List of Trilateral Commission members and their offices October 2008

[David Guyatt]

Jan, Armitage's "association" with Nguyen O'Rourke might well be even murkier than it seems.

What seems like a century ago I was given a fairly heavy file on Armitage in which many things were stated, including that O'Rourke was a North Vietnamese spy who had enticed Armitage into a "honey-trap" and then blackmailed him into working for the North Vietnamese during his tour there.

Below is an extract of a subsequent article I wrote:

http://www.deepblacklies.co.uk/deep_black_1_2.htm

THE SPY DRUG-MEISTER

With the president effectively muzzled, Armitage and his small coterie of Washington movers and shakers believed they were untouchable. To a large extent they were. Already the Assistant Secretary of Defence, Armitage was nominated, in February 1989, by a grateful President Bush to become Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs. This move was blocked and Armitage was, instead, nominated for the post of Secretary of the Army.

Behind the scenes, a virtual war was in progress as the department of Justice and the FBI fought to indict Armitage for his narcotics and other criminal activities. These measures were powerfully resisted by Attorney General Thornburg, a political appointee of President Bush. Significantly, however, Armitage was also under scrutiny by Federal Investigators working for the President's Commission on Organised Crime, with a focus on foreign organised criminal activity in gambling and drug trafficking.

This resulted from Armitage's close association with a Vietnamese female, Ngdyet Tui (Nanette) O'Rourke. The latter was at the centre of an extremely large scale gambling ring operated by US based Vietnamese. O'Rourke was awarded US citizenship, according to one source, under "highly suspect circumstances." She was also suspected of being a prostitute. As investigators developed their case, they came to believe that Armitage's association with O'Rourke dated back to his service in Vietnam, when he is thought to have operated a shady bar with her in Saigon. There were also suspicions that O'Rourke operated as Armitage's "courier."

Another source who was involved in these investigations noted that " nearly every Vietnamese woman involved in major gambling operations on the East Coast [of America] is married to an American who is either CIA or has connections to the agency," - including O'Rourke's husband. Meanwhile, yet another investigator who believed Armitage was "dirty" was frustrated in his investigations by Frank Carlucci, the Secretary of Defence, and other powerful patrons. In 1975 during Armitage's CIA tour in Vietnam, Carlucci was the no2 man in the CIA.

Because of the numerous high level obstructions, investigations into Armitage's criminal activities were curtailed, but not before some damaging information had been gathered. Not least of this was Armitage's special relationship with O'Rourke. Investigators discovered a photo, believed to have been taken professionally, showing a naked O'Rourke posing in her bedroom with a partly undressed Armitage. This, and other factors, led investigators and, in fact, some very influential political insiders, to conclude that O'Rourke was really working for North Vietnamese intelligence, and that the photo had been used to blackmail Armitage into becoming a spy.[16]

Such was the strength of the information developed on Armitage that he was forced to abandon his nomination for Secretary of the Army, and, in fact, all other official US government posts. Subsequently, Defence officials stated privately that Armitage will never again be permitted to darken the doors of the Department of Defence. Known as "Mr Phu" (literally meaning "Mr. Rich") amongst the Vietnamese community, Armitage, despite his disgrace was still able to count on the enormous power of his political patrons and avoided criminal prosecution. Knowing far too much about US government "dirt" during the previous three decades provided him with an instant "do not go to jail" card.