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FTR#1347 This program was recorded in one, 60-minute segment.
FTR#1348 This program was recorded in one, 60-minute segment.
Introduction: Taking a respite from the projected long series of programs on U.S. Asian policy, these programs begin with Monte’s discussion of a link between Guy Banister’s “detective agency” and the coalescence of the Process Church of the Final Judgment, a focal point of a four-part Miscellaneous Archive Series on “The Ultimate Evil.
A close former associate of Banister incorporated the Process Church, which appears to have served as an intelligence front, to an extent.
The associate–Tommy Baumler--was a Nazi.
In this analysis, Monte utilized a book titled The Mad Bishops.
The bulk of the programs consist of analysis of the latest “attempt” on Trump’s life, as well as the apparent Nazi genesis of the “Haitians eating dogs and cats” meme.
It is our consensus that the “attempts” on Trump’s life are intended to provoke violence against Trump’s political opponents.
Ryan Wesley Routh also networked with the Azov Battalion.
An extremist group that marched in Springfield, Ohio, and demonized Haitian immigrants saw Trump’s mention of baseless rumors at the debate as a victory: “This is what real power looks like.”
The day after the presidential debate at which former President Donald Trump spread a false story about Haitian immigrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, Christopher Pohlhaus, leader of the national neo-Nazi group Blood Tribe, took to his Telegram channel to take credit.
Pohlhaus, a Marine-turned-tattoo artist known as “Hammer” to his hundreds of followers, wrote Blood Tribe had “pushed Springfield into the public consciousness.”
Members of his hate group agreed. “The president is talking about it now,” a member wrote on Gab, a Twitter-like service popular with extremists. “This is what real power looks like.”
Trump’s line at the debate was the culmination of a weekslong rumor mill that appears to have at least been amplified by Blood Tribe, which has sought to demonize the local Haitian community online and in person. The debate drew more than 67 million viewers, according to the media analytics company Nielsen.
As with most rumors, the beginning of the baseless claims about Haitians eating pets in Springfield is hard to pinpoint, but Blood Tribe undoubtedly helped spread it.
Starting in late June, people in local Facebook groups had been posting about Haitian children chasing ducks and geese. Around the same time, conservative media was characterizing Springfield as being “flooded” with Haitian immigrants. Over the next few weeks, the Facebook complaints, still without evidence, got darker, with anonymous posters claiming they were hearing that ducks and geese were going missing, perhaps even being eaten by their immigrant neighbors.
The Springfield Police Division told NBC News that “there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured, or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”
The rumor began to grow legs in the private local groups as the blue-collar city’s immigration-driven population growth became national news in an election year.
Blood Tribe latched on last month when it started posting to Telegram and Gab about Springfield, stoking racist rumors about Haitians and Black people in general eating domestic animals. In a hate-filled Gab post from early September that included multiple racial epithets, the group claimed Haitians “eat the ducks out of the city parks.” The reach of Blood Tribe’s isn’t clear, as its Gab and Telegram accounts have fewer than 1,000 followers.
In response to a request for comment sent to Pohlhaus, Blood Tribe said in an email that it stood by its claims and that it would continue its activism, “making sure” Haitian immigrants “are all repatriated.”
The claims also began circulating in more mainstream conservative spaces, most notably on social media.
A few days after Blood Tribe’s Gab post, an X account not affiliated with Blood Tribe that is popular in conservative circles, @EndWokeness, posted a screenshot of a message board post and a picture of a man appearing to hold a goose. The screenshot purports that Haitians had stolen and eaten a neighbor’s cat, and the message from the X account adds that “ducks and pets are disappearing.” That post has been viewed 4.9 million times, according to X’s public metrics.
The man who originally posted the photo said that it was taken in Columbus, Ohio, and that he didn’t know the person’s ethnicity and he said he didn’t believe the photo should have been used to spread false rumors.
Even so, the post sparked a major jump for the rumor. What had been steady conversation that spread in August was beginning to die out early this month, according to data from Peak Metrics, a company that tracks online threats. But the goose post led to a second wave of virality.
From there, the rumors snowballed. Claims of residents’ pets being stolen, animal sacrifice and voodoo worshiping, as well as discussions about the “great replacement” conspiracy, began to circulate, according to an analysis by Memetica, a digital investigations company.
The memes followed. Artificial intelligence-generated images first circulated on 4chan and then in MAGA communities on X of pets and waterfowl being embraced and protected by Trump, which pushed the conspiracy theories even further into the mainstream. At the height of the spread this week, Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, promoted the baseless rumors on his own X account.
“It’s possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false,” Vance posted. But he told his followers, without proof that the rumors weren’t true, they shouldn’t “let the crybabies in the media dissuade you, fellow patriots. Keep the cat memes flowing.”
