David Dastych – In Winter of 1985 Robert Maxwell sold an Israeli-doctored version of PROMIS to General Wojciech Jaruzelski the then top ruler of Communist Poland. It was supposed to be used against the Solidarity Trade Union (illegal from December 1981) and the democratic opposition in Poland. But it also might be used to trace people and money passing through the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw.

PROMIS was sold to General Wojciech Jaruzelski the then top ruler of Communist Poland

The communist regime in Poland was extremely sensitive about any links of the Polish opposition to the CIA, the Warsaw Station in particular. The successful exfiltration from Poland of Colonel Ryszard J. Kuklinski – the top CIA spy in the Polish Army General Staff (1972 – 1981) – in November 1981 – put all the Special Services on a high alert. Their hunt for virtual spies, both Polish citizens and American diplomats, lasted until the end of communism in 1989/1990. After the regime change (June, 1989), most of the officers in the SB (security police, counter-intelligence of the Ministry of Interior) and the WSW (military police, counter-intelligence) still remained in place. Some of them survived all purges and work until this day. There’s also an evidence that a Soviet-doctored version of PROMIS was offered to Poland at the end of the 1980s and that it was used to spy on the U.S. Embassy and on the Department of State at least until 1996, when the software was removed from the State’s computers.

Before PROMIS was first sold to the SB/WSW in 1985, other techniques of the invigilation were used against the American Embassy and against the CIA Warsaw Station in particular. The tapping of the telephones, listening to radio signals, bugging of the Embassy compound and of the living quarters of the diplomatic staff and of their vehicles were usual practices. All movements of the Embassy staff were observed and their cars were usually followed. In spite of these tight invigilation measures, the CIA staff successfully exchanged information with many Polish sources. Their technique was simple: chalk signals, dead drops, car exchanges, people to people exchanges, quick information gathering at official functions, coctails, parties, during visits at Polish institutions and media outlets. I can tell much more about this because I was actually doing this for years – right before the nose of the SB and the WSW, and even using some of them as my information sources. That game lasted from at least 1975 until my arrest in March 1987.

The opposition (SB, WSW) had also their “scoops”. Several members of the CIA diplomatic staff in Poland had been caught red-handed during the exchanges or personal contacts, then declared “persona non grata” and expulsed. I am quite sure that the application of PROMIS after 1985 helped them to trace contacts and to penetrate the Embassy, as well as to control a part of the Embassy’s exchange with the State Department.

But this was possible only from 1985 onto (more or less) 1996.

I will ignore the period before 1980, as it had nothing to do with PROMIS. But the first half of the 1980s was important, because some people from the U.S. diplomatic staff posted in Poland came back to serve their second term here after 1985, or they might be traced by PROMIS in their State’s offices or at other overseas assignements.

I recall several incidents that gave me some proof that the communist special services were quite well informed about the U.S. Embassy staff’s activities and contacts. Looking into my notes, I find that one of them could be the Ambassador WILLIAM E. SHAUFELE,Jr., who served in Poland from March 1978 to the 11th of September 1980. At that time I had frequent working contacts with U.S. diplomats, such as: Counsellor (Press & Culture) JAMES E. BRADSHAW, First Secretary (Press) JOHN SCOTT WILLIAMS and other.

On the 8th of September 1980 (before leaving Poland), Ambassador Schaufele passed to me by an Embassy courier an invitation from the State Department to cover the presidential elections in November. When I began to process the execution of this 1-month reporting work in the U.S.A., the SB got mad and soon they blocked my service passport. As they had no obvious proof of my “spy” activity to arrest me, they organized a provocation against the U.S. Embassy: the then Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs – Professor Marian Dobrosielski (who was also an SB collaborator) sent a diplomatic note to Ambassador Schaufele, “protesting” against the “intelligence exchange” in the Embassy done by a known journalist – Mr. Mariusz Dastych.

My name was used by the SB (without my knowledge or consent) as a counter-intelligence target. But I got the news about the provocation from my CIA Station contact and I lodged a protest in the MFA and I informed the U.S. Embassy staff, who also lodged a protest in the Ministry. The SB scheme failed completely. But I was called to the Ministry of Interior to sign a document that I declared to stop all contacts with the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw. I signed the document on October 1, 1980 and… I simply continued my contacts, with certain precautions. At the same time, I wrote a sharp protest to the then Deputy Minister of Interior – General Miroslaw Milewski (a well known pro-Soviet hardliner).

The protest was futile. But the SB didn’t bother to block my passport for a trip to the Soviet Union. In November, instead to the United States, I went to Moscow to meet Professor Georgi Arbattov, the top Soviet specialist on the U.S. and his staff. Then, after Ronald Reagan’s victory, I wrote a column in one of the Polish weekly magazines (“Plomienie”), reprinted in the USSR, prasing President-elect Ronald Reagan. My column was also distributed by the State Department and bounced back in Poland. I had been invited to the U.S. Embassy and introduced to new Press Attache – Mr. STEPHEN MARK DUBROW. We worked together to help the Solidarity Trade Union and to organize scholarships for Polish journalists to visit or study in the U.S.A. I also received an invitation to study at Berkeley, but I could never use it.

My visit to Moscow in November 1980 provided me with some opportunity to collect information about aggressive Soviet plans against Poland. The military exercises of the Warsaw Pact, scheduled for the 8th of December were aimed at taking over the power in Poland by the Soviet and other Warsaw Pact military forces; fortunatelly they were called off after a strong protest by President Jimmy Carter – who had been informed about the situation by the CIA.( The source of the information was “Gull”, Col. Ryszard Kuklinski).

