Uncle Sam's wire cutters

“To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.” Oscar Wilde.

In the span of less than a week, four major underwater telecommunications cables have been “cut”. Can you imagine being in a car wreck on Monday and the ambulance you are riding in after the wreck is also involved in a wreck and on Tuesday you wreck the rental car that the insurance company got for you and when you leave the lot with a second rental car, that one gets totaled too? Telecoms, governments and the media all want us to believe the car wreck story. That’s what they are force-feeding us when they aren’t busy trying to ignore the story.

What would be the reasons behind taking down an entire region’s communications grid in this way? There are several possibilities and I think the wilder ones could carry the most weight as this is an extraordinary set of equipment failures.

Some people are postulating that this is an opening salvo before Iran opens its oil Bourse. The latest given date for the opening is February 11th and it will be interesting to see how the communications situation is resolved and if there are other problems popping up when the Bourse opens. It is possible that the cables were taken down as a warning to not only Iran, but also the rest of the world, that their main means of operating in the modern financial world could be taken down with a moment's notice. I think this explanation carries the most weight as the timing and the “signal” of this communications outage is most prescient.

There are a few “I don’t know about that…” twists with a warning shot theory. Namely, the dollar is already being unpegged from Middle East oil producers and let’s face it, the US economy is already fucked six ways to Sunday. Sending some SEALs to the Med and the Gulf, armed with wire cutters and spare air tanks seems a bit like overkill. Then again, subtlety isn’t a trademark of the US Government.

There is also quite a bit of speculation that the outage is a byproduct of the US Government carrying out a large-scale surveillance program. I assume the NSA is capturing data streams en masse and in real time on most if not all international communications lines, so this seems less likely unless there were specific traffic routes that they had no access to. I have wondered, from an IT professional’s perspective, if the cables were cut to corner or head off a stream of communication that had the potential for damage. The idea of taking an all or nothing course of action with a dangerous communications link by cutting all traffic seems more damaging to the overall picture than helpful so I am not crazy about this idea either.

Time will tell what the real deal is behind the communications outage but we should keep in mind that if or when the shit really hits the fan here in the US we would never be able to find out in real time, from alternate sources, what has transpired. If the powers that be decide to pull the plug on our Democracy they’ll do it under the cover of night and we’ll all wake up to a glossy doll’s eyes version of the normal life we have become accustomed to. It will be as though surreal pixies remade our world overnight. The news will report that “something” has happened but we will not be privy to the reality. It will be as though someone snipped our transatlantic cables and satellite communications with the rest of the world. We will be blinded and unable to find content other than what they allow us to view. At this very moment, Iran is in that exact position.

One other thing to consider is the similarities of this outage and what ATT customers experienced during the transition periods when the NSA installed it's equipment in their COs. Add the BellSouth customers who couldn't get email when ATT "transitioned" those customers into their network and you have an interesting case study in how things don't flow when the feds snoop. To this day there are latency issues with email coming from BellSouth where looking at the header info will show an outbound email from a BellSouth customer, bouncing around like a pinball within ATT's network.

Persian Poker or: What's the deal with this new NIE report?

If you play card games of any type you know there are three things that guide your strategy: 1) The cards you can see. 2) The odds for the cards you can’t see. 3) Understanding the habits and strategy of your opponent(s). There are a finite number of cards, a finite number of plays and a finite number of players in any card game. If you are playing with or against someone with whom you have played before, you know how they play the cards, the odds and how they play against or with you. Politics, of any sort, bear a close resemblance to card games, the only real differences being there are fewer rules in the polemic game but the stakes are much higher. The recent revelations regarding the NIE report on Iran’s nuclear programs have brought the card game analogy to my mind.

In the spring of 2005, NIE reports that trumpeted an increased determination and focus in Iran in regard to their nuclear programs. This led the Bush administration to apply heavier pressure and increase the rhetoric against Iran. Now the NIE is rescinding that assessment stating:

“"We judge with high confidence that in the fall of 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program." Furthermore, “Tehran’s decision to halt its nuclear weapons program suggests it is less determined to develop nuclear weapons than we have been judging since 2005." As well as, "Our assessment that Iran halted the program in 2003 primarily in response to international pressure indicates Tehran's decisions are guided by a cost-benefit approach rather than a rush to a weapon irrespective of the political, economic and military costs."

Taking the circumstances of this new NIE report at face value is a dangerous maneuver. To take them at face value is the equivalent of the US government directly telling the Iranian intelligence apparatus that at least two sources of intelligence have contradicted each other, and the results point directly to the source. Regardless of how the intelligence was gathered it would lead the Iranians to a strategy of back tracking their own steps to see what caused these two NIE report findings.

