The OSS Society and Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO): Private Groups That Help Control the Covert Operations Community
"Someone once said that war is hell, and peace is heaven. But we know that the opposite is true: War is heaven, and peace is hell."
Former CIA director and defense secretary James R. Schlesinger, honorary chairman of the OSS Society and member of the AFIO, in a speech to the Military Order of the Carabao. 1
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"No, no, my boy, don't tell me. Just go ahead [with the CIA operation] and do it, but I don't want to know."
1973, Senate Armed Services Committee member John Stennis to CIA director James Schlesinger. 2
"[Beurt] SerVaas, Wheaton says, was on the Executive Board of the Veterans of the O.S.S. (the predecessor organization to the CIA), which "runs the CIA from behind the scenes."
Iran Contra insider Gene Wheaton about the OSS Society. Haven't been able to prove any of Wheaton's words wrong yet. 3 Obscure as he is, SerVaas was also a trustee at the Hudson Institute and a CNP participant.
Who appears the most senior? Former FBI director, former CIA director, GlobalOptions director, Diligence, LLC advisory chair, and Homeland Security advisory council chairman William Webster talking to the pleasantly fresh then-CIA director David Petraeus. 2012 annual meeting, OSS Society.
For many decades there have been authors, usually associated with the John Birch Society, who have been warning the public against the nefarious influence of the Rockefellers, Henry Kissinger and the primary private groups these men have been involved with: the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission and Bilderberg. These days websites and YouTube videos have largely replaced books as the dominant propaganda outlets warning against these liberal establishment elements. The internet is completely awash with information that it is these men and these institutes that run the western world from behind the scenes.
However, as this website has been demonstrating over the years, there is another side to the coin. As primarily documented in ISGP's Pilgrims Society article, yes, the Rockefellers and their network of friends and associates most certainly has had an enormous amount of influence in America and the world as a whole. At the same time, in private groups as the American Security Council, the Center for Security Policy, the Council for National Policy and Le Cercle they never had much to say. The liberal establishment is primarily about economics and diplomacy, with the conservative one being completely focused on national security. The two establishments may disagree much of the time, but they also need one another. If diplomacy fails, the State Department has to authorize the CIA and the Pentagon to do the dirty work. Invasions, coups, spy work, assassinations, drug trafficking, arms shipments - these are all not the expertise of the State Department.
In effect, the AFIO and the OSS Society are some of the conservative establishment's highest level counterparts to the Council on Foreign Relations, Bilderberg, the Trilateral Commission and elite social clubs as the Century Association and the Pilgrims Society. Although... the AFIO and OSS Society most certainly aren't fully conservative establishment groups.
The trick is that at the top there are always liberal establishment-allied bureaucrats running things. Only at a lower level it is not unusual to find Christian conservative (or Jewish neocon) extremists overseeing special operations. Colonel Oliver North and General John Singlaub, both governors of the Council for National Policy, are an example of that. North in particular took orders from William Casey, a "conservative" CIA director with decades-long ties to a group of establishment Pilgrims Society members, including former CIA director Allen Dulles. Erik Prince and former CIA Counter-Terrorism Counter chief Cofer Black, both involved in running Blackwater USA in the post-9/11 world, are other examples. Prince, in particular, has deep ties to the Council for National Policy, this through his mother, Elsa. However, Prince and Black in particular, also had plenty of ties to liberal establishment individuals, including President George Bush and secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld.
True, most scholars would label Bush and Rumsfeld as "neocon" and "conservative", but fact is that both individuals tie into the same overarching liberal Eastern Establishment through education, family, friends, business and NGOs. ISGP has a Superclass Index, plus more than 1,300 NGOs with membership, to demonstrate that. True McCarthyite conservatives are not educated at Harvard, Yale and Princeton. They were born in places like Alabama and Georgia, rose up the ranks in the military, joined groups as the American Security Council... and in the end took orders from CIA directors and defense secretaries educated at Harvard, Yale and Princeton.
In any case, while groups as the CFR, Bilderberg, Trilateral Commission and Pilgrims Society primarily recruit from the State Department, banks, multinationals, media, think tanks and highest level non-special operations Defense Department circles, in the AFIO and OSS Society we find scores of CIA directors, NSA directors, FBI directors, lower level covert operations veterans, generals and admirals. Together with the Military Order of the Carabao, the Center for Security Policy, Le Cercle and other private groups, they form a bridge between the conservative and liberal establishment with a special emphasis on covert operations.
Of the above groups, only the Military Order of the Carabao hasn't been discussed yet on this website. Visitors to its annual conferences have included Donald Rumsfeld, James Schlesinger, Colin Powell, General Paul X. Kelley, Marine Corps General Alfred M. Gray, Jr. and Admiral Thomas Moorer. 4 These are high-level names for the most part. Certainly Admiral Moorer can be considered conservative establishment, but some of the others largely transcend that label. They simply have too many ties to liberal establishment elites.
Of the invitees to the AFIO and the OSS Society, by far the most influential ones are the retired CIA directors - who always constitute a considerable percentage of the honorary boards. This also makes sense. No CIA director moves "up" to become director of the FBI, ONI or the NSA - it's always the other way around. The most senior position in the entire intelligence community is the CIA directorship. The new position as Director of National Intelligence is nowhere near as prestigious (just compare biographies), while Homeland Security's long term policy - as with many mid-level think tanks - is controlled by its advisory council, headed for much of the time until this point by retired CIA directors James Schlesinger and William Webster - both of whom are leading members of the AFIO and the OSS Society. Even with these men gone, the advisory council is always stacked with major establishment figures that are much more senior than the secretaries of Homeland Security who oversee the department's day to day operations. CIA directors only move up to positions as secretary of defense, national security advisor or might be given some crucial ambassadorship, as was the case with Richard Helms. In many cases retired CIA directors continue in the private sector. George H. W. Bush was an exception and made it to vice president and then president. Until now, not a single CIA director has ever been made secretary of state, a position that not only requires a somewhat different set of skills, but is also tightly controlled by the liberal establishment.
