With the (justifiable) outrage swirling around FBI director (and Mitt Romney backer) James Comey’s public discussion of the discovery of more of Hillary Clinton’s e‑mails having been discovered, another election-related investigation has gone largely unexamined. Indeed, the importance of the investigation has been downplayed.
Computer experts discovered a link between a server registered to the Trump organization and two servers registered to the Alfa Bank in Moscow, a bank that is part of the Alfa conglomerate discussed in FTR #‘s 530 and 573.
In the Foer piece, and in attempted discrediting articles of same, it is apparent that the investigators do not understand the nature of the entity they are investigating. The journalistic “spin” put on Alfa in the coverage is “Russia/Putin/Kremlin” new Cold War context. Alfa is very, very different.
In FTR #‘s 530, 573 we examnined the nature of Alfa’s history, operations and institutional and economic foundations. It is anything BUT “Kremlin/Putin/Russia.”
It appears to be Underground Reich, all the way, with evidentiary tributaries running in the direction of: the Iran-Contra scandal; the Iraqgate scandal; the oil-for-food scam vis a vis Iraq; malfeasanace by a coterie of GOP bigwigs including Dick Cheney and others close to George W. Bush, and Haley Barbour; money-laundering by powerful international drug syndicates; Chechen warlords and drug-trafficking syndicates; the Royal family of Liechtenstein; the Bank al-Taqwa (which helped finance al-Qaeda); the Marc Rich operations; Eastern European and Russian associates of Wolfgang Bohringer, one of Mohamed Atta’s close associates in South Florida; and the Carl Duisberg Fellowship, which brought Mohamed Atta to Germany from Egypt and may have helped him into the U.S.
The program highlights major aspects of the investigation into the Alfa/Trump link:
The Trump/Alfa link was not a malware attack, as some of the computer scientists initially thought: ” . . . . The researchers quickly dismissed their initial fear that the logs represented a malware attack. The communication wasn’t the work of bots. The irregular pattern of server lookups actually resembled the pattern of human conversation—conversations that began during office hours in New York and continued during office hours in Moscow. It dawned on the researchers that this wasn’t an attack, but a sustained relationship between a server registered to the Trump Organization and two servers registered to an entity called Alfa Bank. . . .”
The set-up was highly unusual: ” . . . . The researchers had initially stumbled in their diagnosis because of the odd configuration of Trump’s server. ‘I’ve never seen a server set up like that,’ says Christopher Davis, who runs the cybersecurity firm HYAS InfoSec Inc. and won a FBI Director Award for Excellence for his work tracking down the authors of one of the world’s nastiest botnet attacks. ‘It looked weird, and it didn’t pass the sniff test.’ The server was first registered to Trump’s business in 2009 and was set up to run consumer marketing campaigns. It had a history of sending mass emails on behalf of Trump-branded properties and products. Researchers were ultimately convinced that the server indeed belonged to Trump. (Click here to see the server’s registration record.) But now this capacious server handled a strangely small load of traffic, such a small load that it would be hard for a company to justify the expense and trouble it would take to maintain it. ‘I get more mail in a day than the server handled,’ Davis says. . . .”
The article details more unusual aspects of the link: ” . . . . That wasn’t the only oddity. When the researchers pinged the server, they received error messages. They concluded that the server was set to accept only incoming communication from a very small handful of IP addresses. . . . Eighty-seven percent of the DNS lookups involved the two Alfa Bank servers. ‘It’s pretty clear that it’s not an open mail server,’ Camp told me. ‘These organizations are communicating in a way designed to block other people out.’ . . . .”
Paul Vixie–one of the premier experts in the field–felt the connection was highly unusual: ” . . . . Earlier this month, the group of computer scientists passed the logs to Paul Vixie. In the world of DNS experts, there’s no higher authority. Vixie wrote central strands of the DNS code that makes the internet work. After studying the logs, he concluded, ‘The parties were communicating in a secretive fashion. The operative word is secretive. This is more akin to what criminal syndicates do if they are putting together a project.’ Put differently, the logs suggested that Trump and Alfa had configured something like a digital hotline connecting the two entities, shutting out the rest of the world, and designed to obscure its own existence. . . .”