To take this at face value from the perspective of the Iranians would be equally dangerous. It would result in a change in their methods, a new emphasis on information security and would provide the US Intelligence Community with an opportunity to see the Iranian Intelligence Community hard at work. The best way to learn about your opponent’s methodology is to simply sit back and watch him work. Observation of the world is how we learn about the world.

We need to ask ourselves a few questions about this turn of events:

1) What are the specifics regarding the 2005 estimate that led the US government to overestimate the Iranian nuclear program?
2) What new intelligence brought to light the incorrect assessment from 2005?
3) What lessons can be learned about Iran’s strategy and tactics since they have sat back for the last two years, watching the US watch them, while knowing all along that the NIE report was wrong?
4) What lessons did Iran learn about the US Intelligence Community and it’s strategy and tactics over the last two years?
5) Did the Iranian IC manipulate the US IC into thinking it had an ongoing and active program underway? i.e. Did they give the US a red herring? What caused the US to finally realize it was a red herring?
6) Does looking at the white, black and gray propaganda from the last two years shed light into the inner workings of the Iranian and US IC?

With the exception of point number 6, details will certainly be hidden from the public. There is simply no chance in hell that this administration or any government agency would willingly tell the world the specifics of how it gathers, analyzes, disseminates and reacts to the intelligence it sifts through. Point number 6, the study of propaganda about the Iranian nuclear program(s), is one we can study.

In February of 2005, when threats of a US attack on Iran were high, Iran conducted a media campaign that threatened the use of asymmetrical warfare in the event of a US attack on it’s soil. This came only a matter of months after they conducted a massive war game exercise that increased tensions in the gulf, Washington and Tehran. The effect of this threat of guerrilla warfare stirred a series of op-ed pieces that threatened and warned American citizens that Iran has sleeper cells throughout the Persian Gulf and possibly here in America.

It also had the effect of contributing directly to two consecutive rises in the futures trading price for oil. At the end of 2001, with US forces on the ground in Afghanistan, the yearly average price for a barrel of oil was $23. At the end of 2002, when the war drums were beating heavily, the average price had dropped a little less than 1% to $22.81. At the end of 2003, with the US in Afghanistan and Iraq and the early drumbeats of war against Iran were beating, oil rose in price 21% and stood at $27.69. In 2004 oil rose another 36% to $37.66. By the end of 2005, with Washington rhetoric high and an Iranian “bring it on” style response to the Bush administration, oil had risen to $50.04, an increase of another 32%. In just 4 short years the price of oil had risen 117%.

I’m not saying that the NIE overestimate was done solely to boost oil company profits, after all the profits of every single defense contractor has also skyrocketed in this period of time as a direct result of waging two wars on two fronts, so there are other factors. Still, it cannot be overlooked that the increased uncertainty in that region that has driven the price of oil to incredible levels is directly tied to the instability created by both the incorrect NIE report and the unnecessary saber rattling by the Bush administration. This, in turn, has had an enormous and negative impact on the US economy and placed an even greater strain on the budgets of US citizens. In other words, the Bush administration has caused greater harm to the paychecks of Americans in this period of time than the government of Iran.

In this case, the white propaganda meted out by the Bush administration and it’s sycophants can be viewed as advancing the interests of the oil industry. Both the corporations and the government’s that profit on the production of oil benefited greatly by this white propaganda. The effect and the source of this propaganda cannot be overlooked.

A more recent series of events can be looked at as having a possible connection to this recent NIE report and it has a direct influence on the white and gray propaganda currently being spread regarding the situation in Pakistan. Is it possible that the sudden change in the NIE assessment of Iran’s nuclear status has less to do with Iran and everything to do with the evolving situation in Pakistan?

In August of 2005, when the initial wave of propaganda swept out from the NIE report that stirred this hornet’s nest, the IAEA released a widely under-reported piece of news. Their inspections uncovered a key piece of evidence regarding the Iranian bomb-making program. Their tests showed that the enriched uranium particles found on Iranian equipment came not from Iran, but from Pakistan. Pakistan is where this equipment was illegally imported from, all in secret.

Now, we all know that Pakistan has the bomb and we can safely assume that their nuclear program now consists primarily of making more bombs, designing higher yield bombs and honing strategies for future use of those weapons in time of war. The problem in Pakistan in regards to it’s nuclear secrets has been directly tied to Abdul Khan, the government official and nuclear scientist who admitted in 2004 to selling nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea and was exposed in 2003. Iran bought this equipment from Khan in secret and there has been no dispute over that sale.

Recent events in Pakistan have given us the return of Bhutto, assassination attempts on her life, major abuses of freedom following Musharraf’s crackdowns and we have the threat of a nuclear power losing control of it’s weapons due to political turmoil. This could also lead to the release of more information regarding Abdul and his connections if the political conditions deteriorate further. Considering the probability that Abdul operated within the full knowledge and light of the major Intelligence Communities of the world, the last thing the US and other governments need is the threat of their secrets in this arena being exposed.

