With reference to the recent 'al-Qaeda' bomb attacks in London, the real tragedy is that the truth of the matter has been kept under wraps by a suborned media - to say nothing of the part played by the 'Intelligence Services'. In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, this phenomenon of so-called 'terrorism' has been fostered primarily by the eastward drive of the western capitalist corporate establishment (under American hegemony, once again) with the aim of ensuring control of the markets on a global scale, the main beneficiaries of this being the twinned oil and arms industries. This eastward drive, with its concomitant armed invasions; its US-financed 'Orange Revolutions' in the Balkan and Caspian regions; and its setting-up of US military bases throughout the Middle and Near East, has, understandably, met with fierce, but comparatively weak opposition - due, in no small measure to the fact that the Arab Sheikhs and Emirs (most of whom are in thrall to the Americans) have not supplied the fellahin with hard weaponry. Faced by the far superior armed might of the Americans, this has engendered - particularly in the case of the Arabs of the Mid and Near East - that dangerous emotion, frustration, which, in turn, inevitably causes a religiously-motivated back-lash
(not the first in history, by any means!). Hence the bombs.

A closer look at events - and in particular at officials so involved - would assist in gaining a clearer understanding of this phenomenon of today's 'terrorist' activities. At this point, it is important to recognize that the Intelligence Services of America played a crucial role as the following will show.

In 1943, Richard McGarrah Helms was posted to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) - the orerunner of the CIA - because he spoke good German. At war's end, and now in the Office of Special Operations (OSO), he was put in charge of intelligence and counter-intelligence operations in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, and thus involved in the setting up of the Gehlen Organisation under the control of the notorious Nazi spymaster, General Reinhard Gehlen. Many Nazi agents were then recruited in order to run covert operations in Soviet-occupied Eastern Europe. 'The Org', as it soon became known, subsequently evolved into the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) - as the German Federal Intelligence is now known. Helms became Director of the OSO after the CIA's disastrous role in the attempted invasion of Cuba in 1961, and subsequently sent off to Vietnam where he oversaw the coup to overthrow President Ngo Dinh Diem, who was assassinated. In 1965, he was made Deputy Director of the CIA, and the following year Director of Central Intelligence (DCI). [1]

Keeping in mind that US interest in mind control and manipulation can be traced back to Dr. A. Newton Richards in 1941, when the Chemical Warfare Service merged with the Committee on Medical Research, it should come as no surprise to learn that, in the immediate post-WW 2 period, US Intelligence recruited Nazi scientists, concentration camp doctors and psychologists (such as Dr. Joseph Mengele and Sidney Gottlieb) with a view to utilising their experimentation in mind control and manipulation. Obviously , Helms would have been involved in this. Originally known as Operation Paperclip, it subsequently evolved into Project Bluebird in 1949, Project Naomi in 1950; Project Artichoke in 1951, and finally MK ULTRA in 1953 - all under CIA control. [2] MK ULTRA was to achieve notoriety in 1975, when, in the investigating Senate Committee stated that "From its beginning in the early 1950s until its termination in 1963, the program of surreptitious administration of LSD to unwitting non-volunteer human subjects demonstrates a failure of the CIA's leadership to pay adequate attention to the rights of individuals and to provide effective guidance to CIA employees". Former CIA Director Richard Helms (1966-73) was fined in 1977 for lying to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about the CIA's role in the overthrow of Chilean leader Salvador Allende. High-ranking CIA officials in the directorate of operations raised the money to pay Helms' fine, which was in any case a farcical $2000. Moreover, as later exposed by the New York Times, Helms (then DCI) had ordered the destruction of over 150 records of these CIA mind-control projects. Nixon had fired him in 1973, thus ending his career in the CIA.

Intriguingly, one Robert Kiley, an ardent anti-communist activist and Magna cum Laude graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, had, after joining the CIA in 1963, become Manager of Intelligence Operations and then Executive Assistant to Helms. He left the CIA in 1970, and became Chairman and Chief Executive officer of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), where he was responsible for five transport agencies serving the New York Metropolitan Region. This resulted in Mayor Rudolph Giuliani giving him membership of his "Mayoral Task Force on Tax Reduction and Restructuring" in 1999. [3] More of him later..

At this point it is essential to take note of two events of crucial pertinence to the subject of this article. Firstly, from its formation in the mid-thirties, the fast-rising influence of the Iraqi Communist Party had led to its being accepted into the populist, reformist government of General Qasim during his tenure from '58 to '63. In 1963, with not-a-little-help from the CIA, General Qasim, was overthrown and killed by a Ba'athist Party coup. Saddam Hussein was appointed head of the Ba'athist Intelligence Organisation and oversaw the execution of some five thousand communists. Saddam's rise to power had begun on the back of a CIA-engineered coup. [4 Secondly, as later revealed by ex-National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, on July 3 1979 President Jimmy Carter had secretly authorised $500 million to be spent on creating an international terrorist movement that would spread Islamic fundamentalism in Central Asia (Afghanistan) and thus destabilize the Soviet Union. Saudi Arabia had assisted America in this venture. The CIA called this Operation Cyclone, and in the following years poured $4 billion into setting up islamic training schools in Pakistan. Young zealots were sent to the CIA's spy-training camp in Virginia, where future members of al-Qaeda were taught 'sabotage skills' - terrorism. [5] It would seem that the Soviet Union had some reason to invade Afghanistan in December 1979! (though it proved to be the final nail hammered into their financial coffin - with not a little help from its General Secretary at the time:, Mikhail Gorbachev). 1991 saw the collapse of the Soviet Union.