As the rumors gained steam in conservative online spaces, Blood Tribe was planning real-world actions.
On Aug. 10, about a dozen masked Blood Tribe members carrying banners adorned with swastikas marched in downtown Springfield, labeling the event an “anti-Haitian Immigration march.” On Facebook, Mayor Rob Rue said: “There was an attempt to disrupt our community by an outside hate group. Nothing happened, except they expressed their First Amendment rights.”
Blood Tribe’s Gab account shot back and invited its followers to harass the mayor. “Hello, Springfield Ohio! We hear you have a real problem with Haitian ‘refugees.’”
On Aug. 27, Drake Berentz, the only Blood Tribe member apart from Pohlhaus who marches with his face shown, stood before the Springfield City Commission. Identifying himself by his online moniker, Berentz offered “a word of warning” before his mic was cut off for threatening the commission. He was escorted out by police.
Springfield isn’t Blood Tribe’s first target, and it’s not likely to be its last, said Jeff Tischauser, a senior researcher for the Southern Poverty Law Center who monitors hate groups. Blood Tribe and other hate groups have used the real-world actions for recruitment, attention and intimidation.
Last year, armed Blood Tribe members rallied at drag events in Columbus and Wadsworth, Ohio, chanting Nazi slogans and waving Nazi salutes. They marched at a Pride event in Watertown, Wisconsin and at the capitol in Madison, and they shouted “Heil Hitler” outside Disney World. This year, abandoning LGBTQ issues for immigration, they have protested in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Nashville, Tennessee; Pierre, South Dakota; and Springfield.
“They aim to stoke fear among local communities that they view as potentially friendly to their ideas,” Tischauser said. “Goal No. 1 is psychological trauma, to keep folks out of public life that they disagree with. Number 2 is to create these viral moments for their group to get attention on Gab and on Telegram.”
Blood Tribe, like other white nationalist groups, also seeks to normalize extremist ideas and symbols, Tischauser said. With Trump’s and the wider conservative embrace of the Haitians-eating-pets rumor, Springfield has been a success for the hate groups.
“The GOP seems to be falling into their trap,” Tischauser said. “Groups like Blood Tribe truly see themselves as pushing the GOP further to their position on policy, but also on rhetoric.”
The threat from such a mainstreaming of extremist ideas was on display in Springfield on Thursday. Blood Tribe has used its Gab account to dox Springfield residents and government employees who have spoken out against the recent rumors. City Hall had to close down Thursday after multiple government agencies there got bomb threats.
Christopher Pohlhaus, a former Marine and prominent Neo-Nazi – has purchased land in Maine to train soldiers to fight for Ukraine. He sees the war against Russia as a unique chance to fight alongside the Azov Battalion and defend a nearly “all-white nation.”
Last year, Pohlhaus bought at least ten acres of land in Springfield, Maine. Although he claims he owns over 100 acres. Pohlhaus has discussed his ambitious plans for his Maine training grounds on social media. In a Telegram channel, he posted, “There will likely not be another chance in my lifetime to fight alongside other [National Socialist] men against a multi-ethnic invading empire to defend an almost all white nation.”
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Pohlhaus confirmed he hoped his Blood Tribe would join the Azov Battalion and C14 – prominent Ukrainian Neo-Nazi militias – in the fight against Russia. Scott Horton, Director of the Libertarian Insititute, Tweeted an article about the land in Maine and asked, “They going to fight with the Azov Battalion and C14 on the eastern front?” Pohlhaus – nicknamed “The Hammer” – responded directly to Horton, saying, “Yes, actually.”
It is unclear how far the Blood Tribe fighters have progressed in their training. One reporter visited the site and said no group members were present. Local officials report Pohlhaus has not begun applying for permits to build structures on his property. Pohlhaus said he has purchased a sawmill and plans to build cabins for his soldiers.
Since civil war broke out in Ukraine after a coup in 2014, Neo-Nazis have flocked to the country to fight for Kiev. Ukrainian Neo-Nazis have held important positions in government, and national socialist militias have been a crucial part of Kiev’s war machine.
Early in the war, thousands of Neo-Nazis arrived in Ukraine to fight for a “shared vision for an ultranationalist ethno-state.” While Washington has attempted to dismiss the role of Neo-Nazis in Ukraine as Russian propaganda, the New York Times admitted that Western journalists were asking Ukrainian troops to remove Neo-Nazi symbols before taking photos of them.
Additionally, the Russian Volunteer Corps – a militia aligned with Kiev – used American weapons to carry out attacks inside Russia. The fighters in the group openly wear Nazi symbols, such as the Black Sun.