These pieces of information and the evolving nature of Pakistan’s power base and connections are interesting when placed against the backdrop of her history and the direct connections she has had with the underworld of smuggling, covert operations and varying loyalties based on financial considerations. Pakistan held a vital place in the British East India Company’s holdings with the production of opium and the illegal smuggling of opium into China during the Opium Wars. The great fortunes of the leaders in international finance today were based on the fortunes gained by the opium smuggling trade. CitiGroup, ING, HSBC and others own the booty that was gained as Bostonian smugglers and well-heeled Englishmen plundered the wealth of China and addicted a full quarter of her male population 200 years ago. Pakistan was the proving grounds and classroom for the CIA’s future drug smuggling schemes.

The US/Pakistan relationship has been hot and cold since it’s formation in 1947. The 50’s, 80’s and this first decade of the 21st century have placed them in close contact and with a location that provides perfect base of operations for covert operations, it is not difficult to see Pakistan being a covert ally to various components of the US Intelligence Community even in the worst of times.

Which leads me back to the possibility that the reason for the new NIE report being tied somehow to events in Pakistan. If there is fear that the US/Pakistan relationship will sour, and very soon at that; and concerns that Pakistan is on the verge of collapse, would it not make sense to downgrade the trumped up assessment of Iran to ensure that any change in the status of Pakistan does not expose more than the Bush administration wishes to be known?

All of this, of course, is speculation. However, it is most curious that the only major development in world politics of great significance in the months prior to this reversal is the turmoil and upheaval in Pakistan. What cards does Bhutto hold, is Musharraf bluffing or will he be forced to fold? Has Iran been playing it straight all this time simply to see how the others at the table are showing their hand? One thing is certain; this administration has the worst poker face ever seen. They bluff when they should fold, raise when they only have a pair of twos, they fold with a king high full house and Bush can’t even do an overhand shuffle without the cards flying all over the table.

A new day, a new spy program and another massive database to write a DTS package for.

Never be foolish enough to think that just because the feds say they are shutting down a controversial program that it means an evil entity has gone away. Take this recent piece of news from the Pentagon. The DoD has announced that it will shut down an anti-terrorist database that was associated with the TALON program. This database was criticized widely because among it’s targets were peaceful anti-war demonstrators such as the Quaker group, American Friends Service Committee.

This database isn’t simply going away, as it should be. In a perfect world the Pentagon would see the error in it’s ways of spying on the citizens they provide protection for and delete the whole database and destroy the backups, with stern warnings in place to never repeat such an awful crime against it’s own citizens. This is not the case. The DoD will simply turn the database over to the FBI to be integrated with their database system known as Guardian.

First of all we have the issue of our own military spying on, and most likely running counter-intelligence operations against it’s own citizens. Second, will the FBI weigh the DoD data after running it through many matrix’ and filtering processes? You and I know they will never do that. They’ll just import the data and be off on their fat happy way. God only knows how many alerts will be generated once they pull in the new data.

This doesn’t mean the DoD is done with you and I either. The Pentagon has said they have a new system, not necessarily a database, which will streamline their “threat reporting.” This makes me wonder how much of Poindexter’s TIA system is accessible to the DoD. Isn’t it wonderful to know that we throw insane amounts of money at the DoD so they will spy on you and I and call all of us a threat?

For the final slap in the face, a faceless Army officer speaking for the Pentagon said that the TALON database isn’t being shutdown because of “public criticism of how it was used.” That is a nice way of saying the public’s anger at such a program as TALON wasn’t something the DoD gave a fuck about. Sometimes I think the Pentagon and all the demonic generals and admirals who suck at the teat of our taxes will be delighted to turn their weapons on us.

Another day, another spy program.

Granny, the Islamofascist

So typical of the twisted logic of the current crop of leaders and bureaucrats in this nation, we have learned a new factoid in the TSA scare tactic regarding dry runs of terrorists in America’s airports and skyways. The spooky references to devices that they told us were simulations of explosive devices? Nah, one was nothing more than gel based ice packs being transported by a 61 year-old woman flying out of San Diego. I saw this nice Grandmotherly woman on TV last night. A jihadi she ‘aint.

Like the “terrorist cell” in Miami and the “terrorist cell” that was planning to attack Fort Dix, the examples of why we should lose our freedoms to protect ourselves are truly pathetic. That cell in Miami? They didn’t have plans or weapons and seemed to be playing a retarded version of cowboys and Indians. A bunch of burnt stub idiots with the mouth breather quotient of typical nature for this day and age. Spend 10 minutes in Atlanta and you’ll meet at least a half dozen morons of their stature. The Fort Dix group? They “trained” by playing paintball in the woods, stole a map of the base from a local pizza delivery joint and got busted after they asked the tech people at a local Circuit City to transfer their jihad training video onto DVD. What a bunch of bullshit.

