The Game

In the pivotal year of 2012, the enigmatic Cicada 3301 was launched. It all started with a series of puzzles left on the infamous 4chan on January 4 of that year. A fresh round would appear on the same day in 2013 and 2014. The puzzles were allegedly designed to locate "highly intelligent individuals." Initially, they largely centered around data security, cryptography, steganography, and internet anonymity. But over time, they became more fixated on the occult, incorporating elements such as Freemasonry, Crowley, runes, and even the highly esoteric work of William Blake. This thread reached an apex with the launch of a tie-in book, Liber Primus, which appears to be something between a codebook and a grimoire. 

Cicada 3301 became a global phenomena shortly after its launch and still continues to fascinate despite it being six years since the last puzzle dropped. In 2019, Great Big Story (a subsidiary of CNN) dropped a very slick documentary on the Cicada phenomena called Cracking the Code of Cicada 3301. It followed a group of Cicada fans who still struggles with the ciphers years after much of the rest of the world moved on. The documentary attempts to link the group behind Cicada 3301 to the early 1990s cypherpunks behind the famed mailing list that originated at UC Berkeley. It's all a way to train brilliant individuals in techniques to protect their digital privy while enabling many of these loners to finally find true friends in the process. 

That's the Cinderella version anyway. The reality looks far more ominous by the day. Less than three weeks before the election, the arch globalist mouthpiece known as the Financial Times dropped a bombshell: QAnon was an outgrowth of Cicada 3301. Three days later, Heavy joined in on the fun. 

QAnon as ARG

Their claims were incredible: that a man named Thomas Schoenberger had taken over Cicada 3301 by 2014 and that he had later set up the Q phenomena. Further, Schoenberger was linked to a slew of former US intelligence officers. They included Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) members William Binney (ex-NSA) and Robert David Steele (ex-CIA). Even more curious are his supposed to ties to General Michael T. Flynn, the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and Trump's first National Security Advisor. Of course, Flynn served in the latter capacity for less than a month before he was forced to resign in the midst of the scandal. His subsequent legal odyssey could fill an entire blog alone. 

General Michael T. Flynn

But how credible is all of this? Both Cicada 3301 and QAnon are described as "alternate reality games" (ARG) in these accounts. When exactly ARGs first emerged is a matter of some dispute, but they are generally believed to be an outgrowth of the 1980s counterculture, and specifically that of the Bay area. Early influences include Discordianism, the Church of the SubGenius, and chaos magic. Operation Mindfuck would be one of the most obvious predecessors. 1988 witnessed the launch of Ong's Hat, the first proper ARG, and a product of the previously mentioned subculture. 

While little acknowledged, ARGs constitute a vibrant subculture in their own right. It all seems terribly clever and as with most clever things, the multinationals were drawn like moths to a flame. Sought after game designers are now frequently used in marketing campaigns for films, TV shows, and the like. In more recent years, it also appears intelligence communities got in on the act. In 2013, Wired (which grew out of the same 1980s counterculture milieu) reported that the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) had begun studying ARGs as a meanings of enabling the Pentagon to better understand human psychology and social behavior. The project was dubbed "Using Alternate Reality Environments to Help Enrich Research Efforts," or UAREHERE. 

Its possible interest in such things went back even further. Joseph Matheny, the principal figure behind Ong's Hat, stated that the Navy had approached him some time around 2000 to study synchronicities surrounding Ong' Hat. To his credit, Matheny turned the Navy down, but the game may have an even more perverse interest for the military. In the same interview, Matheny noted: "Unfortunately, what we've discovered is that there are certain personalities types that can trigger a flight into destructive fantasy." Certainly, this would very much seem to be the case with Q. On that note, let us return to UAREHERE for a moment.

This research largely unfolded while many of the former senior intelligence officers who've spent much of the Trump presidency in full LARP mode were still in office. The IARPA is a part of the Office of National Intelligence, then headed by arch Trump antagonist James Clapper. Another arch Trump foe, John Brennan, was then CIA director. Elsewhere, the above-mentioned General Flynn headed the DIA. 

Deep Moves

The purported direct links of Michael T. Flynn and Schoenberger are especially ominous in light of events currently unfolding in these United States. In the aftermath of the 2020 election Clown Show, the Orange One had sudden changes at the Pentagon. On November 9 (a date steeped in esoteric significance to Nazism), Trump sacked Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and replaced him with Christopher C. Miller. 

Christopher C. Miller

Miller is as unconventional of a choice of the Secretary of Defense gig as is the timing of his appointment. While its not uncommon for former military men to hold the post, Miller is one of the few career military men to secure the appointment. He dedicated nearly 31 years to the military. The only prior Secretaries of Defense with more time served are Generals George Marshall and James "Mad Dog" Mattis. By contrast, Miller was only a colonel when he retired from the Army. What's more, while the bulk of the experience of Mattis and certainly Marshall resided with conventional forces, the majority of Miller's career was spent among the special operations forces. Specifically, Miller was a Green Beret, and one who was active in Afghanistan. One of his last duties in the Army was to work out of the office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict (SO/LIC). That particular Assistant Secretary is the most senior civilian figure representing the special operations community. As for Miller, he retired from the service in 2014 and joined Trump's National Security Council in 2018. From there, he was made the director of the National Counterterrorism Center earlier this year. 

To recap: Miller's entire career has been dedicated to unconventional warfare, counterterrorism, and counterinsurgency. These United States have never had a Secretary of Defense quite like this, either on a permanent or intern basis. And to be sure, Miller has already put his personal stamp on the DoD. A little over a week after taking office, Miller announced that the SO/LIC will now report directly to the Secretary of Defense. Presently, only the civilian heads of the individual branches of the military services report directly to the Secretary of Defense. Now, the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) is effectively its own branch of the armed forces. 

Think about that for a moment dear reader. The United States Special Operations Command has effectively achieved parity with the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corp, etc. And keep in mind, the authority for this move ultimately comes from the National Defense Authorization Act of 2017, which was signed into law by Obama. What's more, Sleepy Joe is unlikely to challenge any of these changes. Indeed, given what Biden will be facing in the aftermath of his inauguration (assuming that that actually happens, of course), he may end writing Trump an especially warm thank you note featuring a lifetime's worth of presidential pardons for these actions alone. 

