Citoyen (MRC), a Republican party in France, and vice president of l’Académie du Gaullisme.
Chirac, a "neo-Gaullist", was prime minister of France from 1974 to 1976 under Giscard and from 1986 to 1988 under Mitterrand. Georges Pompidou regards him as his protege. Chirac was chairman of the Rassemblement pour la République (RPR), mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1983, and is the president of France since 1995. In December 1974, then Vice President Saddam Hussein invited then French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac to Baghdad. Chirac accepted and visited Iraq in 1975. Hussein approved a deal granting French oil companies a number of privileges plus a 23 percent share of Iraqi oil. Chirac agreed to sell two reactors to Iraq, which would be repeatedly sabotaged and finally bombed by Israel. The Iraqis purchased a 70-megawatt reactor, along with six charges of 26 points of uranium enriched to 93 percent -- enough weapons-grade uranium to produce three to four nuclear devices. Iraq also purchased a one-megawatt research reactor and France agreed to train 600 Iraqi nuclear technicians and scientists -- the core of Iraq’s nuclear capability in later years. French intelligence chief Alexandre de Marenches assisted Chirac in this effort. Chirac has been pursuing an European agenda that gives as much power as possible to France. Chirac went on national TV in April 2005 trying to persuade the French people to vote in favor of the newly proposed European Constitution. The reasons he cited was that a no "would halt the European project in its tracks, and pave the way to an unregulated, uncontrolled free-market world, dominated by the United States." Even though Giscard was largely behind the constitution, he is a great rival of Chirac.

Volcker, Paul A.
Sources: November 1988 – Issue 17, Lobster Magazine, 'Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith' (quoting from the Langemann papers)
Volcker was born on September 1927 in Cape May, New Jersey. He earned a bachelor of arts degree, summa cum laude, from Princeton in 1949, and a master of arts degree in political economy and government from the Harvard University Graduate School of Public Administration in 1951. Research assistant in the research department of the New York Fed during the summers of 1949 and 1950. Pilgrims Society member and later Rockefeller Foundation vice-chair Robert Vincent Roosa was his mentor there, and Paul Volcker became part of his 'Brain trust', or 'Roosa bloc' in the following years. Volcker would also become a member of the Pilgrims Society. From 1951 to 1952, he was Rotary Foundation Fellow at the London School of Economics (Rotary International and the Lions Clubs are still seen today by some as the most important recruiting centers for the Masonic movement). He returned to the New York Fed as an economist in the research department in 1952, and special assistant in the securities department from 1955 to 1957. Financial economist at Chase Manhattan Bank 1957-1961. Director of the Office of Financial Analysis at the Treasury 1962-1963. Deputy Undersecretary for Monetary Affairs at the Treasury 1963-1965. Rejoined Chase Manhattan as vice president and director of forward planning 1965-1968. Undersecretary of the Treasury for Monetary Affairs 1969-1974. Senior fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University for the 1974-1975 academic year. Director Council on Foreign Relations 1975-1979 & 1988. President Federal Reserve Bank of New York 1975-1979. On July 26, 1979 the New York Times stated: "David Rockefeller, the chairman of Chase, and Mr. Roosa were strong influences in the Mr. Carter decision to name Mr. Volcker for the Reserve Board chairmanship." Chairman Federal Reserve System 1979-1987. Identified by BND officer Hans Langemann as a person who attended the December 1, 1979 meeting of Le Cercle in the Madison Hotel in Washington. Others that attended the meeting were the German Karl-Heinz Narjes (Bundestag; soon went to the ECC), William Colby (the recently retired CIA director at the time), Ed Feulner (president of the Heritage Foundation), Julian Amery (later chairman of Le Cercle; Privy Councillor; father was one of the closest Rothschild allies in building up Israel), and Jean Violet (French intelligence officer; Habsburg employee; Le Cercle co-founder and chairman; Fascist militant before WWII). Volcker became a member of the advisory board of Power Corporation in 1988 and is a friend to Canadian Paul G. Desmarais, Sr., a Privy Councillor and controlling shareholder of Power Corporation since 1968 (Desmarais and the Belgian Albert Frère jointly