Called off after a strong protest by President Jimmy Carter

In Spring of 1981, I used a series of articles about the CIA (“The CIA Against Poland”), distributed by the KAR news agency and published all over Poland and in other “socialist” countries, to inform the CIA about what the SB knew about my previous recruitment by the CIA in Saigon, in 1973. This was a warning to the Warsaw Station that the SB observed my activity and might organize a trap for U.S. diplomats. As I had sources in the SB, KGB, GRU and other communist intelligence services (including the STASI and the Chinese) – I could not work openly with any U.S. diplomats in Warsaw without doing a harm to them, specially after the exfiltration of Colonel Ryszard Kuklinski from Poland to the U.S.A., in November of 1981 [I was interrogated about him by the SB but I had never met him and I knew nothing of his activities].

After the publication of this series of articles, an SB officer called me up and told me about the reaction in the U.S. Embassy. That was a real proof to me that the SB either had informants within the Embassy compound or had placed listening devices there. My friend in the Embassy – MR. DUBROW called me up at my newspaper office and told me [knowing that our conversation was being tapped] : “The Security Officer of the Embassy told me to break all contacts with you, and he also warned you not to visit any U.S. institution in this part of the World”. It was a very clear message to me that I couldn’t do any more information exchanges with the diplomats of the Warsaw Station or other Stations in the communist countries. I had to concentrate on other activities and find new ways of passing on information to the U.S. (I used other channels, including one through Japan).

As the situation in Poland deteriorated throughout the whole year (1981), my work focused on the Soviet threat, on the communist intelligence services penetrating Poland and on the domestic hard-liners and their contacts and plots with these communist secret services. That was a piece of fascinating work: carried out in Poland, the Soviet Union, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and East Germany.

In Fall of 1981, I was already well informed of the inevitability of the martial law in Poland, and I had contacts with Polish, Soviet, East German, Hungarian, Chinese and other military officers and spies. At the end of November 1981, all that was clear to me but the DATE of the military takeover. After December 13, 1981 – the date of the coup – I had to cut off all my Western diplomatic contacts until late Spring of 1982. To my surprise, the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw quietly resumed the contacts with me in April of 1982, and I have been introduced to a new Press Attaché: Mr. PAUL R. SMITH, with whom I worked until my arrest in March 1987. At that time, from October 1980 to February 1983, the U.S. Ambassador to Poland was a career diplomat: Mr. FRANCIS J. MEEHAN.

In the period from spring 1982 to spring 1987, I worked on journalist posts in Poland, the USSR, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and all my efforts to use official or private invitations to the countries outside the Soviet Block were turned down by the SB. But new operation schemes worked well: I had a good job in the Polish media, another one in the Japanese External Trade Organization (JETRO) and one more as a national secretary of the Journalist Foreign Affairs Club.

I had a permanent access to the Government Information Center and to the press conferences of the then Spokesman of the Government – M., Jerzy Urban. That gave me lots of diplomatic and political contacts. During that period of work, I was also able to warn the U.S. Embassy about communist provocations and communist informers. But I had no idea about any new invigilation techniques (like the PROMIS software), used by the Polish civilian (SB) and military (WSW) counter-intelligence against the U.S. and other diplomatic missions of the West.

In the first half of the 1980s, the communist counter-intelligence didn’t target me directly as they had plenty of work following the illegals of the Solidarity. But after 1985, when I had worked out an access to the top Polish and foreign politicians (including some close aides of General Jaruzelski, Janos Kadar and Mikhail Gorbachev) as well as to many Western politicians visiting Poland, the situation changed and I was put under intensive observation and invigilation. Two aborted attempts to kill me were also organized, in Poland and in Hungary.

Was PROMIS used also to catch me?
Now, knowing about the application of at least two doctored versions of PROMIS by Polish secret services to their counter-intelligence and intelligence operations in the 1980s and 1990s, I can corroborate that this software could also be used to trace my contacts with foreign diplomats and foreign intelligence people. I recall some examples of the invigilation in Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia – after 1984. Each time I went out of Poland, Polish special services were also following me, using the local services of the countries hosting me. As I used to visit U.S. Embassies and other diplomatic posts while abroad, PROMIS could facilitate to them the tracing of my contacts in the particular communist countries.

But what I really could learn about the results of these invigilation efforts, was after my arrest (in March, 1987) and during the 8 months of the intensive interrogation, carried out at the Rakowiecka Prison by a group of the SB officers. During the interrogation, I became sure that they (the SB) had some access to the foreign missions of the United States and Japan in Poland and in other communist countries. While they never proved to me any direct intelligence activity, they had collected “operational” material which was sufficient to put me to jail for 11 years, charged with the “spying for the CIA and the Japanese intelligence” and with the “acting against the alliances of Communist Poland” [against the Warsaw Pact states, the USSR in particular]. In the 1950s or 1960s I could have been simply executed for all that. But at the end of the 1980s, the communist services tried to eliminate me from the active life by more subtle methods: with the help of the country’s Penal Code.

The secret evidence material, gathered against me in the late 1980s, must still hold water and its sources must be protected, because all my attempts to review the case after 1990 and to bring it back to the court for cassation, or to re-open the inquiry into my “spy” case have been rejected by the Polish Supreme Military Court and by the Chief Millitary Prosecutor’s Office. In spite of the almost 15 years passing since the regime change in 1989, my case and many other communist “spy cases” are still considered inaccessible and “top secret”.

How many people had been caught and convicted in Poland due to the application of PROMIS
I wonder: how many people had been caught and convicted after 1985 in Poland, due to the application of PROMIS by the secret services, both these communist and these post-communist? What other damage had been done by their use of the PROMIS to the security of our allies and to NATO?