The other significant move Trump has made of late is the elevation of Ezra Cohen-Watnick. Cohen-Watnick is a longtime Flynn alley who first hooked up with the general in the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). He followed Flynn into the National Security Council, where he was later implicated in leaking materials to Representative Devin Nunes indicating the Obama administration had spied on the Trump campaign. He was ultimately drummed out of the NSC by HR McMaster in the summer of 2017. He returned to the Trump administration in 2018 via the Justice Department and rejoined the DoD earlier this year. In September, Cohen-Watnick was made the SO/LIC, which now reports directly to the Secretary of Defense. Cohen-Watnick, a close alley of Michael Flynn, is now the civilian head of all US special operations forces and has a direct line of communication to the SoD. 

Ezra Cohen-Watnick

But that's not all. As part of Trump's Pentagon shakeup, Cohen-Watnick was also made the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence (USDI). While little discussed, the USDI is one of the most powerful positions in the entire national security apparatus. It is arguably the most senior intelligence post in the entire government, with the director of the CIA being its only real rival. The heads of the NSA, the DIA, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), and all of the individual military intelligence branches, fall under the command of the USDI. More information on the importance of this post in the post 9/11 years can be found in my first book, Strange Tales of the Parapolitical. But to sum it up, the USDI effectively oversees all branches of military intelligence.

In essence, then, Cohen-Warwick is now in control of all US special operations forces and military intelligence, while reporting directly to the Secretary of Defense, himself a veteran of special operations. This certainly streamlines the chain of command from the president to the civilian head of special operations and military intelligence, to put it mildly.  

Yeah, that's not a little unsettling. Especially with the links the Flynn Intel Group appears to have to Thomas Schoenberger. This certainly raises some very disturbing prospects as to what ends the QAnon movement could be put towards in the coming weeks and months with current developments in the Pentagon. It is important to remember, however, that Flynn's mentor is General Stanley McChrystal, one of the most vocal critics of Trump. Flynn and McChrystal had been a part of the "Irish Mafia" at Fort Bragg and it was McChyrstal who tapped Flynn to head intelligence for the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). Reportedly, Flynn founded his private intelligence company in a townhouse owned by McChrystal.

General Stanley McChrystal

Are Flynn and McChrystal then possibly working in tandem against Trump? McChrystal has endorsed Biden in 2020. On the other hand, his military career was ruined in 2010 by scathing comments he made regarding Biden. Men as vein as McChrystal rarely let such things go. And he and Flynn have a whole netherworld of misfit toys locked and loaded. In other words, do not expect the techniques developed from the ARG world to go away anytime soon. They will ensure that, regardless of whichever clown prevails in the show, SOCOM will emerge as the true victor. This is what men like McChrystal and Flynn had spent their careers working towards, and they will achieve these ends by hook or by crook.

For more on the ARG nexus that becomes more and more relevant by the day, check out the latest installment of The Farm with We've Read the Documents' John Brisson and Tek-Gnostics' Jack Heart. Enjoy.

Also, consider becoming a patron of The Farm. For five dollars a month, you get two additional, full-length podcasts with exclusive guests and content. I've got big plans for the latter in the coming months. Stay tuned. 

Orange Alone

Is this the end? I'm always reluctant to write off the Orange One --every time you think he's finally torpedoed himself for good, he manages to come back. Its been this way for decades now.

But there's no question the past few days have been rough for The Donald. Trump's business allies are abandoning him in droves and Congressional Republicans are becoming more emboldened in their attacks in the wake of Charlottesville. And now word comes that Trump's infamous Chief Strategist Stephen Bannon has either resigned or been dismissed by White House Chief of Staff General John Kelly, depending upon whom one believes.

While the Left is ecstatic over Bannon's ouster, there will likely now be no one left to moderate Trump's foreign policy. By and large Bannon appears to have been the only real dove left in the Trump administration. He has of course long favored detente with Russia, but he also opposed strikes on Syria as well increasing troop levels in Afghanistan and more recently had come out against further escalating tensions with North Korea and Venezuela.

This had frequently put Bannon at odds with the clique of generals --led by Kelly, Secretary of Defense James "Mad Dog" Mattis and National Security Advisor General H.R. McMaster, who have frequently favored a more interventionist approach to these various hot spots. But Bannon, despite his ties to Goldman Sachs, had frequently pissed off the Goldman clique in the Trump White House as well with his stances on illegal immigration, China, and even tax policy.

Bannon's removal leaves Trump in a very precarious position. The factions left in the White House now that the nationalist elements have largely been driven out (in no small part by McMaster and now Kelly) --the Generals, the Goldman clique, and The Family/Christian fundamentalists around Vice-President Mike Pence --have no love or loyalty for Trump. At this point Trump's only real hope is to keep the Pentagon happy and Kelly's ascension to Chief of Staff appears to have left the military firmly in control of the White House. But as Trump become more untenable, the Pentagon's hand will surely be forced sooner rather than latter.

However, as the Financial Times recently noted, the Orange One's removal will likely do little to quell the growing domestic unrest in these United States. The possibility certainly exists that recent incidents such as the Battle of Berkeley, the 2017 Congressional baseball shooting and now Charlottesville will be remembered as the opening salvos in a civil war.

This makes the possibility of a world war all the more likely, as such an external threat is probably the only thing left that could unite the country at this point. And this has real barring on whether Trump stays or goes.

When all is said and done, the Pentagon appears to be in the driver's seat at this point. As such, the question becomes: who do they want to fight a world war with? Its no secret that the military has become increasingly disillusioned with civilian management of various war efforts in recent years. The Generals' Revolt of 2006 was the most striking recent instance of this, but there was ample chaffing in the Obama Administration as well. Trump's NSA, General H.R. McMaster, wrote a celebrated account of the Vietnam War in which he effectively blamed the Joint Chiefs of Staff for not demanding that the civilian government allow them to fight the war the way they felt it needed to be fought. Really, this has been an ongoing issue with the Pentagon since Truman removed MacArthur from command in Korea.

