Secret Societies, Narcoterrorism, International Fascism, and the World Anti-Communist League Part V

Yes folks, it is now time to revisit this classic series. I initially wrapped it up all the way back in 2013, which seems like a lifetime ago. As the title implies, the series chronicles the history of the dread World Anti-Communist League (WACL). During the height of the Cold War, WACL was very much the visible personification of the Fascist International. It had it's origins in the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations (ABN) and the Asian People's Anti-Communist League (APACL). These outfits had their roots in Nazi Germany and the narco-state of Taiwan, respectively. This lineage was discussed in the first installment of this series.

Drug trafficking has always been a major component of WACL. Many of the early works on it, such as the Andersons' Inside the League, neglected this aspect. The great Peter Dale Scott touched on it in various works, but it had never been subjected to an extensive examination, as best I could tell. Hence, much of parts two and three are pre-occupied with outing WACL's links to the international drug trade. 

Part three also delves extensively into the mysterious Mexican secret society known as Los Tecos. In many ways, it was Mexico's answer to Propaganda Due (P2), effectively controlling the Mexican security services on behalf of the United States. As far as I'm aware, this is the longest English-language account of Los Tecos since the publication of Inside the League in 1986. Frankly, I wish I didn't have that distinction. Los Tecos is an important and highly neglected subject, one that really deserves a researcher who can read Spanish. 

Carlos Cuesta Gallardo, a WWII-era Nazi collaborator and longtime Tecos head

For what was the last installment, I delved into the hardest topic involving WACL: the genocide it helped perpetuate across Latin America and other parts of the developing world during the final decades of the Cold War. By the 1980s, virtually every nation blessed with a WACL chapter had developed it's own "freedom fighters," anti-Communist militias. The phrase "dirty war" was coined to described the methods embraced by these WACL-backed regimes. 

While the operations of WACL proper wound down decades ago, it's legacy is still with us. Consider WACL's chairman during its absolute 1980s pinnacle, Major General John Singlaub. Singlaub was a special forces legend who deployed with the Jedburg teams during WWII, and later helped manage the Phoenix Program during Vietnam. Singlaub's contributions to special operations forces are succh that the US Army Special Operations Command began handing an award named after Singlaub in 2013. Yeah, the same year I finished writing this series chronicling the genocidal legacy of WACL, one of the principal '80s architects got his own award named after him from the US Army. So it goes. 

Singlaub

Nor is the US Army the only outfit naming awards after Singlaub these days. Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum followed suite in 2018 when it announced the inaugural Singlaub Award. The first recipient? Why, General Michael T. Flynn, the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and Trump's inaugural National Security Adviser. He's also been a leading figure behind the QAnon LARP. Singlaub had to be pleased. He would latter beg Attorney General William Barr to address the "miscarriage of justice" against Flynn during early 2020. 

Flynn

In a way, it was inevitable. Singlaub is set to turn 100 this July, further confirming that the truly evil never die young. But sooner or later (and probably sooner), Singlaub must shed his mortal coil. When that happens, it will truly be the end of an era. Singlaub is the last of the OSS "China Cowboys," a curious clique that included other storied figures such Ray S. Cline, Lucien Conein, Mitchell WerBell III, and E. Howard Hunt (noted here). Many of the old China cowboys would play instrumental roles in WACL, as well as the international drug trade and various death squads the world over. They turn up in the Phoenix Program and later Iran-Contra. Their modus operandi largely revolved around using narco-financed anti-Communist militias to terrorize the peoples of developing nations. 

It was a bloody business to be sure, but one that was necessary to the objectives of the American Empire. Unfortunately for men like Singlaub, the generation of CIA officers that came of age after the Cold War just weren't up to snuff. Relics like Singlaub were necessary to continue filling the gap. That is, until the rise of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). Men like Flynn, his longtime boss General Stanley McChrystal, and General William Boykin, had not only the will to revive the Phoenix Program, but to implement it on a truly international scale for the Global War on Terror. This topic was discussed at length in my debut work, Strange Tales of the Parapolitical: Postwar Nazis, Mercenaries, and Other Secret History. 

McChrystal (top) and Boykin (bottom)

Flynn and company seem well on their way to reviving the private networks so favored by Singlaub and earlier generations as well. But instead of using a litany of anti-Communist networks, these young guns prefer to work through a host of interlocking private military and intelligence companies. In this sense, the SCL Group and the host of companies surrounding it (including Cambridge Analytica) provide us with a vision of how a twenty-first century version of WACL operates. This sleek, corporate version, centered around the boardrooms of London and NYC, is a far cry from the aging Nazis and their charges deep in the jungles of South America. But it is no less lethal. 

***

Of course, I didn't opt for a new WACL post just to ruminate on the passing of the baton from Singlaub to Flynn. If you've been following my podcast, The Farm, then you probably have some inclination as to what this post is about. Beginning last summer, I embarked upon what was always going to be an ambitious project: a full-blown podcast miniseries chronicling the history of WACL. 

It seemed like a great idea for a variety of reasons: thanks to Kyle Burke's Revolutionaries for the Right and the Biden/Ukraine flap, interest in WACL is arguably as high as it's been since the early 1990s. And now, almost 30 years removed from the end of the Cold War, and with most of the leading figures having shed their mortal coils, lips are becoming looser and documents more plentiful. What it amounts to is that there is a far clearer picture of WACL available now in the historic records than in any previous era. And with rising tensions between the American Empire and China, and the corresponding attention the US will lavish on it's old WACL partners in Asia, this state of affairs may not last for long. Thus, it's crucial to document this important history while it's still possible. 

The miniseries was conceived of as running roughly 4-5 episodes, and clocking in around 10 hours. As with all projects I embark upon, this proved to be insanely optimistic. The final product will be eight full length episodes and two appendixes (thus far). And it probably goes without saying, but it consists of well over 20 hours of material, a good chunk of it wholly original research that has never been made available to the public before. 

This was due to the incredible group of researchers who took this journey with me: my research partner Keith Allen Dennis, We've Read the Documents' John Brisson, Unification Church defector "Don Diligent," and Ukrainian specialist Moss Robeson. Combined, these guys brought a wealth of material to the table, which enabled us to fill in some of the crucial historical gaps. But of course, I still did a lot of the heavy lifting for Los Tecos episode, though Keith did his part to set the table. 

One of the striking things about this endeavor, as opposed to the earlier WACL series I wrote for this blog, is how much better of a researcher I've become. This is largely due to Mr. Dennis. For the original WACL series, I was relying on the account of the Tecos presented in Inside the League, which in turn was largely based upon a report by Stefan Possony for the US chapter of WACL. This time around, I had a copy of Possony's actual report, along with everything he had on the Tecos from his papers at Hoover. But there'll be plenty of time for self-reflection in a moment. For now, the WACL series:

Part One

Here I'm joined by Moss Robeson to discuss the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (Bandera) (OUN-B), a WWII-era fascist organization. For decades, it was the driving force behind the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations (ABN). Several of the other Quisling outfits that comprised the ABN are also discussed, as well as it's links to Nazi Germany, the KGB and a host of other intrigues. 

Part Two

Here Moss returns, along with Keith Allen Dennis. Much of the discussion here is centered around the old (and new) China Lobby. We address the brutal history of the former narco-state of Taiwan; it's epic connection to the international drug trade; the Cooke-Pawley Expedition; the OSS "China Cowboys"; and the Fabulous MacArthur Boys. We also touch on the ABN again and the Captive Nations.