Pohlhaus also proudly displays symbols of his national socialist ideology. Earlier this year, he led a protest in Ohio with several members displaying swastikas. While most of his Blood Tribe members wore full masks, Pohlhaus exposed his face and marched with a swastika flag.
Children across Springfield, Ohio, arrived at school Tuesday morning to the sight of state troopers, deployed by the governor after a wave of bomb scares rattled the community. . . .
. . . . He said investigators had determined that many of the bomb threats originated outside the United States. “Many of these threats are coming in from overseas, made by those who want to fuel the current discord surrounding Springfield,” Mr. DeWine said in a statement “We cannot let the bad guys win.” . . . .
. . . . Higher education institutions in Springfield also have endured threats and disruptions. . . .
. . . . The city said on Monday that it would cancel an annual festival, called CultureFest, planned for Sept. 27 and 28 over safety concerns. . . .
. . . . Later, Mr. Vance said, “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, than that’s what I am going to do.”
Before he was caught with an AK-47 on a golf course near Trump, Ryan Routh went to Kiev to fight for Ukraine’s military and recruit for its International Legion. In a book-length manifesto, Routh wished for assassinations of Putin and Trump, and urged nuclear war with Russia.
Ryan Routh was arrested today with an AK-47-style rifle fitted with a sniper scope several hundred yards from Donald Trump while the former president was golfing. According to the Washington Post, the “Trump golf course incident investigated as potential assassination attempt.”
Back in 2022, Routh reportedly traveled to Ukraine to recruit for the International Legion. According to Newsweek Romania, which interviewed Routh in 2022, the American resident of Hawaii hoped to fight as a volunteer alongside the Ukrainian army, but was too old at age 56.
“So plan B,” Routh said, “was to come to Kiev and promote the idea of many others coming to join the International Legion. We need thousands of people here to fight alongside Ukrainians.
There are about 190 countries on our planet, and if the governments are not officially sending soldiers here, then we civilians should pick up this torch and make it happen.”
Routh’s Twitter timeline is filled with scores of tweets volunteering his direct assistance to the war in Ukraine, cheerleading the war against Russia, and attacking opponents of military aid to Kiev such as Tulsi Gabbard.
Semafor described Routh as the head of the International Volunteer Center in Ukraine. He complained to the outlet that Ukraine’s government was less than enthusiastic about the droves of volunteers flocking to Kiev. “I have had partners meeting with [Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense] every week and still have not been able to get them to agree to issue one single visa.”
Routh also appeared in a March 25, 2023 New York Times feature about “The U.S. volunteers in Ukraine who lie, waste and bicker.” Among those featured alongside the North Carolina volunteer was Malcolm Nance, a star MSNBC commentator, who falsely told audiences he had enlisted for frontline combat against Russian soldiers when, in fact, he spent his time tweeting from a Lviv hotel room.
According to the Times, Routh planned to move volunteers “in some cases illegally, from Pakistan and Iran to Ukraine. He said dozens had expressed interest.
We can probably purchase some passports through Pakistan, since it’s such a corrupt country,” the vagabond told the paper in an interview from Washington DC.
In his 291-page book-length manifesto, “Unwinnable War,” which he published at Amazon and sold for $2.99 – and which is currently listed as #1 in the category of “Schools and Teaching – Routh clamors for the assassination of Russian President Vladimir Putin, fantasizes about Trump’s assassination as well, and urges the US military to “instigate” a nuclear war with Russia.
Among those Routh described meeting in his book was Spanish celebrity chef and business mogul Jose Andres, a close ally of the Biden administration and “culinary ambassador” for the State Department.
Following news of Routh’s arrest, NAFO members worked to disassociate themselves from the accused would-be assassin.
Routh’s apparent assassination attempt took place at a zenith of proxy war hysteria, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky demanding the Biden administration grant him long range weapons and green lights strikes deep in Russian territory. A column published from Kiev this September 14 by Fareed Zakaria, a close ally of the Biden administration, highlighted the panic that has gripped proxy warriors over a potential Trump victory.
According to Zakaria, “The delay in American aid during the past year, caused by infighting among stubborn Republicans in Congress, has contributed to the deterioration of the situation on the ground, and many now fear what will happen if Trump wins in November.”
Routh has yet to discuss his motives for bringing an assault rifle to a golf course just hundreds of yards from Trump’s location. Perhaps his target was not only the former president, but a potential settlement to the Ukraine proxy war.
3. “On the Second Trump Assassination Attempt: What We Know So Far” by Lambert Strether; Naked Capitalism; 9/16/2024.
