Sunday, April 23, 2017

A Fringe Digression: The Pioneer Fund and the Christian Right




Regular readers of this blog are no doubt aware that for the past several months I've been posting regular installment in a series entitled "Fringe: The Strange and Terrible History of the Far Right in High Weirdness." This series has chronicled the exploits of the far right in a host of arcane topics including psi, human potential, UFOs, Tesla weapons and so on. Regarding the far right, I've been examining this elite faction through the prism of various think tanks --but most notably the Committee on the Present Danger Mach I and the American Security Council --that are closely aligned to the American military-industrial complex.

The response to this series among the readership has been overwhelmingly positive and many of you have been sending me various pieces of information related to this topic for the past few weeks. That has put me behind on responding to emails and comments (very sorry about that, BTW) but has provided me with a treasure trove of new information relating to this topic.

Upon reviewing some of my own research on this topic, I've also realized that there were a few key connections that had totally slipped my mind when the original nine installments were being written. I've been accumulating material of this subject for several years now and with the additional material passed on from you readers, I'm a bit overwhelmed with data to sort through and determine how it should be presented.

As I'm still researching part ten of the "Fringe" series I thought I might put some of this information to use that has been passed along to me or that I had previously forgotten to include. As some of you have complained how digressive the series has become, I decided to present this post as kind of an intermission to the broader series rather than part of the series as a whole. As such, I'll try to make this post somewhat sell contained, so those of you just joining me don't have to try and tackle all nine prior "Fringe" installments in order to follow this post.

Before we get going, I would like to provide a big thank you to regular reader and commentor "AW" and Unification Church defector "Don Dilligent" for largely providing the bulk of the information presented in this post on the Christian Right.



The Dark Life of William Shockley

But before getting to the Christian Right I need to once again address a figure that we've already encountered on several occasions throughout this series: physicist William Shockley

Shockley is easily one the most pivotal scientific figures of the twentieth century. While working at the legendary Bell Labs in the late 1940s he managed a research group that was responsible for the creation of the modern transistor. As such, Shockley himself is often created as the inventor of the transistor, though these claims have been hotly debated. Many of Shockley's former colleagues at Bell have accused him of stealing their research to boot. 

What's more, among Ufologists there is a longstanding theory that the modern transistor did not in fact have Earthly origins, but that it had been acquired by humanity from "other sources." As was noted in the Fringe series, the Roswell incident has long been linked to the actual origins of the transistor. The Secret Sun's Christopher Knowles, in his groundbreaking Lucifer's Technologies series, also addresses the linkage of the transistor to Roswell as well as the very murky history of said invention.

a replica of the alleged first working transistor
But Shockley is my concern here and not the transistor per se, so let us return to the matter at hand. By 1954 Shockley had greatly alienated his colleagues at Bell for reasons indicated above. As such, he decided to relocate to the West Coast in 1956 and found his own lab, Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, in Mountain View, California of the famed Santa Clara County. The parent of Shockley's lab, Beckman Instruments, was the first company working on silicon semiconductors in what would come to be known as "Silicon Valley."

After grossly alienating his subordinates at Bell, Shockley picked right up where he left off in California. In late 1957 several of Shockley's researchers, who would go on to be dubbed the "traitorous eight," left Shockley Semiconductors to form Fairchild Semiconductors. Fairchild would go on to become a pioneer in manufacturing transistors and integrated circuit boards. Twenty years after the traitorous eight deflected from Shockley over 65 new enterprises had emerged in the Valley with employee connections tracing back to Fairchild.


Fairchild was effectively then the parents of Silicon Valley. And that would make William Shockley the grandfather as none of what has played out in Silicon Valley would have come to pass had Shockley not established his own lab there in the mid-1950s.

If Shockley did not in fact then invent the transistor, he was done quite an honor by being widely credited as the inventor of the transistor by TPTB. It gave him a considerable legacy and his efforts in northern California ensured that he will be viewed as one of the most visionary scientists of the modern era for years to come.

All of this makes his post-Shockley Superconductor pursuits all the more disturbing.

For approximately the final two decades of his life Shockley dedicated himself to the promotion of eugenics, a pursuit that he reportedly considered even more important than his work with the transistor. Shockley became obsessed with the notion that the genetically inferior were out breeding their betters, presumably leading to an Idiocracy-esque dystopia. To counter this grim prospect, Shockley became a vocal proponent of voluntary sterilization:
"Under Shockley's proposal, non-taxpayers with an IQ below 100 would have been paid $1,000 for each of their IQ points under 100 if they agreed to be sterilized. Such an intervention in the gene pool was necessary, he argued, to curb what he called 'dysgenics,' overbreeding among the 'genetically disadvantaged.' "

Funding for these pursuits in the early years came from a curious but hardly unexpected source: the Pioneer Fund and its vile founder, Colonel Wickliffe Preston Draper. The scion of a wealthy New England family (with ample doses of Southern gentry), Draper served in Army intelligence during World War I and insisted upon being addressed as "Colonel" for the rest of his life. Draper had ample deep state ties and the great John Bevilaqua has compelling linked him to the Kennedy assassination in the classic JFK -The Final Solution. Much more information on Draper can be found here.

In 1937 Draper founded the Pioneer Fund, a nonprofit organization principally dedicated to the research of eugenics. While such a venture was not especially uncommon in the 1930s, Draper would continue to use Pioneer as a vehicle from promoting his racialist philosophy into the postwar years. As such, Pioneer became the leading source of funding for the American eugenics movement up till the twenty-first century, almost single-handedly sustaining the movement throughout the second half of the twentieth century.

When Shockley began to publicly embrace eugenics in 1965, he was almost immediately identified by Draper's network as a crucial alley. A Nobel Prize winner would lend them unprecedented credibility. As such, Shockley's "research" was being heavily subsidized by Pioneer by the late 1960s, with the Colonel himself providing Shockley with personal "gifts" in addition to the money being handed out by Pioneer:
"... Before Draper's death, the physicist found himself, as had George, Kuttner, Garrett, and others before him, the direct recipient of regular cash gifts, transmitted by Weyher on behalf of an unnamed client who wanted to provide the funds 'as a token of his esteem' for Shockley's work. Shockley's gifts were more substantial than those for previous recipients, coming to more than $22,000 between 1968 and 1970 ($109,000 AFI)... In addition, other gifts in the form of securities from Morgan Guaranty Trust, totaling $76,000 ($370,000 AFI) between 1968 in 1971, were also sent to Stanford to be used for Shockley's 'research,' accompanied by telegrams from same bank official who had forwarded the Colonel's contributions to the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, requesting as usual that 'the fact and amount of the gift be kept confidential.'
"Finally, there were two types of acknowledged assistance from Pioneer. Between 1969 and 1976, the fund contributed almost $175,000 ($689,000 AFI) in grants to Stanford to support Shockley's 'research into the factors which affect genetic potential.' Pioneer also provided $54,500 ($169,000 AFI) to Shockley's own nonprofit organization to promote eugenics – the Foundation for Research and Education on Eugenics and Dysgenics (FREED) – which had begun with a $10,000 ($44,000 AFI) contribution from Weyher, probably another gift from the Colonel. Although FREED was Shockley's idea, George S. Leonard, previously a member of the CCFAF and one of the attorneys for the intervenors in the attempt to overturn Brown, actually drafted the bylaws and executed the necessary paperwork for its creation. The organization's purpose, according to Leonard's bylaws, was to engage in activities designed to 'further public understanding, legal utilization, and academic acceptance' of scientific information on differences in the 'natures, capabilities, and potentialities of men.' In practice, FREED functioned as a publicist for Shockley, producing a newsletter with descriptions of his public appearances, his press releases, and copies of articles written by and about him. And like any good public relations operation, FREED sought to increase its base, requesting permission from recipients of the newsletter to have their written support for eugenics circulated 'to other people who live in your neighborhood'; apparently Shockley was ready to organize a eugenics movement door-to-door. Between the various gifts and grants, Shockley received $337,500 (almost $1.4 million AFI) altogether from the 'throne in New York.' "
(The Funding of Scientific Racism, William H. Tucker, pgs. 144-145)
William Shockley
Via his contacts with the Draper network, Shockley also forged ties with the broader far right. Early support for his positions on eugenics came from a fellow Stanford staff member, the Hoover Institute's Stefan Possony (who was extensively involved in high weirdness, as was noted before here), a longstanding and well-connected member of the American Security Council who defended Shockley in the pages of Mankind Quarterly (a "scientific" journal dedicated to eugenics that was sponsored by Pioneer for many years) in 1974.