own about half of the major industries in France and Belgium, including Suez, Société Générale, Total, Imerys, and Groupe Bruxelles Lambert). Director of Prudential Insurance 1988-2000. Chairman of Wolfensohn & Co. in New York 1988-1996. North American chairman of the Trilateral Commission 1991-2001. Chairman of the newly created J. Rothschild, Wolfensohn & Company from March 1992 to 1995, Wolfensohn & Co.'s London-based joint venture. Visited Bilderberg in 1997. Attended meetings of the Ditchley Foundation and has chaired some of them. Advisor to the Japan Society and the International House. Member of the advisory board of Hollinger, together with Henry Kissinger, Richard Perle, and Zbigniew Brzezinski. Director of UAL Corporation, Bankers Trust New York Corporation, and Nestle, S.A. Director United States/Hong Kong Economic Cooperation Committee. Public member of the Board of Governors of the American Stock Exchange American Stock Exchange. Honorary trustee of the Aspen Institute. American Council on Germany, and the American Assembly. Co-chairman of the advisory board of Leadership Forum International and a principal of the Council for Excellence in Government. Member Circle of Presidents RAND Corporation, which means he has donated at least tens of thousands of dollars if not millions. Trustee International Accounting Standards Committee. Honorary chairman Financial Services Volunteer Corps, a firm founded by Cyrus Vance and John C. Whitehead in 1990. Honorary chairman Committee to Encourage Corporate Philanthropy. Chairman Independent Inquiry Committee into the Oil-For-Food program, which also employed Rockefeller’s granddaughter, attorney Miranda Duncan. Chairman board of trustees Group of Thirty (2005). Paul Volcker is a visitor of the Bohemian Grove camp Mandalay. Director of the United Nations Association of the United States of America 2000-2004. Director of the Fund for Independence in Journalism. Wrote the foreword of George Soros' 2003 book 'The Alchemy of Finance'. Director of the Institute for International Economics, Washington, headed by Peter G. Peterson. Other directors of the institute are Maurice R. Greenberg and David Rockefeller. Trustee of the American Assembly anno 2005, together with Admiral Bobby Ray Inman (director ONI; director DIA; director NSA; deputy director CIA; director Wackenhut; director SAIC; Trilateral Commission; chairman of the "JPL Oversight Committee", which is not supposed to exist), David Gergen (Bohemian Grove; CFR; Trilateral Commission), and Frank A. Weil (governor Atlantic Institute; CFR). The American Assembly is sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation.

Wilson, William A.
Sources: 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', pages 186, 191-193, and 241
Born in 1914. BA Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and a Doctor of Laws, Honoris Causa from Assumption College, Barry University, and Pepperdine University. Chief Engineer of Wilson Oil Tools from 1938 to 1955. Chairman of Wilson Oil Tools from 1955 to 1961 when the company was sold to Joy Manufacturing. Active in real estate development in California from 1961 through 1980. Director Jorgensen Steel Co. from 1973 to 1984. Active in ranching and farming in California and Mexico since 1980. Reagan's liaison with Le Cercle and The 61. Personal representative of President Reagan to the Vatican 1981-1984. Director of Pennzoil Company from 1983 to 1987. United States Ambassador to the Vatican 1984-1986. Because of the opposition of the American Catholic bishops to the Reagan administration's economic and nuclear policies, some bishops feared the administration would use its ambassador to the Holy See to attack them in Rome. One archbishop claimed that Ambassador Wilson gave a list of twenty or thirty troublesome bishops to the Vatican. Wilson denied this. Again director Jorgensen Steel Co. from 1986 to 1991. According to Commodore Applied Technologies, Inc., of which Wilson is a director since 2002: "Mr. Wilson is a Trustee of Saint John's Hospital and a member of the Knights of Malta." His Who's Who confirms this.

Other

Head of Dutch intelligence
Sources: 1993, Alan Clark, 'Diaries', p. 369-374 ( only description given is "Head of Dutch intelligence")
British politician Alan Clark described how he went to the 1990 Le Cercle meeting in Oman and met the head of Dutch intelligence when visiting the bathroom. Clark didn't mention the name of this person, but there are two possibilities. Karel Meulmeester of the IDB, the Dutch foreign intelligence agency (stood in close contact with the CIA, MI6, and the Mossad), is the most likely candidate.