The major appeal Trump appears to have for the Pentagon is his willingness to unshackle the brass. Certainly the Pentagon would not enjoy the kind of authority they now possess under a Hillary presidency or even Pence one in which political considerations would surely trump military strategy (har har). While the Pentagon may be willing to tolerate this state of affairs against a Third World nation with marginal military capabilities (so long as the defense budgets continue to swell, at least), Russia and/or China are another league all together. In such circumstances, the Pentagon would surely prefer to play for keeps rather than fretting over "nation building."

But how much longer can Trump survive? While I have no doubt that the Orange One has another ace or two up his sleeve, people are clearly beginning to distance themselves from the administration. The wagons are being circled and as the Orange One becomes more embattled, the possibility looms that he and/or his handlers will do something rash. In this sense at least the loss of Bannon, the only member of Trump's entire staff whose foreign policy ideas may not have left the world in ruins, is tremendous. Bannon's ouster is clearly meant to drive a wedge between Trump and his fanatical backers, but I suspect this will blow up dramatically.

Cry Havoc...

It seems like everyday the mask comes off a little further. After years of chaffing under civilian control, the Pentagon finally got one of their own atop the DoD when The Donald appointed General James "Mad Dog" Mattis to Secretary of Defense. Since then, an increasing degree of presidential control over the military has flowed to Mag Dog and the military officers fighting for American global hegemony. The results thus far have been spectacular. Trump's administration is already on pace to surpass the amount of civilian causalities generated during the entire Obama administration in a single year.

Elsewhere, the military is feeling emboldened enough to openly declare the American empire, while also warning of its collapse. And the Pentagon's solution? As predictable as you would imagine:

"This is a war, then, between US-led capitalist globalization, and anyone who resists it. And to win it, the document puts forward a combination of strategies: consolidating the US intelligence complex and using it more ruthlessly; intensifying mass surveillance and propaganda to manipulate US and global popular opinion; expanding US military power and reach to ensure access to 'strategic regions, markets, and resources.' "

It is also interesting that this study, produced by the US Army War College, received ample assistance from several neocon-leaning think tanks, most notable the Georgetown-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). As I've noted before here and here, this powerful and little remarked upon think tank appears to be playing a guiding role in Trump's foreign policy, so you can be sure this report was taken very seriously within the current National Security Council.

But the Pentagon is not the force feeling emboldened by The Orange One. The private military sector also has an ambitious vision as well (hat tip to Andrew):

"Here’s a crazy idea floating around Washington these days, outlandish even by today’s outlandish standards: The United States should hire a mercenary army to 'fix' Afghanistan, a country where we’ve been at war since 2001, spending billions along the way. The big idea here is that they could extricate U.S. soldiers from this quagmire, and somehow solve it. 

"Not surprisingly, the private-military industry is behind this proposal. Erik D. Prince, a founder of the private military company Blackwater Worldwide, and Stephen A. Feinberg, a billionaire financier who owns the giant military contractor DynCorp International, each see a role for themselves in this future. Their proposal was offered at the request of Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump’s chief strategist, and Jared Kushner, his senior adviser and son-in-law, according to people briefed on the conversations.

"It could get worse. In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, Prince laid out a plan whereby the fighting force would be led by an American viceroy who would report directly to Trump. Modeled after General Douglas MacArthur, who ruled Japan after World War II, the viceroy would consolidate all American power in a single person. His mission: Do whatever it takes to pacify Afghanistan. No more backseat driving of the war from pesky bureaucrats in Washington, or restrictive rules of engagement imposed on soldiers. An American viceroy with a privatized fighting force would make trains run on time in Afghanistan—if they had trains."

Blackwater co-founder Erik Prince

Well, it would seem that even Bannon and Kushner can agree upon an "East India Company solution" for Afghanistan. And it is quite possible Trump himself would like to found an out for this quagmire. Reportedly the Orange One and the Pentagon are at a stalemate over Afghanistan, with Mattis growing increasingly frustrated with Trump's inability to announce a strategy on the now 16-year-long war while Trump views of all the options the Pentagon has presented him with as bad ones.

In other words, its becoming a real headache for both sides and pawning Afghanistan off to an American viceroy and private mercenary armies may ultimately be seen as the simplest solution. Trump would have the viceroy providing him some degree of protection for the inevitable disaster this policy will bring about while the Pentagon will be able to free up several thousand troops for more pressing matters, such as an attack on North Korea.

And hey, there's already a movie outlining this option, so neither side has to be especially creative.

While this may nominally seem like a blow to the Pentagon, the ongoing White House game of thrones tells a different story.

Over the past few weeks the blood has been flowing. It began with the appointment of Anthony "Mooch"Scaramucci to the post of White House Communications Director. On the same day Mooch took office, the much maligned Sean Spicer resigned as White House Press Secretary. Then, a week later, Mooch drove out White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus after accusing him of leaks to a reporter for The New Yorker.

Scaramucci also took some shots at infamous White House Chief Strategist Steven Bannon, indicating he was the next potential target. But when the ax fell next, it fell on Mooch himself. On the last day of July Mooch was removed from his post, after only ten days on the job, by General John Kelly, the new incoming White House Chief of Staff. Reportedly the order came from the Orange One himself, but how much control he actually has of the White House at this point is debatable, as we shall see.

Sean Spicer (top) and Reince Priebus (bottom)

First though, let us consider the backgrounds of those ousted. Priebus is largely a creature of the RNC and was widely seen as Trump's line to the party bureaucracy and the Congress. However, the relationship between Trump and his backers and the RNC has always been tenuous at best and in recent months appears to be totally breaking down. Priebus' removal was likely welcomed by all factions at play in the Trump White House.

Spicer, while much despised by the MSM, may have caused more waves. Spicer has been been a Navy reserve officer since 1999 and presently holds the rank of Commander. As recently as 2016, he was assigned  to the Joint Chiefs of Staff's naval reserve contingent in Washington, months before Trump took office. Given the staggering amount of military officers in key posts in the Trump administration, this probably didn't go over well.