Another key backer was the infamous Roger Pearson. Pearson had founded the Northern League, a neo-Nazi organization, in England in 1958. By the mid-1960s he had relocated to the United States. Not long afterwards he would hook up with the Draper network and would receive substantial funding from Pioneer until the end of the twentieth century. By the 1970s he had become involved with a host of powerful, intelligence-connected right wing organizations.
"... With his move to the capital, Pearson also endeavored to create a new, more respectable image as a mainstream conservative, eventually gaining membership on the editorial boards of such think tanks as the Heritage Foundation, the Foreign Policy Research Institute, and the American Security Council. At the same time, however, he made one more attempt to form a Nazi international, taking control of a new United States chapter of the World Anti-Communist League (WACL) after the old chapter renounced its membership, complaining, in an internal memo, that Pearson had filled the organization with 'neo-Nazi, ex-Nazi, fascist, neo-fascist, and anti-Semitic groups,' including former S.S. officers who have been members of the Northern League. According to two journalist, the numerous ex-Nazi collaborators and war criminals directly recruited to the WACL by Pearson 'represented one of the greatest fascist blocs in postwar Europe.' Previous conservative groups that had been constituent members of the organization resigned, offended by its new direction." 
(The Funding of Scientific Racism, William H. Tucker, pg. 170)
Roger Pearson
The World Anti-Communist League (WACL) was a fascinating network that brought together international arms and drug traffickers, assorted terrorists and religious fanatics and aging Nazi war criminals and budding neo-fascists into contact with a far right wing assortment of US intelligence and military officers. This blog was addressed the WACL in depth before here. Keep it in mind dear reader as we shall be returning to it again before this blog is finished.


Pearson was so radical that the WACL had no choice but to kick him out in the late 1970s. He would go on to become a major backer of Shockley's theories, among other things. Pearson would eventually edit a self-published book that collected Shockley's thoughts on eugenics.

Thus William Shockley, a man whom powerful forces appear to have set up to be one of the most highly regarded scientists of the twentieth century, was also a fanatical supporter of eugenics who eventually fell in with men like Wickliffe Preston Draper and Roger Pearson, the most extreme elements of the far right. There are some truly disturbing implications to this that I don't think need to be spelled out.


The Moonies

Now that I've addressed the sinister legacy of William Shockley, let us move along to the Christian Right and their links to high weirdness. At the forefront of this strange netherworld is a certain cult leader whom regular readers of this blog are no doubt familiar with. Still, a bit of introduction is in order for the uninitiated.

The Unification Church, founded by the charismatic cult leader Sun Myung Moon (the followers of whom are sometimes referred to as "Moonies"), is central to our narrative here, so let us begin by briefly considering the origins of the church and its curious beliefs:
"After studying electrical engineering in Japan during World War II, Moon return to Pyongyang (now the capital of North Korea) to found his first church. 'It was no different from many other unorthodox Christian sects except for the ritual of "blood separation," involving female members of the church. They were required to have sexual relations with Moon, to clear themselves of "the taint of Satan." '
"Moon was arrested by the communist authorities twice and in 1947 was sentenced to five years in Hungnam prison. Although he maintains that he was just another example of communist persecution of religion, other sources, including former Korean government officials, say the charges were in response to the Church's reported orgiastic practices.
"Eventually freed by United Nations troops in their advance north during the Korean War, Moon fled to Pusan, in South Korea. There he founded the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity or, simply, the Unification Church. 
"Moon's ministry found quite a few converts among the homeless and impoverished refugees who flooded Pusan, but the strange tenets he espoused were met with suspicion and hostility by both the rulers of South Korea and the established Catholic clergy. Moon could count among his disciples, however, a number of well-connected young army officers. When he was again arrested in 1955, this time on a morals charge for staying the night in a 'love hotel' with a follower, Moon's military contacts managed to get the charge changed to violation of military conscription law and it was eventually dropped."
(Inside the League, Scott and Jon Anderson, pgs. 65-66) 
Moon's ties to the Korean (and likely US) intelligence services would play a key role in the meteoric rise of the Unification Church from a obscure Christian cult in a (then) poor country to a major international power in the span of just a little over a decade. But more on that in a moment. Here are a few more details on the curious beliefs of Moon as outlined by the Anderson brothers:
"... Moon's life took a dramatic turn when, walking through the hills around his village, he was visited by Jesus Christ. 'You are the son I have been seeking,' Christ informed the startled sixteen-year-old, 'the one who can begin my eternal history.'..
"Unification theology is a potpourri of Christianity, Confucianism, mysticism, patriotism, anti-communism, and Moon's own megalomania. It Moon's eyes, Christ technically falls into the category of a failure, for although he established a spiritual kingdom, he didn't establish a physical or political one. Moon is here to rectify that oversight; he is anointed as the man to complete Jesus' original mission.
"Because it rejected Jesus, Israel is no longer God's chosen land (though the Jews were finally cleansed by suffering six million dead in World War II); God had to find a new Messiah and a new Adam country. Moon and Korea were uniquely designated for this purpose, for one of the most original aspects of Unificationism is its attribution of spirituality and gender to nations based upon their topographically..."
(Inside the League, Scott and Jon Anderson, pg. 64)
Sun Myung Moon
Moon is also reputed to have rituals based upon the glorification General Douglas MacArthur (who was addressed in the Fringe series), whose UN "peacekeeping" mission is what rescued Moon, though I have been unable to reliably confirm these allegations.

As for Moon's ties to the national security establishments of South Korea and the United States, they were quite extensive by the late 1980s:
"The history of the Unification Church is inextricably links with the history of U.S. support for the military government of South Korea and with the post-World War II activities of leading Japanese war criminals and industrialists. By the mid-1970s, the Unification Church was implicated in a scandal called 'Koreagate,' involving Korean government influence buying within the United States. In 1977, a congressional investigative committee chaired by Rep. Donald Fraser (D-MN), revealed that after the 1961 coup which brought Korea's Park Chung Hee to power, the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) decided to organize and utilize the Unification Church as a 'political tool' within the United States. KCIA agents were found to have infiltrated the staffs Rep. Cornelius Gallagher (D-NJ) and House Majority Leader Carl Albert (D-OK), and numerous Moonies landed volunteer positions in Congressional offices.
"The Fraser Committee found that one of the early KCIA/Moon projects was the Korean Cultural Freedom Foundation, a supposedly nonprofit organization which was actually a propaganda campaign on behalf of South Korea. By the spring of 1964, KCFF was raising funds from Americans for the Freedom Center; the latter was a project of the Asian People's Anti-Communist League (APACL), promoted and subsidized by the Korean government. The Freedom Center is the secretarial headquarters of the World Anti-Communist League (WACL), a multinational network Nazi war criminals, Latin American death squad leaders, North American racists and anti-Semites, and fascist politicians from every continent."
(Spiritual Warfare, Sara Diamond, pg. 59)
For many years Moon was one of the principal backers of the WACL. This came to a head during Iran-Contra, when Moonies played a crucial role in the Contra supply network principally organized by the WACL with the blessing of the Reagan administration.

Moon was, in other words, a major player in the international far right. In addition to the WACL, he would also massively subsidize the Christian Right in the United States. On the whole, the fundies never had any real qualms about taking Moon's money despite the fact that the beliefs he promoted were far outside the Christian mainstream, to put it mildly. But beyond claims of being divinely appointed to finish the work of Jesus Christ, Moon appears to have held some other beliefs that surely would have horrified the rank-and-file of the Christian Right as well.



Moon and the New Age

Over the years the Unification Church was linked to several New Age-type organizations, many of them deeply interested in parapsychology and Ufology. Along these lines the group most closely associated with the Moonies appears to have been the Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship. Moon received several readings (such as this one) from its founder, Arthur Ford.

Moon was brought into Ford's orbit by Anthony Brooke, the last of the "white rajahs" to rule Sarawak (now part of Malaysia) and British army intelligence veteran of the Second World War. After a brief struggle to retain his meager monarchy petered out in the late 1950s (amidst intrigues) Brooke became an "ambassador of global consciousness." Brooke first encountered Moon in 1964 and was immediately taken with him. He would go on to write glowingly of the Unification founder in Revelation for the New Age and Towards Human Unity.

Anthony Brooke
Brooke spent time at Findhorn Foundation, an early New Age outpost located in Scotland. It was co-founded by Dorothy Maclean, a former employee of the British Security Coordination in New York City during the 1940s that helped establish the Office of Strategic Services (OSS, the precursor the CIA). Beyond this, the founders reportedly believed they were in psychic contact with aliens:
"Yes, aliens. The official Findhorn website states: 'The Findhorn Community was begun in 1962 by Peter and Eileen Caddy and Dorothy Maclean. All three had followed disciplined spiritual paths for many years and had been specifically trained to follow God’s will'. But 1962 was merely when Peter, Eileen and Dorothy moved to Findhorn. The Findhorn Community’s true origins lie in the 1950s, in the maelstrom of post-war fringe ideas and philosophies which eventually settled out as what we now call the ‘New Age’. Central to Findhorn’s origins lies a secret which the current leaders of the community would very much like to play down; flying saucers. For all their talk of the Community being formed by the guidance of God one of the core beliefs held by Findhorn’s founders in the ’50s and 60s was that flying saucers existed, existed and their occupants were in psychic contact with them. It was also an article of faith that physical contact with the saucers was not only possible, it was certain.
Dorothy Maclean
It appears that for a brief time in 1970 Doris Orme, allegedly the first Western Unification convert, taught classes at Findhorn. While there she met her future husband, who left Findhorn with her. Orme was brought there by Brooke, who at this time was prone to referring to Moon as "the messiah" when not trying to contact UFOs.

