Le Cercle

[Magda Hassan]

Cercle leadership
We briefly discussed the history of some of the key players in Le Cercle: Jean Violet and Antoine Pinay, the official founders; and their patron, Otto von Habsburg; how Violet and Pinay recruited individuals like Jean Monnet, Konrad Adenauer and Robert Schuman, and influenced the early history of the European Union. We also discussed how an agent of both Monnet and Violet recruited a well-connected member of British and American intelligence, Brian Crozier, and made him head of their Cercle in 1980. We also discussed the anti-communist and pro-Europe activities of its key members. However, more key people were involved with Le Cercle over the years. Take Carlo Pesenti from Italy and Sir Peter Tennant from England. Pesenti was a close associate of the Vatican's financial circles; Tennant an important trade promoter for the City of London. They acted as chairmen of Cercle sessions when it was under the presidency of Jean Violet (49). Another important person was Franz-Josef Bach, who used to run Konrad Adenauer's political office. Bach co-organized Cercle meetings from at least 1980 to at least 1991 (50). A quick summary follows of who these people were. Look in the membership list attached to this article for more details, including the source of each individual name.


Scion of what was one of the wealthiest families of Italy until the 1970s, together with the Agnellis and Pirellis. Financier of some of the enterprises of Jean Violet and Brian Crozier; possibly also of Le Cercle. Chaired some of the meetings of Le Cercle and invited David Rockefeller. Head of Italcementi/Italmobiliare, one of the few key firms in cooperation with the IOR, or Vatican Bank. Boards of some of the companies it owned were loaded with aristocrats and SMOM members. Italmobiliare was the largest minority shareholder of Banco Ambrosiano at the time of its collapse in 1982. Pesenti was investigated for his role in the collapse but died during the court proceedings. Sir Peter Tennant Recruited into the SOE (WWII rival of MI6) by its founder, Colonel Sir Charles Hambro (head of Hambro, a Pilgrims Society bank; close friend of Churchill and the Wallenbergs; his son went to live with the Wallenberg family during WWII; head of the SOE 1942-1943; Sir Hambro's deputy in the SOE, Henry "Harry" Sporborg, also of Hambro Bank, ended up in the small inner circle committee of Crozier's Shield) as one of its first members. Helped Sefton Delmer (the Lord Beaverbrook agent who used to be in contact with Hitler's inner circle) with material for his propaganda broadcasts to the German armed forces. Deputy commandant of the British sector in Berlin 1950-1952. Went on to become a long time major trade representative for the City of London and had a lot of involvement in the negotiations leading up to the 1957 Treaty of Rome. Joined Barclays Bank in the City of London as a director and industrial advisor in 1972. Chaired some meetings of Le Cercle. Co-organized a fundraising in 1976 with a bunch of Pilgrims Society members and leading officers to save Canterbury Cathedral. Joined the board of the International Energy Bank in 1981, which financed worldwide oil and gas explorations, starting with the United States and Europe. Helped to establish the right-wing political pressure group Policy Research Associates. Franz-Josef Bach Ran Konrad Adenauer's office, who was chancellor of the Federal Republic of West Germany from 1949 to 1963. German ambassador to Iran. Conservative member of the Bundestag from 1969 to 1972. Went to work for the Swiss-based Economic and Development Corporation (EDC), an unacknowledged lobbying group for Northrop. Named as a shareholder of EDC and acknowledged that he had "advised them [EDC] about political things - the stability of a country, whether it was going to be an industrial country or not, whether it was going to be stable or not... I go to the country, see the country and make a report." (51) Senator Church of the Church Committee said about the Northrop arrangement: "an intelligence network like a government would employ to get inside information, to pull the strings... the records itself show that Northrop has been doing it." (52) Commercial and financial advisor to the Siemens Corporation. Other important members of Le Cercle were-are Lord Julian Amery, his protege Jonathan Aitken and Lord Norman Lamont, all three members of the Privy Council. In 1985, Amery was picked by Brian Crozier as his follow up as president of Le Cercle (53). Aitken was Amery's protege and is known to have chaired at least some meetings in the early 1990s (54). Lord Lamont, the Rothschild employee, has repeatedly been named chairman of Le Cercle since 1996 (55). Here are some additional details on these people:
