WikiLeaks publishes more than 1.7 million United States records

[Anthony Thorne]

Cables discussing UFO sightings.

....................


UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS OVER ALGERIA (AND MOROCCO)

https://www.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1...225_b.html


SPACE OBJECT REPORTED IN CAPE PROVINCE

https://www.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1...947_b.html


REQUEST FOR INFO, UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS

https://www.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1...209_b.html

[Anthony Thorne]

Detailed Dept of State analysis of the early days of the Whitlam government in Australia, where the author notes how Whitlam has surrounded himself with "trendy, progressive young advisors", and that the US will need to 'limit the harm caused by his biases'.

...............


BASIC POLICY ASSESSMENT: AUSTRALIA

https://www.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1...656_b.html

[Anthony Thorne]

State Dept summary of a colourful 1973 conversation with future Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. (e.g. "DIRECT QUOTATIONS IN THIS REPORT WILL BE DIFFICULT AS HAWKE USED SHORT WORDS OF EMPHASIS NOT SUITABLE FOR FAMILY NEWSPAPER.")

..............

R. HAWKE ON HIS DISPUTE WITH PRIME MINISTER OVER MIDDLE EAST AND OTHER ISSUES

https://www.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1...222_b.html

[Anthony Thorne]

Australian media has started covering the disclosure.
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politic...2hh5k.html

Was going to post a cable regarding early Dept of State impressions of the just departed Marge Thatcher but the appalled author of the document mentioned little that we don't already know.

[David Guyatt]

Assange always said he had a bomb document that related to an American bank from an insider - Bank of America by some accounts. BoA set up a special unit of big hitters to combat/counter anything that was released by him. Anything about that I wonder?

[Jan Klimkowski]

Senate disclosures and press coverage regarding past activities of the CIA, Lee Harvey Oswald and Richard Case Nagell disturb members of the Japanese government.

......................

CIA ACTIVITIES IN JAPAN

https://www.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1...286_b.html

Anthony - thank you.

This one deserves quoting in full.

In addition to the Lee Harvey Oswald and Richard Case Nagell references, note talk of LSD experimentation at Atsugi base where Oswald was stationed.

We now know that Atsugi was the largest MK-ULTRA field operational base outside the USA.

There is also mention of the mysterious "MK-ULTRA iceberg" project known as Operation Derby Hat.

CIA ACTIVITIES IN JAPAN
Date:
1976 April 28, 09:55 (Wednesday)

Canonical ID:
1976TOKYO06286_b
Original Classification:
LIMITED OFFICIAL USE

Current Classification:
UNCLASSIFIED
Handling Restrictions:
-- N/A or Blank --

Character Count:
6163
Executive Order:
-- N/A or Blank --

Locator:
TEXT ON MICROFILM,TEXT ONLINE
TAGS:
CIA - Central Intelligence Agency | JA - Japan; Okinawa; | PINT - Political Affairs--Internal Political Affairs | US - United States

Concepts:
ALLEGATIONS | CENTRAL LEGISLATURE | ESPIONAGE AGENTS | INTERVENTION
Enclosure:
-- N/A or Blank --

Type:
TE
Office Origin:
-- N/A or Blank --

Office Action:
ACTION EA

Archive Status:
Electronic Telegrams
From:
Japan Tokyo

Markings:
Margaret P. Grafeld Declassified/Released US Department of State EO Systematic Review 04 MAY 2006
To:
Commander United States Forces Japan | Commander in Chief US Pacific Command | Department of State | South Korea Seoul



SUMMARY. PAST TWO DAYS HAVE SEEN A FLURRY OF REPORTING ON ALLEGED CIA ACTIVITIES IN JAPAN, MOSTLY STIMULATED BY RELEASE OF SENATE COMMITTEE REPORT IN WASHINGTON. GOJ WAS QUESTIONED ON CIA IN APRIL 27 DIET SESSION. PRESS COVERED SENATE COMMITTEE REPORT EXTENSIVELY AND FONOFF REACTION TO ALLEGATIONS THAT US BASES HAD BEEN USED FOR SPECIAL OPERATIONS. END SUMMARY.

1. REPORTS FROM WASHINGTON AND DIET INTERPELLATIONS GAVE NEW LIFE TO COVERAGE OF CIA AND OTHER US INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES IN APRIL 27 EVENING AND APRIL 28 MORNING PRESS.

