The Still Before the Storm
by Ken Cook
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The Still Before the Storm
By all appearances, things are business as usual in Washington.
There is the traditional budget bickering this time of the year, the
partisan sniping and the backstabbing among Republican
presidential hopefuls angling for pole position next year.
Meanwhile, President Clinton and his ambitious wife manage to
hold a comfortable approval rating in the polls, enjoy favorable
press and seemingly have managed to shrug off persistent
"Whitewater" allegations that have dogged his presidency.
But don't be lulled by the mainstream media, which has been hard
at work pooh-poohing these corruption charges and doubts about
the official "suicide" of former White House Deputy Counsel
Vincent W. Foster. This is just the eerie still before a storm. A
hurricane lurks just over the horizon. Thunderheads are gathering
and looming darker. Distant lightning can be seen but not yet
heard. Straws are starting to blow in the wind.
This government may be on the threshold of upheaval
unprecedented since the Civil War. That is the cryptic message
coming from multiple well-connected sources close to the
intelligence community, who say big things are quietly afoot that
could fundamentally shuffle this country's political deck. And that
may be just fine with Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.),
who sources say is quietly maneuvering to use this impending
turmoil not just to "re-engineer government" but to purge both
political parties and effect what amounts to a bloodless coupe
d'etat.
Swept away will be not only a raft of big-name Democratic senators
and congressmen, but also many prominent, oldline Republicans
who have been feeding at the trough of corruption for years. It
won't stop with politicians, either. Prominent Wall Streeters,
bureaucrats, military officers and a slew of intelligence bigshots are
also said to be about to take a fall. Well over 300 names are said to
be involved in the scandal.
"Apocalypse soon!" predicts P.P. Willie.
P.P. Willie is actually a dog. But it is also the pen name for a
legendary World War II military intelligence veteran, now living in
St. Petersburg, Fla., who writes for a semi-weekly newsletter called
WASHINGTON REPORT. It is a pithy, irreverent Capitol gossip
sheet with a penchant for pink paper. But it is read with
considerable interest by its 5,000 subscribers - mostly in
Washington and overseas - because Willie is known to be well-
connected within the intelligent community. In the past he has been
uncannily accurate about goings-on in the spook world. And times
there now are very troubled.
Willie's latest:
"Remember reading about TEA POT DOME? How about
WATERGATE? Then came IRAN-CONTRA. Not bad. All the past
WASHINGTON political SCANDALS are ITTY BITTY compared
to one that should surface next year, about early spring.
"You don't suppose a few GOOD GUYS in the CIA, FBI, IRS, and
NSA (they are not many, but they exist) are fed up with tucking
their tails and running in the face of WHITE HOUSE pressure?
What if they went public with TRUE DOCUMENTED stories of
ESPIONAGE, MURDER, TAX EVASION, DRUG DEALING,
MILLIONS OF DOLLARS STASHED IN OFFSHORE BANK
ACCOUNTS AND OTHER BIG TIME HANKY PANKY at the
very TIP TOP of the WASHINGTON manure pile? The MAJOR
MEDIA would not want to embarrass the LIBERAL DARLINGS.
But WHAT IF A LONDON newspaper and PINK newsletter broke
the story? Talk RADIO would then spread the word across the
nation...The odds are this scandal will break. We hear it's a DONE
DEAL."
Whispers of such a spilling of the beans are being heard from
multiple, separate intelligence sources. Specifically, as reported in
the August and October editions of MEDIA BYPASS, a small,
vigilante team of CIA computer hackers dubbed the Fifth Column
has managed to penetrate Swiss and other foreign banks to quietly
withdraw what is now an astounding $2.5 billion in illicit money
from coded accounts they have identified as belonging to
government figures.
Starting in 1991, this five-man Fifth Column team has been using
its own Cray supercomputer to break into foreign bank computers,
download vast libraries of data and trace this money to a wide range
of illegal activities, from kickbacks on drug and arms deals to
insider trading profits, software piracy and the sale of state secrets.
Oh yes, don't forget tax evasion.
The money has been moved to a U.S. Treasury holding account at
several Federal Reserve Banks, escrowed for use by the CIA if and
only if the CIA gets rid of its own bad apples. How could the
government hide that much money, denying under Freedom of
Information Act requests that it even exists? Just ask the National
Reconnaissance Office, the government's spy satellite agency,
which recently fessed up to having $1.7 billion stashed in secret
accounts.
More important then the money, however, are the NAMES. Who
had these accounts? Are they still in office? Who has the list and
the proof? Are they using this information to extort political
blackmail? Will the bad guys be able to buy their way out of
exposure? One thing is certain: Whoever controls this phantom
roster of corrupt politicians and money men has this government's
private parts in a tightening vise. One man who may know is
Charles S. Hayes, an irascible Kentucky computer salvage dealer
and recently-retired CIA contractor believed to be part of, or
closely involved with, this Fifth Column.