As for the OSS Society, it was founded in 1947 under the name Veterans of the OSS. It only changed its name to OSS Society in 1998. Despite not being particularly guarded about giving out the names of its leadership, the society is still so unknown anno 2012 that no one has bothered to create a Wikipedia page about it. Odd, as one would expect more attention to be given to a private club which has counted most of the historical senior CIA leadership among its membership. In any case, the OSS Society and the AFIO have a degree of overlap with their membership. Former CIA directors George H. W. Bush, Porter Goss, James Schlesinger, William Webster and James Woolsey are among those involved in both groups.
Both societies charge a membership fee, but at the same time receive contributions from a limited number of corporations and foundations. And, for once, these do not include the Rockefeller, Ford or Carnegie foundations. Both receive financing from SAIC and Lockheed Martin. The AFIO has additionally received funds from TRW and Motorola while General Atomics (the drone manufacturer), General Dynamics, Ross Perot, the William and Sophia Casey Foundation and the Rumsfeld Foundation have been generous to the OSS Society in recent years. 5
At this point it is too soon to draw any final conclusions on the AFIO and the OSS Society, but people should definitely start taking notice of their top-level membership, especially with Gene Wheaton having claimed that at least one of these groups, the OSS Society, "runs the CIA from behind the scenes". Seeing former CIA director William Webster conversing with then-CIA director David Petraeus at an OSS Society gathering, he may well turn out to be right one day.
A detailed membership list plus bios has been moved to a separate page. ISGP has also backed up a full 1996 list of the AFIO roster, with most names still unanalyzed. A quick analysis of the uncovered names reveals most retired CIA, NSA, DIA and ONI directors, as well as a number of Air Intelligence / Air Force Intelligence (AFISRA) directors. As the reader can see in the oversight below, there is a definite pecking order in the importance of various top intelligence positions.
The positions of the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and Air Force Intelligence (AFISRA) are roughly equal. The NSA is a bit more prestigious: no NSA director goes back to being a director of any of the military agencies. The only way up is the CIA or Pentagon, and only the top two positions in each case. Most directors of ONI, the DIA and AFISRA never make it to higher positions. Rising to the position of CIA director or secretary of defense is primarily reserved for the old boys who have gone to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, or maybe Columbia. General Michael Hayden and Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, both former heads of the NSA who moved on to the CIA, are the exceptions rather than the norm.
At a somewhat lower level, quite a few leading AFIO members have been commander of the Naval Security Group, a joint project of the Navy and the NSA. As for the Air Force, Offutt Air Force, where Strategic Air Command is located, is a key location where many senior Air Force officers have been stationed at one time or another. Another very often seen position among retired Air Force generals in the AFIO is J-2 (head of intelligence) at U.S. European Command (EUCOM). All of them are career officers; no old boys at this level.
The civilian CIA is a bit of a different animal. The AFIO seems to take a particular liking towards Army or Marine Corps special operations veterans who appear to have worked for the CIA. Colonel Charles Rambo, a "State Department" counter-terrorism specialist; and Colonel John Guenther of Marine Corps Intelligence are two examples that come to mind.
The AFIO ranks are filled with CIA station chiefs from around the world, many of them still very obscure to this day. It probably doesn't come as a surprise that quite a few notorious CIA veterans can be found - not with Ted Shackley's network of friends having set up and running the AFIO. We come across numerous individuals accused of involvement in drug trafficking, arms smuggling, assassinations, coups, death squads, the recruiting of Nazis, MK-ULTRA and everything else that cannot stand the light of day. On a somewhat lighter note, there is also a whole group of CIA and DIA/INSCOM men among the membership that is linked to the remote viewing projects. Except for coups, most of these questionable projects focus around the absolute top of the CIA, with a few subordinates in the operations department and the army's special operations units.
Yet another interesting avenue to look into is the AFIO's Las Vegas chapter at Nellis Air Force Base, known for being the location of Groom Lake and Area 51, a CIA base from 1955 to 1979. Among the members is a good friend of the earlier-mentioned Colonel John Alexander: Thorton "T.D." Barnes, who helped develop some of the top secret spy planes of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980, including the SR-71 Blackbird and the F-117 stealth fighter. He also worked on NASA's Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application (NERVA) program. In terms of conventional high technology programs, Barnes has seen it all.
Another interesting name among the 1996 AFIO membership is Mary Ferrell. Since the 1960s she has been one of the most important JFK assassination researchers, maintaining a large library of documents other researchers continually use. She died in 2004, but the Mary Ferrell Foundation, complete with database, still exists. Rodney Stich, a seemingly very passionate critic of illegal CIA covert operations, is another peculiar name that appears on the 1996 membership list - considering the AFIO is largely a private CIA endeavor. Things start making sense again when one looks deeper into who Stich is: he's using many unrelaible sources and suppresses honest discussion about 9/11.
One thing that seems pretty clear is that certainly the more senior AFIO members have had access to the deepest secrets within the national security system of the United States. Here we have individuals in the know of all the CIA's most sensitive secrets and of similarly sensitive datamining and hacking programs of the NSA. Add to this persons with past access to high technology programs at defense corporations and bases as Area 51. If we assume that knowledge is power, the AFIO is a potential superpower on its own.
Certainly the potential for abuse of power is considerable. What if a CIA or NSA director decides to copy or remove certain highly sensitive files before retiring? Files that can be used for blackmail? What if projects are moved to private corporations, in this case with ties to the AFIO? At that point it becomes possible to run a powerful criminal private enterprise with knowledge that only exists out of government.
With the old boys of the FBI on board things would become even easier. This is hardly speculation. Remember how the CIA cooperated with the biggest mafia bosses in the country to overthrow Castro and raise drug money while Hoover's FBI pretended that the mafia didn't even exist? Not to mention that Hoover maintained a huge file on politicians for blackmail purposes. While there are not many FBI boys at the AFIO, possibly preferring other groups as the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI (SFSAFBI), AFIO director William Webster is a former CIA director while we also see former CIA and FBI directors sharing boards at questionable companies as ExecutiveAction or GlobalOptions Group. Both were set up by AFIO member Neil Livingstone.