But not only did the military see one of its own removed, it also had to contend with a former Goldman Sachs banker and Council on Foreign Relations members having direct access to Trump. Despite the excitement Mooch caused among Trump backers, Scaramucci was very much a part of the internationalist network that is behind the opposition to Trump.

Mooch

Trump's presidency is largely a result of the Pentagon and especially the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and the ousting of Mooch reeks of the Pentagon closing ranks around their boy. But even more curious, however, are reports that have come out in the wake on Scaramucci's firing indicating the full extent to which the military is dominating Trump's presidency. Consider the following from the AP:

"Mattis and Kelly also agreed in the earliest weeks of Trump's presidency that one of them should remain in the United States at all times to keep tabs on the orders rapidly emerging from the White House, according to a person familiar with the discussions. The official insisted on anonymity in order to discuss the administration's internal dynamics."

"Mad Dog" Mattis (top) and Kelly (bottom)

Effectively then either General Mattis or General Kelly is remaining in the United States at all times to monitor (and potentially to censor) the orders coming out of he White House. And this is unfolding all the while General H.R. McMaster, the National Security Advisor, is working diligently to drum Trump backers out of the National Security Council.

The message seems to be clear: conservative Trump backers (much as the progressive Obama backers before them) will have some degree of influence over domestic policy but the Pentagon (unlike in virtually all prior administrations) is firmly in command of foreign policy. As it stands, the military clearly dominates the NSC and now it controls the day-to-day operations of the White House as well. And with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson reportedly on the verge of resigning, its quite possible all major foreign policy posts in the Trump administration will be held by someone whose spent a good chunk of their life wearing as US military uniform by the end of the year.

Tillerson's successor?

Trump, the JSOC and the Legacy of ARTICHOKE

"On the terminal point

Of the cul-de-sac

Patients are dying

The horses are dazed

From the glare of the stars

The starry wisdom

Owned by the Baron

And he's got the cure

A drug by the name of World Without End"

--"The Siege and Investiture of Baron Von Frankenstein's Castle at Weisseria," Blue Oyster Cult

The Zeitgeist

2016 will no doubt be remembered for many, many things, few of them especially positive. But there is no doubt in my mind that two TV series that aired over the course of this strange year will be seen as prophetic in the years to come. One was a rival of one of the most revered and influential shows of the past quarter century while the other was an upstart series that premiered on Netflix, which will no doubt be at the forefront of cutting edge entertainment as the old Hollywood system continues to wither on the vine.

I am of course referring to The X-Files event series and Stranger Things. The former was as good of an assessment of the United States in 2016 as one could hope to find. It depicted a nation tearing apart at the seams, awash in disinformation (the Tad O'Malley Show chillingly depicted the rise of the far right "alternative media"), hopelessly divided along class (the gentrification of "Home Again") and ethnic/religious lines ("Babylon"), with the specter of an out-of-control national security apparatus gearing up for the final putsch ("My Struggle I & II") looming over the whole thing.

The X-Files thrived during the Clinton years and returned to the air just as the Clinton train was about to go permanently off the rails. Longtime Clinton insider John Podesta raised the specter of the UFO question during the campaign trail and even flirted with Tom DeLonge's revived Disclosure project like it was 1999. This marked the first serious discussions the political elite have had concerning the UFO question since the last Clinton presidency. But as the end of the year approaches, Podesta is increasingly linked to even more sinister interests, least of all "spirit cooking."

John Podesta

Mulder and Scully's return to the FBI for one more confrontation with the deep state eerily previewed the deep state's use of the FBI for an October Surprise that sunk Hillary's presidential bid (and a prior coup in the CIA that unfolded in 2012, as shall be noted below). Pizzagate and its hints of an elite pedophile network seems positively tame in comparison to the experiments carried out on children on behalf of the deep state as depicted in "Founder's Mutation."

Stranger Things would go a step further, effectively offering up a take on the CIA/Pentagon ARTICHOKE and MKOFTEN experiments that did not fall prey to the mind control red herring. Instead, it boldly embraced the little discussed psi and nonhuman intelligence components that underlined these experiments, as was addressed here. The use of Eleven to breach the "Upside Down World" eerily hinted at Andrija Puharich's contacts with The Nine, which were almost surely carried out under the auspices of ARTICHOKE (noted before here).

Andrija Puharich

Whether or not this was the intention of the series is highly debatable. On the whole, the show appears to have been based upon the standard MKULTRA fair in addition to ample doses of the highly, highly dubious Project Montauk lore. But whether intentionally or not, it went down some of the darkest avenues of the deep state where Pizzagate may only be the tip of the iceberg.

While Stranger Things was set in the 1980s and was largely based upon experiments that had already been concluded by the time Ronnie Raygun was elected president, it re-introduced the ARTICHOKE and OFTEN projects (as well as the much more well known but not nearly as significant MKULTRA experiments) to the national conscience at a time when they seem especially relevant.

The Players

"Capre diem!"

--"The Siege and Investiture of Baron Von Frankenstein's Castle at Weisseria," Blue Oyster Cult

Increasingly, the Trump administration is looking like a junta dominated by the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). As was noted before here, General Michael T. Flynn, Trump's handpicked choice for the powerful position of National Security Advisor, cut his teeth in the JSOC. He was the chief intelligence officer for General Stanley McChrystal during his tenure heading the JSOC and played a key role in the institution's use of drone warfare and "enhanced" interrogation methods. But Flynn is not the only former military man close to Trump with ties to the JSOC.

McChrystal himself was at one point being considered for Trump's VP slot (along with his "former" intelligence chief, Flynn). McChrystal reportedly declined not only the Veep spot, but any role Trump might offer him in his administration back in July. Still, McChrystal is reportedly being considered for a slot in Trump's cabinet, possibly the prestigious post of Secretary of State.