Unsurprisingly, Moon appears to have had a keen interest in psychic phenomenon that spanned several decades. For instance, in 1974 while kicking off the third annual International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences (ICUS), Moon stated:
"The study of extrasensory perception has drawn the attention of quite a number of scholars in the academic community. In particular, the discovery that a dolphin can communicate with human beings intelligently deserves notice. Along the same lines, it has been observed that plants respond to the love and other emotional states of human beings. These discoveries suggest that our present view that the animal and plant worlds are lacking in consciousness and reason may be limited. We may now as well envision a universe in which a harmonious co-existence may be brought about between human beings and other creatures, where man, being the center of all things, may serve as the spokes of the wheel turning the whole universe in ultimate harmony and oneness."
Much of the interest was expressed via the International Cultural Foundation (ICF), an international umbrella organization that coordinated a variety of Unification projects. The ICF is generally overlooked by many critics of the Unification Church despite some of the curious interests it has promoted and several of its executive members. In 1983, for instance, its editorial board featured Neil Salonen, a longtime Moonie representative at the WACL, and Dr. Jose Delgado, a psychiatrist long linked to CIA behavior modification experiments and a friend of  ARTICHOKE scientist (and channeller of The Nine) Andrija Puharich.

The most well known projects of the ICF were the above-mentioned annual International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences (ICUS) events that sought to build a bridge between science and religion. Frequently they ended up endorsing a host of arcane topics. For instance J.B. Rhine, the famed parapsychologist who operated out of Duke University for many years, addressed one such ICUS confab.


But parapsychology was hardly the extent of Moon's interest in fringe disciplines. Extraterrestrial life was also addressed by the ICUS at least three times at its conferences, first in 1977 (addressed by a committee chaired by longtime American Security Council science adviser Eugene Wigner), again in 1978 with an entire group dedicated to the question this time around (this same group also held lectures on the nature of consciousness, with one being given by Wigner) and finally in 1985.

The 1985 conference featured a discussion led by Bruce Maccabee, a optical physicist long employed by the Navy who worked on the Strategic Defense Initiative (a topic discussed at length during the regular Fringe series). Maccabee has a longstanding interest in Ufology and became a member of NICAP in 1969 and a member of MUFON in 1973 all the while working for the Navy. As was noted in another installment of Fringe, NICAP featured ample representation from the American Security Council, which also provided a lot of the public relations support for the SDI. I suspect Maccabee has probably had ample dealings with the old ASC crowd.

Bruce Maccabee
Another Ufologist associated with the ICUS is journalist Hal Corbett McKenzie. McKenzie joined the Unification Church in 1969 shortly thereafter found himself working with the ICUS. He wrote professionally about UFOs since the 1970s and interviewed several Ufologist linked to the old ASC network such J. Allen Hynek and Budd Hopkins. In 2003 he began running a website, Cosmic Tribune, that focused on UFOs. He was also a member of Exopolitics. Naturally, McKenzie appears to have been a visitor of the World Anti-Communist League as well.

Again, I would like to provide a big thank you to Don Diligent, a Unification defector, for his herculean efforts in uncovering this crucial information in providing insights into the Unification Church's ties to the New Age. All the data in this section was provided by Don.



Edgar Mitchell: Agent of the Christian Right?

By far Moon's interesting tie to the New Age, however, is Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell. As I'm sure many of my readers are well aware. Mitchell had a keen interest in psi and UFOs. He reportedly conducted a private ESP experiment from space during the Apollo 14 mission and would remain a public advocate of Ufology all his life. Most recently emails on this topic from Mitchell to John Podesta, the former chairman of Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, were revealed by Wikileaks during said campaign and showed Mitchell's advocacy on this topic continued practically up to the time of his death.

In addition to UFOs, Mitchell has been deeply involved with psi for years and played a crucial role in launching the famed SRI remote viewing experiments during the early 1970s. Specifically, Mitchell enabled SRI to test famed Israeli magician Uri Geller under laboratory conditions on behalf of the CIA.
"With the imminent arrival of Uri Geller in November 1972, CIA anticipation was high and secrecy was paramount. Kit Green had been personally handling the Geller matter since he was assigned the job by CIA director Richard Helms. Declassified memos reveal two focused concerns during this time. One was Geller's celebrity, and the other was the presence of Andrija Puharich, who had by now taken on a Svengali-like role as Geller's official manager. Given Puharich's notorious background, the CIA needed to keep him at arms length from any Agency affiliation. This issue was temporarily solved by using Edgar Mitchell's newly formed Mind Science Institute of Los Angeles (later the Institute of Noetic Sciences) as a conduit for payments to Puharich and Geller..."
(Phenomena, Annie Jacobsen, pgs. 140-141)
As was noted above, Puharich was a former ARTICHOKE scientist (noted before here) and the channeler of The Nine, alleged extraterrestrial intelligences supposedly first contacted in the 1950s and which reappeared in the Geller saga (all of which was addressed before here).

But back to the matter at hand. Mitchell would remain involved with the SRI project throughout the 1970s and would show ample deep state connections throughout the process. For instance, when a new project was found to continue funding, SRI asked Mitchell to lobby the CIA. He secured an appointment with a certain director.
"For Puthoff and Targ, a new funding opportunity was now at hand. The SRI scientists called on the ambassador of psychic research, Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell, for help. Mitchell had created a nonprofit institute and Petaluma, California, called the Institute of Noetic Sciences, where he worked on metaphysical and consciousness studies full-time. On behalf of Puthoff and Targ, Ed Mitchell was able to secure a meeting with CIA director George H. W. Bush. Mitchell traveled to agency headquarters, in Langley, Virginia, where the CIA director listened intently, Mitchell recalled in 2015..."
(Phenomena, Annie Jacobsen, pg. 200)
Edgar Mitchell
This was not the only time Mitchell had met with Bush in regards to psychic phenomena, either. As I hope all of this has illustrated, Mitchell was a major player in deep state interest in psi during the 1970s and continued to be consulted on topics such as UFOs by insiders up to the time of his death.

With this in mind, it makes Mitchell's ties to the Christian Right all the more curious. His affiliation with the Moonies dated back to the 1970s. In 1973, for instance, he appeared at a Moonies function in California along with long time ASC luminary Stefan Possony. As was noted in the "Fringe" series, Possony had a longstanding interest in UFOs and was reputed to have worked with Mankind Research Unlimited (MRU) during the 1970s, another think tank alleged to be involved in exploring psychic phenomena on behalf of the US intelligence community.

As such, Possony's presence at this event with Mitchell in 1973 is most eyebrow raising as the SRI experiments were in full swing by that point as well. At the time Possony was a fellow of the Hoover Institute, based out of Stanford, which SRI had been a part of until 1970. Was Possony keeping tabs on what was going at SRI around the same time he is reputed to have been involved with MRU?

Stefan T. Possony
But back to Mitchell. During the 1980 ICUS conference Mitchell moderated a group panel on psychic phenomena. He was joined in this endeavor by former SRI scientist and then-president of Noetic Sciences Willis Harman.

And that brings me to the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), where Mitchell's most damning link to the Christian Right resides. A co-founder of IONS and its chief financial patron in the early years was one Paul N. Temple, a former Standard Oil executive. He would go on to serve as the IONS's chairman of the board of directors for seventeen years.

But for many years prior to Temple's affiliation with Noetic Science and the New Age, he had supported quite a different religious agenda: The Family/Fellowship. After beginning as a union busting organization during the 1930s, the Family would emerge by the end of World War II as a wealthy and well-connected international organization with ties to the heart of the emerging deep state. The organization's National Prayer Breakfast has been attended by every sitting US president since Eisenhower. Much more information on The Family can be found here.

It would appear that Temple played a key role in The Family's rise. He was one of the key financial backers for years. In 2002 the L.A. Times noted:
"The Fellowship does not solicit money. A handful of wealthy backers, including Detroit lawyer and GOP donor Michael Timmis, Denver oilman Jerome A. Lewis and former Maryland investor Paul N. Temple, support the Fellowship with personal contributions. Private foundations they control also contribute hundreds of thousands yearly to the International Foundation, tax records show."
Paul N. Temple
This raises some intriguing possibilities, one of which is that Temple, the primary source of funding for Noetic Science in the early years, would have been the one to handle the covert CIA funds to SRI. Thus, we are left with the prospect that a crucial financier of The Family, one of the most notorious cults the Christian Right has yet produced, was a covert supporter of the SRI experiments. The same SRI experiments that were greatly aided by Temple's Noetic Science co-founder and Moonie affiliate Edgar Mitchell.


And less we forget, Possony and William Shockley were also active at nearby Stanford University during this time. And the SRI experiments also featured the participation of ARTICHOKE scientist Andrija Puharich. As was noted before here, several key ARTICHOKE men in the CIA had ties to far right organizations like the American Security Council.

