On Mr. Emory’s Patreon site, the most recent one hour talks include a December 4th special on the facts concerning the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Ukrainian television anchor quotes Adolf Eichmann verbatim in this video from UKRAINE 24. This video of Ukraine’s top military medical officer discussing an order to castrate Russian males is an eye-opener. WFMU-FM is podcasting For The Record–You can subscribe to the podcast HERE. Mr. Emory emphatically recommends that listeners/readers get the 32GB flash drive containing all of Mr. Emory’s 43 years on the air, plus a library of old anti-fascist books on easy-to-download PDF files.
In addition to periodic appearances by other researchers and authors on the Zoom Q & A talks, Mr. Emory’s Patreon site has covered the deep political history of the Philippines, the Port Chicago explosion, the lawsuit against the Biden administration to force the release of documents about the JFK assassination, possible false flag in Ukraine prior to the U.S. midterms. Ukrainian television anchor quotes Adolf Eichmann verbatim in this video from UKRAINE 24. This video of Ukraine’s top military medical officer discussing an order to castrate Russian males is an eye-opener. WFMU-FM is podcasting For The Record–You can subscribe to the podcast HERE. Mr. Emory emphatically recommends that listeners/readers get the 32GB flash drive containing all of Mr. Emory’s 43 years on the air, plus a library of old anti-fascist books on easy-to-download PDF files.
Continuing our discussion with Jim DiEugenio about JFK Revisited, we begin with analysis of comparison between the “stab in the back” hypothesis floated by reactionaries in Weimar Germany, denying that they lost World War I, with similar revisionism floated by the right wing concerning America’s defeat in Vietnam.
Bridging discussion that will be continued in our previous program, we note a key quote from the book and documentary by Lisa Pease, noting that JFK stood apart from the Eisenhower/Dulles view that non-alignment among the former colonial territories that achieved independence was the equivalent of pro-Communist orientation.
JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass by Jim DiEugenio; Skyhorse Publishing [HC]; Copyright 2022 by Jim DiEugenio; ISBN 978–1‑5107–7287‑8; p. 352.
. . . . Lisa Pease: His [JFK’s] approach was a radical break from his predecessor. In an oral history interview that Sukarno gave after John Kennedy’s death, he said words to the effect that what made Kennedy special is that he believed non-alignment was not amoral as it had been under John Foster Dulles. I thought that was an interesting way of putting it. . . .
Exemplifying Kennedy’s understanding of how nationalist aspirations were at the forefront of struggles for national independence that were cast into the annihilating Cold War meatgrinder, we detail his trip to Indochina, where he networked with French generals, who told him that France was winning its struggle against the Viet Minh, and then with State Department professional Edmund Gullion, who opined that France was losing the war and would, in the end, lose.
Gullion also told Kennedy that, if the U.S. got involved, it would lose as well. It was Gullion’s conviction that the Vietnamese peoples’ desire for independence trumped anything the West could do.
We note that roughly 80% of the budget of the French war effort was bankrolled by the U.S. We also note that there was a contingency plan developed for a massive U.S. air support operation on behalf of the French called “Operation Vulture.” Part of that plan was the deployment of three atomic bombs for use against the Vietnamese.
For more about Kennedy’s early education about the realities of war in Southeast Asia, see—among other programs, FTR#1031.
This awareness guided JFK’s Vietnam policy, in which he not only resisted tremendous pressure to commit U.S. combat troops to Vietnam, but planned a withdrawal of U.S. forces from Vietnam.
Perhaps the most important change made after JFK’s assassination was Johnson’s negation of Kennedy’s plans to withdraw from Vietnam.
LBJ cancelled Kennedy’s scheduled troop withdrawal, scheduled personnel increases and implemented the 34A program of covert operations against North Vietnam. Executed by South Vietnamese naval commandos using small, American-made patrol boats, these raids were supported by U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin, which were electronically “fingerprinting” North Vietnamese radar installations.
The electronic fingerprinting of North Vietnamese radar was in anticipation of a pre-planned air war, a fundamental part of a plan by LBJ to involve the United States in a full-scale war in Southeast Asia.
Despite having promised during the 1964 campaign that no American combat units would be committed to Vietnam, within three months of the election, the first combat units were dispatched to that unfortunate nation.
