E-Systems

“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”

- President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s farewell address


E-Systems (now owned by Raytheon) - which boasts an impressive bevy of former high-ranking CIA, NSA and DoD personnel - is a major government contractor allegedly involved in some very dirty business.[1]

Some of the people on E-Systems’ personnel roster include former NSA Director (and CIA Deputy Director) Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, former CIA Deputy Director Peter Moreno (Director of the Agency’s Technical Services Division), and former CIA Director Admiral W. F. Raborn, who also sits on the board of Wackenhut - a large quasi-governmental security/intelligence firm loaded with former CIA and FBI people - also reportedly involved in some highly questionable covert activities.

E-Systems’ CEO from 1989 to 1993, E. Gene Keiffer, a former Marine, was described as a “prominent figure among intelligence community contractors.[2]

E-Systems has collaborated with the U.S. intelligence community, including the military and the CIA, since 1947. As their press release states:

“A leader in systems integration, E-Systems business areas include reconnaissance and surveillance systems; specialized aircraft modification; command, control, and communications; electronic imaging; and other information-based technologies....”[3]

E-Systems’ contracts include Air Force One - the Presidential jet, and the so-called nuclear Doomsday Plane. They also produce navigation equipment, air-traffic control systems, and electronic border security systems.

E-Systems has nine divisions, the largest being its Greenville plant. Sales were $1.99 billion dollars in 1991, and $2.1 billion in 1992.[4]

Yet E-Systems denies any involvement with the CIA. As Daniel Brandt of Public Information Research writes:

“E-Systems president John W. Dixon insists that “we have never done any business with the CIA,” even though other former top CIA officials are among the senior executives at E-Systems, and Dixon himself was a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers in 1983. Okay, we’ll assume that they work together out of love of country to prevent excessive corporate profiteering....”[5]

Contrary to Dixon’s claims, E-Systems purchased the CIA’s front company, Air Asia, in 1975 - a company that had been involved in countless covert operations in Southeast Asia (not to mention drug smuggling). The purchase “gave E-Systems the largest aircraft repair-and-maintenance facility in Southeast Asia and a vast network of CIA affiliations.”[6]


Fraud

As one of Raytheon’s press releases states:

We at Raytheon are proud of our reputation for excellence, a reputation based on our commitment to the highest ethical standards....[7]

One of E-System’s projects, in conjunction with the German government, was the Egrett spy plane. As a German news agency reports, E-Systems was under investigation for bribing several high-ranking German Defense Ministry officials for the $600 million dollar contract, including a former Air Force general. The prosecutor’s office in Bonn confirmed the allegations. U.S. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney (an alleged drug user and pedophile and friend of alleged drug user and pedophile George Bush) quickly fired off a letter to his German counterpart in an effort to push the project through.[8]

Nor did the Egrett escape its share of disaster. As former E-Systems engineer Winfred Richardson states under oath:

“Parts for the Egrett were sent back to us and an extremely large amount of defective parts were found. King Faud‘s and the President‘s planes were kited up and sent to San Antonio to be installed. The Egrett crashed with loss of life....”[9]

As Brett Lambert, a defense electronics industry analyst states: “E-Systems is able to pull the right strings in the Pentagon. Ninety-five percent of the nations’ defense companies wouldn’t be able to get the Secretary of Defense to write a letter to a foreign government to promote their program.”[10]

Interestingly, in February of 2000, the European Parliament issued a report accusing the U.S. of using the NSA’s Echelon world-wide eavesdropping posts for commercial spying to help American companies win lucrative contracts over European competitors. The NSA’s operations are supervised by the CIA.[*]

Regarding the CIA, Richardson states: “One of the committees I was giving testimony to, informed me that every tentacle they went down of the CIA when they were investigating it - they ran into E-Systems.”[11]

This is highly significant, since President Reagan’s Executive Order 12333, which privatized many covert intelligence operations, placed them out of the scrutiny of Congress and nosy FOIA requesters. Not surprisingly, CIA Director Bill Casey, CIA Deputy Director for Operations Ted Shackley, and former CIA Director George Bush reportedly attended the December 5, 1980 meeting to draft E.O. 12333, which states:

“Agencies within the Intelligence Community are authorized to enter into contracts or arrangements for the provision of goods or services with private companies or institutions in the United States and need not reveal the sponsorship of such contracts or arrangements for authorized intelligence purposes....”

Shackley and Bush are alleged to have been deeply involved in decades worth of CIA drug smuggling (as well as other nefarious activities such as mass murder). Casey was the architect of the Contra guns-for-drugs operation.

Curiously, a Raytheon press releases states:

Raytheon Company places the highest value on People, Integrity, Commitment and Excellence....[12]

Many of E-Systems’ former employees don’t agree. As Richardson writes:

“I have government documents showing government investigators found approximately one hundred million dollars in rip-offs at E-Systems, and estimated the total rip-offs at 25 to 30 percent of all contracts, which is approximately three billion dollars a year.”

According to his civil suit against the company, they were, or are, involved in:

Witness intimidation, harassment and terminating whistleblowers. Impeding a criminal investigation of E-Systems and government personnel. Mischarging, defective parts and/or workmanship, record altering, witness harassment and intimidation by E-Systems personnel, Federal agents and Hunt County Sheriff’s Dept. and others unknown or unnamed, bribery of government officials (U.S. and foreign), espionage against the United States and treason committed by E-Systems officials, conspiracy to cover-up the RICO activities, conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Government. Record altering by E-Systems and government officials. Possibly murder and/or attempted murder.[13*]

Richardson would become a central figure in the burgeoning E-Systems scandal.

“The way I fell into what was going on, was I was a liaison planner with access to the whole field, the whole process,” says Richardson, “all the way from where they keep records, to where they’re doing the designs, scheduling the work, the contracts - everything. I had access to all of it - enough to where I had a working knowledge of what they were doing.”[*]

Billy Wayne Rath, another E-Systems employee who worked with Richardson, states in his own affidavit:

“...it was well known that Mr. Richardson was a stickler for having things produced correctly and on time, and one remark he made a lot that if you signed something and it was wrong then you were guilty. This fit company standards also which he took seriously.”[14]

Rath was fired for whistle-blowing. The DoD and General Accounting Office (GAO) confirmed that Richardson was also terminated for blowing the whistle. According to a GAO investigator contacted by the author, “Winfred appears to have been entitled to whistleblower protection and he never got it.... there did appear to be fraud involved.... That there was dirt going on... I’m convinced.”[*]

E-Systems would call Richardson a “disgruntled” former employee. A congressional source familiar with the case would call Richardson’s claims “credible.”[15]

One example of the harassment perpetrated against E-Systems employees who cooperated with Senate investigators was Terry Briggs. Briggs, a security guard and a nine-year E-Systems employee, was fired for removing his shoe while propping up an injured leg during a break.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that I was fired because I was talking to the investigators,” Mr. Briggs says. “Whenever they fire you for having your shoe off after nine years [of employment], what else could it be?”[16]

In 1990, E-Systems was charged by the Pentagon of defrauding the Army on military radio contracts. As a result of the settlement, the company agreed to set up an anonymous “hotline” for employees to report fraud and other ethics abuses. Yet a subsequent report by the Pentagon’s Defense Logistics Agency claims E-Systems violated their probation agreement by providing “inaccurate and incomplete” reports on internal ethics investigations.[17*]

Former E-Systems Assistant Director of Security John Lanting told The Dallas Morning News that the company distributed letters urging employees to report the names of people who had talked with federal investigators. The letters, distributed in 1992 and ‘93, were signed by Vice President and General Counsel James Crowley. Lanting believed the letters constituted “borderline” obstruction of justice.

 Michael Eberhardt, who became an E-Systems attorney after working as an investigator in a government probe of the company, said the company just wanted to help workers “learn more about the process,” and determine the allegations it was facing.[18]

Yet Richardson, Rath and Briggs would be only three of at least 15 cases of retaliation against E-Systems whistleblowers and witnesses.[19] As Richardson states: “... we’re talking about billions of dollars; we’re talking about four crashed airplanes and fifty to a hundred dead people.”[20]

That was in 1993.

