ce399 | research archive

Towards a 21st Century Fascism with Markos "Daily Kos" Zúñiga and Aldous Huxley (mp3 file)

 

Kos_Zuniga_20060602

Huxley_1962_Edit 1

Compare these two speeches. Total running time: approx 10 mins for both. "Other methods" for world "stability".  1984 for the "bad guys" and Brave New World for the "good guys."

Left Gatekepper Naomi Klein on MK-ULTRA: Disasterous Disinformation

...the true purpose of MK-ULTRA was not to research brainwashing (that was a mere side project) but to design a scientifically based system for extracting information from "resistant sources."49 In other words, torture. Pg 39-40. Naomi Klein. The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. 

Related Archives:

Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, owner of the DailyKos website, now admits that he spent six months in the employ of the US Central Intelligence Agency in 2001," writes Holland. "In a one-hour interview on June 2, 2006 at the Commonwealth Club, Moulitsas, also known as 'Kos,’ admitted that he was a CIA employee and would have 'no problem working for them’ in the present.--Kurt Nimmo

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I was and still remain strongly for military action in Afghanistan as a legitimate and necessary act in response to 9/11: an attack on two American cities and on the infrastructure of government cannot be ignored... - Dave Neiwert aka 'Hunter'  - Daily Kos, May 10, 2006

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ce399 note, 11 April 2008:

No mention of Sanger and Eugenics in a recent Democracy Now! program detailing the history of  Reproductive Rights and Abortion Activism. No mention of Sanger or Eugenics at all in the DN! online archive.

Meanwhile, Dave Neiwert the pseudo anti-fascist who apparently has never heard of  the term Zionism, yet likes to assume National Alliance related screen names while writing mainstream Democratic 'con and bullshit' (or is it endlessly blathering kitsch?) at CIA-Mockingbird front Daily Kos, stoops to the level of outright disinformation and lying regarding Sanger and Eugenics: 

Foremost among these was the founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, as well as other multiculturalists such as Margaret Mead and Franz Boas. These thinkers specifically and ardently rejected the tenets of white supremacism and "negative" eugenics. Of course, in subsequent years, all of these people have been tarred -- mostly by anti-abortion activists -- with guilt by association to the eugenics movement. (Planned Parenthood has a thorough and well-argued defense of Sanger up on its Web site.) But there was no mistaking the differences between them at the time.

Dave Neiwert is now managing editor at Firedoglake.

With gatekeepers like Neiwert at the levers of information control for citizens seeking an alternative to the corporate media, is it any wonder the U.S. has become an uninhabitable Fourth Reich, populated by selectively bred 'imbeciles' ? .

Dave Neiwert (aka 'Hunter') Daily Kos, Left 'Gate Keeping,' the CIA and Two Minutes Hate

Amy Goodman Omits and Dave Neiwert Whitewashes History of Margaret Sanger, Eugenics

Amy Goodman and James Bamford Omit ECHELON, UKUSA Agreement from NSA Discussion

Michael Parenti Shreds JFK Assassination Conspiracy Debunkers (mp3 file)

Sin Espíritu, Corazón y Mente Invertida (ce399 artwork)

Sin Espíritu, Corazón y Mente Inversa_ce399. 2009

No offense to horned creatures.

Assassination Plot in Bolivia (16/4/2009)

Szekler Legion

On April 16, Bolivian police killed three men and arrested two others in what was an "assassination plot" against Morales.[58] The three men were all foreigners: Eduardo Rózsa-Flores, from Hungary; Michael Dwyer, from Ireland; and Arpad Magyarosi, from Romania. Police said the men discussed bombing a boat on Lake Titicaca where Morales and his cabinet were meeting on April 3, 2009.[59]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales

--

Eduardo Rózsa-Flores (March 31, 1960 – April 16, 2009) was a Bolivian-Hungarian soldier, journalist, actor, secret agent, mercenary poet and self publicist. Born in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, he was known in Hungary as Rózsa-Flores Eduardo or Rózsa György Eduardo. His wartime nickname in the War in Croatia was Chico, which is also the title of a feature film about him. He was a founding member of the Hungarian Jewish Cultural Association, an Opus Dei member, the editor of the neo-fascist[1][2] Jobbik.net and Vice-President of the Hungarian Islamic Community. [3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_R%C3%B3zsa-Flores

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Police say the would-be assassins were captained by Eduardo Rozsa Flores, who led an extraordinary life that began and ended in Santa Cruz, a hotbed of Morales opposition. Mr Flores, who was born in the city in 1960 to Hungarian and Spanish parents, grew up in Hungary, where he was a communist youth leader and acted as a translator for Carlos the Jackal. After covering the start of the Yugoslav wars as a journalist, Mr Flores formed an international volunteers' brigade fighting for Croatian independence. When the war ended in 1995, he turned to writing poetry and political essays, played himself in a film based on his life, swapped Catholicism for Islam and supported causes from Hungarian nationalism to autonomy for Santa Cruz.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/the-irishman-and-the-plot-to-kill-the-bolivian-president-1674009.html

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Michael Dwyer (1984-2009) was from Ballinderry, County Tipperary. Ireland. He was shot dead on April 16th 2009. by Police Special Forces, in the Los Americas Hotel, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Martin_Dwyer

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People who knew Mr Dwyer confirmed that he went to Bolivia last November for a bodyguard training course with two Hungarians. When the course failed to take place, they returned to Ireland but Mr Dwyer stayed on, and told his father he was working as a bodyguard for "some wealthy guy he met out there".

Attempts to understand how Mr Dwyer met the men he died with have thrown light on a shadowy Hungarian nationalist group called the Szekler Legion, which wants autonomy for the large Hungarian minority in Romania's Transylvania region. Mr Flores posted anti-Morales tirades on a website linked to the legion and is thought to have trained with them. The third man killed in Santa Cruz, Arpad Magyarosi, also had links to the group. At least one member of the legion is thought to have worked for the same security firm as Mr Dwyer in Ireland.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/the-irishman-and-the-plot-to-kill-the-bolivian-president-1674009.html

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Obama Meets Chavez: April 17, 2009

Fascist Group Worked as Shell Guards

http://royaldutchshellplc.com/2009/05/05/fascist-group-worked-as-shell-guards/

Clinton and Company "Talk Tough" on Latin America, related

While President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and their appointees emphasize a return to diplomacy in foreign relations, so far they show little inclination to be diplomatic toward leftist governments in Latin America. In fact, recent comments by Obama, Clinton and recent appointees show a continuation of an antiquated analysis and a lack of understanding of recent Latin American social movements and regional integration. On a visit to the State Department on January 23, Clinton promised “I will do all that I can, working with you, to make it abundantly clear that robust diplomacy and effective development are the best long-term tools for securing America’s future.” Obama made similar assertions in a speech to diplomats, and ‘diplomacy’, symbolizing a return to international peace and prosperity, was the word of the week.

Full Article:

http://rogerhollander.wordpress.com/2009/02/01/hillary-clinton-and-james-steinberg-talk-tough-on-latin-america/

Related Articles:

Evo Morales Responds to Hillary Clinton on Iran: "The United States does not have the moral authority to talk about terrorism and to accuse other nations of promoting it."

EU, sin autoridad moral para hablar de terrorismo: Bolivia

Comentario:

Espero que el administrador me deje pasar, nunca lo hace. Bien por Evo, La Hillary es miembro activo del club Bilderberg, sabe lo que dice y presiona, los pueblos libres le estorban a estos sicopatas, por ello condiciona la ayuda, eso es prostitución. Tal como a México con el plan Mérida, plan cohersitivo y prostituyente, por pocos dolares les damos todo, aun a costa de los mexicanos, que nada les importan. Al menos ellos tienen dignidad, nosotros hemos perdido hasta la verguenza.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4181452#4183049

WSJ hit piece on Bolivia:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB40001424052748704888404574549741582508178.html

Employee of a CIA Front Organization Working in Venezuela was Detained in Cuba This Week

A United States government contract worker, who was distributing cellphones, laptops and other communications equipment in Cuba on behalf of the Obama administration, has been detained by the authorities here, American officials said Friday.

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DEVELOPMENT ALTERNATIVES INC. IS A CIA FRONT ORGANIZATION

The use of a chain of entities and agencies is a mechanism employed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to channel and filter funding and strategic political support to groups and individuals that support US agenda abroad. The pretext of “promoting democracy” is a modern form of CIA subversion tactics, seeking to infiltrate and penetrate civil society groups and provide funding to encourage “regime change” in strategically important nations, such as Venezuela, with governments unwilling to subcomb to US dominance.

..

Development Alternatives, Inc. is one of the largest US government contractors in the world. Currently, DAI has a $50 million contract in Afghanistan. In Latin America, DAI is presently operating in Bolivia, Brasil, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haití, Honduras, México, Nicaragua, Perú, República Dominicana and Venezuela.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/5000

MHCHAOS: How the CIA Got Away with Domestic Spying (SF Chronicle 1997)

How the CIA Got Away With Domestic Spying

The late Angus Mackenzie, a longtime affiliate of San Francisco's Center for Investigative Journalism (he died of brain cancer in 1994), spent more than 15 years researching "Secrets: The CIA's War at Home.'' It represents the best account yet of the CIA's continuing attempts to manipulate and suppress information on the basis of its own narrow definitions of national security.

Forbidden by the National Security Act of 1947 from operating within the United States, the CIA nevertheless launched a domestic spying program dubbed MHCHAOS aimed at the U.S. anti- war underground press of the 1960s and  1970s. The operation was international in scope and supposedly focused on whether anti-war publications were financed by foreign, communist sources. In fact, points out Mackenzie, MHCHAOS, like the FBI's COINTELPRO, was designed to gather information on American citizens deemed by these federal agencies to be potentially subversive.

Because MHCHAOS was patently illegal, CIA officers participating in it were required to sign secrecy agreements swearing never to divulge any information about the operation. To violate a secrecy agreement was to risk federal prosecution. Mackenzie argues that such secrecy contracts became a favorite government tool, used to muzzle disclosures by ex-Agency personnel about questionable or illegal CIA activities.

One of the several secrecy agreements that the Agency eventually required its personnel to sign stipulated that any articles, books or speeches they might write that deal with intelligence activities must be preapproved by the CIA. When challenged in court that this type of contract constituted censorship and violates First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and press, the CIA, says Mackenzie, argued that this was not  a censorship issue: "The United States was seeking neither to stop publication nor to censor. Rather, the United States was seeking 'specific performance' of a contract. This rather clever attempt to sidestep the obvious conflict between censorship and the First Amendment was persuasive to the judge.''

Another key ruling favoring the government arose out of  the publication in 1977 of former CIA officer Frank Snepp's "Decent Interval," criticizing Agency activities relating to the American withdrawal from Vietnam. Snepp refused to submit the manuscript to the CIA censors prior to publication. The Agency took Snepp to court and obtained a ruling requiring Snepp to pay all profits from the book to the government and submit future writings on intelligence for CIA prepublication review. Says Mackenzie: "This decision gave the CIA the authority to institutionalize its censorship program. It would provide the precedent for censorship to be extended to more than fifty other federal agencies.''

The chief remaining barrier to keeping details of CIA domestic espionage from the public was the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). So, in 1982, the Agency moved to create an exemption from the FOIA for counter-intelligence files, such as the records of MHCHAOS. Mackenzie details how this was accomplished with the surprising cooperation of American Civil Liberties Union executives Mark Lynch and Morton Halperin. The new FOIA exemption coincided with the issuance by the Rion Directive (NSDD 84), which was designed to prohibit federal employees from leaking classified information to the press. Mackenzie maintains that the chief result of NSDD 84 has been to discourage potential government whistle blowers.

In the end, Mackenzie suggests, the pattern of censorship that began with the CIA frantically trying to keep secret its illegal domestic spying operations has  spread to agencies of the federal government, creating a culture of bureaucratic secrecy that resembles the one generated by Great Britain's Official Secrets Act, but previously unknown in the United States, with its strong tradition of constitutionally protected free speech.