Son of Leopold Amery (1873-1955), who was close associate of Lord Milner and the Rothschilds. Leopold was a British imperialist heavily involved in the creation of Israel. He also was a great supporter of Coudenhove-Kalergi's Paneuropa Union, which was initially funded by the Warburgs and Rothschilds (56), and was later headed by Otto von Habsburg. Leopold had two sons: John and Julian. John went to work for French, Spanish, German, and Italian fascists, and was eventually hanged for it. Julian was Churchill’s personal representative to Chiang Kai-shek in 1945. Reportedly a life-long MI6 operative, although it isn't really known what he has been doing in this function. In 1950, he became a Conservative member of parliament and served in the cabinets of Harold Macmillan and Edward Heath. Married Harold Macmillan's daughter in 1950. Involved in the founding of the CIA's Congress for Cultural Freedom in 1950. Representative to the Council of Europe 1950-1956. Representative to the Round Table Conference on Malta in 1955. Involved with the Rhodesia and Nyasaland Club in the 1950s and 1960s, together with the Oppenheimers. Became a member of the Privy Council in 1960. Member of the very aristocratic Other Club since 1960, over the years together with the Duke of Devonshire (Cavendish), the Cecils, Lord Rothschild, Lord Rees-Mogg, Prince Charles, Pilgrims Society president Lord Carrington, Pilgrims Society member Lord Richardson of Duntisbourne, and a whole string of ex-prime ministers. With his friends David Stirling and Billy McLean, and help from the Cercle-affiliated royal houses of Jordan and Saudi Arabia, he set up a private SAS war in Yemen in the early 1960s in an effort to get Nasser out. One of the most prominent supporters of the illegal pro-white dictatorship in Rhodesia during the 1970s. In 1975, he claimed that it seemed more and more that the British trade unions were infiltrated by the KGB. Said to have been at a meeting on November 15,1982 with Prince Johannes von Thurn und Taxis and several known Cercle members about an expansion of Jewish settlements on the West Bank (57). Chairman of the London chapter of the Global Economic Action Institute, a free-market organization that was exposed in 1986 as being funded by the Moonie cult. Julian not only was an avid empire-builder, just like his father, but also in favour of Britain joining the European Common Market. He was also a supporter of a strong nuclear deterrent against the Soviets. Picked by Crozier as the new president of Le Cercle in 1985. Consultant to the extremely corrupt BCCI in the 1980s. Mentor to Jonathan Aitken, the next president of Le Cercle. Good friend of the very powerful and dynastic Cecil family, which also was very prominent in the initial Round Table clique. Great nephew of Hitler-intimate Lord Beaverbrook, whose son ended up in the 1001 Club. Served as a war correspondent, and reportedly an MI6 agent, during the 1960s in the Middle-East, Vietnam, and Africa. Became a politician and member of parliament. During the 1980s, Aitken was a director of BMARC, a company that exported weapons to intermediary countries, who sold these weapons again to the intended countries (like Iraq). CEO of TV-Am and chairman of Aitken Hume Plc, a banking and investment group. In 1992, he was appointed Defense Minister. During this time, he stood in close contact with co-Cercle member and MI6 head of Middle-East affairs Geoffrey Tantum. Chairman of Le Cercle. Accused of having lobbied for three arms contractors: GEC, Marconi and VSEL, in an effort to sell many millions worth of arms to Saudi-Arabia. Through multiple offshore companies in Switzerland and Panama, submarines, howitzers, medium-range laser guided bombs, Black Hawks, and EH101 helicopters were sold and shipped. After his trial and brief time in jail, Aitken is one of the few people who had to resign from the Privy Council. Seemingly funded by British intelligence during tough times. Has become an extremely religious evangelist who even went on a few Jesuit retreats. Claims that since Britain has failed to become the dominant power in the European Union, Britain should withdraw its membership in the EU. Very influential British politician who was the campaign manager for John Major. Worked at Rothschilds from 1968 to 1979. Became an important politician and leading eurosceptic under Thatcher, who also led the Treaty of Maastricht negotiations for Britain. Handled Russia's negotiations with institutions as the IMF and World Bank on behalf of Gorbachev and Yeltsin. Again director of N.M. Rothschild and Sons Ltd 1993-1995, personally appointed by Sir Evelyn de Rothschild against the advice of the other board members. Appointed chairman of Le Cercle in 1996 after Aitken had to step down. Member of the Privy Council. Director of Scottish Re and many other insurance, banking, and chemical corporations. Advisor to the Monsanto Corporation. Chairman of the obscure Oil Club. Member of the Neoconservative Benador Associates, together with Arnaud de Borchgrave, Alexander Haig, and James Woolsey. Director of General Mediterranean Holding of the controversial former Saddam associate and arms dealer Nadhmi Auchi, who also is a member of Le Cercle. Sought the release of Pinochet. Has visited Bilderberg. As chairman of the British Iranian Chamber of Commerce, he's been promoting increased trade with Iran while the US is about to attack this country for allegedly trying to create nuclear weapons. As head of the Bruges Group he is a leader in the eurosceptic movement in Britain. There is some confusion these days about who is president and-or chairman of Le Cercle. When Pinay was president of the group the chairmanship of the individual meetings was shared out among people like Pesenti, Tennant, and Crozier. The presidency was later handed over to Jean Violet, Brian Crozier, and Julian Amery. However, since then their successors have been referred to as chairmen of Le Cercle. Following is a list of heads of Le Cercle, compiled by comparing a number of different sources.
Chairman/president Term Antoine Pinay 1950s - 1970s Jean Violet 1970s - 1980 Brian Crozier 1980 - 1985 Julian Amery 1985 - 1990s (Likely until 1991, when Amery retired from public office) Jonathan Aitken 1990s - 1996 Lord Norman Lamont 1996 - today