General Stanley McChrystal

Erik Prince, the notorious former Navy SEAL and founder of Blackwater, was making allegations in the days leading up to the election that the NYPD was poised to press charges against Anthony Weiner and that they had found evidence on his computer indicating that both Bill and Hillary Clinton had made repeated trips to the pleasure island of convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Just this week it was announced that Prince's sister, Betsy Prince DeVos, has been tapped to be Trump's Secretary of Education.

Betsy prince DeVos

Nor is Prince the only Blackwater man linked to Trump. Joseph E. Schmitz, a former inspector general for the Department of Defense who took up a post with Blackwater in 2005 after he left the DoD. At some point he also linked up with the Center for Security Policy (CSP), the post-Cold War successor to the infamous American Security Council (ASC, much more information on which can be found here; the CSP is not the only group with ties to the infamous ASC network to be linked to Trump either). Of late he was named as one of Trump's top foreign policy advisers.

Joseph Schmitz

Backwater would become deeply involved in covert ops for both the CIA and the JSOC during the Bush II years and may even have contributed to the divide between the two organizations.

"Although the CIA would take much of the credit and criticism for the US drone program in Pakistan, it was not the only player. JSOC had its own intelligence operations inside Pakistan and, at times, conducted its own drone strikes. At the center of both the JSOC and CIA targeted-killing programs were members of an elite division of Blackwater, who assisted in planning the assassinations of suspected Taliban and al Qaeda operatives, 'snatch and grabs' of high-value targets and other sensitive actions inside Pakistan. Some elite Blackwater SELECT personnel worked for the CIA at 'hidden bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the company's contractors assemble and load Hellfire missiles and 500-pound laser-guided bombs on remotely piloted Predator aircraft.

"Blackwater operatives also worked for JSOC on a parallel program that was run out of Bagram Air Base in neighboring Afghanistan. US military intelligence and company sources told me that some Blackwater personnel were given rolling security clearances above their approved level. Using Alternative Compartmentalized Control Measures (ACCMs), the Blackwater personnel were granted entry to a Special Access Program. 'With an ACCM, the security manager can grant access to you to be exposed to and operate within compartmentalized programs far above "secret" – even though you have no business doing so,' a US military intelligence source told me. It allowed Blackwater personnel who 'do not have the requisite security clearance or do not hold a security clearance whatsoever to participate in classified operations by virtue trust,' he added. 'Think of it as an ultra-exclusive level above top secret. That's exactly what it is: a circle of love.' As a result, Blackwater had access to 'all source' reports that were culled in part from JSOC units in the field. 'That's how a lot of things over the years have been conducted with contractors,' said the source. 'We have contractors that regularly see things that top policymakers don't unless they ask.'

"The military intelligence source said that the Blackwater-JSOC operation in Pakistan was referred to as 'Qatar cubed,' in reference to the US forward operating base in Qatar that served as the hub for the planning and implementation of the US invasion of Iraq. 'This is supposed to be the brave new world,' he told me. 'This is the Jamestown of the new millennium and it's meant to be a lily pad. You can jump off to Uzbekistan, you can jump back over the borders, you can jump sideways, you can jump Northwest. It's strategically located so that they can get their people wherever they have to be without having to wrangle with the military chain of command in Afghanistan, which is convoluted. They don't have to deal with that because they're operating under a classified mandate.'

"In addition to planning drone strikes and operations against suspected al Qaeda and Taliban forces in Pakistan for both JSOC and the CIA, the Blackwater teams also helped plan missions for JSOC inside Uzbekistan against the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. Blackwater did not actually carry out the operations, the military intelligence source told me, which were executed on the ground by JSOC forces. 'That piqued my curiosity and really worries me because I don't know if you notice but I was never told we are at war with Uzbekistan,' he said. 'So, did I miss something? Did Rumsfeld come back in the power?' When civilians are killed, 'People go, "Oh, it's the CIA doing crazy shit again unchecked." Well at least 50 percent of the time, that's JSOC [hitting] somebody they've identified through HUMINT or they've culled the intelligence themselves or it's been shared with them and they take that person out and that's how it works.'

"CIA operations were subject to congressional oversight, unlike the parallel JSOC ops. 'Targeted killings are not the most popular thing in town right now in the CIA knows that,' my source told me in 2009. 'Contractors and especially JSOC personnel working under classified mandate are not [overseen by Congress], so they just don't care. If there's one person they're going after and there's thirty-four [other] people in the building, thity-five people are going to die. That's the mentality.' He added, 'They're not accountable to anybody and they know that. It's an open secret, but what are you going to do, shut down JSOC?' "

(Dirty Wars, Jeremy Scahill, pgs. 251-252) 

Erik Prince

Another general with strong JSOC links that has backed Trump is the notorious William "Jerry" Boykin. Boykin has long been linked to the Christian right. Like Joseph E. Schmitz (whom he worked with in the Pentagon), Boykin is also involved in intelligence-connected "Orders of Knighthood" (Schmitz is a member of the infamous Knights of Malta, Boykin the Sovereign Order of Saint John, an organization likely with its origins in the Thule Society) as well as the Center for Security Policy (as are Frank Gaffney, Clare Lopez, James Woolsey and any number of Trump's other foreign policy backers). Presently Boykin is also the "Executive Vice-President" of the Family Research Council (FRC), an offshoot of James Dobson's Focus on the Family (which was its base of operations in Colorado Springs, just a few miles from NORAD). According to Jeremy Scahill in Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, early financial patrons of the FRC included the DeVos and Prince families, both of whom appear in already have an in in the Trump administration in the form of Betsy DeVos.

Boykin has longstanding ties to the Joint Special Operations Command, having been one of the first members of the Delta Force. He commanded the JSOC at one point and eventually became the commander US Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg from 1998 to 2000. From 2000 to 2003 he was the commander of the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center, also located at Fort Bragg. During the 1990s, he was also the Deputy Director of Special Activities for the CIA. The Special Activities Division (SAD) is the CIA's primary paramilitary arm.

Boykin would end his service as the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Intelligence under the notorious Stephen Cambone, a key architect of the Bush II "enhanced" interrogation methods. Boykin was apparently involved in these endeavors.