2. FOLLOWING IS APRIL 27 UPPER HOUSE BUDGET COMMITTEE EXCHANGE ON CIA BETWEEN (JAPAN COMMUNIST PARTY) JCP'S KOICHIRO UEDA AND GOVERNMENT SPOKESMEN (ROUGH TRANSLATION FROM ASAHI LIMITED OFFICIAL USE LIMITED OFFICIAL USE PAGE 02 TOKYO 06286 281129Z TRANSCRIPT): UEDA: THERE IS SUSPICION THAT IMPORTANT MEMBERS OF THE CIA ARE IN JAPAN. SHOULDN'T THEY BE ASKED TO LEAVE? FONMIN MIYAZAWA: ORGANIZED CIA ACTIVITIES ARE NOT PERMITTED IN JAPAN AND THIS HAS BEEN THE POLICY UP UNTIL NOW. WHETHER ONE IS A MEMBER OF CIA OR NOT, IF A FOREIGN DIPLOMAT DOES SOMETHING OFFENSIVE TO JAPANESE SOVEREIGNTY, WE WILL DECLARE HIM PERSONA NON GRATA AND ASK HIM TO LEAVE JAPAN. UEDA: WILL YOU NOT INVESTIGATE? FONMIN: IF THERE SHOULD BE A CONCRETE ILLEGAL ACT WHICH DAMAGES THE INTERESTS OF THE PEOPLE, WE COULD LODGE A COMPLAINT. ASIDE FROM THIS, WE INTEND TO DO NOTHING.

UEDA: FORMER HIGH-RANKING STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL HILLSMAN SAID THAT THE CIA GAVE MONEY TO ONE OR MORE POLITICAL PARTIES IN JAPAN. IF IT WAS THE RULING PARTY THAT RECEIVED THE MONEY, WHAT DO YOU INTEND TO DO? PRIMIN MIKI: AS THIS IS A VERY SERIOUS QUESTION, WE HAVE QUESTIONED ALL OF THE FORMER LDP FINANCE CHAIRMEN, AND FOUND THAT CIA MONEY HAS DEFINITELY NEVER FLOWED TO THE LDP. UEDA: IS NOT THE FONMIN EXCHANGING INFORMATION WITH CIA PERSONNEL? FONMIN: IT IS NOT. UEDA: HOW ABOUT THE CABINET REASEARCH OFFICE (CRO)? CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY IDE: ABSOLUTELY NOT.

UEDA: I HAVE A 1955 CRO DOCUMENT. REGISTERED NUMBER 129, CASE NUMBER 36. IN THIS DOCUMENT IS WRITTEN THAT LIAISON SHOULD BE MAINTAINED WITH THE FOLLOWING ORGANI- ZATIONS: CIA, CIC, OSI, ONI, OTHER US INTELLIGENCE ORGANI- ZATIONS AND AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS. IDE: THE PRESENT CRO WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1957. UEDA: HOW ABOUTS ITS PREDECESSOR? IDE: WITHIN THE PRIME MINISTERS OFFICE (PMO) THERE WAS "SECRETARIAT RESEARCH CHAMBER." UEDA: THE ORGANIZATION I SPOKE OF WAS THE ONE AT THAT TIME, IS THERE ANY CONTINUITY? PMO GENERAL AFFAIRS DIRECTOR UEKI: I WILL INQUIRE ABOUT THINGS AT THAT TIME. UEDA: ARE NOT THE SELF DEFENSE FORCES SECRETLY COOPERATING WITH THE CIA, KCIA, ETC$571'3 '3//2 84GEN SAKATA: THE JDA HAS ABSOLUTELY NO RELATIONS WITH THE CIA OR KCIA. LIMITED OFFICIAL USE LIMITED OFFICIAL USE PAGE 03 TOKYO 06286 281129Z

3. BUDGET COMMITTEE EXCHANGES ON 500 MI ACTIVITIES IS BEING REPORTED SEPTEL.

4. WASHINGTON DATELINE APRIL 27 EVENING PRESS ACCOUNTS OF RELEASE OF SENATE SPECIAL COMMITTEE REPORT ON INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES TENDED TO FOCUS ON CIA BACKING OF AIR AMERICA, CIVIL AIR TRANSPORT, SOUTHERN AIR TRANSPORT, ETC., AND USE BY AIR AMERICA AND SAT OF TACHIKAWA AIR BASE IN THE 1960S. AS A BASE FOR SPECIAL OPERATIONS. ACCOUNTS ALSO REFERRED TO OPERATION "DERBY HAT" WHICH SENATE REPORT STATES WAS CONDUCTED IN FAR EAST AND SPECULATES WHETHER IT MIGHT NOT BE RALATED TO PREVIOUSLY ALLEGED CIA EXPERIMENTATION WITH LSD ON HUMANS AT ATSUGI NAS (TOKYO 4979). (TOKYO TEXT OF YOMIURI ACCOUNT IS CARRIED BY FBIS.)