In January 2001, Robert Kiley (see above), was appointed Commissioner of London Transport to oversee London's underground system under Mayor (Red) Ken Livingstone - an extraordinarily ironic situation, to say the least. We can only conclude that this is but one more example of the 'special relationship' between Britain and America, wherein the former is the lackey in the pocket of the latter. Britannia no longer "rules the waves". And if further confirmation of this were needed, of the two companies who run the London underground, Metronet operates about two thirds of the underground train lines, and Tube Lines the remainder. Tube Lines is a joint venture between specialist public services provider Amey, and Bechtel Corporation, the prestigious petro-chemical group co-founded by Stephen Bechtel Snr. and John McCone (CIA Director under JFK and LBJ). . [6] It should be added that, in the 1980s, when America was assisting Iraq in its war against Iran, Bechtel won the contract to build the Iraqi PC-2 Complex for the production of gas precursors and ethyline oxide.

Some ten months before the 9/11 attacks on the WTC in New York, emergency response teams were exposed to a series of mock terror attacks in the Pentagon Office of the Secretaries of Defense conference room. Note that the list of such exercises below is not a comprehensive list):

Exercise 'a': On Oct. 24, 2000, contingency planning Pentagon MASCAL exercise simulates scenarios
in preparing for emergencies...The fire and smoke from the downed passenger aircraft billows from the
Pentagon courtyard. Defense Protective Services Police seal the crash site. Army medics, nurses and doctors scramble to organize aid. An Arlington Fire Department chief dispatches his equipment to the affected areas. Don Abbott, of Command Emergency Response Training, walks over to the Pentagon and extinguishes the flames. The Pentagon was a model and the 'plane crash' was a simulated one. The Pentagon Mass Casualty Exercise, as the crash was called, was just one of several scenarios to which emergency response teams were exposed. Oct. 24-26 in the Office of the Secretaries of Defense conference room.

Exercise 'b': As part of the same exercise "On Oct.24, there was a mock terrorist incident at the Pentagon Metro stop and a construction accident to name just some of the scenarios that were practiced to better prepare local agencies for real incidents." [7]

Exercise 'c': As reported by Associated Press on August 22 2002, in what the government described as a bizarre coincidence, John Fulton, a CIA officer assigned as chief of National Reconnaissance Office's strategic gaming division, had, on the morning of September 11th 2001, been running a pre-planned simulation at their Chantilly, Va.-based offices (some 4 miles from Washington International Dulles Airport) "to explore the emergency response issues that would be created if a plane were to strike a building"...."This was an exercise in which a small corporate jet crashed into one of the four towers at the agency's headquarters building after experiencing a mechanical failure." [8]

On the day of 9/11, Rudolph Giuliani was Mayor Of New York, and Ray Scheirer was Commissioner of the Mayor's Office of Emergency Management (OEM), which had originally been formed by FDR in 1941 - as part of the federal Office of Civilian Defense (OCD). As such, Scheirer, was responsible for co-ordinating rescue and recovery operations at the WTC. And in Washington on October 28 2002, the British Ambassador, Sir Christopher Meyer awarded Scheirer the CBE, "courtesy of Her Majesty the Queen , in recognition of services to British/American relations".

On January 1 2002, Giuliani was replaced as mayor by the billionaire Michael Bloomberg, and, now, named 'Person of the Year' by Time magazine, he lost no time and joined the 'professional lecture circuit' at the rate of $100,000 per lecture - thus earning some $8 million in 2002. With the accounting firm, Ernst & Young, he then founded the consulting company Giuliani Partners - with one of his previous associates, Ray Scheirer (see above), as a Vice-President.

On January 24 2002, the NY Police Commissioner, Ray Kelly, appointed David Cohen Deputy Commissioner of (police) Intelligence. Cohen had been in the CIA for 35 years, serving as Director of Operations from1995 to 1997. [9] More of him later.

Exercise 'd': Inspired by the Madrid bombings, on Sunday May 16 2004, New York's OEM (see above) ran a mock terror exercise code-named 'Transit Safe'. This was a four-hour drill designed to test the city's response to a terrorist attack in the subway, with two simulated explosions occurring on separate trains in the Bowling Green station. Ray Kelly (see above) participated in this. That same year, Kelly sent one of his NYPD officers, Ira Greenberg, to London, where he would be given an office at Scotland Yard.