Part Three

You can't discuss the World Anti-Communist League without discussing the Unification Church. So, this is our epic Moonies episode. Naturally, our resident ex-Moonie Don Diligent was with us for this one, along with John Brisson, Keith and myself. This is one of the most complete accounts of the early history of the Unification Church one is likely to find. With this episode and the prior, we fleshed out the early history of the Asian People's Anti-Communist League (APACL). 

Part Four

Having fleshed out the two principal bodies behind WACL (the ABN and APACL) during the prior three episodes, we now turn our attention to WACL's founding. We begin with the infamous and semi-legendary 1958 Mexico City meeting, which marked the first attempt to launch WACL. It failed and the enterprise would not get off the ground until 1966. There were multiple attempts to sabotage WACL, with the Kennedy administration being a major thorn in the proverbial side. Keith takes center stage in this one as he lays out this pivotal moment in WACL's history. Myself, Moss, and Don are also present for this one. 

Part Five

This is my personal favorite, though I'm biased. It's just myself and Keith for this one. While nominally centered around Los Tecos, we delve deeply into the occulted history of Mexico. We consider the struggle between Freemasonry, the Vatican, and various populist movements for control of Mexico during the early twentieth century and its aftermath: the brutal dirty war that destabilized Mexico for nearly two decades. Los Tecos was born in the midst of the former struggle and was at the heart of the latter. 

Part Six

With this installment, Keith, Don, and myself close out the 1970s. This was a "colorful" decade for WACL, climaxing in Bolivia's "Cocaine Coup" of 1980. Here we really dig into the Nazi legacy in South America, Operation Condor, and the dirty wars in Chile and Argentina. 

Part Seven

Finally, we arrive at the 1980s, the absolute pinnacle of WACL. Parts seven and eight are effectively a two-parter with the entire cast on hand: Keith, Moss, Don, John, and myself are all present and accounted for. In this one, we consider the rise of the "New Right" and Reaganism in the 1980s as well William F. Buckley's not inconsiderate contributions to either. We also catch up on the Captive Nations, OUN-B, and, inevitably, Iran-Contra.

Part Eight

For the final installment we delve into the "Golden Lily" one final time, the Christic Institute, their "secret tram" allegations, and one of the most bizarre lawsuits of the latter stages of the Cold War. Brisson also dives into one of his favorite subjects, the Council for National Policy (CNP) and their links to WACL. Finally, I open up the floor for Moss, Don, John, and Keith to provide their reflections on WACL and this series. 

There are also (thus far) two Appendixes to the series, both them dealing with the OUN-B: 

Appendix I

This one is with Moss Robeson and myself. Here we discuss the continuation of the OUN-B as a kind of quasi-secret society in modern times. We also delve into how this factors into the Biden-Ukraine connections.

Appendix II

A follow up to the prior podcast, this time with John Brisson joining Moss and I. Here, we delve even deeper into the Biden-Ukraine connections. 

***

And now it's time for something I don't normally do: Reflect on this blog. But in this case, it seems so fitting as both the series and subject of it have meant so much to me. So, here are a few thoughts:

WACL is by far the hardest subject I've written about. This may surprise those of you who are long time readers. Over the course of my ten plus years blogging, I've covered a lot of dark subjects: Esoteric Nazism, child sex rings, and state-sanctioned human experimentation are re-occurring themes here. Outfits like the American Security Council (ASC) and Le Cercle have similar legacies of death squads, drugs/arms trafficking, and pedophilia. And of course, my second book traced the origins of Epstein's ring. So yeah, after doing this for over a decade, I am well familiar with the terrible things human beings are capable of and then some. 

But that doesn't make dealing with WACL any easier. It was all the things groups like the ASC and Le Cercle were, but on steroids. This was likely out of necessity. The core of the ASC and Le Cercle oversaw the strategy of tension in North America and Western Europe respectively, where a little black terror went a long way. 

Things were different in the developing world. There, legions of "former" Nazis and their Quislings, along with US and UK intelligence veterans, crafted their own private fiefdoms away from the prying eyes of human rights advocates. The gloves were firmly off and places like Colonia Dignidad embraced this freedom with "vigor." The Colony had a mass grave for it's victims, and it is not alone. WACL was the vehicle for a host unreconstructed Nazis and their sympathizers to live out their fantasies of making 120 Days of Sodom a reality in the developing world. And this was done largely with the tactical and financial support of the American Empire. 

To describe this as a national scandal is an understatement. It is completely and utterly sickening and morally reprehensible. It is a stain on the soul of this nation and a major factor that has led us to the administrations of Trump and Biden. 

And it is a stain upon my soul as well. Upon completing this series in October 2013, I was done with WACL. I never wanted to revisit it again. But WACL was not done with me. I would write about it again with my first book, and revisit it yet again with the current series up for discussion. 

In the intern, something truly bittersweet happened: WACL helped establish VISUP as a serious parapolitical blog in a big way. To date, the final installment in the original WACL series is my most widely viewed post, with 23.5k views over nearly eight years. It truly marked a turning point when I found my "voice" as a researcher. 

But beyond that, it had a totally unforeseen consequence: bringing many of the people who have subsequently become my closest friends into my life. Keith Allen Dennis first contacted me in 2016, informing me that a thesis paper he was working on was inspired by my WACL series. Much of the documentation we have for the podcast series came from Keith's time at Hoover researching that thesis. It was the first of what has subsequently become many communications. First, a few emails a year, now we're in almost daily contact with one another. 

Don came into my life some two years later, also partly because of the WACL series. We've also developed a friendship. I collected Brisson in 2019 and Moss in 2020, both due in part to the WACL series as well. And their have been others along the way, most notably "Scully" and "Annie Wilkes," who became two of my dearest friends. 

Suffice to say, this was the last thing I ever expected to come from this series when I started it all those years ago. And with that, I shall sign off, because frankly there are not words to describe what these people mean to me and how much better my life is because of them. Thank you all so much.

The Synarchist Mysteries of the OTS

I was privileged to have the great Christopher Knowles of the Secret Sun back on The Farm this week. This also happened to be the second installment in my ongoing examination of secret societies that I'm calling the Anti-Mystery Babylon. The first installment was launched last week with Jasun Horsely of Auticulture. But whereas the discussion with Jasun was a more general one on secret societies, Knowles and I had a very specific target in mind with this podcast: the infamous Order of the Solar Temple (OTS). The OTS was one of the big four of millennium cults from the 1990s, along with Heaven's Gate, Aum Shinrikyo, and the Branch Davidians.

We used the OTS as a launching point for an epic discussion concerning the history of chivalric orders and legions upon legions of secret societies. This chat is highly recommended:

Here, I would like to provide some supplementals and documentation to our discussion. In order to fully grok what was going on with the Order of the Solar Temple, we need first consider the curious background of one of its leading figures, the Belgian Luc Jouret. I've already dealt a bit with Jouret and the OTS before here, but a few crucial points bear repeating:

First and foremost, Jouret is not what he seems. He is typically depicted as having a longstanding interest in Communism. Reportedly, he had had dealings with something called the "Walloon Communist Youth" during his late teens and early 20s in Belgian. Later, during his time in the Belgian Army, he declared that he would help "communism to clean out the army."