5. APRIL 28 YOMIURI ALSO CARRIES REPORT THAT FONMIN HAS OPENED AN INVESTIGATION INTO ALLEGATIONS BY SENATE COMMITTEE REPORT THAT TACHIKAWA HAD BEEN USED AS BASE FOR CIA OPERATIONS IN ASIA. REPORT ADDED, HOWEVER, THAT FONMIN DID NOT INTEND TO SEEK ASSISTANCE OF US AUTHORITIES IN DOING SO.

6. IN A RELATED STORY, APRIL 28 YOMIURI CARRIES REPORT FROM WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT TAKAHAMA WHICH REPORTS DISCOVERY OF A "CONFESSION" OF FORMER ARMY CAPTAIN, RICHARD C. NAGEL (PHONETIC), WHO HAD BEEN STATIONED IN JAPAN AND ROK FROM 1956-58, ALLEGEDLY UNDER CIA DIRECTION. ACCORDING TO NAGEL, THE CIA INDIRECTLY ASSISTED IN THE PLAN TO ASSASSINATE PRESIDENT RHEE IN OCTOBER 1956 AND ASSISTED MANY AGENTS IN SURREPTITIOUS ENTRIES INTO JAPAN, USING FALSE US PASSPORTS. REPORT ALLEGES THAT NAGEL BECAME ACQUAINTED WITH LEE HARVEY OSWALD WHILE IN JAPAN AND THAT HE KNEW OF KENNEDY ASSASSINATION BEFOREHAND. (FULL TEXT BY FBIS)

7. IN AN ARTICLE APPEARING IN APRIL 28 JAPAN TIMES, BUT NOT IN JAPANESE PRESS, TOKYO BUSINESS EXECUTIVE HYAKUSABURO IKEDA, ALLEGES THAT HE TRAVELLED TO CHINA IN 1950 AS AN AGENT FOR A US INTELLIGENCE AGENCY, PURPORTEDLY TO SECURE THE RELEASE OF US POWS. ACCORDING TO IKEDA, HE AND SEVERAL OTHERS DEPARTED FOR CHINA IN DECEMBER 1950 AND WERE ARRESTED BY CHINESE AUTHORITIES IN JANUARY 1951, AND LIMITED OFFICIAL USE LIMITED OFFICIAL USE PAGE 04 TOKYO 06286 281129Z IMPRISONED FOR SIX AND A HALF YEARS. IKEDA SAID THAT THE OPERATION WAS DIRECTED BY G-2 OF GHO AND RELATED TO THE ACTIVITIES OF YOSHIO KODAMA.

8. COMMENT. DESPITE EXTENSIVE MEDIA COVERAGE OF WASHINGTON REPORTS OF US INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES, THERE HAS BEEN REMARKABLY LITTLE COMMENT THUS FAR. WASHINGTON REPORTS PROVIDE EXCELLENT AMMUNITION FOR JCP ATTACKS ON THE GOVERNMENT IN THE DIET, HOWEVER, AND JCP WILL TAKE EVERY OPPORTUNITY TO USE THEM TO ADVANTAGE. CIA ISSUE WAS NOT RAISED IN HIGH-EXPOSURE APRIL 28 UPPER HOUSE BUGET COMMITTEE SESSION AND ONLY ONE MORE DAY REMAINS TO UTILIZE THIS FORUM. ISSUE COULD CONCEIVABLY BE RAISED IN OTHER COMMITTEE HEARINGS, HOWEVER, WHICH RECEIVE LESS PUBLICITY AND ARE NOT SCHEDULED TO RESUME UNTIL AFTER MAY HOLIDAYS. HODGSON LIMITED OFFICIAL USE NNN

From Acid Dreams' author Martin Lee:

Documents pertaining to Operation Derby Hat record the results of several EA-1729 interrogations conducted by the Army in the Far East during the early 1960s. One subject vomited three times and stated that he "wanted to die" after he had been slipped some LSD. His reaction was described as "moderate".