Of course, there are plenty of rumors that certain secret information has been taken out of government and taken to the private sector where it might be lingering in an Unacknowledged Special Access Program. Whether or not there is any truth to that, certainly a lot intelligence operations have been privatized over the years. Besides ExecutiveAction and GlobalOptions, a great example is Blackwater, through which a private War on Terror was conducted in the years after 9/11 by former CIA counterterrorism chief Cofer Black and his allies. Both Black and Blackwater head Erik Prince have given speeches to the AFIO, but are still too young to be full-fledged members. Leading AFIO member Bobby Ray Inman took over from Prince when Blackwater was transitioned into Xe Services in 2010 and then into Academi in 2012.
At the end of the day we probably don't need to worry that much about a CIA director or secretary of defense not being informed about the country's deepest secrets--or even the secretary of state, who always has its own power structure behind him--but what about the president and vice president? As ISGP has discussed in other articles, and as can be seen in the oversight produced above, presidential candidates tend to come from the outside. They are literally groomed. If considered reliable enough, they can put themselves up for election and expect the media and major corporations to support them. If not, they'll never make it.
Whatever the exact truth, little of this seems to involve the ordinary AFIO member. Seeing how the AFIO arranges for Hal Puthoff and Edgar Mitchell to hold a speeches, or some of the books promoted in the AFIO's magazine, and it appears the vast majority of AFIO members are being had in the same manner as the rest of the population.
AFIO names have their separate membership/biography list. The names below belong to the OSS Society. There's a good chance that every person listed here also has been involved AFIO. Time will tell. For now far less names of the OSS Society are known.
| George H. W. Bush Honorary chairman |
See AFIO biography. |
| William Casey Member |
See AFIO biography. |
| Bernadette Casey Smith Director |
Daughter of William Casey. Dame of Malta. Board member OSS Society, the William J. Donovan Foundation, and the CIA-linked Roman Catholic Christendom College, with Rick Santorum on the advisory board. |
| Ray Cline Wife was a director |
His wife was appointed to the board of directors of the OSS Society in 2001, but soon died. His wife's involvement makes it more than likely that Ray Cline himself, who died in 1996, was a member of the OSS Society. See the AFIO list for his biography. |
| William Colby Member |
See AFIO biography. |
| Carl Colby Director (2011) |
Son of William Colby and older brother of Jonathan Colby. Produced the 2011 documentary 'The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby', in which he argued that his father had committed suicide. November 3, 2011, C-Span, 'Q&A with Carl Colby': "[My mother] referred to the CIA euphemistically as "Catholics in action". Just like in the FBI, especially in the early years, a lot of Catholics. Because they have a moral compass and they certainly operate from a moral point of view. ... And people would come to the house sometimes. And I would think back: why is that monsignor here? Who was that general? I didn't see that general on the front page. Or who was that bicyclist that would come by once in a while and he seemed to exchange notes with and send him on his way with a little packet of money. Was that just charity? So there was always something else going on." Indicated he was not in contact with men as James Schlesinger, Brent Scowcroft and Donald Rumsfeld before contacting them for his documentary. Other members of the Colby family are involved with the elite Pilgrims Society. |
| Paul Colby Director (2007) |
Apparently a relative of William Colby. 2003, John Prados, 'Lost Crusader: The Secret Wars of CIA Director William Colby', p. 346: "I had a lunch with Paul Colby and Barbara H. Colby, but our conversation did not touch upon the disappearance and Paul's role in the search for Colby's body." |
| Col. Sully de Fontaine Member |
Member of the Las Vegas AFIO chapter. |
| Robert Gates Visitor of meetings and honorary chairman since 2012 |
Ranked high up in ISGP's Superclass Index. Recruited by the CIA in 1966. Assistant national intelligence officer for strategic programs 1973-1974. National Security Council staffer 1974-1976. At the CIA's Center for Policy Support 1976-1977. Special assistant to national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski 1977-1979. According to key Roswell UFO crash disinformer Bill Moore he fed information on fellow UFO researchers to Gates at the NSC, with disinformation coming down from this level. Director of the CIA's Strategic Evaluation Center, December 1979-February 1980. Executive assistant to CIA director William Casey February 1980-October 1980. Mentioned by Colonel Cutolo as having been part of Ted Shackley's/Edwin Wilson's illegal spy ring in 1980, along with William Casey. Wilson claimed they kept an eye on various Trilateral Commission and Bilderberg members. USSR/eastern Europe national intelligence officer, CIA 1980-1981. CIA deputy director for intelligence 1982-1986. Listed Zbigniew Brzezinski, Lawrence Eagleburger, Leo Cherne and two CIA officials as those "in a position to comment on [his] qualifications" for deputy CIA director. Knew Brzezinski since 1977 and Eagleburger, of Kissinger Associates, since 1980. Deputy CIA director 1986-1989 under Casey and Webster. Nominated as CIA director in 1987, but refused for involvement in Iran-Contra. Deputy national security advisor 1989-1991. CIA director under George H. W. Bush 1991-1993. Founding director Virginia Neurological Institute 1993-1998, together with Kissinger men as Brent Scowcroft and Lawrence Eagleburger, as well as Edgar Bronfman, General Paul Gorman (CIA; SOUTHCOM commander; MITRE) and billionaire John Kluge. Founding trustee Forum for International