Subversive tendencies
At some point a more exclusive coordinating group, or "executive committee", was formed within the wider Cercle, initially referred to as the Pinay Group. Few details are available about this group, besides the fact that it worked out possible action on political issues that were current at the time. Both Crozier (58) and Langemann (59) acknowledged this, and David Rockefeller's reference to a "Pesenti Group" (60) likely was a reference to this inner circle. The Group might have been the same as the "Pinay Committee" that appeared in documents of the Institute for the Study of Conflict (ISC), leaked in 1975 to Time Out Magazine (the first known public references to the Cercle). The Pinay Committee commissioned Crozier's institute to produce several reports, which were then spread to right wing officials on both sides of the Atlantic. Unfortunately, the 1500 ISC documents that were leaked have mostly gone missing (61).
Several years after the ISC leak, German intelligence officer Hans Langemann provided more details on this coordinating group. Langemann was head of Bavarian State Security in the 1970s and early 1980s. One of his colleagues was Hans von Machtenberg (a pseudonym) who attended meetings of Le Cercle. Von Machtenberg agreed to pass on full briefings to Langemann about the Cercle meetings in exchange for information gathered by Langemann from his own intelligence contacts. Seemingly after questioning the motives of the Cercle, Langemann wrote down and recorded what he knew about it and eventually sold it to Kronket Magazine in the early 1980s. Der Spiegel soon picked up on the story of Kronket and exposed the role of their political enemy it, Franz Josef Strauss. The 1980 and 1982 articles of Der Spiegel were based on internal memos of Hans Langemann, seemingly informing persons within the German government about the clandestine efforts of the Cercle to get Franz Josef Strauss elected Chancellor. According to Der Spiegel, Langemann had written the following text on November 8, 1979 (translated) (62):

Protected source contributions to state security. Personal for the state minister only.

"The militant conservative London publicist, Brian Crozier, Director of the famous Institute for the Study of Conflict up to September 1979, has been working with his diverse circle of friends in international politics to build an anonymous action group, a 'transnational security organization, and to widen its field of operations. Crozier worked with the CIA for years. One has to assume, therefore, that they are fully aware of his activities. He has extensive connections with members, or more accurately, former members, of the most important western security and intelligence services..."

What the group can do:

• provision of contributions by certain well-known journalists in Britain, the US and other countries
  
• access to television
  
• creation of a lobby in influential circles directly or indirectly through middlemen whether they are informed of this or not
  
• organization of public demonstrations in particular areas on themes to be decided and selected
  
• the involvement of the main intelligence and security agencies both as information sources and as recipients for information in these institutions
  
• undercover financial transactions for political aims.
  

What the group can do if financing is available.

• Conduct international campaigns aiming to discredit hostile personalities or events.
• Creation of a (private) intelligence service specialising according to a selective point of view.
• The establishment of offices under suitable cover each run by a co-ordinator from the central office. Current plans cover London, Washington, Paris, Munich and Madrid.

As one can imagine, the secrecy surrounding Le Cercle is not that much of a mystery, as most people would disapprove of a secret group consisting of persons tied to questionable corporate, political and religious interests, that is involved in political manipulation. More from Langemann (63):

Amongst other points in the (Crozier) planning paper are:

Specific Aims within this framework are to affect a change of government in

1. the United Kingdom - accomplished.
2. In West Germany to defend freedom of trade and movement and oppose all forms of subversion including terrorism ..

"On 5 and 6/1 1980 members of the Circle met in Zurich to discuss executive measures..."
The main things discussed were:

1. (a) international promotion of the Minister President (Strauss) in international publications
   
2. (b) influencing of the situation in Rhodesia and South Africa following a European Conservative guideline and
   
3. © the establishment of a powerful directional radio station aiming at the Islamic region and including the border populations of the Soviet Union.
   