IDB (former Dutch foreign intelligence agency) head Karel M. Meulmeester: As head of the IDB he incurred the anger of virtually his entire staff (at least 18 of the 22, including all 3 of his deputies), because he was very antisocial and hopelessly corrupt. On top of that, Meulmeester managed a secret annual fund of about $350,000 of which nobody knew what it was used for. He put phone taps on his own personnel or even on people that had left the IDB. At times, Meulmeester would go off to secret meetings in different parts of the world. Nobody would know any details of his location or what he would be discussing. In the early 1990s these dissatisfactions exploded. At the same time, Gladio was exposed in Italy and it became known that the Dutch version, Intelligence & Operations (I&O), was located at the IDB headquarters (at least, the Operations section). They had their attic stuffed with inflatable rubber boats, diving equipment, etc. As a result the IDB was dissolved in 1994, but not before a small group of intelligence officials had secretly been transferred to another government department while keeping close contact with the Raad van State (Dutch Privy Council; official head is the Queen). The ever-protected Meulmeester was one of them. Against all regulations, most of the archives of the IDB were destroyed. Meulmeester later became an advisor on data protection to the United Nations Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. This organization checks if countries comply with the regulations set at the Chemical Weapons Convention. Very little is known about Meulmeester and unless he has been in the news for only a very brief period.
BVD (former Dutch domestic intelligence; now AIVD) head Arthur Docters van Leeuwen: Born in 1945. Went to the gymnasium and Law school. Became an established attorney and liberal politician. Produced a bundel of erotic stories in 1971. Head of the BVD 1989-1995. Attorney-general and chairman of the Council of Attorney-Generals 1995-1998. Chairman of the Autoriteit Financiële Markten (Authority Financial Markets; foundation that looks after the Dutch financial market; his predecessor was a member of the Peace Parks Club) since 1999. Quite a bit more prominent than Meulmeester and his (former) IDB. The pro-Bernhard/pro-colonial group within the BVD initially founded part of the stay-bihind networks in the Netherlands and visited Col. Antoine Bonnemaison's gatherings, which were quite similar to Le Cercle.

Pompidou, Georges
October 1989 – Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe' (someone who the Cercle "forged links with")
Born in 1911. Lycee Louis-le-Grand in Paris. prestigious Ecole Normale Superieure. In France, "normaliens" form a powerful, small elite that serves as part of the country's most exclusive "old boy" network. Appointed professor of French, Latin and Greek at Marseilles in 1935, and later taught in Paris. Served as soldier in WWII, trying to defend the Maginot Line. Teacher during WWII. Wrote a classmate in 1944, Rene Brouillet, who had become deputy director of de Gaulle's staff, and asked him for a job in De Gaulle's staff. Pompidou got a job and would write every morning a one-sheet summary of the political situation and current events in France, which would be given to De Gaulle. De Gaulle became very impressed with Pompidou's concise summaries of complicated subjects, but briefly left politics in 1946, because he disagreed with the constitution of the Fourth Republic. Pompidou had to move into a new field and was appointed to the State Council, a sort of supreme court for administrative matters, although he had no legal training. Several months later, in 1947, De Gaulle organized the Rassemblement du Peuple Francais (RPF; Rally of the French People), the first Gaullist party. Pompidou became the key liaison officer between De Gaulle and his parliamentary troops in the RPF. In 1954, an old friend, Rene Fillon, a former professor who gave private lessons to Baron Guy de Rothschild when the Baron was a child, and who had become an official at the Rothschild Bank, arranged a job for Pompidou at this bank. Baron Guy, who knew about Pompidou's close links with de Gaulle, appointed him to a minor post. Eventually Pompidou became general manager of the Rothschild Frères from 1956 to 1962. He also became a director in 4 to 5 other companies. The Fourth Republic was tainted by political instability, failures in Indochina and inability to resolve the Algerian question. Hard-right French elements desperately tried to keep Algeria under French control, and organized a coup on the weak French government. Governor general of Algeria, Jacques Soustelle, an old friend of De Gaulle during WWII, became a major organizer of this coup to reinstate De Gaulle as president of France and to bring about a more right-wing constitution. In 1958, with the help of the Army and the population at large, this coup succeeded. Mitterrand, who was opposed to De Gaulle's return to the presidency, allegedly narrowly escaped an assassination later that year. The French people first