However, Jouret was not a rank and file military man, but a paratrooper who participated in the 1978 Battle of Kolwezi. Paratroopers are typically elite forces in general, at it would seem that Belgian paratroopers active at Kolwezi were a part of what then known as Para-Commando Brigade, which dealt in special operations. Jouret was thus most likely a special operator. Would Belgian authorities have allowed a man with known Communist sympathies since being a teenager into such an elite unit, one involved in a host of classified operations, during the height of the Cold War? 

Jouret

This does not seem especially likely. A more probable scenario is that Jouret was allowed into Belgium's special operations forces due to work he had carried out earlier in the decade. Specifically, I'm referring to his alleged role in founding the Parti Communautaire Européen (PCE), a pan-European Nationalist party sporting an ideology similar to "National Bolshevism."

Throughout the Cold War, Belgium featured an especially strong Communist party. During the 1960s, there was a real fear that the Communist Party of Belgium (PCB) may prevail at the elections. Thus, the arrival of the PCE was quite fortuitous, and there was been much speculation that it was used to split the Communist vote and preserve the status quo.

Thiriart: International Man of Msystery

The man behind the PCE was quite a character, to put it mildly. Jean-Franois Thiriart was a left-leaning fascist activist who worked with the collaborationist Amis du Grand Reich Allemand (AGRA: Friends of the Great German Empire) during the war. He was briefly imprisoned after the war, and this likely curtailed his political activities for years. Thiriart did not become active again until the early 1960s, in the midst of the death throes of European colonialism. It began with the Congo Crisis. Many Belgians, faced with the loss of their most prized colony, rallied to a hastily conceived organization known as Committee for Action and Defense of Belgians in Africa (CADBA).

Thiriart and several of his supporters found CADBA to be too tame and tentative for their liking, and set out to stealthy take it over. After the coup was completed, CADBA transformed into the far more radical Mouvement d'Action Civique (MAC: Civic Action Movement). It established its own youth wing, MAC-Jeunes (MAC Youth), complete with its own uniforms and armbands; and paramilitary wing, which recruited heavily from military veterans. Paratroopers were especially popular, naturally, and the MAC recruited heavily from the Amicale des Parachutistes (Paratrooper Association) and the Club National de Parachutisme (National Parachutist Club). With such recruits, it wasn't long before the MAC established paramilitary training camps and weapons caches. They also staged vigorous political demonstrations, one against JFK in Vienna.

Thiriart

Unlike the CADBA, which was principally concerned with the Belgian struggle in the Congo, the MAC sought to support the colonial struggle across Europe. To this end, they forged close ties with the Organisation armee secrete (OAS: Secret Army Organization).The OAS was a far right, paramilitary network of French military men whom had rebelled against de Gaule in the aftermath of his decision to withdraw from Algeria in 1961. This plunged France into a brutal, covert civil war that saw the OAS pitted against Gaulist forces. This was addressed a bit before here.

The MAC became the OAS's principal agent in Belgium and a key cog in their support network. Jeffrey Bale reports that it was during this time that Thiriart also established ties with infamous Nazi commando Otto Skorzeny, a crucial figure in the postwar Nazi underground (noted before here and here). However, Kevin Coogan notes in Dreamer of the Day that Thiriart boasted of helping Skorzeny "track down British and Jewish terrorists" in occupied France during an interview Coogan conducted with him in 1986. In The Skorzeny Papers, Ralph Ganis also alleges that Thiriart trained with Skorzeny's elite SS forces during the war. Ganis also claims that Thiriart would later work with Skorzeny's postwar mercenaries and was the principal point of contact between the SS commando and interests representing the breakaway Katanga state, a crucial player in the Congo crisis.

Regardless, Thiriart was well connected among far right paramilitary forces by the early 1960s, if not much sooner. During this time Thiriart also forged ties with fellow Belgian Pierre Joly, who had previously been involved with the pan-European, anti-communist Paix et la Liberte network. As was noted before here, there is much evidence Paix was linked to the CIA as well.

a Paix et al Liberte poster

By the mid-1960s, Thiriart had allegedly become disillusioned with the OAS and the more "traditional fascist" groups the MAC had aligned itself with. Many of these organizations were still wedded to nationalism while Thiriart was increasingly moving towards a pan-Europe ideology. What's more, he was dubious of these United States and increasingly saw America representing a greater threat than the Soviet Union. Without ever actually hitching his wagon to the Soviets, Thiriart would seek closer ties with the emerging nationalist movements in the developing world as the decade wore on.

This pursuits let to a break with many of the more traditional elements in the MAC, who began to abandon it for more moderate pro-colonial regroups. This led Thiriart to re brand the outfit yet again, this time as Juene Europe (JE: Young Europe), in 1962. Soon, JE had branches all across Europe and beyond. Naturally, there was a South African branch, but more intriguing are the ones in Latin America. In the first book of The Darkest Sides of Politics series, Jeffrey Bale noted that these Latin American chapters were called Joven America, and featured chapters in Argentina, Columbia, Uruguay, and Ecuador. There was also one in Brazil, but it does not appear to have been affiliated with the Joven America chapters.

Stefan Possony tells an interesting story about whom established the Joven America branches. During the early 1970s, he was tasked by the World Anti-Communist League (WACL) to investigate a mysterious secret society that had taken over the Latin American branch of that organization. As regular readers of this blog are well aware, WACL was for much of the Cold War the visible face of the Fascist International; knee deep in arms and drug trafficking and terrorism the world over; and awash with secret societies and cults (all of which was noted in this classic series).

As such, its a bit surprising (and dubious) that WACL would be so concerned over Mexico's Los Tecos secret society. Like much of the rest of the League, it was deeply committed to drug trafficking and anti-Communist terrorism (noted before here). Perhaps its fanatical anti-Semitism made some of the League's Israeli backers a trifle nervous? Regardless, the famed technocrat who is often described as the "visionary" behind the Strategic Defense Initiative was dispatched by WACL to investigate. I'm in possession of a copy of that report taken from the Hoover Institute that is available upon request. In this report, Possony describes Los Tecos as being the sponsors behind the Jovan America branches of Jeune Europe.

"Tecos" means "owls"

Curiously, one of Thiriart's former partners in the MAC, Emil Lecref, would go on to become a leading figure in the Belgian wing of WACL (noted before here). In theory, this was around the time Thiriart was making a break from anti-Communist hardliners such as Lecref. Still, this didn't stop Jean-Francois from forging an alliance with the fanatically anti-Communist Los Tecos outfit.

Regardless, Thiriart at least appeared to make a formal break with such groups when he shuttered Jeune Europe in 1965 and replaced it with the Parti Communautaire Européen (PCE) during that same year. And that brings me to one of the major problems with Jouret's association with Thiriart and the PCE: Most accounts claim he became involved during the 1970s, but Thiriart had already shuttered the PCE in 1968. Further muddying the waters is the Parti Communautaire National-Européen, a successor group established in the 1980s with Thiriart's blessing. Its founder and longtime head is named Luc Michel.