"As far as can be judged by outsiders Crozier has initiated with his group the project 'Victory for Strauss' using the tactics applied in Great Britain, of major themes such as the communist, extremist subversion of government parties and trade unions, KGB manipulation of terrorism and damage to internal security."
Langemann presents a list of conspiracies which we know more about these days. Let's take a more in depth look into each of them and see who was involved specifically.
THE CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT in the United Kingdom refers to the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979 in which Crozier's Shield, a covert advisory committee, played a crucial role (64). The initial idea for Shield came from MI6 agent Sir Stephen Haskings, a friend of Crozier who had formerly been a SAS soldier and SOE officer. Crozier put together Thatcher's election campaign by adopting Jean Violet's Psychological Action program, a technique to find quick, short answers to three basic questions: What do people want? What do they fear? And what do they feel strongly about? Shield also completely convinced Thatcher about the severe threat of domestic communist subversion. After Crozier and Haskings handed her their paper 'The diabolical nature of the Communist conspiracy', Thatcher's reaction was, "I've read every word and I'm shattered. What should we do?" (65). Harry Sporborg and Cercle member Nicholas Elliot were the other two members of inner circle of Shield. Sporborg worked at Hambros Bank and used to be a deputy head of the SOE during WWII. Elliot was a former MI6 agent who specialized in sabotage and unconventional warfare. He also had been a director of Lonrho.
Shield was hardly a new phenomenon, and its success can actually be seen as the culmination of twenty years of manipulation by the British far-right to get a prime minister elected they truly desired. This far-right group, which was, and is, closely affiliated with the British establishment, had already been meddling a great deal in Britain's domestic politics since the election of Harold Wilson as prime minister in 1964. Although the aristocrats, centered around the royal court, have never embraced Labour, the serious economic recession of the late 1960s and early 1970s caused so much concern that many individuals within these circles actually began planning a coup. It started with a dirty tricks campaign against Wilson, mainly orchestrated by rogue elements within MI5 and MI6 and with overseas support of CIA head James Jesus Angleton. During his two terms in office, and especially during his second term from 1974 to 1976, Wilson was smeared with accusations that he was a homosexual, a supporter of the IRA, and that he was a KGB agent. Private armies and action groups were set up to take over essential services in case the country broke down. In March 1976, Wilson unexpectedly decided to step down. Publicly he claimed that he was physically and mentally exhausted, but also that this is what he had always planned to do at age 60. Privately he explained that "business groups and other anti-democratic agencies", and also pointing to a rogue element in MI5, had made it absolutely impossible for him to run the country (66). Wilson's secretary, Baroness Marcia Falkender, supported his statements.
"MI5 were making a mockery out of us. Those people ought to be exposed for what they really are... but you can't identify them. We could be sitting in a room and you might be MI5 and I wouldn't know. Or I might have have been all these years and you wouldn't know." (67)

The group that was working to oust Wilson was the same group that got Thatcher elected. Lord Julian Amery, one time head of Le Cercle, was a good friend to both David Stirling and General Walter Walker, respectively the third and fourth person from the left. Crozier, another Cercle head, was involved in spreading KGB rumors about Wilson and later wrote Thatcher's election strategy. Interestingly, two men in the anti-Wilson plot were assassinated in 1979; Airey Neave (5th from left) in March and Earl Mountbatten (2nd from left) in August.

Among the people named that have been involved in the plot to get rid of Wilson were SAS founder David Stirling, Sir James Goldsmith (known Cercle associate), the 7th Earl of Lucan, Sir Val Duncan (chair of Rio Tinto Zinc; 1001 Club; Edmund de Rothschild associate), Cecil Harmsworth King (nephew Lord Northcliffe; MI5 agent; Bank of England), George Kennedy Young (ex-deputy director MI6; helped to overthrow Mossadeq; Monday Club; Kleinwort Benson; set up Tory Action; set up civilian armed resistance cells), Airey Neave (MI6/MI5 insider; set up Tory Action; set up civilian armed resistance cells), Army General Sir Walter Walker (set up private armies and Civil Assistance/Unison), Major Alexander Greenwood (set up private armies), the 4th Earl of Cromartie (WWII commander), Lord Mountbatten of Burma (uncle of Prince Philip; would have headed the provisional junta), and the Queen Mother. Angleton, a Knight of Malta, provided assistance from across the Atlantic (68).
Besides Brian Crozier, who was aware of the planned coup and actively supported it with his anti-communist lectures to military officers (69), a few other Cercle members have also played a supplementary role in the coup against Wilson and Labour in general. The president of Le Cercle after Crozier, Julian Amery, was a good friend of General Walter Walker and wrote the foreword of Walker's book 'The Next Domino'. Amery also was a member and later patron of the Conservative Monday Club, a center of anti-Labour activity. Additionally, Cercle member Anthony Cavendish was a member of the Unison Committee for Action, one of the anti-Labour action groups set up by George Kennedy Young and General Walter Walker (70). Cavendish also worked with James Goldsmith and was on good terms with Julian Amery. Cercle member Robert Moss was a protege of Brian Crozier and helped him internationally to spread the word of communist subversion. In 1975, Moss and Crozier, together with Viscount De L'Isle (Knight of the Garter; Privy Council) and others, were co-founders of the National Association for Freedom (NAFF), an anti-Labour and anti-Wilson pressure group that acted as a follow-up of GB 75 and the later Civil Assistance/Unison. Quite a number of NAFF members would find their way to prominent political positions under Thatcher (71).
Even after Wilson was ousted in 1976, many right-wing individuals were still not content with the new Labour prime minister James Callaghan. Only after three more years of underground politicking they were able to maneuver the hard-right Conservative Thatcher into office.
THE PROMOTION OF STRAUSS is a reference to articles written by Brian Crozier, his associate James Goldsmith, and others to improve the image of Franz Josef Strauss within and outside Germany. They denounced all the accusations against Strauss as KGB propaganda, again with testimonies from defectors of Czech intelligence, like they used in their campaign against Wilson (72). Although Strauss never made the Chancellorship, he was a well known German politician, and in terms of political convictions somewhere to the right of Margaret Thatcher. His home base was the hard-right Roman Catholic Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU), together with his co- Cercle friends Otto von Habsburg, Count Hans Huyn, and Alois Mertes.

