World Content NewsDer australische Medienzar und Kasinobesitzer James Packer (40) ist laut eigenen Angaben aus Scientology ausgestiegen und will die Sekte finanziell nicht mehr unterstützen. Grund ist offenbar die Furcht vor Angriffen durch die Protestbewegung „Anonymous„, die sich mittlerweile weltweit manifestiert und sich vorgenommen hat, die Organisation restlos zu zerschlagen. Aber auch der Jetset scheint ihn inzwischen zu meiden: Angesichts der großen Konkurrenz brummt sein Spielkasinogeschäft längst nicht mehr so wie früher. Und mit einem Gefangenenflieger der CIA durch die Gegend zu düsen, kratzt möglicherweise auch an seinem Ruf.

Milliardär James Packer: Der „Mr. Moneybags“ von Scientology hat offenbar die Nase voll

Mit Videobotschaften und Hackerangriffen auf die Website von Scientology erregte das Bündnis unter dem Namen „Projekt Chanology“ Anfang Februar erstmals Aufsehen. Mittlerweile hat sich der Protest vom Netz auf die Straße verlagert: Mehrere tausend Menschen weltweit treffen sich regelmäßig zu friedlichen Demonstrationen. Sie wollen die Menschen vor den Scientologen warnen und auf ihre kriminellen Machenschaften aufmerksam machen. In zahlreichen Internetforen und Chats organisieren die Scientology-Gegner ihren Protest. Alle Teilnehmer bleiben anonym, eine Führungsspitze gibt es nicht.

Hello, Scientology. We are Anonymous. You cannot hide – we are everywhere.

Laut eigener Verlautbarung „braucht“ der Erbmilliardär Packer, der schwer übergewichtig und depressiv ist, die Sekte plötzlich nicht mehr länger, die enge Freundschaft mit dem größenwahnsinnigen Scientology-Jünger Tom Cruise soll aber dadurch nicht in die Brüche gehen.

Seit Dezember 2006 ist James Packer der reichste (andere Quellen: der zweitreichste) Mann Australiens. Auf der Weltrangliste liegt er laut Forbes auf Platz 173. Sein Vater Kerry Packer vererbte ihm unter anderem 9 TV-Sender und 60 Magazine, sein Vermögen wird zwischen 5 und 7 Milliarden Dollar geschätzt. Er gilt als einer der größten Geldgeber der Sekte, vor kurzem erst soll er den Neubau des australischen Hauptquartiers von Scientology in Melbourne mit 7,5 Millionen Dollar finanziert haben.

Packer ist der Eigentümer des größten Spielkasinos in Australien, das Crown Casino in Melbourne. Nachdem er sich 2007 von einem Teil seines Medienimperiums kurzerhand trennte, weil die australische Regierung ein Gesetz erließ, das die Monopolstellung im Medienmarkt deutlich einschränkte, steckte er den milliardenschweren Erlös fast ausschließlich ins weltweite Gambling-Geschäft. In Macau eröffnete er zusammen mit Lawrence Ho das wohl modernste Casino aller Zeiten, daneben ist eine unter Wasser gelegene Hotelanlage („City of Dreams“, Einkaufen und Spielen inklusive) für 2,1 Milliarden Dollar geplant. In Las Vegas hatte er die Cannery Casino Resorts dagegen für schlappe 1,75 Milliarden Dollar erworben.

Neben seinem Scientology-Faible und dem Gambling-Geschäft, das bekanntlich auch Anziehungspunkt für die internationalen Geldwäscher ist, hat James Packer noch ein anderes kleines schmutziges Geheimnis: In seinem „Flugpark“ findet man seit Mai 2007 einen Folterflieger des US-Geheimdienstes, der unter der Registrierung N379P dafür bekannt wurde, mit Spezialkommandos der CIA an Bord insgesamt mindestens 49 Terrorverdächtige gekidnappt zu haben.

Folterjet von Packer: einmal CIA, immer CIA
Die Gulfstream V, jetzt in Australien registriert unter VH-CCC mit der Seriennummer 581, benutzt er aber keineswegs nur für Geschäfts- oder Vergnügungsreisen, sie ist auch weiterhin für die CIA unterwegs, wie aufgefangene Funksignale beweisen: Am 01.08.2007 flog die Maschine unter der Flugnummer AHBG1734 (Operator: Air Algérie) nach Tokio, Auftrag war der erstmalige Austausch von Geheimdokumenten zwischen der USA und der japanischen Regierung. Mit dabei: die Gulf V mit der Reg.Nr. N500GV, geflogen von der CIA Front-Firma Presidential Aviation (PRD500), die erst vor zwei Wochen auch auf dem Flughafen von Baden-Baden zu Gast war (Vermutlich ohne Jetons – schlaf gut, BND !) Wenige Tage später kam in Japan auch noch die N720CH dazu, ein Flugzeug des vorherigen Besitzers der ex-N379P namens Bruce Menin. Na sowas.

Jetzt bitte bloß keine Verschwörungstheorien: Was ist eigentlich aus der zweiten prominenten Entführungsmaschine N313P geworden (die auch Khaled el Masri entführte)? Die fliegt jetzt, ganz zufällig – wieder gemakelt von Bruce Menin – für einen weiteren Spielkasino-Giganten namens Kirk Kerkorian (Firma MGM Mirage).