In addition to noting that Hubert Humphrey, contrary to popular misconception, was an opponent of Johnson’s war strategy, we note that Robert McNamara was also opposed to it, although he went along with the Commander in Chief’s policies.
McNamara did commission the Pentagon study of Vietnam policy that became the Pentagon Papers.
Jim notes that Noam Chomsky and Professor Howard Zinn initially opposed discussion of how JFK’s assassination changed U.S. Vietnam policy.
There is a clip in the film of a conversation between LBJ and McNamara where LBJ codifies his opposition to the JFK/McNamara policies in Vietnam.
The fledgling nation of Laos was also part of French Indochina, and Jim notes how outgoing President Eisenhower coached President-Elect Kennedy on the necessity of committing U.S. combat forces to Laos.
Again, Kennedy refused to commit U.S. ground forces and engineered a policy of neutrality for Laos.
Whereas JFK had implemented a policy affording neutrality to Laos–against the wishes of the Joint Chiefs, CIA and many of his own cabinet, LBJ scrapped the neutralist policy in favor of a CIA-implemented strategy of employing “narco-militias” such as the Hmong tribesmen as combatants against the Pathet Lao. This counter-insurgency warfare was complemented by a massive aerial bombing campaign.
JFK’s policy vis a vis the war of independence being waged by the French in Algeria is of particular importance.
The program reviews Kennedy’s stance on Algeria. A French colony in North Africa, Algerian independence forces waged a fierce guerrilla war in an attempt at becoming free from France. Once again, Kennedy opposed the Western consensus on Algeria, which sought to retain that property as a French possession.
The French people were divided over the Algerian struggle, and those divisions led to the fall of the Fourth Republic and the rise of Charles De Gaulle. De Gaulle granted Algeria its independence and then faced down the lethal opposition of the OAS, a group of military officers grounded in the fascist collaborationist politics of Vichy France. De Gaulle survived several assassination attempts against him and there are a number of evidentiary tributaries leading between those attempts and the forces that killed Kennedy.
Maurice Brooks Gatlin–one of Guy Banister’s investigators–boasted of having transferred a large sum of money from the CIA to the OAS officers plotting against De Gaulle. In addition, Jean Souetre–a French OAS-linked assassin was in the Dallas Fort Worth area on 11/22/1963.
JFK, Algeria and operational links between JFK’s assassination and OAS attempts on De Gaulle’s life are discussed in FTR#1162.
Note that JFK told the French that he could not control his own intelligence services.
The program concludes with discussion of JFK’s policies with regard to Africa, the Congo in particular. This topic is presented at greater length in our next interview with Jim.
Exploring a deep political, historical and economic dynamic, this program sets forth fundamental aspects of what the late, brilliant Sterling and Peggy Seagrave called “The Marcos Dynasty.”
This program excerpts two of their excellent books–which Mr. Emory emphatically recommends. There are links provided with each text excerpt to facilitate the acquisition of the books, which, again, Mr. Emory emphatically recommends.
Recently elected president of the Philippines (with close relatives of former president Duterte as aides), Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.—nicknamed Bong-Bong—has networked with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and renewed an invigorated, anti-China alliance.
Essential for an understanding of the Bong-Bong/Blinken liaison is awareness of Marcos, Jr.’s participation in his dictator father’s phenomenally lucrative recoveries of Golden Lily war gold secreted in the Philippines during World War II.
This subject is covered in the landmark text Gold Warriors by Sterling and Peggy Seagrave.
(FTR #‘s 427, 428, 446, 451, 501, 688, 689, 1106, 1107 & 1108 deal with the subject material of that consummately important book.)
Ferdinand, Sr.’s rise was aided by his “godfather,” Judge Chua, who was his biological father in an out-of-wedlock liaison. This was relatively common in the Philippines and not stigmatized as in many other societies.
Judge Chua’s position in the Chua family gave him great influence. In turn, the clan associations of Chinese in the Philippines were fundamental to the professional and social undertakings of members of that community.
Of great significance is the strong affiliation of the clans with the Kuomintang of Chiang Kai-shek, imparting a fascist ideological orientation to them. This was a major deep political influence on Ferdinand Marcos, Sr., the out-of-wedlock son of the influential Judge Chua.