If we could discover even a tiny part of the truth, we could do a good service to Poland, to democracy and to the international security.

This article was written in April, 2004

David Dastych is a former Polish intelligence operative, who served in the 1960s-1980s and was a double agent for the CIA from 1973 until his arrest in 1987 by then-communist Poland on charges of espionage. Now he is an international journalist, who writes for Poland’s acclaimed weekly, WPROST, Canada Free Press, and The Polish Panorama (Canada), Ocnus Net (Britain), FrontPageMagazine and The New Media Journal (USA), Axis Information and Analysis (international), Nachrichten Heute (Switzerland), Agentura.ru (Russia), and runs his own David’s Media Agency.

All articles by David Dastych

About PROMIS
Promisgate: World’s longest spy scandal still glossed over / Part I
Promisgate: World’s longest spy scandal still glossed over /Part II
Promisgate: World’s longest spy scandal still glossed over /Part III

David Dastych – Edward Andrew Mazur, 61, a rich American businessman born in Poland and holding U.S. and Polish passports, spent nine months under arrest, pending his extradition to Poland. Then, on July 20, he was set free by an unquestionable decision of Judge Arlander Keys of the Chicago District Court.

Mazur was accused of complicity in the murder of a former Polish Police Chief, General Marek Papala, shot dead on June 25, 1998

In Poland, Mazur was accused of complicity in the murder of a former Polish Police Chief, General Marek Papala, shot dead on June 25, 1998 in front of his Warsaw home. The investigation of this crime is nine years old and not concluded yet. While professional killers involved in the murder of the General were in jail or dead, no trace led to the powerful people, who had ordered Papala’s “liquidation”, nor were their ultimate motives clearly established. The evidence collected over these years and presented to the Chicago Dictrict Court proved not strong enough to cause Mazur’s extradition. His role in the murder has not been proven and the evidence is based, at least in its main part, on testimonies of gangsters remaining in Polish jails. But for the Polish prosecutors, Edward Mazur is a linchpin to the masters of this crime and of many other criminal acts.

The case of Edward Mazur is part of a much larger investigation into the activities of mafia-type criminal organizations binding together gangsters, businessmen and politicians in Poland and abroad. Most of these people were former functionaries of the special services in Communist Poland, turned businessmen or politicians after the regime change in 1989. Mazur knew many of them since the 1970s or 1980s and supported close business and social relations with them. His personal fortune, estimated at about $110 million, in its greater part originated from business deals made in Poland, before and after 1989. Polish investigators claimed that a prominent Chicago businessman took part in illicit trade, also in drug-smuggling business, involving post-Communist mafia connections with Russia and other countries.

A Polish Communist agent…
Top secret documents on Edward Mazur, held in Polish (and probably also in Soviet/Russian) archives, reportedly indicate his recruitment by the then Polish political intelligence, operating in the United States. He was allegedly recruited in the early 1970s, soon after being granted U.S. citizenship (in 1969, at the age of 23). Mazur emigrated to America from a village in southern Poland with his mother in the early 1960s (1962?) as a minor, aged 15 or 16. It is not very clear, how they got to the U.S.A. Most of the sources claim they first went to Latin America, and only later moved to Chicago, to join his mother’s brother. His mother (and probably also her son) inherited some money and that bequest facilitated Ed Mazur’s college education and his later career in America. Was this fact known to the then Polish Communist special services? Certainly yes, because the Ministry of Interior decided to issue the passports, and there should be an Affidavit of Support, issued by their American relatives, as the reason for their travel.

He was allegedly recruited in the early 1970s, soon after being granted U.S. citizenship

Based on known evidence of the Communist recruiting practices, one should assume that the special services could be interested in a young man, inheriting some money, and moving from Poland to the U.S.A. But Edward was too young to be recruited, prior to his voyage. The Polish intelligence activated their interest in him only when he was in college, and after he had obtained U.S. citizenship. All they needed was a promising young engineer, an American citizen, whom they could control.

(At that time, he had to renounce his Polish citizenship to become a naturalized U.S. citizen. Later, after 1989, he might reclaim his Polish citizenship and hold two passports under American and Polish laws).

Recruiting a young Polishman, only after he received U.S. citizenship, was a common practice of the Communist special services. If recruited before, he should have reported his recruitment to the U.S. Immigration, and that could cause trouble. When Mazur joined the Polish Intelligence on American soil, he was already a citizen of this country, a student of an Engineering College in Chicago and – perhaps – a man with a promising professional career in America. Such an agent could be a highly valuable asset to the Communist special services.

The development of Mazur’s professional life fully confirms these expectations. He was active in the Polish-American organizations, promoted by the President of the Polish-American Congress, the late Edward J. Moskal. Later on, he worked as manager in several American companies (United Technologies, AG McKee & Co, Cargill Inc., Demarex Inc., Stream Communications Inc.). Starting in the mid-1970s, he was also one of the first American business investors in the then Communist Poland.

Highly valuable Business
His business activity in Poland proved to be highly valuable for the then Polish political counterintelligence (2d Department, Ministry of Internal Affairs), whose trusted secret agent he was supposed to be, until the beginning of the 1990s. Edward Mazur became also a well-established business partner of Polish companies, such as Bakoma and Bioton. The Polish special services allegedly used Mazur’s business talents and good offices to spy on foreign business operating in Poland and also to draw in foreign investments. But his long-time high position in the establishment of the Communist Poland could be also very attractive to other intelligence services, in particular to the American CIA and to the Soviet/Russian KGB.