Again, all I can do is marvel at the extent elements of the far right have latched onto New Age-centric pursuits. While sponsorship of the New Age has long been linked to Rockefeller money, I hope this post and the "Fringe" series have helped lay bare the extent that the far right and the closely related military-industrial complex had infiltrated such topics.

The comfort that men like Edgar Mitchell show in both worlds is striking. And this overlap is mirrored by organizations like The Family. As was noted before here, Hillary Clinton, while not a member, is regarded as "friend of The Family." And it was her campaign chairman, John Podesta, whom Mitchell was contact with concerning the UFO question.

But The Family is also close to the Trump administration. As was noted before here, key members of the administration such as Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Secretary of Justice Jeff Sessions and Vice-President Mike Pence are also Family members. And yet the Trump campaign certainly put arcane and occultic practices to use on the campaign trail (noted here).

The more one peels back the layers of this netherworld, the more on is left with mysteries wrapped in enigmas shrouded in riddles. And with that I leave you for now dear readers. A big thank you again to "Don Dilligent" and "AW" for their crucial contributions to this post.

Thursday, April 20, 2017

4/20 Musings



After some uncertainty, it has now be announced today that The X-Files will be returning to us for an eleventh season. Even better, it is slated for a ten episode run this time around. As good as the revival was, I felt like it was hindered by the six episode count that left Chris Carter and company between a rock and a hard place trying to appease fans who preferred the story arch-centric episodes to the monster-of-the-week ones and vice versa.

That the announcement would come on April 20th is most amusing. While this date has a certain significance in drug culture, it has far more sinister implications as well. And the announcement just so happens to occur a month and a day before Twin Peaks rises like a Phoenix from the ashes on May 21st. And ten days before the premier of American Gods to boot.



This is most fortuitous for in these dark days we need stories such as these, both for the mind and the spirit.

And in the hopes of leaving you with a good laugh in the spirit of the day, I give you Alex Jones latest musing on the evils of George Soros.



Friday, April 7, 2017

Update II: The Game --A Choice of Theaters and More NSC Shakeups


As the reality show version of Game of Thrones continues to play out in the Oval Office the world lurches ever closer to another world war. Where to even begin keeping score of the incredible developments that have unfolded over the past week? Let's just briefly go over a few of the major headlines that have played out since the end of March:



Item: On March 30 both Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley made strong comments indicating that the United States is no longer seeking the ousting of Assad in Syria. Naturally, the usual suspects blasted these actions as tantamount to treason, but at the time it appeared as though the Trump administration had renewed its commitment to detente with Russia.

Assad
Item: Around April 3 Susan Rice, Barack Obama's National Security Advisor, was outed for the "unmasking" of several Trump transition team officials who were subjected to "incidental surveillance" by the intelligence community. While this far from vindicates Trump's claims that Obama "wiretapped" him, it implicates a key member of the out going national security team in actions that could be deemed to have been political in nature. Just how far Trump is willing to push this remains to be seen, but it is one more Sword of Damocles hanging over this ever murky fray.

Item: Also on April 3 it was revealed that former Navy SEAL and Blackwater founder Erik Prince had met in the United Arab Emirates with Russian officials allegedly to establish a back channel between Trump and Putin. Supposedly this was to see if Russia could be convinced to withdraw its support from Iran. There is certainly merit to these allegations. Prince is the brother of Betsy DeVos, Trump's Secretary of Education, and was reportedly acting as an unofficial adviser during the transition period. Prince himself and his family also gave generous donations to Trump's election campaign. It is also interesting to note that Prince is reportedly close to Trump's infamous "Chief Strategist" Steven Bannon. Keep that in mind dear reader.

Item: April 4 witnesses the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian town of Khan Shaykhun. Almost immediately Assad was blamed for these attacks, with Trump abruptly adopting a more militant line concerning Syria.

Item: Steven Bannon is removed from the National Security Council on April 5. Bannon is regarded as being one of the most dovish members of Trump's administration in regards to Russia. Reportedly, Bannon's power struggle with Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was at the heart of Bannon's removal. Bannon has reportedly denounced Kushner as a "globalist" in private and blames him for subverting Trump's policies.

Steven Bannon




Yeah, its been that kind of a week. And all of this unfolds against the backdrop of an ever increasing military build up in Eastern Asia while Trump is meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping for the first time this weekend.

Xi Jinping
Clearly, there has been some type of reversal of fortunes in the Trump administration. In the preceding weeks foreign policy concerns seemed to have shifted to China with Trump's first meeting with the Chinese president looming. The statements made by Tillerson and Haley on March 30 seemed to mark the end of of US efforts to escalate tensions with Russia, seemingly in anticipation of greater hostilities with China. The emerging Susan Rice scandal appeared to give Trump further leverage in his efforts to pursue a different foreign policy with Russia, if he so chose.

But then beginning this week a new offensive was begun by the anti-Russia faction of the deep state. Prince's meeting with Russian officials in January is leaked on Monday of this week and then the highly dubious chemical attack in Syria unfolds on Tuesday.

While the phrase "false flag" has become far too casually used by the conspiratorial right, the fact is there is absolutely no logical reason for Syria or Russia to engage in the use of chemical warfare at this point. Tillerson and Haley had both supported Assad's rule on Thursday, signaling a winding down of US operations in Syria, and then less than a week later Assad decides to gas his own people with sarin gas? What could possibly be gained from such actions?

Then, the day after this absurdity, Bannon is removed from the National Security Council, likely in preparation for the US attacks launched against the Syrian government the next day. Many people will no doubt point to Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, for this reversal in fortunes. Kushner was reportedly a lifelong Democrat and donor prior to Trump's campaign. He is also reputed to be a Zionist and is Trump's chief liaison to Jewish elites who such played a major role in Trump's campaign.

Jared Kushner
It is no doubt Kushner's Israeli connections that many will point to for the Trump administration's sudden about face and there is some merit here. Israel regards Iran as the greatest threat to its security at present and Iran's involvement in the Syrian Civil War is seen as an extension of this threat. Prominent Zionists have invested a lot in Trump and thus far his administration has abandoned any pretext of the detente begun by the Obama administration.

But here's the thing: Many pro-Russian Trump officials such as Bannon and former National Security Advisor General Michael Flynn are as anti-Iran as it gets. Reportedly Erik Prince's visit with Russian officials was to convince Putin to withdraw support from Iran for further US actions. Prince may even have made head way in this regard as Russia had agreed to assist the US and Israel in expelling Iranian influence in Syria on March 25, days before the pro-Assad proclamations made by Tillerson and Haley.

Erik Prince
Will Israel ultimately then benefit from the present escalation? Possibly not, as the current events feel like they have a lot more to do with Russia than Iran. If anything, efforts to topple the Iranian government may move to the back burner if tensions with Russia continue to escalate.

Is the anti-Russian faction that backed Hillary making a comeback then? Most likely, and Kushner may only be playing a side role in helping them change the agenda. The leading role may in fact being played by a man Hillary backers in the intelligence community have reportedly considered staging a coup for. It may even be a fear of this coup that forced Trump's recent actions in Syria.

But what could be forcing Trump's hand? Well, remember, Trump has been linked to billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein along with Bill Clinton. One of Trump's early mentors was attorney Roy Cohn, a man long linked to sexual blackmail operations run by the CIA that may have involved pedophilia.

Roy Cohn
Meanwhile, there are wide ranging reports that some 1500 pedophiles have been arrested since Trump took office. And it just so happens that Seattle mayor Ed Murray, who has gained fame of late for defying Trump's Justice Department concerning illegal immigration, was named in a lawsuit alleging the sexual abuse of a minor just yesterday.

Even more interesting is the fact that the man heading Trump's Justice Department happens to be a member of the same secretive network as the man Hillary backers have considered staging a coup for. Even Hillary herself is a "friend" of this network.

Ah, but surely all of this is a coincidence.




Update 4/9/17

As can be expected, Trump's decision to bomb Syria has generally received positive reactions from across the political spectrum, with even the mainstream media and Democratic Party grudgingly offering up support. As the great Glenn Greenwald has pointed in his latest must-read column, the Democrats really have no choice after their transformation in the 1950s McCarthy-era Republican Party over the past year:
"Democrats have spent months wrapping themselves in extremely nationalistic and militaristic rhetoric. They have constantly accused Trump of being a traitor to the U.S., a puppet of Putin, and unwilling to defend U.S. interests. They have specifically tried to exploit Assad’s crimes by tying the Syrian leader to Trump, insisting that Trump would never confront Assad because doing so would anger his Kremlin masters. They have embraced a framework whereby anyone who refuses to confront Putin or Assad is deemed a sympathizer of, or a servant to, foreign enemies.
"Having pushed those tactics and themes, Democrats have painted themselves into a corner. How could they possibly do anything but cheer as Trump bombs Syria? They can’t. And cheering is thus exactly what they’re doing.
"For months, those of us who have urged skepticism and restraint on the Russia rhetoric have highlighted the risk that this fixation on depicting him as a tool of the Kremlin could goad Trump – dare him or even force him – to seek confrontation with Moscow. Some Democrats reacted with rage yesterday at the suggestion that their political tactics were now bearing this fruit, but that’s how politics works."
Still, that's hardly stopped the dissemination of Russian conspiracy theories from certain quarters. Greenwood goes on to note:
"Already, the most obsessive Democratic conspiracists have cited the fact that the U.S. military advised Russia in advance of the strikes – something they would have been incredibly reckless not to do – as innuendo showing that Trump serves Putin. If Trump tomorrow bombed Red Square, Democrats – after cheering him – would quickly announce that he only did so to throw everyone off the trail of his collusion with Putin."