Milliardär Kerkorian: Dem Krümelmonster um Nasenlängen voraus

Der Multimilliardär, der in Kürze seinen 90. Geburtstag feiert und dem sozusagen halb Las Vegas gehört, lässt die Boeing unter der neuen Registriernummer N720MM für gewöhnlich zwischen Las Vegas und Los Angeles pendeln. Nur einmal, da hat er seine prunkvolle MGM-Niederlassung in Macau (50-prozentige Teilhaberin: Pansy Ho) besucht. Und wahrscheinlich auch seinen etwa gleichaltrigen Mentor, Stanley Ho, der wiederum der Erzeuger von Lawrence und Pansy ist. Sowohl Kerry Packer, der Papa von unserem aufgeweckten Scientology-Krümelmonster als auch Kirk Kerkorian sollen in den 60er Jahren von Ho mit dem nötigen Kleingeld ausgestattet worden sein, um ihr Zocker-Imperium aufzubauen. Die Therorie des Geldkreislaufs lernt man im BWL-Studium kennen, die Praxis offenbar hier: Geld fließt immer bergauf.

Ach ja – als Kerkorian aus Macau zurückkam, verlautbarte er der Presse gegenüber, die Finanz- und Immobilienkrise wäre jetzt vorbei. Die Bankenchefs haben es sofort munter nachgeplappert. Noch Fragen?

Gestern hat er übrigens noch offiziell ein Gebot für den Kauf von bis zu 20 Mio. Ford-Aktien zu 8,50 Dollar pro Stück abgegeben. Die kämen dann noch zu den 100 Mio. Aktien dazu, die er im April gekauft hat. Willkommener Mäusespeck für die arme Autoindustrie.

Fazit: Milliardäre retten die Welt, so oder so. Also fit bleiben und nicht wieder das Gleichgewicht verlieren, James. James??? Jaaaames ! (frei nach „Dinner for all“)

Dieser Artikel erschien erstmalig bei World Content News

onlineredaktion – An independent investigator criticized the German government for its woeful probe of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) flights, the online site of the weekly stern news magazine reported Tuesday.

A rapporteur for the German BND secret service commission of enquiry into German collusion into the American extraordinary renditions program, Joachim Jacob lashed out at the Berlin government in a secret report, accusing German officials of being responsible for major mishaps, sloppiness and false testimony in probing the CIA scandal.

Jacob who released a 130-page secret report on the case on March 31, also slammed the government for adhering to a legally doubtful position which allows the CIA to illegally transit prisoners through German airspace. According to Jacobs, CIA prisoner flights should be dealt with like police or military flights and hence also needed to have a permit.

The German Government had reportedly a list of at least 437 flights operated by the US Central Intelligence Agency in German airspace, according to the news magazine Der Spiegel. The number includes both movements by planes of the CIA spy agency in German airspace and landings at German airports, it claimed.

„Such planes could be used to transfer presumed terrorists and place them in secret locations,“ Der Spiegel said. Berlin has maintained it only knew about any CIA flights from the end of 2004 or the start of 2005, and that it found out through media reports. Germany has the largest number of US military bases in Europe.

onlineredaktion – The news outlets that featured former military personnel that were part of the Pentagon military analyst program are hoping the story will just go away. Since the New York Times exposed the program almost two weeks ago, only NPR has provided an explanation while NBC’s Brian Williams defended using the analysts in his blog. New York Times reporter David Barstow has revealed that Clarke oversaw a Pentagon propaganda scheme that signed up more than 75 retired military officers, who appeared on television and radio news shows as military analysts, and/or penned newspaper op/ed columns.

As part of its plan to expand online „information operations,“ the Pentagon is launching „a global network of foreign-language news websites … and hiring local journalists to write current events stories and other content that promote U.S. interests,“ reports Peter Eisler.

The Pentagon launched Matawani.com last year, an Arabic-language site with Iraq news; other sites are being developed for Asian and Latin American audiences. Like the Pentagon’s older „news“ sites, aimed at North Africa and Southeast Europe, the new sites only disclose U.S. Defense Department involvement on a single page reached via a small „about“ link at the bottom of the site.

The goal of the Pentagon’s „Trans Regional Web Initiative“ is to launch „a minimum of six“ websites run by regional U.S. military commands. Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael Vickers said, „Our adversaries use the Internet to great advantage,“ so the Pentagon must counter their messages with „truthful information, and these websites are a good vehicle.“ Harvard University’s Marvin Kalb called the websites „deliberate deception“ that „weakens the image of journalism as an objective bystander.“

TurkishPress – An Italian senator will participate in a meeting on „law, state and deep state (on alleged activities of secret state agencies)“, in the Turkish city of Istanbul. „Deep state“ is believed to be an influential and informal anti-democratic coalition within the political system of countries, composed of high-level elements within the military, security and intelligence services, the judiciary, and important figures of organized crime.

Italian senator Felice Casson will attend the conference organized by „Young Civilians“ at the Bilgi University on April 26th.

Casson was the person who revealed the existence of a secret organization named „Gladio“ when he was a first instance judge.
„There cannot be secret or underground organizations in democracies, similar to the Gladio in Italy,“ Casson told AA correspondent in his office at the Italian Senate in Rome.

The Italian senator said that the Gladio had tried to steer the internal policy of Italy, and told the AA that it was totally abolished on October 24th, 1990.

Casson said some of those involved in the Gladio were acquitted due to lapse of time, whereas some others were punished on charges of certain incidents.

On the „operation Ergenekon“ in Turkey, Casson said the judiciary undertook great responsibilities and underlined importance of illuminating this incident. „Ergenekon“ terrorist organization was brought to daylight after police seized hand grenades, TNT explosives and fuses in a house in Istanbul on June 12th, 2007.
The Italian branch of Gladio was the first one to be discovered. It was set up under Minister of Defense (from 1953 to 1958) Paolo Taviani`s supervision.