. . . . Routh’s Biography
We know more about Routh’s criminal record (below) and exploits in Ukraine (further below) than we know about the (at the point very disputed) rest of his life. From AP:
Records show Routh, 58, lived in North Carolina for most of his life before moving in 2018 to Kaaawa, Hawaii, where he and his son operated a company building sheds, according to an archived version of the webpage for the business.
(From memory, Routh’s business was on land owned by his girlfriend; from Hawaii he also ran at least one under-5K GoFundMe for Ukraine.) In Routh’s younger days:
That was a sharp departure from a younger Routh, profiled in the same newspaper in 1991 for his assistance in helping defend a woman against an alleged rapist. Routh, then 25, was wearing a coat and tie in a large photo accompanying the story. He was dubbed a “super citizen” and awarded a Law Enforcement Oscar by the Greensboro chapter of the International Union of Police Associations. The headline on the story: “Crimefighting pays.”
Subsequently, Routh accumulated quite a criminal record. From NBC:
Court records show more than 100 criminal counts have been filed against Ryan Routh in North Carolina, most in Guilford County, which underlies Greensboro. The exact outcome of each case was not immediately clear.
Records also show convictions for carrying a concealed weapon, possession of stolen property and hit-and-run. In those cases, which included misdemeanor convictions for violations such as resisting an officer and driving on a suspended license, the defendant received a suspended sentence and parole or probation. In 2002, court records show, he was convicted of possessing a weapon of mass destruction — a machine gun.
When I hear “WMD,” I think atomic or bio-weapons, not mere machine guns (more on that arrest here). So that comes as a bit of a relief. . . .
. . . . Ryan Routh’s political support evolved from Trump in 2016 to Gabbard in 2020, then Ramaswamy and Haley in 2024.
The salient feature of Routh’s political life, recently, seems to have been support for Ukraine. Aggregator Ukrainska Pravda summarizes CNN:
[Routh] had expressed support for Ukraine on social media following Russia’s invasion. Quote from CNN: “Ryan Wesley Routh, who authorities suspect was planning to attack former President Donald Trump as he played a round of golf, expressed strong support for Ukraine in dozens of posts on X in 2022, saying he was willing to die in the fight and that ‘we need to burn the Kremlin to the ground’.” Details: Routh had encouraged foreigners, through Facebook, to join the war [on Ukraine’s side – ed.]. CNN added that Routh referred to himself as an “off-the-books liaison” of the Ukrainian government and encouraged soldiers from Afghanistan to fight for Ukraine.
. . . . Questions and Loose Ends
(1) How did Routh get the gun?
I am nothing like an expert in America’s admittedly porous gun laws. It does seem to me, however, that a person like Routh, with multiple criminal counts and several convictions, one for possessing a machine gun (!) was a less than ideal candidate for membership in a well-regulated militia (though to be fair, that seems to be what he wanted to do in Ukraine, whether he did so or not). So how did Routh get the gun? Amazon? A gun-show? Did he find it under a toadstool? UPDATE The same question goes for the car. Who’s was it? His? Family or friend’s?
(2) How did Routh know Trump would be on the course?
From AP:
Trump’s plans to golf Sunday were not part of any public schedule, on days he is not campaigning, he can often be found golfing at one of his courses. Trump International Golf Club, West Palm Beach, about a 10-minute drive from his Mar-a-Lago residence, is a favorite.
So how did Routh know to find Trump at that place and time? It makes no sense that he set himself up with the weaponry, the ceramics, and a GoPro, on the off-chance that Trump might appear in his sights.
(3) How did Routh plan the assassination from out of state?
Routh grew up in North Carolina, lived in Hawaii, and then (to guess at his itinerary, which we don’t know either) flew to Miami to assassinate Trump. Not cheap, and not something to do on a whim). From the Daily Mail:
[Politico’s Neil] Caputo says that what’s bedeviled both observers and authorities is how Routh – who moved from North Carolina to Hawaii in the 2010s – was able to plot this from out of state.
‘The question no one’s able to answer yet and hopefully will be answered: the alleged assassin appeared to have been from out of state. How did he drive down there? How did he case the joint? How did he know when the former president would be there and come within his potential line of sight?’ . . . .
. . . . FWIW, at least one International Legiion spokesperson, King Jack Strong (love the moniker), disowned Routh as of June 21 of this year:
Warning about Ryan Routh: he is not, and never has been, associated with the International Legion or the Ukrainian Armed Forces at all. He is not, & never has been, a legion recruiter. He is misrepresenting himself and lying to many people.
(Of course, Strong would disavow Routh, but in June?) Then again, here is Routh being interviewed by the Times in 2023:
In the interview, Mr. Routh said he was in Washington to meet with the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, known as the Helsinki Commission “for two hours” to help push for more support for Ukraine. The commission is led by members of Congress and staffed by congressional aides. It is influential on matters of democracy and security and has been vocal in supporting Ukraine.