Strauss, feeling Napoleon.

He went to the Bohemian Grove in 1962 and gave a speech there (73). After a long career, riddled with numerous scandals, he died in 1988 while on a hunting trip with Prince Johannes von Thurn und Taxis. More scandals followed after his death, some involving his son.
These Cercle friends of Strauss are interesting people. Otto von Habsburg, who claimed his political views on Europe were very close to those of Strauss (74), is head of the Paneuropa Union (the second head since its founding in 1922), where he followed up the well known
Cercle founder Otto Habsburg. The twelve stars on the European flag literally are a reference to the Virgin Mary and her halo of twelve stars. Until recently, that claim could also be found in an introduction article on the Paneuropa website. Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi. Anno 2006, Otto is an advisor to the Coundenhove-Kalergi Foundation, together with Count Hans Huyn, Jakob Coudenhove-Kalergi (nephew of Richard, the founder of the Paneuropa Union), Prince Carlo della Torre e Tasso (Italian branch of the Thurn und Taxis family), and Max Turnauer (ambassador of the Order of Malta in Liechtenstein). Nikolaus von Liechtenstein, the younger brother of Hans-Adam II, is an executive member of the the Coundenhove-Kalergi Foundation (75). The Paneuropa Union has a vast network of underground political organizations all over Europe, which include or included the European Centre of Documentation and Information, Mouvement d'Action pour l'Union de l'Europe, the Académie Européenne de Sciences Politiques, Ordre du Rouvre, the Institut Européen pour la Developpement, Cercle des Nations (renamed to Cercle de Lorraine and a much broader membership these days), and the Mont Pelerin Society. The amount of ties to the Vatican within these institutions, and in particular to Opus Dei and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, is absolutely staggering. Otto von Habsburg is closely associated with both organizations, not to mention his own Order of the Golden Fleece.
Count Huyn is a German aristocrat, and like Otto von Habsburg and Richard Coudenhove- Kalergi, descended from a prominent Austro-Hungarian family. His wife is a descendant of Archduchess Maria Theresia of Austria (1717-1780), the first and only female head of the Habsburg dynasty. Huyn was a foreign policy advisor to his friend Franz-Josef Strauss from 1971 to 1976. In 1976, Huyn became a long time member of the Bundestag himself and would serve on many government committees. He would also write quite a number of books on Soviet strategy and occasionally speak out in favor of the placement of nuclear weapons in Germany or participation in the Star Wars program, without any regards for public opinion. Crozier