Still, there is something curious about all of this. The attack on a Syrian airbase was so effective that fighters were scrambled from said base only hours after the attack. And while many hawks from either party are hoping this is the beginning of a new offensive, Rex Tillerson has been vague on how committed the US is to further escalating things against Assad.

Reportedly, the Prussian element in Trump's administration personified by Secretary of Defense James "Mad Dog" Mattis is the faction most likely to have pushed for this strike. This is interesting as both Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford (such as here and here) have expressed reservations over escalating the conflict in Syria.

Mad Dog
And all the while the situation in Eastern Asia grows more and more tense with each day. Today it was announced the U.S Navy would deploy a strike force to South Korea.

Just where all of this is heading is difficult to say. Next week Tillerson will reportedly visit Russia, the first time a Trump administration official has ventured into Mother Russia. This may provide some crucial insight into the level of commitment whomever is driving Trump's foreign policy has to the escalation with Russia. The possibility that this is some elaborate feign on the part of the Pentagon as it continues to build up its forces in Eastern Asia can not be dismissed. But policymakers will no doubt being playing their cards close to the vest as the final decision over what will be the primary theater of the next world war are hashed out.

China had their say this week, now its Russia's turn. The Pentagon is certainly doing all it can to be perceived as being in a position of strength.




Update II

Talk about being lost in a hall of mirrors. The Trump administration continues to sow confusion in regards to their end game in Syria. Recent comments made by UN Ambassador Nikki Haley indicate the US is committed to regime change while Secretary of State Rex Tillerson once again hinted that Assad's future would be decided by the Syria people, echoing the more dovish comments he made on March 30th (noted above). National Security Advisor General H.R. McMaster indicated the United States' principal interest in Syria is still the defeat of ISIS, but was vague on whether the involved the removal of Assad or not.

Even more interesting is another shakeup at the National Security Council. This time its veteran foreign policy pundit K.T. McFarland being given the boot, a decision apparently driven by McMaster. Bloomberg notes:
"K. T. McFarland has been asked to step down as deputy National Security Advisor to President Donald Trump after less than three months and is expected to be nominated as ambassador to Singapore, according to a person familiar with White House personnel moves.
"The departure of the 65-year-old former Fox News commentator comes as Trump’s second National Security Advisor, H.R. McMaster, puts his own stamp on the National Security Council after taking over in February from retired General Michael Flynn.
"McFarland proved not to be a good fit at the NSC, the person said, adding that Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly was involved in the decision as well."
K.T. McFarland
Just how close McFarland is to former NSA General Michael Flynn is debatable. McFarland has no doubt forged ties to the far right over the years as evidence by her time serving on the staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee, where she worked directly with longtime American Security Council luminary Senator John Tower. On the other hand, she was brought into the foreign policy field by Henry Kissinger, whom she is regarded as a protege of and served with on the NSC during the 1970s. While not an Ivy Leaguer, she has been educated at the closely related Oxford and MIT. She's also a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

As such, she appears to be very close to the Rockefeller faction of the old traditional conservative establishment. Her removal, which appears to have been driven by McMaster and General John Kelly would indicate that the generals and the evangelicals are increasing their strange hold on the NSC. For me information of the forces vying for power on Trump's National Security Council (and as a result, his foreign policy), check here.


Some Additional Thoughts:

  • An absolutely spot on analysis by Christopher Knowles of The Secret Sun. 
  • Henry Kissinger, a total creation of the Rockefeller family, has been one of the only members of the traditional conservative establishment to support Trump on Russia. While Kissinger no doubt still has a line to Trump, the removal of McFarland largely leaves him on the outside looking in at the NSC. This further muddies the waters concerning Russia, but Tillerson's current posturing indicates improved relations with Russia are still possible, if not a given
  • Rick Perry's elevation to the NSC is interesting in the context of Bannon and McFarland's removal. Perry is close to the fanatical New Apostolic Reformation movement, which gives the Evangelical faction another key alley on the NSC. This is yet another sign our foreign policy is being totally directed by a combination of the Pentagon (and most assuredly not the civilian branch) and various Christian cults




China Games?

Increasingly, it looks like this weekend's posturing was primarily for China's benefit. Consider these latest developments:
"China will offer the Trump administration better market access for financial sector investments and US beef exports to help avert a trade war, according to Chinese and US officials involved in talks between the two governments.
"US President Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, his Chinese counterpart, decided at their first meeting in Florida last week that they needed rushed trade negotiations to produce results within 100 days. The two concessions on finance and beef are relatively easy for Beijing to make. 
"At present, foreign investors cannot hold a majority stake in securities and insurance companies in China. The country’s largest companies in these sectors, such as Citic Securities and China Life Insurance, have achieved enormous scale in the 15 years since the world’s second-biggest economy joined the World Trade Organisation, making them formidable competitors for new entrants to the market...
"China is also willing to end a ban on US beef imports that has been in place since 2003, officials said, and buy more grains and other agricultural products as it seeks to reduce tensions stemming from the $347bn annual trade surplus in goods that it enjoys with its biggest trading partner."
The financial sector concessions are the big one. By opening up their securities and insurance companies to foreign ownership via majority stakes, China is setting up this part of the financial sector for a takeover by their US counterparts. This is no small pivot and may lead to unparalleled foreign influence on China's economy during the PRC era.

It would appear Trump's deployment of shock and awe sent the deserved message to its intended target.

Sunday, April 2, 2017

Fringe: The Strange and Terrible History of the Far Right and High Weirdness Part IX




Welcome to the ninth installment in my epic examination of far right wing pursuits in high weirdness. Throughout this series I have been using high weirdness as a catchall for a host of arcane topics --psi, human potential, UFOs, the occult, Tesla weapons and so. As for far right, I have primarily presented this grouping through the lens of think tanks closely associated with the American military-industrial complex such as the Committee on the Present Danger Mach I (CPD) and the American Security Council (ASC).

The first installment briefly addressed the possible deep political implications behind the bizarre Sikh Temple shooting of 2012 as well as the general high weirdness present in the 2016 US presidential elections. Part two briefly considered the origins of the military-industrial complex and traced it to a group of middle managers brought into government by Bonesman and Secretary of War Henry Stimson and the emerging technocratic class personified by famed scientist Vannevar Bush, also long linked to the UFO question.

Part three addressed the emergence of the far right as a driving force behind the military-industrial complex. This rise was sparked by a group radical military officers who had served under General Douglas MacArthur in the Pacific Theater of World War II and/or Korea. Many of these military officers have also been linked to the Roswell incident. The fourth installment continued in this vein as well as addressing my theory as to what was behind Roswell.

The fifth installment considered the ASC's extensive links to the National Investigative Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), for decades the premier civilian UFO agency, and the bizarre theories of Peter Beter, one of the most curious prophets of the conspiratorial right. Part six moved along to the role the ASC played in fostering the Hangar 18 mythos/disinformation, as well as the think tank's indirect patronage of Jacques Vallee, J. Allen Hynek and other UFOlogist that developed rather mystical takes on the phenomenon.

J. Allen Hynek (left) and Jacques Vallee (right)
Part seven was a bit of a digression, tracing the extensive influence that far right wing sugar daddy William Penn Patrick had on Werner Erhard's highly controversial est program, an offshoot of the Human Potential movement. With the eighth and most recent installment I returned to the ASC, and considered the bizarre exploits of one of its most enigmatic members, Stefan T. Possony, in the fields of UFOlogy, psi, mind control and Tesla weapons. As I was wrapped up I arrived at the 1980s and the ASC's longstanding obsession with weaponizing space. When its champion Ronnie Raygun came to sit in the Oval Office their dreams were made manifest in the form of the Strategic Defense Initiative, a project long linked to Tesla weapons that Possony is regarded as the chief visionary of.


"Red Rover, Red Rover, Bob Lazar's Coming Over"

While addressing Possony's longstanding involvement in various aspects of high weirdness in the prior installment, I also noted his seeming interest in "zero point" energy. While this fascination appears to have stretched over several decades, Possony became especially keen on it in the 1980s, along with a host of other curious characters, some of whom already addressed, some that have yet to be addressed. 

And that brings me to out next subject. During the late 1980s Ufologists began to buzz about alleged revelations concerning Area 51, a top secret facility in Nevada. I'm sure many of the readers of this blog are well aware of the mythos surrounding Area 51, so I will not delve into it here. For our purposes here, I am most interested in two of the men that played such crucial roles in establishing said mythos in the late 1980s. 