Enter Synarchy

Thus, the possibility that some researchers confused Jouret with Michel cannot be discounted. On the other hand, there is a bizarre connection to all of this: synarchy. This doctrine, firmly rooted in the occult, was popularized by Alexandre Saint-Yves d'Alveydre during the late nineteenth century and later incorporated into Martinism by Papus. Synarchy is, in essence, an anti-Democratic doctrine that calls for society to be governed and managed by a kind of technocratic elite.

For years, there have been allegations that synarchy was behind France's defeat by the Nazis and that it was the driving ideology of the secret society often referred to as La Cagoule (officially the Comité secret d'action révolutionnaire). In many ways, the Cagoule were a kind of prototype for the later close collaboration between secret societies and stay-behind armies that appeared throughout the Cold War. The extensive role the Cagoule played in stay-behind efforts during the interwar period was addressed at length before here.

After being broken up and imprisoned by French authorities in 1937, many of the Cagoulards were released during the time of the Nazi invasion. In the aftermath, many stayed on in France as collaborators while some went to work with the Allies. Some of the most militant Cagoulards would be used to establish stay-behinds for the Nazis as it became evident that they would be driven from France.

"During the war, Skorzeny, who was always astute to the political use of special forces, organized a group called 'Organisation Technique' or (OT), to carry out 'a number of independent operations aimed at provoking right-wing resistance in France.' The OT had the mission of creating 'an alliance of anti-Communist.' This effort was to exploit the close bonds of brotherhood that existed between former members of the Cagoule, regardless of who they sided with. In essence, the former Cagoule serving with Skorzeny's command were attempting to establish a dialogue with the former Cagoule serving in the French Resistance and French Army. These men were looking into the future of France and wanted to prevent a communist takeover of the country after the war. They also believed it might provide a 'conduit to the Americans,' thus weakening the Allied partnership the Soviet Russia. Ultimately, this covert effort at the end of the war to rally former Cagoule into a common anti-communists group lies at the heart of the French intelligence contact with Skorzeny.

"After the successful Allied invasion of France in June 1944 and subsequent liberation of Paris in August, thousands of the chief French forces bolted for Germany, where an émigré government set up in southwestern Germany with the exile capital established at Sigmaringen. In October, the OT was created by Joseph Darnand, the former head of the Vichy Milice (French fascist paramilitary), consisting of 150-200 volunteers to be trained as agents and sent back in France to fight the allied forces.

"Command of the OT was given to Jean Degans, a former member of the Cagoule and former director of the Vichy police. OT liaisons with the Germans came from Skorzeny's Jagdverband, and Jean Filliol, a former Cagoule who exercised day-to-day control of the group. Several OT sabotage and secret service camps were established in Germany with training and operational planning coming directly from Skorzeny's special forces."

(The Skorzeny Papers, Ralph P. Ganis, pgs. 59-60) 

As was noted above, Thiriart alleged to have worked with Skorzeny during the war in what Kevin Coogan described as occupied France. Presumably, this is the Nazi occupation Coogan was referring too. The OT obviously didn't emerge until after the Nazis withdrew, but Skorzeny's ties to the old Cagoule network likely didn't begin until after the Germans were forced to withdraw. As such, the possibility that Thiriart came into contact the Cagoule during the war cannot be discounted.

Skorzeny

Ah, but there's more: When Thiriart became politically active again during the early 1960s, he established close ties with the OAS pretty early on. Several former Cagoulards threw their lot in with the OAS, including the mysterious Dr. Henri Martin (ironically, Martin was also the first individual to "expose" the synarchist plot in France, though he did not link it to the Cagoule). Another mysterious Cagoulard who found his way into the OAS underground was Robert Leroy.

"... Robert-Henri Leroy, who had an extraordinarily lengthy career as both a right-wing political activist and a specialist in intelligence and covert operations. He had formerly been a member of Charles Maurras's Action Francaise (French Action), the prewar Cagoule terrorist underground, the Carlist Requete militia forces during the Spanish Civil War, Vichy intelligence, the Waffen-SS's 'Charlemagne' division (with the rank of Hauptsturmfuhrer), and Otto Skorzeny's commando force, for which he served as an instructor. After the war he spent seven years in prison for collaborating with the enemy, then following his release he allegedly went to work for both NATO intelligence and the BND in the period between 1958 and 1968..."

(The Darkest Sides of Politics, I, Jeffrey Bale, pgs. 141-142)

Thus, Leroy also has the Skorzeny connection. This researcher has been unable to determine whether Leroy supported the OAS during their heyday (which would hardly be surprising), but he would certainly be collaborating with veterans of that network by the late 1960s. In 1968, he signed on with the brutal far right outfit known as Aginter Press, which had been founded by the most die-hard OAS veterans. This self-described press agency, which received ample backing from fascist Portugal during its peak years, was a vast, international terror network linked to atrocities on at least three continents. It was one of the most militant fascist organizations during the Cold War and played a crucial role in developing the so-called "strategy of tension," a guiding ideology behind neo-fascists the world over during that era. Much more can be found concerning Aginter here. Naturally, Aginter also maintained close ties with Skorzeny and his network.

By the late 1960s, both Thiriart and Aginter had set their eye upon the Chinese communists. The former allegedly wanted to form an alliance with them while the later sought to penetrate their intelligence operations. Apparently, this was something Thiriart and Aginter deemed that they could collaborate on.

"Thiriart maintained his Maoist ties through his murky dealings with a far -right 'press service'/private intelligence agency, the Portugal-based Aginter Press. Aginter worked with an overtly pro-Chinese political group in Switzerland called the Pati Cmmuniste Suisse/Marxist-Leniniste (PCS/ML). An Aginter operative name Robert Leroy, with support from the Communist Chinese embassy in Berne, arranged for the PCS/ ML to hire Aginter operatives as 'correspondents' for the group's newspaper, L'Etincelle, which was used to gain access to radical groups in Angola, Guinea-Bissau, and Mozambique. The head of the PCS/ML was himself the most likely member of the far right. Thiriart played a liaison role for Aginter, the PCS/ML, and the Chinese embassy."

(Dreamer of the Day, Kevin Coogan, pgs. 544-545)

As such, this certainly raises the question of how serious Thiriart's break with the OAS truly was, as he was clearly collaborating with veterans by the end of the decade again. What's more, his point of contact was a former Cagoulard, Leroy, who had previously worked with Skorzeny during the war. This is also around the time Jouret could have been potentially collaborating with Thiriart in the PCE. 

But wait, there's one final synarchist connection to Thiriart besides the old Cagoule network. This one comes in the form of his Latin America partners in Jeune Europe, Los Tecos. The Tecos potentially had ties to a Mexican synarchist movement dubbed the National Synarchist Union. Like the Tecos, it was a far right Catholic movement that grew out of the Cristero War. These potential connections are very controversial, but not without merit. More information on this topic can be found here.

the banner of the National Synarchist Union

But what is the Order of the Solar Temple connection to synarchy, you maybe asking. Well, the OTS had an inner circle, a kind of secret society with the secret society, which actually ran things. Here are the details:

"... The OTS itself, 'the true secret Templar organization,' which was headed by a Synarchie du Temple (Synarchy of the Temple), composed of influential leaders of the OTS whose identity was secret from outsiders and low level members. Under the Synarchy, a Conseil de l'Ordre (Council of the Order) organized members and to various 'lodges,' and within each lodge the members were in turn divided into a hierarchy of three initiatory levels..."