Policy 1993-2007, during all this time with Brent Scowcroft, Lawrence Eagleburger and Carla Hills (also: John Deutch 1997-2009; Condoleezza Rice 1993-2001; Colin Powell 1990s-2001). Director NACCO Industries 1993-2006. Director SAIC 1993-1994. Director TRW 1994-2002. Senior consultant to the Mitchell Group since 1993. Became a consultant to mining firm Placer Dome, Inc. in 1995. Trustee Charles Stark Draper Laboratory from at least 1997 to 2003. Senior advisor Harvard Journal of World Affairs 1997-1998 period. Interim dean George Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University 1999-2001. Executive committee Boy Scouts of America and president of the National Eagle Scout Association. Advisory board VoteHere 2001-2003, a company managed in this period by Admiral Bill Owens, formerly president and vice-chairman of SAIC. Director of Parker Drilling Company and Brinker International, Inc. Secretary of defense 2006-2011 under Bush 43 and Obama. |
| Porter Goss Honorary chairman |
See AFIO biography. |
| Richard Helms Member |
See AFIO biography. |
| Cynthia Helms Visitor of meetings |
Widow of Richard Helms. Continued her membership of the OSS Society after the death of her husband in 2002. |
| William vanden Heuvel Honorary chairman |
Member Pilgrims Society in the 1970s and 1980s. Secretary of the Pilgrims Foundation in modern times. Since 1984 a senior advisor to the banking firm Allen & Co, organizer of the annual Sun Valley Meetings. Director Time Warner and, through his wife and daughter, close to MCA and The Nation. Board member William J. Donovan Foundation, with General Singlaub, leading Opus Dei member Prince Michel de Bourbon, the Countess de Romanones (Le Cercle), David Bruce (Pilgrims), John Drexel, IV (Pilgrims), Francis Kellogg (1001 Club), Bernadette Casey Smith and Frank Wisner II. |
| Paul Mellon Member |
Member
of the 1001 Club, together with the Rockefellers and the Rothschilds, as well as the Pilgrims Society (with at least two relatives), also with the Rockefellers and the Rothschilds. In addition he was a member of the Roxburghe Club, together with the Marquises of Salisbury, the Earls of Arundel, the Dukes of Devonshire, the Dukes of Norfolk, Lord Rees-Mogg, the Morgans and the Rothschilds. Close to Richard Helms when the latter was CIA director 1966-1973. |
| Gen. John Mulholland Honorary chairman |
Special forces veteran. Commanding general of the United States Army Special Operations Command (USA-SOC) since 2008. |
| Adm. Michael Mullen Visitor of meetings |
Vice chief of naval operations 2003-2004. Chief of naval operations 2005-2007. Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff 2007-2011. |
| John Negroponte Visitor of meetings |
Ranked around the 80th place in ISGP's Superclass Index. Somewhat aristocratic British-born American diplomat. Has been ambassador to Honduras, Mexico and the Philippines. Ambassador to the U.N. 2001-2004. Ambassador to Iraq 2004-2005. Director of national intelligence 2005-2007. Deputy secretary of state 2007-2009. He and his wife, Diana Villiers Negroponte, have been involved with the British-American Project, Freedom House, the Asia Society and other NGOs. |
| Ross Perot Known visitor of meetings and later honorary chairman |
Ranked around the 150th place in ISGP's Superclass Index. Billionaire who primarily made his fortune in the high technology business. Bit of a radical, who campaigned to rescue hundreds of U.S. POWs left behind in Vietnam and Laos, opposed the first Gulf War and ran as an independent political candidate in 1992 and 1996. Member of the elite Alfalfa Club. His son is chair of the EastWest Institute, a member of the elite Bretton Woods Committee, and involved in other NGOs. |
| David Petraeus Known visitor of meetings |
Ph.D. from Princeton. Chief of staff, XVIII Airborne Corps, Fort Bragg 2000-01. Army Airborne commander in Iraq for several years. Invited to a British Pilgrims Society luncheon on October 1, 2008. Commander-in-Chief, CENTCOM Oct. 31, 2008-2010. US Defense Department Commander, US Forces Afghanistan 2010-2011. CIA director 2011-2012. Member Council on Foreign Relations. |
| S. Dillon Ripley II Member |
Aristocrat, OSS veteran and conservationist. Long-time director World Wildlife Fund. Chairman English Speaking Union U.S.A. 1984-1987. Member Pilgrims Society. Founding advisory board member of the Japan Art Association in 1988, together with David Rockefeller and international former prime ministers. |
| Arthur Schlesinger Member |
Intelligence analyst in the OSS 1943-1945. Associate professor at Harvard 1946-1954, after which he became a full professor. Special assistant to John F. Kennedy from January 1961 until Kennedy's death in November 1963. Supported an invasion of Cuba, but not without a good pretext. Went back to teaching after his resignation from government in January 1964. |
| James Schlesinger Honorary chairman |
See AFIO biography. |
| Beurt SerVaas Director |
1989, Barbara Honegger, 'October Surprise', p. 205: "Wheaton claims that the "French Connection" to the U.S. "Irangate" includes then Senator Dan Quayle, President George Bush's choice for vice-president in 1988. According to Wheaton, a major source of Quayle's political power in Indiana, his home state, is a longtime associate of former CIA director William Casey, Beurt SerVaas. SerVaas, Wheaton says, was on the Executive Board of the Veterans of the O.S.S. (the predecessor organization to the CIA), which "runs the CIA from behind the scenes." SerVaas's daughter, Joan, according to Wheaton, is married to an "off-the-books" French intelligence asset and Indiana resident, Bernard Marie. In 1982, Wheaton claims to have introduced Marie to Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officials who then played a key role in the Reagan-Bush Administration's secret deliveries of U.S. arms to Iran in the 1980's." As usual, Wheaton's information seems to check out. According to the OSS Society's own magazine, SerVaas was a "key player in shaping the political and business landscape of Indianapolis [Indiana]".