Ice packs become statistics for terror threats after they pass through DHS Secretary Chertoff’s bowels, this I am sure of. When Chertoff pinches a loaf, we have the makings of a new intelligence report. When Moe, Larry and Curley (sometimes Shemp) go traipsing into Circuit City with their Jihadi training video and ask Ron or Felisha or whoever is working the electronics aisle, to transfer it to DVD, you have to wonder how a person of such stupidity can survive even out of their teens. It calls into question the theories presented by Darwin.

For all the Grannies out there who may be planning a trip to visit the grand kids, take care that your Blue Star ointment isn’t confused with C4. Don’t let them rough you up and ruin your hairdo when you pass through the metal detector. Get tough with them, don’t suffer fools gladly and if that fails, threaten to go get yourself a hickory switch and wear out their britches if they get pushy. Our freedom, and your new do from the salon, depends on you standing tall and tough, ladies.

The CIA reports are now available online

A word of caution before clicking the link to the "Family Jewels" reports, the pages of the report have been converted into .gif files which will load in your browser. There are over 700 pages so I would recommend dial-up users using a different URL to view/download the files. If I can find a Table of Contents style index page for the reports I'll post it. For those with a broadband connection, here you go: Selected excerpts from the CIA "Family Jewels" report.

Also keep in mind that you are viting the CIA's public website when viewing these documents.

The infamous Family Jewels reports see the light of day. Did hell freeze over?

The Washington Post and MSNBC are reporting that DCI Michael Hayden is about to okay the release of several hundred pages from the CIA's infamous "Family Jewels" reports. Backstory on these reports and their history can be found in the link.

This is a very curious development, especially at this critical juncture in US history. We have major Constitutional questions that the agency are a central component of in their actions in this "War on Terror". Most specifically we know some details of the extraordinary rendition program being run by the agency. Several CIA agents are currently being tried in abstentina in an Italian court for kidnapping suspected terrorists from that country.

We also have VP Cheney's foreboding comments from 2001 where he stated the US Intelligence Community would have to work in "the dark side" from that point on. If Abu Grahib, Guantanamo Bay, the spying on Americans and rendition strategies is only the tip of the iceberg, and who's to say it isn't, there could be things going on that make even the Family Jewels reports seem tame in comparison.

The timing of this release of historical info is also interesting. Perhaps the agency sees the writing is on the wall regarding their activities since 9/11/2001 and they know it will be sooner than later before the word leaks out and they wish to soften the blow by desensitizing us to what is coming? Perhaps they know a leak is in the works already? Who knows.

All that can be said is that the agency releases information of their own choice about as often as Haley's Comet swings around in view. Something is driving this release and it isn't patriotism or a belief that state secrets are damaging to a Democracy. The trick in this case is trying to understand why they want to release it.

Once the papers are released I am certainly going to have a look and I highly recommend that all Conspiracy Theory researchers and enthusiasts do the same, even if the agency or government theories are not your main subject of interest. Red herrings, misdirection, disinfo and manipulation should be things we all keep in mind while digesting the documents. Whatever reason the agency has in releasing these documents there has to be an ulterior motive and we need to step back and think of their place in the big picture.

Litvinenko assassin officially accused

Prosecutors in London are today making formal accusations in the Litvinenko assassination. This case has interested me on two levels since Litvinenko’s poisoning with polonium-210 was first announced. Most obviously, it deals with an aspect of how intelligence agencies work. Secondly, Litvinenko was one of the most prominent accusers that the Russian FSB was behind the Russian Apartment Bombings of 1999. The first time I can recall hearing the phrase “false flag operation” was in relation to his descriptions of this event.

While the prosecutors accusations will now enter a phase where the diplomats discuss the case and there will be the usual posturing between England and Russia over justice, it will still be a curious event to follow. My hope is that someone, anyone from the mainstream American press would discuss at length Litvinenko’s false flag claims. When his poisoning first made headlines here in the states, the press really only mentioned his accusations of the Russian government assassinating their critics but they failed to bring the apartment bombings the bright light of investigation.

News - Verizon tells court they were exercising 1st amendment rights in NSA spying scandal.

This will make your head spin. Verizon is claiming that the lawsuit filed against the company for helping the government spy on it's citizens, should be dropped because they were merely exercising their first amendment rights.

The gravamen of plaintiffs records claims is that defendants allegedly communicated information about them to the government namely, that a call was
placed from a certain telephone number to another number. Communicating such
factual information to the government would be speech that is fully protected by the First Amendment.

When the country is engaged in an armed conflict with foreign enemies, that right applies to communicating information that may be useful in defending the country from expected attacks. Based on plaintiffs own allegations, defendants right to communicate such information to the government is fully protected by the Free Speech and Petition Clauses of the First Amendment, and is a privilege and immunity that arises directly under the federal Constitution.