"Boykin was a career military officer, one of the first Delta force commandos who rose through the ranks to become head of the top-secret Joint Special Operations Command. He had served in the Central Intelligence Agency, and during the war on terror, had been in charge of Army Special Forces before joining Rumsfeld's close-knit leadership team, where he was placed in charge of hunting 'high-value targets.' Boykin was one of the key U.S. officials in establishing what critics allege was death-squad-type activity in Iraq. Asked in a Congressional inquiry about the similarities between the U.S. Phoenix program in Vietnam and special operations in the war on terror, Boykin said: 'I think we're running that kind of program. We're going after these people. Killing or capturing these people is a legitimate mission for the department. I think we're doing what the Phoenix program was designed to do, without all the secrecy.' ... When Boykin came under fire for his anti-Muslim comments, Rumsfeld and other Pentagon brass vigorously defended him. 'Boykin was not removed or transferred. At that moment, he was at the heart of secret operation to "Gitmoize"... the Abu Ghraib prison,' wrote former Clinton senior adviser Sidney Blumenthal. 'He had flown to Guantánamo, where he met Major General Geoffrey Miller, in charge of Camp X-Ray. Boykin ordered Miller to fly to Iraq and extend X-Ray methods to the prison system there, on Rumsfeld's orders.' "

(Blackwater, Jeremy Scahill, pgs. 376-377)

General William "Jerry" Boykin

As was noted before here, General Michael T. Flynn and General Stanley McChrystal were also deeply involved in the "enhanced" interrogations carried out at Abu Ghraib, conducted under a program at times known as "Copper Green." Nominally this program was under the direction of Boykin's then-boss, Stephen Cambone, but as indicated above, its real architect was Donald Rumsfeld (no doubt with ample input from Dick Cheney).

It is likely then that Boykin already has a working relationship with Flynn and McChrystal. Mercifully, however, he is such a lightening rod for controversy that he will almost surely not be offered a role in the Trump presidency. While the media does not seem especially concerned with Boykin's role in a state-sanctioned torture program, they were deeply offended by his anti-Muslim sentiments and references to the US military as a "Christian army."

Another general definitely being considered for a role in Trump's cabinet is General David Petraeus, the former commander of US Central Command and CIA director. Despite attacking Trump during the election, Petraeus has indicated that he would be interested in either the Secretary of State or the Secretary of Defense gigs if they were offered to him. Petraeus has longstanding ties to US Special Forces, but does not appear to have ever actually been a member of the JSOC. Still, he did much to strengthen its authority during the Obama administration, when he first served as Commander of US Central Command, and later as head of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. On Petraeus' watch, the JSOC gained a truly international scope.

"... Genera Petraeus signed a seven-page secret order authorizing small teams of US Special Operations Forces to conduct clandestine operations off the stated battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. It was marked 'limdis,' for limited distribution. Hard copies were given to about thirty people. Its original code name was 'Avocado.' The directive, known as a Joint Unconventional Warfare Task Force (JUWTF) Executive Order, served as a permission slip of sorts for US military Special Operations teams to conduct clandestine actions without the president's direct approval for each operation. 'Unlike covert actions undertaken by the CIA, such clandestine activity does not require the president's approval or regular reports to Congress,' reported Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times, who was allowed to read the executive order...

"In addition to authorizing direct actions by Special Operations Forces, the Petraeus order also focused on intelligence gathering, including by American troops, foreign businesspeople, academics and others, aimed at identifying insurgents or terrorists and their locations. The order, which Petraeus drafted in coordination with Admiral Eric Olson, head of the US Special Operations Command, laid out a plan for clandestine operations 'that cannot or will not be accomplished' by regular US military forces or intelligence agencies... 

"Colonel Lang said that at the time the order was issued, JSOC's forces in Afghanistan believed they had already killed or captured their way through the high-value targets in Afghanistan, at a minimum forcing them into other countries. 'That's why it becomes very tempting to start going after people in other countries. Because you've got these highly skilled operators going after targets that are not really worthy of their skills,' he told me. 'The temptation for the leadership – the three-star [general] and above level – is to look for places to employ their lads in greener fields.' Lang, who is a former Green Beret, described the men from JSOC would fight Petraeus's small wars as 'sort of like Murder, Incorporated,' adding, 'Their business is killing al Qaeda personnel. That's their business. They're not in the business of converting anybody to our goals or anything like that.' "

(Dirty Wars, Jeremy Scahill, pgs. 282-283)

General David Petraeus

Essentially Petraeus turned the JSOC into a truly international Murder, Inc that no longer needed congressional or even presidential approval for their missions. They simply struck when they deemed the irons to be hot and faced no real oversight for the trail of bodies they left in their wake. Their increased intelligence functions and ties to operations like Copper Green very much indicate that the JSOC is now in charge of an international Phoenix program, one of which faces far less scrutiny than its Vietnam-era counterpart. Petraeus apparently had a similar vision for the CIA when he was appointed to the directorship.

 "On September 6, 2011, General David Petraeus was sworn in as the director the CIA. A decade after 9/11, the agency had been transformed as a result of its behind-the-scenes turf war with JSOC. And for some veteran intelligence officials, Obama's selection of Petraeus was an ominous symbol. 'The CIA has become more militarize, and is working very closely with JSOC, to the extent that they're even using CIA cover, which would have been unimaginable ten years ago,' former CIA case officer Phil Giraldi told me. 'A considerable part of the CIA budget is now no longer spying. It supporting paramilitaries who work closely with JSOC to kill terrorists, and to run the drone program.' The CIA, he added, 'is a killing machine now.'

"A State Department liaison who worked extensively with JSOC described Petraeus's vision for running the CIA as transforming the Agency into 'a mini-Special Operations Command that purports to be an intelligence agency.' For all the praise Petraeus won for his counterinsurgency strategy and the 'surge' in Iraq, the liaison told me, Petraeus's most significant contribution was as a 'political tool,' and enabler of those within the national security apparatus who wanted to see a continuation and expansion of covert global small wars. Pointing to the 'mystique that surrounds JSOC' and Admiral William McRaven, the liaison said, 'Petraeus was trying to implement that kind of command climate at the CIA.'