Next, we present the deep political background that shaped Ferdinand Marcos and an exploration of the manner in which economic class considerations shaped alliances during the Japanese fascist occupation of the Philippines and its aftermath.
In FTR#‘s 905, 970, among other programs, we explored how the U.S. rehabilitated and resuscitated the Japanese fascist infrastructure from that nation’s World War II imperial state.
We have spoken of prominent Japanese fascists Sasakawa Ryoichi and Kodama Yoshio in numerous programs.
Combined with Chiang Kai-shek’s reactionary stance, those rehabilitated Japanese fascists constituted the critical foundation of America’s Cold War in Asia.
The MacArthur team in the Philippines during the Cold War was culled from the collaborationist milieu who worked with the Japanese during the occupation. This included the head of the Japanese occupation government, Jose Laurel, as well as Benigno Aquino Sr. and Manuel Roxas.
Following the ouster of Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. the Philippine government was headed by Cory Aquino, the widow of slain CIA agent Benigno Aquino, Jr. and Salvador Laurel, the son of Jose Laurel.
Collaborator Manuel Roxas was MacArthur’s “favorite son” to manage postwar Philippine government.
In “The Death of A Salesman” Arthur Miller (speaking through Mrs. Loman, Willy’s widow) said “Attention must be paid to such a person! You can’t eat the orange and throw the peel away!” Before moving on from FTR #‘s 1107 and 1108, an aspect of the suspicious death of author Iris Chang bears emphasis: The people around her, friends, husband and family, attributed her “suicide” to psychological disturbances, despite evidence that she was the focal point of hostile action by intelligence agents and fascists, as well as subjected to forms of mind control. Ms. Chang said her problems were “external”–those around her felt they were “internal.” Her friend since college, writer Paula Kamen felt that Iris’ fertility treatments may have lay at the core of her problems. In FTR #‘s 1107 and 1108, we compared Iris’ experiences with those of Rita Katz, who helped investigate the 9/11 money trail that led to the Operation Green Quest SAAR network raids. When the Agents of Darkness gather to visit retribution on someone seen as a transgressor, it is, in effect, collaborative to increase the target’s isolation and consequent vulnerability by seeing them as “sick.” Rita Katz wasn’t experiencing what she did because of “fertility treatments.”
“The Seagraves have uncovered one of the Biggest Secrets of the Twentieth Century”–Iris Chang, quoted on the front cover of Gold Warriors.
Late last year (2019), the city of San Jose (California) opened a park dedicated to the memory of the late author Iris Chang.
These broadcasts update and supplement discussion of Iris Chang’s alleged “suicide,” highlighted in FTR #509. Of particular significance is the fact that the Golden Lily loot and the decisive political and economic factors stemming from the material covered in Gold Warriors, the other books by Sterling and Peggy Seagrave, and Ms. Chang’s “The Rape of Nanking” have enormous and ongoing significance.
(FTR #‘s 427, 428, 446, 451, 501, 509, 688, 689 deal with the subject of the Golden Lily program successfully implemented by the Japanese to loot Asia. That loot was merged with Nazi gold, became the Black Eagle Trust, which not only financed Cold War covert operations but underwrote much of the post-war global economy. Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos recovered a tremendous amount of the Golden Lily loot, some of which was shared with the Japanese, some with the U.S. and much of it kept by Marcos. The Marcos “Black Gold” figures prominently in the deep politics surrounding the death of Ms. Chang.)
In November of 2004, author and investigator Iris Chang was found dead of an allegedly self-inflicted gunshot wound. This program examines the circumstances surrounding her death.
In her landmark book “The Rape of Nanking,” Ms. Chang documented the Japanese atrocities which gave that occupation its name. The rape of Nanking saw the beginning of the Japanese Golden Lily program, which yielded the spectacular looted wealth and postwar economic and political intrigue documented in the Seagraves’ incisive text “Gold Warriors.”