noticed Georges Pompidou when De Gaulle was recalled to the presidency in January 1959. During the transition ceremony at the Champs-Elysees, De Gaulle pulled a plain-clothed man, Georges Pompidou, in the car while leaving president Coty, together with the president of the Senate, and the newly designated prime minister behind on the sidewalk. A few days later this mysterious man left the Elysee and returned to his Rothschild bank, of which he was general manager. Pompidou had been given a six-month leave for "personal reasons", and that leave was over. In September 1959, De Gaulle announced he was going to grant Algeria its independence, which was a slap in the face for the group that had brought him to power. When the cease-fire was actually arranged and the deal for independence was almost done, the Jacques Soustelle group created the OAS, a terrorist organizations that did everything it could to destabilize the cease-fire. It was involved in thousands of bombings, including many civilian targets, and organized several assassination attempts on De Gaulle. In the end, the OAS failed completely in its mission. Pompidou dined frequently with De Gaulle at Elysee Palace from 1958 to 1960, with the General often asking Pompidou advice on public and private affairs. He was elected prime minister by De Gaulle in 1962, which surprised people as Pompidou had never served in a public office; he had come directly from the Rothschild bank. Soon, Pompidou would be seen as De Gaulle's eminence grise. In his six years in office he had time to replace his men in all of France's key posts. June 25, 1969, San Mateo Times, 'French Foreign Minister Opposed De Gaulle': "One of the more interesting cabinet appointments made by new French President Georges Pompidou is his selection of Maurice Schumann [Roman catholic who worked closely with Robert Schumann, De Gaulle and the UN in the aftermath of WWII] to be his foreign minister... In 1962 he [Maurice Schumann] became minister for development under Pompidou who then was premier. After a month, he quit in protest against De Gaulle's nationalistic policies... Also contributing to the "European" flavor of the new cabinet was the appointment of Valery Giscard d'Estaing to the post of finance minister. Giscard d'Estaing, a finance minister under De Gaulle for four years and a possible presidential candidate seven years from now, recently joined the action committee for the United States of Europe. This is an international group led by Jean Monet which favors both British membership in the Common Market and the political integration of Europe." Hired by Charles de Gaulle to manage the Anne De Gaulle Foundation for Down's Syndrome (de Gaulle's daughter Anne had the disease). April 17, 1963, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, 'Pompidou, Gen. De Gaulle's Premier Appears to Have Good Hold on Office': "After ex-Gen. Edmond Jouhaud was sentenced to death for treason, De Gaulle seemed determined not to grant clemency. Jouhaud had taken part in the abortive generals' revolt in Algiers in 1961, and later helped form the terrorist Secret Army Organization [OAS]. Pompidou went to De Gaulle and told him, "If Jouhaud is executed, I resign." After a delay, De Gaulle granted clemency." Pompidou was very influential in his final years in office and dominated the National Assembly, forcing it to approve government programs unchanged even though the Gaullists were outnumbered by their opponents. Massive student and workers protests erupted in May 1968, as a result of a traditionalistic and repressive government (and likely with the clandestine support of the pro-NATO group since De Gaulle had withdrew from NATO in '66 and dispelled all Allied forces from France '67). The state had a monopoly on television and radio broadcasts, and woman did not have a lot of rights compared to men. Pompidou remained strong during these protests, as opposed to De Gaulle and most other public officials. Responsible for the crushing Gaullist victory that followed. A week after the votes were counted, De Gaulle again astounded everyone by firing Pompidou. Pompidou would privately state that De Gaulle made a big mistake and probably wouldn't remain president until 1972. He was right, as De Gaulle resigned in 1969 after having felt he had lost populair support. Pompidou was elected president of France in 1969, after De Gaulle's resignation, defeating acting president Alain Poher (Le Cercle). Though a Gaullist, Pompidou was more moderate than de Gaulle, notably allowing the United Kingdom to join the European Community in 1973. Earlier, in May 1972, he and British prime minister Edward Heath set up the Franco-British Council. Member of the Paneuropa Union and suggested that Otto von Habsburg became the new president of the Paneuropa Union in 1973. Died from Kahler's disease in 1974 while in office, which shocked most of the public. Georges Pompidou had one foster son, Alain Pompidou, now president of the European Patent Office. His private life has always been so protected that most Frenchmen did not know that he had a son.