After another target absorbed triple the dose normally used in such sessions, he kept collapsing and hitting his head on a table. "The subject voiced an anti-communist line," an Army report noted, "and begged to be spared the torture he was receiving. In this confused state he even asked to be killed in order to alleviate his suffering."

From Mae Brussell's Operation Chaos:

July 1961 LSD READY FOR OPERATIONAL PURPOSES.


Feb. 1962 OPERATION DERBY HAT
Hawaii military bases, LSD experiments.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Caller warns authorities of a planned September 1975 assassination attempt against President Ford and Emperor Hirohito. The plotters (described in detail) claim solidarity with Charles Manson.

...................

REPORT OF ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT AGAINST PRESIDENT

https://www.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1...596_b.html

Also very intriguing, given that at least one Manson family member was involved in a Presidential assassination attempt.

REPORT OF ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT AGAINST PRESIDENT
Date:
1975 September 30, 21:50 (Tuesday)

Canonical ID:
1975MONTRE01596_b
Original Classification:
CONFIDENTIAL

Current Classification:
UNCLASSIFIED
Handling Restrictions:
-- N/A or Blank --

Character Count:
3335
Executive Order:
GS

Locator:
TEXT ON MICROFILM,TEXT ONLINE
TAGS:
ASEC - Administration--Security | CA - Canada

Concepts:
-- N/A or Blank --
Enclosure:
-- N/A or Blank --

Type:
TE
Office Origin:
-- N/A or Blank --

Office Action:
ACTION SY

Archive Status:
Electronic Telegrams
From:
Canada Montreal

Markings:
Margaret P. Grafeld Declassified/Released US Department of State EO Systematic Review 06 JUL 2006
To:
Canada Ottawa | Department of State



Content

1. AT APPROXIMATELY 4:00 P.M. WE RECEIVED A TELEPHONE CALL FROM A CANADIAN WHO IDENTIFIED HIMSELF AS ALAN AND WHO TOLD US OF A PLOT TO ASSASSINATE PRESIDENT FORD AND EMPEROR HIROHITO. ALAN HAD TELEPHONED THE U.S. MISSION AT ICAO A FEW MINUTES EARLIER TO SAY THAT HE WOULD CALL THE CONGEN.

2. ALAN SAID THAT TWO WOMEN WHO HE IDENTIFIED AS ELOISE AND LINDA CAME TO MONTREAL FROM SAN FRANCISCO IN A BLUE STATION WAGON, PICKED UP A MAN IN MONTREAL AND LEFT FOR THE U.S. 35 HOURS AGO TO CARRY OUT THE ASSASSINATION.

3. THE TWO WOMEN WERE IDENTIFIED AS ELOISE, 5 FT. 7 INCHES, 130 LBS., BLACK HAIR, WITH 2-1/2" SCAR ON TOPSIDE OF RIGHT ARM, AND LINDA 5 FT. 7 INCHES, RED HAIR, 135 LBS. WITH FRECKLES. THEY DROVE A BLUE STATIONWAGON WITH CALIFORNIA PLATES, LICENSE CONFIDENTIAL CONFIDENTIAL PAGE 02 MONTRE 01596 302247Z NUMBER STARTING WITH 5KX. THE MAN THEY PICKED UP IN MONTREAL WAS DESCRIBED AS 6 FT. 1 INCH, 200 LBS., WITH TATTOO ON RIGHT ARM SAYING "WAR MEANS MURDER". OUR CALLER SAID THE MAN WAS ADDRESSED AS LIAKA OR VIAKA WHICH HE SAID MEANS DEATH IN RUSSIAN.

4. OUR CALLER SAID ALL THREE KEPT REFERRING TO BROTHER CHARLIE WHO WAS IN PRISON AND WANTED TO GET OUT. HE SAID THE PRESIDENT AND THE EMPEROR WOULD BE ASSASSINATED UNLESS CHARLIE WAS RELEASED AND HE ASSUMED THAT THIS THREAT WOULD BE RELAYED THROUGH ONE OF THE WIRE SERVICES. OUR CALLER SAID HE UNDERSTOOD THAT CHARLIE MEANT CHARLES MANSON. CALLER SAID VAIKA CLAIMED TO BE FRIEND OF JACK SCOTT WHO HAD ENDORSED THE PLAN TO KILL THE PRESIDENT.