"Colonel Patrick Lang told me that once Petraeus arrived at Langley, he 'wanted to drag them in the covert action direction and to be a major player.' "

(Dirty Wars, Jeremy Scahill, pg. 498)

In other words Petraeus wanted to remake the CIA in the image of the JSOC and, in some areas, make the Agency subservient to the Joint Special Operations Command. In some accounts, this did not sit well with the hierarchy of the CIA, which played a role in Petraeus's resignation as DCIA just a little over a year after he had been sworn in. Superficially, the resignation was over an extramarital affair he was having his biographer and his leaking of classified material (which ironically would be used to bring down Hillary as well) but in reality it seems to have been related to the changes he wanted to make to CIA:

"Perhaps the most startling accusation in the book is that Petraeus' affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell was leaked by the members of his personal protection detail. 

"The authors say that senior intelligence officers working on the 7th floor of Central Intelligence headquarters in Langley, Virginia, used their political clout to ensure that the FBI investigated the former Army general's personal life.

"They then told Petraeus that they would publicly humiliate him if he didn't admit the affair and resign.

"'It was well known to Petraeus’s Personal Security Detachment (bodyguards) that he and Broadwell were having an affair. He wasn’t the only high-ranking Agency head or general engaged in extramarital relations, but when the 7th floor wanted Petraeus out, they cashed in their chips,' Webb and Murphy write. 

"The book continues: 'The reality of the situation is that high-ranking CIA officers had already discovered the affair by consulting with Petraeus’s PSD and then found a way to initiate an FBI investigation in order to create a string of evidence and an investigative trail that led to the information they already had—in other words, an official investigation that could be used to force Petraeus to resign.'

"Webb and Murphy said the CIA bureaucracy wanted Petraeus out of the CIA. Senior officials were furious over the way he had been running the agency since he was appointed in September 2011. 

"He was turning the agency's focus from intelligence gathering and analysis to paramilitary operations, including drone strikes.

"Additionally, he ran the CIA like a four-star general, instead of treating it like a political institution, the authors say. His management style made countless powerful enemies within the CIA."

Paula Broadwell, Petraeus's mistress

Not only had Petraeus alienated much of the CIA hierarchy, he was reportedly an outsider in the Obama administration. This is hardly surprising as he could have been a major political rival for Obama. Reportedly he was urged by disgraced former Fox News chairman Roger Ailes (who would play a key role in running Trump's campaign before parting ways with the Donald in the run up to the election) to run for president in 2012 against Obama. He was also reportedly considered as eventual 2012 nominee Mitt Romney's running mate as well.

Hence, there may be something to the rumors that his ousting from the CIA was also meant to destroy his political career. And it all revolved around an FBI investigation that he had leaked classified files to his mistress. And now Obama is on the way out and his chosen successor and her political dynasty have been laid low by a similar scandal while Petraeus is poised to return to the centers of power. Dare I say pay back is a bitch?

Legacy

"Imagine he was me

And I was called Frankenstein"

--"The Siege and Investiture of Baron Von Frankenstein's Castle at Weisseria," Blue Oyster Cult

But back to the matter at hand. It seems evident that the JSOC has emerged as a major player in the deep state and that it is poised to wield enormous power in the Trump regime. This is an especially ominous development when one considers just how much of JSOC's agenda is a result of the legacy of the infamous Project ARTICHOKE and related programs.

As was noted before here, ARTICHOKE had two particular objectives that are especially relevant to the JSOC: the pursuit of "special" interrogation methods and the creation of what would now be referred to as "supersoldiers."

The former are very much the basis for the "enhanced" interrogation methods rolled out by the JSOC under banner of the "Copper Green" program (noted before here) and like operations. In many ways Copper Green, which included the bizarre methods employed at Abu Ghraib, was a modern revival of aspects of ARTICHOKE and similar programs. Certainly it represents the potential for the most ambitious wave of human experimentation since the infamous Vietnam-era Phoenix program, which modern JSOC operations have frequently been compared too. The Phoenix program in turn was very much based upon the methods "pioneered" by ARTICHOKE and MKULTRA.

"The program expanded in 1967 when the CIA, working with other agencies, established a centralized pacification bureaucracy, Civil Operations and Rural Development Support. Under this umbrella, the CIA drew all the scattered counterinsurgency operations --OPS police training, military intelligence, the CIO, and its own interrogation units – into CORDS and then used this labyrinthine bureaucracy as cover for a murderous covert operation called the Phoenix program. With limitless funding and unrestrained powers, Phoenix represented an application of the most advanced interrogation techniques to the task of destroying the Vietcong's revolutionary underground. From its overall strategy to its specific interrogation techniques, Phoenix was the culmination of the CIA's mind control project."

(A Question of Torture, Alfred McCoy, pgs. 63-64)

As for the supersoldiers, this requires some clarification. In season eight, the last great season of the original series, The X-Files strikingly introduced the concept of the supersoldier. One of this researcher's major disappointments with the revival series was that the show did not pick back up the supersoldier plot line, but given that it was initially rolled out during the show's down years and is not especially revered by many fans, this is hardly surprising. Besides, The X-Files depiction of supersoldiers does not appear to be especially accurate. Eleven from Stranger Things appears to be much closer to the actual conception of the super soldier, which put more emphasis on mental than physical prowess.

Knowle Roohrer (Adam Baldwin), The X-Files' most notorious supersoldier (top) and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) from Stranger Things (bottom)

The search for the supersoldier was of great interest to US Special Forces by the 1980s and such concepts frequently rubbed shoulders with the objectives of Stargate, Grill Flame and the other remote viewing programs. Allegedly one of the US Special Forces supersoldier operations was referred to as Project Jedi and at times featured individuals also involved in the remote viewing experiments. One such individual was Sgt. Glenn Wheaton, who spoke with journalist Jon Ronson of Project Jedi at length in the early 00s.