On May 31st, 1972, judge Felice Casson found out that explosives used in an attack that killed three gendarmery officers in Pateano were provided from an arms depot that belonged to a secret organization.

The „Gladio“ organization was officially revealed in 1980s at the end of a deep investigation. In 1990, the organization was dissolved. Those days, many circles thought and claimed that there were „Gladio-like organizations“ in all NATO member states during the Cold War era.

David Dastych – In his book Memory and Identity, Pope John Paul II said of his visit after Christmas 1983 to Rebibbia Prison to see Mehmet Ali Agca:

„We talked for a long time. Ali Agca is, as everyone says, a professional assassin, which means that the assassination was not his initiative that someone else thought of it, someone else gave the order. I had a feeling that I would survive. I was in pain, I had reason to be afraid, but I had this strange feeling of confidence…Oh, my Lord! This was a difficult experience.“
When the Pope arrived in his cell, Agca was dressed in a blue crewneck sweater, jeans and blue-and-white running shoes from which the laces had been removed. He was unshaved. Agca kissed John Paul’s hand.

„Do you speak Italian?“ the Pope asked. Agca nodded.

„Do you speak Italian?“ the Pope asked. Agca nodded. The two men seated themselves, close together, on molded-plastic chairs in a corner of the cell, out of earshot. At times it looked almost as if the Pope were hearing the confession of Agca, a Turkish Muslim. At those moments, John Paul leaned forward from the waist in a priestly posture, his head bowed and forehead tightly clasped in his hand as the younger man spoke.

Agca laughed briefly a few times, but the smile would then quickly fade from his face. In the first months after the assassination attempt, there had been in Agca’s eyes, a zealot’s burning glare. But now his face wore a confused, uncertain expression, never hostile. The Pope clasped Agca’s hands in his own from time to time, at other times he grasped the man’s arm, as if in a gesture of support.

John Paul’s words were intended for Agca alone. „What we talked about will have to remain a secret between him and me, the Pope said as he emerged from the cell. I spoke to him as brother whom I have pardoned, and who has my complete trust.“ As John Paul rose to leave, the two men shook hands. The Pope gave Agca a small gift in a white box, a rosary in silver and mother-of-pearl. Then the Pope walked out.

Seven years later, in 2000, Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, in agreement with Pope John Paul II, pardoned Agca. On hearing the amnesty, Chief Vatican Spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said John Paul was satisfied with Ciampi’s action. He said: „As you know, John Paul II immediately pardoned his attacker and for some time now the pope had told Italian authorities that he was in favor of an act of clemency if Italian law permitted it. He has been insisting on this for some time. We are not surprised. We are very happy.“

“There will be no escape from wars, from hunger, from misery, from racial discrimination, from denial of human rights, and not even from missiles, if our hearts are not change,“ said the late Italian writer and lifetime Senator Carlo Bo: „The Pope intends to say, ‚If we really want peace, we must make the first step, we must forget offenses and offer the bread of love and charity.“ In February of 2005, when the Polish Pope was hospitalized at Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome with the flu, Mehmet Ali Agca sent a handwritten letter in Italian to Pope John Paul II wishing him „a speedy recovery.“

2008: Agca’s strange motion
On Thursday, the 1st of May which is a Labor Day in Poland, Mehmet Ali Agca submitted his application for Polish citizenship to the Polish Embassy in Ankara, through his lawyer Mr. Haci Ali Ozhan. The first to report about this was Ms.Susan Frazer, an Associated Press correspondent who filed her story on Friday, May 2, with the support of an AP writer in Warsaw, Ms. Monika Scislowska.

„I am not a stranger to your country because the national hero of Poland, Pope Karol Wojtyla, is my spiritual brother,“ Agca said, referring to John Paul by his other name.

„I shall be proud of becoming a member of the noble Polish nation, if my request to be granted Polish citizenship is accepted,” he declared in his petition to the President of Poland, Lech Kaczynski a devout Roman Catholic, whom he asked to support his application. The unexpected motion of the former gunman, who has spent 19 years in Italian prisons and now is serving a 10 years’ sentence in Turkey for murder and bank robbery, evokes surprise and mixed feelings not only in Poland.

The Associated Press asked comment from Mr. Piotr Paszkowski, the Foreign Ministry spokesman and a personal friend of Minister of Foreign Affairs Radoslaw Sikorski. Mr. Paszkowski diplomatically replied that “The condition for according Polish citizenship is residence in Poland for at least five years, prior to applying.” (…) This rule, he added, “can be waived if the foreigner seeking Polish citizenship has special merits for the country, has done good service to Poland…Agca rather has not,” he concluded.

A „Grey Wolf“: Ali Agca

Mr. Ozhan, Agca’s lawyer, said he would complete his client’s application this week, due to some missing paperwork. President Lech Kaczynski did not express his opinion so far. For formal reasons, the former assassin’s application for Polish citizenship could be quickly rejected. But many Poles, writing comments on a popular Internet site http://www.Onet.pl expressed different opinions:

“I wonder,” wrote a retired woman, “what for he was punished. If he was merely a tool in God’s hands…that means he was not guilty. The Pope himself said that the prophecy [of Fatima] had been fulfilled… he [Agca] should be granted the citizenship and an apology.”

“Since John Paul II pardoned him, we also should leave him in peace. Our Pope surely would like that. He [Agca] could return us by converting to Catholicism and by exposing the true masters of the [assassination] plot from the KGB” wrote a young, 23 years old man.