…or a CIA operative?
The CIA never confirmed or denied that Edward Andrew Mazur was their secret agent or operative. That’s a usual practice. Mazur himself always strongly denied his involvement in – as he used to say – “any secret services”. But his activity and contacts, in Poland and in Eastern Europe in particular, contradicted his negation.

It is not known in public, how the CIA could eventually have recruited Edward Mazur. Was this by blackmail, after his links to the Polish special services had been discovered? Or, by a voluntary declaration of Mazur, offering his services to the CIA, also in the Polish counterintelligence, to prove his loyalty to the United States and also expecting material profits? There is no hard evidence to be quoted here. But, as far as I know the practices of the CIA, the American intelligence agency was never afraid to recruit and control foreign agents, using them for its own purpose. In the late 1970s, and especially in mid-1980s, the CIA was particularly interested in Poland. At that time, a “secret war” started between the spy services of several countries for economic and political benefits stemming from the changes in Poland. This was also the time of a sharp rivalry between foreign mafia organizations, which interests criss-crossed on Poland’s territory.

Two opinions of well-informed intelligence people in Poland indirectly confirm Edward Mazur’s links to the American intelligence. Mr. Jan Bisztyga, a high-ranking ex-officer of the Polish intelligence and a former advisor to a post-Communist Prime Minister, Leszek Miller, told a private television station, TVN 24 (a Polish CNN) that “Mazur has links to the American services. When I looked at his biography and his successes in Poland”, said Bisztyga, “it was clear to me that he wasn’t a man operating in Poland out his own good will. I think he was sent here.”

When a Polish right-wing weekly, “Gazeta Polska”, suggested Mazur was an American agent, a former chief of the Polish counterintelligence in the 1990s and earlier a “Solidarity” activist, Mr. Konstanty Miodowicz, refused to comment on this to the Polish Press Agency, hiding behind an excuse of a “state secret”. But he added that if Mazur were in fact an informer of the special services [Polish or foreign], “they should be proud, because he would be a very well placed source.”

In March of 2006, “Gazeta Polska” – a weekly well connected to the Polish special services – reported that after the regime change (1989), Mazur continued his cooperation with the new Polish special service, as consultant to the State Protection Office (UOP), from 1992 to 1996. He penetrated business and diplomatic circles in Poland and abroad, looking for connections between politicians and gangsters, he passed to the UOP information on former generals of the SB (the former notorious Secret Service). New, “Solidarity” – based authorities in Poland wanted to control the former Communist functionaries. Edward Mazur befriended them while still in Communist Poland, when he worked for the SB. Now he could meet them in private, drink vodka with them and report to the UOP about their covert business deals.

The weekly paper wrote that Mazur was so much engaged with the UOP that he used to phone his case officer from the parties he took part in and reported his conversations. In the mid-1990s, as “Gazeta Polska” reports – Mazur was working for a department of the State Protection Office (UOP), organized by Col. Konstanty Miodowicz and focused on organized crime. This activity lasted until autumn of 1996, when the post-Communist left-wing parties won the general elections in Poland. At that time, UOP officers were ordered to place Mazur’s files in the archive.

According to several Polish media publications, Edward Mazur took part in the Soviet-American intelligence rivalry over Poland, in the late 1980s. A former UOP officer disclosed to newsmen that Mazur rented an apartment in a Communist Party and government residential district of Warsaw, popularly known as a “Bay of Red Pigs”. An apartment neighboring with his was occupied by Mr. Vladimir Alganov, a KGB diplomat-spy. Alganov, a very sociable fellow, organized drinking parties for Polish politicians and collected intelligence from them. Mazur and Alganov competed for the best economic slices of the Polish “cake”: the first for the American intelligence, the latter for the Russian one. A few years later, this rivalry took a form of a bitter competition for the privatization of the best Polish state-owned companies and for control over the Polish banks.

A special fund, named FOZZ (A Fund to Service the Polish Debt) was organized in 1985 by the Communist authorities to buy up Polish state liabilities to foreign countries. But in fact, it was operated as a secret “stash fund” by the Polish communist special services. Only 4 per cent of the FOZZ’s money had been used for statutory aims, the rest was stolen by special services to provide foreign-based capital for the Communist functionaries, who anticipated the regime change and wanted to enrich themselves.

In 1985-1989, Mazur allegedly took part in the efforts by the American intelligence to influence the Polish political and economic scene. At that time, the CIA acted hand-in-hand with the Mossad against the influence of the KGB and the West German and French services. Later on, Israel began to build up its own lobby in Poland, sometimes in opposition against the United States. But the main rival was always Russia. In 1988, Mazur allegedly took part in a meeting of the CIA and the KGB operatives, devoted to the future of Poland. Polish intelligence sources, observing that meeting, claim that there Alganov was a “small fry”, while Mazur was a “tutti”.

American interst
Later, in 1992-1996, while he was a consultant to the UOP Counterintelligence, Mazur sat on the board of the Telegraf Company, which took part in the privatization of some 200 state-owned Polish firms and in Polish debt-purchases organized by the FOZZ. Edward Mazur participated in the locating of these assets and he bought some himself. But his main task was to look for American companies interested in the purchase of the FOZZ funds. The capital from the Fund for Servicing of the Polish Debt (FOZZ) was used to build the economic power of post-Communist political parties and former Communist Party and secret services dignitaries, turned businessmen. This was the environment Mazur operated within, at least to the fatal day of June 25, 1998, when his personal friend, a former Chief of the Polish Police, General Marek Papala, was shot to death by a hired mafia killer.