5. CALLER SAID THE GROUP WAS CARRYING THREE M-16 RIFLES STOLEN IN THE U.S., 2 ARMALITE RIFLES PURCHASED FROM WILLIAM PLAINVILLE WHO IS WITH AN IRA GROUP IN NEW YORK, A GRENADE LAUNCHER, AND 125 LBS. OF TNT. HE SAID EXPLOSIVES CAN BE SET OFF BY PUSHING IN CIGARETTE LIGHTER OR BY A CLOCK DEVICE. HE SAID ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT IS TO TAKE PLACE BY SATURDAY AND THAT CAR WILL BE BLOWN UP EVEN IF GROUP CANNOT GET CLOSE ENOUGH TO PRESIDENT.

FOR OTTAWA: OUR CALLER IDENTIFIED HIMSELF AS ALAN AND SAID HE IS A MONTREAL RESIDENT. HE SAID HE WAS PROBABLY BEING WATCHED BY A FRIEND OF THE THREE MENTIONED ABOVE AND THAT HIS LIFE WAS IN DANGER. HE SAID HE WAS CALLING FROM THE ATWATER METRO STATION, THAT HE LIVES ON THE LAKESHORE, AND WAS CARRYING A 38 REVOLVER FOR WHICH HE HAS A PERMIT SINCE HIS HOME WAS BROKEN INTO THREE TIMES AND HE WAS BEATEN UP DURING THE THIRD BREAK-IN. HE SAID HE MET THE GIRLS IN A RESTAURANT THROUGH A GROUP HE WAS INVOLVED WITH HERE IN QUEBEC. HE DID NOT REVEAL THE NAME OF THE GROUP AND HE WAS NO LONGER ACTIVE WITH THEM. HE SAID HE LATER ACCOMPANIED THE TWO GIRLS AND VIAKA TO AN APARTMENT ON SHERBROOKE ST. NEAR ST. DENIS, 2ND FLOOR BUT SAID HE COULD GIVE NO OTHER DETAILS. HARPER CONFIDENTIAL

Lynette Squeaky Fromme was involved in a sabotaged assasination attempt on President Ford in 1975.

She displayed a level of dissociation typical of a Manchurian Patsy.

On the morning of September 5, 1975, Fromme went to Sacramento's Capitol Park (reportedly to plead with President Gerald Ford about the plight of the California redwoods) dressed in a nun-like red robe and armed with a Colt M1911 .45 semi-automatic pistol that she pointed at Ford. The pistol's magazine was loaded with four rounds, but there was no bullet in the firing chamber. She was immediately restrained by Larry Buendorf, a Secret Service agent. While being further restrained and handcuffed, Fromme managed to say a few sentences to the on-scene cameras, emphasizing that the gun "didn't go off".[10] Her 1975 arrest as shown by her sitting in a U.S. Marshal's vehicle as she waits to be brought to jail in 1975 is an image that continues to get frequent use.[11] In 1980, Fromme told The Sacramento Bee that she had deliberately ejected the cartridge in her weapon's chamber before leaving home that morning.[12]

After a lengthy trial in which she refused to cooperate with her own defense, she was convicted of the attempted assassination of the president and received a life sentence under a 1965 law which made attempted presidential assassinations a federal crime punishable by a maximum sentence of life in prison. When US Attorney Duane Keyes recommended severe punishment because she was "full of hate and violence," Fromme threw an apple at him, hitting him in the face and knocking off his glasses.[13]

"I stood up and waved a gun (at Ford) for a reason," said Fromme. "I was so relieved not to have to shoot it, but, in truth, I came to get life. Not just my life but clean air, healthy water and respect for creatures and creation."[14]

Seventeen days later, SLA devotee and FBI informant Sara Jane Moore attempted to assasinate Ford:

A native of Charleston, West Virginia, Moore had been a nursing school student, Women's Army Corps recruit, and accountant. Divorced five times, she had four children before she turned to revolutionary politics in 1975.[3][4]

Moore's friends said she had a fascination and obsession with Patty Hearst.[5] After Hearst was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army, her father Randolph Hearst created the organization People in Need (P.I.N.) to feed the poor, in order to answer S.L.A. claims that the elder Hearst was "committing 'crimes' against 'the people.'"[5] Moore was a bookkeeper for P.I.N. and an FBI informant[3][5][6] when she attempted to assassinate Ford.

Moore had been evaluated by the Secret Service earlier in 1975, but that organization had decided that she presented no danger to the president.[7] She had been picked up by police on an illegal handgun charge the day before the Ford incident, but was released from arrest. The police confiscated her .44 caliber revolver and 113 rounds of ammunition.