Drug Smuggling

As previously mentioned, E-Systems portrays itself as a model of public integrity and community service. As their press release states:

“We creatively apply our expertise to enhance the communities where we live and work, addressing current needs and opening new doors of opportunity.”[21]

One of those doors of opportunity, reportedly, is drug smuggling. According to statements of former E-Systems employees and agents at the Northeast Texas Drug Interdiction Task Force, E-Systems developed sophisticated electronic systems to enable drug planes to cross the U.S. border without tripping NORAD Early Warning and other surveillance systems.

As Rath states: “The electronic holes used to avoid radar involves a ground proximity following system tied into the plane’s yoke and pedometer - sort of an autopilot that allows the plane to fly low and follow the ground’s contour. We put them on 24 aircraft - including the Combat Talon Two aircraft.”

Rath explains that they were ostensibly installed on planes as a result of the failures at Desert One - President Carter’s ill-fated 1980 hostage rescue attempt in Iran that resulted in the deaths of eight servicemen.[*]

“This was all Joint Operations Command and Special Forces stuff,” says Rath.[22]

Another E-Systems employee named Rick (not his real name) who was terminated for blowing the whistle, is a former self-described CIA operative who flew for Air America in Southeast Asia and for Southern Air Transport in Central and South America - both well-known CIA drug courier lines.[*] He states that Oliver North was one of his bosses.[*]

A pilot, mechanic and small arms and explosives expert, Rick worked for E-Systems from 1986-91 as an assembler and inspector, working on “classified” aircraft such as “Casper” and “The Ghost” - both C-47 gunships used in Central America. He eventually became disenchanted with the operations.

Describing how infrared systems are used to fly low and make drops, Rick states: “E-Systems is probably one of the biggest drug drops there is in this area,” and says that Hunt County is another. “The drops are made at E-Systems and Lake Tawakoni. We’re talking bale-of-hay-sized coke shipments.... The planes’ N-numbers are always repainted after coming in.”[23]

Billy Rath explains about the drops: “if an airplane crashes, or let’s say a drug airplane that was seized, and you want to assume a different tail number, you just paint a new tail number on it. It’s like assuming a new identity using a death certificate. The crashed plane doesn’t stay on the FAA computer that long. You simply wait for it to die on the computer then you resurrect the tail number....”[*]

According to all three former employees, the drugs were flown by E-Systems using government planes on contracts let by Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC).[*] As Rath states in his affidavit:

“We had several NSA contracts, which were let under Air Force Special Ops contracts and orchestrated by Mr. Bobby Harris. One of these contracts was Flame Dancer, part of the Contra aircraft (C-47 Gunships delivered to South America, Sandinistas), and Team Casa aircraft that has slide in and slide out tail numbers. I also worked on North Sea, another of the black programs, which was tied to Desert TEA and Woodstock, which provided a large amount of electronic technology that borders on [whether] it should have been released or not to foreign nationals, possibly compromising our ability to defend ourselves with others having this knowledge....””[*]

Team Casa were the C-47s used by Oliver North in his CIA/NSC illegal guns-for-drugs operation.[*] As Richardson says: “We turned them into gunships. They were sent down to Florida, they put the guns in them, then sent them down south. They were painted with wash-off paint.”

Tony Hughs, was the program manager who handled all the black world programs, according to Rath, using DET-2 money. Says Rath: “We were building Ollie North’s gunships.”

North testified before Congress that “Private Donors” paid for the planes and the modifications. This was little more than subterfuge. Private Donor was the code name for the Special Ops contracts!

“Buffalo and Montana were two planes that were used,” says Rath. “The points of contact at AFSOC were Sergeant Sprague and Colonel Manning Crump, commander of DET-2 (Air Force Detachment Two in Majorsfield, Texas).”

Sprague and Crump now work for E-Systems.

Kent Williamson, an attorney for the Northeast Texas Drug Interdiction Task Force gave sworn testimony in a court case about E-Systems’ drug-smuggling:

Q: How are you employed, Mr. Williamson?

A: I’m a prosecutor with the Northeast Area Drug Interdiction task force.

Q: Do you know who E-Systems is?

A: Yes.

Q: And who are they?

A: They’re probably the biggest supplier in Hunt Co.

Q: What type business do they have?

A: They do U.S. Government contracts on airplanes, I believe.

Q: And as part of their defense contracting, are they able to have planes fly in and out of the country, do you know?

A: I would assume that they would. I don’t know for sure

Q: Have you received any information from any source that there may be some type of illegal activity by any E-Systems pilots or any pilots flying for E-Systems - specifically, any information that would indicate that any of their pilots were using their planes to bring cocaine back into the United States?

A: Yes, I have.[*]

Interestingly, FBI Deputy Director Oliver “Buck” Revell was transferred to the Dallas office as SAC around the same time as the drug-smuggling allegations broke - which began heating up with Senate hearings in June of 1991. (Revell was sent to Dallas in the summer of 1991.) Although Richardson alleges that Revell was sent there to keep a lid on the case, Revell vehemently denied any involvement with E-Systems.[24]

Yet at least one E-Systems whistleblower, Michele Cooper, had gone to Danny James, Revell’s subordinate at the FBI’s National Security Section with allegations of national security violations at E-Systems. For her honesty, James threatened to file charges on her - a standard FBI/DoJ tactic to silence whistleblowers. (See Chapter XX)

Other FBI agents who were contacted reportedly include Dan Birmingham, Jim Loun, David Malone, Max Higher, Kevin McQuery and Kenneth Pisano. According to Richardson, all were told about the drug drops as well as the fraud and harassment. Richardson claims to have seen FBI reports on drug dealers tied in with E-Systems and Hunt County going back to 1982. Some of those named at the meeting were so dangerous - allegedly involved in so many murders - that Richardson almost begged me not to mention their names.[25]

Although Buck Revell denied any involvement with E-Systems, Richardson alleges that Revell’s son works at E-Systems - bragging that his father got him the job. A check with E-Systems’ personnel office revealed a Michael A. Revell in their employment.[26]

As Richardson states: “I have tapes of a meeting I had here at my home with OSI (Air Force Office of Special Investigations) Agent Richard Bollinger, IGDCIS Special Agent Chris Hallien, FBI Special Agent Mark Briant and Hunt County Judge Dan Robertson. The meeting was to prove how much the FBI knew about the drug smuggling and the illegal technology sale to a foreign country and other RICO actions!

“Three police officers who agreed to testify about witnessing the drug drops by the government planes that were operated under the AFSOC lost their jobs and have been blacklisted. The DoJ tried to have it (the meeting) classified because of national security.”

Bob Weatherford, and Mike and Lori Lockridge, all East Tawakoni police officers, were the three who witnessed the drug drops. Weatherford said he saw the package being picked up by a Hunt County squad car, whereupon part of the drugs were given to a motorcycle gang. All three have since been forced to resign. Prior to their resignations, they were to attend a meeting at Richardson’s house along with agents Bollinger, Hallien, Briant and Judge Robertson. Although they didn’t show, Richardson feels the fact that they were to attend the meeting was leaked by Bryant.

As Hallien said at the meeting, two government investigators, Michael Eberhardt and Clardy (first name unknown) were leaking information to E-Systems. As Hallien says, “... if you want to call it a leak to E-Systems it is through Clardy....”[27]

Eberhardt would later become an E-Systems attorney.[28]

Weatherford would subsequently be chased while taking pictures of a suspected drug dealer’s home. When he radioed for back-up, it was refused. One of the dealers was related to Hunt County Sheriff Bobby Young. Young subsequently “jumped all over Bob Weatherford and refused to let him use his jail anymore and refused to let him use the radio because he was arresting the wrong people.” As Robertson said, “In this county it will get you in trouble real quick.”