“Let’s give him a chance! He should have identical chances as every other man applying for Polish citizenship! He has completed his prison term [for the assassination attempt against the Pope] and he wouldn’t be so foolish to commit crimes again. All people will know about him and everybody will watch him [in Poland]. If your main argument against granting him the citizenship is that he has shot at the Pope, the fact that the Pope himself pardoned him should be enough. And his choice of Poland could be influenced by this. If I don’t err, there have been similar cases of conversions in the past, even [described] in the Bible…”

But not all readers of the surprising news supported Agca’s motion:

“Look, this declaration is meant to turn the attention from the real perpetrators of the attempt against the Pope” wrote another Pole. “Never! Let him keep off Poland. If I would meet such a guy in a street, he would be finished. And what would you do?” “There should be set conditions. When a foreigner wants to immigrate to Canada or to Australia, he or she has to fulfill definite conditions, fill in several inquiry sheets, has to prove that he/she will make a good worker and citizen. And that fellow thinks he is so important and so well known that it’s enough for him to present his wish, and that would be accepted in spite of the committed crimes. A big EGO indeed! Most probably his true motive is that he has still to languish in jail for having killed a journalist in Turkey, and he would like to avoid that…” wrote a Polish woman.

Among foreign voices, I have found this opinion:
“Agca to become a Polish citizen? Sometimes I come across a story that is confusing. Other times the story is just plain odd. This one is a bit of both” wrote an American Catholic blogger. What do you think? Should we pardon Mehmet Ali Agca and allow him to spend the rest of his life in Poland? His criminal past has already cost him more than 25 years in jail. Isn’t that enough? Should we expect from the former would be assassin of the late Polish Pope his conversion to the Catholic religion, or let him remain a Muslim? How should Mehmet Ali Agca compensate to the Polish nation and to the world for his crimes? What we expect him to do?

Between forgiveness and vengeance
Mahatma Gandhi (1869 – 1948), the late nonviolence leader of India once said expressing his anger at the misbehavior of the then British colonialists: „I do like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Christians are so unlike your Christ!“ An Indian columnist, Ms. Dayanand Edappally wrote in her recent article “Tooth for tooth” (April 20, 2008): “Forgiveness may not be tangible and immediate. But in the long run forgiveness creates a far more productive than retaining ideas of vengeance. The world needs a healing touch of forgiveness and peace.”

Not knowing of Mehmet Ali Agca’s decision, she reminded: “When Pope John Paul II was shot by Mehmet Agca, he went to Agca’s prison and forgave him. This forgiveness was world news at that time. The Pope gained in stature by his act of magnanimity. And Agca repented.”

Then she concluded: “In the Old Testament, the Israelites had a strict moral code, which advocated a tooth for a tooth and an eye for an eye. Injury had to be repaid in kind. Insult was not to be forgiven. The New Testament, however, has a different set of morality. Concerning retaliation, Jesus said, “If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

“On another occasion he also taught: The law was made for humankind, and not humankind for the law. Norms should not deter people from doing well. They should promote kindness, compassion, empathy.”

Whom to blame?
The unsolved mystery of the May 13, 1981 and other attempts at life of John Paul II bleed our memory like a thorn. Who to blame for these plots and acts of violence on St.Peter’s Square in Rome, in the Vatican, Poland, in Pakistan? As the years pass by, the evidence becomes more and more unattainable. But the facts and logical assumptions inevitably point to the Kremlin and Lyubianka Square [KGB] and to “The Aquarium” [GRU], all places in Moscow, as the source of the plots against the late Polish Pope.

Many books have been written to prove these traces, including the most recent book, published in Poland on April 28 this year: “It’s About the Pope. Spies in the Vatican” (in Polish: “Chodzi o papieża. Szpiedzy w Watykanie”) by a veteran American journalist and researcher and former U.S. military intelligence officer John O. Koehler. This book, based on Polish, Italian, German and other sources describes an enormous effort made by the Soviet leadership to counter the fast-growing influence of the Roman Catholic pope in the then Communist-dominated Eastern Europe and the world.

A leading Polish weekly “Wprost” (vprost = direct), in a series of articles written by its investigative journalists, exposed the complicated deception game directed from the Kremlin to hide the Soviet responsibility. Some of these articles have been mentioned in my own stories, published on the CFP, like: New investigation:KGB behind all plots to assassinate John Paul II; Ali Agca’s Secret Services (2006) and Plot to kill John Paul II: General Giuseppe Cucchi Confirms New Evidence ;New evidence about the plot to kill John Paul II in 1981 (2007) and the most recent in 2008 A Moscow Contract on Pope John Paul II.

My own research into the May 13, 1981 attempt against John Paul II, conducted from the very day of Agca’s shooting until now, proved that the plots against the Polish Pope had originated in instructions of the Soviet leadership from the late 1970s and were carried out under the supervision of the two main Soviet special services: the KGB and the GRU. The links between the Turkish extreme right Grey Wolves and the Bulgarian secret services had been used to instruct, guide and finance Mehmet Ali Agca and other assassins.

A strange blend of the Soviet spies, Bulgarian spies and Turkish extremists, supported by Palestinian Arab terrorists and some Arab and Muslim intelligence services was used to hide the true “contractors” from the Kremlin and to put the blame on “hired guns” like Mehmet Ali Agca and Oral Celik and on Turkish drug mafia bosses. The Bulgarians: Sergei Antonov, Zheluyu Vassilev and Todor Ajvazov provided cover and logistic support to them under supervision of the GRU station in Rome.