We've seen far too many examples of ideas and words being redefined to suit the wants and needs of the powers that be over the last 6 years but this one is an award winner. I honestly don't know where to begin. This is a prime example of why I absolutely despise the mega-corporations in this country. It's just mind boggling to think that this defense could work for them.

If this doesn't work in the court, the President is ready to push a bill in which there is a section that would grant all telecommunications companies retroactive immunity from any and all legal action by the American public in relation to their efforts to assist the government in spying on us.

Cryptome..RIP??

If you spend enough time browsing CT themed message boards sooner or later you are bound to be checking one out at the same time another CT message board is down. The comments are always guaranteed to have at least one poster questioning whether or not the feds have shut down the site, or more ominously, taken it over. CT forums go down for maintenance, hack attacks or simply failing to pay the bills but one site that stays on the radar for a lot of people, myself included, has gone dark.

Cryptome is the site John Young has operated for a number of years that has really pushed boundaries of the type of information you can post and get away with it. He doesn't post conspiracy theories but his documents can often lead the CT researcher down some interesting side alleys of the Intelligence Community. He's had many threats from alphabet agencies over the years but it looks like someone finally got his hosting company, Verio, to pull the plug and the site is sitting in timeout limbo right now.

I'm hoping Cryptome returns, anyone who raises the scorn of the FBI *and* Readers Digest is okay in my book.

Commentary - Nine questions the Fourth Estate are ignoring.

Three weeks ago today, Seung Cho-Hui fired over 170 shots, killing 32 people. The mainstream media have left a huge amount of unanswered questions on the table, focusing now on the question of gun control and mental illness. What we know and what they will not report or follow-up is staggering.

1) A direct connection has been made between the shooter, The Unification Church and Manna Christian Fellowship; two extreme right wing religious followings. If the media wishes to report and speculate about the late Pat Tillman’s religious beliefs (atheist), when that had no effect on his work, why not address the cult and extremist connections to the shooter? We know the answer to that question but it is still worthy of asking ourselves the question.

2) A direct connection has been made between the shooter, the US Intelligence Community and the Military-Industrial Complex. Only a fleeting reference to McNeil Technologies has ever been made with no follow-up or closer examination.

3) The shooter’s behavior and background are virtually identical to every assassin the US has produced since Lee Harvey Oswald, yet little attention is ever made of this distinction.

4) On the day of the shootings the press announced the type of guns the killer had, the fact that he had a receipt in his possession for the guns and that the serial numbers had been filed off said weapons. It’s common knowledge that filing off the serial numbers have no effect on identifying them as the pressure required to stamp these numbers leaves a signature that can be seen. The media has not looked at the almost Oswaldian connection that the receipts have. The infamous backyard photos of Lee Harvey Oswald bear a striking resemblance to this case, even down to altered serial number on Oswald’s Carcano rifle.

5) The advanced skill displayed by the shooter hasn’t even been address by the mainstream media. The “video gamer” excuse didn’t even get airtime because no one asked a simple question, “How could a person with apparently no weapons training carry out such a skilled attack?”

6) More time and energy was spent analyzing the meaning of Ismael Ax, as though it were some Kane-like “Rosebud”, than has been spent trying to understand why a major news outlet like NBC News would apologize for doing their job, reporting the news, after they were “criticized” by the victims families for airing less than 2 out of 26 minutes of footage the shooter sent to them.

7) Side stories that have arisen from this event, such as the disclosure that the NASPER database is being used to investigate citizens who have filled anti-depressant prescriptions; have fallen into the memory hole or ignored as though they never existed. What was an unexpected scoop regarding the privacy of all American citizens has turned into a non-story because the mainstream media do not wish to cover it.

8) Absolutely no research has been made into the academic careers of the shooter or his sister. What little we have seen of the shooter’s writings are juvenile at best and yet this young man was a creative writing major? What path led this ESL student into the challenging process of obtaining a BFA in Creative Writing?

9) How could the system of ensuring the safety of students at Virginia Tech fail so completely following years of warning signs that something was amiss with the shooter? This cannot be a sign of a systemic failure of the process at VaTech, something else is at work and he was allowed to stay at the behest of someone or some group.

The Fourth Estate has been asleep at the wheel for years and corporate ownership of the mainstream media has tightened the noose around the neck of any possible investigative journalistic efforts. What we are left with is a dark empty room from which no echo can even be produced.

Has ATT or the NSA broken the BellSouth email system?