Even Bryant admitted: “He (Young) has done a lot and gotten away with it.”[29]

After another meeting at Richardson’s home at which Bollinger, Hallien, Briant and Robertson met, they were followed by Hunt County Deputies.[30]

At the meeting Hallien told Richardson that E-Systems hired people to follow investigators who were looking into the company’s improprieties in Florida. As Hallien states: “... we know E-Systems followed around the investigators down in Florida. They’re doing it with you people now.... although they hired the people down there in Florida, in a sense they didn’t have to hire anybody, they had them right there in their pocket.”[31]

As for whistleblower Michele Cooper, both she and her son wound up dead.


The Harassment

Regarding the “highest value on People, Integrity, Commitment and Excellence” that Raytheon touts, their press release adds:
“Not only do these themes define our business practices, they define our Community Relations programs as well...”[32]

Indeed. All three whistleblowers I spoke to alleged extreme harassment, including surveillance, break-ins, death threats, murder and attempted murder by E-Systems and possibly the National Security Agency.

As Richardson states: “We have been broken into so many times my family feels it is commonplace. We were followed and harassed by the Hunt County Sheriffs Department which sent three squads of deputies to my daughter’s birthday party.

“It has also been confirmed that the DISC (Defense Industrial Security Command) agent at E-Systems is one of the Feds. He was following and harassing people.”[*] As Richardson’s lawsuit states:

“The Defendants’ legal staff and others used threats and intimidation to get employees to give false information to investigators, as well as instructing employees [in] what to say, and threatening to fire them if they deviated. This has been confirmed by investigators, but the AUSA’s (Assistant U.S. Attorneys) involved refused to do anything about it.”[33]

Richardson claims he suffered major harassment when E-Systems learned that he had tapes of Michele Cooper’s - who had personal knowledge of illegal covert operations at E-Systems.

“Louis Sams at E-Systems called Richard Bollinger at OSI and told him that I had Michele’s disks,” says Richardson. “Sams was the one who set up Senior Special Agent Chris Hallien at IGDCIS.”[*]

That - and their belief that Richardson was taking pictures of E-Systems personnel changing tail numbers on drug planes - resulted in them placing a “wanted” poster with his and Sams’ pictures on it at the Hunt County Sheriff’s office. Both Sam’s and Richardson’s wives would be followed by unmarked Hunt County Sheriff’s cars.

“They put all the pictures of me up in the Sheriff’s Department and told all the deputies I was possibly a terrorist and to use extreme caution,” says Richardson. “It was an obvious attempt to have me legally murdered.[34]

“Well Chris Hallien came in and started investigating. Chris was probably the most honest person you’ll ever meet. He had gotten upset because of some of the stuff they had done to us and the way they were jacking with us. And one of the deputies told me that Bobby Young, former Sheriff, told him not to worry about Chris, because E-Systems is going to have him indicted.”

According to Rath, E-Systems attorney Nancy Hampton (then a paralegal) would ask FBI Agent Danny James to press extortion charges against Richardson. As Richardson’s lawsuit states:

“Defendants General Council sent AUSA Lynn Hastings a memo stating; “It appears Mr. Richardson went to Congress and the Washington press.” AUSA Hastings then called the defendant in to her office and threatened to file charges on me if I talked to any current or former E-Systems employees, congressional committees or the press....”[35]

“I called Bollinger, I called Hallien, I called the House and Senate Oversight Committees,” says Richardson, “and told all four of them what the deputy told me. They all laughed and said, ‘Hey, Hallien’s a 30-year agent. He’s got a blemish-free record - never anything.’

“Well they went in front of grand jury and got sealed indictments against him. Paul Coggins (U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas - his wife was one of Clinton’s aides) called Chris personally when stuff started to happen and told him they declined to prosecute. [But] he had to retire, and they told him if he ever spoke to any of us, the indictments would be unsealed and he’d be put in jail and loose his retirement.”[*]

As previously mentioned, another E-Systems employee who was threatened, harassed and terminated was Billy Rath. A 20 year employee, Rath worked as a machinist, assembler, and senior estimator. After Richardson blew the whistle, Rath became caught up in the drama. As Rath states: “I was a go-between between Rich and Nancy Hampton. Nancy knew that we were friends. We had worked together a long time, on a number of major programs....

“Well, I was pulled into office after office by her. Anytime I would have any conversations with Rich I would have to approach her. Automatically the tape recorder was turned on....”

Rath was told to stay in touch with Richardson and report back to Hampton verbally and in writing. The reports were supplied to Personnel Director Tom Coffee. As Rath states in his affidavit:

“These written reports had to be written favorable to the company, which meant I was to make Mr. Richardson sound as bad as possible which included altering the truth. It was this [or] I would lose my job.”[*]

Richardson told Rath that he would only be satisfied when people were behind bars. When Hampton heard this, “she stated this was extortion and picked up the phone and called the FBI and informed them she wanted to file extortion charges against Mr. Richardson,” says Rath.[36]

The person she called was Special Agent Danny James, Buck Revell’s subordinate.

That was when Rath and his family began having real problems. His wife and children were run off the road on three different occasions - each time by brand new unlicensed sport utility vehicles.

“Anytime [Richardson] would come over to my house, my family would catch hell for it,” says Rath. “At first I didn’t put it together, But after the wife and kids kept getting run off road everytime he showed up - for the next two days after he showed up - I started putting two and two together. Especially when it’s new cars with no license tags - dealer’s cars.

“The second time, my wife was run plum off the road, almost through a fence. My kids were crying; my wife was hysterical.

“The next day I went into Nancy Hampton’s office and said, ‘Look, it’s funny - everytime Rich comes over to my house this happens.’ Well she whips the phone up and dials an in-house number:

“I’ve got Billy Rath here in my office and he is complaining about his wife and kids being run off the road on numerous occasions. Is it ours?” After the answer, she was still on the phone and looked at me and said “It’s not ours. Must be NSA.”[37*]

Shades of “Enemy of the State.”

“All the bombings, my wife getting run off the road - all occurred within two weeks of one another,” says Rath. “That tells me that whoever was sent in here was probably NSA, and they had a window [of time]. And it happened during union negotiations, during contract time....”

Rath believes at least some of the cars involved came from Greenville Ford - which had a contract with E-Systems.[*] The owner of Greenville Ford is Vernon Williams.

After Rath was terminated, Williams gave him a job. E-Systems apparently didn’t know Rath was working for Williams. As Rath states: “I was given a cubicle on the front of the floor. One day in walks [E-Systems Security Director] Bob Amick with a big canvas bag. He walks straight into Vernon William’s office.”

When Amick came out, the bag was empty.

“He was laundering money through the Ford dealership!” says Rath. “When he saw me - and buddy, you should have seen his face when he saw me - he turned as white as a sheet. And he was trying to hide that bag. It was funny as shit. He knew that I knew.”

Amick would also appear like clockwork whenever Rath stopped at the food service truck outside the E-Systems plant.

“Amick would always be there to strike up a conversation,” says Rath. “This began in 1993, around the same time Nancy Hampton began tasking me to keep tabs on Rich.... Everytime I’d go to that truck, that guy’d come out.”

Within months, the serious harassment began. One day Rath came to work to find his office ransacked. His boss, Allen Little, took him to meet George Parnell and Bill Davies - who answered to Bob Amick. They claim to have discovered pornography on his computer. Rath claims that no porn was on his computer.[38]

After E-Systems used sex to fire Rath, they used it to set him up. Says Rath: “AFLC, which is a division of the Air Force out here, they have their little party girls who go out in the vans whenever the Air Force boys come down. And one of those was thrown at me; I did not know she was tied to E-Systems.... It turned out her husband worked [there]....

“She lived with me for two weeks before I figured out what was going on,” says Rath, “and she kept pumping me for information. And everything was pertaining to E-Systems.... This was Allen and Sandy Nicholson....”[*]

It was Nicholson who allegedly set Rath up on the pornography charges.

Yet the harassment didn’t stop. Rath was arrested on a warrant for assault with a deadly weapon - a charge filed by Sandy Nicholson. As Rath’s affidavit states:

“We separated the first week in December 1997. I thought everything was fine until approximately two weeks before Hunt County Deputies came to my house and arrested me. Mr. Nicholson called and informed me that he had helped them burn me once and was fixing to do it again. I didn’t know what he meant by that until I was arrested two weeks later....”[39]

During Rath’s court hearings, Judge Richard Beacum changed the court dates without notifying him, then had him picked up for missed appearances. That made Rath even more suspicious.