Moore was about 40 feet away from President Ford[8] when she fired a single shot at him with a different firearm, a .38 caliber revolver.[2] She was standing in the crowd across the street from the St. Francis Hotel. She was using a gun she bought in haste that same morning and did not know the sights were six inches off the point-of-impact at that distance and she narrowly missed.[9] FBI case agent Richard Vitamanti measured the location the next day. After realizing she had missed, she raised her arm again, and Oliver Sipple, a Marine no longer on active duty, dived towards her, knocking her arm the second time, perhaps saving President Ford's life. Judge Samuel Conti, still on the bench in 2010, spoke on the record, that Moore would have killed President Ford had she had her own gun, and it was only "because her gun was faulty" that the president's life was spared.[9] During her second attempt, Sipple grabbed Moore's arm and then pulled her to the ground.[10][11] Sipple said at the time: "I saw [her gun] pointed out there and I grabbed for it. [...] I lunged and grabbed the woman's arm and the gun went off."[12] The single shot which Moore did fire from her .38 caliber revolver ricocheted off the entrance to the hotel[13] and it slightly injured a bystander.[6]

[Jan Klimkowski]

Now here's a good one!

A 1973 European magazine article alleges the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing was a Gladio style plot, and names the funding source for the Gladio conspiracy as the Rome offices of the Feed Grains Council, Merrill Lynch, the Continental Illinois Bank of Chicago, and 'FSO [i.e Foreign Service Officer] Peter Bridges'. The embassy then plans a detailed public relations offensive to counter the claims. I'm quoting this one in full just below, but Officer Bridges has a Wikipedia page here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Bridges

and has quite an an illustrious bio. What wonderful stories he could probably tell.

..................


ALLEGATION OF US SUPPORT FOR ITALIAN FAR RIGHT

https://www.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1...261_b.html

1. APRIL 26 ISSUE OF SENSATIONAL WEEKLY NEWS JOURNAL QUOTE PANORAMA UNQUOTE CARRIED SCURRILOUS COVER STORY ENTITLED QUOTE THE FASCIST POISON UNQUOTE LINKING THE RIGHT-WING MSI, THE CIA, AND FSO PETER BRIDGES (ASSIGNED ROME 1966 TO 1971) IN PLOT ALLEGED TO INCLUDE 1969 PIAZZA FONTANA (MILAN) BANK BOMBING WHICH TOOK 16 LIVES AND INJURED 88 OTHERS. STORY ALLEGES PLOT AND BOMBING INTENDED TO SPARK SWING TO RIGHT IN PUBLIC OPINION TO PERMIT RIGHT-WING "CHANGE OF COURSE." CHANNELS OF FUNDS TO SUPPORT MSI IN GENERAL, AND THEREFORE CONSPIRACY ALSO, WERE NAMED AS ROME OFFICES OF FEED GRAINS COUNCIL, MERRILL LYNCH, AND CONTINENTAL ILLINOIS BANK OF CHICAGO (LINKED IN STORY TO MICHELE SINDONA). ARTICLE IS BEING TRANSLATED AND WILL BE POUCHED TO ADDEES ASAP.

2. FEED GRAINS COUNCIL HAS INFORMED US THEY CONSIDERING LEGAL ACTION AND HAVE ASKED ADVICE. EMBASSY IS RESPONDING WITH ADVICE NOT TO DIGNIFY AND ENCOURAGE REPLAY OF ARTICLE BY ANY VOLUNTEERED REBUTTAL OR LEGAL ACTION, BUT TO CATEGORICALLY AND EMPHATICALLY DENY STORY (UNDERSCORE) IF ASKED ( END UNDERSCORE). FCC WILL BETOLD EMBASSY WILL SAY NOTHING PUBLICLY BUT IF ASKED WILL REPLY TO ANY PRESS QUERY WITH STATEMENT THAT STORY IS QUOTE TOTALLY WITHOUT FOUNDATION AND NOT WORTHY OF REPLY UNQUOTE. TO QUESTIONS BY OTHERS THAN PRESS, EMBOFFS WILL LABEL ARTICLE AN OUTRAGEOUS LIE.

3. EMBASSY WILL ALSO CONTACT MERRILL LYNCH AND CONTINENTAL ILLINOIS BANK REPS TO INFORM THEM, WITHOUT ADVISING, OF COURSE OF ACTION EMBASSY INTENDS TO TAKE, STRESSING THAT WE WILL NOT RESPOND AT ALL UNLESS ASKED.