In Mackenzie, the United States lost prematurely one of its fiercest First Amendment defenders: "Almost a decade after the end of the Cold War,'' he writes in his conclusion, "espionage is not the issue, if it ever  really was. The issue is freedom .... The issue is  principle .... Until the citizens of this land aggressively defend their First Amendment rights of free speech, there is little hope that the march to censorship will be reversed. The survival of that cornerstone of the Bill of Rights is at stake.''

The San Francisco Chronicle
12 October 1997

Court rulings backing the agency set the stage for censorship, writes reporter

REVIEWED BY DANIEL L. WICK
SECRETS  The CIA's War at Home By Angus Mackenzie
University of California Press; 241 pages; $27.50

http://www.whale.to/b/cia99.html

Plan 156 from Intra-Space

Balok

Plan 93 from Outer Space

"Like a vast network , the iridescent tendrils of our occult complex spread across the land, linking such centres as are located in California, Florida, North Carolina, Chicago, and New York. These dynamic centres of Thelema receive their vivifying current through our World centre in England." Such was the message of Janice Ayers in 'Sothis' I;2, in September 1977.

...

Crowley's erstwhile secretary Kenneth Grant (who claims to have formed a link to his 'angel' Aossic, and so calls himself Aossic, Ossik, or A'ashik) has - together with his followers - developed a more or less comprehensible outline of a 'new' cosmos on this basis. Interested readers are referred to Grant's books, many of which remain in print. [7] In this article we shall be concentrating on Grant's resulting theoretical expansion of Crowley's demonology. The latter never seems to have regarded angels or demons as very definite beings; for him, they ruled the material world, and were useful for things like getting hold of money. Under Grant's influence they were elaborated into complex transcendental schemes of alternate dimensions outside the circles of space and time. "The terrestrial vehicle is an outcropping in three dimensions of the Angel: the Angel is the fountain of living waters which empowers the terrestrial vehicle." [8] Through contact with this fountain, the Holy Guardian Angel (HGA) opens the gate of remembrance of our supernatural reality, what Grant calls "the continuum often glyphed as the Goddess of which we are terrestrial facets." [9] Grant and his adherents 'remember' the origins of Be-ing [10] and have constructed a remarkably complicated collection of metaphors drawn from sources such as the Qabalah, H.P. Lovecraft, [11] Salvador Dalí, Michael P. Bertiaux, Austin Osman Spare, [12] Lemuria, Atlantis, extraterrestrial visitors from Sirius, the promotion of at least one new 'New Aeon', and a whole shoal of 'revelations'. 

Grant placed great emphasis on the development of a IX° 'dream-control' technique, borrowed from Thomas Lake Harris, and introduced into the Crowleyan O.T.O. by Ida Nellidorf under the name of "eroto-comatose lucidity." Before going to sleep the sexual energies were first raised by constant sexual stimulation without orgasm, and then concentrated onto a talisman bearing a requisite symbol, so that in its dreams, the aroused libido would copulate with a dream-partner. The talisman would thus become magically charged, and would make a particular wish - be it for gold or Gnosis - come true.

...

The Cult of Lam and Michael Staley, Grant's London amanuensis.

The 1919 portrait of Lam drawn by Crowley came into Grant's possession in 1945. Crowley never published any explanation of the image, and this allowed for the development of a distinct 'Lam cult'. For this article, Michael Staley provided the following detail in June 2001: "The point is that Crowley says nothing about Lam in his published writing; whether or not there is anything unpublished, I don't know. Interestingly, I have come across an account by an American visitor to Crowley's flat in Jermyn Street, London, in 1941 or thereabouts, who says that the portrait [he doesn't say who it is, but his description of it - he found it repulsive - leaves no doubt] was on Crowley's wall. When the visitor asked who or what it was, Crowley said that it was a portrait of his guru."

In the 1990's this cult (described as the "quintessence of the Typhonian O.T.O. tradition") was supposed to be a manifestation of the Hidden praeternatural/supernatural God or Holy Guardian Angel (HGA), who united the natural with the supernatural. Contact with this HGA was identical to an entry into the Aeon of Ma'at, or the extra-terrestrial continuum. [17] "In my view Lam is the mask of a dynamic state of [extra-terrestrial] [18] gnosis, rather than simply an entity." [19] Staley interested himself in Lam as a state of Gnosis, although he admitted that this state could sometimes also take the nature of an entity's mask; but he would break through these masks.

Crowley's (feminine?) Hoor-paar-kraat (Set) was again understood as the HGA; in the Tetragrammaton YHVH Ra-Hoor-Khuit (Horus) corresponded with the Vav, and Hoor-paar-kraat to the Heh final. "This identifies Hoor-paar-kraat with the Aeon of Ma'at." [20] Lam 'sits' in the Muladhara Chakra's Bija-Mantra, where the Fiery Serpent (or Kundalini) waits to uncoil. The 'optical' union with Lam took place in Lam's eyes, the region of the Ajna-Chakra (and also the seat of the will). [21] According to Crowley this corresponded to a sex-magical act in which one became conscious of the Ajna and Muladhara Chakras during orgasm. [22]

Contact with the HGA was defined as the stage of "reaching critical mass" after doing intensive Abramelin or Liber Samekh exercises. The HGA is the sum total of experience, gathered into this critical mass and then able to take on spontaneous form. [23]

This contact with the HGA - whether experienced in concrete exterior form, or as the aspirant's spiritual Higher Self - corresponded with the start of 'occult puberty'. [24] For an occultist, it meant that there was no longer any distinction between inner and outer. Evolution demanded that one cast off such old mental habits, [25] and that humanity should become non-human, as in Crowley's A*A*, where a kind of superman hatched from the Egg or Babe of the Abyss (that is, the concept of dissolution in occult Qabalah, the bridge between human and divine).

Freed of Ego, only this new human creature can help human evolution, and perhaps even that of the universe. ['Babe of the Abyss'; the whole point being that the Kabbalistic Abyss is the ultimate womb from which the soul is born before progressing to the Supernal Triad of sefiroth (Kether, Chokmah, and Binah) on the Tree of Life. After being born from the Abyss, it first reaches Binah, the 'Magna Mater'.]

For Staley, magic is primarily a matter of communicating with non-human entities. However, such entities are not to be found outside human beings, as man and the universe are one - both are aspects of the universe. [26] Staley found better comprehension of this through the Sanskrit concept of Advaita or "not-divided", and in the Prajnaparamita-Buddhist "Sunyavada". At one stage Staley worked with a Lam-Serpent Sadhana, in which the Lam-Serpent was visualised as the Kundalini surmounted by Lam's head. [27] This Lam-Serpent uncoiled itself along the sushumna, while the chakras were visualised, and the Bija-Mantras were vibrated. According to Staley the 'secret' of sex-magic resided solely in the fact "that matter is malleable and can be influenced by sustained, intense visualisation; the potency of this visualisation can be increased by the directed sexual current." [28]

The HGA functioned as the mediator and boundary station between the terrestrial and the infinite. With the HGA projected as the Egregore outside the individuality, the HGA can be used to communicate with the 'Secret Chiefs'; using the occult technique of 'Assuming a God-Form' one becomes an angel/egregore among other angels/egregores.

...

26. In Thelemic terms, the magician expels his blood into the chalice of Babalon. Babalon (or Venus, see Crowley's "Vision and the Voice", 1909) has been the (sometimes masculine) Scarlet Whore of Revelation; her number, 156, is equated Kabbalistically with 'constant copulation' and 'samadhi'. 

(excerpt)

Full Article and Hyperlinks:

http://user.cyberlink.ch/~koenig/lam.htm

Related Archive:

Double Helix Codiscoverer James Watson's "Pretty Women" Revisited

Thelemic Ideas Integrated into Structure of American Society and Government

Warren Buffett: "first stimulus was like taking half tablet of Viagra" 

High-Tech Reaches a New Age of Style

1987: Chaos Magic, SDI, Prozac, GMO Crops and the Human Genome Initiative

"Erase This God Damn Thing"

Unprecedented Look Inside Scientology's Culture of Violence

This account comes from executives who for decades were key figures in Scientology's powerful inner circle. Marty Rathbun and Mike Rinder, the highest-ranking executives to leave the church, are speaking out for the first time.

Two other former executives who defected also agreed to interviews with the St. Petersburg Times: De Vocht, who for years oversaw the church's spiritual headquarters in Clearwater, and Amy Scobee, who helped create Scientology's celebrity network, which caters to the likes of John Travolta and Tom Cruise.

One by one, the four defectors walked away from the only life they knew. That Rathbun and Rinder are speaking out is a stunning reversal because they were among Miscavige's closest associates, Haldeman and Ehrlichman to his Nixon.

Now they provide an unprecedented look inside the upper reaches of the tightly controlled organization. They reveal:

• Physical violence permeated Scientology's international management team. Miscavige set the tone, routinely attacking his lieutenants. Rinder says the leader attacked him some 50 times.

Rathbun, Rinder and De Vocht admit that they, too, attacked their colleagues, to demonstrate loyalty to Miscavige and prove their mettle.

• Staffers are disciplined and controlled by a multi­layered system of "ecclesiastical justice.'' It includes publicly confessing sins and crimes to a group of peers, being ordered to jump into a pool fully clothed, facing embarrassing "security checks'' or, worse, being isolated as a "suppressive person.''

At the pinnacle of the hierarchy, Miscavige commands such power that managers follow his orders, however bizarre, with lemming-like obedience.

• Church staffers covered up how they botched the care of Lisa McPherson, a Scientologist who died after they held her 17 days in isolation at Clearwater's Fort Harrison Hotel.

Rathbun, who Miscavige put in charge of dealing with the fallout from the case, admits that he ordered the destruction of incriminating evidence. He and others also reveal that Miscavige made an embarrassing miscalculation on McPherson's Scientology counseling.

• With Miscavige calling the shots and Rathbun among those at his side, the church muscled the IRS into granting Scientology tax-exempt status. Offering fresh perspective on one of the church's crowning moments, Rathbun details an extraordinary campaign of public pressure backed by thousands of lawsuits.

• To prop up revenues, Miscavige has turned to long-time parishioners, urging them to buy material that the church markets as must-have, improved sacred scripture.

Church officials deny the accusations. Miscavige never hit a single church staffer, not once, they said.

...

"But I believe these abuses need to end … This rot being instigated from inside Scientology actually is more destructive to the Scientology movement than anything external to it.''

BEATINGS: Random, whimsical

At 49, Miscavige is fit and tanned, his chiseled good looks accented by intense blue eyes. His frame is on the short side at 5 feet 5, but solid, with a matching, vise-like handshake.

The voice, resonant and strong, can transfix a crowd of thousands. Many call him "COB," because he is chairman of the board of the entity responsible for safeguarding Scientology, founded by L. Ron Hubbard in 1954.

"He is one of the most capable, intelligent individuals I've ever met," Rathbun said. "But L. Ron Hubbard says the intelligence scale doesn't necessarily line up with the sanity scale. Adolf Hitler was brilliant. Stalin was brilliant. They were geniuses. But they were also on a certain level stark, staring mad."

Rathbun, Rinder, Scobee and De Vocht say they participated in and witnessed madness, from musical chairs to repeated physical abuse.

What triggered Miscavige's outbursts? The victims usually had no clue.

"If it wasn't the answer he wanted to hear, he'd lose it," De Vocht said. "If it was contrary to how he thought, he'd lose it. If he found it to be smart aleck, or it was a better answer than he had, he would lose it."

Rathbun and Rinder list the executives they saw Miscavige attack:

Marc Yager: At least 20 times.

Guillaume Lesevre: At least 10 times.

Ray Mithoff: Rathbun said Miscavige "would regularly hit this guy open-handed upside the head real hard and jar him. Or grab him by the neck and throw him on the floor."