“I went to try to get a copy of [Beacum’s] campaign contributions, knowing he was tied with Raytheon Systems Political Action committee, and was denied access... (a violation of the Freedom of Information Act).”[40]

“He protects that because he doesn’t want us to know who is main contributor is,” says Rath. “We know; it’s E-Systems!

“Any of their henchmen who get in trouble, they run it through his court, and automatically they get slapped on the wrist.”

As Richardson adds about Judge Beacum:

“Judge Beacum was also the visiting judge when the pedophile that molested my daughter was captured after jumping probation and was wanted for over six years. Judge Beacum ruled [that] the pedophile had not broken any laws and turned the pedophile loose.”[41]

But the harassment against Rath continued. As Rath says: “I got fired on trumped up charges and I couldn’t make payments on my car. Well then they went and tried to make it a felony.... The local DA, Duncan Thomas, writes me a letter:

“You need to get in touch with my office immediately, The fact that you have not gotten in touch with the credit union at E-Systems could be a felony.”[*]

As Rath states: “I thought I was building aircraft for my country, to protect my kids, the well-being of the United States of America.... I worked diligently, climbed up the company ladder, achieved a goal that I thought was reputable in the community. All of a sudden I found out that I was working for a company building what I thought were weapons of war, but was in fact making more drug addicts walk around the streets - to fund these operations.

“One wonders why in the great United States of America and all that we were promised, inalienable rights, etcetera - why a company like this is allowed to stay in business,” adds Rath. “The way they run things - it’s not right, it’s broken families up, it’s broken homes up. It’s caused a lot of people a bunch of money who really didn’t deserve it.”

The terrorism used against Rath’s family caused his 20-year marriage to end in divorce.

“I’ve had friends like Leo Salis that have been killed,” says Rath. “I’ve had friends who have had their houses bombed over what I’m talking about. There’s one guy there in Personnel who had his foot blown off.”

Both Rath and Richardson believe E-Systems Security Director Bob Amick was directly involved in the harassment and murder.

As previously stated, “Rick” was another E-Systems employee who was terminated - for blowing the whistle on falsifying records, working on aircraft that didn’t exist and manufacturing defective parts.

He was ultimately set up on explosive charges - allegedly an attempt to kill the man who fired him. As Rick states: “E-Systems will pretty much do what they have to do to get the attention off them.... You don’t fool with these guys. They’ll snap your neck in the middle of a crowd.”[*]

As Richardson explains: “My brother was a retired Dallas cop. We were talking about this and I said, ‘Don’t you realize these people will kill you?’ He said, ‘Yes, I have reason to believe that they have the ability to,’ then he added, ‘You’re just being paranoid. They wouldn’t spend this kind of money to do this.’

“Well he and I were sitting there fishing, and a new pick-up pulls up. Two guys in suits get out and start opening up cases with electronic gear, and they start turning their antennas and playing with it. And he nudged me, and he wanted to know if it was them.

“On another trip down there with some friends, we get back, there’s a roll of Heavenly Soft toilet paper sitting on the truck. Now why would they spend the kind of money to basically jack with us?”

Richardson believes the message was, “Heavenly Soft toilet paper... ‘we’re going to wipe your ass.’ It’s just a way of jacking with you. I’ve had three heart-attacks and two bypass surgeries. They do not want me to relax, and going down there would be relaxing. They want to keep me tensed up. That way I could have another heart-attack and die.”


Harrassment Against the Author

Soon after my attorney, Mike Johnston, began talking to Richardson, he had his office broken into - at least twice. The first time they broke into his file storage locker, took off his lock, and replaced it with a high-tech looking lock. The building manager had never seen it before and had no idea where it came from.

The second time they left him a tape recording of a conversation between two unidentified men with his voice dubbed onto it. He believes the implication being that he had illegally recorded a phone conversation, and if he doesn’t back off, they’ll take him down for wire statute violations.

Several days before I was scheduled to meet with Richardson, I walked outside to find all my tires slashed. Richardson told me that two people connected with his case had their tires slashed in a similar manner.

Recently, Richardson’s radiator hose was removed from his pick-up.

Shortly after I appeared on a nationally syndicated radio show to discuss the harassment, Richardson’s e-mail box was jammed with thousands of messages - from homosexual news groups and others. He believes the messages were a form of harassment by computer hackers working for E-Systems and the NSA. Shortly thereafter, his computer went down with a virus.

When I sent Richardson copies of a U.S. Customs report on the “Finders” - a pedophile group tied into the CIA - Richardson got a message that displayed fireworks and said “Happy ‘99!” A virus then swept through his computer.

When I e-mailed a completed draft of this story to Billy Rath, he said it had been intercepted and rewritten to make it look “as though a 12 year-old had written it.” This had the effect of creating distrust between me and my source.

While Richardson and I were sitting in Rick’s frontyard, he received a call from a relative in foreign country - an intelligence operative. The caller said, “Rick, they know they’re there (meaning myself and Richardson). Watch your six.”

We had been there less than 15 minutes.

Regarding surveillance by satellite, Richardson says: “They’ve got a code - XR-7546 or whatever. They can pull it up and see exactly what you’re doing on the road. But you lock in on a unit, and that computer will track it.”

But wouldn’t other employees catch sight of illegal operations such as survielling citizens? Not according to Richardson. “It’s compartmentalized. They catch you snooping and you’re history. You focus on what you’re doing.”


The Murders

All three former E-Systems employees told me about approximately half-a-dozen murders connected to E-Systems.[*]

As Richardson explains, if they really want to get to you they murder your family members.” Richardson was very close to his brother. He died of a “fast-acting cancer” in August of ‘96.[*]

“E-Systems was trying to control people,” adds Rick, “and they did a damn good job.”

Mark Biggerstaff was Richardson’s daughter’s boyfriend. Biggerstaff was found hanged on the last day of school. It was the first time he had gotten to take his truck to school after turning sixteen. Documents obtained from the Greenville Police Department state that the perpetrators listened to his heart and took his pulse to make sure he was dead before calling for help.” The police claimed he accidentally hung himself.

Richardson himself has suffered several attempts on his life. As he writes:

“There was an attempt to blow me up back in ‘87 when I first went to the government.... The [Air Force] Colonel gave our names to the company as well as the information after promising to keep it in confidence.... He also stated to me in his most menacing voice that ‘I was messing with hundreds of millions of dollars and was in more danger than I had ever been in my life’(!) this was Col. Manning Crump, at the time Commander of Det-2 at E-Systems! Crump admitted under oath he had given my name and information to E-Systems! He later admitted under oath going to work for E-Systems before he retired....”

Richardson describes the story about the attempt to bomb his house: “Bob Amick called the guards together and told them he wanted to know what I was doing and where I was going and who I was seeing, where I lived, what kind of cars I drove, my license plate numbers - to gather together all of this information and bring it back to him.

“After he gets this information - I was driving an old red ‘72 pick-up - and I had some trouble with it so I took it over to my mother’s house and worked on it over there. And she just lived across the road from me - but she had big hedges that covered the yard so you couldn’t see where the truck was.

“Well my neighbor happened to have one also, and this was in ‘86 or ‘87. But even then, ‘72s were rare enough, for a street a block long to have two of them the same color was unusual.

“Well Bob Amick came down there; his car was seen in front of my house one night. He backs back down the street with his lights out and all this kind of stuff.

“Anyway the next day, the trailer house that had the red pick-up like mine... it blew up. The house blew up!”

Fortunately no one was hurt. Richardson explains that his house and his neighbor’s house were very close together.

“They were going by the truck,” says Richardson.

“When [Loneoak Police Chief] Larry Osborn heard about it, he called the FBI to investigate - to see if it was a bomb.... Well it’s several weeks before the FBI ever gets there. Then they tell Larry, ‘Oh, well it’s been so long now we wouldn’t be able to find anything.’