Internationally, De Gaulle rebuffed the US, UK and USSR, pushing for an independent France with its own nuclear weapons, and strongly encouraged a "Free Europe", believing that a confederation of all European nations would restore the past glories of the great European empires ("Europe, from the Atlantic to the Urals"). He set about building Franco-German cooperation as the cornerstone of the European Economic Community (EEC), paying the first state visit to Germany by a French head of state since Napoleon. Signed the Franco-German Treaty of January 1963 with Adenauer, in which Jean Violet played a significant role behind the scenes. The Franco-German Treaty of Elysée is a relatively unknown agreement between France and Germany in which both agreed to consult with each other on important foreign policy and economic issues, ahead in time of general EEC meetings. In February 1966, France withdrew from the common NATO military command, but remained within the organization. Having vetoed Britain's entry into the EEC a second time, in June 1967, he condemned the Israelis for their occupation of the West Bank and Gaza following the Six Days War. This was a major change in French policy. Until then, France had been a staunch ally, helping Israel militarily and jointly planning the Suez Campaign in 1956. This change was brought about because de Gaulle was angry that Israel had ignored his advice to let the Arabs attack first and had instead launched a preemptive strike. Israel's leadership, stung by what it considered its capricious abandonment in the face of de Gaulle's desire to appease the Arabs, turned towards the United States for military support. In July 1967, de Gaulle visited Canada, which was celebrating its centennial with a world's fair, Expo '67. On 24 July, speaking to a large crowd from a balcony at Montreal's city hall, de Gaulle uttered Vive le Québec! (Long live Quebec!) then added, Vive le Québec libre! (Long live free Québec!). De Gaulle left Canada of his own accord the next day without proceeding to Ottawa as scheduled. The speech caused outrage in Canada; it led to a serious diplomatic rift between the two countries. Nixon's first foreign visit after his election was to de Gaulle in 1969. They both shared the same non-Wilsonian approach to world affairs, believing in nations and their relative strengths, rather than in ideologies, international organizations, or multilateral agreements. De Gaulle is famously quoted for calling the United Nations le Machin ("the thing").

Rowland, Tiny
Sources: Simon Regan, 'Who Killed Diana?' ("associate member"; likely no evidence of membership)
David Stirling, Lord Lucan, James Goldsmith, and Tiny Rowland, were all members of The Clermont gambling club in the 1960s. During this time they were thinking about a fascist coup against the Labour government. The tycoon made his fortune in the mines of Africa before moving to Britain and buying the Observer newspaper. Became the chairman of Lonrho (London-Rhodesia) in 1961, became very popular with the shareholders, but was eventually ousted in 1994. In 1973 a group of Lonrho directors tried to oust Mr Rowland, claiming that he had bribed African leaders and violated international sanctions imposed on Rhodesia. The then-Prime Minister, Ted Heath, referred to his company around the same time as the "unacceptable face of British capitalism" because of its attempt to avoid tax. The former editor of the Observer, Donald Trelford, who worked with Mr Rowland for several years, called him one of the most remarkable and beguiling people in British life since World War II. "He had a vision of Africa and its potential resources that was like Cecil Rhodes," he said. But Mr Trelford added that after building up a huge conglomerate, "he virtually destroyed it by his single-minded obsession about getting Harrods". Lonrho tried to persuade the government to investigate the circumstances surrounding the al-Fayeds' acquisition of the store. He spent much of the rest of his career pursuing a feud with al-Fayed. Tiny is said to have been an intelligence asset. From 1974 and on Tiny financed the war of UNITA (Angola) rebel Jonas Savimbi (said to be a British intelligence asset himself). He and other members of Lonrho even visited Savimbi and his headquarters. The Soviets were supporting their more communist opponents, the