Norman Starkey: "Right in the parking lot, (Miscavige) just beat the living f--- out of him, got him on the ground and then started kicking him when he was down,'' Rathbun said.

He said he saw Rinder "get beat up at least a dozen times just in those last four years … some of them were pretty gruesome."

Said Rinder: "Yager was like a punching bag. So was I."

He added: "The issue wasn't the physical pain of it. The issue was the humiliation and the domination. ... It's the fact that the domination you're getting — hit in the face, kicked — and you can't do anything about it. If you did try, you'd be attacking the COB.

"It was random and whimsical. It could be the look on your face. Or not answering a question quickly. But it always was a punishment.''

Scobee said Miscavige never laid a hand on her or any other woman, but she witnessed many attacks, including the time the leader choked Rinder until his face turned purple. Rinder confirmed that account.

De Vocht estimated that from 2003 to 2005, he saw Miscavige strike staffers as many as 100 times.

Rathbun, Rinder and De Vocht admit that they, in turn, hit others. In January 2004, Rathbun pummeled Rinder and had to be pried off by several church staffers.

"Yes, that incident happened," Rinder said. "It wasn't the only time that Marty or I was involved in some form of physical violence with people."

He recalled holding a church staffer against a wall by the collar and pressing into his throat.

Rathbun said he attacked many people, many times, including throwing Lesevre across a table, boxing Starkey's ears, and tackling Yager down a flight of stairs — all, he said, on Miscavige's orders. He said he threw another staffer against the hood of a cab at Los Angeles International Airport. As a crowd gathered to watch, he cocked his fist and told him to improve his attitude.

De Vocht said he "punched a couple of guys" during one of many sessions where managers confessed their wrongdoings to their peers, a gathering that got raucous and physical. Embarrassed about it now, he says he easily rationalized it then: "If I don't attack I'm going to be attacked. It's a survival instinct in a weird situation that no one should be in."

The four defectors each said the leader established a culture that encouraged physical violence.

"It had become the accepted way of doing things," Rinder said. "If COB did it, it was okay for everybody else to do it, too."

Rinder said Rathbun was Miscavige's enforcer. "If Dave didn't want to go do any dirty work himself, he sent Marty to do it for him."

Rathbun doesn't deny it. It's difficult to get the truth, he said, "unless you talk to somebody who's got some dirt on their hands. And I freely admit I got dirt on my hands, and I feel terrible about it. That's why I'm doing what I'm doing."

Rathbun wasn't exempt from Miscavige's attacks. "He once grabbed me by the neck and banged my head against the wall.''

Nobody fought back.

(excerpts) 

Full Article:

http://www.tampabay.com/news/article1012148.ece

Uri Geller, Judith Skutch (ACIM), Targ, Puthoff, SRI, Scientology (again)

 

From A Course in Miracles legal documents. Download: Oct_24_2003.pdf

Link Between A Course in Miracles and the Stanford Research Institute

Remote Perception at Stanford Research Institute

...

Our observation of the phenomena leads us to conclude that experiments in the area of so-called paranormal phenomena can be scientifically conducted, and it is our hope that other laboratories will initiate additional research to attempt to replicate these findings.

This research was sponsored by The Foundation for Parasensory Investigation, New York City. We thank Mrs. Judith Skutch, Dr. Edgar D. Mitchell of the Institute of Noetic Sciences - as well as our SRI associates, Mr. Bonnar Cox, Mr. Earle Jones and Dr. Dean Brown - for support and encouragement. Constructive suggestions by Mrs. Jean Mayo, Dr. Charles Tart, University of California, and Dr. Robert Ornstein and Dr. David Galin of the Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute are acknowledged.

Russell Targ
Harold Puthoff
Electronics and Bioengineering Laboratory,
Stanford Research Institute,
Menlo Park, California 94025

http://www.urigeller.com/sria.htm

The publisher of the Course was the Foundation for the Investigation of Para Sensory Phenomena. Some observers wonder whether this may have been funded by members involved with or employed by the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), Menlo Park, California, which at the time was home to the Remote Viewing project - itself sponsored by the CIA. One of the people with connections to SRI was Judith Skutch, the president and founder of the foundation.

 
In 1973, Skutch was one of Uri Geller's first supporters. According to Andrew Tobias, most of Geller's private demonstrations were done in Skutch's apartment and it was this foundation that put up $60,000 to pay for SRI's further study of Geller. As it is now known that funding for such experiments also came from the CIA, we can of course wonder whether the Foundation was a front for the CIA... which would mean that it was the CIA itself who published "A Course in Miracles" in 1975. That would mean that the Course was from beginning to end a CIA affair.

Related Article:

A Course in Miracles: A CIA Exercise in Mind Control

[above link contains a more cohesive reportage style and less brick-a-brack - as I've previously attempted here.]

"Miracle Studies" Dismisses Schucman-Thetford MK-ULTRA Connections as "Conspiracy Rumors"

Regarding Conspiracy Rumors about Dr. William Thetford, the CIA and A Course in Miracles

By Joe R. Jesseph, Ph.D. Author: A Primer of Psychlogy According to A Course in Miracles [Coordinator of Miracle Studies]

...

One of the more bizarre forms of controversy to develop relative to ACIM in recent years (circa 2006) has to do with the suspicion that the Course is the result of a CIA plot -- a mind-control conspiracy. As is often the case in conspiracy thinking, some people have taken certain facts, combined them and come up with preposterous conclusions. In this case certain conspiracy theorists have added the facts that William Thetford was once employed by the CIA, that the CIA has funded psychological research and that some of that research was conducted by Thetford and Schucman, to concluded that the Course, which by its very nature is deeply threatening to the ego, must have been the result of a CIA plot. Contributing to this assertion is the fact that indeed some of the psychological research funded by the CIA was directed at discovering techniques for manipulating human beings, and that some of that "mind control" research was conducted in an unethical manner.

In the fall of 2006 I was asked about these kinds of assertions as found on a Web site with the headline: "ACIM: Lie Down With Dogs, Get Up With Fleas! The MKULTRA Milieu Surrounding the 'Scribing' of A Course In Miracles." (MKULTRA is an acronym for a CIA program which funded the research of a very large number of prominent psychologists back in the 1960's, some of that research later found to have been conducted unscrupulously.)

The Web site in question contained wildly outlandish statements and suggestions intended to establish guilt by association -- a strategy that a trial lawyer or tabloid journalist might use, but not a very credible approach to serious, intelligent, scholarly consideration. None of us who are familiar with the facts about Helen Schucman and Bill Thetford, particularly those who knew them personally, could possibly take seriously the claims made on that Web site. However, I could see how people not familiar with the historical facts about the Course and its scribing could take such claims seriously, especially if they are orthodox in religious belief, already skeptical about the phenomenon of channeling, and even more so if they are not familiar with words actually found on the pages of A Course in Miracles.

Anyone who cares to have an informed perspective on the Course should at least become acquainted with the Course itself, along with relevant portions of the following books: 1) Absence from Felicity: The Story of Helen Schucman and Her Scribing of A Course in Miracles by Kenneth Wapnick; 2) Understanding A Course in Miracles: The History, Message and Legacy of a Spiritual Path for Today and the earlier version of this work entitled: The Complete Story of the Course by D. Patrick Miller, and; 3) Journey Without Distance: the Story behind A Course in Miracles by Robert Skutch. Wapnick's book is by far the most authoritative account and some important, relevant excerpts from it are available on the World Wide Web. Those excerpts are linked from a site dedicated to Helen Schucman and entitled The Scribe. Another helpful site is that of the Foundation for Inner Peace, publisher of the Course. On that site, in particular see: The Scribing of A Course in Miracles.

In addressing the conspiracy theory about ACIM as a brain washing tool and perhaps the product of brain washing, one ought to take note of a statement written by Helen Schucman herself and which concludes the first part of the Preface to the Course, which is entitled "How It Came." That statement says: "The names of the collaborators in the recording of the Course do not appear on the cover because the Course can and should stand on its own. It is not intended to become the basis for another cult. Its only purpose is to provide a way in which some people will be able to find their own Internal Teacher" (ACIM Text Preface, p. viii; italics mine; see the entire three-part Preface here: www.facim.org/acim/description.htm).

The Course can stand on its own. You don't have to believe it was channeled from Jesus to make use of it, and you don't even have to believe in Jesus. Neither do you have to believe in the phenomenon of channeling.

It has always been clear to me that the Course was not intended to be the basis for a religious organization of any kind. For one thing, such organizations are rife with ego specialness, hierarchies of power and attempts to tell people what to believe rather than helping them to "find their own Internal Teacher." The Course actually dismisses the phrase "formal religion" as an oxymoron:

In this world, there is an astonishing tendency to join contradictory words into one term without perceiving the contradiction at all. The attempt to formalize religion is so obviously an ego attempt to reconcile the irreconcilable that it hardly requires elaboration here (ACIM Psychotherapy Pamphlet-2.II.2:2-3).

In other words, spirit is formless while the ego's attempt to formalize spirituality is an attempt to imprison in form what is formless; to elevate the importance of form, which is an illusory projection of the ego thought system, at the expense of an awareness of content -- mind and thought -- which is reality because mind is a dimension of spirit.

The Course does not encourage proselytizing or even setting up study groups. What it means by "teaching," is not formal didactic teaching (or preaching), but teaching love and forgiveness by example; something I think the CIA would have little use for, especially back in the 1960s. That said, it is true that for most of us the Course material is not easy to understand, integrate and apply in spite of the fact that it continually says it is a "simple course." So a teacher and a study group can be helpful. In this regard, the only teacher of the Course in whom I have complete confidence is Kenneth Wapnick, who was intimately associated with Bill and Helen, having first met them in 1972 and then working closely with them to prepare the Course for publication in 1976. When one reads his autobiographical accounts (see links at: the Website dedicated to Ken), it is evident that Ken's own spiritual journey had led him to a place of knowing the message of the Course before he ever read it. He, too, had experienced an inner presence that he recognized in the voice that speaks from the pages of the Course itself. In effect, Ken became Helen's designated teacher of ACIM, while she and Bill preferred to stay in the background after the Course was published. And Ken, who knew Bill and Helen very, very well, just laughed when I told him about the CIA conspiracy theory regarding the Course. He thought Bill would be quite amused and no doubt have some clever remark to make, since Bill had a very good sense of humor. Helen, on the other hand, would probably not have been amused at all. She was very intelligent and could be scathing in criticism when she was so inclined. One can obtain a very helpful understanding of Helen, Bill and their relationship by reading Ken's book Absence from Felicity, which I've already mentioned.

Nevertheless, even a glass of water can be misused, let alone a spiritual document. So, in spite of its intent, it is true that the Course has been misrepresented and misappropriated, sometimes with very unfortunate consequences. The Course, like the glass of water, can serve a constructive, helpful purpose or a harmful one, depending upon who is making use of it and the purpose they wish to serve. Obviously the same is true of the Bible, the Koran, and countless other spiritual writings. Likewise, psychology can be misused, which brings me to the CIA and MKULTRA.

According to John Marks in his book The Search for the Manchurian Candidate2, back in the Cold War era of the 1950s and 60s the CIA had an interest in being able to make use of the scientific knowledge and professional techniques of psychology. They sought to have rapport with a wide range of psychologists to whom they could have access for information, consultation and research. Consequently, a large number of research projects of various kinds were funded by the CIA through MKULTRA, and a very long list of some of the most distinguished names in psychology benefited from this funding, most of them not having a clue about the nefarious activities of people like Drs. Gottlieb and Cameron which were discovered later. It was not until the Church Committee3 investigations of Congress beginning in 1975 that the unconscionable activities sponsored by MKULTRA funding came to light. But, the mere fact that a particular psychologist's research was funded by the CIA through MKULTRA should not be used to incriminate that psychologist. Neither should the fact that a psychologist was employed by the CIA be used to vilify that person. Back in the fifties, there was a lot of concern about Russia and communism, and there was a high level of public confidence in the CIA. What we've learned since then should not serve to discredit every one of the distinguished psychologists who received funding through MKULTRA, or who was employed by the CIA. The practice of guilt by association, which the Web site in question attempts, is reminiscent of another phenomenon of the late 1940's - early 1950's: McCarthyism.