Edward Mazur was among a small group of people who saw Papala hours before his tragic death. Soon after that, he was arrested and quickly released but a few years later he was accused of complicity in the murder. Mazur was supposed to “organize” a killer of Papala and to offer him $ 40 thousand to “silence the general forever”. Now, the present Polish right-wing government continues the investigation into the death of General Papala. Polish Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Mr. Zbigniew Ziobro, passed the evidence of Mazur’s alleged complicity in this crime to the American Federal Prosecutor’s Office. In 2006 the Polish-American businessman was arrested and placed in a Federal Arrest in Chicago, waiting there nine months for a court decision on his extradition to Poland. But an unexpected ruling of Magistrate Judge Arlander Kays stopped the extradition process and let Mazur free.

For how long a time? And was Edward Andrew Mazur really guilty, or did somebody “frame” him?

I shall examine the investigation and its known options in my next article, later in this week.

David Dastych is a former Polish intelligence operative, who served in the 1960s-1980s and was a double agent for the CIA from 1973 until his arrest in 1987 by then-communist Poland on charges of espionage. Now he is an international journalist, who writes for Poland’s acclaimed weekly, WPROST, Canada Free Press, and The Polish Panorama (Canada), Ocnus Net (Britain), FrontPageMagazine and The New Media Journal (USA), Axis Information and Analysis (international), Nachrichten Heute (Switzerland), Agentura.ru (Russia), and runs his own David’s Media Agency.

Larisa Alexandrovna – You know, I actually thought that the Malkinites had sniffed enough glue in the last few days to keep them high on white power fumes for ages. But apparently, the parasite that they themselves inhabit (Rove),  which itself is but a failed organ in the body of a failed human being (Bush),  decided that additional distractions were in order … you know, just as long as there is any REAL news going on.

So these fine bigots, racists, misogynists and homophobes found a new toy to torture: an American soldier serving in Iraq.

Wait, were you of the belief that this collection of innards in the body of a parasite in turn living off the body of a morally depraved failure, somehow supported the troops? No, no, no, my friends. That would require that they actually gave a shit about something. No, these fine folks are able to lie themselves into stardom and then lie others into stupidity from there.

Continue reading „The Malkinites: AKA, Rove’s Kishkas“
Karl Rove Promises October Surprise
Karl Rove, Michael Ledeen, Spies procured forged Niger Documents
CIA-Agentin Plame quittiert Dienst

US News and World Report, 12/15/2003 It is not known how long this policy will continue, but there is evidence it continues until 9/11. In August 2001, former CIA agent Robert Baer will attempt to give the CIA a list of hundreds of al-Qaeda operatives in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, but the CIA will show no interest in it. Fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers will reportedly come from Saudi Arabia.

– The US Global Gold Corporation (GGC) will complete the gold exploration in Arevis village of Sisyan region, Armenia by the end of 2007, APA reports quoting Armenian press. The gold de-posit is situated on the border with Nakhchivan province of Azerbaijan.

Henrich Mkrtchyan, general geologist of GGC office in Armenia said the Corporation that operates in close cooperation with Armenian defense ministry has invested $2.2 million in “Marjan” deposit which is 3000 meters above the sea level.

Unnamed source in Armenian environmental protection ministry said it is not informed of the Corporation’s activity as it is not allowed for that.

Armenian defense ministry sources said the American company is working for the Pentagon and fulfilling errands on Iran in the territory. Chairman and CEO is Armenian Van Krikorian, president on operational works Michael T.Mason and vice-president Hrayr Agnerian.

Local residents say the GGC supports the restoration of the infrastructure of Arevis village which is com-pose dof 24 houses. They say there are also some English-speaking military-like persons besides geolo-gists, who are installing unknown big facility in the territory.

Armenian-born American analystRichardKirakosyan has recently announced that Washington and Mos-cow has reached an agreement on Serj Sarkisyan’s presidency after Robert Kocharian. Armenia is re-ported to have undertaken certain commitment on providing opportunity for the Us to use its territory against Iran.

Robert Parry – A real-life who-done-it, Neck Deep unravels what may become one of history’s great mysteries: Who killed the American Republic?

How did plutocrat George W. Bush come to lead the United States at the start of the 21st century – and how did he get away with using the 9/11 tragedy to overwhelm the constitutional safeguards that had protected the nation’s liberties for more than two centuries?

Neck Deep’s remarkable narrative goes on to reveal how the American Republic, even at that moment, was undergoing decay that would accelerate dangerously after the 9/11 attacks.

Neck Deep shows how this crime was committed and then lines up the suspects – aggressive Republicans, accommodating Democrats, abrasive pundits, careerist journalists – for an assessment of collective guilt.

Tracking the investigative work of the Web site Consortiumnews.com, Neck Deep also reveals that the mystery’s secrets often were in plain view in real time. Much of the damage could have been avoided, the book shows, except that the Washington establishment itself was implicated.

An extraordinary contribution to the history of the Bush era – and a must-read for Americans who are fighting to save the Republic – Neck Deep is written by three of the Consortiumnews.com’s editors: Robert Parry (who broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s) and two of his sons, Sam and Nat Parry.

The book opens with a first-person account of the cold, rainy, dreary winter day – January 20, 2001 – when George W. Bush was sworn in as President of the United States.

Neck Deep’s remarkable narrative goes on to reveal how the American Republic, even at that moment, was undergoing decay that would accelerate dangerously after the 9/11 attacks.

The Bush administration soon was hollowing out many of America’s most treasured principles, including the nation’s founding belief in the „unalienable rights“ of all mankind.

But Neck Deep does more than critique Bush’s presidency. The book explains how – across the board – the Washington political/media elite failed the country.

The book also strips away the public myths surrounding leaders – from Colin Powell to John Kerry – and reintroduces them as real people with strengths and weaknesses.