Hayes, corroborating P.P. Willie's report, does declare that all the
names will come out. Eventually. "When we get good and ready,"
Hayes says. The Powers That Be can do little to stop him. Any
move against the three remaining Fifth Column compatriots (one
has died and another is disabled) would be certain to unleash the
information in a flood.
At least one big name has already been revealed: Vince Foster.
Multiple sources say one of Foster's several Swiss accounts was
raided just before his death of $2.73 million in proceeds from the
sale of sensitive codes and other secrets to Israel's Mossad. Which
may explain why the government is so anxious to portray Foster's
death as a simple suicide. In reality, it could be the loose thread
that unravels a massive tapestry of corruption.
That suicide cover story is rapidly fraying, despite intense efforts
by the White House and Washington establishment to hold it
together. For instance, credible independent handwriting analysts
concluded in late October that Foster's supposed suicide note is a
forgery. Indeed, there are a number of recent tell-tale events that
suggest that something very big is at hand. Among them:
- CIA briefings. Beginning in late October, high-level CIA officials
began sensitive one-on-one briefings with key members of
Congress and those with intelligence committee assignments. No
staff members are allowed. All parties are sworn to secrecy. Less
than a dozen lawmakers are involved. The subject, according to two
sources: Espionage activities of Vincent Foster and his alleged
partner - First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton - on behalf of Israel's
Mossad and perhaps other foreign governments.
The purpose of these briefings appears to be to prep key leaders for
cataclysmic political events ahead, including the likely indictment
and possible flight to a foreign country of the First Lady and what
would surely be the inevitable removal of Bill Clinton from office.
- Resignations. There has been an unusually large number of
veteran congressmen and senators announcing their resignations,
retirements or switching parties. Among them, Sen. Sam Nunn (D-
Ga.), former chairman and now ranking minority member of the
powerful Armed Services Committee. Another is Rep. Norman
Minetta (D-Calif.), former chairman of the pork-laden House
Transportation Committee. The official explanation: It's no fun now
that the Republicans control Congress.
But sources claim the real reason is that some of these departees
have been quietly confronted with evidence that they took bribes or
payoffs through Swiss or other offshore bank accounts. Rumor has
it that about 30 current members of the House and Senate ahve
been identified as having such foreign slush-fund accounts and that
Gingrich is trying to weed them out before the names become
public.
[Since this article was written, three more senators have announced
their retirements. Schroeder of Colorado; Hatfield of Oregon; and
Simpson of Wyoming. This is now the most retirements in
Congress since 1896. Jim Norman was on several radio talk shows
recently stating that Schroeder and Hatfield have been presented
with evidence of these secret Swiss accounts. The Simpson
retirement was announced after these radio appearances- krc]
- Curious denials. Multiple good sources have confirmed a report
by veteran Washington correspondent Sarah McClendon that over
the Labor Day weekend, Gingrich attended a "party" at the home of
Vice President Al Gore that included Sen. Bill Bradley, Attorney
General Janet Reno and some other prominent Democrats, after
which Gore and Clinton had a shouting match.
But everyone said to be involved in the meeting claims it never took
place. Is it because Gingrich was there to deliver the bad news: a
mountain of hard evidence of high-level corruption? Gingrich
declines to be interviewed by MEDIA BYPASS.
This Fifth Column team apparently began its work in the late
1980s. Their primary assignment was to break into foreign
intelligence agency databases by a variety of physical and
electronic means. But the main means of entry was via secret "back
doors" programmed into the modified "PROMIS" tracking software
which our government, under the direction of CIA spymaster
William Casey, managed to market all over the globe, even to our
enemies.
This initial phase of the computer spy effort succeeded in
downloading data from more than 50 foreign intelligence services,
including the KGB, the Mossad and most of Europe's spy agencies,
according to various CIA-related sources. Contrary to boastful
claims by the FBI, this is apparently how Russian mole Aldrich
Ames was identified as a double agent more than two years before
his dramatic arrest in February 1994. Is is also how the CIA found
out Foster was working for the Mossad, after learning that someone
in our government was delivering highly sensitive computer codes
to the Israelis; Foster had been a long-time handler of sensitive
computer spy deals and covert money-laundering for the NSA
(MEDIA BYPASS, Aug. 1995). Found along with Foster's name in
the Mossad data base was that of Hillary Clinton, whose name also
cropped up as an operative for at least two other European
intelligence services, as yet unidentified.
At the time of his death, MEDIA BYPASS has previously reported,
Foster was under close counter-espionage surveillance involving
members of the CIA, FBI, Secret Service as well as an IRS team.
Two good sources say they have heard that Saudi Arabia also had
agents surveilling Foster. He knew he was being investigated and
was apparently under pressure to cop a plea to prevent the probe
from bringing down others in the White House. The FBI apparently
also knew that Foster's life was in danger: According to two
reliable intelligence sources, on the day of his death, FBI agents
used a pair of bomb-sniffing dogs to inspect Foster's Honda in the
White House parking lot - and probably planted a transponder on
the car so they could track the movements.