There was also a “Polish trail” to the attempt of the 13th of May 1981 and to other hostile actions against the Polish Pope. Polish secret service (SB) had their spies in the Vatican and some agents were present on St. Peter’s Square in the very day and moment of the shooting. The most astonishing fact (uncovered by “Wprost” weekly’s investigative reporters, Mr. Indulski and Mr. Jakimczyk) was that the then Polish Communist Military Intelligence (WSW-WSI) had learned about the supposed time and place of the attempt in April of 1981, only a few weeks before Agca’s shootout at the pope. The probable source of this information was a Polish intelligence agent in Syria.

The astonishing fact was that the news about the secret note passed by a Polish military attache Colonel Bak to his Italian counterpart Col. Cucchi in Cairo had been quickly leaked to the secret services of the Warsaw Pact. Giuseppe Cucchi, now a top-ranking general of the Italian services, in a personal interview with the Polish weekly’s journalists in Rome denied any links to the KGB or the GRU. He said that the tape with Col. Bak’s recorded warning might have been passed to the Soviets by a mole in the Italian intelligence.

One could only conclude basing on all these mishaps that the prophecy from Fatima had to be fulfilled. The bullet from Agca’s gun was later placed by John Paul II in the Virgin Mary Shrine in Fatima, Portugal. Let me repeat the words of the Pope, uttered after the December 27, 1983 meeting with Mehmet Ali Agca in Rebbibi Prison: “I had a feeling that I would survive. I was in pain, I had reason to be afraid, but I had this strange feeling of confidence…”

Was Gorbachev really involved? – A Moscow Contract on JP II
Soviet politbureau members, Gorbachev included, signed an „informal“ death sentence on John Paul II

David Dastych, 67, is a veteran journalist who served both in the Polish intelligence and the CIA; jailed in Poland by the Communist regime he spent several years in special prison wards; released in early 1990’s he joined international efforts to monitor illegal nuclear trade in Europe and Asia; handicapped for lifetime in a mountain accident in France, in 1994; now he returned to active life and runs his own media agency in Warsaw.

David Dastych – A new sensational book was launched in Poland on Monday, April 28. Its author, an American journalist and writer John O. Koehler claims that in November 1979 in Moscow a group of nine prominent Soviet Communist Party leaders signed a secret document instructing the KGB to “use all available possibilities to prevent a new political trend, initiated by the Polish pope,” and “if necessary – reach to means beyond disinformation and discreditation.”

Two journalists of a top-ranking Polish weekly “Wprost” (read: vprost, it means “direct” in Polish) reached the author of that book, entitled “It’s about the Pope”: Spies in the Vatican”. In their article, published on April 28, Rafal Pasztelanski and Grzegorz (Greg) Sadowski quoted a conversation with Mr. Koehler about his discovery: „I was shocked, when I found this order. The means “beyond disinformation and discreditation” meant only one thing: an approval to kill the pope.”

Who signed the “informal” death sentence against John Paul II? The party document quoted by the author of the book listed nine prominent Soviet CP members: the chief of the Soviet propaganda – Mikhail Suslov, members of the Presidium of the CC CPSU – Andrei Kirilenko, Konstantin Chernenko, secretaries of the CC – Konstantin Rusakov (responsible for the contacts with the PUWP – the Polish Communist party), Vladimir Ponomarev, Ivan Kapitonov, Mikhail Zimyanin, Vladimir Dolgikh and Mikhail Gorbachev.

Gorbachev’s responsibility?
In 1979, Gorbachev was promoted to the Politburo as a candidate member, and received full membership only in 1980. Gorbachev owed his steady rise to power to the patronage of Mikhail Suslov the powerful chief ideologist of the CPSU, and Yuri Andropov head of the KGB (see: Mikhail Gorbachev, career Wikipedia). Was Mikhail Gorbachev involved in the later KGB plot against John Paul II, which led to the historic attempt at the pope’s life on May 13, 1981? The document quoted by John O. Koehler listed him only as a co-signatory of the “instruction” to the KGB. There is no direct proof that the future General Secretary of the CC CPSU and the father of perestroyka wanted the Polish pope to be assassinated or that he had enough influence to put his consent to action.

A „Grey Wolf“ free after 25 years: Ali Agca

The Soviet leadership, then under Leonid Brezhnev, fully realized that the rise of a Polish cardinal, Karol Wojtyla, to the papacy would cause trouble to the Communist regime in Poland and to the entire Soviet bloc. The new pope, elected just one year ago (1978) was known as a staunch anti-Communist, though also as a talented negotiator who avoided a head-to-head clash with the regime. In his first year at the papal throne in the Vatican, John Paul II received a strong backing from the West, and from the United States in particular.

His first pilgrimage to Poland, in June 1979, was a huge manifestation of the Polish nation’s support to the Church and his symbolic words at the Warsaw Victory Square, “You are not who they say you are. Let me remind you who you are,” by restoring to the Polish people their authentic history and culture created a revolution of conscience that, fourteen months later, produced the 10-million strong nonviolent Solidarity resistance movement.

The Tower of Secrets: In November 1979, the Soviet leadership had all reasons to worry about the influence of John Paul II unpon Poland and the whole Communist world.

The Polish pope received a strong backing also from the American intelligence, the CIA. As a famous British journalist and the author of “Pontiff”, Gordon Thomas, wrote for Canada Free Press in January 2007 in his article “The pope and the secret world of intelligence”:

“It was the CIA who kept him continuously informed on global events. As well as the CIA Rome station, based in the shadow of the Vatican walls, the agency operated a network of what Casey called „our messengers“. They included Lee lacocca, the car magnate; Spyros Skouras, the shipping millionaire; Robert Abplanalp, the aerosol tycoon; Barron Hilton, the hotelier; William Simon, a former US Treasury Secretary; and Robert Wagner, the former Mayor of New York who became President Carter’s personal envoy to the Holy See.