The Darkest Sides of Politics, II, Jeffrey Bale, pg. 130)

In other words, the inner circle of the OTS described itself as synarchist. Obviously, this could simply be in reference to the most basic definition of synarchy, namely an undemocratic rule by the elite. But given all the former Cagoulists that Thiriart crossed paths with, I suspect the use of synarchy here has a deeper meaning. Certainly, it seems to appear over and over again among Thiriart's associates, which Jouret was reportedly one of.

Of course, many conspiracy theories concerning synarchy depict it as co-opting both the right and the left for its own purposes. Certainly, this appears to be true of the Cagoule in postwar France. In The Sion Revelation, Picknett and Prince make much of socialist Francois Mitterrand's ties to the Cagoule. As I noted before here, the Cagoule appear to have played a crucial role in establishing Le Cercle, the far right's answer to Bilderberg. It probably goes without saying, but Le Cercle wielded tremendous power in the French state for years as well.

Mitterrand

Whether or not this is evidence of a synarchist plot is highly debatable. But what cannot be debated is Knowles' observation that as organizations com and ago, the same individuals keep turning up over and over gain in these types of activities. The Cagoulards are a text book example of this. They went from being a minor paramilitary network in inner-war France to being a major power throughout the Cold War, decades after the Cagoule had officially been dissolved. Regardless whether France was controlled by Nazis, the Catholic right, or even Socialists, the Cagoulards were never far from the centers of power.

Organizations come and again, but the same networks continue, often only dissolving when old age finally catches up with the members. And even then, as the OTS indicates, a way is found at times to preserve their legacy. Nearly 60 years after the Cagoule were surprised, the OTS launched its rampage of suicides and murders. Here we have another bizarre secret society involved in stay-behind efforts and flying the synarchist flag. Surely all of this stretches coincidence dear readers.

The Cecil Mysteries and Other Crowley Musings

"History teaches: never trust a Cecil"

-British proverb

Making my second appearance on Auticulture this year with the great Jasun Horsley. This was an incredibly fun chat that covered a host of topics. A few subjects have become fairly common around these parts over the past few weeks --the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) and the participants in the bizarre Las Vegas chapter, including Peter Levenda, Richard Doty, Colonel John Alexander, and Colonel Michael Aquino; To the Stars Academy; Kenneth Grant and the Typhonian tradition; the mysterious Sovereign Order of Saint John and Christian Identity "theology"; Jeffrey Epstein and neo-reaction.

However, about midway through we engaged in a discussion of Aleister Crowley and some of his more curious affiliates. I was quite pleased with this section as I felt this may provide a bit of a novel context to Crowley. I haven't written on Crowley much on this blog over the years in no small part because I didn't feel like I had much to add on the topic that many others haven't already said better. But after doing a little research on the Great Beast prior to this chat with fresh eyes, I began making some very curious connections, especially as it relates to the mysterious Cecil family.

As such, I thought I might try a bit of a multimedia approach to this interview. The podcast in question can be found here. And below, you will find more of a "classic" VISUP blog detailing much of the information discussed in the latter half of this interview, plus a few things I uncovered after the interview. It is highly recommended that the reader precedes below, as this is quite a fascinating topic.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do more on the topic of Charles Manson, having become a bit obsessed with the Crowley/Cecil connection leading up to the podcast. Hopefully, that's out of my system now after this chat with Jasun and hammering out this post. I'm about to embark on some new research on Manson in preparation for Jasun's upcoming appearance on The Farm with Frank Zero, Jeremy Knight, and myself. That should be happening in about two weeks and it will hopefully be every bit as epic as this chat was.

The Cecil Family

The Cecil family has been one of the most powerful and influential in British society for nearly five hundred years. The man who turned it into a generations spanning dynasty is William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley. Cecil was one of the most powerful figures within the court of Elizabeth I, serving twice as as her secretary of state, Lord Privy Seal, and Lord High Treasurer. What's more, while Francis Walsingham tends to get the credit as Elizabeth's spymaster (and the de facto founder of MI6), he ultimately worked for Cecil.. Upon Walsingham's death, Cecil firmly took over much of the Elizabethan spy networks. Naturally, Cecil also had an interest in the mystical. He bestowed patronage upon alchemy and corresponded with John Dee, among other things.

family patriarch William Cecil

The tradition of espionage was carried on by William's younger son from his second marriage, the hunchbacked Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury. Robert inherited his father's spy network, and became intelligence chief of King James I. There has been much suspicion over the years concerning the role he played in the Gunpowder Plot.

It is the descendants of Robert --the Salisbury line --that he remained a preeminent power in England for centuries. In The Anglo-American Establishment, the always controversial Carroll Quigley described the family's influence as "all-pervasive in British life since 1886" (pg. 15). Per Quigley, the family's continual influence was due to three factors: (a) a triple-front penetration of politics, journalism, and education; (b) the recruitment of men of ability and linking them to the Cecil family via marriage, titles, and positions of power; and (c) Cecils and their allies being in positions that are shielded as much as possible from the public gaze.

Some of the leading families that have intermarried with the Cecils include the Grosvenors (Dukes of Westminster), the Balfours, Palmers (the Earls of Selborne), and the Cavendishs (who hold multiple titles). These families, along with other associated allies, formed what Quigley dubbed the "Cecil Bloc," though it may be more apt to say these families comprised the historic aristocracy that has ruled England for centuries. The Grosvenors and especially the Cavendishs have wielded tremendous power for any number of years as well.

Throughout much of the twentieth century, the Cecils would be linked to various subversive political movements. Quigley describes the infamous Milner Group/Round Table movement as beginning as "a major fief" within the Cecil Bloc. These cabals/movements of course spawned the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA), both longtime bugaboos of the conspiratorial right.

Quigley alleges that the Milner Group eventually took over the Cecil Bloc, though leaves this open to debate throughout The Anglo-American Establishment. He raises the possibility "that the split which appeared within the Conservative Party in England after 1923 followed roughly the lines between the Milner Group and the Cecil Bloc" (pg. 30). He later acknowledges that the Milner Group "was surely less powerful than the Cecil Bloc, even as late as 1929..." and that "when they disagreed, the views of the Milner Group did not usually prevail" (pg. 230). Quigley notes that the Milner Group's influence went into decline after 1938, giving them a fairly brief reign if they did in fact overcome the Cecil Bloc after 1929.

Fundamentally, the Cecil Bloc was conservative to its core while the Milner Group had a more progressive point of view (relatively speaking). Essentially, the Cecil Bloc wanted to preserve the Empire and its peculiar way of life. The Milner Group wanted to expand these things to the world at large. This led to fundamental differences on foreign policy, especially in regards to India (most notably in regards to self determination) and a United Europe. The Group vigorously supported the former and tentatively the later until after 1918. The Bloc was never very enthusiastic about either, and indeed the Cecils would later become staunch foes of the European Union, as we shall see.

Alfred Milner, the longtime head of the Round Table movement

What united the two factions was an unwavering belief in the glory of the British Empire and its preservation, even if they differed on the best means of achieving this. Given that the Cecil family still appears to be going strong while the political project of the Group has been completely co-opted by the America-centric CFR, another possibility should be considered: That the Cecils were using the Milner clique throughout the early twentieth century to appeal to idealistic types from the right sort of background. After the Group was discredited due to its policy of appeasement leading up to WWII, the Cecils cast it aside and reverted to their traditional political agenda: the British Empire.