While Area 51 had occasionally be considered by Ufologists prior to the late 1980s, it was not until the efforts of John Lear that it became a staple of the lecture circuits and pop culture in equal measures. Unsurprisingly, Lear possesses a very deep background. The great Institute for the Study of Globalization and Covert Politics (ISGP) notes that Lear came from an Air Force background (his father was the inventor the famous Learjet) and grew up around major deep state figures such as Generals Jimmy Doolittle and Hoyt Vandenberg. Both men were linked to both the far right and Majestic 12.


General Jimmy Doolittle (top) and General Hoyt Vandenberg (bottom)
Vandenberg and Doolittle were not as right wing as some of the military officers we've previously encountered in this series, and both of these men had extensive ties to the traditional conservative/eastern establishment as well. Specifically, both men appear to have been close to the CIA's Frank Wisner, he of the "Georgetown Set," a man much despised by many of the far right. Nonetheless, they had their ties to the gar right as well.

Doolittle, like many of the military officers previously addressed, served under MacArthur in the Pacific. Despite being blocked for a promotion by The Pipe during WWII, Doolittle does not appear to have had any hard feelings over it and later went into business with MacArthur in civilian life. And both Doolittle and Vandenberg were close to the infamous General Curtis LeMay (an American Security Council luminary addressed in parts three, four and six) while Vandenberg appears to have been extensively involved in an early version of what became Operation Gladio:
"The process of integrating ex-Nazi emigre groups into U.S. nuclear operations may be traced at least to early 1947, when General Hoyt Vandenberg became the first chief of staff of the newly independent U.S. Air Force. Vandenberg had commanded the Ninth Air Force in Europe during World War II, then been tapped to head the Central Intelligence Group, the immediate predecessor to the CIA, in 1946. Among the general's responsibilities at the air force was the development of the written plans describing strategies and tactics for the use of America's new nuclear weapons in the event of war...
"The army, air force, and CIA all began competing programs to prepare for the post-nuclear battlefield. This included creation of what eventually came to be called the Special Forces – better known today as the Green Berets – in the army and the air resupply and communications wings in the air force. The job of these units... was to set up anti-Communist political leaders backed by guerrilla armies inside the USSR and Eastern Europe in the wake of an atomic war, capture political power in strategic sections of the country, choke off any remaining Communist resistance, and ensure that the Red Army could not regroup for a counterattack...
" 'The Eastern European and Russian emigre groups we had picked up from the Germans were the center of this; they were the personnel,' according to the retire colonel. 'The CIA was to prepare these forces in peacetime; stockpile weapons, radios, and jeeps for them to use; and get them ready in the event of war....' "
(Blowback Christopher Simpson, pgs. 139-140)
As I'm sure many of my readers are well aware, Vandenberg is widely listed as being a member of Majestic 12 (likely a hoax with a basis in reality, as was noted before here) as well. Curiously, another military figure closely linked to the UFO question, Colonel Philip J. Corso, also appears to have had involvement in Gladio (noted before here). But moving along.

John Lear himself sought alliances with the extreme right of Ufology shortly after making the scene as well. For several years he was a close alley of former Naval Intelligence officer turned conspiracy theorist Milton William Cooper. Lear and Cooper later broke with one another during the early 1990s, with Cooper branding Lear a disinformation asset, but more reputable Ufologists such as Jacques Vallee and Linda Howe described both men as being alcoholics, gun-obsessed, and generally unstable individuals. It is also highly probable they were both deeply involved in spreading disinformation in various alternative research communities.

the legendary William Cooper
Lear would also play a key role in bringing the highly controversial revelations of Robert "Bob" Lazar to the general public. Here's a rundown of those revelations:
"The Knapp interview of Robert Lazar had exploded like a bomb among the ranks of American ufologists. Here was a clean-cut, articulate, educated young man who knew physics and who casually claimed to have seen nine flying saucers inside hangars at Area S-4 in the vicinity of Groom Lake and Area 51. Not only had he seen them, but he had touched them and he had been hired to reverse-engineer their propulsion system, which was based on antigravity and used a stable superheavy element – specifically, element 115 – as part of this field. Lazar had handled element 115 and even had a piece of it at his house for a while. There were rumors that someone had tried to try to kill Lazar because of these revelations, and all kinds of bizarre speculation circulated about those advanced disks in Air Force hangars..."
(Revelations, Jacques Vallee, pg. 204)
A few paragraphs down, Vallee goes on to recount how Lazar was allegedly recruited into Area 51:
"... One day, in December 1987, he had been approached for a job under Naval Intelligence. He was interviewed at a facility of EG&G, a defense contractor, although there is no implication that the company is involved with the project itself."
(Revelations, Jacques Vallee, pg. 205) 
Lazar's apparent ties to Naval Intelligence is interesting. As noted above, William Cooper, who was then a close affiliate of John Lear, was himself an ONI veteran. And Lear is long reputed to have had ties to both the Air Force and the CIA. As such, this seems to strongly indicate that there was some type of intelligence agenda at work surrounding the network crafted by Lear.

John Lear
But I digress. For a much more in depth account of Lazar's revelations, check out one of the earliest and best by someone who knew/knows Lazar. For our purposes here, Lazar's alleged scientific background, or lack therefore of, provides some interesting links:
"...Born in Florida in 1959, Lazar is known to have taken courses in electronics at the Los Angeles-based Pierce College in the 1970s, and to have spent some time employed with Fairchild, a company founded in 1959 by Nobel Prize-winner and co-inventor of the transistor, William Shockley. But that's only part of it. Lazar claims – and continues to claim – that he received an MS in electronics from the California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech), and an MS in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and also that he worked on some pretty classified stuff in the process."
(Keep Out, Nick Redfern, pg. 19)
Lazar's ties to Fairchild are most interesting. As was noted in part four, the Roswell crash (or Working, if you prefer) has long been linked to the discovery of the transistor. Many alternative researchers believe this is what facilitated said discovery rather than the much despised Shockley. William Shockley himself was not actually involved with Fairchild, but rather a group of researchers known as the "traitorous eight" defected from his Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in 1957 and went on to found Fairchild, which produced some of the first silicon transistors. As you may have guessed, this was a crucial development in the eventual emergence of Silicon Valley. Thus Shockey is the key link between Roswell and Silicon Valley and Lazar found himself employed in a company closely entangled in this legacy at one point.


Nor was Fairchild the only place Lazar worked prior to Area 51 linked to some curious technologies. He is also reputed to have worked at the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility, a part of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Los Alamos National Laboratory of course grew out of the Manhattan Project, more than a few members of which have been linked to Roswell. Funny how incestuous these circles are, eh? And of course Los Alamos has its own links to Ufology, as well shall see.

But back to the matter at hand. Lazar's credentials have long been disputed, with no evidence of his alleged degrees ever turning up. We are on a bit firmer footing with his claims of employment with Los Alamos, however. Here's a breakdown of these controversies:
"...No convincing evidence of any sort has ever surfaced in support of Lazar's claims to have obtained degrees at Cal Tech and MIT. Critics and debunkers gleefully rub their hands together and cry: 'Foul, Bob!' Lazar's response? The government is trying to discredit him by erasing significant portions of his background and life history. On the other hand, it might reasonably be argued that the lack of credible data pertaining to Lazar's educational assertions would be enough to rule out the possibility of his ever having been considered for employment in the world of government-funded, cutting-edge science.
"Lazar's claims to have worked at Los Alamos were also disputed, and viewed with suspicion by certain elements of both the UFO research community and the mainstream media. In fact, his claims were outright refuted by spokespersons of Los Alamos itself. For a short while, at least. Soon, something came along the turn the issue on its head: KLAS-TV's George Knapp found Lazar's name in the October 1982 telephone directory of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. When the evidence was presented to grim, red-faced Los Alamos officials by Knapp, they quickly chose to modify their position. The new version of events was that Lazar had been employed by them after all, but under the umbrella of an outside contract company called Kirk-Meyer. They maintain that Lazar never, ever, not even once, worked on issues of a secret or sensitive nature. However, colleagues of Lazar had informed Knapp that Lazar worked at Los Alamos in matters relative to the highly sensitive Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) – or 'Star Wars' program – that had been grandly envisioned by President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s."
(Keep Out, Nick Redfern, pgs. 27-28)
Ah, that would be the same SDI that longtime ASC luminary Stefan Possony spent decades lobbying for (noted in the prior installment). And here we find Lazar potentially working on Possony's baby. But that's not Lazar's only indirect link to Possony. It just so happens that one of Possony's closest colleagues in the ASC would encounter Lazar during his time at Los Alamos.
"In June 1982, legendary theoretical physicist Edward Teller gave a lecture at Los Alamos, and Lazar attended. As Lazar approached the venue on the day in question, he was amazed to see Teller sitting casually outside on a wall, reading the aforementioned Los Alamos Monitor article on Lazar himself. This was highly fortuitous, so Lazar introduced himself and had a brief chat with the man who was one of the inspirations for the deranged Dr. Strangelove in Stanley Kubrick's classic 1964 movie of the same name."
(Keep Out, Nick Redfern, pg. 20)
Edward Teller
As was noted in the prior installment, Teller had worked closely with Possony in the ASC ever since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1961. By the early 1980s, this collaboration was in full swing as the debate over the SDI was beginning to become a major national issue and both Possony and Teller were among the most vigorous proponents of it at the time. Whether Teller was involved in Possony's more arcane interests is unknown, however.