Among the psychologists whose research was funded by the CIA through MKULTRA was the widely known and beloved Dr. Carl Rogers, who was instrumental in the development of what became known as "humanistic psychology," and who founded the "Person-Centered Approach" to psychotherapy. His goal was not to manipulate, brain wash and deceive people, but to free them from their conflicts so that they could become "fully functioning" persons -- "self-actualizing" human beings. One of Roger's most famous books was entitled On Becoming a Person4 wherein the second major section was titled "How Can I Help?" Yet Rogers received funding for some of his research through the CIA's MKULTRA program, just as did Bill Thetford and Helen Schucman.

In his book Marks discusses and quotes Rogers as follows:

Although he says he would have nothing to do with secret Agency activities today, he asks for understanding in light of the climate of the 1950s. "We really did regard Russia as the enemy," declares Rogers, "and we were trying to do various things to make sure the Russians did not get the upper hand." Rogers received an important professional reward for joining the Society [for the Investigation of Human Ecology, later called the Human Ecology Fund] board. Executive Director James Monroe had let him know that, once he agreed to serve, he could expect to receive a Society grant. "That appealed to me because I was having trouble getting funded," says Rogers. "Having gotten that grant [about $30,000 over three years], it made it possible to get other grants from Rockefeller and NIMH." Rogers still feels grateful to the Society for helping him establish a funding "track record," but he emphasizes that the Agency [CIA] never had any effect on his research (brackets mine).

It is common for psychologists to seek government funding for their research projects, and in the "publish or perish" climate of prestigious universities like Columbia it is not surprising that some of the work done by Bill Thetford and Helen Schucman received funding through MKULTRA. But it is hardly accurate to characterize that research as being directed toward "brain washing," any more than it would be accurate to characterize Roger's work that way.

My principle point here is that it is important to understand the historical context for the MKULTRA funding as well as to realize that not all of the psychological research funded by the CIA was of the dishonest and inhumane sort carried out by Dr. John Gottlieb and others. For an extensive discussion of this and of the Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology see "CIA's Behavior Caper" by Dr. Patricia Greenfiled, professor of psychology at UCLA.

Another example of legitimate psychological research funded in part by the CIA is Dr. John Gittinger's "Personality Assessment System," or PAS. This system was of particular interest to Bill Thetford and Helen Schucman for very sound professional reasons, and it utilized one of the intelligence and personality assessment tests which has been a standard in the psychology profession for decades: the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scales (WAIS) which were a refinement of the earlier Wechsler-Bellview Intelligence Scales. Gittinger began his work on the PAS in 1948-49 when he was a psychologist at Central State Hospital in Norman, Oklahoma. To this day, the PAS is utilized by professional psychologists who are responsible for psychological diagnosis in connection with mental health treatment. Following are some excerpts from the PAS Website:

Psychologist Dr. John Gittinger conceived the fundamental idea behind the "Personality Assessment System", or PAS, many years ago when he observed that our personalities are shaped, to a large extent, by the way we use the several components of our intellect. He realized that each person learns to cope with life by using (or not using) the intellectual strengths and overcoming (or not overcoming) the intellectual weaknesses that she or he may have learned or acquired by genetic endowment. He saw that, over the period of our maturation into adulthood, this process produces what we call each person's "personality." The result, in other words, for each of us, is a coherent pattern for how to "do" life....

Even John Marks, in his anti-CIA book, In Search of the Manchurian Candidate, recognized and reported that the most positive development during the 1950's and 1960's in the CIA was the Personality Assessment System....

After Dr. Gittinger’s retirement from government service in 1978, many of the psychologists with whom he had worked developed university affiliations. Students at such prestigious institutions as Cornell University, The Ohio State University, The University of Missouri, and American International College are among those who have been provided with an opportunity to learn to analyze and interpret PAS profiles. Further, the Gittinger Assessment Center, established at Hocking College in 1984, serves as a site for training, resources, information, data collection, and future development of the PAS. (For the full account see: Originator: John Gittinger and for a complete explanation of the PAS see: Non-technical Overview.)

It is quite understandable to me that Bill Thetford and Helen Schucman would have an interest in the PAS and in conducting research with it. Certainly any psychological test (like the glass of water I mentioned) could be used for unethical purposes of manipulation and control. However, Bill and Helen, like Carl Rogers, were psychologists interested in helping people. Helen's particular interest was in children, and particularly mentally retarded children.

So, some of the research Bill and Helen engaged in was funded through MKULTRA, but it is not accurate to characterize their interest as having to do with "mind control," nor is it accurate to characterize the entire body of research funded through MKULTRA that way. Further, much of what went on under the aegis of the Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology was of legitimate interest to professional psychologists and that Society may even have helped the science of psychology to move in a broader, more  humanistic direction. To quote John Marks again:

By investing up to $400,000 a year into the early, innovative work of men like Carl Rogers, Charles Osgood, and Martin Orne, the CIA's Human Ecology Fund helped liberate the behavioral sciences from the world of rats and cheese. With a push from the Agency as well as other forces, the field opened up.

Summary of Dr. William Thetford's Professional Career

When he graduated from DePauw University in 1944, Bill was uncertain about what he wanted to do. He had majored in psychology but also enrolled in the pre-med program. Even though he was accepted at the University of Chicago School of Medicine, he still wasn't sure he wanted to study medicine, so he decided to apply for a job at the University and wait to make a decision about whether to enroll in medical school. The job he got involved work as an administrator with the Manhattan Project with responsibilities for supervising certain buildings and for radiation decontamination. Robert Skutch5 quotes Bill about this job:

The atmosphere in our department at the time was an extremely exciting one. There was a sense of utmost urgency and high sense of national priority to the work being done...It was the belief of the scientific community that the Nazis had already progressed very far in the development of atomic energy, and that we were in a life or death race with them.

Remember, this was before the end of World War II and the social/political climate in the U.S. was profoundly affected by that war as well as the "Cold War" which followed.

Bill finally decided not to enter medical school, but when the atomic bombs were dropped he was horrified at the devastation and quit his job. Skutch quotes him regarding his next step:

A few weeks later Dr. Carl Rogers arrived on campus. Although I knew nothing about Rogers, who even then was one of the most eminent names in the field of psychology, I signed up for his first course on Client centered Psychotherapy, simply because some of the graduate students I knew recommended that I do so.

Rogers immediately recognized a very intelligent student with keen insight into what Rogers was teaching and to Bill's dismay Rogers appointed him as a teaching assistant and then invited him to become Rogers' research assistant.

In 1949 Bill received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago after completing research related to Rogers' theory. Again, Skutch quotes Bill:

I was intrigued with the possibility of measuring the autonomic nervous system and its functions before and after Rogerian therapy...Rogers was very impressed by this study, and I was actually stunned that I had found any significant results at all.....In March 1949, somewhat to my surprise, I received my Ph.D. However, I still had no real awareness of the field of psychology...Although I had met many eminent people during my studies...no one seemed to have any awareness of how these specialized areas of knowledge could be synthesized.

Even though Bill lacked confidence in his own qualifications it seems evident that many others were quite impressed with him. This kind of situation involving Bill's humility and the high regard of others appears to have characterized much of his early professional career. After Chicago, at the suggestion of a friend, he applied for and was accepted into a position at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago where he worked in research involving schizophrenic patients and patterns of response to the Rorschach inkblot test. This was done under the direction of Dr. Samuel Beck, a leading authority on the Rorschach, about which Bill knew nothing. But, in what by now seems to be characteristic fashion, Beck was quite impressed with Bill and even regarded his lack of experience with the Rorschach as a positive factor since it meant that he would not bring bias into his studies. Bill stayed on in this program under Dr. Beck for 2 1/2 years, and it is during this time that he was introduced to Freudian psychoanalytic theory, which was contrary to Rogers' theories. Skutch quotes Bill about this period as saying:

One thing I felt strongly about, both during graduate studies and afterwards at Michael Reese, was that I did not in any way wish to be a university professor...I had already turned down several offers...I felt I had nothing to profess. Also, I did not feel that university life was something that I would happily adapt to.

Bill subsequently moved on to enroll in the Washington School of Psychiatry in Washington. D.C., because he was intrigued by the eminent Dr. Harry Stack Sullivan's interpersonal theory of psychiatry which focused upon interpersonal relations rather than the individual psychodynamics of Freudian psychology. (By the way, this kind of focus in psychological study is compatible with the study of human ecology as a psychological undertaking since it takes an interest in the environment of human relationships surrounding an individual.) This was during the period 1951-54 when, in addition to being a post-graduate student at the Washington School of Psychiatry, Bill was employed as a psychologist for the U.S. government, and this is when Bill’s association with the CIA began. I could not find details of his government employment, although one source states that during 1953 Bill served as a consultant to the Foreign Service Institute in Beirut, Lebanon. No doubt Bill was employed by the CIA at this time. Skutch quotes Bill about the next phase of his career:

When I completed the study program at the Washington School, I was undecided about what to do next. Since I had long been attracted to New York City, I decided to go there to look for a position. The head of the Psychological Placement Service at the N.Y. State Employment Service said he had absolutely the perfect job for me...What he had in mind was the Directorship of the Psychology Department at the Institute of Living in Hartford Connecticut.

The Institute for Living is a very well known mental health treatment center and hospital, which was founded in 1822, being one of the first mental health facilities of its kind in the U.S. Bill stayed there as Director of the Division of Psychology from 1954 to 1955 when he moved to the CIA-funded Society for the Study of Human Ecology at Cornell University Medical College. About this, Skutch quotes Bill as saying:

After a year at Hartford I received a call from Dr. Harold G. Wolff, one of the founders of psychosomatic medicine, a leading authority on stress disorders, and at the time Chairman of the Department of Neurology at Cornell...Dr. Wolf offered me an appointment as Chief Psychologist in the Human Ecology Study Program which he was directing. My uneasiness about becoming involved in a university position had mellowed somewhat by this time and I decided to consider an academic appointment. As a result, I accepted Dr. Wolff's offer, and before I knew it I became an instructor and a year later was promoted to assistant professor.

The idea of taking an ecological approach to the psychological study of human beings intrigued Bill and fit in with his general tendency to be attracted to unconventional approaches to psychology which emphasized understanding people in the context of their family relationships as well as their socio-cultural and natural environment, the kind of interest that had led him to the Washington School of Psychiatry. John Marks characterizes Wolff as not only being brilliant, but also as arrogant and quite interested in helping the CIA find ways to both manipulate human beings as well as train them to resist such manipulation, but there is nothing in Bill's history to suggest that he shared these kinds of interests. There is nothing in Bill's story to indicate that he himself had any interest in brain washing, hypnosis, drug-induced states or the like. Whether he had any knowledge at all of these activities being carried on with CIA sponsorship through MKULTRA is unclear to me, but I think it is unlikely that he did. Anyway, he stayed on at the Human Ecology Study Program from 1955-57, and then, upon the urging of a friend, applied for and -- even though rather unsure of himself -- took a very challenging job at Columbia University where he began in 1958 as an Associate Professor of Medical Psychology and Director of the Division of Clinical Psychology at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital.

Apparently he was fascinated by his work under Wolf at Cornell, and the job at Columbia had been subject to controversy because members of the search committee could not agree upon a candidate. Thus, they were willing to consider Bill who apparently was less controversial to them. Bill told the Cornell people that he would accept the job if given an Associate Professorship, which he thought quite unlikely. But they surprised him by offering it. So, off he went.