" 'A supersoldier,' said Glenn. 'A Jedi Warrior. He would know where all the lights are. He would know where all the power outlets are. Most people are poor observers. They haven't got a clue about what's really happening around them.

" 'What's a Jedi Warrior?' I asked 

" 'You're looking at one,' said Glenn. 

"In the mid-1980s, he told me, Special Forces undertook a secret initiative, codenamed Project Jedi, to create supersoldiers – soldiers with superpowers. One such power was the ability to walk into a room and instantly be aware of every detail; that was level one. 

" 'What was the level above that?' I asked 

" 'Level two,' he said. 'Intuition. Is there some way we can develop you so you make correct decisions? Somebody runs up to you and says, "There's a fork in the road. Do we turn left or do we turn right?" And you go' – Glenn snapped his fingers – ' "We go right!" ' "

(The Men Who Stare at Goats, Jon Ronson, pgs. 14-15)

Project Jedi was reportedly run out of Fort Bragg, the eventual headquarters of the JSOC. This may not have been JSOC's only link to Jedi and other such fringe military programs either. There has of course been much speculation that the closely-related remote viewing program was revived in some form or another for the Global War on Terror. And Ronson would allege in The Men Who Stare at Goats that some of the techniques employed at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere were based as much of methods described in the legendary First Earth Battalion Field Manual, which also envisioned supersoldiers, as ARTICHOKE and MKULTRA. The concepts of Colonel Jim Channon, author of the First Earth Battalion manual, and Colonel John Alexander, a major proponent of the field manual, were specifically singled out by Ronson as still influencing military thinking in the Global War on Terror.

Even more curious was a particular think tank Ronson heard rumblings that General Peter Schoomaker was considering establishing.

"In early 2004 I heard a rumor that Jim Channon had begun privately meeting with General Pete Shoemaker, the new Chief of Staff of the United States Army. 

"President Bush had appointed General Shoemaker to the post on August 4, 2003. His arrival message, to use the military vernacular for an acceptance speech, included the following sentences:

War is both a physical reality and a state of mind. War is ambiguous, uncertain and unfair. When we are at war, we must think and act differently. We must anticipate the ultimate reality check – combat. We must win both the war and the peace. We must be prepared to question everything. Our soldiers are warriors of character... Our azimuth to the future is good. 

"Azimuth? I looked it up. It is 'the direction of a celestial object.' News of General Schoomaker's meetings with Jim Channon did not come as a great surprise to me. (In addition to the linguistic clues, in fact, the timeline of General Schoomaker's career fit. He had been a commander of Special Forces at Fort Bragg between February 1978 and August 1981, and also in the latter half of 1983, during the periods when the Jedi Warriors and the goat starers were at their most active within his corner of the base. I can't believe he hadn't known about, or indeed sanctioned, their endeavors.)

"The rumor was that General Schoomaker was considering bringing Jim back from retirement to create, or contribute to, a new and secret think tank, designed to encourage the Army to take their minds further and further outside the mainstream... 

"Jim e-mailed to say that the General Schoomaker think-tank rumors were true. 'The idea had come about,' he explained, 'because Rumsfeld has now openly asked for creative input on the war on terrorism...mmmm.'...

"But Jim did offer some information about his input into George W. Bush's foreign policy: 

The Army has requested my services to teach the most highly selected Majors. The First Earth Battalion is the teaching exemplary choice. I have done that in the presence of General Pete Schoomaker... I am in contact with players who are or have recently been in Afghanistan and Iraq. I have sent in exit strategy plans based on Earth Battalion ideals. 

I talk weekly with a member of a stress control battalion in Iraq who carries the manual and uses it to inform his teammates of their potential service contribution. Remember, the battalion mythology operates like folklore. It is passed on in stories, not assignments or real world artifacts. The results are ubiquitous, infectious, but not archived well by definition. 

(The Men Who Stare at Goats, Jon Ronson, pgs. 159-162) 

Beyond these rumors, General Peter Schoomaker is an interesting figure. He had previously retired from the Army in 2000, but was called back into service in 2003 to become the Army's Chief of Staff, This is the most senior uniformed military officer in the US Army and also a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It is rather uncommon for a previously retired officer to be called back into service to serve as the Army's Chief of Staff. What's more, Schoomaker was the first officer from a purely special operations background to hold the Army Chief of Staff post, and only the second such individual from such a background to sit of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Schoomaker's Special Forces background may explain why he was brought out of retirement to effectively head the Army just as the Iraq war was beginning to unfold.

Unsurprisingly, Schoomaker had headed the Joint Special Operations Command from 1994 till 1996 and from there took over the Special Operations Command (which the JSOC is a part of) from 1997 till 2000, when he initially retired. Then he was brought back into the Army just as the JSOC was becoming the principal agency used to conduct the Global War on Terror. One suspects that Schoomaker's return was driven by a desire to have someone with a close working relationship with the JSOC in charge of the Army at a time when the JSOC was acquiring unprecedented power.

General Peter Schoomaker

And what of Ronson's allegations that Schoomaker was poised to launch a new think tank to revive the work of the First Earth Battalion and Project Jedi? In the context of the neo-ARTICHOKE program being carried out under the auspices of Copper Green and related programs, this seems highly probable. And while I have no evidence that the JSOC itself was directly involved in Schoomaker's schemes, given that the man spent most of his career in and around the JSOC, it seems highly probable that his former colleagues were aware of these objectives. And indeed, they may even have had a keen interest in such things, as Special Forces personnel based out of Fort Bragg (home of the JSOC) appear to have been major backers of the supersoldiers scheme for decades.

This raises the specter of both a new ARTICHOKE project and a new Project Jedi being initiated by the JSOC to assist with the Global War on Terror. And now it appears that the JSOC crowd is firmly in control of the Trump White House. The long term consequences of these developments could make the initial wave of CIA/Pentagon human experimentation up through the Vietnam era look tame by comparison. Dark and strange days are lay ahead dear reader. While it is impossible to say where all of this is going, The X-Files revival and Stranger Things give us some disturbing clues.