Winter 2002-2003, OSS Society magazine, 'OSSer Beurt SerVaas Ends Council Career', p. 3: "The Indianapolis City Council said goodbye to a longtime leader, Beurt SerVaas, at a farewell banquet in October. SerVaas was president of the council for 27 years, capping a public service career that spanned more than four decades. He was a key player in shaping the political and business landscape of Indianapolis. During WWII, SerVaas served in the OSS." |
| Gen. John Singlaub Director and chairman |
OSS veteran. CIA China Desk 1948-1949, where he worked with men as Ray Cline and Paul Helliwell. Deputy CIA station chief in South Korea 1950-1952. Active as a special forces commander over the years. Head of Special Operations Command in Vietnam 1966–1968 (MACV-SOG). During this period he interacted with men as Ted Shackley, Thomas Clines, Oliver North and Richard Secord. Chief of staff U.N. and U.S. army forces South Korea 1976-1977. Dismissed by Carter. Co-founder Western Goals Foundation in 1979. Chairman World Anti-Communist League 1984-1986 and on the national strategy committee of the American Security Council at this point. Also a governor and member of the Council for National Policy (CNP and at the Pentagon chairman of the Special Operations Policy Advisory Group (SOPAG). Appointed a director of the OSS Society in March 2001 and became chairman in later years. |
| William Webster Honorary chairman |
See AFIO biography. |
| James Woolsey Honorary chairman |
See AFIO biography. |
Notes
- Jan. 28, 2003, Village Voice, 'The Empire Strikes Back'.
- June 9, 2002, New York Times, 'Congress's Experiment Overseeing Spies': "... the senator, as Mr. Schlesinger recalled to me in an interview, stopped him short...".
- 1989, Barbara Honegger, 'October Surprise', p. 205.
- Jan. 28, 2003, Village Voice, 'The Empire Strikes Back': "This Saturday, more than a thousand of America's top military and government leaders and their guests are scheduled to gather at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C., for a secretive tribal rite called the 103rd Annual Wallow of the Military Order of the Carabao. ... Recent guests have included Colin Powell and General Richard B. Myers, current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and many of the country's top military leaders are listed as members. (You have to be an officer to even be considered for membership.) Acting like a cluster of Klingons, the guys will toss around revered imperial slogans, such as "Civilize 'em with a Krag!" referring to the rifles used by Americans to kill thousands of Filipinos, who had fought Spain for their freedom and didn't want to be handed over to another colonial power. And there will be rousing speeches, like last year's address by top honoree James Schlesinger, the Nixon-era CIA director and defense secretary, who decades later is still an influential hawk urging a new war with Iraq. A place was reserved at the head table for President George W. Bush, who was a no-show, but Schlesinger, who received the Carabaos' Distinguished Service Award, delivered an appropriately bellicose speech, telling the crowd, "Someone once said that war is hell, and peace is heaven. But we know that the opposite is true: War is heaven, and peace is hell." An aide to Schlesinger told the Voice late last week that Schlesinger said he recalls saying, "You know, General Sherman had it all wrong. It's not war that's hell, it's peace that's hell." The aide added that Schlesinger didn't have time to talk further about the Wallow but that what he told the crowd was a "humorous remark made in reference to the defense budgetary situation." ... Ancient Strom Thurmond was plunked down at the 2002 Wallow's head table, where he was assigned a cigar alongside those reserved for Schlesinger, General Myers, Pete Aldridge (the Pentagon's chief of acquisition, technology, and logistics), Dov Zakheim (the Pentagon's comptroller), Gordon England (top deputy to Homeland Security czar Tom Ridge), Sean O'Keefe (the NASA director), and other bigwigs. Marine General Peter Pace, the vice chair of the Joint Chiefs, and Air Force Secretary James Roche, both Carabaos, were assigned the roles of hosting tables of their own. Among the assigned greeters was last year's Grand Paramount Carabao, General P.X. Kelley, a retired commandant of the marine corps, whose last real tour of duty was the 1992 GOP presidential primaries, when his pro-war TV pitches helped deliver the South for George Bush the Elder against isolationist Pat Buchanan. Joining Kelley on the Reception Committee were General Alfred M. Gray Jr., the marine commandant during the previous war with Iraq; Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, a chairman of the Joint Chiefs during Vietnam; and an assortment of other admirals and generals. ... Carabaos pop up in other situations involving minorities or others fighting discrimination. The last all-male Advisory Council at the Citadel, the South Carolina school that was the scene of serious gender discrimination battles in the '90s, was chaired by retired army general Jack Merritt, a Carabao, and included at least three other bulls: Moorer, retired marine commandant General Carl Mundy, and retired Atlantic Fleet chief Admiral Wesley McDonald."
- *) 2002, Volume XXV, Number 1 and 2, AFIO magazine Periscope: "Corporate partners 2001: Du Pont Investment Bankers, Hill & Associates, Institute of World Politics, ... Lockheed Martin (M&DS), ... Motorola, ... SAIC, ... TRW."