Faculty politics can be quite conflicted and difficult. In fact, it was this very kind of difficulty that later led Bill to make his famous speech to Helen in which he said that there must be a better way for them to relate to each other as well as to their colleagues. They had been involved in some bitter, acrimonious interpersonal conflicts by June of 1965 when he made that speech, and when Helen -- surprisingly -- immediately agreed with him and said she was willing to help. This event led to the scribing of A Course in Miracles following a series of unusual dreams and visions on Helen's part during the summer of 1965.

The story of Bill's relationship to Helen began when he hired her as a research assistant at Columbia in 1958. Shortly after assuming his position at Columbia, he found that his new job was going to demand much more from him than he had imagined, or been led to believe. As he was getting himself oriented and setting some priorities, the Dean of the College notified him that the University had received a large grant from the National Institute of Neurological Diseases for conducting a cooperative study of neurological and sensory deficits in infants and young children. A research psychologist with special training and skill in working with children and in psychological testing was needed. Helen became that psychologist and seven years later she and Bill became involved with the scribing of the Course. From then on, their work with the Course was kept a carefully guarded secret, because it would certainly have jeopardized their professional status as well as their employment.

Helen herself had a very strong authoritative and assertive personality, while Bill tended to be much more passive and inwardly unsure of himself. As I mentioned, she and Bill had much difficulty in their relationship, which was one of the factors leading up to Bill's earnest plea for "a better way." Anyone who knew Helen would find it ludicrous that somehow Bill could have used "mind control" techniques to influence her!

In conclusion, I'll quote a few passages from D. Patrick Miller's first book about the Course:6

Whether one views it as happenstance or predestined preparation, several major elements of Thetford's character made him suitable to become Schucman's helper in the recording of the Course. Perhaps most significant was his reluctance to "profess" a distinct philosophy of his own. It's safe to assume that few academics of his status could have resisted the temptation to revise, add to, or even co-opt a major project on which they were assisting a junior colleague, regardless of the project's nature or origin.

Second, Thetford's intellectual curiosity and flexibility would counterbalance Schucman's judgmental tendency, and help both of them deal with a system of psycho-spiritual thought that substantially challenged their psychoanalytic training. Thetford's brush with humanistic psychology may have also prepared him for the transpersonal dimensions of the Course material.

Finally, the younger professor's passivity is probably what made it possible for him to tolerate Helen Schucman's contrariness, albeit not happily. It remains a sad irony that the tenuous balance of the relationship between the two Course recorders never matured into a healthy reciprocity. In 1977, the year following publication of the Course, Schucman was forced to retire from Columbia-Presbyterian at age sixty-eight...In 1978 Thetford took early retirement and moved to California.

Let me just repeat that revelations about unethical and illegal activities sponsored by the CIA through MKULTRA only began to surface as a result of the Church Committee investigations in 1975. The last date I see for a joint psychological publication by Thetford and Schucman is 1972, though Bill continued his role in the MKULTRA-sponsored personality research project 130 until he retired. That project was professionally sound, utilized the PAS, and would only have been of use to the CIA in the same indirect way that the research of Carl Rogers and many other legitimate psychologists would have been. I think that the reason for keeping that project classified is that the CIA hoped to prevent Russia and other foreign countries from either knowing about or making use of psychological research sponsored by the CIA in the United States.

Perhaps this background and summary will contribute to an understanding of why the allegations of conspiracy and "mind control" as being factors in the scribing of A Course in Miracles are preposterous. Anyone unfamiliar with the Course who wants to know more will have to do more reading, particularly reading Wapnick's Absence from Felicity. It might also be helpful to watch the video entitled, "The Story of A Course in Miracles" which is available from the Course publisher, the Foundation for Inner Peace. See their catalog at: https://www.acim.org/miva/merchant.mvc

_______________________________________
1See chapters 4 and 5 of A Primer of Psychology According to A Course in Miracles by Joe R. Jesseph,
 Outskirts Press, Denver, Colorado. 2008
2Marks, John. The Search for the Manchurian Candidate: The CIA and Mind Control. New York: Dell
 Publishing, 1988.
3Also on the Internet see this page of the History Matters Website.
4Rogers, Carl R. On Becoming a Person. The Riverside Press: Cambridge, MA. 1961
5Skutch, Robert. Journey Without Distance: The Story Behind A Course in Miracles. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press, 2001
6Miller, D. Patrick. The Complete Story of the Course: The History, The People, The Controversies Behind A Course in Miracles. Berkeley, CA: Fearless Books, 1997.

Full Article and hyperlinks:

http://www.miraclestudies.net/BillCIA.html

The Control of Candy Jones: Hypnosis and Age Regression

This provocative phenomena of hypnosis, which can only occur in a subject with an extremely high trance capacity, is best left to the professionals. That is not to say that a non professional such as John Nebel is incapable of fostering age regression in a good subject. To be more correct, it is the subject who fosters the regression to times and places in the past, the non professional hypnotist is often nothing more than an interested bystander while the subject "does his or her thing." Such was the case with the age regressions experienced by Candy and recorded by John over the many months of their adventure with hypnosis.

In a medical setting, in which is a physician uses age regression as part of his treatment strategy, there is a more structured approach, one in which the physician, usually a psychiatrist, applies very specific techniques and principles in order to direct the patient's flow of regression in an attempt to reach repressed memories considered vital by the psychiatrist. 

Pg. 40

(post in progress...check back tomorrow)

GTMO Detainees Subjected to "Invasion of Space by Female" and "Dance Instruction" (pdf file)

 
Stalags - Holocaust and Pornography in Israel
http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=27259&FID=64

Declaration of Gitanjali S. Gutierrez, Esq., Lawyer for Mohammed al Qahtani

The U.S. military transferred Mohammed al Qahtani to Guantánamo in January 2002. At some point in early September 2002, military intelligence personnel at Guantánamo began planning a new, more aggressive interrogation regime for Mr. al Qahtani. Major General Michael Dunlavey, the Commander of the Guantánamo detention center, sent a request up the chain of command on October 11, 2002 for approval for an interrogation plan for Mr. al Qahtani that included 19 techniques outside the traditional guidelines for military interrogations.

...

The interrogation log explicitly documents several instances where Mohammad al Qahtani is subjected to sexual humiliation techniques:

1. There are at least ten separate instances when the interrogation log reports that interrogators used a technique labeled “invasion of space by a female” or that Mr. al Qahtani is repulsed, angered or otherwise bothered by a female interrogator invading his personal space. The details of what this involved are generally lacking.6 “Invasion of Space by a Female” is used to describe a number of tactics, from a female interrogator straddling Mr. al Qahtani and molesting him while other military guards pin his body to the floor against his will to a female interrogator rubbing his neck and hair, often until Mr. al Qahtani resists with force and is subdued by military guards.

2. There are documented instances of forced nudity7 and also

3. “Dance instruction.”
a. In one incident, a mask was placed on Mr. al Qahtani and he was forced to undergo “dance instruction” with a male interrogator.8
b. In another incident, he was forced to wear a towel “like a burqa” and undergo “dance instruction” with a male interrogator.9

4. The interrogators made sexual insults and sexually offensive comments about Mr. al Qahtani and about his female family members, specifically his mother and sisters...10

5. Mr. al Qahtani was forced to either wear11 or to look at and study12 pornographic pictures. Interrogators required him to memorize details of the pornographic pictures and answer questions as a means to “test” his willingness to cooperate and to end other abusive interrogation practices. In addition to explicit sexual and religious humiliation, other aspects of Mr. al Qahtani’s treatment and detention were also morally humiliating and a denial of his human dignity. This included forcing him to urinate in front of U.S. personnel in either a bottle or in his pants while in restraints13 and then subsequently denying him the opportunity to clean himself. Military authorities also deprived him of privacy in his living conditions, specifically during showers when both female and male personnel were present.14 On at least one occasion during an interrogation, he was also stripped and forcibly given an enema while military police restrained him in the presence of multiple U.S. personnel. He was also subjected to the following treatment: “On 20 Dec 02, an interrogator tied a leash to the subject of the first Special Interrogation Plan’s chains, led him around the room, and forced him to perform a series of dog tricks.”15

--

Footnotes:

6 (1) 12/04/02 at 1800 “The detainee was bothered by the presence and touch of a female.”; (2) 12/05/02 at
1800 “Detainee became irritated with the female invading his personal space.”; (3) 12/06/02 at 1930 “The
approaches employed [included] Invasion of Space by a Female.”; (4) 12/09/02 at 2340 “Detainee was
repulsed by the female invasion of his personal space.”; (5) 12/10/02 at 1830 “Detainee became very
annoyed with the female invading his personal space.”; (6a) 12/12/02 at 1830 “SGT L started “invasion of
personal space” approach.”; (6b) 12/12/02 at 2312 “The detainee is still annoyed with the female invasion
of space.”; (7) 12/19/02 at 2320 “He attempts to resist female contact.”; (8) 12/21/02 at 2223 “He was laid
out on the floor so I straddled him without putting my weight on him.”; (9) 12/23/02 at 2245 “Female
interrogator used invasion of personal space and detainee cried out to Allah several times.”; (10) 12/25/02
at 1929 “Detainee spoke in English when the female interrogator invaded his personal space.”
7 See, e.g., 12/20/02 at 2200 “The detainee was stripped searched. Initially he was attempting to resist the
guards. After approximately five minutes of nudity the detainee ceased to resist. He would only stare at the
wall with GREAT focus. His eyes were squinted and stuck on one point on the wall directly in front of him.
He later stated that he knew there was nothing he could do with so many guards around him, so why should
he resist. He stated that he did not like the females viewing his naked body while being searched and if felt
he could have done something about it then he would have.”
8 12/12/03 at 1115 “In order to escalate the detainee’s emotions, a mask was made from an MRE box with a
smiley face on it and placed on the detainee’s head for a few moments. A latex glove was inflated and
labeled the “sissy slap” glove. This glove was touched to the detainee’s face periodically after explaining
the terminology to him. The mask was placed back on the detainee’s head. While wearing the mask, the
team began dance instruction with the detainee. The detainee became agitated and began shouting.”
9 12/20/02 at 1300 “A towel was placed on the detainee’s head like a burka with his face exposed and the
interrogator proceeded to give the detainee dance lessons. The detainee became agitated and tried to kick an
MP. No retaliation was used for the kick and the dance lesson continued.”
10 12/17/02 at 2100 “Detainee appeared to have been disturbed by the word homosexual. He did not appear
to appreciate being called a homosexual. He denies being a homosexual. He also appeared to be very
annoyed by the use of his mother and sister as examples of prostitutes and whores.”
11 (1) 12/19/02 at 0200“While walking out, detainee pulled a picture of a model off (it had been fashioned
into a sign to hang around his neck)…”; (2) 12/23/02 at 0001 “Upon entering booth, lead changed white
noise music and hung pictures of swimsuit models around his neck. Detainee was left in booth listening to
white noise.”; (3) 12/24/02 at 0001 “Control entered booth, changed music playing, and hung binder of
fitness models around detainee’s neck.”; (4) 12/26/02 at 0001 “Detainee was eating his food (given by the
previous team). Lead walked into booth turned on white noise and put picture binder of swimsuit models
over detainees neck.”12 (1) 12/17/02 at 2200 “He appeared disgusted by the photos of UBL and a variety of
sexy females.
Detainee would avoid looking at all of the photos shown to him.”; (2) 12/19/02 at 0300 “Interrogators had
detainee look at pictures of women in bikinis and identify if the women were the same or different.
Detainee refused to look at girls and began struggling. A few drops of water were sprinkled on his head to
gain compliance.”; (3) 12/20/02 at 0001 “Detainee listened to white noise while interrogators added photos
of fitness models to a binder. Once completed, the interrogators began showing the photos and asking the
detainee detailed questions about the photos.”; (4) 12/21/02 at 0001 “New interrogation shift enters the
booth and begins “attention to detail” approach. Detainee looks at photos of fitness models and answers
questions about the photos.”; (5) 12/22/02 at 0030 “Lead began the “attention to detail” theme with the
fitness model photos. Detainee refused to look at photos claiming it was against his religion. Lead poured a
24 oz bottle of water over detainee’s head. Detainee then began to look at photos.”; (6) 12/23/02 “The
“attention to detail” approach began. Lead pulled pictures of swimsuit models off detainee and told him the
test of his ability to answer questions would begin. Detainee refused to answer and finally stated that he
would after lead poured water over detainees head and was told he would be subjected to this treatment day
after day.”; (7) 12/24/02 at 0200 “Control entered the booth and began the “attention to detail” lesson for
the night. The detainee still would not accurately answer questions about the fitness models and control
stated that the lesson would continue the next day.”; (8) 12/26/02 at 0030 “Lead entered the booth and
began attention to detail approach. Detainee missed 3 of 10 questions. He has learned to provide more
details and provides enough information to substantiate his answers.”; (9) 12/27/02 at 0100 “Detainee was
taken to bathroom and walked 10 minutes. The “attention to detail” theme was run with the fitness model
photos.”
13 “Detainee again said he has to go to bathroom. SGT R said he can go in the bottle. Detainee said he
wanted to go to the bathroom because it’s more comfortable. SGT R said “You’ve ruined all trust, you can
either go in the bottle or in your pants.” Detainee goes in his pants.” (11/25/2002 at 1000).
14 12/21/02 at 1630 “Detainee given shower, brushed teeth, and given new uniform. The detainee was very
shy and asked several times to cover himself with his trousers or a towel while in the shower.”
15 Schmidt Report. This is documented in the interrogation log as follows: “Told detainee that a dog is held
in higher esteem because dogs know right from wrong and know to protect innocent people from bad
people. Began teaching the detainee lessons such as stay, come, and bark to elevate his social status up to
that of a dog. Detainee became very agitated.” Then: “Dog tricks continued and detainee stated he should
be treated like a man. Detainee was told he would have to learn who to defend and who to attack.
Interrogator showed photos of 9-11 victims and told detainee he should bark happy for these people.
Interrogator also showed photos of Al Qaida terrorists and told detainee he should growl at these
people.” (12/20/02 at 1115, 1300)