“They didn’t investigate!

“This is all a matter of record - Senate Oversight and House Oversight.[*] They came down and took witness statements, documents... they have the whole nine yards on all of this.”

A GAO investigation found rather minor cases of fraud. While a congressional investigation was opened on E-Systems, it never went anywhere.

“It was an open investigation until the Republicans gained the majority in the House and Senate,” says Richardson, “then they just shut it down.... The first thing the Republicans did before they were even sworn in was let all the committee members go and close all the investigations....

“This is an election year,” adds Richardson. “If they don’t get Prince George (George Bush, Jr.) and his court jesters in, they’re in deep shit.”[*]

Interestingly, the Greenville Herald-Banner reported that one of the first places little George went on his presidential fund-raising trip was to E-Systems.[*]

Little George would also be a regular guest on a plane from Barry Seal’s drug smuggling fleet.

As for Bob Amick: “Amick is still connected,” says Richardson, “through the NSA. He was in the Pentagon for years before he retired from the military. John Lanting was his assistant.

“Lanting eventually rolled over and talked. He’s now in hiding.” (See letter from Lanting to Amick in Appendix)

Interestingly, Amick’s name was listed on the attendee roster of the Seventh Annual Symposium and Exhibition on Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict. The agenda featured topics such as joint warfare, effective application of psychological operations forces, and counter-terrorism, among others.[42]

As previously mentioned were at least 15 other E-Systems witnesses and whistleblowers.

Michele Cooper had briefed former NSA (and CIA) Director Admiral Bobby Ray Inman - then a civilian consultant to E-systems - on at least six black budget operations. Cooper allegedly knew about sales of systems overseas to Iraq (that allowed them to spy on enemy troop movements during their war with Iraq, which Richardson believes was subsequently used to spy on and target our own troops during Desert Storm) and the bribery of officials.

As previously mentioned, Cooper had gone to Danny James - “Buck” Revell’s subordinate - at the FBI’s National Security Section, with allegations of national security violations at E-Systems. James threatened to file charges on her.

Richardson had some of Cooper’s computer disks.

“These disks scared them so bad they brought a computer expert down to open them,” says Richardson, “but there was nothing on them.... Cooper was the one who blew the whistle on Bobby Ray Inman.”

Cooper and Richardson were subpoenaed to testify at Inman’s confirmation hearing for Secretary of Defense. Inman backed out before the hearings were held.

“He didn’t want to answer questions,” says Richardson.

Cooper’s son was killed in 1994. Police said the boy died from sniffing glue. Yet police found no glue when they searched his room.

Michele Cooper died four years later, of fast-acting cancer.

As for Inman, Richardson claims he’s “a sociopathic pedophile,” and “one of the most cold-blooded killers in the country - worse than George Bush,” one of his friends. Bush has been alleged to be a pedophile by at least several known eyewitnesses, including a number of child prostitutes who testified in the Franklin Credit Union case, and mind-control/prostitute victim Cathy O’Brien and her young daughter.[*] [ISGP note: this last witness is 100 percent disinformation, as were all other victim witnesses promoted by Ted Gunderson]

E-Systems employee Leo Salis Had information concerning drug drops and the illegal use of PROMIS software. His wife Dolores was followed and harassed. Her son and daughter-in-law were run off the road - totaling their car. Her daughter was abducted and raped.

Salis had a bomb put in his car that malfunctioned and set it on fire. Several days later he came into work to find a fake bomb in his desk. As Salis states in a tape-recorded affidavit:

It should be noted that a firebomb went off in my car as I was driving to work on Tuesday, June 9, 1992. This occurred in the timeframe that I was meeting with Mr. Murray. Ostracization by management increased when I returned to work after the firebombing. E-Systems security denied in the first hour or two of the bombing, and without further investigation, that the incident could have anything to do with my employment at E-Systems. The morning of September 14, I discovered a device attached to my desk. Again E-Systems security responded inappropriately. Instead of investigating any motives or even the events surrounding the discovery of the device, they chose to interrogate me, accusing me of setting the device myself. Greenville Police Investigator, Lt. Fortenberry, has behaved strangely, too, refusing to talk to me unless I first take a polygraph, a notoriously inaccurate and unreliable instrument. At this point in time I do not know if the device I found in my desk was a hoax or an armed bomb. The firebomb I had in my car did go off. Also I overheard a fireman coming out of the building saying that they had found a bomb and that it was “hot” whatever that means. Neither security nor the police will tell me if the device was armed, so I have no choice, considering the information I am working with, but to assume that the device was armed and that two serious attempts have been made on my life in the past three months....

The behavior of security and the police (The city of Greenville has an economic interest in E-Systems) causes me to suspect that they and management, especially mid-management may be trying to kill or discredit me so that I cannot bear witness to the conduct of the company.[43]

Salis died mysteriously after an operation.

“A few days after Delores Salis came to see me,” says Richardson, “three men from NSA came to see her and wanted to know what we talked about and how many times we had met,” says Richardson. “She told them about the things that had been happening to them, and they told her it had the fingerprints of the CIA all over it. They stated - when she asked if all the whistleblowers all had to die: ’no it would bring down too much heat.”

His widow subsequently became engaged to E-Systems employee Robert Hunt. Hunt has a security videotape of his house being broken into. He claims the perpetrators were E-Systems employees trying to find sensitive tapes and documents. Like the author, Hunt had his tires slashed, except in his case the perpetrators beat him up and left him for dead. When he got back to Texas he found his empty wallet in his bathroom.[44]

Lewis Sams’ boss, Mike Todd, who worked on the “Woodstock” program, was found with a dog collar around his neck in 1991. His death was ruled “accidental Asphyxiation.”

Some other E-Systems witnesses and whistleblowers:

• Gerald Kinworthy. Kinworthy - one of E-Systems’ henchmen - had given information about being forced to falsify government records. He was killed when someone tampered with the tie-rods on his car.

• Troy Fitch. Fitch was the director of quality, and involved in Richardson’s termination. As Rath states: “Troy was the ethics guy out there. If you had knowledge of any wrongdoing regarding shoddy parts, air-worthiness, etc. you went to him, You’d be surprised at what some supervisors would put on company aircraft if they’re on a deadline to get them out the door. Well, Troy went right to the quality control people and told them what was going on. And the guy just basically paid him lip service.” Fitch, who was in his late 50s, died of a fast acting. “He went down quick,” says Rath.

• Don Myers. Myers was Director of Human Relations. He had testified that the company could be shut down because of their actions against Richardson. “He had given the names of the people who were at the meeting when it was decided to terminate me,” says Richardson. “The company was afraid he was going to talk.” Myers had a stroke but survived.

• Vince Mahan. Mahan, who worked under Tom Coffee in Personnel, had a bomb put in his truck which blew off his foot. Mahan had told E-Systems that he would be truthful when questioned by investigators. Mahan died from a stroke shortly after testifying in Richardson’s arbitration hearing.

• Former Texas Atty. General Jim Maddox’s brother, a UAW union rep., was killed the same day after leaving union negotiations with E-Systems. He was hit by an 18-wheeler near Rockwall, Texas.

• David Parker, an Attorney In Rockwall, was to meet his girlfriend at his house for lunch. When he got there he found her dead. He believed that individuals from “Division Five” at E-Systems were responsible for the murders. Although E-Systems denied that they have a Division Five, says Richardson, “Everything has to have a code word.”

• Bill Keen. Keen was an E-Systems engineer and a friend of Richardson’s. Keen had his car rammed, then they tried to run him over. When he shot out the assailants’ radiator, he was arrested for shooting at them. Although the Garland police interrogated the assailants, they were never arrested.

• A Vice President of Finance, had his house blown up. He immediately left Texas for parts unknown.


Amtrak Derailment

As previously mentioned, E-Systems/Raytheon has been the target of numerous allegations regarding illegal covert activities. These illegal activities were made possible by President Reagan’s Executive Order 12333. Apparently, the allegations go beyond fraud, drug-running and murdering employees.