Neck Deep weaves in, too, historical perspective that gives context to the extraordinary events in the six years since Bush became President, including revelations about his father’s secret dealings in the Middle East.

As work on Neck Deep came to a close in June 2007, the authors observed:

The United States was still at a dangerous crossroads – or perhaps a better image would be that the nation was at a stoplight that permits U-turns. Ahead lay the route that the country had followed for almost six years since 9/11. It was a road toward a future in which a frightened people would rely on a powerful Executive who promised them safety in exchange for their liberties.

It was unclear whether the American people would make the U-turn away from fear and authoritarianism and back toward a Republic with ‚unalienable rights‘ restored for ‚posterity,‘ as the Founders intended. Yet, even as Americans wondered whether to go forward or turn back, many remained confused over how they had gotten to that place on that dark road.

Neck Deep is the first comprehensive historical work to track the twists and turns of that troubling journey.

Neck Deep
Consortium News
To place your order today, please click here.

World Content News – Einblick ins Live-Tracking: Eine Boing 747 auf dem Weg von Guantanamo nach Casablanca in Marokko. Noch liegt der Zweck dieses Fluges der Saudi Arabian Airlines von heute morgen im Dunkeln, es dürfte sich wohl um einen Gefangenenrücktransport handeln.

Quelle: http://flightaware.com/live/flight/SVA7363

Oder ist dies schon der heimliche Beginn des Exodus aus dem Foltercamp?

[Update 16.07.]
Na also. die Auflösung folgt auf dem Fuße:

16 Saudis haben Guantánamo verlassen

Riad. DPA/baz. Aus dem amerikanischen Gefangenenlager Guantánamo sind 16 Saudis entlassen worden. Die saudi-arabische Nachrichtenagentur SPA berichtete unter Berufung auf Innenminister Prinz Naif bin Abdul Asis, die Männer seien am Montag in ihrer Heimat eingetroffen und befänden sich noch in Gewahrsam der Behörden. Ihren Angehörigen werde aber gestattet, sie zu treffen. Mit dieser Entlassung konnten bisher nach offiziellen Angaben 77 saudi-arabische Gefangene das Lager für Terrorverdächtige verlassen. Derzeit sitzen dort nach Angaben von Prinz Naif noch 53 Saudis ein.
Weiterlesen bei: Basler Zeitung

Related News:
Senators press Rice on Guantanamo detainee transfers to torture states
(jurist.law.pitt.edu, 15.07.2007)
Plan to close Guantanamo site raises worry over detainee transfers
(contracostatimes.com, 15.07.2007)
Hoffnung für Gefangene in Guantanamo (Tagesspiegel, 02.07.2007)
Wo die Folterjets heute fliegen (blick.ch, 11.07.2007)
Wie die Schweiz CIA-Flüge bewilligte (blick.ch, 12.07.2007)

Dieser Artikel erschien erstmalig bei World Content News

Larisa Alexandrovna and Muriel Kane – Release of CIA’s ‘Family Jewels’ provides insight into political juggernaut and Bush Administration adviser

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger pushed for the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus and allowed arms to be moved to Ankara for an attack on that island in reaction to a coup sponsored by the Greek junta, according to documents and intelligence officers with close knowledge of the event.

“In all the world the things that hurt us the most are the CIA business and Turkey aid,” Kissinger declares in one of those documents. On the surface, the comment seems innocuous, but the context as well as the time period suggests Kissinger had abetted illegal financial aid and arms support to Turkey for its 1974 Cyprus invasion.

Nearly 700 pages of highly classified Central Intelligence Agency reports from the 1970’s, known collectively as the „Family Jewels,“ are slated for public release today. However, the National Security Archive had previously obtained four related documents through the Freedom of Information Act and made them public Friday. “In all the world the things that hurt us the most are the CIA business and Turkey aid,” Kissinger declares in one of those documents, a White House memorandum of a conversation from Feb. 20, 1975. On the surface, the comment seems innocuous, but the context as well as the time period suggests Kissinger had abetted illegal financial aid and arms support to Turkey for its 1974 Cyprus invasion.

In July and August of 1974, Turkey staged a military invasion of the island nation of Cyprus, taking over nearly a third of the island and creating a divide between the south and north. Most historians consider that Kissinger – then Secretary of State and National Security Advisor to President Gerald Ford – not only knew about the planned attack on Cyprus, but encouraged it.

According to columnist Christopher Hitchens, author of the book „The Trial of Henry Kissinger,“ „At the time, many Greeks believed that the significant thing was that [Prime Minister Bulent] Ecevit had been a pupil of Kissinger’s at Harvard.“

However, a former CIA officer who was working in Turkey at the time, suggests that Kissinger’s statement in the memorandum about Turkish aid likely means the Ford administration, following Kissinger’s advice, conducted business under the table with right-wing ultra-nationalist General Kenan Evren, who later dissolved Parliament and became the dictator of Turkey in a 1980 coup.

“The implication is that the US government was dealing directly with General Evren and circumventing the [democratically elected] Turkish government,” the former CIA officer said. “This was authorized by Kissinger, because they were nervous about Ecevit, who was a Social Democrat.”

“We technically cut off military aid for them,” the officer added, referring to an arms embargo passed by Congress after the invasion. “Technically… technically, but this would imply that the military and/or probably CIA aid continued even after the aid was cut off by Congress. This may substantively be what led to the overthrow eventually of Ecevit.” Read all @ RawStory

Stephan Fuchs – Um 11.30 wurde die bemerkenswerte Sammlung des amerikanischen National Security Archive um ein Juwel reicher. CIA Agenten brachten die lange erwartete 702 Seiten umfassende Geheimgeschichte des amerikanischen Auslandgeheimdienstes CIA, den „Family Jewels Report“. Nach 15 jähriger Wartezeit. 1992 stellte das Archiv über den Freedom of Information Act FOIA den Antrag zur Veröffentlichung der geheimen Dokumente.