White House videotapes of the parking lot, which would have
shown that inspection, have allegedly disappeared, according to
this intelligence source. But sources say the surveillance teams
have still photos and videotapes of Foster's activities on the
afternoon he died, July 20, 1993, showing him entering an
apartment. It is here that Foster was apparently killed, after a sexual
encounter with a brownish-blond woman photographed leaving the
apartment afterwards. Also photographed, these sources say, was
the hit squad, apparently "assets" contracted by the Mossad but not
including any agents of the Mossad itself. Foster's body was
apparently rolled up in a rug and deposited at Fort Marcy Park -
which is still closed to visitors as the FBI supposedly searches for
the bullet that killed him.
Doggedly, the White House and offical Washington, aided by a
blinded mainstream press, continue to claim it was just a suicide,
despite the seriously flawed and widely discredited report to that
effect by original Whitewater Special Counsel Robert Fiske, and a
cursory Senate inquiry.
Sources say it is the continuing coverup, now more than two years
after Foster's death, and the brazen nature of Foster's assassination,
that has soured CIA professionals and has prompted them to
consider going public with what they know. Adding to their
frustration was the resignation of reform-minded CIA director
James Woollsey last year and his replacement by John Deutch.
Deutch's job appears to be to keep a lid on things and to protect the
Clintons and the massive, ongoing illegal drug and arms trade that
provides the agency with billions of dollars in revenue completely
out of view of Congress and government watchdogs.
Deutch's recent attempt to use the Aldrich Ames case as a club to
attack the CIA and its past directors has brought the agency's
simmering revolt to a boil. "Deutch had better watch his altitude
and attitude," said one veteran CIA man. "He'd better get off his
soapbox before he gets indicted himself."
Rumors of CIA involvement in drug trafficking go back to before
the Vietnam war, with heroin trade from Laos' Golden Triangle. But
in the late '70s or early '80s, the agency virtually took over and
nationalized the wholesale importation of cocaine into this country
through obscure airfields like the one at Mena, Ark., on the
grounds that it was the only way to control the drug trade. In other
words: "If you can't lick them, join them." The operation was soon
generating vastly more money than ever imagined - which has come
back to line the pockets of top government officials from the
Reagan, Bush and Clinton administrations. The money-laundering
operations have likewise drawn in major banks and brokerage
houses. By some accounts, the revenues still run upwards of $7
billion a year.
Details of government involvement in this society- wrecking drug
trade are now emerging from various sources. Bits and pieces
emerged during the Iran-Contra and Iraqgate hearings of the 1980s,
which produced a million pages of documents but only a handful of
indictments, and fewer convictions. Perhaps the biggest fish caught
was Reagan Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, charged with
lying to Congress. He was pardoned by President George Bush just
as Bush was leaving office in 1992. Curiously, Weinberger's right-
hand-man through most of that period was would-be presidential
contender Gen. Colin Powell, who Weinberger had brought up to
be a top military advisor, out of Casey's intelligence empire where
he is said to have served with the NSA and to have been intimately
familiar with the drug and arms flow.
There is also a growing court record of sworn testimony in the
wrongful prosecution case of former CIA contract pilot Terry Reed.
Reed claims in his book, "Compromised: Clinton, Bush and the
CIA," that Bill Clinton, while governor of Arkansas, was well
aware of the drug trafficking there but played along with the game
to earn himself the status of an "approved" candidate for the
presidency. With that would come plenty of financing.
Another source now openly discussing the massive drug business is
retired Navy Lt. Commander Alexander Martin. Martin was, in
effect, the chief accountant for the Reagan/Bush drug operations
run by Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North, through an obscure arm of the
White House National Security Council called the National
Programs Office. In a radio interview with talk show host Tom
Valentine last July, Martin spoke not only of drugs and money, but
death. "Out of roughly 5,000 of us who were originally involved in
Iran-Contra, approximately 400, since 1986, have committed
suicide, died accidently or died of natural causes. In over half those
deaths, official death certificates were never issued. In 187
circumstances, the bodies were cremated before the families were
notified." Martin then said he was lying low.
Not low enough. In late October, Martin was arrested and jailed
without bond in Broward County, Fla., for supposed violation of
his probation on a 1990 bad-check charge. Such small-time charges
are a common device used to squelch and discredit former players
in this government-run drug and arms racket.
Corruption. Most Americans like to think their government is
somehow immune to the kinds of bribery and abuse of public
power rampant in "Third World" countries. The emerging reality is
that the exact opposite is true. The more wealth and power at stake,
the greater the incentive to subvert and corrupt. Sources say the
dark truths predicted to be unveiled by P.P. Willie will be utterly
damning.
c Media Bypass - December 1995
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