The Helsinki Commission had Paul Massaro as its staff director. Here is Massaro with an Azov flag:
(4) How spook adjacent was Routh?
Ed Snowden comments:
Routh should already have been on somebody’s list for the machine gun conviction. It’s very hard for me to believe that Routh could have run around Ukraine raising money, talking to the Times, Semafor, and Newsweek Romania, attempting to recruit foreign fighters, and ingratiating himself with various “volunteer” organizations, without getting on some sort of spook’s list (since Ukraine is, after all, crawling with spooks). So Snowden’s careful placing of the burden of proof — “zero contact” — is appropriate, and I don’t think our organs of state security will be able to meet it.
(I have seen two sighting shots for Routh’s handler, if any: One is for Soo Kim, late of the CIA, now of RAND, but the screenshot purporting to link them does not show Routh’s account); the second is for Malcolm Nance, which would make me happy, but the nexus seems to be that they were both quoted in the same New York Times story.) . . . .
4. “West Experiences Blowback From Fostering Fascists In Ukraine;” Moon of Alabama; 09/16/2024.
At the start of the Special Military Operation in February 2022 I warned of the blowback that, I asserted, would likely come if the West continued to pamper Nazi groups in Ukraine:
The U.S. aim is to create an insurgency in the Ukraine.
The Coming Ukrainian Insurgency — Foreign Affairs
Russia’s Invasion Could Unleash Forces the Kremlin Can’t ControlSince 2015 the CIA has trained Ukrainian groups for exactly that purpose.
CIA-trained Ukrainian paramilitaries may take central role if Russia invades — Yahoo
CIA support for Ukrainian Nazis has a long history.
Op-Ed: The CIA has backed Ukrainian insurgents before. Let’s learn from those mistakes — LA Times
A new Nazi insurgency in eastern Europe is an exceptionally bad idea. Fascist groups from everywhere would join in. A few years from now it may well lead to Nazi terror in many European countries. Have we learned really nothing from the war on Syria and the ISIS campaign?
Me and Ivan Katchanovski were probably the only ones who had warned of this:
Katchanovski adds that, “This is also going to have a dangerous effect on Ukraine and potentially other countries because now, basically, Nazis in Ukraine are made into national heroes.” He also noted that Azov (as well as Western governments) has consistently pressured Zelensky — including with threats, and even before Russia invaded — not to seek a peace deal with Russia or withdraw forces from the Donbas region. In February, Azov branded Zelensky a “servant of the Russian people” after he suggested that he might negotiate with Moscow.
Katchanovski said that the valorization of the Azov Regiment is comparable to how the West initially supported the predecessors of the Taliban in their fight against the Soviet Union’s intervention in the war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and also risks inspiring yet more far-right activists from other countries to join the conflict in Ukraine in order to gain military experience, potentially causing a blowback effect if they make it home.
Yesterday one avid U.S. supporter of the fascists in Ukraine tried to assassinate the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump:
Jack Poso 🇺🇸 @JackPosobiec — 1:39 UTC · Sep 16, 2024
EXCLUSIVE: Attempted Trump assassin Ryan Routh appeared in a propaganda video for the AZOV BATTALLION in May 2022
Embedded video . . . .. . . . Members of Azov and other ‘nationalist’ groupings in Ukraine are now experienced fighters. The have the means to fight as there are lots of Ukrainian weapons in unaccountable hands (machine translation):
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia in Ukraine, more than 270,945 weapons have disappeared or been stolen.
...
In less than 2024, more weapons were stolen or lost than in the whole of last year — 78,217 units. At the same time, it is 4 times more than before the start of a full-scale war.These weapons can be easily smuggled into Europe to target any politician who dares to pressure Ukraine into accepting an end of the war.
The attempted assassination of Trump is only one of the first of such incidents. (The motives for the assassination attempt against the Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico are still unknown.)
Many such incidents, predominantly in Europe, are likely to follow.
5. Most of the four programs highlighting the evolution and application of the Intermarium concept consist of reading and analysis of a long academic paper by Marlene Laruelle and Ellen Rivera. Of paramount significance in this discussion is the pivotal role of Ukrainian fascist organizations in the Intermarium and closely connected Promethean networks, from the post World War I period, through the time between the World Wars, through the Cold War and up to and including the Maidan coup.