Finally there was Clare Boothe who served on the US government’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, which oversaw the CIA’s covert operations.Throughout his long reign, John Paul knew he was never more than a telephone call from the present CIA director. In turn they had the direct line to the ivory-white telephone on the pontiff’s desk: extension 3101 in the Apostolic Palace.

Casey’s „messengers“ unfailingly called the number to let John Paul know „an extra important message“ was being hand-carried from Casey, and later his successors. Those messages remain one of the many secrets stored in the Vatican archives.”

In November 1979, the Soviet leadership had all reasons to worry about the influence of John Paul II unpon Poland and the whole Communist world. John O. Koehler quotes a KGB defector (1980) Victor Sheimov from a book “The Tower of Secrets.” In his earlier book “Stasi: The Untold Story Of The East German Secret Police” (Basic books, 2000) ) Koehler expressed a similar opinion, now repeated in his just published Polish edition “It’s about the Pope”: Spies in the Vatican”(ZNAK, 2008). Let me quote from the article in “Wprost” weekly:
“Sheimov wrote that the KGB was afraid of the consequences stemming from the election of a Polishman as the Roman Catholic Pope. In April of 1979, the East German secret service, Stasi, prepared a report with a conclusion that ‘the pope, who had a direct contact with Marxism and took an uncompromising stand against it, will firmly defend the interests of the Church’. Victor Sheimov also quotes his conversation with Valeriy Titov, then a security officer of the Soviet Embassy in Warsaw. Titow openly complained to him about the hostile attitude of the Poles to the Russians and, mentioning the newly elected pope he warned: ‘If [the pope] gave a sign to them, Poles would go to the streets and they would fight against our tanks.” Both Soviet officers agreed that the Soviet Union had only two ways out: to kill the pope, that could be a mistake, or to support [General] Wojciech Jaruzelski, because ‘if we go out of here, [Poles] will hang him.’”
According to “Wprost” (and Koehler), Sheimov also talked to General Nikolai P. Kuritsin, then a KGB liaison officer to the Polish security service [SB]. When Kuritsin learned that the KGB HQ wanted to [physically] eliminate John Paul II, he got mad and exlaimed: “Idiots! This is a political suicide. Not only political. If we liquidate the pope, our days would be numbered. Even if we tried to hold on, we would have to get rid of the Poles – everyone of them will sacrify his life for him.’”

I think we can’t directly blame Mikhail Gorbachev with a decisively hostile attitude towards the Polish pope. In November 1979, the Soviet leadership had to express their disapproval for the new-elected sovereign of the Roman Catholic Church. Later on, when Gorbachev became the supreme Soviet leader (1985) he took a more concilliatory stand versus the Holy See and John Paul II. He met the Polish pope for the first time in 1989, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and on April 5, 2005 he praised him in Moscow by saying that Pope John Paul II’s „devotion to his followers is a remarkable example to all of us.”

The notorious ‘Bulgarian connection’
The authors of the above mentioned article in “Wprost” weekly recall other Koehler’s findings concerning the KGB plot against the late pope. “In the German archives John Koehler found KGB documents with an order to hush up the participation of the Bulgarian secret services in the operation to kill John Paul II. In September of 1982, general Markus Wolf, the head of DDR’s Main Intelligence Directorate and then the head of Stasi, received a sealed envelope with an inscription [in German]: “Operation Papst” [Operation Pope]. Its sender was the Active Operations Department of the Bulgarian intelligence.

The content of the said envelope was later lost. But soon after that instruction some Western left-wing media supported by the KGB began to publish articles to divert attention from the participation of the KGB and the Bulgarian secret services in the attempt to kill the pope. This could be an indirect confirmation that the Soviet authorities had been seriously engaged in the organization of the attempt [on St. Peter’s Square, on May 13, 1981].”

I remember these propaganda efforts wery well. In 1982 I went to Sofia to interview two Bulgarian intelligence agents who had escaped from Italy soon after the Mehmet Ali Agca’s attempt on the life of John Paul II. One of them, Zhelyu Vassilev granted to me an exclusive and very emotional interview, later printed in a Polish weekly Przeglad Tygodniowy.

Bulgaria’s special services blamed the so-called Bulgarian connection in the assassination attempt on Western services, CIA in particular and the Italian services which visited Turkish gunman Ali Agca in prison shortly after the shooting.
Following their visit, Ali Agca said the plot for the assassination was hatched in July -August 1980 during his stay in Bulgaria. In his words he contacted Todor Ajvazov, a financier from the Bulgarian Embassy in Rome and Zhelyu Vassilev, secretary of the military attache at the Embassy in Rome. According to Agca Sergei Antonov, the only Bulgarian arrested for complicity in the papal attack, was to be in charge of the transportation of Agca and the other gunman Oral Chelik.

Sergei Antonov was held for more than three years in Italian prisons only to be acquitted over lack of evidence. Shattered and physically damaged, he returned to Bulgaria unable to carry on a conversation or concentrate on complex tasks, symptoms his friends say came from the use of psychotropic drugs in his interrogation. In 2005, I tried to contact Antonov, with the help of Bulgarian journalists. I was told, he was ill and could not control himself. Antonov was found dead at his appartment in Sofia on the 2d of August 2007. Doctors said, his dead body remained there for several days. He was 58, living alone, ruined.

One year later, I tried to contact and interview Mehmet Ali Agca in a Turkish prison. My Turkish friend, a known journalist helping me, was refused a visit to Agca by the Police. She told me they threatened her and blocked her any contact with the assassin, who had been briefly set free and then rearrested and put to jail.