Jane Fonda beim Feind im Vietnamkrieg; den Vietcong

Der FOIA gibt jedem US-Bürger das Recht, Zugang zu Dokumenten der Regierung der USA zu verlangen. Das Gesetz wurde am 4. Juli 1966 von Präsident Lyndon B. Johnson unterzeichnet und trat ein Jahr später in Kraft. Der Johnson-Regierung gelang es jedoch, die Gesetzesvorlage, so weit zu verwässern, dass das Gesetz kaum praktische Auswirkungen hatte. Erst 1974 wurde das Gesetz zu einem wirksamen Instrument. Geheime Dokumente können – nach der Sperrfrist – der Öffentlichkeit zugänglich gemacht werden, allerdings sind sie nicht viel mehr als Toilettenpapier: Blütenweiss.

Der „Family Jewels Report“ gibt Einblick in einen Teil der schmutzigen Arbeit im Dienste für das Vaterland. Die Veröffentlichung schildert die illegalen CIA Operationen aus den 60er und 70er Jahren. Der Bericht – von den Medien als „Aufräumaktion“ und als „Schlussstrich unter geheimdienstlicher Schmutzarbeit“ umgarnt und lobend geschildert, ist aber Altweibergewäsch. Nichts Neues. In den 700 Seiten „Brisanz“ wird bestätigt, was mittlerweile zum Allgemeinwissen gezählt wird. Ja, die CIA wollte den kubanischen Präsidenten Fidel Castro ermorden – mit Hilfe des Cosa Nostra Mafiosi John Roselli, steht in dem Bericht. Nicht nur Castro, sondern auch andere Politiker standen auf der Abschussliste des Auslandgeheimdienstes. Auch gegen den „Inneren Feind“ war der Dienst aktiv beteiligt. Ja, US Journalisten wurden bespitzelt. Ja, die amerikanische Vietnamgegnerin Jane Fonda ebenso.

1976 fand man die Leiche von Jonny Roselli bei der Dumfounding Bay in Florida, in einem 55 Gallonen Ölfass. Wie er da rein kam, das weiss der CIA Report nicht zu klären – vielleicht ist die Geheimgeschichte im „Family Jewels Report“ eben doch nicht ganz erzählt – oder versteckt sich unter den seitenlangen weissen Stellen.

Der „Family Jewels Report“ als PDF

World Content News – Während US-Präsident Bush offenbar neue Gesetzes-Direktiven vorbereitet, um Folterformen wie z B. das „Waterboarding“ doch noch im neuen „Military Commissions Act“ als legale Methode unterbringen zu können und im Gegenzug dafür eventuell den Demokraten entgegenkommen wird, die die Schließung des Folterzentrums Guantanamo verlangen, warnen derweil Beobachter vor einer möglichen Neuauflage des sog. Extraordinary Rendition Programmes.

Anfang Juni sah es zunächst so aus, als würden sich diese Befürchtungen bewahrheiten: Am 2.6.2007 um 16:36 Uhr landete auf dem britischen Militärstützpunkt RAF Mildenhall eine Casa 212 des US-Geheimdienstes CIA. Laut Augenzeugen fuhr ein gepanzertes Fahrzeug der US-Armee vor, das Flugzeug wurde von Militärpolizisten gesichert, die mit F-16 Sturmgewehren bewaffnet waren.

In den vergangenen Jahren waren in Großbritannien wiederholt ähnliche Beobachtungen gemacht worden, oft im Zusammenhang mit Flugzeugen, die verdächtigt werden, heimlich Gefangene der US-Regierung zu transportieren. Zudem ist die besagte Maschine mit der Registrierungsnummer N964BW im Dauereinsatz für CIA und Blackwater und wird im Ausland für Spezialoperationen verwendet. Sie zählt zu den langjährigen Stammgästen auf dem Landestreifen des geheimen Ausbildungslagers Camp Peary. Die ca. 14 Flugzeuge umfassende ehemalige Blackwater-Flotte mit der Endung „BW“ wird sowohl von Amnesty International als auch im Bericht des Europarates im Zusammenhang mit möglichen Entführungsflügen erwähnt, wenn es auch derzeit keine konkretisierten Verdachtsfälle zu geben scheint.

Am 9. Juni veröffentlichte dann die Sonntagsausgabe der „Daily Mail“ die gesammelten Zeugenaussagen auf ihrer Website zusammen mit einem Beweis-Foto, das die Landung des CIA-Flugzeugs belegen sollte. Die Schlagzeile des Artikels lautete: „The picture that proves ‘torture flights’ are STILL landing in the UK“. Knapp 2 Tage später wurde die Story aus bisher unerfindlichen Gründen wieder vom Server entfernt. Was war passiert?

Trotz des Fotos behauptete die britische Polizei zunächst, es hätte keine derartige Landung gegeben. Tags zuvor erst waren die Ergebnisse einer 18-monatigen Untersuchung veröffentlicht worden, die besagten, es seien keine britischen Flughäfen von der CIA genutzt worden, um Verdächtige in Länder zu bringen, in denen ihnen Folter gedroht hätte.