The “Rape of Nanking” drew much hostile reaction from the Japanese right and related forces: . . . . At the same time, torrents of hate mail came in, Brett [her husband] said. ‘Iris is sensitive, but she got charged up,’ he recalled. ‘When anybody questioned the validity of what she wrote, she would respond with overwhelming evidence to back it up. She’s very much a perfectionist. It was hard for her not to react every single time.’ Most of the attacks came from Japanese ultranationalists. ‘We saw cartoons where she was portrayed as this woman with a great big mouth,‘Brett said. ‘She got used to the fact that there is a Web site called ‘Iris Chang and Her Lies.’ She would just laugh.’ But friends say Iris began to voice concerns for her safety. She believed her phone was tapped. She described finding threatening notes on her car. She said she was confronted by a man who said, ‘You will NOT continue writing this.’ She used a post office box, never her home address, for mail. ‘There are a fair number of people who don’t take kindly to what she wrote in The Rape of Nanking.’ Brett said, ‘so she’s always been very, very private about our family life.’ . . . .”
(As we have seen in–among other programs–FTR #‘s 813, 905, 969, 970, the Japanese “ultranationalists” were put right back in power by the American occupation forces, as the Seagraves document in Gold Warriors, as well as The Yamato Dynasty.)
At the time of her death, Ms. Chang was researching a book chronicling the experiences of survivors of the Bataan Death March—the brutal persecution of American POW’s captured in the siege of Bataan in the Philippines during World War II. Many of the survivors were shipped to Japan to work as slave laborers for major Japanese corporations.
Many of these corporations have had profound connections with their American transnational counterparts, and were the beneficiaries of American investment capital in the run-up to World War II. More importantly, many of these corporations are a principal element of the US/Japanese commercial relationship today.
Lawsuits in California targeted those Japanese corporations for compensation for the slave labor wrung from the Battaan POWs. The State Department sided with the Japanese and Judge Vaughn Walker ruled against the Bataan survivors.
Perhaps most importantly, in-depth coverage of the Bataan Death March would uncover the Black Eagle Trust and the fundamental role in post-World War II American and Japanese politics of the vast wealth looted by Japan during World War II. That purloined “black gold” is inextricably linked with U.S. covert operations and is at the epicenter of postwar Japanese power politics and economy.
In addition to the Rape of Nanking and the Bataan Death March survivors, Ms. Chang’s research cut across some deep political dynamics connected to then-President George W. Bush’s administration and his business dealings.
George W. Bush:
1.–Was using U.S. Naval forces to secure Japanese war gold from the Philippines for his personal blind trust, as well as shoring up American reserves.
2.–Was deeply involved with Harken Energy, which may well have been a corporate front for the acquisition and recycling of Golden Lily loot and Bormann money.
3.–Was heir to a deep political heritage involving, among others, the family of William Stamps Farish, the head of Standard Oil of New Jersey during the time it manifested its cartel agreements with I.G. Farben. Dubya benefited from his father’s legacy of involvement with the milieu of Douglas MacArthur. George H.W. Bush’s deep political connections in the Philippines include the involvement of both Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and Trump and GOP trickster Roger Stone with Ferdinand Marcos while the dictator was involved with the recovery of Golden Lily loot.
4. Served as a director of Harken when the head of the firm was Alan Quasha, son of William Quasha, an attorney for the CIA-linked Nugan Hand Bank, a focal point of AFA #25. William had been Alien Property custodian in the Philippines under Douglas MacArthur, which placed him in a position to greatly influence the “Alien Property” placed there by the Japanese under Golden Lily.
There is evidence to suggest that Ms. Chang’s death may have resulted from mind control, administered to neutralize her as a threat to those clandestine economic and national security relationships that have governed US/Japanese affairs in the postwar period. Ms. Chang had received threats ever since the publication of her landmark text The Rape of Nanking.
(For more about the government’s mind control programs, see, among other broadcasts, AFA #‘s 5–7.)
She appears to have been under surveillance, and her “suicide” note alleged that a suspicious internment in a psychiatric hospital may have been initiated at the instigation of the elements opposed to a ruffling of the Japanese/US feathers. In addition to threatening to expose a dominant factor in U.S. covert operations, a key element in the postwar American and global economy, Ms. Chang’s investigation of Japanese war crimes was an irritant to the Japanese establishment that had thrived on the gold and other wealth looted from occupied countries since World War II.