On his August 19, 1995 radio address, President Clinton complained that Congress still had not passed “his” Anti-Terrorism Bill. “It’s hard to imagine what more must happen to convince Congress to pass that bill,” Clinton warned, in the manner of an ominously veiled threat.

Then just two months later, on October 9, the nation witnessed its first attack on a passenger train, when Amtrak’s “Sunset Limited” was derailed while enroute from Phoenix to San Diego. The derailment, caused by sabotage, resulted in over 100 injuries, including one death.

The terrorists left behind a cryptic note, calling themselves the “Sons of the Gestapo.” The mainstream press quickly jumped on this latest “terrorist” attack, coming as it did only six months after the Oklahoma City bombing. While no one, including law-enforcement officials, had ever heard of the “Sons of the Gestapo,” the purveyors of deception immediately played it up as the obvious work of a “Right-wing” militia group.

FBI officials were more cautious however, speculating that the attack may have been the result of a “disgruntled employee.” Exhaustive searches through numerous data-bases revealed no group called “Sons of the Gestapo,” and only someone with the technical knowledge necessary to disable a warning system on a railroad track would be capable of executing such a stunt.

It may not have mattered however. In the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing, any such attack on American citizens would be excuse enough to push the Anti-Terrorism Bill through Congress. And the press and anti-militia activists such as the ADL and the SPLC were eager to jump on the militia connection. “Sons of the Gestapo,” they asserted, could only be the pseudonym for a Right-wing hate-group.

Yet law-enforcement officials had only an enigmatic message to guide them. The note left behind by the saboteurs rallied against the ATF and FBI for their actions at Waco and Ruby Ridge, and stated, “This is not Nazi Germany.”

Why anyone would attack a passenger train to exact revenge on government officials for killing innocent civilians (or blow up babies as revenge for killing children) is beyond credulity. Yet, as in the Oklahoma City case, this was the message that the saboteurs - and the government-controlled press - wanted us to believe. America was filled with hateful Right-wing extremists who would do anything - kill anyone, women, children, babies - to pursue their violent anti-government agenda.

As Attorney General Janet Reno announced in the Oklahoma City case, so the local U.S. Attorney, Janet Napolitano would declare: “We are going to pursue every bit of evidence and every lead very thoroughly... until we find the person or persons who committed this crime.”[45]

While the FBI swarmed through Maricopa County, interrogating local residents and harassing the few isolated “desert rats” who inhabited the surrounding countryside, a real investigation was being conducted by a lone Maricopa County Sheriff. With the assistance of Craig Roberts, a retired Tulsa police officer with military intelligence experience who worked on the Oklahoma City investigation, the Sheriff was able to uncover some amazing information.

What they found was that other than rescue vehicles, there were no vehicle tracks entering or exiting the crash site. Moreover, the site itself was extremely remote, being near the summit of the rugged Gila Bend Mountains, which surrounded the site to the east, north, and west. It was there, along a sharp S-curve, that the perpetrators had pulled 29 spikes from the tracks, causing the fatal crash.

Why had the perpetrators chosen such a remote location, Roberts wondered? Had they picked a more accessible spot, he reasoned, it would have surely lessened their chances of being caught, as all they would have had to do was drive to the nearest highway. In this case, the nearest road was Highway 8, 38 miles away, necessitating a difficult drive over rugged terrain, at the same time as law-enforcement officers would surely be on a heightened state of alert.

What Roberts and his sheriff partner also discovered was that 90 minutes away by air, in Pinal County, was a mysterious air-base known as Marana. The locked-down facility was owned by Evergreen, Inc., a government contractor reportedly involved in drug smuggling during the Iran-Contra period.[*]

The base, located off of Highway 10 between Phoenix and Tucson, was the site of strange night-time training maneuvers involving black and unmarked military-type helicopters. Passersby had also witnessed black-clad troops dropping into the desert en mass, using steerable black “Paracommander” parachutes.

This began to raise some interesting possibilities. Had the perpetrators been dropped into the site by air, then picked up by chopper? Roberts was an experienced pilot who was Special Forces trained and, as he says, “knew how Third World guerrilla units were trained in railway sabotage.”

They observed that it would have been easy for a helicopter to fly low through the mountain passes, avoiding radar, and insert and extract a team. As Roberts noted, “A full moon, wind out of the south at 8 knots, and a clear sky... would be an ideal night for air operations.”[46]

The possibilities of a covert paramilitary commando team being responsible for the attack raised more than a few eyebrows at the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department, until they began investigating a lead provided by a sympathetic FBI agent that several hikers had seen a small group of parachuters drop into the desert that night. They also discovered the following information:

“...a VFR target squawking 1200 that left Tri-City airfield in Albuquerque on a southwest course, climbed to 10,500 feet, then, when it was exactly due east of the Amtrak site, turn due west and flew a course line that took it one mile south of the site. But just before arriving over the site, it dropped to 8,500 feet. After crossing the target zone, it turned on a southwesterly course towards California at 8,500 feet. Albuquerque contacted the Los Angeles Center which tracked the aircraft to a landing at Montgomery Field in San Diego.... It crossed the valley south of the bridge at 1940 hours (7:40 p.m.)”

Since the winds that night were at 8 knots out of the south, a drop one mile from the target site would compensate for wind drift. Moreover, such a flight is not required to file a flight plan listing its passengers, and an aircraft flying out of Albuquerque, squawking on transponder 1200 wouldn’t look particularly suspicious.

When they checked with the refueler at Montgomery Field, the records indicated that the “N” number checked to a Beechcraft, registered to Raytheon. Raytheon owns E-Systems. As previously mentioned, E-Systems allegedly developed sophisticated systems to create electronic “holes” which would allow planes to cross the border without tripping the NORAD Early Warning Systems. E-Systems, which is reputed to have “wet-teams,” was directed by former NSA Director and CIA Deputy Director Bobby Ray Inman.

While it is possible a jump was made from the twin-engine Beechcraft, a plane commonly used for such purposes, it still left the problem of the team’s extraction. With the radar track information, the Maricopa Sheriff then went to the Air Force at Yuma, who monitor the Aerostat radar drug balloons. The DEA balloons have “look-down” capability for detecting low-flying aircraft. The Master Sergeant at Yuma agreed to help out. A short time later he called back.

“Sorry,” he said. “We can’t help you out.”

“What? Why?” asked Jack.

“The plug’s been pulled.”

“What does that mean?”

The sergeant sounded very uncomfortable when he replied. “We really wanted to check this out, but all I can say is the balloons were down that night.”

“Why?” asked Jack.

“Maintenance.”

“All of them?” asked Jack, incredulously.

“Yes, sir.” The sergeant sounded very nervous.

“Why?”

“All I can tell you is that they were ordered down for maintenance. It came from above my pay grade.”

One has to wonder what “above my pay grade” means. Why would all the balloons be ordered down for maintenance? Obviously, a cover-up was in progress.

It was beginning to sound suspiciously like the hurried demolition of the Oklahoma Federal Building, to prevent any independent forensic analysis of the bomb site. Or the Secret Service removing President Kennedy’s protective bubble from his limousine; failing to secure the windows and rooftops along the parade route; and changing the route at the last minute.

Like the two foregoing examples, only the government - or shadow elements within the government - had the capability of pulling that off. No “lone nut” or criminal syndicate could order such last-minute changes, or orchestrate such a massive and well-executed cover-up. Moreover, no militia group could order all the radar balloons down on the night of the attack.

As a Maricopa County resident stated to the Arizona Republic regarding the FBI’s so-called militia theory, “Buddy, you can’t get three people out here to get together on what kind of pickup to drive, and you think we’re going to form a militia?”