Throughout the mid and latter half of the twentieth century, the Marquesses of Salisbury would embrace an increasingly far right political agenda bent of preserving the Empire and opposing the EU. They also found the time to help launch a particularly elitist form of Christianity that would be embraced by curious cults around the world in the second half of that century.

It all goes back to Frank Buchman one of the most powerful, and little acknowledged, evangelicals in the US and UK throughout much of the twentieth century. During the late 1920s, he set up the Oxford Group at the famed British college barring the Group's name. As World War II approached, the Group was rechristened the Moral Re-Armament movement (MRA). Through these organizations, Buchman was able to craft a very elitist and cultish approach to Christianity that would have a profound reach in the postwar years. Buchman called for "a new social order under the dictatorship of the Spirit of God." In practical terms, this meant courting powerful men in positions of influence. This would usher in a "God-controlled nation" that would bring an end to labor strife, then an overriding concern in the 1930s, among other things. Wealth would of course not be redistributed, but workers could take solace in the fact that the robber barons were no longer driven by greed, but God.

Frank Buchman

Among two of Buchman's favorite tools were what he dubbed "soul surgery" and house parties. Both were centered around confession. The former consisted of surrendering to God by cutting out sin one incision at a time. This frequently involved confession to Buchman and his confessors. Whether this was a path to God is debatable, but it certainly gave Buchman and company access to the darkest secrets of the elite they courted. Buchman's house parties operated on a similar basis:

"... The most successful events took place at one of the estates around the world that Buchman used as outreach stations. He had won the allegiance of a number of wealthy widows and heiresses and neglected wives of businessman, and they regularly showered him with riches, including their great homes, to which Buchman would invite select groups for a day in the country. There would be tennis and golf and some praying, and then the group would gather for the party. A fire would be built, the lights dimmed, and Buchman or a trained confessor might begin with some minor transgression, a traffic ticket, a youthful prank. Another Buchman veteran might than up the ante. 'Some lad might now turn evidence against a governess or an upstairs maid,' observed a New Yorker writer in 1932. And from there it was on to the weaknesses that afflict not just college boys but also the grand dames who flocked to Buchman and the big men they dragged in their wake, all stumbling over one another in elaborate description of their private perversions, how they had been blinded to their purpose in life by sexual desire, and how 'Guidance' had saved them. Around circle they went, spurring one another on."

(The Family, Jeff Sharlet, pg. 128)

According to veteran CIA officer Miles Copeland in his The Game Player, Buchman's movement was courted by the CIA in the postwar years for the type of access the house parties and such like offered. He notes that "the arrangement we made with Moral Rearmament that gave us useful secret channels right into the minds of leaders not only in Africa and Asia but also Europe" (pg. 177). Unsurprisingly, the MRA would serve as the foundation of elite, intelligence-aligned Christian cults such as the Unification Church and The Family. The Unification Church shall be dealt with below, while much more information on The Family can be found here.

Of course, the Cecils had already latched onto Buchman's movement well before the CIA was even created. The Fourth Marquess of Salisbury was a member of Buchman's Oxford Group by at least the late 1930s. Even as controversy would begin to engulf Buchman's group in the mid-1930s (due in no small part to his support of dictatorship and fascism), Lord Salisbury would continue to support Buchman, even arranging for a media blitz so as to give Buchman a platform to defend his movement.

James Gascoyne-Cecil, 4th Marquess of Salisbury

This was just the beginning of the involvement of the Salisburys in far right politics during the 20th century. As the great David Teacher notes in the long-suppressed Rogue Agents, the Fifth Marquess of Salisbury was the president of the far right Monday Club from its founding in 1961 until his death in 1972. The Monday Club was imperialistic to the hilt, forming in the wake of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's liberal drift in regards to the Empire. With the whiff of decolonization in the air, the Monday Club organized to continue white rule in Rhodesia and South Africa and the destruction of Nasser. Salisbury was ahead of the curve, having resigned in 1957 from Macmillan's cabinet and as leader of the House of Lords over the government's liberal drift.

Upon his death his son, the 6th Marquess of Salisbury, would take up the presidency of the Monday Club and hold it until 1981. During his tenure, the group took on an increasingly anti-EU and anti-immigration stance. Teacher also notes that, by the 1980s, this Salisbury had also become a participant in the highly secretive Le Cercle, which is part the far right's answer to Bilderberg and part a vast private intelligence network, deeply implicated in drug and arms trafficking, stay-behind armies, and VIP child sex networks. For more on the nefarious outfit, check here and here.

the 5th (top) and 6th (bottom) Marquesses of Salisbury

The 7th Marquess of Salisbury also had links to the Cercle complex via one of its many front groups, the Belgian-based Institut Européen pour la Paix et la Sécurité (IEPS, see Rogue Agents, pg. 221). Naturally, the current Lord Salisbury is a longstanding eurosceptic. He has been actively campaigning against the EU since at least the late 1990s and is a staunch supporter of Brexit.

The Round Table movement, Moral Re-Armament movement, the Monday Club, Le Cercle, Brexit --there should be no question that the Marquesses of Salisbury have continued to wield tremendous power and influence over the political life of the UK and beyond even as they've receded from the public gaze (which apparently has been a time honored strategy of the family, excluding the 3rd Marquess of Salisbury) since the early twentieth century. It was during the long reign of the 3rd Marquess of Salisbury as Prime Minister, allegedly during the apex of the family's power (per Quigley), that the Cecils interceded on behalf of Crowley.

the Cecils, Crowley, and the SPR

The Cecils may well have had a longstanding interest in mysticism. As was noted above, patriarch William Cecil was a patron of alchemy. It would appear that this interest became more pronounced during the late nineteenth century with the rise of the Salisbury line. In The Anglo-American Establishment, Quigley notes: "One of the enduring creations of the Cecil Bloc is the Society for Psychical Research, which holds a position in the history of the Cecil Bloc similar to that held by the Royal Institute of International Affairs in the Milner Group" (pgs. 31-32). 

The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) was one of the first institutions that attempted to "scientifically" study psi and paranormal phenomenon. The legacy of the Milner Group then is centered around a political think tank, the Cecil Bloc an organization to investigate the paranormal. That says a lot about the world view of these two factions.

But how directly was the Cecil family itself involved with SPR? Quigley links it more to the Balfour family. Both Arthur Balfour, a future prime minister (and the man who issued the infamous Balfour Declaration), and his brother Gerald served as presidents of the SPR at various times. But in addition to being Balfours, the brothers Arthur and Gerald were also Cecils. Their mother was Lady Blanche Cecil, daughter of the 2nd Marquess of Salisbury and sister to Third, one of the UK's longest serving prime ministers. What's more, Quigley alleges that Arthur Balfour effectively took over the Cecil Bloc after the death of the 3rd Marquess of Salisbury. This likely would not have occurred had the Cecils doubted Balfour's dedication to their legacy. As such, the SPR clearly had support from portions of the Cecil family itself.

As for Crowley, the Great Beast had a curious relationship with both the Cecil family and the SPR. As to the former, it was no less than the 3rd Marquess of Salisbury who recommended Crowley to Cambridge. He made this recommendation when he was a sitting prime minister to boot.