Ms. Chang’s “suicide” note read, in part: “. . . .There are aspects of my experience in Louisville that I will never understand. . . . . I can never shake my belief that I was being recruited, and later persecuted, by forces more powerful than I could have imagined. Whether it was the CIA or some other organization I will never know. As long as I am alive, these forces will never stop hounding me. Days before I left for Louisville I had a deep foreboding about my safety. I sensed suddenly threats to my own life: an eerie feeling that I was being followed in the streets, the white van parked outside my house, damaged mail arriving at my P.O. Box. I believe my detention at Norton Hospital was the government’s attempt to discredit me. . . .”
At the conclusion of the program, we review Rita Katz’s experiences after she helped break the investigation into the SAAR network that became known as Operation Green Quest. That investigation overlapped George W. Bush’s firm Harken Energy. Note the similarity between Iris Chang’s experiences and those of Rita Katz. ” . . . . White vans and SUV’s with dark windows appeared near all the homes of the SAAR investigators. All agents, some of whom were very experienced with surveillance, knew they were being followed. So was I. I felt that I was being followed everywhere and watched at home, in the supermarket, on the way to work . . . and for what? . Now—I was being watched 24/7. It’s a terrible sensation to know that you have no privacy. . . . and no security. That strange clicking of the phones that wasn’t there before. . . the oh-so-crudely opened mail at home in the office. . . and the same man I spied in my neighborhood supermarket, who was also on the train I took to Washington a week ago. . . Life can be miserable when you know that someone’s always breathing down your neck. . . .”
In conversations with friends, Ms. Chang noted that her problems were “external,” not in her head. She also felt she was being “recruited” to become a “Manchurian Candidate” for the CIA–i.e. being subjected to mind control. ” . . . . in her last year she became paranoid about everything from viruses attacking her computer to attempts by the government to “recruit” her, a la The Manchurian Candidate. . . .
Program Highlights Include: The alleged role of Japanese war criminal Tsuji Masanobu in aiding the Marcos gold recoveries in the Philippines; the role of Tsuji Masanobu in implementing the Bataan Death March; William Stamps Farish III’s stewardship of Dubya’s blind trust, for which Philippines war gold was apparently being sought; William Stamps Farish (II) and his stewardship of Standard Oil of New Jersey, when it collaborated with I.G. Farben; George H.W. Bush’s association with the descendants of American corporate figures who collaborated with the Third Reich.
This broadcast commemorates the lives and passing of Peggy and Sterling Seagrave, investigators, journalists, authors and heroes.
A peripheral internet search conducted while re-reading Gold Warriors yielded the sad news that both Peggy and Sterling Seagrave had passed. Peggy passed away in 2016 and Sterling in the spring of 2017.
Authors of a number of ground-breaking and overlapping historical/political exposes, they culminated their remarkable careers with Gold Warriors, which Mr. Emory feels is as important a book as has ever been written and is a MUST read for anyone genuinely concerned with the state of world affairs, past, present and future.
More admirable than even their consummate investigative and literary skills is the fact that they continued their research and reporting in the face of serious death threats and attempts, as well as lethal consequences visited on some of the participants in the “Black Gold” transactions and, apparently, on some of those investigating the machinations of the nations, commercial institutions and individuals involved with the operations.
(FTR #‘s 427, 428, 446, 451, 501, 509, 688, 689 deal with the subject of the Golden Lily program successfully implemented by the Japanese to loot Asia. That loot was merged with Nazi gold, became the Black Eagle Trust, which not only financed Cold War covert operations but underwrote much of the post-war global economy.)
In FTR #‘s 446 and 509, we highlighted and reviewed the death threats and hands-on interference experienced by the Seagraves in response to their investigations. In 509, we also noted the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of the heroic Iris Chang, who aided the Seagraves in their Gold Warriors project. Having authored a book on the Rape of Nanking and working on another about the Bataan Death March, Ms. Chang had crossed the very power structure delineated at length, depth and detail in the Seagraves volume.
In our last visit with the Seagraves, a 2009 interview that was the focus of FTR #689, Sterling expressed anxiety about the proximity of their residence in Southern France to the Spanish border and the formidable presence of Opus Dei in Franco’s former domain.