The Bulgarian trail still remains unaccessible.

Spies in the Vatican
The article in “Wprost” weekly concluded that the Communist secret services had placed many spies in the Vatican, since the beginning of the Cold War. The then Polish secret intelligence service scored a big success placing a spy near Pope Paul VI. “That person had access to top secrets. He reported about conversations of Paul VI with diplomats from France, Britain or Vietnam”, said priest Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski, who was writing a book about the activity of the Communist secret services in the Vatican.”

“But the most outstanding successes in the placing of agents in the Vatican scored the East German Stasi. From 1971 to 1980 Stasi located there at least 17 spies. One of their more valuable agents was a priest, Paul Dissemond, who had been recruited in 1974 as agent “Peter.” Strong proofs of “Peter’s” collaboration with the Stasi have been presented in Koehler’s book…According to John O. Koehler, every more important department of the Holy See had been infiltrated. Koehler asserts that after the fall of Communism in the USSR the KGB and then the FSB never stopped its infiltration of the Vatican.”

“Moscow constantly denies any [Soviet] participation in the attempt(s) against the [Polish] pope. The present Russian authorities do not want to disclose the archives about that subject. Therefore Polish investigators count on the Hungarian archives and on the archives of the recently opened Czech counterpart of the [Polish] Institute of National Remembrance [IPN]”, concluded Pasztelanski and Sadowski, the authors of the article.

I think we can also count on Italian cooperation in solving of some riddles of the Communist secret services plotting against John Paul II and participating in the attempts on his life. There were more than just one attempt, that of May 13, 2008. Back in 2007, journalists of “Wprost” weekly interviewed an Italian general Giuseppe Cucchi, who confirmed that the then Polish Military Intelligence (WSI) could have known (from an Arab source) about the assassination attempt, some days before May 13, 1981.

The confirmation of the alleged KGB and other Communist plots has a fundamental historical significance for Poland, the Catholic Church and the world opinion. But in the past the secretive nature of the Soviet regime did not allow to disclose the truth about the Katyn Forest mass murder of Polish officers and civilians on the 5th of March 1940 until Soviet scholars revealed in 1989 that Joseph Stalin had indeed ordered the massacre, and in 1990 Mikhail Gorbachev admitted that the NKVD had executed the Poles and confirmed two other burial sites similar to the site at Katyn: Mednoje and Pyatikhatki.

On 30 October 1989 Gorbachev allowed a delegation of several hundred Poles, organized by a Polish association named Families of Katyn Victims, to visit the Katyn memorial. This group included former U.S. National Security Advisor, Professor Zbig Brzezinski. It took 49 years to the Soviets to finally admit to their crime. But they never admitted Katyn and other Soviet mass murders of Poles were genocide.

How long shall we have to wait for a Russian disclosure of Soviet plots against the late Pope John Paul II? Another 50 years, or more?

Soviet politbureau members, Gorbachev included, signed an „informal“ death sentence on John Paul II

David Dastych, 67, is a veteran journalist who served both in the Polish intelligence and the CIA; jailed in Poland by the Communist regime he spent several years in special prison wards; released in early 1990’s he joined international efforts to monitor illegal nuclear trade in Europe and Asia; handicapped for lifetime in a mountain accident in France, in 1994; now he returned to active life and runs his own media agency in Warsaw.

World Content News – German Armed Forces Command: Man freut sich ja über jeden Seiten-Besucher. Aber bei dem hier fällt einem glatt die Zigi aus der Fluppe. Der Streitkräftige vom Bundeswehrkommando USA und Kanada (BwKdo US/CA) suchte hier via Google nicht etwa einen Stadtteil oder Bauernhof in Geilenkirchen, sondern – wow – eine geheime BND-Residentur.

Wer sich jetzt wundert, was die Bundeswehr / der BND in Virginia zu suchen hat, auf der Seite der Deutschen Botschaft in Washington gibt’s Nachhilfe:

Activities in the U.S. and Canada
Building upon a history of close military cooperation, the U.S. allows Germany to deploy complete military units to the States. German air force and navy combat jet crews and all surface-to-air missile operators are trained entirely in the U.S. and Canada (Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico; Fort Bliss, Texas; Goose Bay, Labrador, Canada). German troops participate in military exchanges, training programs and exercises conducted with U.S. forces. Command and control of these units and individual German soldiers in the U.S. and Canada is exercised by the German Armed Forces Command USA/CA in Reston, Virginia.

Nein, Herr Verbindungsoffizier, zu Ihrer Information: Ihr Boss hat noch nicht seinen Schlapphut genommen. Der sitzt fest im Sattel wie ein Rodeo-Reiter. Und es soll heute 25 Grad heiß werden in Virginia, ist denn noch genug German Beer im House?

So, jetzt hab ich meine ganz persönliche Spitzelaffäre. Warum sollen eigentlich immer nur die Behörden überwachen?

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David Dastych – New, sensational documents concerning the attempt against the late pope, John Paul II, have been revealed in a new book by John O. Kohler, an American journalist and writer. The book, entitled „It’s About the Pope. Spies in the Vatican“, will be released in Poland on Monday, April 28, 2008 by ZNAK Publishing House, known for its publications about the late pope.

The author reached a Kremlin document, which listed Soviet Politbureau members, who had signed an „informal death sentence“ on the Polish pope. „Use all available possibilities to prevent a new political trend, initiated by the Polish pope, and „if necessary – reach to means beyond disinformation and discreditation.“ This instruction was given to their subordinates in the KGB by members of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party in November of 1979.