The available evidence indicates that the hookup indicated “human-level communication”: ” . . . I put the question of what kind of activity the logs recorded to the University of California’s Nicholas Weaver, another computer scientist not involved in compiling the logs. ‘I can’t attest to the logs themselves,’ he told me, ‘but assuming they are legitimate they do indicate effectively human-level communication.’ . . . ”
More about the nature of the communication, from the scientist using the code-name “Tea Leaves”: ” . . . . Tea Leaves and his colleagues plotted the data from the logs on a timeline. What it illustrated was suggestive: The conversation between the Trump and Alfa servers appeared to follow the contours of political happenings in the United States. ‘At election-related moments, the traffic peaked,’ according to Camp. There were considerably more DNS lookups, for instance, during the two conventions. . . .”
The scientists attempted to get the public to pay attention to their investigation and New York Times writers turned their attention to the case: ” . . . In September, the scientists tried to get the public to pay attention to their data. One of them posted a link to the logs in a Reddit thread. Around the same time, the New York Times’ Eric Lichtblau and Steven Lee Myers began chasing the story.* (They are still pursuing it.) Lichtblau met with a Washington representative of Alfa Bank on Sept. 21, and the bank denied having any connection to Trump. . . .”
Things got “interesting” after that. According to the computer scientists, the Trump Organization shut down the server! As the brilliant Berkeley researcher Peter Dale Scott noted, in a different context, “The cover-up obviates the conspiracy. ” . . . . In September, the scientists tried to get the public to pay attention to their data. One of them posted a link to the logs in a Reddit thread. Around the same time, the New York Times’ Eric Lichtblau and Steven Lee Myers began chasing the story.* (They are still pursuing it.) Lichtblau met with a Washington representative of Alfa Bank on Sept. 21, and the bank denied having any connection to Trump. . . . The computer scientists believe there was one logical conclusion to be drawn: The Trump Organization shut down the server after Alfa was told that the Times might expose the connection. Weaver told me the Trump domain was ‘very sloppily removed.’ Or as another of the researchers put it, it looked like ‘the knee was hit in Moscow, the leg kicked in New York.’. . . . Four days later, on Sept. 27, the Trump Organization created a new host name, trump1.contact-client.com, which enabled communication to the very same server via a different route. When a new host name is created, the first communication with it is never random. To reach the server after the resetting of the host name, the sender of the first inbound mail has to first learn of the name somehow. It’s simply impossible to randomly reach a renamed server. ‘That party had to have some kind of outbound message through SMS, phone, or some noninternet channel they used to communicate [the new configuration],’ Paul Vixie told me. The first attempt to look up the revised host name came from Alfa Bank. ‘If this was a public server, we would have seen other traces,’ Vixie says. ‘The only look-ups came from this particular source.‘According to Vixie and others, the new host name may have represented an attempt to establish a new channel of communication. But media inquiries into the nature of Trump’s relationship with Alfa Bank, which suggested that their communications were being monitored, may have deterred the parties from using it. Soon after the New York Times began to ask questions, the traffic between the servers stopped cold. . . .”
Not surprisingly, the FBI has dismissed the relevance of the computer link.
This dismissal comes against the background of several late-breaking developments:
The unsuccessful attempt by Alfa subsidiary Crown Resources to buy Marc Rich’s commodities firm: ” . . . A deal to sell the Swiss-based commodities operation of former U.S. fugitive financier Marc Rich to Russia-owned energy trading group Crown Resources is off. . . . Crown is owned by the Alfa Group conglomerate. . . . .”
The subsequent successful attempt by Alfa player Mikhail Fridman to purchase the Marc Rich firm: ” . . . Mikhail Fridman: ‘Defendant Mikhail Fridman currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of co-conspirator Alfa Bank and as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Defendant Consortium Alfa Group. Fridman further served on the Board of VimpelCom, a NYSE company, and has control over Golden Telecom, a NASDAQ company ... purchased the United States trading firm owned by American, Mark Rich, the one time commodities baron pardoned by President Clinton with much controversy. . . .”