For several weeks now email being delivered to BellSouth Internet customers has had serious problems with delays. Since the ATT takeover of our old "Southern Belle", the typical ATT lack of quality has seeped into the BellSouth network with surprising speed. Emails coming into the BellSouth network either disappear into the ether or are delayed for hours or even days. DNS resolution sucks as websites sometimes won't resolve but going to the IP address works. Access speeds even on DSL is erratic. And if that weren't enough we now have the ATT Death Star logo looming over the city as something to look forward to.

So, is this just a sign of the ATT bungling idiots fouling things up? Or is this the teething stage of the NSA hooking up their latest Carnivore derivative downtown in the Telco Hotels of Marietta Street? As inept as ATT is, it's hard to not blame them but we all know what ATT has let the NSA do over the past few years. Which group of idiots is wrecking the party? The corporate idiots or government idiots?

Another random thoughts post

The news glut regarding the VaTech Massacre from the major media outlets has been waning in recent days, which is curious when you compare it to the coverage of Columbine, which was "four walled" for weeks after it occurred. It’s easy to blame the current world events for this, with wars being conducted in Iraq and Afghanistan and the constant political scandals. But the current events of spring 1999 were not much different than today.

At the time of the Columbine massacre there was growing anger and outrage from the political right over the US involvement in Kosovo peacekeeping activities, especially the bombing campaign. In one of those bomb runs the Chinese Embassy was attacked. And let’s not forget the Monica Lewinski story and the impeachment of President Clinton. The 2000 Presidential Elections were just around the corner as well. So the environment was somewhat of a mirror image of what we have today. Political scandal and US military operations being conducted overseas were the top stories of the day.

Claims are being tossed around that NBC took a lot of heat for showing “too much” of the documents and videos sent to them by the shooter. Yet the shooter sent approximately 26 minutes worth of video footage and NBC only aired about 1 minute, or 3% of that footage. Not all of the photographs were released and even on their websites where NBC blacked out vulgar language, very little was actually shown. The 1800 word manifesto hasn’t been published. So only a fraction of the information was released.

And yet NBC posted enormous TV ratings from this data dump and I can say that the hit rate for this blog, which is still less than 3 weeks old, skyrocketed. NBC may say that they have come under fire from the public but from the eyes I see through public interest in this event is enormous. Our short attention span will cause this event to eventually fade away, only to be studied by people who have specialized interest in the case, but this is normal.

There has still been no media discussion about the stunningly well skilled and methodical action shown by Cho during his attack. To the Big 5 of the mass media he was just a disturbed and mixed up college kid, to those looking at his capabilities as a shooter we are left with very few explanations for such a high level of skill. And now I have even read comments made by someone who supposedly saw him shooting at a local firing range that Cho was an awful shooter who wouldn’t even use a target at the range. The source says that Cho would just shoot downrange at safety berm. Statements like that contradict what we know and I can’t help but wonder about the true nature of such “witness statements”.

I’m still looking more in depth at the connections between the US Intelligence Community (IC) and the extreme right wing religious movement to Cho. The more I look in that direction the more I see that is troubling. Collecting the data is a tedious process, weaving the connections is confusing and I’m only able to maintain the connections by using Visio to create flowcharts.

Its times like this that boost the appreciation I have for the late Danny Cosolaro and Gary Webb. They unpeeled much larger onions than this and in the glare of attention that makes blogging the equivalent of hanging out in an alley on the outskirts of town.

News - Cho ties to the US Intelligence Community

(UPDATE by the CT Blogger - 5/2/2007 - Cho connection to the Unification Church has been verified by another blogger. Follow the link for the update: http://theconspiratorsnest.blogspot.com/2007/05/news-confirmation-of-chounification.html)

(update by The CT Blogger - 5/7/2007 - New update on the shooter's background in the Evangelical movement can be found here)

There is an indirect connection between the Virginia Tech shooter and the US Intelligence community via his sister. Cho Sun-kyung is employed by McNeil Technologies of Springfield Virginia, which provides contract services to various government agencies. Her current role with the company has placed her in the State Department in the Iraq Reconstruction Office, which “Coordinates the reconstruction program in Iraq and offers jobs to "highly skilled and motivated United States citizens" to work at the US embassy in Baghdad, Iraq.”

A little more information on McNeil Technologies is in order. There is quite a bit of intrigue that can be seen by looking at the company’ ownership, key employees and it’s mission that can be gathered from looking at the current and archived versions of the company’s own website. What can be seen is a list of executives with military experience in sensitive positions that would have required high security clearances due to their work deep inside the Intelligence Community (IC) and with strategic nuclear weapons and weapons systems.

The current website states that the company was founded in 1985 as a services management company. The site also states that Veritas Capital acquired McNeil and it’s subsidiaries in 2004. According to versions of the website archived at the archive.org Wayback machine, the December 8, 1998 version of the website states that, “In 1991, McNeil Technologies, Inc. was certified by the Small Business Administration (SBA) as a Small Disadvantaged Business concern and was made eligible to participate in SBA's 8(a) program. The 8(a) certification allows Federal agencies to contract with McNeil through a streamlined procurement process.”