„I was shocked, when I had found this order. The means „beyond disinformation and discreditation“ meant only one thing: an approval to kill the pope“, John O. Kohler told a leading Polish weekly „Wprost“ (read: vprost) this week, prior to the official launching of his book in Poland.

Who signed the „informal“ death sentence against John Paul II? The party document obtained by the author of the book listed nine prominent Soviet CP members: the chief of the Soviet propaganda – Mikhail Suslov, members of the Presidium of the CC CPSU – Andrei Kirilenko, Konstantin Chernenko, secretaries of the CC – Konstantin Rusakov (responsible for the contacts with the Polish Communist Party), Vladimir Ponomarev, Ivan Kapitonov, Mikhail Zimyanin, Vladimir Dolgikh and Mikhail Gorbachev.

An article, written by Michal Krzymowski quoting Mr. John O. Kohler, will appear in the next issue of „Wprost“ weekly, on Monday, April 28, 2008 – on the very day the new book is to be lauched and put on sale in Poland.

The Book: Chodzi o papieża szpiedzy w watykanie

David Dastych, 67, is a veteran journalist who served both in the Polish intelligence and the CIA; jailed in Poland by the Communist regime he spent several years in special prison wards; released in early 1990’s he joined international efforts to monitor illegal nuclear trade in Europe and Asia; handicapped for lifetime in a mountain accident in France, in 1994; now he returned to active life and runs his own media agency in Warsaw.

Stephan Fuchs – Der schweizerische Auslandsgeheimdienst, der Strategische Nachrichtendienst (SND) hat einen neuen Chefspion. Er nennt sich „Flop“. Wohlgemerkt, nicht im Zusammenhang mit den vermuteten Qualitäten des Geheimdienstes, sondern aus seiner Zeit einer Studentenverbindung in Biel. Dort ist er, laut Webseite noch immer Vorsitzender und beliebter Referent.

Flop wie James Bond: In der Publiation der International School of Managment.

Der 49-Jährige wird auf den ersten Juni 2008 Direktor der Geheimdiensttruppe und löst Hans Wegmüller ab. Wegmüller übernahm nach dem Rücktritt des umstrittenen Haudegen und Draufgängers Peter Regli die Leitung und umhüllte den Geheimdienst mit der nötigen Biederkeit, um den Dienst aus den Schlagzeilen zu bringen. In Wegmüllers Amtszeit fiel der Übergang des SND vom militärischen zum zivilen Auslandgeheimdienst. Insgesamt war Wegmüller fast 30 Jahre lang für den Nachrichtendienst tätig gewesen.

Flop, im Dienst auch als Paul Zinniker bekannt, schloss 1987 seine Studien an der Universität Bern als lic. phil. mit dem Diplom für das Höhere Lehramt ab. Nach seiner Tätigkeit als Lehrer an der Gewerblich-Industriellen Berufsschule Bern trat er 1991 als Führungsoffizier in den SND ein. Über dreißig Jahre ist Flop in der studentischen Verbindung Commercia Biennensis von Biel, im Kanton Bern aktiv. Das dreißigste feierte er 2006, spendierte ein Fass Bier und leckere Fleisch- und Käseplatten. Damals arbeitete er noch an seinem Doktorat. Dazu die „Commercia Post“, das Publikationsorgan der Verbindung: „Es hat sich somit einmal mehr gezeigt, dass man es trotz (oder gerade wegen) der Commercia zu etwas bringen kann!“ Oder eben: „Ozapft isch das Fässle“.

World Content News – Ein knappes halbes Jahr nach der Bombardierung eines angeblichen Atomreaktors in Syrien hat die CIA „Beweise“ vorgelegt, die nahelegen sollen, dass der Bau und das Know-How aus Nordkorea stammen. Die von der US-Regierung herausgegebene Videopräsentation ist ein Mix von Satellitenphotos und Schaubildern, der Angriff zur Zerstörung des Gebäudes selbst ist nicht dokumentiert.

Teil 2

[Update] Das Video dürfte als Beweis wohl kaum geeignet sein, um mögliche unfreundliche Aktionen gegen Bushs Lieblingsschurken international rechtfertigen zu können, doch die verbalen Angriffe (insbesondere gegen den Iran) nehmen derzeit an Stärke zu. Selbst Joschka Fischer hört schon die Kriegstrommeln, auch wenn seine Analyse in der ZEIT – mit Verlaub – die globalstrategischen US-Interessen fast völlig hinten anstellt.

Die Meldung, dass bei der Bombardierung von Al Kibar zehn Nordkoreaner ums Leben gekommen sein sollen, wurde vom südkoreanischen Geheimdienst in der japanischen Presse lanciert.

Nicht aussagekräftig, aber trotzdem interessant sind diverse Vergleiche auf crypton.org von Google-Maps-Fotos zwischen dem syrischen Gebäude und der nordkoreanischen Reaktoranlage Yongbyon.

News:
USA beschuldigen Nordkorea des Reaktorbaus in Syrien
(AFP, 25.04.2008)
Syriens geheime Nuklearpläne „Damaskus müsste außer sich sein“
(FAZ, 25.04.2008)
Syria accuses U.S. of aiding Israel in raid
(Reuters, 25.04.2008)
USA glauben an Atomverschwörung: Verschärfter Konflikt mit Nordkorea
(taz, 25.04.2008)
Syriens Atomprogramm im Visier
(FAZ, 24.04.2008)
Israelische Medien vom Militär zur Zensur gezwungen
(Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 24.04.2008)
Israels Angriff galt offenbar syrischem Reaktor
(Netzeitung, 14.10.2007)
! ‚USAF struck Syrian nuclear site‘ (Jerusalem Post, 02.11.2007)

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