Download Doc14_-_ANG_Declaration_of_Gitanjalifr (pdf file)

Related Article(s):

Taxi to the Dark Side

Greg Mackie, "A Circle of Atonement" and A Course in Miracles: Apologists for WAR CRIMES and GENOCIDE

This is an edited version of the class notes for a class taught at the Circle of Atonement on Tuesday, May 18, 2004.

The recent revelations of severe prisoner abuse-even torture-by American military personnel in Iraq have shocked people throughout the world. Many have asked, "How could this happen?" Yet I think in the Course's view, it is not at all surprising that such things happen. In my mind, this scandal offers us a precious opportunity to undo our denial of the ego's darkness. The Course is clear that looking squarely at the ego's illusions in the calm light of truth is essential if we want to free ourselves from the horror the ego has wrought:

No one can escape from illusions unless he looks at them, for not looking is the way they are protected. There is no need to shrink from illusions, for they cannot be dangerous. We are ready to look more closely at the ego's thought system because together we have the lamp that will dispel it…Let us be very calm in doing this, for we are merely looking honestly for truth. (T-11.V.1:1-4)

Let us, then, take a closer look at the Iraq prison scandal from the perspective A Course in Miracles gives us. We will be looking at the monstrous acts of other people, but the point is not to pass judgment on these people, but to use their example to illuminate ego dynamics common to all of us. I'm reminded of what Jesus once said to Helen before giving an account of the ego lapses she and Bill had fallen into on a particular day: "There is nothing of special interest about the events described below, except their typical nature" (Absence from Felicity, by Ken Wapnick, p. 260). The "monster" revealed by the Iraq prison scandal is all too typical, but if we are willing to look at it calmly, we will put ourselves in a position to let it go through forgiveness.

The Iraq prison abuse scandal in a nutshell

Recently released photographs revealed that some American soldiers guarding Iraqi prisoners in Abu Graib Prison were severely abusing them, to a degree that would fit any reasonable definition of "torture." Abuses included sexual humiliation, "stress positions," severe beatings, cruel mind games, and much more. There are reports of even more severe abuses in Abu Graib and elsewhere; a senator who has seen unreleased photos says, "We're talking about rape and murder and some very serious charges." Most of the prisoners are likely innocent of any wrongdoing-at least 60% according to American officials, 70% to 90% according to the Red Cross. The photos were apparently taken by the soldiers themselves as "souvenirs." In the photos, soldiers are clearly enjoying themselves as they are abusing the prisoners. In a sworn statement, one soldier said, "We thought it looked funny so pictures were taken."

The reaction: The monster is in others, attacking me.

A brother separated from yourself, an ancient enemy, a murderer who stalks you in the night and plots your death, yet plans that it be lingering and slow; of this you dream. (T-27.VII.12:1)

Virtually everyone in America is looking for someone to blame for these atrocities (except for those who say that the things that happened weren't atrocities). For example:

    • The accused soldiers say it's the military: They were just following orders.
    • The military says it's the accused soldiers: They were just a few bad apples.
    • Some say it's the terrorists: Those prisoners were probably guilty and deserved it.
    • Some say it's the Bush Administration: one more example of its arrogant bullying.
    • Almost everyone (in America) agrees that it's not representative of America.

Of course, a number of these things may well be true on a form level; there's a great deal of debate about just who was responsible for what. But I'm struck by what all these theories have in common: all of them say, "The monster is in someone else." These responses are representative of the face of innocence, the part of our self-concept that "believes that it is good within an evil world" (T-31.V.2:9). We are innocent victims of all those horrible monsters out there. A murderer separated from myself is out there stalking me. This, according to the Course, is the surface self-concept of virtually everyone in the world: not just those soldiers and the people assigning blame for the prison abuses, but all of us.

Think about a situation in your own life when you did something hurtful to someone else. Have you blamed external factors or other people for your "monstrous" behavior, in order to maintain your face of innocence?

The truth according to the Course (part 1): The monster is in me, attacking others.

Yet underneath this dream [of a brother stalking you] is yet another, in which you become the murderer, the secret enemy, the scavenger and the destroyer of your brother and the world alike. (T-27.VII.12:2)

In the midst of the blame game surrounding the Iraq prison scandal, a rare few are putting forth another theory about where the monster is. Who are the abusers? According to Time Magazine (May 17, 2004):

Psychologists and historians who study torture give what is probably the most disturbing explanation of all: they are us. For under certain circumstances, almost anyone has the capacity to commit the atrocities seen in the photos that have shocked the world.

Here are just a few studies that demonstrate this:

German reservists in World War II

Historian Christopher Browning researched a group of ordinary World War II German reservists. They were not Nazi zealots steeped in anti-Semitism, nor were they career soldiers out to impress their superiors. Yet they massacred thousands of Jewish villagers with little or no coercion from their officers. Browning says, "Not all the reservists went along with the killings. But the majority of ordinary people can be induced to go along with a group."

The "obedience to authority" experiments

Stanley Milgram did a series of experiments on obedience to authority at Yale University in 1961-1962. He found that most of his subjects, who were ordinary people, were willing to give apparently devastating electric shocks-up to 450 volts-to a pitifully protesting victim (actually an actor, who was unharmed), simply because a scientific authority commanded them to.

The Stanford Prison Experiment

In a 1971 study that the Iraqi prison scandal has brought back into the news, Philip Zimbardo set up a mock prison in which some students were "guards" and others "prisoners." The guards, all students who had scored in the "normal" and "healthy" range on standard psychological tests, were instructed to maintain control of the prison, but not to use violence, humiliation, or other dehumanizing tactics. The experiment was intended to go two weeks, but the guards became so sadistic and the prisoners so distressed that it had to be ended after only six days.

The verdict: Within even ordinary, "normal" people, there is a vicious attacker just below the surface that can be unleashed simply by removing the social restraints that normally keep it in check. Not everyone will succumb to the monster within, but apparently most will. Sound familiar? The Course tells us that underneath our "normal" facade-our face of innocence-is a monstrous ego that is bent on attacking others without provocation. We aren't victimized by an external murderer stalking us; we are the murderer stalking the world. What's more, our egos don't just come out when social constraints are removed, but attack in seemingly milder forms virtually all the time. Thus, while it's true that those soldiers at Abu Graib Prison engaged in monstrous acts that revealed the darkness of the ego within them, it is not confined to them. It is something that exists in all of us.

Think of the most "monstrous" thing you have ever done to another person. You might want to write down an account of what happened, to get it clearer in your mind. Why did you do it? How did you feel about it then? How about now? Might this event be evidence that there is a "monster" in you that attacks others just because it wants to attack? Even if what you did is "milder" than what the Iraq soldiers did, might it be that you are not so different from them?

The truth according to the Course (part 2): The monster is in me, attacking myself.

Now, for an instant, is a murderer perceived within you, eager for your death, intent on plotting punishment for you until the time when it can kill at last. (W-pI.196.11:1)

Ultimately, the Course says, the target of that monstrous ego within is not other people, but ourselves. Underneath all of our attacks on others-including the prisoner abuse by those American soldiers-is an urge for self-destruction so terrifying that we project it onto the world and see our own attack on ourselves coming from outside us. This dynamic, like the others, exists in all of us. (I once had a vivid experience of this murderer within me. I wrote an article about this experience entitled "'The Ego Does Want to Kill You': An Experience of the Murderer Within.")

Have you ever noticed self-destructive tendencies in yourself? Have you done things that you knew would be harmful to you, yet you just couldn't resist doing them? You may want to write down some examples. Might this be evidence that there is a "monster" in you that is bent on destroying you?

The truth according to the Course (part 3): The monster is an illusion that, once seen as it really is, can be shined away through forgiveness.

Rest in the Holy Spirit, and allow His gentle dreams to take the place of those you dreamed in terror and in fear of death. He brings forgiving dreams, in which the choice is not who is the murderer and who shall be the victim. In the dreams He brings there is no murder and there is no death....The sleep is peaceful now, for these are happy dreams. (T-27.VII.14:3-5, 8)

This is the good news. It is so good that Lesson 196 says of the instant we see the murderer within ourselves: "Pray that the instant may be soon,-today" (W-pI.196.11:5). Once we see the monster within us as it is, we have both the motivation and the power to do something about it. We have the motivation because we see how undesirable it is: why would we want to hold on to something that wants to kill us? We have the power because once we have looked calmly at the ego without blinders, we can call upon the Holy Spirit to shine it away. It is nothing but an illusion dispelled by the healing light of forgiveness. Ultimately, this is the way that terrors like the abuses at Abu Graib are undone once and for all.

A forgiveness exercise: "We are the same."

Close your eyes and bring to mind someone against whom you are holding a grievance-either someone involved in the Iraq prison scandal, or someone in your own life:

On the surface, this person is holding up a face of innocence. He sees himself as being unfairly attacked by the outside world. You see yourself the same way. You are the same. But this perception is not true. Neither of you is really unfairly attacked by the outside world. Now that you have looked calmly upon this false perception, you can let it go. And so be willing now to let go of the illusion of outer monsters attacking you.

Underneath the face of innocence, this person sees himself as a vicious ego that attacks others without provocation. You see yourself the same way. You are the same. But this perception is not true. Neither of you is really a vicious ego that attacks others without provocation. Now that you have looked calmly upon this false perception, you can let it go. And so be willing now to let go of the illusion of your inner monster attacking others.

Underneath the belief that he is a vicious ego that attack others, this person sees a terrifying murderer within him, plotting his own death. You see yourself the same way. You are the same. But this perception is not true. Neither of you is really threatened by a murderer within plotting your own death. Now that you have looked calmly upon this false perception, you can let it go. And so be willing now to let go of the illusion of the inner monster attacking you.