Military, economic and political networking has employed the Intermarium idea, with what the paper terms the “ideological underpinnings” stemming from the evolution of the Ukrainian fascist milieu in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Some of the most important U.S. think tanks and associated military individuals and institutions embody this continuity: ” . . . . The continuity of institutional and individual trajectories from Second World War collaborationists to Cold War-era anti-communist organizations to contemporary conservative U.S. think tanks is significant for the ideological underpinnings of today’s Intermarium revival. . . .”
We present key excerpts of the paper to underscore dominant features of this evolutionary continuity:
- A key player in the events that brought the OUN successor organizations to power in Ukraine has been the Atlantic Council. It receives backing from NATO, the State Department, Lithuania and Ukrainian Oligarch Viktor Pinchuk. The think tank also receives major funding from the Ukrainian World Congress, which evolved from the OUN. ” . . . . In 1967, the World Congress of Free Ukrainians was founded in New York City by supporters of Andriy Melnyk. [The head of the OUN‑M, also allied with Nazi Germany.–D.E.] It was renamed the Ukrainian World Congress in 1993. In 2003, the Ukrainian World Congress was recognized by the United Nations Economic and Social Council as an NGO with special consultative status. It now appears as a sponsor of the Atlantic Council . . . . The continuity of institutional and individual trajectories from Second World War collaborationists to Cold War-era anti-communist organizations to contemporary conservative U.S. think tanks is significant for the ideological underpinnings of today’s Intermarium revival. . . .”
- Ukrainian proto-fascist forces were at the core of Josef Pilsudski’s Polish-led Intermarium and overlapping Promethean organizations. Those forces coalesced into the OUN. ” . . . . According to the British scholar and journalist Stephen Dorril, the Promethean League served as an anti-communist umbrella organization for anti-Soviet exiles displaced after the Ukrainian government of Simon Petlura (1879–1926) gave up the fight against the Soviets in 1922.[12] . . . . as Dorril affirms, ‘the real leadership and latent power within the Promethean League emanated from the Petlura-dominated Ukrainian Democratic Republic in exile and its Polish sponsors. The Poles benefited directly from this arrangement, as Promethean military assets were absorbed into the Polish army, with Ukrainian, Georgian and Armenian contract officers not uncommon in the ranks.’[13] The alliance between Piłsudski and Petlura became very unpopular among many Western Ukrainians, as it resulted in Polish domination of their lands. This opposition joined the insurgent Ukrainian Military Organization (Ukrainska viiskova orhanizatsiia, UVO—founded 1920), which later transformed into the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (Orhanizatsiia ukrainskykh natsionalistiv, OUN). . . .”
- According to former Army intelligence officer William Gowen (a source used and trusted by John Loftus and Mark Aarons) the Intermarium and Promethean network assets were used by Third Reich intelligence during World War II. ” . . . . Based on Gowen’s reports, such authors as Christopher Simpson, Stephen Dorril, Mark Aarons, and John Loftus have suggested that the networks of the Promethean League and the Intermarium were utilized by German intelligence. . . .”
- Not surprisingly, the Intermarium/Promethean milieu appears to have been centrally involved in the Nazi escape networks, the Vatican-assisted “Ratlines,” in particular. ” . . . . American intelligence began to take notice of the Intermarium network in August 1946[42] in the framework of Operation Circle, a Counterintelligence Corps (CIC) project the original goal of which was to determine how networks inside the Vatican had spirited away so many Nazi war criminals and collaborators, mostly to South America.[43] Among the group of CIC officers involved in the operation was Levy’s source William Gowen. Then a young officer based in Rome, Gowen suspected the Intermarium network to be behind Nazi war criminals and collaborators’ extensive escape routes from Europe. . . .”
- It comes as no surprise, as well, that U.S. intelligence absorbed the Intermarium/Promethean networks after the war. ” . . . . According to Aarons and Loftus, although he had initially been thoroughly opposed to this course of action, by ‘early July 1947, Gowen was strongly advocating that American intelligence should take over Intermarium; before long, the CIC officer was no longer hunting for Nazis, but recruiting them.’[49] . . . .”
- One of the main components of the “Intermarium continuity” is the ABN—the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations. The OUN and associated elements constitute the most important element of the ABN. ” . . . . a vast number of anti-communist organizations were formed in the immediate post-war period and supported by the US.[57] They constitute one of the main components of the Intermarium ‘genealogical tree,’ in the sense that they revived the memory of Piłsudski’s attempts to unify Central and Eastern Europe against Soviet Russia and gave them new life, but blended this memory with far-right tones inspired by collaboration with Nazi Germany.[58] The most important of the European anti-communist organizations was the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations (ABN). . . . Because fascist movements were, in the 1930s, the first to organize themselves against the Soviet Union, the ABN recruited massively among their ranks and served as an umbrella for many former collaborationist paramilitary organizations in exile, amongst them the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists—Bandera (OUN‑B), the Croatian Ustaše, the Romanian Iron Guard, and the Slovakian Hlinka Guard.[59] It thus contributed to guaranteeing the survival of their legacies at least until the end of the Cold War. According to the liberal Institute for Policy Studies think tank, created by two former aides to Kennedy advisors, the ABN was the ‘largest and most important umbrella for former Nazi collaborators in the world.’ . . . .”