Consider the implication of this for a moment dear reader. Lord Salisbury was not merely Britain's prime minister, he was also the head of the Cecil Bloc. If Quigley is to be believed (and that is always debatable), the Bloc was effectively the preeminent political power of the day. Combine this with the historic influence the Lords of Salisbury have wielded for centuries and one is left with the distinct possibility that Lord Salisbury was at the time the most powerful figure in the ENTIRE British Empire. This, dear readers, is the man who recommended Aleister Crowley to Cambridge University. Let that sink in for a moment if you will.

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury and one of the Britain's longest serving prime ministers

The question then becomes, how did Crowley manage such a feat? In The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, the Great Beast attributes the intervention of Lord Salisbury on his behalf to his aunt's involvement in the Primrose League. This was an organization geared towards spreading conservative principals on behalf of the Tories.

pins worn by members of the Primrose League

While Crowley's family was fairly well to do, much of their fortune was based upon the family brewery, Crowley's Alton Alehouses. While this business was quite profitable, it was also the type of industry that was still looked down upon by the traditional British aristocracy during this era. Even the Great Beast himself seemed somewhat embarrassed by the source of his family fortune. What then would a man like Lord Salisbury make of a brewer's second cousin? Likely he would have been perceived as petty bourgeoisie, at best.

But keep in mind that the Cecil family maintained its historic power by recruiting men of ability into its ranks. Crowley was already an accomplished mountain climbers by this point and undeniably brilliant. This may well have made someone take notice.

Another potential clue is provided by the career Crowley had hoped to use Cambridge as a stepping stone for: namely, in the diplomatic service. Incidentally, this type of work has often gone hand in glove with spy craft as well. Indeed, diplomatic cover is a time honored tradition among spooks. And that is why Crowley's involvement in the Society for Psychical Research at Cambridge is so curious. Consider one of the individuals he encountered in the SPR at Cambridge:

"Another man who enjoyed intrigue was the Hon. Francis Henry Everard Joseph Feilding (1867-1936). Finding Catholicism inadequate to cope with grief at his sister's death, Feilding joined the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in 1895. Established at Trinity in 1882, the SPR investigated scientifically 'psychical' phenomena: mediumship, telepathy, ghosts and life after death. Feilding, SPR secretary from 1903, was also an intelligence officer. If anyone recruited Crowley for secret service at Cambridge or elsewhere, or at a later date, Everard Feilding, Crowley's senior by eight years, must be a prime candidate.

"A 15-year-old midshipman in the Royal Navy during the Egyptian campaign of 1882, Feilding was admitted to Trinity in 1887. Called to the Bar in 1894, he served on the Committee of Naval Censors (Press Bureau) during the Great War, and afterward, with the rank of Lieutenant RNVR, in the Special Intelligence Department of Egypt. In a career move similar to that which launched the legend of Lawrence of Arabia, Feilding was lent to the Arab Bureau and the Foreign Office for political service in Syria. After the war, he received the OBE, as well as the Order of the Nile and Order of El Nahda for services in Egypt and the Hejaz. Feilding was Crowley's intelligence contact when, during the Great War, the Beast spied on the German propaganda machine in New York."

(Aleister Crowley: The Biography, Tobias Churton, pg. 33) 

Everard Feilding is the figure looming over the priest

Was Crowley then being groomed to be a spy? This is certainly a distinct possibility, especially in light of some of the activities the Beast got up to while attending Cambridge. During the New Year's Eve of 1896, Crowley found himself in the Swedish capital of Stockholm. There he alleged to have had one of his first significant mystical experiences and to have been initiated into an outfit known as the "Military Order of the Temple."

Some researchers such as Tobias Churton have suggested that Crowley had his first homosexual encounter in Stockholm as well. This is rather debatable, however. Crowley was a product of the British empire-building public school system that has a longstanding reputation for buggery and pederasty. The implications of the Stockholm experience are curious, however.

The Knights Templar, which the "Military Order of the Temple" is clearly a play upon, were accused of buggery. This particular "initiation" may be an allusion to that allegation. As homosexuality was still quite illegal and taboo in British society at the time, there is a possibility that this was an attempt to build a control file on Crowley for latter use.

Sweden was also the gateway to Russia, then considered the greatest threat to the British Empire. "Incidentally," Crowley would later turn up in Saint Petersburg several months later, in the summer of 1897. One could conclude then that things must have gone very well indeed in Stockholm.

Still, this does not quite explain the Cecil family's curious patronage of Crowley. One possible explanation entails the Great Beast "kissing" the right "ring" in public school. Crowley attended Eastbourne, which was founded by the above-mentioned Cavendish family. The Cavendishs themselves are quite a longtime powerhouse among the British aristocracy and of course intermarried with the Cecils. The ties between the Cavendish clan and Crowley's alma mater are close to the point that the school adopted the stag from the family's coat of arms for its emblem. The possibility that Crowley serviced someone sufficiently to extract favor from the chief of the Cecil Bloc can not be discounted.

Boney and the ABN

Another curious I figure I discussed with Jasun was the mysterious Major General J.F.C. "Boney" Fuller. Boney was both a brilliant military strategist and an early Crowley-ite. The two men had first encountered one another at some point during the first decade of the twentieth century. Fuller would soon become one of the Great Beast's most enthusiastic supporters. He penned The Star in The West: A Critical Essay Upon the Works of Aleister Crowley and became a co-founder of the A∴A∴, Crowley's magical order. Reportedly, their relationship began to sour towards the end of the decade due concerns by Fuller that Crowley's bisexuality may effect his military career (clearly, the control file was not working by this point, if ever).

"Boney" Fuller

Contact between the two men was scarce after 1911, but Fuller would continue to have an interest in the occult. During the 1930s, he also became enamored with fascism. He joined the British Union of Fascists (BUF) and became one the closet allies of founder Sir Oswald Mosley.

Prior to setting up the BUF, Mosley had been seen as a rising star within the Conservative Party. In 1920 he had married Lady Cynthia Curzon. Mosley was apparently quite taken with the women of the Curzon family as he later carried on an affair with Lady Cynthia's younger sister, Lady Alexandra Curzon, and their stepmother, Grace Curzon. Grace's husband and the father of Cynthia and Alexandra was Lord George Curzon. Per Quigley, Curzon's was not just Lord Salisbury's former private secretary, but his protege. Curzon would continue to be linked to the Cecil Bloc up until the time of his death in 1925. As such, Mosley effectively married into the Bloc.

Lord George Curzon

How closely the Curzons were to the Bloc after Lord Curzon's death is debatable. Both Mosley and Lady Cynthia had joined Labour in 1924, shortly before Lord Curzon shed his mortal coil. Given the longstanding association the Cecils have with the Conservative Party, it is difficult to discern how this move would have been perceived. Mosley of course later drifted to fascism, but said ideology appears to have enjoyed greater support among the Cecil Bloc's frenemies in the Milner Group. Further muddying the waters are the simultaneous affairs Lady Alexandra was carrying out in the years leading up to WWII with Mosley and Lord Halifax, a leading figure in the Milner Group by that time. 

Oswald Mosley

On the other hand, another leading figure in the British fascist movement was Philip Farrer, a British intelligence officer during WWI who had served as the 4th Marquess of Salisbury's private secretary during the late 1930s. Fuller himself regularly collaborated with Farrer. At a minimum then, the Cecils appear to have been keeping an eye on Mosley's actions. And it was into this maelstrom that Fuller boldly plunged. 