*) October 27, 2012, OSS Society, 'William J. Donovan Award Dinner Honoring The Honorable Robert M. Gates' (Ritz-Carlton, Washington, D.C.): "Sponsors: ... William and Sophia Casey Foundation; Cubic Defense Applications; EWA Government Systems; General Atomics Aeronautical Systems; General Dynamics; LandTec; ... Lockheed Martin; Ross Perot; Rumsfeld Foundation; SAIC; Sierra Nevada Corporation; Sikorsky; SRA International; ..." - *) October 22, 2009, Las Vegas Sun, 'Spies of the valley: Real-life 007s — and Q Branches — who have retired to Las Vegas recount their missions': "The old spies who live among us have their own organization and meet every couple of months at Nellis Air Force Base. One of the leaders of the group, retired Army Col. John Alexander, was the basis for the George Clooney character in “The Men Who Stare at Goats,” which hits theaters in early November. But each of the 40 or so active members of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers’ Las Vegas chapter could be turned into a film character. Sully De Fontaine, for example, is a former World War II OSS member who, as a teen, twice jumped behind enemy lines into occupied France to save American fliers who had been shot down and were being hidden by the Maquis, the famed French resistance fighters. De Fontaine is also a first-generation Special Forces, or Green Beret, commander. Sitting with his cane at a recent chapter meeting at Nellis Air Force Base, the 82-year-old had the unflappable look of someone who laughs at bombs tossed his way. Then there’s 65-year-old Ken Walther, who spent 27 years in the Central Intelligence Agency and described his work as building “all these cool devices, similar to what the ‘Q Branch’ did for (James) Bond.” In short, Walther was a gadget maker. One of the more famous capers he worked on involved the creation of devices that looked and acted like bombs, except they couldn’t detonate. CIA operatives gave the devices to Spanish terrorists who in 1983 planned to kill Juan Carlos, the King of Spain. Hidden within the fakes were homing devices that led to the terrorists’ capture. Walther has lived in Southern Nevada for more than a decade and these days is a businessman working on a “biometric smart card.” The way he describes it, the card will revolutionize the security of credit cards and other magnetic-stripped cards. The cards will work only for the person they are assigned to. “It will be more accurate in identifying you than a fingerprint,” he said. He’s also working on a device for detecting volatile gases and radiation for Homeland Security. He talks excitedly about the work. At the same time, however, he says nothing will compare to what he did in the CIA. “It was the best thing I could ever think of doing.” That visceral connection is partly why he and Alexander and others are members of the retired spies group. Richard Cohn, 54, an Energy Department employee who is president of the Las Vegas chapter, says its gatherings are about “that camaraderie of the former folks getting together and discussing recent events, the history of what they’ve been through, and there are liaison opportunities between former and current folks.” Meetings in the past year have included presentations about Las Vegas’ Joint Terrorism Task Force, the development of the U-2 and A-12 spy planes at Area 51, and “The Real History of the Civil Air Transport/Air America.” Nationwide, the Association of Former Intelligence Officers boasts 5,000 members in 23 chapters. Some 200 members from across the country gathered in Las Vegas this month for their national fall symposium, “Cold Warriors in the Desert: From Atomic Blasts to Sonic Booms,” which was co-sponsored by the Energy Department, the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Air Force Warfare Center. Attendees toured the Nevada Test Site, were briefed on and viewed the remote-controlled Predator/Reaper unmanned plane... Having been called the “father” of the nonlethal weaponry concept, he remains active in intelligence circles by writing position papers for the Joint Special Operations University and travels the world seeking ways to improve military operations. A Special Forces commander in Vietnam, the Wisconsin native is white-haired and close to or in his 70s — he won’t tell his exact age. His eyes are almost always narrowed in thought. The club for former intelligence officers is not for everyone, he said. Some just leave the cloak-and-dagger world behind. ... The Las Vegas Valley is dotted with former employees of the Army’s intelligence division, the National Security Agency, the CIA and other so-called “three-letter agencies.” Some retire here because they worked, or are still employed, nearby — at Nellis Air Force Base, the Nevada Test Site or Area 51, the supersecret research base 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, to name just a few examples."
*) February 16, 2010, AFIO Weekly Intelligence Notes #06-10, AFIO.com: "The Ted Shackley Miami-Dade Chapter of AFIO proudly announces: Dr. JOHN B. ALEXANDER MARCH 13, 2010 Hyatt Coral Gables, 20 Alhambra Circle - Coral Gables, Florida 10:00 am to 1:00 pm "Geotransformational Changes That Impact The Future of Conflict" Dr. John Alexander is a Senior Fellow of the Joint Special Operations University. For more than a decade, Dr. John Alexander has been a leading advocate for the development of non-lethal weapons. He entered the US Army as a private in 1956 and by the time he retired in 1988, he was a colonel of Infantry. Dr. Alexander organized and chaired five major conferences on non-lethal weapons, served as a US delegate to four NATO studies on the topic, and was a member of the first Council on Foreign Relations study that led to creation of the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate. Currently he is executive vice president of LEADS, Inc., and serves as a consultant to US Special Operations Command. He is the co-author, with Tom Clancy of FUTURE WAR: Non-Lethal Weapons in Twenty-First Century Warfare. This important, critically acclaimed presentation and discussion will address the dramatic impact of: *Geographic reconfiguration *Economic redistribution *Amorphous threats ( organized crime, terrorism, narcotics, non-state actors, etc) *Non-state security forces *Transient international relationships *Environmental changes *Transnational security factors Please RSVP to: TRSMiami@aol.com to reserve your seat, by March 1, 2010." - Ibid.
| [1] | September/October 2000, Volume XXIII, Number 3, AFIO magazine Periscope, pp. 1-2: "AFIO\'s National Symposium "Intelligence in the Information Age" was held 5 and 6 October 2000 at the BWI Marriott Hotel and the National Security Agency at Ft George G. Meade, MD. … the Hon. Caspar Weinberger, former SecDef, as keynote speaker. … James Sroder receives AFIO\'s Authors of 2000 Award for Dulles Biography … AFIO expresses its appreciation to the following for an exceptionally interesting Thursday session: … Mr. Ted Shackley … and Mr. Gilman Loui (In-Q-Tel). For the great Friday session at NSA, we thank Lt. General Mike Hayden, our host… HUMINT Panel – Clandestine Operations, Espionage and Overt Collection L to R … Ted Price – former Deputy Director for Operations, CIA. Ted Shackley – CIA/DO-Ret [Panel Chairman] and Lt Gen James R. Clapper, USAF (Ret) – former Director, DIA." |
| [2] | Fall 2001, Volume XXIV, Number 2, AFIO magazine Periscope, p. 1: "AFIO’s Fourth Annual Symposium ... 2 - 3 November 2001 ... The Honorable Joan Dempsey, Deputy Director of Central Intelligence for Intelligence Community Management greets the keynote speaker rising to follow her on the podium, the Honorable Porter J. Goss, Chairman, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. [TOP RIGHT - L TO R] Former Director of Central Intelligence R. James Woolsey, keynote banquet speaker, is introduced by AFIO President S. Eugene Poteat." |
| [3] | Fall 2001, Volume XXIV, Number 2, AFIO magazine Periscope, p. 9: "In 1998, the Strategy Committee of the Board under Ted Shackley, developed a statement of policy which remains valid and operable. This statement was approved by the Board in January 1999. It stated in part, (1) There is a continuing role for The Association of Former Intelligence Officers, and. (2) The mission of AFIO should remain the promotion of public understanding of the role of American intelligence, and AFIO should pursue a proactive policy stance in this endeavor. (3) The target audience in pursuing this policy includes: the American public; educators; Executive branch policy makers and their staffs; members of Congress and their staffs who deal with national security issues; active and retired members of the intelligence community; and media personalities or institutions that comment regularly on intelligence, foreign policy or national policy formulation." |
| [4] | 2002, Volume XXV, No. 1 & 2, AFIO\'s Periscope magazine: "2001 donors [life members]: ... Inman, Bobby R. ... Gittinger, John W. ... Hugel, Max ... Jenkins, Carl E. ... Schlesinger, James R. ... Shackley, Theodore ... Spencer, Jr. Thomas R. ... Wannall, W. Raymond ... Webster, William H. ... Wedemeyer, Albert D. ... 26 Anonymous Donors... Special volunteers of time & talent: ... Shackley, Ted; Spencer, Jr., Thomas R. ...