McNeil Technologies, founded by James McNeil,began as McTech; a business management consultancy, in 1985. In 1998 the company offered the services of information technology professionals, interpreters, energy experts, facilities management, logistics and accounting support. It appears that the 1998 version of McNeil was a miniaturized copy of KBR/Haliburton. It’s accreditation as a Small and Disadvantaged Business concern is of interest as this status allows them, and governmental agencies, to take advantage of various benefits for contract bids.

By 1999 the company was now offering “National Security Services” and the company promoted this service by saying, McNEIL staff have military and government experience in the areas of intelligence, physical security, nuclear technology and operations, and information access programs. All members of the McNEIL National Security team maintain Department of Defense, Department of Energy, and Department of Justice clearances with varying levels of access.” What this means is that between December 1998 and October 1999, McNeil made a concerted effort to enter the Department of Defense contractor arena. In this version of their website, all biographical data and list of company officers had been scrubbed from the site.

Some post 9/11 and pre-Iraq war highlights from their archived web pages:

October 2001 article at bizjournals.com that describes McNeil’s language services contracts to the IC and the secretive nature of their work.

http://web.archive.org/web/20020620214605/washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stries/2001/10/29/focus1.html

July 2002 – Announces a contract to provide Administrative Support Services to DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency)

Oct 2002 – Announces contracts with the State Department and its role in helping to process FOIA requests.

Nov 2002 – Announced contracts with the TSA to provide screening and security support.
A short listing of some of their higher visibility IC operatives can be found here: http://www.public-i.org/wow/bio.aspx?act=pro&ddlC=134


Veritas Capital

Veritas Capital owns McNeil and from looking at the overall structure of this company it is impossible to not notice the similarities between them and the known CIA investment companies. And there is a red flag to be thrown after looking at its corporate leadership and the other companies owned by Veritas.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_29/b3993073.htm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2005/08/17/AR2005081702033.html

From within the depths of the US Intelligence Community and Military-Industrial complex, there is a direct path from the masters of the MKULTRA program to the worst shooting in US history.

News - Was Cho Seung-Hui a member of the Unification Church (Moonie)?

(Update by the CT Blogger: For more details on the VATech shooter's religious connections, click here.

For details on the VaTech shooter's connections to US Intelligence Agencies, click here.)

(update by The CT Blogger - 5/7/2007 - New update on the shooter's background in the Evangelical movement can be found here)

While downloading and categorizing some new mainstream media reports on the VATech shooter I came across some curious tidbits of information about his family that is raising red flags with me. I have no media reports on this theory to date but there are some strong indications that I believe may lead to a connection with the Unification Church and the shooter. I think there is enough circumstantial evidence of this to at least get this idea out on the web right now.

Cho's parents were wed under an arranged marriage. This is a common practice with the Unification Church. The church was founded in Korea. The DC area is a particular place of interest for the church due to it's political connections with the church's leader. Mind control has also been a tactic used by the church. The Unification Church has a direct connection to Bush 41, ex-CIA chief and ultra-deep insider of the US Intelligence Community (IC). The connections between the Unification Church and the CIA are too numerous to mention.

I'm going to keep looking at this facet and see what comes up. Has anyone looked at the Washington Times' coverage of the shooting? I wish I had made the Korean connection much sooner so that I could have archived that paper's reaction for future study. Why didn't we consider this earlier? Is Cho's sister, Sun, named after the church's leader and founder?

Other Blogs - Mack White comments on the JFK assasination

The JFK assassination has made the news once again as the result of a Rolling Stone article about the deathbed confessions of alleged co-conspirator of the assassination, E. Howard Hunt. Hunt is one of those intelligence players who shows up in many conspiracy theories and in stories about the dark arts plied by intelligence agencies. Mack White has commented on the article and his insights are worth noting. His posting on the subject can be found here:

http://mackwhite.blogspot.com/2007/04/e-howard-hunts-deathbed-disinformation.html

The Rolling Stone article can be found here:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/13893143/the_last_confessions_of_e_howard_hunt


Highlights of White's comments

A few statements of particular interest written by White:

"As a spy and a dirty trickster, his entire career was built on deception, therefore anything said by this professional liar, even on his deathbed, is automatically suspect. "

and,

"But there’s someone missing from the list: Hunt himself. "

In two sentences, White has summed up the most important nugget of the article and has gone to the heart of what any conspiracy theorist must do when studying the web of deceit in CT, never forget the true nature of the beast you are dealing with.