Count Hans Huyn

acknowledges in his book that Count Huyn was one of three primary intelligence sources in Germany for his 61 intelligence group (more about that later). Huyn might have a long Cercle history behind him, because he was involved in overseeing the 1963 Treaty of Elisée in which Cercle founder Jean Violet played such a crucial role. As a devout Catholic, Huyn used to head the German department of the Catholic organization Aid to the Church in Need. THE STORY OF RHODESIA and South Africa being manipulated by British Conservative politics will often produce the same names as those involved in ousting Harold Wilson.
In the late 19th century, the country later known as Southern Rhodesia was taken over through military force by the British South Africa Company (BSAC), founded by Cecil Rhodes (from which the name "Rhodesia" is derived). BSAC was mirrored on the British East-India Company. In 1953, after calls for independence, Southern Rhodesia became part of the Central African Federation (CAF), which also included Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland. In 1965, one year after the CAF had been dissolved and Northern Rhodesia had become the independent Zambia, the White minority government in Southern Rhodesia unilaterally declared itself independent from Britain. This way they hoped to stop any further reforms that would result in black majority rule. Initially, the White minority government did recognize the Queen of England although she would (and could) never accept the title "Queen of Rhodesia".
Two of the biggest supporters of the White minority government at the time were Cercle members Julian Amery and Lord Robert Cecil, today the 7th Marquess of Salisbury (76). From 1961 to 1981, Robert Cecil's father and grandfather presided over the Conservative Monday Club, a center of post-WWII imperialism (and other major supporters of the White minority government). Julian Amery was a member of the club. The 7th Marquess of Salisbury was a good friend of Julian Amery and their families have been involved with each other since the early 20th century. Although Julian's father was a very important individual, working closely with the Rothschilds in building up the state of Israel, the Amery family pales in comparison with the historical influence of the Cecil family. There are only one or two dynastic families that might compete in terms of influence they had on British affairs since the 16th century. In fact, under Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603), the Cecils are credited with having created the first known large scale spy network in Britain and Europe. It's possible however that they received some inspiration from Venice at the time.
Another important supporter of the racist illegal government in Rhodesia was Lonrho, a giant Pan-African raw materials corporation headed by reported Cercle-associate Tiny Rowland. Cercle member and MI6 agent Nicholas Elliot was a director of the company in the 1970s, although there seems to have been some friction with the Rowland camp (77). Ian Smith, head of the racist government in Rhodesia, had once helped Rowland to start up his mining business in Africa (78). After that Rowland had grown to become one of the most controversial figures ever to walk around on that continent. He has been accused of bribing numerous officials and working with British intelligence in supporting certain favorable regimes, one of them being UNITA in Angola (79). Together with an equally controversial Adnan Khashoggi, he was involved in selling top-quality military equipment to Libya and supplying it with mercenaries to build up its own special forces capability (80). Rowland used to be a member of John Aspinall's Clermont gambling club in the 1960s, together with Lord Lucan, and the earlier mentioned Sir James Goldsmith and SAS founder David Stirling (81). This group wanted to get rid of Wilson the day he set foot in the prime minister's office. They also loathed James Callaghan, the Labour follow-up of Wilson. Rowland, Lucan, and Aspinall were fascists (82). Sir James Goldsmith, the close associate of Brian Crozier, and David Stirling, a close private warfare buddy of Julian Amery (83) whose (Stirling's) niece married the 7th Marquess of Salisbury, were running the mercenary firm KAS Enterprises. Officially, KAS was hired to protect elephants and rhinos in southern Africa from poachers. But soon accusations arose that the firm was fighting the anti-apartheid movement, reportedly leaving 1,5 million dead. Most details about Operation Lock, as it was called, have been suppressed (84).
Conrad Gerber is another Cercle member with a connection to this region. He worked as an economist in the white minority government of Rhodesia in the 1970s, where he was involved in circumventing international sanctions to purchase oil for his country. He did this with controversial partners as John Deuss and Ted Shackley, the latter becoming one of his closest friends. So close, that Gerber was even present at Shackley's deathbed (85). According to drug lord Khun Sa, Shackley was in charge of Golden Triangle opium exports to the United States from 1965 to 1975 (86). Research into the Nugan Hand Bank and its follow-up Bishop, Baldwin, Rewald, Dillingham and Wong (BBRDW) seems to confirm that (87). Besides that, Shackley is credited with having operated a "Secret Team" of assassins, drug traffickers, and arms salesman, which consisted of General John Singlaub, Thomas Clines, Carl Jenkins, David Morales, Raphael Quintero, Felix Rodriguez, Edwin Wilson, Richard Armitage and likely a few others. After sanctions were lifted against Rhodesia in 1980, Gerber set up the very successful Petro-Logistics, which acts as a private intelligence group aimed at penetrating OPEC's oil secrets. The International Energy Agency (IEA) considers Petro-Logistics one of its most important sources, if not the most important source, when making oil production and reserves forecasts (88).

Present: Anthony and Andrew Cavendish, Paul Channon, Sir Erik Bennett, General Schwarzkopf, and others

LANGEMANN'S LAST POINT, aiming directional radio stations at Islamic regions bordering the Soviet Union, has become a very familiar subject these days. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December 1979, so the Cercle having these discussions less than a month after is something that could have been expected. Several members of the Cercle played a prominent role in the Afghan war.
In 1998, Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security advisor to Carter, claimed that he and Carter actually had provoked the Afghan war by clandestinely supporting the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul, six months before the invasion of the Soviet Union (89). Ever since Putin came into office, Brzezinski and his son Mark restarted their war with Russia. Brzezinski is known to have visited Le Cercle at some point.
In 1986 CIA director William Casey, a member of Le Cercle and a Knight of Malta, began organizing a large scale anti-Soviet resistance operation in Afghanistan, which would last until the end of the war in 1988-1989 (90). His Saudi counterpart, Prince Turki Al-Faisal, another member of Le Cercle, financed a large portion of this operation (91). The BCCI has been named as a main conduit for all these undercover transactions. It was set up by Agha Hasan Abedi, whose membership in the 1001 Club indicates he was accepted by the British aristocracy (92). The by now well known Cercle president Julian Amery was an advisor to the BCCI in the 1980s (93).
The 61
In the early 1970s the CIA was heavily criticized for its role in the Vietnam War and Watergate. Reporters and investigating committees began looking into the agency and soon plenty of stories emerged about domestic spying, infiltration of the media, subversion of foreign governments, assassinating foreign leaders, and large scale experiments with mind control. Some revelations were highlighted more prominently than others. Additional doubts were cast on the CIA 's role in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. In the midst of all these reports, measures were taken to reduce the autonomy of the CIA. The ban on domestic spying was re-enforced while Congress and the Senate received far more influence over the appointment of CIA officials and the distribution of the CIA's budget. They requested numerous briefings and decided which clandestine operations were or weren't allowed. The CIA was not allowed anymore to subvert any foreign government or assassinate any leader it felt like. Authorization from Congress became mandatory. Furthermore, it was also largely prohibited from working with questionable characters to gather intelligence or aid in their coups.

Why people became sceptical of the CIA. A few newspaper clippings from 1973 to 1979.