Leider kam die „Daily Mail“ mit einer nicht ganz korrekten bzw. unvollständigen Grafik in Erklärungsnot, die sie dem Artikel beifügte, welche die Flugroute der N964BW nachzeichnet:

Zunächst beginnt der Flug nicht in Camp Peary, sondern scheinbar auf dem ca. 50km entfernten Flughafen Chesapeake in Virginia. Scheinbar deshalb, weil die aufgezeichneten FAA-Daten nicht vollständig sind:

31-May-2007 Goose Bay – Narsarsuaq 08:14 GMT
30-May-2007 Bangor Intl – Goose Bay 22:01 GMT

30-May-2007 Chesapeake Rgnl – Bangor Intl 16:37 GMT
25-May-2007 Mid Delta Rgnl – Raleigh-Durham Intl 03:35 GMT
Quelle: http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N964BW/history

Wo sich das Flugzeug zwischen Raleigh-Durham und Chesapeake rumgetrieben hat, ist nicht feststellbar. Dies könnte sich so erklären lassen, dass die Piloten bei heiklen Missionen schon mal den elektronischen Transponder ausschalten, um die Aufzeichnung zu verhindern, vielleicht gibt es aber auch andere Gründe für die Lücke.

Blackwater USA reagierte schnell und „beglückwünschte“ in einer Pressemitteilung die Daily Mail dazu, ihre „falsche Story“ zurückgezogen zu haben und beteuerte, sich niemals an den Gefangenenflügen beteiligt zu haben. Die Firma gibt an, die Maschine sei nicht in Camp Peary, sondern vom Blackwater-Stützpunkt Moyock in North Carolina gestartet. Auch sie bezieht sich nur auf die etwas unglücklich geratene Grafik, im Artikel selbst wird der Ausgangsflughafen nicht bezeichnet, dort steht nur, dass die N964BW im Sommer letzten Jahres nachweislich zweimal Camp Peary besuchte.

Zudem wurden Stimmen laut, die besagten, die Geschichte sei völlig erfunden, denn eine Casa könne unmöglich eine solche räumliche Distanz zwischen den gezeigten Streckenabschnitten bewältigen ohne zwischendurch aufzutanken. Der Einwand ist zunächst völlig richtig.

Vergleicht man aber nun die Zeichnung mit den obigen FAA-Flugdaten, fällt auf, dass die Landung in Bangor fehlt. Und damit nicht genug: Bei Nachforschungen im Internet lässt sich anhand von Notierungen von Planespottern feststellen, dass das Flugzeug auf seiner Reise auch in Reykjavik, Island (Icao-Code: BIRK) und in Prestwick, Schottland (Icao: EGPK) zwischengelandet ist.

Damit ist den Kritikern und Leugnern der Wind nun gänzlich aus den Segeln genommen, hier noch einmal die vollständige Flugroute der N964BW:

Chesapeake – Bangor – Goose Bay – Narsarsuaq – Reykjavik – Prestwick – Mildenhall

Dem Daily Mail-Bericht zufolge soll die Maschine am Morgen des 3.Juni Mildenhall wieder verlassen haben und nach Malta weitergeflogen sein, dort wird ein Stützpunkt von Blackwater vermutet. Machen wir uns also auf die Spurensuche: Zuerst wurde sie am 3. Juni in Barcelona fotografiert, und voila, am 4.Juni notiert ein Spotter die Ankunft der N964BW auf Malta.

War es nun ein Flug mit Gefangenen an Bord oder nicht? Darüber kann derzeit nur spekuliert werden. Es gibt Anzeichen, die eher gegen diese Annahme sprechen: Soweit die Aufzeichnungen der Flugdaten nicht trügen, ist es wohl der erste Flug dieser Casa nach Europa. Sie war bisher nur in den USA und zuweilen in Südamerika aktiv. Andere Flugzeuge der Blackwater-Flotte nutzen Europa nur als Zwischenstation und tauchen oft monatelang in Afghanistan ab, wo sie sich an Spezialoperationen beteiligen.

Gewöhnliche Verschleppungen und Pendelflüge mit Gefangenen auf europäischem Boden scheinen bisher nicht zum Geschäft von Blackwater zu zählen, das Konglomerat aus Privatfirma (die neben zivilen Söldnern auch den CIA-Nachwuchs ausbildet) und Geheimdienst fliegt sozusagen eine Liga höher. Was sie allerdings in den Krisengebieten treiben, entzieht sich der meistens der Beobachtbarkeit.

Was immer es auch gewesen sein mag, die N964BW muss wohl mit einer höllisch brisanten Fracht unterwegs gewesen sein, im allgemeinen verzichten nämlich Geheimdienste darauf, mit ungewöhnlichen Sicherungsmaßnahmen zusätzlich auf sich aufmerksam zu machen.

Der Vorfall zeigt, dass durch eine sensibel gewordene Öffentlichkeit es der CIA zunehmend schwerer gemacht wird, zumindest im Flugbetrieb unerkannt ihren klandestinen Geschäften nachzugehen. Es lässt jedoch noch zu wünschen übrig, dass unerschrockene Journalisten und Medienverantworliche das Thema gebührend aufgreifen, um dem regierungsamtlichen Verschweigen und Vertuschen von offensichtlichen Menschenrechtsverletzungen der Geheimdienste ein Ende zu setzen.

Quellen:
The picture that proves ‘torture flights’ are STILL landing in the UK
(Kopie Daily Mail-Artikel, aftermathnews.wordpress.com, 10.06.2007)
Fortgesetzte Folterflüge? (freace.de, 17.06.2007)
Camp-Peary-Landungen 2002-2006 (WCN, 11.09.2006)
Blackwater-Diskussionsforum (intelpage.info, in Spanisch, 2007)
The CIA’s favorite form of torture (salon.com, 07.06.2007)

Dieser Artikel erschien erstmalig bei World Content News