The FBI’s long-dormant Twitter account began tweeting files about Bill Clinton’s pardon of Marc Rich, shortly after the official dismissal of investigations into the Alfa/Trump link: ” . . . . Now, a new interagency mystery is raising questions about whether the F.B.I. has become politicized, just days before the presidential election. On Sunday, a long-dormant F.B.I. Twitter account suddenly sprung to life, blasting out a series of links to case files that cast the Clintons in a decidedly negative light. . . . Then, on Tuesday, the “FBI Records Vault” account—which had not tweeted at all between October 2015 and Sunday—published a link to records related to the 15-year-old, long-closed investigation into former President Bill Clinton’s pardoning of onetime commodities trader turned fugitive Marc Rich. The post, which was quickly retweeted thousands of times, links to a heavily redacted document that repeatedly references the agency’s “Public Corruption” unit—less-than-ideal optics for Hillary Clinton, who has spent her entire campaign fighting her image as a corrupt politician. . . .”
FBI Director James Comey was in charge of the original Marc Rich investigation and the pardon of Rich by Bill Clinton. Is there a connection between the official dismissal of the investigation into the Alfa/Trump link by the FBI, the tweeting by the FBI of the files on the Clinton pardon of Marc Rich and the fact that it was Comey who presided over the Marc Rich investigations? ” . . . . In 2002, Comey, then a federal prosecutor, took over an investigation into President Bill Clinton’s 2001 pardon of financier Marc Rich, who had been indicted on a laundry list of charges before fleeing the country. The decision set off a political firestorm focused on accusations that Rich’s ex-wife Denise made donations to the Democratic Party, the Clinton Library and Hillary Clinton’s 2000 Senate campaign as part of a plan to get Rich off the hook. Comey ultimately decided not to pursue the case. The kicker: Comey himself had overseen Rich’s prosecution between 1987 and 1993. . . .”
Program Highlights Include: details of the Carl Duisberg Society’s links to Atta and to major German corporations; discussion of the Alfa Fellowhip against the background of German Ostpolitik discussed in FTR #‘s 918 and 919; detailed analysis of Viktor Kozeny associates Fridman and (Pyotr) Aven (Kozeny employed Bohringer as a pilot); a summary analysis of the major points in FTR #‘s 530 and 573.
Drawing together information presented in numerous broadcasts over the period of several years, this program highlights the endeavors of Glenn Greenwald’s journalistic/financial angel Pierre Omidyar. Guided by the Austrian School/free-market, neo-liberal economics of Hernando De Soto, Omidyar’s “philanthropic” efforts are closely aligned with covert action implemented in concert with U.S. intelligence cutouts such as U.S. Agency for International Development, the National Endowment for Democracy and the Ford Foundation.
Focusing on the Omidyar Network’s SKS organization, the discussion notes the brutal, lethal results of its micro-finance programs in India. Omidyar Network’s key Indian functionary Jayant Sinha, took time off to help direct the election campaign of Narendra Modi, whose BJP is a cat’s paw for the RSS, a Hindu nationalist/fascist organization inspired by Hitler and Mussolini. Three quarter of Modi’s cabinet was selected from the RSS, to which Modi belonged. (Gandhi was assassinated by a member of RSS.)
One of the key vehicles for Omidyar Network’s “philanthropy” in India is the Rural Development Institute (renamed “Landesa”), developed by Roy Prosterman. Prosterman’s RDI was a key feature of the Phoenix assassination program in Vietnam. Citizen Omidyar has also helped to fund the return to power of the OUN/B fascists in Ukraine, again partnering with U.S. intelligence cutouts such as U.S. AID and the National Endowment for Democracy.