Obviously, no militia would benefit from such an attack. And what about the “Sons of the Gestapo?” As Roberts wrote: “...as an old Southeast Asia hand (a marine sniper during Vietnam), I remember that one of the terms used by Phoenix Program assassins working under MACV-SOG (Military Advisory Command, Studies and Observations Group) was a twisted bar-room version of the last acronym. “Yeah,” a drunk trooper would mention. “I’m SOG... a son of the Gestapo.”[47]

The Phoenix assassination program, as previously discussed, was organized by the CIA’s William Colby, Ted Shackley, and fielded by General John Singlaub. Singlaub commanded Second Lieutenant Oliver North. Shackley, Singlaub, and North would go on to orchestrate the secret and illegal Iran-Contra operation, smuggling drugs into this country at such places as Mena, Arkansas... and Marana.[*]

Curiously, whenever Iran-Contra drug shipments came in for the California run, the drug balloons under “Operation Watchtower” were shut down. Could this be the same mechanism that shut them down the night of the attack?

Then, in September of 1997, a confidential FBI memo intended for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Phoenix was accidentally faxed to the Arizona Republic, the Associated Press, and other news media. The memo states that the FBI’s prime suspect is “a man with law enforcement and firefighting experience who recently moved out of Arizona.”[48]

Apparently, the “Sons of the Gestapo” note left behind was a “false flag,” a distraction designed to serve a political purpose. In this case, that purpose - like the Oklahoma bombing which preceded it - was to connect the Amtrak attack with the Patriot/Militia movement. Considering the reaction of the mainstream press, it appears they - with the help of E-Systems - have largely succeeded.


Conclusion

As for the case of Winfred Richardson and the others? As Richardson states in his lawsuit:

“I was informed a couple of weeks after President Clinton’s election in November 1992 that word had come down from Washington for the DoJ to decline on all issues before Clinton is sworn in.... [On] January 10 1993, days before President Clinton was sworn in, the DoJ declined on all issues.”

Indeed, upon taking office, Clinton fired all U.S. Attorneys and replaced them with people loyal to him. As Richardson adds:

“The DoD refuses to do anything about the confirmed firing of Defendant’s employees for blowing the whistle and/or giving information....

“The DoD admitted to Government Affairs, and an employee of the DoD confirmed it to the Plaintiff, [that] the DoD has never ruled in favor of a defense contractor whistleblower.[*]

“The Defendant’s council mentioned to the judge, in a telephone meeting, that due to the amount of monies involved a settlement was impossible, as if this was a reason for the judge to throw out this complicated case. The government’s estimate of the rip-off’s is 25 to 30 percent of all contracts, and this company is/was doing over three billion dollars a year in business with the government. The Defendant never tried to settle, and why should they when they own enough political influence and officials to get away with anything....”[49]