4. EMBASSY ( DCM) WILL CALL ATTENTION OF PRIMIN' S DIPLOMATIC ADVISOR (CAGIATI) TO ARTICLE EXPRESSING OUR PARTICULAR UNHAPPINESS AT IRRESPONSIBILITY SHOWN IN NAMING DIPLOMATIC OFFICER, PRESENTLY SERVING IN COMMUNIST POLICE STATE, IN OUTRAGEOUS FABRICATION OF THIS SORT. AT APPROPRIATE LEVEL, WE WILL CALL ATTENTION OF FON MINISTRY TO ARTICLE, NOTING THAT IT UNWORTHY OF PUBLIC REBUTTAL, BUT THAT OUR UNHAPPINESS BEING SIGNALLED TO OFFICE OF PRIME MINISTER.

5. EMBASSY OF COURSE AWARE THAT PUBLICATION OF STORY NOT A MATTER FOR DIRECT AND OFFICIAL GOI INTERVENTION. OUR ANNOYANCE WILL FIND SYMPATHETIC EAR IN PRIMIN' S OFFICE, HOWEVER, AND IT NOT UNLIKELY THAT DISPLEASURE WILL REACH MONDADORI (PANORAMA PUBLISHER) IN APPROPRIATE AND INDIRECT WAY. VOLPE

"Scurrilous" screams the CIA.

Translated from spook jargon, "scurrilous" clearly means "dangerously close to the truth".....

[Peter Lemkin]

Woooh! Assange has not spent his time in the Embassy playing chess or cards..... These are some great intelligence reports.....there must be other gemstones in the 1.7 million! Of course the MSM hasn't got the guts to do anything with this material, for the most part...too close to the truth and the end of their careers should some reported dare. All we have left now are [with a few exceptions] the independent media, the internet and citizen investigators and/or investigative journalists. The Lies Of Our Times are so HUGE most can't see around, through or past them - in the fog of psywar. If there is any doubt that Assange is a 'marked man', these leave no doubt in my mind. Only we, the People, generally, can protect him and outlets like Wikileaks; hero whistleblowers like Manning and others known and unknown. Bring the system down with its own lies/deceptions/thefts/illegal actions is our only weapon left, IMHO.

[David Guyatt]

Woooh! Assange has not spent his time in the Embassy playing chess or cards..... .

As I mentioned above Pete, Uncle tried to contain and corral him, and overplayed their hand. Like bullies the world over usually do.

Regarding the Bank of America document/s I referenced above, the following old news report. If he does release these documents, the proverbial will hit the fan, I think. Worth keeping an eye out for.

Facing Threat From WikiLeaks, Bank Plays Defense


By the time the conference call ended, it was nearly midnight at Bank of America's headquarters in Charlotte, N.C., but the bank's counterespionage work was only just beginning.

A day earlier, on Nov. 29, the director of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, said in an interview that he intended to "take down" a major American bank and reveal an "ecosystem of corruption" with a cache of data from an executive's hard drive. With Bank of America's share price falling on the widely held suspicion that the hard drive was theirs, the executives on the call concluded it was time to take action.


Since then, a team of 15 to 20 top Bank of America officials, led by the chief risk officer, Bruce R. Thompson, has been overseeing a broad internal investigation scouring thousands of documents in the event that they become public, reviewing every case where a computer has gone missing and hunting for any sign that its systems might have been compromised.


In addition to the internal team drawn from departments like finance, technology, legal and communications, the bank has brought in Booz Allen Hamilton, the consulting firm, to help manage the review. It has also sought advice from several top law firms about legal problems that could arise from a disclosure, including the bank's potential liability if private information was disclosed about clients.


The company's chief executive, Brian T. Moynihan, receives regular updates on the team's progress, according to one Bank of America executive familiar with the team's work, who, like other bank officials, was granted anonymity to discuss the confidential inquiry.


Whether Mr. Assange is bluffing, or indeed has Bank of America in its sights at all, the bank's defense strategy represents the latest twist in the controversy over WikiLeaks and Mr. Assange.


The United States government has been examining whether Mr. Assange, an Australian, could be charged criminally for the release by WikiLeaks of hundreds of thousands of classified Pentagon and State Department diplomatic cables that became the subject of articles in The New York Times and other publications last month.


The Swedish government is also seeking to question Mr. Assange about rape accusations against him. As he fights extradition from Britain in that case, he remains under house arrest in an English mansion. Mr. Assange has said the timing of the rape accusations was not coincidental, and that he was the victim of a smear campaign led by the United States government.