Program Highlights Include: Modi’s projected rollback of India’s laws against child labor; the stifling of freedom of speech under Modi’s regime; the Modi government’s complicity in lethal anti-Muslim vigilante actions; the neo-liberal economic goals of Omidyar Network’s “land acquisition” micro-finance projects; Omidyar protege Oleh Rybachuk’s participation in the Yuschenko government; Rybachuk’s efforts to integrate Ukraine into NATO and the EU; Omidyar protege Svitlana Zalischuk’s efforts to integrate Ukraine into NATO and the EU, mentored by Rybachuk; Omidyar protege Zalischuk’s efforts on behalf of the lustration laws, seen as the legal foundation for a broad-based purge; Zalischuk’s efforts promoting networking between Ukrainian Nazi parties such as Svoboda and the so-called “moderate” parties; Omidyar’s partnering with the National Endowment for Democracy to create a “fact-funding” service; review of the development of the NED as a cutout for U.S. intelligence by William Casey and the Reagan administration.
Happily recovered from major heart surgery, heroic investigative journalist Daniel Hopsicker rejoins our airwaves to recount some of his investigations, old and new. We begin with Daniel’s reportage on Jeb Bush’s role in covering up the milieu of Huffman Aviation and Mohamed Atta’s activities in South Florida. Daniel’s investigations into intelligence-community-connected drug smuggling began with his investigation into Barry Seal. Seal’s involvement with spook activities apparently began with his membership in a Civil Air Patrol unit commanded by CIA officer David Ferrie, a unit that included Lee Harvey Oswald. Much of the program was spent highlighting some of Daniel’s overlapping stories about the intelligence community and the drug traffic. Program highlights include: the role of H.L. Hunt’s granddaughter in the activities surrounding what Daniel terms “Cocaine One;” the heroism of several Mexican women who are telling the truth about the involvement of the Mexican government with the cartels; the bust of a major drug smuggling flight on property owned by socialite Paris Hilton; a constellation of apparent drug smuggling activities surrounding actor Vince Vaughn’s mother.
Continuing discussion and analysis from FTR #868, this program underscores the possible role of Swedish and Scandinavian fascists overlapping both WACL and Sapo, the Swedish intelligence service. Involved with escape networks forged to aid the international flight from justice of fascists and Nazis, the principals in these networks exhibited behavior around the time of the Palme killing that is suggestive. Worth noting in this regard is the late Stieg Larsson’s investigation of the Palme killing, which pointed in the direction of some of the same figures examined in the Kruger essay. The program concludes with an examination of the Bofors munitions firm and its corporate links to Third Reich industry and the postwar Bormann capital network, with which it may well be affiliated.
The first of two programs highlighting the unsolved 1986 assassination of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, the broadcast features a 1988 article by the brilliant freelance Danish journalist Henrik Kruger, author of “The Great Heroin Coup: Drugs, Intelligence and International Fascism.” Through this examination of the intersected networks that Kruger has termed (in “The Great Heroin Coup”) “The International Fascista,” we are able to observe the elements of Operation Condor, key individuals and institutions comprising the former World Anti-Communist League, individuals and organizations underlying “the Strategy of Tension” in Italy, as well as the cast of characters that managed the Iran-Contra machinations. Long the focal point of death threats and assassination attempts, Palme had earned the lethal ire of fascists in North and South America, as well as Europe. The failure to solve the killing, despite the passage of almost 30 years and some very strong evidentiary tributaries, underscores the gravitas of the forces that destroyed Palme. Kruger’s article also serves as something of an “in vitro” window into many of the political networks we have examined over the years.
Returning once again to “L’Affaire Snowden,” we note the revealingly profound discontinuities in this event and the key characters involved. We also revisit some of the key features of what appears to have been an Underground Reich intelligence operation. Far from being “shocked, shocked” by the Snowden material, the German BND (successor organization to the Reinhard Gehlen spy outfit) HELPED the NSA spy on foreign leaders. The Snowden “op” also serves as a rationalization for Europe’s assault on American Big Tech and a push for censorship of the Internet. As the New York Stock Exchange, United Airlines and the Wall Street Journal simultaneously experienced what were described as technical glitches, we note that the “Anonymous” hacker group (whoever they are) foreshadowed the event. Program Highlights Include: Electronic Frontier Foundation John Perry Barlow’s work as Dick Cheney’s campaign manager; the EFF’s links to Snowden and the hacker encharged with securing Glenn Greenwald’s computer; the EFF’s work shilling for Big Tobacco; Glenn Greenwald’s work shilling for Big Tobacco; allegations that the Snowden leak compromised American and British spies to Russian and Chinese intelligence; the fact that one of the people with “root access” to the OPM data base was in Argentina (an epicenter of the Underground Reich).