[1]. E-Systems became an LTV spinoff in 1972. E-Systems was purchased by Raytheon in 1995 for $2.2 billion dollars.
[2]. “He is a member of the Association of Old Crows, a society of electronic warfare specialists through which many intelligence community ties are made and maintained.” Gregg Jones, “E-Systems President Maintains Low Profile,” Dallas Morning News, 10/21/92.
[3]. Press release, 1995 annual report.
[4]. Dallas Morning News, 10/18/92; Gregg Jones, “Germans Delay E-Systems Contract,” Dallas Morning News, date unknown.
[5]. Daniel Brandt, Namebase, no date provided. “When E-Systems bought Air Asia from the CIA in 1975, they pointed out that their intelligence contracting was with the Air Force, not the CIA, and that former CIA director William Raborn, a director of E-Systems, was not involved in the purchase.”
[6]. “Behind the Veil of E-Systems,” Greenville Herald-Banner, date unknown.
[7]. http://www.raytheon.com/ethics/
[8]. Gregg Jones, “Germans Delay E-Systems Contract,” Dallas Morning News, date unknown; Gregg Jones, “E-Systems President Maintains Low Profile,” Dallas Morning News, 10/21/92.
[9]. United States and Winfred Richardson v. E-Systems, Case No. 3:90-CV-0607-P. Plaintiff’s Answers to Defendants’ First Set of Interrogatories.
[10]. “E-Systems Chief Called Influential: Experts say Keiffer can rally Pentagon support,” Defense News, date unknown; Gregg Jones, “E-Systems President Maintains Low Profile,” Dallas Morning News, 10/21/92.
[*] The U.S. State Department denies such spying took place and will not even acknowledge the existence of the top-secret Echelon project. The NSA runs Echelon with Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand as a series of listening posts around the world that eavesdrop on the phone conversations, faxes, and e-mails of suspected terrorists, drug lords and hostile foreign governments. But to find out what the bad guys are up to, all electronic communications, including those of the good guys, must be captured and analyzed for key words by super computers.... As former NSA employee Mike Frost says: “My concern is no accountability and nothing, no safety net in place for the innocent people who fall through the cracks.” As an example of those innocent people, Frost cites a woman whose name and telephone number went into the Echelon database as a possible terrorist simply because she told a friend on the phone that her son had bombed in a school play. (“Echelon Bombshell: NSA Accused of Spying on US Politicians,” Drudge Report, 2/24/00. “Thatcher Linked to Spy Order on Ministers,” Reuters, 2/24/00.)
[11]. Winfred Richardson, interview with author. All quotes, interview with author.
[12]. http://www.raytheon.com/community/
[13]. United States and Winfred Richardson v. E-Systems, Case No. 3:90-CV-0607-P. Plaintiff’s Answers to Defendants’ First Set of Interrogatories.
[*] One example of overcharging, as Richardson states in his lawsuit, were “$6,000 to $12,000 trashcans that hang under the [airplane’s] lavatory.” Some of the defects he describes lead to fatalities.
[*] See Affidavit of Billy Wayne Rath, below.
[14]. Affidavit of Billy Wayne Rath, copy in author’s possession.
[*] Gregg Jones of the Dallas Morning News wrote stories about E-Systems in December of ‘92. “Well the Editor of the Dallas Morning News gets a call from someone at E-Systems complaining about Gregg Jones writing the stories - accused him of yellow journalism and blah, blah, blah, and the editors backed off.” (See Gregg Jones, “E-Systems Coming Out of the Shadows,” Dallas Morning News, 10/18/92.)
[15]. “Behind the Veil of E-Systems,” Greenville Herald-Banner, date unknown.
[16]. Ibid.
[17]. “Report Alleges E-Systems Violated Pact,” Associated Press, date unknown.
[*] The reporting employee had the choice of providing his or her name.
[18]. “E-Systems Ex-Security Chief Accuses Officials of Improprieties,” Associated Press, quoted in the Greenville Herald-Banner, date unknown.
[19]. The filed affidavit of Granville Gwin states; “You’ve reported us to the OFCCP, NLRB and other government agencies and we are terminating you for it.” (“United States of America, ex rel, Winfred E. Richardson v. E-Systems Inc. Brief In Support Of Appeal Plaintiff, Case No. 99-10682.)
[20]. Transcript of meeting attended by Winfred Richardson, mark Bryant (FBI), Special Agent Rick Bollinger (OSI), Special Agent Chris Hallien (DCIS), Ran Robertson, Justice of the Peace, Hunt County, Texas, 5/25/93, copy in author’s possession; Winfred Richardson, interview with author. Transcript of meeting attended by Winfred Richardson, mark Bryant (FBI), Special Agent Rick Bollinger (OSI), Special Agent Chris Hallien (DCIS), Ran Robertson, Justice of the Peace, Hunt County, Texas, 5/25/93, copy in author’s possession; Winfred Richardson, interview with author.
[21]. http://www.raytheon.com/community/.
[*] That attempt was a joint services operation, involving the Marines, the Army and other military services and intelligence agencies.
[22]. Billy Wayne Rath, interview with author. All quotes, interviews with author.
[*] Rick also claims to have been involved in Operation Eagle Claw - the military hostage rescue attempt in Iran in 1980, an unsuccessful attempt in which several servicemen died. He provide impressive detailed information about the operation. (See Chapter XX).
[*] One of Oliver North’s key associates was John Hull. Rick states that the Jojoba Plantation - John Hull’s ranch in Costa Rica - was owned by former E-Systems employees. According to Costa Rican authorities, the Hull ranch figured prominently as a staging point in the Contra guns-for-drugs operation.
[23]. “Rick,” interview with author.
[*] As Rath states: “There are certain airplanes seized in drug busts, okay - and there’s certain airplanes like 707s and 737s that get brought in, and they need money to bring them up (retrofit them) as snoop airplanes if you will - counterintelligence airplanes. And where some of that money comes from would surprise you.”
[*] Independent witnesses, including Dr. John Reiman, a former Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force, back up these allegations.
[*] North Sea, another “black world” program which began 10 years ago, involved planes with removable tail numbers. Desert TEA was a Saudi Arabian contract using encryptors, that, according to Rath, shouldn’t have been sold to a foreign country.
[*] C-47 is the military designation for a DC-3.
[*] Investigators had to sign secrecy agreements not to disclose the classified operator of the aircraft.
[24]. Oliver “Buck” Revell, statement to author during deposition. The Dallas transfer ostensibly was the result of a demotion by FBI Director William Sessions.
[25]. Transcript of meeting attended by Winfred Richardson, mark Bryant (FBI), Special Agent Rick Bollinger (OSI), Special Agent Chris Hallien (DCIS), Ran Robertson, Justice of the Peace, Hunt County, Texas, 5/25/93, copy in author’s possession.
[26]. E-Systems Personnel Office, interview with author.
[27]. Transcript of meeting attended by Winfred Richardson, mark Bryant (FBI), Special Agent Rick Bollinger (OSI), Special Agent Chris Hallien (DCIS), Ran Robertson, Justice of the Peace, Hunt County, Texas, 5/25/93, copy in author’s possession; Winfred Richardson, interview with author.
[28]. “Report Alleges E-Systems Violated Pact,” Associated Press, date unknown.
[29]. Ibid.
[30]. Ibid.
[31]. Transcript of meeting attended by Winfred Richardson, mark Bryant (FBI), Special Agent Rick Bollinger (OSI), Special Agent Chris Hallien (DCIS), Ran Robertson, Justice of the Peace, Hunt County, Texas, 5/25/93, copy in author’s possession.
[32]. http://www.raytheon.com/community/.
[*] As Richardson states: “One reason for the heat is I am fixing to file suit against the DoD, the DoJ, and Congressmen Dick Armey and Joe Barton as well as others for being involved in the conspiracy and cover-up,” says Richardson. “The fact that my que tam action (whistleblower lawsuit) was kept sealed over six years proves there are problems.”
[33]. Ibid.
[*] As Richardson states in his lawsuit: “In a conversation with Mr. Sams and his wife I was informed: the government had threatened to file criminal charges against him if he didn’t drop his wrongful termination suit against E-Systems. Mr. Sams was called before a grand jury and told what to say, and that if he deviated the government would file the criminal charges against him, and this testimony was used to get an indictment against SSA Hallien, which forced his retirement.”
[34]. “United States of America, ex rel, Winfred E. Richardson v. E-Systems Inc. Brief In Support Of Appeal Plaintiff,” Case No. 99-10682; This author heard a tape-recording between Louis Sams and Hunt County Sheriff Bobby Young discussing the pictures.
[35]. Ibid. “SA Richard Bollinger, SA Ed Dowling and ‘Carlos’ [were] at the meeting and will confirm this.”
[*] The same thing happened to this author when he blew the whistle on corruption at the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office, which was supervising a grand jury “reinvestigating” the Oklahoma City bombing!
[*] See Affidavit of Billy Wayne Rath in Appendix.
[36]. Affidavit of Billy Waye Rath.
[37]. Ibid.
[*] Rath believes she admitted it to him “because she didn’t want to lose me as a contact.”
[*] As Rath states, “E-Systems never took bids from different dealers to get a low price; they just all came from this Ford dealership.”
[38]. Affidavit of Billy Wayne Rath.
[*] Richardson also claims he was introduced to his former attorney by a confirmed E-Systems plant - Ike Ellis. Ellis stated that an attorney had recommended Lance Baxter to him. Ellis was claiming problems with E-Systems at the time and had filed a civil action himself, which he later dropped. Ellis later admitted that he was planted by E-Systems and that was is a friend and neighbor of E-Systems President and General Manager Brian Cullen. Ellis and Richardson both retained Baxter to represent them. Ellis thereupon dropped his suit shortly after filing. Richadson subsequently discovered that Baxter was the attorney who did the filing for E-Systems! As Richardson states: “If the Defendant controls the attorneys for both sides it is understandable the Plaintiff has not got anywhere.” ( “United States of America, ex rel, Winfred E. Richardson v. E-Systems Inc. Brief In Support Of Appeal Plaintiff, Case No. 99-10682.)
[39]. Affidavit of Billy Waye Rath.
[40]. Ibid.
[41]. “United States of America, ex rel, Winfred E. Richardson v. E-Systems Inc. Brief In Support Of Appeal Plaintiff, Case No. 99-10682.
[*] In the Oklahoma City bombing case, when State Representative Charles Key collected 13,000 signatures on a petition to have a new grand jury impaneled, State Attorney General Drew Edmonson in concert with certain state lawmakers, moved to alter the petitioning process. When former federal grand juror Hoppy Heidelberg began hearing testimony of witnesses in his “common law” grand jury, Edmonson moved to make it a crime.
[*] On July 23, 1990, E-Systems pleaded guilty to a 3-count information charging conspiracy to defraud and false claims in connection with a contract to provide VRC-12 radios to the Army. The VRC-12 radio is the Army’s principal vehicular borne tactical communications system used by soldiers and commanders in the field. On August 27, the Army and E-Systems entered into an administrative agreement in lieu of suspension or debarment based on assurances from E-Systems regarding specific actions it had taken and would continue to take to maintain its status as a responsible contractor. On August 11, 1993, the Army Procurement Fraud Division, coordinating with Defense Logistics Agency asked DCMDS to conduct a compliance review of the agreement between the Army and E-systems. On April 15, 1994, the DCMAO Dallas legal office reported the results of its review to the Army. The review concluded that E-Systems had not complied with either the spirit or the letter of the administrative agreement. (Defense Procurement: E-Systems’ Reporting of Alleged Wrongdoing to Army’s Fraud Division, Letter Report, 05/16/96, GAO/OSI-96-6).
[*] Billy Rath and Rick provided separate, independent corroboration. Rath does not know Rick.
[*] Glen Key, Richardson’s nephew, also came down with cancer at the same time. The author has witnessed several deaths of investigators who suddenly developed fast-acting cancers after revealing sensitive information. These individuals were middle aged with no family history of cancer.
[*] Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
[*] The preparer of the GAO Report on E-Systems, SA William Davis, stated that he had been forced to rewrite the report, watering it down, several times in order to make it acceptable to the Republicans.
[*] As Richardson adds: “We built three planes (C-9s) for Vice-President Bush that didn’t go through proper channels.”*
[42]. Check on Amick run through Namebase. Revised Agenda and Attendee Roster. Sponsored by the SO/LIC Division of the American Defense Preparedness Association. Washington Sheraton, Washington DC, 12-14 December 1995. 36 pages.
[*] See The Franklin Cover-Up by Senator John DeCamp, and Trance-Formation of America, by Mark Phillips and Cathy O’Brien.
[43]. Recorded statement of Leo Salis, transcript in author’s possession.
[44]. Robert Hunt, interview with author. Hunt verified the accuracy of the story, but was afraid of talking further.
[45]. Roberts, Op Cit., p. 395.
[*] A former FBI agent, also set up on false charges to silence him, believes Evergreen used a 747 to smuggle drugs out of Albania at the close of the Kosovo/Serbia conflict.
[46]. Ibid., p. 369.
[47]. Ibid., p. 402.
[*] In fact, Singlaub is known to control at least one airfield in Arizona.
[48]. “FBI accidentally faxes memo on Amtrak suspect,” Associated Press, 9/4/97.
[*] Allegedly a report was given to Government Affairs that there is an agreement between the DoD and DoJ not to prosecute certain government contractors.
[49]. “United States of America, ex rel, Winfred E. Richardson v. E-Systems Inc. Brief In Support Of Appeal Plaintiff,” Case No. 99-10682.