- In addition to the OUN/Ukrainian fascist milieu, the Croatian Ustashe fascists became a dominant element. This is fundamental to the Azov Battalion’s Intermarium project, discussed in FTR #‘s 1096 and 1097. ” . . . . The most active groups within the ABN became the Ukrainian and Croatian organizations, particularly the Ukrainian OUN.[61] The OUN, under the leadership of Andriy Melnyk (1890–1964), collaborated with the Nazi occupiers from the latter’s invasion of Poland in September 1939. The Gestapo trained Mykola Lebed and the adherents of Melnyk’s younger competitor, Stepan Bandera (1909–1959), in sabotage, guerrilla warfare, and assassinations. The OUN’s 1941 split into the so-called OUN‑B, following Stepan Bandera, and OUN‑M, following Andriy Melnyk,[62] did not keep both factions from continuing to collaborate with the Germans. . . .”
- Former SS and Abwehr officer Theodor Oberlaender–the political officer for the UPA and the Nachtigall Battalion during the Lviv Pogrom of June 1941–was vital to the continuity of the OUN and UPA and thus, the Intermarium” . . . .While in Soviet Ukraine the UPA kept on fighting against Moscow until the early 1950s, their capacities were exhausted. . . . As Federal Minister for Displaced Persons, Refugees, and the War-Damaged during the Adenauer government, Oberländer played a crucial role in the rise of the ABN and allowed Ukrainian collaborationists to take the lead in it. Yaroslav Stetsko (1912–1986), who presided over the Ukrainian collaborationist government in Lviv from as early as 30 June 1941, led the ABN from its creation in 1946 until his death in 1986. . . .”
- The Army’s Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) confirmed the primacy of the OUN/B within the ABN. Note the continuity of OUN and UPA guerilla warfare in Ukraine, begun under third Reich auspices and enjoying post World War II support from CIA, and OPC. This has been covered in AFA #1 and FTR #777.) : ” . . . . CIC confirmed that by 1948 both the ‘Intermarium’ and the UPA (Ukrainian partisan command) reported to the ABN president, Yaroslav Stetsko. The UPA in turn had consolidated all the anti-Soviet partisans under its umbrella. Yaroslav Stetsko was also Secretary of OUN/B and second in command to Bandera, who had the largest remaining partisan group behind Soviet lines under his direct command. Thus, OUN/B had achieved the leadership role among the anti-Communist exiles and was ascendant by 1950 . . . .”
- Contemporary Ukraine is the focal point of the reincarnated Intermarium concept. ” . . . . The most recent reincarnation of the Intermarium has taken form in Ukraine, especially among the Ukrainian far right, which has re-appropriated the concept by capitalizing on the solid ideological and personal continuity between actors of the Ukrainian far right in the interwar and Cold War periods and their heirs today. . . .”
- The continuity of the Intermarium concept as manifested in contemporary Ukraine is epitomized by the role of Yaroslava Stetsko (Yaroslav’s widow and successor as a decisive ABN and OUN leader). Note the networking between her Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists and Svoboda. “. . . . This continuity is exemplified by the wife of long-time ABN leader Yaroslav Stetsko, Yaroslava Stetsko (1920–2003), a prominent figure in the Ukrainian post-Second World War émigré community who became directly involved in post-Soviet Ukrainian politics. Having joined the OUN at the age of 18, she became an indispensable supporter of the ABN after the war . . . . In July 1991, she returned to Ukraine, and in the following year formed the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists (CUN), a new political party established on the basis of the OUN, presiding over both.[129] Although the CUN never achieved high election results, it cooperated with the Social-National Party of Ukraine (SNPU), which later changed its name to Svoboda, the far-right Ukrainian party that continues to exist. . . .”