Further into the posting, White once again sums up what I believe is the most important aspect of identification of the cabal behind the conspiracy:

"The “Johnson plot” is a limited hangout that better explains certain things, such as the involvement of the CIA and Mafia, but doesn't mention the more important involvement of the military-industrial complex--and no wonder. The same companies are still doing their dirty business today. " (emphasis mine - The CT Blogger)

Big kudos to Mack White for a fantastic post.

News - NM Governor tours USS Pueblo

Coincidence can be a strange thing. Only days after Iranian officials released the 15 British Marines and Sailors that they had held captive for 15 days, NM Governor Bill Richardson was taken on a tour of the USS Pueblo while on an official visit to North Korea.

(Crew of the Pueblo display their true feelings for their North Korean captors.)







Link to article about Gov. Richardson's trip:

http://www.chieftain.com/national/1176185110/1

On it's own, the Pueblo incident is another event in the history of the Cold War which could have turned into a much more dangerous escalation of hostilities which fortunately did not occur. Happening just 6 months after the attack on the USS Liberty by the Israeli Air Force and Navy, and in the midst of the Vietnam conflict, the Pueblo's seizure by North Korean forces was one more link in a chain of terrible events that the US Navy endured. Five months after the capture of the Pueblo the fast attack submarine Scorpion was lost with all hands in the Azores. Six months earlier a fire aboard the carrier Forrestal took the lives of 132 crewmen. As this was going on the Navy had no idea that a massive spy ring within it's ranks was in it's infancy.

In the years since the 1985 arrest of John Walker Jr. and the members of his spy ring there has been much debate as to whether or not his activities had a connection to the capture of the Pueblo. Walker claims that he began supplying the Soviet Union with documents after the Pueblo incident occurred. However, Maj. Laura Heath presented a thesis to the US Army Command and General Staff College in 2001 where she laid out the possibility that the Pueblo was captured because the Soviets wanted to study the equipment that was described in documents that Walker had already supplied to them. http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/heath.pdf I highly recommend reading this thesis for anyone who is interested in the Walker spy case and for people who are interested in the mechanisms of intelligence agencies.

Commentary - When conspiracy theory becomes conspiracy fact

Are you a true believer of conspiracy theories? Are you a skeptic? Or are you like me, a friend of Bob who loves a little spice in their life? The world of conspiracy theory personalities is broken down into those three groups. The true believers provide the theories, the skeptics debunk the theories, both of those side battle and the friends of Bob float between the two depending on the wind, claims of both sides and mood.

What makes a person become a conspiracy theorist or follower of conspiracy theories is hard to define. I have noticed from my own experiences that in many cases what seems to spark a person down this road is an event or series of events that causes the person to question what is really going on in this world. Take legendary CT activist Mae Brussell for example. Her interest in the Warren Commission report was the key to her involvement in this sub-culture. The inconsistencies in the Warren Commission findings are many and one of the subjects I will be blogging about in the future. As if we need another Kennedy conspiracy theorist?

Mae was the first of the serious JFK researchers and her work is invaluable to this day and just as vital in a time of war on terror, war on the citizenry and Big Brother as it was in the 60's and 70's. Her work on government conspiracies was groundbreaking and of all the CT subjects it is the one area I feel most strongly about. It's easy to dismiss this field as being full of kooks, but it's impossible to deny that groups of individuals within our government are active in conspiring against the very people they represent and serve. All one has to do is look at the formation of the Office of Special Plans (OSP), it's manufactured intelligence, the events that transpired based on that false intelligence and you have conspiracy fact rather than theory.

The X-Factor of the OSP's bogus intelligence is "why" this was done. What agenda is advanced by manufacturing intelligence that will cause war to be waged? Is the motivation financial? Is the motivation expansion of power? Is the motivation xenophobia? Are all three of those things interconnected? This is where the typical theorist trips themselves. They postulate a motivation that is clouded with their own bias and leads them to conclusion that can be shot down for lack of proof.

Slowly the information is being uncovered and while we may never be able to piece together the true motivation behind the invasion of Iraq we are slowly seeing the apparatus that is used in a conspiracy. This is a real world example of how these things are created and how they are operated. Knowing this information can help us in future events and when we look back at events of the past.

News - Stovepiped intelligence

Truthout.org is reporting on the cooked intelligence that led the US into war in Iraq.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040607A.shtml

The Defense Department's Inspector General has issued a report on this which backs information that many of us have known for a long time. Officials placed within the Pentagon intentionally provided the White House with false intelligence to justify the Iraq invasion. Congress may have seen the same intelligence that the White House saw but that intelligence was blatantly false.

The war on terror will be a major CT subject for many years to come.

News - Alger Hiss was innocent

(AP) -- An author who has researched the Cold War's most famous espionage case said new evidence suggests another U.S. diplomat, not Alger Hiss, was the Soviet agent who fed U.S. secrets to Moscow.

More of this article at CNN.com:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/06/alger.hiss.ap/index.html