This ninth interview fills in the details concerning a mysterious cast of characters in Indonesia who were investigating the late president Sukarno’s Revolutionary Fund. That fund appears to have derived from large amounts of World War II wealth stolen by Japan and Germany. Dr. Sosro Husodo alleged in a book that a mysterious Nazi named Dr. Anton Poch was actually Hitler. That allegation has never been proved, however the stories of Poch, Husodo, Dr. Edison Damanik and an Indonesian arms dealer named Soeryo Goeritno are indicative of a massive, ongoing cover-up of the political and economic dynamics underlying their situations. Expanding the scope of the inquiry to the capital flows asssociated with the Third Reich, its postwar underground phase and institutions associated with and/or evolving from Nazism, the programs sets forth a number of considerations: the financing of the postwar German economic miracle by German corporations; the frustration of the de-Nazification of corporate Germany by the Third Reich’s prominent American economic backers; the enormous scale of the Nazi economic diaspora; the role of Klaus Barbie and his “Fiancees of Death” in ODESSA-related operations; Colonia Dignidad and its role in laundering ODESSA money.
In our ongoing series of interviews with Peter Levenda, the author of “The Hitler Legacy,” we have highlighted points of discussion relating to WACL, Operation Condor, the Iran/Contra scandal and other elements that might not be familiar to recent/younger readers and listeners. Peter detailed his hair-raising visit to Colonia Dignidad in FTR #839. While going through some boxes in storage, we came across an old essay by the brilliant Danish journalist Henrik Kruger, author of “The Great Heroin Coup,” analyzing the unsolved 1986 assassination of Swedish prime minister Olof Palme. We present that article here, in order to familiarize younger readers and listeners with individuals and institutions we haven’t covered in decades. All of the contents of this website as of 12/19/2014–Dave Emory’s 35+ years of research and broadcasting–as well as hours of videotaped lectures are available on a 32GB flash drive. Dave offers his programs and articles for free–your support is very much appreciated.
In this program, we detail some of the deep politics surrounding the AMIA attack, preparatory to a discussion of developments in the investigation of Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman’s death in FTR #836. The dizzying melange of individuals, institutions and events connected to the AMIA bombing involves: several people linked to former Argentinian president Carlos Menem; individuals linked to the Iran-Contra scandal; neo-Nazi elements in Argentina; investigations into fugitive Nazi war criminals; the resignations of two justice ministers involved in the AMIA investigation; the suspicious deaths of numerous individuals linked to one or another of the elements figuring in several related investigations; evidentiary tributaries linking the AMIA bombing to the Oklahoma City Bombing, the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland and the Achille Lauro hijacking in 1985.
This program begins by revisiting “The Adventures of Eddie the Friendly Spook” Snowden. The “Snowdenistas,” the GOP and the violent, paramilitary, secessionist right constitute a political continuum, the liberal views of most of Snowden’s supporters, notwithstanding. Snowden’s leaking journalist of choice–Citizen Greenwald–continues his pattern of fraternizing and professionally defending Nazis and White Supremacists. Ebay, owned by Snowden’s financial angel–Pierre Omidyar–is a supporter of ALEC, one of the most important of the far-right political engines. Underscoring the extremist nature of the contemporary Republican Party, we note that Texas politicians, including Governor-elect Greg Abbott have been explicitly supportive of paramilitary vigilantes operating along the Mexican border, some of which were stockpiling ammonium nitrate. Douglas MacKinnon (a former Reagan and George H.W. Bush speechwriter) is advocating the secession of a number of states to form a new country called “Reagan.” Having grandstanded as an “anti-terror” bulwark, former Bush (II) Attorney General John Ashcroft is practicing law. One of his clients is weapons dealer Viktor Bout, who supplied weapons to Al Qaeda.