This didn't fall well with many intelligence chiefs and associates like Brian Crozier. They claimed the CIA's (human) intelligence gathering and intervention capabilities had been destroyed almost completely; and even more so after Admiral Stansfield Turner in 1977 started to force half of the CIA's anti-Soviet staff into retirement. Crozier and his Cercle-associates went looking for a solution and came up with the idea to establish a transnational secret intelligence agency of their own. For security reasons this group initially didn't have a name, but within a few months it became known to insiders as The 61 (or more correct, 6I). Its purpose, according to Crozier:
"... a Private Sector Operational Intelligence agency, beholden to no government, but at the disposal of allied or friendly governments... Our main concerns would be:

• To provide reliable intelligence in areas which governments were barred from investigating, either through legislation (as in the US) or because political circumstances made such inquiries difficult or potentially embarrassing.
  
• To conduct secret counter-subversion operations in any country in which such actions were deemed feasible.
  

It was agreed that no outsiders should be made aware of the existence of this organization, except if, in the judgement of one of us, the person was deemed a suitable candidate for recruitment." (94)
It is often claimed that the privatization of intelligence was the result of increased Congressional oversight, which is true to a large degree. However, private intelligence organizations like Le Cercle, Antoine Bonnemaison's Centre, and probably quite a number of other organizations already existed before the CIA oversight crisis began. The Stay Behind networks and the combined Navy-CIA Task Force 157 also had (virtually) no Congressional oversight.
Members of The 61, in existence from 1977 to 1988, came from England, France, Germany, Czechoslovakia, South Africa, the United States, and likely some other countries. It forged links with Prince Turki of Saudi Arabia and the Shah of Iran. At least on some occasions, The 61 provided intelligence to the Pope. According to Crozier, there only was some "minor overlapping" between the Cercle and The 61. This seems to be misleading, as many of the key individuals of Le Cercle were part of The 61, including Brian Crozier, Jean Violet, Georges Albertini, Count Huyn, and General Stilwell. Others in the know were Nicholas Elliot, Robert Moss, William Wilson, General Fraser, and probably quite a number of others (95). Crozier told us more about the meeting that established The 61:
"The question was whether something could be done in the private sector - not only in Britain, but in the United States and other countries of the Western Alliance. A few of us had been exchanging views, and decided that action was indeed possible. I took the initiative by convening a very small and very secret meeting in London. We met in the luxurious executive suite of a leading City of London bank on the morning of Sunday 13 February 1977. Our host, a leading figure in the bank, took the chair. Three of us were British, four were American, with one German. Ill health prevented a French associate from attending; Jean Violet was with us in spirit.
Apart from the banker and myself, the other Briton was Nicholas Elliott. The German was a very active member of the Bundestag, whose career had started in diplomacy. He had a very wide understanding of Soviet strategy, on which he wrote several first rate books.
The Americans included two able and diligent Congressional staffers, and the Viennese-born representative of a big Belgian company. Also there was the remarkable General Vernon ('Dick') Walters, recently retired as Deputy Director of Central Intelligence..." (96)
The first questions many people will ask is which bank Crozier is talking about and who that chairman was. Crozier doesn't give these answers, but there seem to be only a few possibilities. One candidate is Cercle member Sir Peter Tennant of Barclays (one of the more aristocratic banks with historically many members of the Pilgrims Society, the 1001 Club, and the Order of St. John on its board), which would make all three of the British participants leading members of Le Cercle. Tennant's name appears sixty pages further in Crozier's book as one of the chairmen of Cercle sessions, but he gives zero details about the rest of this person's life. However, in 1977 Tennant was a director and industrial advisor to Barclays Bank, which used to be located in the City of London, near the Bank of England. He had been a long time trade representative of the City of London, the small historical financial district in central London.
However, there's another possibility, which might be more likely. At the start of World War II, Tennant had been recruited into Special Operations Executive (SOE) by Colonel Sir Charles Hambro, who would become head of the SOE in 1942. Sir Charles Hambro was chairman of Hambros Bank (another very aristocratic bank, represented in the Pilgrims Society and the 1001 Club) and a very good friend of both Winston Churchill and the Wallenberg family. Interestingly, Sir Hambro's deputy in the SOE, Henry "Harry" Sporborg, ended up in the small inner circle committee of Crozier's Shield. And according to Crozier, the Shield Committee, including himself, Sir Harry, and Nicholas Elliot met "in the boardroom of a City bank" (97) in mid 1978. There are some great parallels here with the meeting to establish The 61 only a year earlier. Elliot and Crozier were also present at that meeting, which also took place in a City bank. Is it possible that Sir Harry was a "leading figure" in a City bank? It turns out that's actually a very tough question.