New Member Sponsors for 2001: ... Angleton, James ... Critchfield, James; Critchfield, Lois ... Spencer, Thomas ... Corporate partners 2001: Du Pont Investment Bankers, Hill & Associates, Institute of World Politics, ... Lockheed Martin (M&DS), ... Motorola, ... SAIC, ... TRW. ...
Current Members of the AFIO Board of Directors: Honorary Board of Directors: Co-Chairmen: Hon. George H. W. Bush; Hon. Gerald R. Ford; Mr. John Barron; Hon. Shirley Temple Black; Hon. Frank C. Carlucci; Dr. Ruth M. Davis; Adm. Bobby R. Inman, USN (Ret); Professor Ernest R. May; Mr. John Anson Smith; Hon. William H. Webster; Hon. R. James Woolsey. ... Board Members: ... Mr. Theodore G. Shackley; Thomas R. Spencer Jr., Esq. ... Present Board Members Re-elected for Another Term in 2002: Ted Shackley (Ret)... Officers: President: Mr. S. Eugene Poteat [confirmed Gulf of Tonkin incident was used by White House as a false flag event.]" |
| [5] | AFIO: board of directors in 2001. AFIO: board of directors in 2012. |
| [6] | December 8, 1987, Associated Press, \'Webster Taps Retired Veteran As CIA\'s Top Spy\': "\'CIA Director William Webster brought 31-year intelligence veteran and Soviet specialist Richard F. Stolz out of retirement Tuesday to head the spy agency\'s clandestine service. ... Adm. Bobby Ray Inman, who was Casey\'s deputy director, said he had pressed Casey to name Stolz instead of Hugel at that time. \'\'When Hugel got the job, Dick Stolz made a career decision to do other things and retired the next year,\'\' Inman said. Turner said he almost gave Stolz the same job in 1977. \'\'I narrowed it in late 1977 to John McMahon and Dick Stolz,\'\' he said in an interview. \'\'I flipped a coin, and ended up giving Stolz an equally important job in the operations directorate that I can\'t talk about.\'\' One intelligence source, who declined to be identified by name, and an account in the leftist \'\'Covert Action Bulletin\'\' in 1980 both indicated that the job Stolz got was CIA station chief in London. State Department publications list Stolz by 1979 as political attache at the U.S. Embassy in London, which is a common cover job for a top CIA official overseas. \'\'Covert Action Bulletin\'\' also said he had been chief of station in Belgrade in 1973. Another former CIA director, William E. Colby, said, \'\'Dick Stolz is a fine officer, with lots of field experience, which is what that job needs: someone who knows what life is like out in the field.\'\' Equally pleased was John K. Greaney, executive director of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, a group that has been highly critical of both Colby and Turner for putting curbs on clandestine operations." |
| [1] | Spring 2001, OSS Society journal, p. 2: "As noted below, the March 20 Annual Meeting of the Society’s membership and Board saw the election of four new Directors: Alger (Ace) Ellis, Anne Mary Ingraham and Major General John Singlaub. ... The OSS Society\'s annual membership meeting, held March 17 in Arlington, Virginia at the Army/Navy Country Club, saw the election of members of the Board of Directors as its primary goal. The new or reelected Board members are Alger Ellis, Det. 101, SI; Patricia Fagan, daughter of Herb Avedon, MO/CBI: Lee Houchins, son of E.L. Houchins, R&A/CBI; Anne Mary Ingraham, London Motor Pool; Rene Levy, SO/CBI; Edward V. O\'Connor Jr. whose father was in Commo/CBI; Arthur Reinhardt, SO/SI Intel teams, China theater; Michael Shaheen, son of John Shaheen, Special Projects, ETO/ CBI; General John Singlaub, Jed, ETO/CBI; Joseph Yager, R&A, CBI. Marjorie Cline , widow of Ray Cline, R&A, was also elected to the Board. Tragically, she died of a heart ailment March 20." |
| [2] | September 20, 2007, OSS Society, \'Presentation of the William J. Donovan Award\' document, pp. 9-10: "Honorary Chairmen: Gen. Bryan D. Brown, USA (Ret.); President George H.W. Bush; Hon. Porter J. Goss; Adm. Eric T. Olson; Hon. James R. Schlesinger; Hon. William H. Webster; Hon. R. James Woolsey. Officers: Chairman: Maj. Gen. John K. Singlaub; Vice Chairman: Col. Alger Ellis; President Charles T. Pinck; Executive Vice President Amb. Hugh Montgomery; Senior Vice Presidents: Anne Mary Ingraham; Col. William H. Pietsch Jr.; Secretary: Aloysia Pietsch Hamalainen; Treasurer: Willis S. Georgia III. Asst. Treasurer: Arthur Reinhardt. Board of directors: David C. Blee; Amb. Hugh Montgomery; Paul Colby; Amb. Julian M. Niemczyk; *Col. Alger C. Ellis; *Col. William H. Pietsch Jr;. Capt. Jerey D. Georgia; Charles T. Pinck; Willis S. Georgia III; Mark F. Pretzat; Aloysia Pietsch Hamalainen; Arthur Reinhardt; *Maj. Gen. Victor Hugo; Michael J. Shaheen; Anne Mary Ingraham; *Maj. Gen. John K. Singlaub; Elizabeth P. McIntosh; Bernadette Casey Smith; Walter Mess. *Retired. ... The Society has been a veritable "who\'s who" of military, political, intellectual and social luminaries, and the best and brightest from this nation\'s universities—including William Casey, William Colby, Arthur Goldberg, Julia Child, Sterling Hayden, Ambassador Richard Helms, Paul Mellon, S. Dillon Ripley, and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., to name just a few. The OSS Society and its predecessor, the Veterans of OSS, has sponsored, organized or participated in educational events and programs such as presentations to the Society by Gen. Hugh Shelton, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Sta, and by Gen. Wayne Downing, former Commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command; presentations of the prestigious William J. Donovan Award to William Casey, William Colby, President George H. W. Bush, President Reagan, Admiral Lord Mountbatten, Ralph Bunche, Margaret Thatcher, and William Webster..." |