Still, it is likely Teller had been involved in fringe topics on his own accord for years by this point. He was, after all, a colleague of Vannevar Bush in the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) and appears to have worked closely with Bush for years afterwards. What's more, Teller had been involved in official conferences concerning UFOs since at least the late 1940s. One of the most well known took place at Los Alamos almost thirty-three years prior to Teller meeting Lazar there in '82.
"One 16 February 1949 a secret conference was held at Los Alamos to discuss the UFO phenomenon, in particular the so-called 'green fireballs' which were then being reported in the area. Among the scientists and military officials present where the nuclear physicist Dr. Edward Teller and Dr. Lincoln LaPaz, an astronomer from the University of New Mexico whose expert opinion was called on throughout the conference..."
(Above Top Secret, Timothy Good, pgs. 265-266)
In Lazar's account, it was Teller himself who helped the alleged scientist procure a job at Area S-4, near Area 51:
"Now let's fast-forward to 1988. At that time, Lazar was running a photo lab in Las Vegas, but he was on the lookout for far more gainful employment. He sent out a resume to Teller, who remembered Lazar and his beefed-up Honda. This was very good news. It got even better when Teller agreed to use his contacts to see about getting Lazar back into the world of physics. As a result, Lazar was approached by a representative of Edgerton, Germeshausen, and Grier, Inc. (EG&G), a U.S. defense contractor. Thus began a strange saga filled with many a cloak, dagger, and hall of mirrors."
(Keep Out, Nick Redfern, pg. 21)

As was noted above, EG&G was allegedly being used as a front for the ONI, who were actually the ones offering Lazar his job at Area 51. Let us then consider the implications of this series of events: Lazar meets Edward Teller, one of the most well-connected deep state players in the scientific field to ever live, at Los Alamos. Despite official claims that Lazar only performed minor functions there, Teller is sufficiently impressed with Lazar to remember him nearly half a decade later when Lazar is trying to get back into scientific-related work. Teller then makes some calls and sets in motion a chain of events that will end up with Lazar working at a facility related to the highly classified Area 51, apparently at the behest of Naval Intelligence.

Despite the fact the officials at Area 51 have long denied Lazar's allegations, Teller himself left open the possibility that Lazar's claims may have been true based on comments he made to journalists in the wake of Lazar's revelations:
"Let's go back to the beginning, to Lazar's claims that he was offered the job of a lifetime as a result of having approached Dr. Edward Teller. When questioned after the murky matter began to take shape within UFO research circles as well as the mainstream media, Teller did not deny having met Lazar. Nor did Teller deny having referred Lazar to additional sources that may ultimately have led him to area 51. In fact, Teller actually squirmed, with distinct uneasiness apparent in his voice, manner, and appearance, when he uttered the following words, after being put on the spot by an enterprising television journalist: 'I probably met him. I might have said to somebody I met him and liked him, after I met him, and if I like him. But I don't remember him.'..."
(Keep Out, Nick Redfern, pg. 27)
Just what exactly the purpose of the Lazar revelations were is difficult to say. Assuming Lazar's story is true, it is difficult to believe that he was brought to Area 51/S-4 for actual scientific purposes. For one, Lazar seems to have spent a good chunk of his time there studying the alleged history of the extraterrestrials and their contact with humanity rather than actually doing scientific research. And when he did do actual scientific research, he did not seem to have the capabilities to perform any type of serious investigation. Consider the comments made during an interview with Jacques Vallee, a computer scientist:
" 'What kind of work were you doing?'
" 'We were back-engineering the propulsion system. They gave me briefings on that. A lot of it didn't make sense.'
" 'What do you mean?'
" 'Well, for one thing, there was no theoretical work at the facility. And much of the physical research was inept. They told us that a team had cut up one of the reactors by sawing it off in two. When they tried to run it, the thing exploded in their faces. That took place in May 1987, before they expelled the Russians from the project.
"Indeed, that was absurd. No one in his right sense would have done this; a project manager would have stopped it. Lazar agreed: it did not make sense. Nor did his own presence there makes sense. He said: 
" 'I'm no research physicist. If those were really alien disk, they should have had the best scientists in the country working on them. Instead they gave us these briefings and just told us to try anything we liked. Nothing was written down. 
 " 'What did you have in the lab, on your workbench?
" 'I had a digital voltmeter,' said Lazar.
" 'That's all?' exclaimed one of my friends.
" ' I also had an oscilloscope. That's it.'
"Where were the x-ray inspection systems, the multichannel analyzers, the signal generators that are the standard tools of the high-tech trade?"
(Revelations, Jacques Vallee, pgs. 205-206)
Bob Lazar
Needless to say, it is not especially credible that Lazar would have been tasked with back-engineering a UFO and only given a digital voltmeter and a oscilloscope to work with. Clearly, Lazar's work at Area 51 or wherever he was at was a piece of theater, pending Lazar is remembering his time there accurately (Lazar has claimed memory loss and was threatened with behavior modification techniques by the security staff).

But to what purpose?  Why would someone like Edward Teller recruit Lazar, subject him to a onslaught of disinformation, then stand back and allow him to "expose" the doings of a highly classified facility that was not on most people's radar prior to his revelations? Clearly something was afoot, but I don't pretend to know what exactly the purpose was.

Before wrapping up, its interesting to note that Teller's presence in the Lazar story clearly links the ASC to both the mythos of Area 51 as well as Hangar 18 (discussed in part six). Both mythos revolve around claims of reverse-engineered flying saucers and alien bodies involving highly secretive facilities. Either these revelations represented a very elaborate, decades-spanning disinformation campaign, or (more likely) some type of "limited hangout." In either case, it is most curious that the ASC was the organization tasked with such endeavors.


"They are the essence of true political power..."

Or maybe not, in light of some of the individuals linked to the think tank by the 1980s. Let us now consider a profile of one such individual:
"[Michael] Aquino is bright and 'well educated.' He graduated with honors from Santa Barbara high school in 1964 and was the National Commander the Eagle Scout Honor Society of the Boy Scouts of America 1965-66. He received a Department of the Army scholarship to the University of California and after graduation served his country as a psyops officer in Vietnam where he received the Army Commendation Medal, Air Medal, Bronze Star, Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry from the Vietnamese government, an Oak Leaf Cluster to the Army Commendation Medal, and a second Oak Leaf Cluster in 1980.
"Not only is a Aquino a citizen in good standing with the U.S. military (now the reserves), he's a member in good standing in academia. He is, in fact a doctor having obtained his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1980. His dissertation was entitled The Neutron Bomb. His resume says he's qualified in International Relations, Comparative Politics, American Government and Political Theory. For several years he was a consulting faculty member of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. He's a member of the National Advisory Board of the American Security Council, a member of the World Future Society and the L5 Society and the Academy of Magical Arts, Inc. (the 'Magic Castle' of Hollywood.)"
(Operation Mind Control, Walter H. Bowart, pg. 162)
No doubt Colonel Michael Aquino is a familiar figure to many of my readers. A long time bugaboo of the conspiratorial right, Aquino began his occult odyssey in the late 1960s when he became a member of Anton LeVay's Church of Satan (CoS). LaVay was greatly impressed with the highly intelligent, clean-cut Aquino, and by the early 1970s Aquino was made a High Priest in the Church of Satan. By the time he left the CoS, Aquino was a Magister IV, only one grade below LaVay in the CoS's hierarchy. LaVay further honored Aquino by allowing him to craft the "Call of Cthulu" ritual, based upon the writings of H.P. Lovecraft, that were incorporated into the CoS.

Anton LaVay
But by the mid-1970s a growing rift was emerging between Aquino and LaVay. LaVay had become disaffected by Aquino's egotism and "over intellectualism" while Aquino was fed up with LaVay's refusal to relinquish administration powers and his practice of selling priesthoods. Aquino felt that such things should be based upon merit rather than the amount of money one could pay. Needless to say, he also found the professed atheism of the CoS to be sterile as well.