- Yaroslava Stetsko’s CUN was co-founded by her husband’s former secretary in the 1980s, Roman Svarych. Minister of Justice in the Viktor Yuschenko government (as well as both Timoshenko governments), Svarych became the spokesman and a major recruiter for the Azov Battalion. ” . . . . The co-founder of the CUN and formerly Yaroslav Stetsko’s private secretary, the U.S.-born Roman Zvarych (1953), represents a younger generation of the Ukrainian émigré community active during the Cold War and a direct link from the ABN to the Azov Battalion. . . . Zvarych participated in the activities of the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations in the 1980s. . . . In February 2005, after Viktor Yushchenko’s election, Zvarych was appointed Minister of Justice. . . . According to Andriy Biletsky, the first commander of the Azov battalion, a civil paramilitary unit created in the wake of the Euromaidan, Zvarych was head of the headquarters of the Azov Central Committee in 2015 and supported the Azov battalion with ‘volunteers’ and political advice through his Zvarych Foundation. . . .”
- The “Intermarium Continuity” is inextricable with the historical revisionism about the roles of the OUN and UPA in World War II. That revisionism is institutionalized in the Institute of National Remembrance. ” . . . . The reintroduction of the Intermarium notion in Ukraine is closely connected to the broad rehabilitation of the OUN and UPA, as well as of their main hero, Stepan Bandera. . . . During his presidency (2005–2010), and particularly through the creation of the Institute for National Remembrance, Viktor Yushchenko built the image of Bandera as a simple Ukrainian nationalist fighting for his country’s independence . . . .”
- As discussed in numerous programs, another key element in the “Intermarium Continuity” is Kateryna Chumachenko, an OUN operative who served in the State Department and Ronald Reagan’s administration. She married Viktor Yuschenko. ” . . . . It is not unlikely Yushchenko’s readiness during his presidency (2005–2010) to open up to right-wing tendencies of the Ukrainian exile leads back to his wife, who had connections to the ABN. Kateryna Chumachenko [Yushchenko], born 1961 in Chicago, was socialised there in the Ukrainian exile youth organisation SUM (Spilka Ukrajinskoji Molodi, Ukrainian Youth Organisation) in the spirit of the OUN. Via the lobby association Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA) she obtained a post as ‘special assistant’ in the U.S. State Department in 1986, and was from 1988 to 1989 employed by the Office of Public Liaison in the White House. . . .”
- Embodying the “Intermarium Continuity” are the lustration laws, which make it a criminal offence to tell the truth about the OUN and UPA’s roles in World War II. Note Volodymyr Viatrovych’s position as minister of education. ” . . . . This rehabilitation trend accelerated after the EuroMaidan. In 2015, just before the seventieth anniversary of Victory Day, Volodymyr Viatrovych, minister of education and long-time director of the Institute for the Study of the Liberation Movement, an organization founded to promote the heroic narrative of the OUN–UPA, called on the parliament to vote for a set of four laws that codified the new, post-Maidan historiography. Two of them are particularly influential in the ongoing memory war with Russia. One decrees that OUN and UPA members are to be considered ‘fighters for Ukrainian independence in the twentieth century,’ making public denial of this unlawful. . . .”
- As discussed discussed in FTR #‘s 1096 and 1097, the Azov Battalion is in the leadership of the revival of the Intermarium concept.” . . . . In this context of rehabilitation of interwar heroes, tensions with Russia, and disillusion with Europe over its perceived lack of support against Moscow, the geopolitical concept of Intermarium could only prosper. It has found its most active promoters on the far right of the political spectrum, among the leadership of the Azov Battalion. . . .”
- Azov’s Intermarium Support Group has held three networking conferences to date, bringing together key figures of what are euphemized as “nationalist” organizations. In addition to focusing on the development of what are euphemized as “nationalist” youth organizations, the conference is stressing military organization and preparedness: ” . . . . In 2016, Biletsky created the Intermarium Support Group (ISG),[152] introducing the concept to potential comrades-in-arms from the Baltic-Black Sea region.[153] The first day of the founding conference was reserved for lectures and discussions by senior representatives of various sympathetic organizations, the second day to ‘the leaders of youth branches of political parties and nationalist movements of the Baltic-Black Sea area.’ . . . . It also included ‘military attaches of diplomatic missions from the key countries in the region (Poland, Hungary, Romania and Lithuania). . . .”
- Azov’s third ISG conference continued to advance the military networking characteristics of the earlier gatherings, including the necessity of giving military training to what are euphemized as “nationalist” youth organizations. Note the continued manifestation in the “new” Croatia of Ustachi political culture. ” . . . . On October 13, 2018, the ISG organized its third congress. Besides the Ukrainian hosts, a large share of the foreign speakers from Poland, Lithuania, and Croatia had a (para-)military background, among them advisor to the Polish Defence Minister Jerzy Targalski and retired Brigadier General of the Croatian Armed Forces Bruno Zorica.[156] Among the talking points of Polish military educator Damien Duda were ‘methods of the preparation of a military reserve in youth organizations” and the “importance of paramilitary structures within the framework of the defence complex of a modern state.’ . . . .”
Discussion
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