MPLA. UNITA started out as a Maoist rebel group. During the 1980s, it turns out that Michael Johns of the Heritage Foundation (Foundation is represented in the Le Cercle) was also supporting UNITA, together with the Reagan administration. Also during the 1980s, Tiny was accused of helping the Marxist government of Mozambique manage its agricultural resources, and he increased Lonrho's South African holdings while sanctions against the apartheid government were still in place. Then in 1992, Rowland controversially sold a stake in some of Lonrho's hotels to the Libyan leader, Colonel Gadaffi, only three years after the Lockerbie bombing which was attributed to Libyan terrorists. Rowland has been a close associate of people like Ashraf Marwan, Gaddafi, Ahmed al-Dam, and Adnan Khashoggi. Marwan, son-in-law of President Nasser, was the head of Egyptian intelligence and a big time real estate buyer in Paris and London. His nickname in Egypt was "Dr. Death", because he ran a bunch of sophisticated torture chambers in the period 1974-1978. In early 1986 he led a secret delegation of Lonrho executives, lawyers and security personnel to Egypt to obtain information about the Al Fayed family. Al-Dam is a cousin of Gaddafi and runs Libyan intelligence. Al-Dam and his brother Sayad are said to have been instrumental in financing many terrorist attacks of Abu Nidal and his Abu Nidal Organization. Khashoggi, an international arms dealer and associate of the British crown, received an 8.6 million pounds loan from Tiny Rowland in 1985-1986. Khashoggi had some financial trouble at the time. Rowland secretly funded the documentary 'The Maltese Double Cross – Lockerbie', which questioned the claim that Libya was behind the bombing.

Soros, George
Sources: Mark Shernick, 'Did Le Cercle kill Diana?' (other names mentioned overlap with other reports, but still)
A Hungarian-born Jewish-American businessman. He is famous as a currency speculator and a philanthropist. In 1969 he co-founded the Quantum Fund with Jim Rogers, which is located at the tax haven of the Netherlands Antilles. Trustee chairman of the Central European University. Chairman of Soros Fund Management and the Open Society Institute. He is also a former member of the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations. Dr Mahathir Mohamad, prime minister of Malaysia, accused Soros of spearheading the manipulation that led to the 1997 East Asian financial crisis. He also accused him of having played a central role in the gigantic 1997 Asian fires. Accused of heading the successful movement to privatize the Human Genome Project in 2003, whereby many crucial patents went to Rockefeller University. George is known around the world for the role he played in Georgia's 2003 Rose Revolution, where his Open Society Institute had been financing the western-oriented side. Soros has been accused of doing the same in the Ukrainian revolution of 2004. Other names accused in the Ukrainian revolution affair were Mark Brzezinski (son of Cercle member Zbigniew Brzezinski), the National Democratic Institute (chaired by Madeleine Albright), and the Eurasia Foundation (president = Bilderberg / CFR / Carnegie / Rhodes scholar). Putin raided the Open Society offices in Russia after accusations that he was financing a coup there too. In the United States he is known for donating large sums of money to in an attempt to defeat President George W. Bush for reelection. Soros is a trustee of the Center for Russian Leadership Development (Open World Program), together with Bohos Bill Frist and James W. Symington. The program has brought nearly 4,000 young Russian leaders from 87 regions to 680 communities in the United States, including 150 members of the two houses of the Russian Parliament, the Federation Council and the State Duma. It has also brought 169 Russian judges to the United States. These Russians will return to Russia after having experienced the American way of life. Honorary director of Refugees International, together with Frank Wisner. Director of the International Crisis Group. Pilgrims Society member Richard Holbrooke has been chairman of the institute. George is close with Cercle member Sir James Goldsmith, a person intermarried with the Rothschild family. Cercle member Paul Volcker wrote the foreword of George Soros' 2003 book 'The Alchemy of Finance'.

Plus...