This led Aquino to perform a ritual in 1975 that would set him on the path to founding his own secret order.
"On the eve of the North solstice, June 21, 1975, Aquino performed a magical 'Working' and Satan purportedly appeared to him in the image of Set – the oryx-headed god of death and destruction that Aquino claims is the earliest manifestation of the Christian devil, dating back to 3000 BC. The result was a document, The Book of Coming Forth by Night, in which Set declared the dawning of the 'Aeon of Set.' According to the document, the origins of the new era can be traced back to 1904, when Set appeared to Aleister Crowley in Cairo in the guise of his guardian angel, Aiwass, and declared Crowley the herald for the dawning 'Aeon of Horus.' In 1966, LeVay ushered in the Aeon of Satan, an intermediary phase that symbolized indulgence and that was to prepare the way for the Aeon of Set, which would bring forth enlightenment."
(Satan Wants You, Arthur Lyons, pgs. 126-127) 
This spurred Aquino to break with the Church of Satan and found his own Temple of Set (ToS) the same year. Aquino was followed to the ToS by some CoS defectors, including his wife Lilith Sinclair, though the charismatic LaVay maintained the bulk of the CoS's membership. The Temple of Set's membership was never more than a few hundred members in its peak years, hence it never came anywhere near obtaining the degree of public notoriety as the CoS, at least not until scandals rocked the organization in the late 1980s. But more on that in a moment.


In 1982 Aquino performed an even more bizarre ritual at the notorious Wewelsburg Castle in Germany that came to be known as the "Wewelsburg Working." This ritual would go on to have a great deal of significance in neo-Nazi circles in later years. Wewelsburg was allegedly the location selected by Heinrich Himmler to serve as the cultic center of the SS. In recent years much speculation has emerged concerning the rituals that were performed there. A lot of this centers around the infamous sun wheel located in the North Tower that has been likened to the Black Sun in post-WWII Nazi occultism. It should be noted however, that the origins of said sun wheel are uncertain, though there is no evidence of it in the castle prior to the Nazi era. On the flip side of the coin, there have only been a handful instances in which something resembling the Wewelsburg sun wheel have been found on Nazi paraphernalia.

the Wewelsburg sun wheel to the left
Aquino does not appear to have specifically addressed the sun wheel until much later (now appears to wear an variation of it as a necklace), but he did provide one of the first accurate accounts of the north tower.
"... Aquino was interested in National Socialism as a case study in rhetorical, symbolic and psychological warfare and had wanted to visit Wewelsburg ever since first reading popular accounts about it... After conducting extensive research, he concluded (similar to the present author) that writers were all reproducing the same descriptions of the castle taken from Schellenberg (1956) and Hohne (1967). Aquino first visited Wewelsburg in October 19, 1982 and immediately realized that all previously published descriptions of the castle's interiors and furnishings were widely inaccurate. He sent a detailed account of his visit in a letter to the ToS priesthood dated November 8, 1982... which was subsequently published in the February 1983 issue of Scroll of Set. Aquino's description of the North Tower was among the first accurate accounts published; he was unaware of the groundbreaking volume of Huser (1982) which it appeared earlier that year. At that time security arrangements at Wewelsburg were considerably more lax than they are today an elderly museum guide left Aquino alone in the North Tower for an extended period of time... 
"Aquino remained in the Gruft from 3:00 – 4:30 PM and performed a magical rite that has come to be known as the 'Wewelsburg Working.' The purpose of the ritual was three-fold: 1) to aid in understanding an ongoing crisis in the ToS dating to June/July of that year, 2) to energize the upcoming year and 3) to summon the Powers of Darkness at this powerful locus. Before leaving the museum, Aquino signed the visitor's log providing tangible evidence of his visit to Wewelsburg (reproduced in... 2011...). Aquino came away from the ritual feeling rejuvenated and inspired to reform the ToS Order of the Trapezoid on a new theoretical basis in order to explore the National Socialist magical current. News of Aquino's ritual spread throughout the worldwide occult community spurring interest in Wewelsburg and its mysterious sun wheel. Occultists in increasing numbers began visiting Wewelsburg. In 2010 the Kreismuseum Wewelsburg contacted the ToS concerning the inclusion of a narrative about the Wewelsburg Working and the Order of the Trapezoid in a new exhibit."
(The Black Sun Unveiled, James Pontolillo, pgs. 55-57)
the infamous North Tower of Wewelsburg
Aquino certainly appears to have become quite obsessed with National Socialism in the wake of his experience at Wewelsburg (and while still remaining deeply involved with the US Army). Soon he would be making such brazen proclamations as:
"We are fortunate that the Auschwitz taboo prevents people from looking too closely at. . . Nazi Germany, or from experimenting with any of its regular governmental doctrines. Because they work. They are the essence of true political power. Anti-Semitism is irrelevant to them... It is ironically true that a right-wing backlash in the United States – which is what the neo-Nazis are hoping for – would wipe them out first. If an American Fuehrer does appear, he won't be wearing a uniform with a swastika armband. He will wear a business suit, and he will be calling popular attention to the patriotic virtues in 1776." 
(Michael Aquino, taken from Arthur Lyons' Satan Wants You, pg. 174)
Certainly Aquino's musings in the 1980s seem eerily prophetic in these United States in 2017, amidst the era of The Donald. Aquino was of course an intelligence officer specializing in psychological warfare in the US Army for many years and there are a host of speculations revolving around what type of psyops he was involved in and to what extent they were used in the United States. In 1981 he co-wrote the infamous "From PSYOP to Mindwar" paper with Colonel (now General) Paul E. Vallely that effectively argued that America's defeat in Vietnam had been brought about by the inability of psyops to condition the public for victory.

"Incidentally," Vallely has come out as a Trump backer of late. He's also a member of the Center for Security Policy (CSP), in many wars the true post-Cold War continuation of the ASC network. Unsurprisingly, the CSP has been playing a key role in the infant Trump administration, as was noted before here.

General Paul E. Vallely
Of course, a psychological warfare barrage by Aquino is hardly the extent of conspiratorial musings concerning the colonel. I'm sure many of you are well aware of the Presidio day-care child abuse allegations that have dogged him for decades after first being exposed in 1987.
"... A three-year-old girl, reportedly molested at the Army's Presidio day-care Center in San Francisco, had fingered Aquino as the same 'Mikey' who photographed her in the nude and sexually abused her in a black-painted room with a cross on the ceiling. On August 14, 1987, Aquino's home was raided by police detectives, FBI agents, and members of the Army's Criminal Investigation Division. Several carloads of 'evidence' were seized and what Aquino called a 'modern witch-hunt in the most classical sense,' but no charges were ever filed against Aquino or any member of his church. In April 1989, Aquino filed formal complaints against to SFPD detectives involved in the raid, and police commissioners sustained the complaints in November 1990. Detective Sandi Gallant was 'counseled' to avoid derogatory comments on Aquino's church or lifestyle, while Detective Glen Pamfiloff got a written reprimand for his conduct on the 1987 raid."
(Raising Hell, Michael Newton, pgs. 19-20)
There have also been longstanding allegations that Aquino was deeply involved in running disinformation in the New Age and UFOs communities as well. Some have even are argued he played a key role in crafting the mythos surrounding Roswell and birthing the modern UFO movement that emerged from its rediscovery during the early 1980s (special thanks to "V" for point out these allegations to me). Just how credible these claims are is highly debatable as they're based solely on heresy, but I can not totally dismiss them in light of Aquino's alleged presence on the ASC's National Advisory Board. As was noted before here and here, many members of said board were closely linked to Roswell while other members would repeatedly turn up in the UFO field.

Certainly Aquino would be in the presence on many key figures linked to the UFO question in national security circles had he been a member of the National Advisory Board. As I have demonstrated throughout this series, the ASC's National Advisory Board appears to have been quite obsessed with the UFO question, among other arcane topics. The real question, however, is if Aquino was in fact a member of the ASC.


Aquino and the ASC?

Aquino has been linked to the ASC since the 1980s, but it appears by the 2010s he was hotly contesting the extent of his membership. The great ISGP was able to contact Aquino and seek clarification on these points. Aquino's responses can be found here and here for the curious.

Colonel Michael Aquino
ISGP did not find Aquino's responses to very believable and neither does this researcher. Beyond the points raised by ISGP, there's also the question of why the ASC would arbitrarily list Aquino in its National Advisory Board if he had only signed up for a newsletter. Its not like Aquino --then only a major --would have brought the organization any real prestige. Whatever recognition Aquino had by that point came from his exploits with the CoS and ToS. And such affiliations wouldn't exactly have been to warmly received by the ASC's rank and file.

In fairness to Aquino, I tend to find many of the more extreme allegations commonly leveled against him such as his involvement in pedophilia to be rather dubious. Aquino never attempted to hide his occult exploits and does not ever seem to have shied away from publicity. His profile just seems far too high profile for something life a pedophile ring, which surely would be carried out in the strictest secrecy by individuals avoiding the limelight at all costs.

Aquino playing mind war games on various alternative communities seems far more plausible. He has been involved on the fringes of various New Age-centric groups since the late 1960s and seems to have embraced the allegations leveled at him by the conspiratorial right with ample gusto over the years.

But was there something more to Aquino's connections to the ASC than disinformation and psyops? Another military man linked to the ASC who would later befriend Aquino may indicate that there were some very strange projects being perused by the National Advisory Board indeed by the 1980s. This figure shall be considered in the next installment. Until then, stay tuned dear reader.