This would open doors for Fuller in the broader fascist movement. He would establish close ties with the German General Stuff during the 1930s, who were greatly influenced by his concepts concerning mechanized warfare. Fuller was the only foreigner present during Nazi Germany's first armored maneuvers in 1935 and was in attendance during Hitler's 50th birthday bash in 1939. 

Fuller had even more extensive ties to various fascist organizations and regimes, which did not lead to his detention at the outbreak of war.

"... Admitted to Oswald Mosley's inner circle, Fuller visited both Mussolini and Hitler. He was also a founding member of the pre-war Nordic League (known initially as the White Knights of Britain or the Hooded Men) which had been established by Nazi agents run by Alfred Rosenberg. Its activities, which were directed from Berlin, included providing an insider's view of the British elite. Fuller had also written intelligence reports on British organizations and individuals for Goebbels, the head of the Nazi propaganda department, and Heinrich Himmler, chief of the SS. It is said that Fuller would have been made ministry of defense if Mosley had come to power, and was regarded by the Nazis as a possible 'Quisling.' Despite the fact that MI5 had him under surveillance, when war came he and his Polish wife were not among the more than seven hundred BUF supporters detained under the 18b regulations. Even Mosley was puzzled by this omission. One possible reason, which would explain a great deal, was that Fuller was an MI6 agent and thus protected."

(MI6: Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service, Stephen Dorril, pgs. 441-442)

Indeed, it is the only really plausible explanation as to why the British authorities did not feel the need to intern a man who had celebrated Hitler's birthday with the Fuhrer on the eve of war. Throw in Fuller's close collaborator, Philip Farrer, and one is left with the distinct impression that these men were managing the British fascist movement on behalf of the intelligence services. Given the rampant support for fascism among the British aristocracy during the 1930s, the involvement of Fuller and Farrer may not have begun as an intelligence op, but as war with Germany became inevitable it likely became one.

It was during Fuller's time moonlighting for Nazi intelligence services that he encountered a most curious organization.

" 'Boney' Fuller... had been active among the Ukrainian nationalist before the war and among the Ukrainian communities in both Britain and Germany after the war. In the mid-thirties, around the same time as MI6 was recruiting the Banderites in the OUN, the Ukrainian émigré community in London have been penetrated by German Intelligence. This had been undertaken with the help Fuller to ensure Anglo-German 'understanding.' He thought that Hitler's greatest mistake during the war have been to treat the Ukrainians as subhuman, Untermenschen, thus ignoring the military potential of the nationalists. With the support of his good friend Richard Stokes, at the end of the war Fuller had helped assist one of the leading figures in the OUN-B, Jaroslav Stetsko, and maintained contacts with the Ukrainian nationalists and the DP camps throughout the forties. By 1950, Fuller was seventy-one, a wizened old man but still active, calling for a moral as well as a physical and economic campaign against the Bolsheviks and the Soviet Union."

(MI6: Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service, Stephen Dorril, pg. 442) 

OUN stands for Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. The OUN-B was an especially militant branch of the OUN centered around Stepan Bandera. This outfit was an on again, off again Quisling that eventually founded the infamous Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). The UPA was eventually embraced by the Nazis and received training from famed commando Otto Skorzeny. This effectively transformed then into a stay-behind unit that was used to harass the Red Army as the Nazis retreated in what was known as Operation Sunflower. The OUN/UPA managed to tie down some 200,000 Soviet troops and kill over 7000 officers, per the great Christopher Simpson in his classic Blowback (pgs. 162-163).

The OUN/UPA was fanatically anti-Semitic, anti-Communist, and generally anti-Russian to the hilt. They are considered to be the inspiration behind the modern, neo-Nazi paramilitary outfit known as the Azov Battalion.

In the postwar years, the US an UK viewed the OUN-B/UPA as idea candidates to infiltrate behind Soviet lines so as to carry out sabotage operations. Back in the West, many former OUN-B/UPA members cultivated the far right. The leading figure among the Ukrainians was the above-mentioned Yaroslav Stetsko.

Stetsko

 He was the longtime head of the far right emigre outfit known as the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations  (ABN). As I've noted before here, the ABN had its origins in Nazi Germany, being comprised of many of the most militant Eastern European "Quisling" outfits. Many of its components were guilty of horrendous war crimes during WWII. Naturally, the US and UK felt that the ABN could serve as the backbone for efforts to pry Eastern Europe out of the Soviet bloc. These efforts largely failed, but the ABN would go on to wield enormous power in the West through a later organization it helped co-found known as the World Anti-Communist League (WACL). The WACL in turn had extensive ties to both Western and Eastern intelligence services, international drug traffickers and various terror networks. Much more information on the WACL can be found here.

For our purposes here, it is also interesting to note the frequency of cults and secret societies within the WACL. The Asian component had its origins in an outfit known as the Asian People's Anti-Communist League (APACL). The guiding forces behind the APACL were South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. The Japanese and Taiwanese components were deeply linked to the Yakuza and Green Gang, respectively. Both were organized crime syndicates and secret societies. As for South Korea, much of the support for the APACL (and later WACL) came from the Unification Church, the above-mentioned cult that grew out of Moral Re-Armament movement. The Unification Church also enjoyed longstanding ties to the KCIA, for years South Korea's principal intelligence service. More on these cretins can be found here.

The APACL was hardly the only component to feature secret societies and cults, however. One of the most powerful organizations within the Latin American section was a Mexican secret society known as Los Tecos ("the Owls"). The Tecos enjoyed close links with both Mexican security services and drug cartels. During the 1970s and 1980s, they helped raise the so-called White Brigades to destabilize the nation. More on the Tecos, which have at times been likened to a cult, can be found here.

Nor was the Ukrainian section of the ABN the only outfit to rub elbows with a noted occultist. The Romanian section was mainly comprised of veterans of the Iron Guard. During the WWII era, the Guard maintained links with Italian occultist and philosopher Julius Evola. Indeed, there has been some speculation that Evola was the Guard's liaison with Nazi intelligence. The Guardists would later have an influence on the structure of Los Tecos while other Evola-ites crop up among the Italian partners of the League. Much more information on this topic can be found here.

Evola

As such, it is hardly surprising to find a former Crowley acolyte rubbing shoulders with the OUN-B faction of the ABN. It is especially curious that Boney had ties to the OUN-B going back to the 1930s, around the same time Evola was working with the Iron Guard in Romania. When the ABN got going in 1943, the Ukrainian and Romanian sections may well have had some curious mystical discussions. In fairness though, it should also be noted that Yaroslav Stetsko also met with the Moral Re-Armament types at some point as well. But then again, if the Cecil family was lurking behind both Crowley and the MRA, this is not entirely surprising.

Boney, Evola-ites, the Tecos, the Unification Church, the Yakuza --the WACL certainly featured an incredible cast of occultists, secret societies, and cults in its midst. In addition to being the visible face of the Fascist International during the 1970s and 1980s, it may have housed a kind of Black Order within its inner circle as well. Certainly, its affiliates had many curious interests --just consider the New Age pursuits of the Unification Church, for instance.

And with that, I shall sign off for now dear readers. As always, I hope everyone enjoys the chat and has found this supplemental material to be compelling. Stay tuned until next time.