Underneath all these beliefs, this person is the holy Son of God, as you are. You are the same. This is the only true perception. Both of you are wholly free of illusions of any kind. There are no monsters anywhere. Now that you have let them go, you are free to embrace the truth of who you really are. And so, join with your brother now in celebration of the glorious truth forgiveness has revealed, saying together:
We are God's Son, complete and healed and whole, shining in the reflection of His Love. In us is His creation sanctified and guaranteed eternal life. In us is love perfected, fear impossible, and joy established without opposite. We are the holy home of God Himself. We are the Heaven where His Love resides. We are His holy Sinlessness Itself, for in our purity abides His Own. (adapted from W-pII.14.1:1-6)

This material is copyrighted by the Circle of Atonement, P.O. Box 4238, W. Sedona, AZ 86340. All rights reserved. The opinions expressed are the personal interpretation and understanding of the author(s).

Please visit our website at http://www.circlofa.org. You may E-mail us at info@circleofa.org, or call us at 1(928)282-0790.

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What the Iraq Prison Abuse Scandal Reveals: Looking Calmly at the Monster and Letting It Go
Greg Mackie

Satanic Subversion of the U.S. Military

Michael and Lilith Aquino

On February 5, 1999, in U.S. District Court in Lincoln, Nebraska, an extraordinary hearing occurred in Paul A. Bonacci v. Lawrence E. King, a civil action in which the plaintiff charged that he had been ritualistically abused by the defendant, as part of a nationwide pedophile ring linked to powerful political figures in Washington and to elements of the U.S. military and intelligence establishment. Three weeks later, on February 27, Judge Warren K. Urbom ordered King, who is currently in Federal prison, to pay $1 million in damages to Bonacci, in what Bonacci's attorney John DeCamp said was a clear signal that "the evidence presented was credible."

During the February 5 hearing, Noreen Gosch stunned the court with sworn testimony linking U.S. Army Lt. Col. Michael Aquino (ret.) to the nationwide pedophile ring. Her son, Johnny, then 12 years old, was kidnapped off the streets of West Des Moines, Iowa on September 5, 1982, while he was doing his early-morning newspaper deliveries. Since his kidnapping, she has devoted all of her time and resources to finding her son, and to exposing the dangers that millions of children in American face from this hideous, literally Satanic underground of ritualistic deviants.

"We have investigated, we have talked to so far 35 victims of this said organization that took my son and is responsible for what happened to Paul, and they can verify everything that has happened," she told the court.

"What this story involves is an elaborate function, I will say, that was an offshoot of a government program. The MK-Ultra program was developed in the 1950s by the CIA. It was used to help spy on other countries during the Cold War because they felt that the other countries were spying on us.

"It was very successful. They could do it very well."

Then, the Aquino bombshell: "Well, then there was a man by the name of Michael Aquino. He was in the military. He had top Pentagon clearances. He was a pedophile. He was a Satanist. He's founded the Temple of Set. And he was a close friend of Anton LaVey. The two of them were very active in ritualistic sexual abuse. And they deferred funding from this government program to use [in] this experimentation on children.

"Where they deliberately split off the personalities of these children into multiples, so that when they're questioned or put under oath or questioned under lie detector, that unless the operator knows how to question a multiple-personality disorder, they turn up with no evidence."

She continued: "They used these kids to sexually compromise politicians or anyone else they wish to have control of. This sounds so far out and so bizarre I had trouble accepting it in the beginning myself until I was presented with the data. We have the proof. In black and white."

Under questioning from DeCamp, Gosch reported: "I know that Michael Aquino has been in Iowa. I know that Michael Aquino has been to Offutt Air Force Base [a Strategic Air Command base, near Omaha, which was linked to King's activities]. I know that he has had contact with many of these children."

Paul Bonacci, who was simultaneously a victim and a member of the nationwide pedophile crime syndicate, has subsequently identified Aquino as the man who ordered the kidnapping of Johnny Gosch. In his February 5 testimony, Bonacci referred to the mastermind of the Gosch abduction as "the Colonel."

A second witness who testified at the February 5 hearing, Rusty Nelson, was King's personal photographer. He later described to EIR another incident which linked King to Aquino, while the Army special forces officer was still on active reserve duty. Some time in the late 1980s, Nelson was with King at a posh hotel in downtown Minneapolis, when he personally saw King turn over a suitcase full of cash and bearer-bonds to "the Colonel," who he later positively identified as Aquino. According to Nelson, King told him that the suitcase of cash and bonds was earmarked for the Nicaraguan Contras, and that "the Colonel" was part of the covert Contra support apparatus, otherwise associated with Lt. Col. Oliver North, Vice President George Bush, and the "secret parallel government" that they ran from the White House.

Just who is Lt. Col. Michael Aquino (ret.), and what does the evidence revealed in a Nebraska court hearing say about the current state of affairs inside the U.S. military? Is the Aquino case some kind of weird aberration that slipped off the Pentagon radar screen?

Not in the least.

Aquino, Satan and the U.S. Military

Throughout much of the 1980s, Aquino was at the center of a controversy involving the Pentagon's acquiescence to outright Satanic practices inside the military services. Aquino was also a prime suspect in a series of pedophile scandals involving the sexual abuse of hundreds of children, including the children of military personnel serving at the Presidio U.S. Army station in the San Francisco Bay Area. Furthermore, even as Aquino was being investigated by Army Criminal Investigation Division officers for involvement in the pedophile cases, he was retaining highest-level security clearances, and was involved in pioneering work in military psychological operations ("psy-ops").

On August 14, 1987, San Francisco police raided Aquino's Russian Hill home, which he shared with his wife Lilith. The raid was in response to allegations that the house had been the scene of a brutal rape of a four-year-old girl. The principal suspect in the rape, a Baptist minister named Gary Hambright, was indicted in September 1987 on charges that he committed "lewd and lascivious acts" with six boys and four girls, ranging in age from three to seven years, during September-October 1986. At the time of the alleged sex crimes, Hambright was employed at a child care center on the U.S. Army base at Presidio. At the time of Hambright's indictment, the San Francisco police charged that he was involved in at least 58 separate incidents of child sexual abuse.

According to an article in the October 30, 1987 San Francisco Examiner, one of the victims had identified Aquino and his wife as participants in the child rape. According to the victim, the Aquinos had filmed scenes of the child being fondled by Hambright in a bathtub. The child's description of the house, which was also the headquarters of Aquino's Satanic Temple of Set, was so detailed, that police were able to obtain a search warrant. During the raid, they confiscated 38 videotapes, photo negatives, and other evidence that the home had been the hub of a pedophile ring, operating in and around U.S. military bases.

Aquino and his wife were never indicted in the incident. Aquino claimed that he had been in Washington at the time, enrolled in a year-long reserve officers course at the National Defense University, although he did admit that he made frequent visits back to the Bay Area and to his church/home. The public flap over the Hambright indictment did prompt the U.S. Army to transfer Aquino from the Presidio, where he was the deputy director of reserve training, to the U.S. Army Reserve Personnel Center in St. Louis.

On April 19, 1988, the ten-count indictment against Hambright was dropped by U.S. Attorney Joseph Russoniello, on the grounds that, while there was clear evidence of child abuse (six of the children contracted the venereal disease, chlamydia), there was insufficient evidence to link Hambright (or the Aquinos) to the crimes. Parents of several of the victims charged that Russoniello's actions proved that "the Federal system has broken down in not being able to protect the rights of citizens age three to eight."

Russoniello would later be implicated in efforts to cover up the links between the Nicaraguan Contras and South American cocaine-trafficking organizations, raising deeper questions about whether the decision not to prosecute Hambright and Aquino had "national security implications."

Indeed, on April 22, 1989, the U.S. Army sent letters to the parents of at least 56 of the children believed to have been molested by Hambright, urging them to have their children tested for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), because Hambright, a former daycare center worker, was reported to be a carrier.

On May 13, 1989, the San Jose Mercury reported that Aquino and his wife had been recently questioned by Army investigators about charges of child molestation by the couple in two northern California counties, Sonoma and Mendocino. A 9-year-old girl in Santa Rosa, California, and an 11-year-old boy in Fort Bragg, also in California, separately identified Aquino as the rapist in a series of 1985 incidents, after they had seen him on television.

Softies on Satan

When the San Francisco Chronicle contacted Army officials at the Presidio to find out if Aquino's security clearances had been lifted as the result of the pedophile investigations, the reporters were referred to the Pentagon, where Army spokesman Maj. Greg Rixon told them, "The question is whether he is trustworthy or can do the job. There is nothing that would indicate in this case that there is any problem we should be concerned about."

Indeed, the Pentagon had already given its de facto blessings to Aquino's long-standing public association with the Church of Satan and his own successor "church," the Temple of Set. This, despite the fact that Aquino's Satanic activities involved overt support for neo-Nazi movements in the United States and Europe. On October 10, 1983, while traveling in West Germany on "official NATO business," Aquino had staged a Satanic "working" at the Wewelsburg Castle in Bavaria. Aquino wrote a lengthy account of the ritual, in which he invoked Nazi SS chief Heinrich Himmler: "As the Wewelsburg was conceived by Heinrich Himmler to be the 'Mittelpunkt der Welt' ('Middle of the World'), and as the focus of the Hall of the Dead was to be the Gate of that Center, to summon the Powers of Darkness at their most powerful locus."

As early as April 1978, the U.S. Army had circulated A Handbook for Chaplains "to facilitate the provision of religious activities." Both the Church of Satan and the Temple of Set were listed among the "other" religions to be tolerated inside the U.S. military. A section of the handbook dealing with Satanism stated, "Often confused with witchcraft, Satanism is the worship of Satan (also known as Baphomet or Lucifer). Classical Satanism, often involving 'black masses,' human sacrifices, and other sacrilegious or illegal acts, is now rare. Modern Satanism is based on both the knowledge of ritual magick and the 'anti-establishment' mood of the 1960s. It is related to classical Satanism more in image than substance, and generally focuses on 'rational self-interest with ritualistic trappings.'

No so fast! In 1982, the Temple of Set fissured over the issue of Aquino's emphasis on Nazism. One leader, Ronald K. Barrett, shortly after his expulsion, wrote that Aquino had "taken the Temple of Set in an explicitly Satanic direction, with strong overtones of German National Socialist Nazi occultism ... One fatality has occurred within the Temple membership during the period covered May 1982-July 1983."

The handbook quoted "Nine Satanic Statements" from the Church of Satan, without comment. "Statement Seven," as quoted in the handbook, read, "Satan represents man as just another animal, sometimes better, more often worse than those that walk on all fours, who, because of his 'divine and intellectual development' has become the most vicious animal of all."

From 'Psy-Ops' to 'Mindwars'

Aquino's steady rise up the hierarchy of the Satanic world closely paralleled his career advances inside the U.S. military. According to an official biography circulated by the Temple of Set, "Dr. Aquino is High Priest and chief executive officer of the Temple of Set, the nation's principal Satanic church, in which he holds the degree of Ipissimus VI. He joined the original Church of Satan in 1969, becoming one of its chief officials by 1975 when the Temple of Set was founded. In his secular profession he is a Lieutenant Colonel, Military Intelligence, U.S. Army, and is qualified as a Special-Forces officer, Civil Affairs officer, and Defense Attaché. He is a graduate of the Command and General Staff College, the National Defense University and the Defense Intelligence College, and the State Departments' Foreign Service Institute."

Indeed, a more detailed curriculum vitae that Aquino provided to EIR, dated March 1989, claimed that he had gotten his doctorate at the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1980, with his dissertation on "The Neutron Bomb." He listed 16 separate military schools that he attended during 1968-87, including advanced courses in "Psychological Operations" at the JFK Special Warfare Center at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and "Strategic Intelligence" at the Defense Intelligence College, at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C.

Aquino was deeply involved in what has been called the "revolution in military affairs" ("RMA"), the introduction of the most kooky "Third Wave," "New Age" ideas into military long-range planning, which introduced such notions as "information warfare" and "cyber-warfare" into the Pentagon's lexicon.