(The Vatican’s relationship to fascism, including Opus Dei and the Ustachi in Croatia, is highlighted in, among other programs AFA #17.)
The remarkable Severino Santa Romana, prime mover in the Black Eagle Trust operations in the Philippines and the gold recoveries in those islands was, in addition to his work for U.S. intelligence, an operative of the powerful Vatican order Opus Dei. It appears that Opus Dei was Santa Romana’s primary affiliation and his U.S. intelligence connections were derivative.
With strong connections in Spain, dating to the Franco fascist regime (which maintains powerful presence in contemporary Spain), Opus Dei is a major factor in the contemporary political scene. Sterling opined in FTR #689 that his and Peggy’s proximity to the Spanish border might expose them to violence.
His fear turned out to be prescient. On Christmas Day of 2011, he narrowly escaped assassination while returning home. He felt that the attempt on his life may well have been motivated by the publication of the Spanish language edition of Gold Warriors.
After detailing the attempt on his life, we set forth Santa Romana’s relationship with Opus Dei. Santa Romana’s Opus Dei operations were essential for the fiscal reinforcement of the Vatican’s financial institutions, which benefitted from the Golden Lily-derived treasure from the Philippines.
We have discussed the Vatican bank in, among other programs, AFA #18.
In FTR #446, we highlighted the serious death threats, harassment, and covert disruption experienced by Peggy and Sterling Seagrave in connection with their writing. In 509, we also noted the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of the heroic Iris Chang, who aided the Seagraves in their “Gold Warriors” project. Having authored a book on the Rape of Nanking and working on another about the Bataan Death March, Ms. Chang had crossed the very power structure delineated at length, depth and detail in the Seagraves’ volume. In our last visit with the Seagraves, a 2009 interview that was the focus of FTR #689, Sterling expressed anxiety about the proximity of their residence in Southern France to the Spanish border and the formidable presence of Opus Dei in Franco’s former domain. His fear turned out to be prescient. On Christmas Day of 2011, he narrowly escaped assassination while returning home. He felt that the attempt on his life may well have been motivated by the publication of the Spanish language edition of “Gold Warriors.” Peggy passed in 2016 and Sterling in the spring of 2017. Listeners/readers may honor these heroes by reading their consummately important books.
In our last post, we highlighted the 1951 “Peace” Treaty between the Allies and Japan, an agreement which falsely maintained that Japan had not stolen any wealth from the nations it occupied during World War II and that the (already) booming nation was bankrupt and would not be able to pay reparations to the slave laborers and “comfort women” it had pressed into service during the conflict. In the context of the fantastic sums looted by Japan under the auspices of Golden Lily and the incorporation of that wealth with Nazi Gold to form the Black Eagle Trust, that 1951 treaty and the advent of the Korean War raise some interesting, unresolved questions. One of the principal figures in the looting of occupied Asia during World War II was the remarkable Kodama Yoshio. Networked with the powerful Yakuza Japanese organized crime milieu, the Black Dragon society (the most powerful of the patriotic and ultra-nationalist societies), the Imperial Japanese military and the Royal family of Emperor Hirohito, Kodama looted the Chinese underworld and trafficked in narcotics with Chiang Kai-shek’s fascist narco-dictatorship. We can but wonder about Kodama Yoshio’s presence along with 1951 “Peace” Treaty author John Foster Dulles at negotiations in Seoul on the eve of the outbreak of the Korean War. ” . . . . In October of 1949, the People’s Republic of China came into being. Eight months later, in June of 1950, the Korean War broke out. Just before the war began, Kodama [Yoshio] accompanied John Foster Dulles to negotiations in Seoul. The Dulles party also included Kodama’s protege Machii Hisayuki, boss of the Korean yakuza in Japan. Efforts to discover under Freedom of Information what Kodama and Machii did during the trip with Dulles have run into a stone wall. In the MacArthur Memorial archive we discovered a personal letter from Kodama to General MacArthur offering to provide thousands of yakuza and former Japanese Army soldiers to fight alongside American soldiers in Korea. According to sources in Korea and Japan, the offer was accepted and these men joined the Allied force on the Peninsula, posing as Korean soldiers. . . . ”
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