Exercise (e): As quoted from the UK Government website covering the Chemical, Biological, Radiological & Nuclear (CBRN) antiterrorist organisation:"From the 4 to 8 April this year, the UK took part for the first time in a transatlantic counter terrorism exercise with the US and Canada,
designed to test simultaneous responses to internationally linked terrorist incidents. Code-named 'Atlantic Blue' in the UK, the exercise formed part of the Home Office's National Exercise Programme and, hosted by the Metropolitan Police Service, was an ambitious project involving over a year of intensive planning, and more than 2,500 personnel as well as 200 national and international observers. Whilst the exercise in the US was a live full scale exercise, the UK and Canada opted for 'command post' exercises (or CPX)." This exercise was held in Scotland, and simulated attacks on both the transport networks and a biological attack on the G-8 Summit leaders. This was but one more example of other such exercises undertaken, under the sponsorship of America, under the clarion call of 'the Fight Against Terrorism' - particularly since 9/11. [10]

On July 7 2005, with the G-8 Summit being held in Scotland, London transport suffered a series of bomb attacks. Intriguingly, that evening Peter Power, Managing Director of Visor Consultants, revealed, via a couple of TV interviews, that his firm had, that same morning - to quote him: "At the exact same time that the London bombings were taking place" been "running (a) 1000-person-strong exercise which drilled the London Underground being bombed at the exact same locations" - but he could not name the client who had given them the contract.

A scan of Visor and its senior officials reveals that, set up in 1995 as a 'crisis management advice' company, they had dealt with a number of disastrous events and terrorist incidents. Peter Power, managing director, "has a senior Scotland Yard background ..(as well as)..secondment to the Anti Terrorist Branch". Dr. Tony Burns-Powell, the executive director, "was previously Assistant Chief
Constable Rank, Metropolitan Police...and...represented the company (Visor) as a member of the UK Prime Minister's Team during the State Visit (October 1998) to China, while David Bawtree, Technical director, "was appointed the Civil Emergencies Advisor to the Home Office in 1993 for four years" and as such, became involved in a number of events, "and other terrorist incidents". Having
served in the Royal Navy for 38 years, he held the rank of Rear Admiral on his retirement. [11]

The obvious conclusion to be drawn from this is that Visor Consultants cannot be considered 'an independent company', inasmuch as it is clearly linked to the government and its subsidiary police and intelligence services - and so acts as a cover for them, its 'client'. Of one thing we may be sure, the police and Visor would have been in close contact with each other from the moment that the mock exercise was conceived. And as for Power's interviews on TV, it led to no clearer understanding of the event.

It should be noted here that both Peter Powers and Richard Scheirer, Vice President of Giuliani Partners, sit on the Advisory Board to the Canadian Centre for Emergency Preparedness (CCEP), an organisation which (in its own words) "consists of recognized international leaders and experts in the disaster management field including emergency and business continuity management, emergency response, risk management and security". [12]

On the day of the London bombing, Ira Greenberg - the NYPD officer who had been attached to Scotland Yard in 2004 (see above) - was riding the tube to his office when the attacks took place. He notified both Ray Kelly and NY Intelligence Commissioner, David Cohen, of the attacks. Kelly immediately dispatched four more intelligence division police to London (as reported in the NY Daily News).

The intelligence services have clearly played a manipulative role, even going, at times, so far as to teach the frustrated fellahin the art of terrorism; of necessity, these services have to rely on secret tactics in order to obtain the information needed for the job-in-hand - a secrecy enhanced by a suborned media - meaning that many questions remain unanswered, which in turn leads to assumptions having to be made which may be of an invalid, conspiratorial nature. Meanwhile Corporate America jumps on the bandwagon of 'terrorism' in order to make a fast buck or two.

Simply put, this is a case of 'no-win'. The capitalist establishment (or the US Administration, to
give it its proper name) finds itself on the horns of a dilemma: would not the most rational means of
solving this problem of terrorism be to examine the source of this frustration - but how can they, when to do so would mean questioning the capitalist system itself?

Alfred Mendes was born in Trinidad in 1920 and is of Portuguese extraction. His varied career included wartime service both at sea and in the British Army and work as a coal miner and oil driller in several parts of the world. He has been retired for twenty years and, measured by visits to our pages, is consistently spectrezine's most popular writer.

Endnotes
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Helms
[2] http://www.mindcontrolforums.com/jewell.htm.) For visual evidence of this form of 'psyops'
mind control: ref: Channel 4 documentary "Crazy Rulers of the World", broadcast in Oct. '04
[3] http://www.fpif.org/papers/cia/index_body.html; http://www.iridis.com/Robert_Kiley
[4] Andrew and Patrick Cockburn, excerpt from 'Out of
the Ashes,' The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein, 2000
[5] http://www.rense.com/general31/cyc.htm
[6] ref: [3] (above)
[7]
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3533.htm
[8]
http://www.thememoryhole.org/911/cia-simulation.htm
[9] http://www.workers.org/ww/2002/nypd0207.php
[10] http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/default.asp
[11] http://www.visorconsultants.com/aboutvisor.html
[12] http://www.ccep.ca/ccepadvi.html

See also:
www.spectrezine.org/resist/bush.htm www.spectrezine.org/war/Mendes.htm