Sir Harry was a long time director of Hambros Bank until about 1973, but certainly remained closely involved with Hambros until at least 1977 by heading one of its subsidiaries. His son Christopher had also come to Hambros in 1962 and was a director in the 1970s and beyond. There's been some talk that Sir Harry was a post-WWII MI6 agent. He has also been named a founding trustee of the Sue Ryder Foundation in the 1950s, together with MI6 agent Airey Neave, the earlier discussed anti-communist crusader who, like Shield, was closely involved in bringing Thatcher to power. Hambros, however, is located at Tower Hill, officially just outside the City. And together with lacking details of Sir Harry's involvement with Hambros in 1978, this is what makes identifying the chairman of the 61 meeting, and the bank it was held in, impossible at this moment. But maybe it would be more accurate anyway to say that Shield and The 61 were founded by veterans of the SOE, MI6 and the CIA.
Most of the other participants that helped to establish The 61 remain anonymous, although one can speculate about some of the names. The German delegate almost certainly is the aristocratic Cercle member Count Hans Huyn, who is known to have become an important member of The 61 (98). His background fits perfectly and has been discussed earlier. More information about this person can be found in the membership list attached to this article.
Fortunately, Crozier gives us the name of General Vernon Walters, who seems to have represented the US intelligence faction that was very upset with the changes in CIA oversight. Walters was a bit of a mystery man. Although one of the most important behind- the-scenes players in the post-WWII world, not a whole lot of research has been done on him.
With very little official education, Walters had become fluent in English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, and Chinese. He went to work for Army Intelligence
Walters, co founder of The 61, and later Cercle participant Richard Nixon, 1958. Noriega would be one of Walter's house guests in the 1970s. Bush Sr. and Cercle member W. Casey would also invite Noriega. in 1941 and like Cercle member Kissinger, he became a protege of Fritz Kraemer in the post-war period. After the war he served for a while as an aide to Pilgrims Society member Averell Harriman, who, for example, co-founded the Psychological Strategy Board. In 1951 Walters became involved in setting up and running NATO's SHAPE headquarters in Paris. He was an aide and interpreter to Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Nixon, and provided Henry Kissinger's security in secret diplomatic missions. He was deputy director of the CIA from 1972 to 1976 under Richard Helms and George Bush. Walters left the CIA to become a private consultant until 1982 when he joined the Reagan administration as Ambassador at Large. He was sent all over the world. From 1989 to 1991 he was the US Ambassador to the UN. After that, at the time the Berlin wall came down, he was Ambassador to West-Germany. Walters has attended many Pan American conferences.
But there is more to General Walters. Like many leading members of Le Cercle, he was close to the Vatican interests. He was educated by the Jesuits at Stonyhurst College in England and later became a member of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (99), giving him instant access to the Vatican at all times. His participation in setting up The 61 seems to substantiate reports about his involvement in countering communist subversion in Europe and other parts of the globe, not the least in Italy (100). It has also been reported that South African intelligence named Walters as a key plotter in the JFK assassination (101). Although not widely published, Walters was a military attaché in Rome in 1963 where he worked with CIA station chief William K. Harvey in countering the massive communist and socialist influences in that country (which brought him into conflict with Kennedy; Harvey had his own, but related grudges against Kennedy, and especially his brother Robert) (102). The Gladio network Walters and Harvey controlled was crucial in this effort. Quite a bit of evidence has surfaced to show that Harvey, his protege Ted Shackley, and their pro-Vietnam, anti-Castro CIA gang, which included David Atlee Philips, together with mafia partners Johnny Roselli, Sam Giancana, Charles Nicoletti, Carlos Marcello, Santo Trafficanto, and Jimmy Hoffa were some of the key plotters and executers in the JFK assassination (103). The problems in Europe with the communists and socialists, and especially in Rome at the time, will probably explain the (alleged) role of Permindex members in the JFK assassination some day. Ironically, if the truth ever came out on the assassination, together with the explanation that Kennedy not only allowed the communists to remain in power in Cuba, but also
James Files, former hitman working for the Chicago mafia under Charles Nicolette. Both of these men allegedly were shooters in the JFK assassination. Files: "When it comes to government and underhanded work, the mob, they're kindergarten. They're kindergarten. I might upset a lot of people in the family saying that, but they're kindergarten when it comes to working with the government; they are the goldfish in the shark pond." endorsed the "communosocialist" takeover of Italy and soon other parts of Europe, quite a number of people might actually sympathize with the plotters, at least to a certain degree. That is, until the full interaction between government and the mafia becomes known. Besides having been a co-founder of Crozier's 61, Walters also was a good friend of French intelligence chief Alexandre de Marenches (104), who by 1976 had set up a secret private intelligence network of his own, the Safari Club. The Safari Club's network included the Shah of Iran, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, Anwar Sadat of Egypt, Ashraf Marwan of Egyptian intelligence, and Kamal Adham of Saudi intelligence (105). Count de Marenches was the biggest rival of Jean Violet within the SDECE, but because he was part of the same hard-right intelligence network he counted many of the same friends and associates, including Franz-Josef Strauss (106), William Casey (107), and Baron de Bonvoisin (108). All of these individuals have been named as members of Opus Dei or the Knights of Malta.