In the early 1980s, at the same time that Heidi and Alvin Toffler were spinning their Tavistock "Third Wave" utopian claptrap to some top Air Force brass, Aquino and another U.S. Army colonel, Paul Vallely, were co-authoring an article for Military Review. Although the article was never published in the journal, the piece was widely circulated among military planners, and was distributed by Aquino's Temple of Set. The article, titled "From PSYOP to Mindwar: The Psychology of Victory," endorsed some of the ideas published in a 1980 Military Review article by Lt. Col. John Alexander, an affiliate of the Stanford Research Institute, a hotbed of Tavistock Institute and Frankfurt School "New Age" social engineering.

Aquino and Vallely called for an explicitly Nietzschean form of warfare, which they dubbed "mindwar." "Like the sword Excalibur," they wrote, "we have but to reach out and seize this tool; and it can transform the world for us if we have but the courage and the integrity to guide civilization with it. If we do not accept Excalibur, then we relinquish our ability to inspire foreign cultures with our morality. If they then devise moralities unsatisfactory to us, we have no choice but to fight them on a more brutish level."

And what is "mindwar?" "The term is harsh and fear-inspiring," Aquino wrote. "And it should be: It is a term of attack and victory-not one of rationalization and coaxing and conciliation. The enemy may be offended by it; that is quite all right as long as he is defeated by it. A definition is offered: Mindwar is the deliberate, aggressive convincing of all participants in a war that we will win that war."

For Aquino, "mindwar" is a permanent state of strategic psychological warfare against the populations of friend and foe nations alike. "In its strategic context, mindwar must reach out to friends, enemies and neutrals alike across the globe ... through the media possessed by the United States which have the capabilities to reach virtually all people on the face of the Earth. These media are, of course, the electronic media-television and radio. State of the art developments in satellite communication, video recording techniques, and laser and optical transmission of broadcasts make possible a penetration of the minds of the world such as would have been inconceivable just a few years ago." Above all else, Aquino argues, mindwar must target the population of the United States, "by denying enemy propaganda access to our people, and by explaining and emphasizing to our people the rationale for our national interest. ... Rather it states a whole truth that, if it does not now exist, will be forced into existence by the will of the United States."

Satanic Subversion of the U.S. Military
Jeffrey Steinberg

http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/satanic_subversion.htm

The Origins of PERMINDEX

After [Clay] Shaw's arrest, Jim Garrison received from Ralph Schoenman, philosopher Bertrand Russell's secretary in London,  copies of a series of articles published in an Italian newspaper of the independent left called Paesa Sera. The articles had been assigned six months earlier to expose the CIA's pernicious attempt to influence European electoral politics and to thwart the democratic process in more than one country. They focused on 'Centro Mondiale Commerciale,' the world trade center in Rome, as a CIA front, one modeled, according to a 1958 State Department document, on the original CIA-created International Trade Mart in New Orleans. Paese Sera, of course, did not possess this document. Its evidence came first hand.

Contro Mondiale Commerciale was, by the US government's own admission, a CIA front, channeling money not only into legal political parties, but also into right-wing movements. Among them was the virulent paramilitary OAS (Organisation Armée Secrète) in France, which employed terrorism to oppose the independence of Algeria, and was among the 'most notorious fascist organizations in French history.' In New Orleans, Guy Banister and L.P. Davis had been OAS supporters.

The most notorious OAS-sponsored effort was the attempted assassination of Charles de Gaulle in 1962. Banister operative Tommy Baumler remarked that 'those who killed John F. Kennedy were those who wanted to kill de Gaulle.'  He was referring to the CIA, Clay Shaw, Banister, and Centro's parent organization, PERMINDEX (Permanent Industrial Exhibition), based in Switzerland.

Having been accused of 'shady speculation' by the Swiss, PERMINDEX had created the Centro Mondiale Commerciale in Rome, ostensibly to develop industry and trade in Italy. The Centro, however, was a trade association that rarely if ever organized an exhibit; it facilitated no commercial transactions.

CIA had, in fact, founded PERMINDEX to organize its political policymaking. In Italy, this had meant opposition to a coalition of socialists and communists that would have resulted in a majority government. The CIA preferred the Christian Democratic Party and so CIA  Counter Intelligence chief James Angleton filtered ten million dollars of CIA money to the Christian Democrats. In Les Echos newspaper,  de Gaulle named PERMINDEX as having been involved in the attempt on his life. The French, no less than the Italians, considered PERMINDEX a 'subsidiary of the CIA.' Paese Sera would call PERMINDEX  ' a creature of the CIA...set up as a cover for the transfer of CIA funds in Italy for illegal political espionage activities.'

In the ranks of PERMINDEX were actual Nazis and neo-Nazis, terrorists and Mafia operatives. Typical was Prince Guterez di Spadafora, a former Mussolini undersecretary, whose son had married the daughter of Hitler's finance minister, Hjalmar Schact, tried for war crimes at Nuremberg. The leadership of PERMINDEX included a long-time asset of CIA Deputy Direct of Plans, Frank Wisner. His name was Ferenc Nagy, and he was the president of PERMINDEX. Nagy had been chairman of the Hungarian's 'People's Party' or  'Independent Party of Small Holders.' Briefly, in 1945, he had been prime minister of Hungary. But it was Nagy's CIA history that catapulted him to the leadership of PERMINDEX. Its general secretary, Bela Kovacs, was also a CIA asset. Kovacs had been arrested by the Soviet security police and charged with spying for 'a Western intelligence service.'

Nagy had been on Frank Wisner's list of the individuals with whom his office would 'have dealings in connection with our authorized activities' since September 22, 1948. Wisner then had been Assistant Director of CIA as well as 'Assistant Director for Policy Coordination.' Nagy had been a 'cleared contact of the International Organizations Division of the Agency,' among Wisner's most trusted Eastern European contacts.

Nagy's history with the CIA dates from its beginnings and links to PERMINDEX with the Agency's clandestine services. Confirming de Gaulle's thesis that PERMINDEX funded the OAS is that Nagy was a 'munificent contributer'  to Jacques Soustelle, former professor at the École pratique des hautes études and former Algerian governor general. Soustelle became an OAS supporters, and his organization, Conseil national de la resistance, was all but identical to OAS. In 1960, Soustelle met in Washington, D.C., with Richard Bissell, then heading the CIA's clandestine services. A year later, Soustelle went into exile to avoid being arrested by de Gaulle's police. Two years after that he would be accused of colluding with OAS in the attempted assassination of de Gaulle. S Soustelle had openly 'advocated over throwing de Gualle,' while condoning OAS violence.

In New Orleans, Delphine Roberts identified Nagy from his photograph as someone she had seen at Guy Banister's office.

Nagy's partner in the leadership of PERMINDEX was Giorgio Mantello, aka George Mandel, who during World War II had traded in Jewish refugees, profiting handsomely from their misery from his perch at the consulate of El Salvador in Bern.  It was Mandel who had been the official founder of PERMINDEX. CIA kept silent, but the State Department learned that, as 'Georges Mandel,' Mantello had been engaged in the 'wartime Jewish refugee racket' until he was expelled from Switzerland.

Although Centro Mondiale Commerciale refused to reveal the origins of its vast income, the paper trail leads to a Miami bank, Astalde Vaduz, and to the CIA front 'Double-Chek.' CMC was connected as well to L.M. Bloomfield in Montreal, and to the Seligman banking family in Basel; Seligman banking in turn was allied with Sullivan and Cromwell, the law firm of CIA Director of Central Intelligence, Allen Dulles. 'My parents are very interested in PERMINDEX,' Peter Seligman-Schurch wrote to Clay Shaw.

In Switzerland, PERMINDEX soon aroused 'widespread public suspicion.' Nagy and Seligman stonewalled the concerned American consulate in Bern after the Swiss complained they had 'insufficient confidence in the business integrity'  of PERMINDEX.

In the spring of 1958, Enrico Mantello, the vice president of PERMINDEX and brother of Giorgio, visited New Orleans. Touring the Trade Mart, he invited Clay Shaw to join the board of directors as a means of defusing the criticism of PERMINDEX; its critics by now included the State Department itself. Nagy appeared at the American Embassy in Rome to announce that he intended 'to strengthen US control in PERMINDEX by adding to its Board of Directors a Mr. Shaw, who is in charge of the New Orleans, Louisiana permanent exhibit.'

Nagy claimed that Shaw 'had from the outset great interest in the PERMINDEX project,' and Shaw did use the term 'delighted' in his cable of acceptance. He made plans to visit Italy, then canceled. despite Mantello's urgings. When he added his PERMINDEX directorship to ' Who's Who in the South and the Southeast,' the Department of Commerce warned Shaw about 'this shadowy organization.' But, as in all his CIA assignments, grateful for the career CIA made of him, Clay Shaw honored his obligation.

Internal evidence that PERMINDEX was a CIA front emerges in the fact that the CIA included PERMINDEX materials in its asset Clay Shaw's files, three years before as well as after the Kennedy assassination. One of these documents, dated March 16, 1967, reveals that at the time of his arrest Clay Shaw was working with Domestic Operations Division of the CIA's clandestine services. This was only a seeming contradiction since the CIA's operational component in New Orleans had resided under the umbrella of the Domestic Contact Division, at least since November 19, 1964, according to a CIA document on 'Garrison and the Kennedy Assassination,' MEMORANDUM No.8.

'Most of us consider the CIA with abhorrence,' Shaw wrote in his Diary for the record, with his customary dark laughter.

In 1962, Centro Mondiale Commerciale was expelled from Italy, ostensibly for financial malfeasance, and specious real estate dealings, but actually for subversion and illegal intelligence activity. 'Who was giving money to the CMC and what was it being used for?' Paesa Sera demanded. PERMINDEX relocated to a more compatible political venue, apartheid South Africa. Clay Shaw remained on its board, providing space at the Trade Mart for a permanent PERMINDEX display.

The editors of Paese Sera were astonished when their March 1967 publication date for the series on PERMINDEX coincided with the arrest of Clay Shaw. They had been working on the series for months, former editor Giorgio Fanti says. Now they headlined Clay Shaw's involvement in PERMINDEX, with a subhead revealing that he had been arrested by Jim Garrison in New Orleans. Paese Sera noted that Shaw's name had first appeared in connection with the machinations of the organization. He had gone to Rome 'during the time preceding the disbanding of the CMC,' Shaw admitted to a Paesa Sera interviewer. Paesa Sera wondered, too, about Shaw's leaving the United States two days after the assassination, remaining abroad for two years with only intermittent visits to America.

Shaw affected his customary disdain. He had agreed to be on the PEMINDEX board, he claimed, because 'a young Italian came to see me in New Orleans and told me about a world trade center that was being planned in Rome.' He also told the Paese Sera interviewer that he 'accepted the position in exchange for two New Orleans-Rome air tickets.' Even his closest friends were appalled. 'There must have been blackmail - they're very famous for that, the CIA,' Patricia Chandler says.

Jim Garrison had charged that the CIA had plotted the assassination of John F. Kennedy, for which they were aided and abetted in New Orleans by their operative, Clay Shaw. Thirty-five years later, a series of attacks on Paese Sera began to appear, accompanied by an excoriation of Jim Garrison. Among the publications sanctioning these attacks was the CIA's own web site, 'Studies in Intelligence.' Journalist Max Holland repeated in a series of magazine articles the erroneous thesis that the only reason that Paese Sera believed that the CIA was behind PERMINDEX was that the newspaper was the victim of KGB disinformation. Jim Garrison, therefore, had connected the CIA to the Kennedy assassination and to Shaw only owing to a KGB lie. 

Rather, Garrison's attribution of the planning of the assassination to the CIA was based on his discovery of the CIA connections of Lee Harvey Oswald, and not those of Clay Shaw, an inconvenient detail Holland omits. The truth is that Garrison had focused on the CIA in December 1966  and January 1967, well before the March publication of the Paese Sera articles.

A Farewell to Justice: Jim Garrison, JFK's Assassination, and the Case that Should Have Changed History. by Joan Mellen. Pgs. 136-140.