Despite his legal troubles, Mr. Assange's threats have grown more credible with every release of secret documents, including those concerning the dumping of toxic waste in Africa, the treatment of prisoners held by the United States at Guantánamo Bay, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and, most recently, the trove of diplomatic cables.


That Mr. Assange might shift his attention to a private company especially one as politically unpopular as Bank of America or any of its rivals, which have been stained by taxpayer-financed bailouts and the revelation of improper foreclosure practices raises a new kind of corporate threat, combining elements of law, technology, public policy, politics and public relations.


"This is a significant moment, and Bank of America has to get out in front of it," said Richard S. Levick, a veteran crisis communications expert. "Corporate America needs to look at what happens here, and how Bank of America handles it."


Last month, the bank bought up Web addresses that could prove embarrassing to the company or its top executives in the event of a large-scale public assault, but a spokesman for the bank said the move was unrelated to any possible leak.


Then, on Dec. 18, Bank of America may have antagonized Mr. Assange further when it said it would join other companies like MasterCard and PayPal in halting the processing of payments intended for WikiLeaks, citing the possibility the organization's activities might be illegal.


Mr. Assange has never said explicitly that the data he possesses comes from Bank of America, which is the nation's largest bank, though he did say that the disclosure would take place sometime early this year.

The bank has emerged as the most likely target because a year before the latest threat, Mr. Assange said in an interview that his group had the hard drive of a Bank of America executive containing five gigabytes of data enough to hold more than 200,000 pages of text and was evaluating how to present it. It was this connection that set the wheels in motion on Nov. 30.


The financial markets took the threat seriously. Bank of America shares fell 3 percent in trading the day after Mr. Assange made his threat against a nameless bank, and while the stock has since recovered, the prospect of a Bank of America data dump from WikiLeaks remains a concern, said Moshe Orenbuch, an analyst with Credit Suisse.


"The fears have calmed down somewhat, but if there is something out there that is revealed, the market reaction will be negative," he said.


Bank of America's internal review has turned up no evidence that would substantiate Mr. Assange's claim that he has a hard drive, according to interviews with executives there. The company declined to otherwise comment on the case. A WikiLeaks representative also declined to comment.


With the data trail cold, one working theory both inside and outside the bank is that internal documents in Mr. Assange's possession, if any, probably came from the mountains of material turned over to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Congressional investigators and the New York attorney general's office during separate investigations in 2009 and 2010 into the bank's acquisition of Merrill Lynch.


As it happens, Mr. Assange's first mention of the Bank of America hard drive, in October 2009, coincided with hearings by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform into the Merrill merger, and with wide-ranging requests for information by the committee.


The bank's investigative team is trying to reconstruct the handover of materials to public agencies for a variety of inquiries, in pursuit of previously undisclosed documents that could embarrass the company, bank officials said.


In addition to the Merrill documents, the team is reviewing material on Bank of America's disastrous acquisition in 2008 of Countrywide Financial, the subprime mortgage specialist, the officials said. The criticism of Bank of America's foreclosure procedures centers mostly on loans it acquired in the Countrywide deal, and one possibility is that the documents could show unscrupulous or fraudulent lending practices by Countrywide.


If that is the case, it would not only reignite political pressure on Bank of America and other top mortgage servicers, but it could also strengthen the case of investors pressuring the big banks to buy back tens of billions in soured mortgages.


"If something happens, we want to be ready," one bank official said. "You want to know what your options are before it comes out, rather than have to decide on the spot." Bank of America's efforts are complicated by the fact that it has made several huge acquisitions in recent years, and those once-independent companies had different computer systems and security procedures.


WikiLeaks has taken on private companies in the past, including leaking documents from Barclays of Britain and Bank Julius Baer of Switzerland, but neither disclosure drew nearly as much attention.


Officials at the S.E.C., the House oversight committee and the New York attorney general's office insist the information they received had been turned over in the form of papers and discs, never a hard drive, and deny they are the source of the WikiLeaks cache.


At the same time, Mr. Assange's own statements would seem to undermine the government-as-source theory, hinting instead that resignations might follow as evidence emerges of corruption among top executives, something the public investigations never found.


"It will give a true and representative insight into how banks behave at the executive level in a way that will stimulate investigations and reforms, I presume," he said in the November 2010 interview with Forbes. "For this, there's only one similar example. It's like the Enron e-mails."

Booz, Allen Hamilton, no less. Where are the boys from Langley when you need them, he shouted? They're working for BAH came the resounding reply.