| [3] | Fall 2011, OSS Journal, The OSS Society, officers: "HONORARY CHAIRMEN: Gen. Bryan D. Brown, USA (ret.); President George H. W. Bush; Porter J. Goss; Lt. Gen. John F. Mulholland Jr., USA; Adm. Eric T. Olson, USN; Ross Perot; James R. Schlesinger; The Viscount Slim; Amb. William J. vanden Heuvel; William H. Webster; R. James Woolsey; OFFICERS: Chairman: Maj. Gen. John K. Singlaub, USA (ret.); President: Charles T. Pinck; Executive Vice President: Amb. Hugh Montgomery; Senior Vice Presidents: Maj. Gen. Donald C. Hilbert, USA (ret.); Maj. Gen. Victor J. Hugo Jr., USA (ret.); Walter Mess; Col. William H. Pietsch Jr., USA (ret.); Secretary: Aloysia Pietsch Hamalainen. Treasurer: Arthur Reinhardt. BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Col. Andy Anderson, USA (ret.); Maj. Caesar Civitella, USA (ret.); Carl Colby; Aloysia Pietsch Hamalainen; Maj. Gen. Donald C. Hilbert, USA (ret.); Amb. Charles Hostler; Maj. Gen. Victor J. Hugo Jr., USA (ret.); Elizabeth P. Mcintosh; Walter Mess; John McLaughlin; Amb. Hugh Montgomery; Col. William H. Pietsch Jr., USA (ret.); Charles T. Pinck; Mark F. Pretzat; Arthur Reinhardt; Michael J. Shaheen; Maj. Gen. John K. Singlaub, USA (ret.); Bernadette Casey Smith; Rob Townley." |
| [4] | October 27, 2012, OSS Society, \'William J. Donovan Award Dinner Honoring The Honorable Robert M. Gates\' (Ritz-Carlton, Washington, D.C.): "Sponsors: ... William and Sophia Casey Foundation; Cubic Defense Applications; EWA Government Systems; General Atomics Aeronautical Systems; General Dynamics; LandTec; ... Lockheed Martin; Ross Perot; Rumsfeld Foundation; SAIC; Sierra Nevada Corporation; Sikorsky; SRA International; ... HONORARY CHAIRMEN: Gen. Bryan D. Brown, USA (Ret.); President George H.W. Bush; The Honorable Robert M. Gates; Porter J. Goss; Amb. William J. vanden Heuvel; Lt. Gen. John F. Mulholland Jr., USA; Admiral Eric T. Olson, USN (Ret.); Ross Perot; The Honorable James R. Schlesinger; The Viscount Slim; The Honorable William H. Webster; The Honorable R. James Woolsey." |
| [5] | Washingtonian.com/gallery/politics-personality/the-oss-societys-annual-dinner-2012.php: "At the dinner of the OSS Society, which honors former and current professionals in the intelligence business, each guest was served a perfectly dry gin martini, an homage to the OSS, Ernest Hemingway, and the liberation of France in World War II. Photograph by James R. Brantley. ... At the dinner of the OSS Society, which honors former and current professionals in the intelligence business, each guest was served a perfectly dry gin martini, an homage to the OSS, Ernest Hemingway, and the liberation of France in World War II. Photograph by James R. Brantley. ... Sean Hemingway, grandson of Ernest Hemingway, with his father-in-law, Joseph Czapski. ... Commander Canadian defense liaison Major General E. Nicholas Matern and OSS veteran Walter Mess. ... Major General Victor J. Jugo Jr. with Viscount John Slim. Slim presented a toast at dinner on behalf of “the allies.” ... Among those who presented toasts was retired army colonel Sully de Fontaine, here with his wife, Angelique and Carla Hilbert. The de Fontaines now live outside Las Vegas, Nevada. ... Former UN ambassador John Negroponte and former CIA director William Webster. ... Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was honored with the William J. Donovan Award for service to the United States. ... Guests give a round of applause to Cynthia Helms, widow of former CIA director Richard Helms. ... Deputy Commander of the US Special Operations Command Lieutenant General John Mulholland and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen. ... The OSS dinner was a night for bringing out the medals, and most of the guests did. Here’s US Marine Corps Major General Richard Lake, talking with George Pappas. ... Chairman of the OSS Society Major General John Singlaub and Paul Wong. Singlaub was in the OSS and helped create its successor, the Central Intelligence Agency. ... Wouldn’t it be fun to know what these men are talking about—a joke or national security? They are former director of national intelligence Ambassdor John Negroponte, former CIA director William Webster, awardee former CIA director Robert Gates, and current CIA director General David Petraeus." |