Billy Graham, Drug Trafficking, Ebola, and the CIA?

[Doug Fisher]

Quick introduction since this is my first post and then I'll dive right in...

Associates of mine had introduced me to trauma-based induction of multiple personality disorder many years ago. From there, I began researching its origins in the CIA and Project MKUltra, and then branched off into researching various other topics. I came across this forum a few times in my research and was always impressed. Most recently I was tracking CIA rendition aircraft, since they're frequently used for drug trafficking and other illegal activities later on. Which led me down this convoluted rabbit hole which follows...

[Doug Fisher]

Samaritan's Purse is Billy Graham's missionary and charity group. They have a global presence, including in West Africa. When two of their workers, Brently and Writebol, became sick with Ebola, they hired Phoenix Air to evacuate them.


http://mashable.com/2014/08/05/shadowy-a...ents-home/

At a small, single runway airport in Cartersville, Georgia, a tiny airline got an urgent and unprecedented call last week: to fly the only two Americans known to have contracted the Ebola virus from West Africa to the U.S. for treatment.

We do a lot of very unique programs that involve aviation for various federal agencies, this is simply one of many contracts that we hold," Dan Thompson, a Phoenix Air spokesman told Mashable. "We do a lot of weird stuff."

It's no secret that Phoenix Air is involved with extraordinary renditions (torture) for the CIA. They've been identified by Amnesty International and Shannon Watch.


http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/...2006en.pdf


http://www.shannonwatch.org/content/airc...on-flights


Amazingly, Samaritan's Purse is linked to another CIA rendition company.
Aircraft N4042J was sold from Stevens Express Leasing to Samaritans Purse.


http://fareport.noblogs.org/post/2011/12...h-certain/

Stevens Express Leasing is not the only suspicious company that Kershaw works for. Devon Holding & Leasing in North Carolina and Premier Executive Transport Services in Massachusetts are two more companies that Paglen and Thompson name in their book. The New York Times also found this tangled web.


So how did Samaritan's Purse zero in on this particular plane? How did they do a deal with people who don't exist and who work for companies with no working address aside from a lawyer's office? Virgil Gottfried, SP's Director of Aviation, should know. His signature is on the FAA forms.

How indeed. The NY Times notes:


http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.ht...wanted=all

But whoever created the companies used some of the same post office box
addresses and the same apparently fictitious officers for two or more of the companies. One of those seeming ghost executives, Philip P. Quincannon, for instance, is listed as an officer of Premier Executive Transport Services and Crowell Aviation Technologies, both listed to the same Massachusetts address, as well as Stevens Express Leasing in Tennessee.


No one by that name can be found in any public record other than post office boxes in Washington and Dunn Loring, Va. Those listings for Mr. Quincannon, in commercial databases, include an anomaly: His Social Security number was issued in Washington between 1993 and 1995, but his birth year is listed as 1949.

But Samaritan's Purse managed to find him. Maybe the same way they managed to find the other CIA rendition company, Phoenix Air?

[Doug Fisher]

FAA records for the aircraft can be seen here:


http://fareport.noblogs.org/files/2011/1...ration.pdf


You'll notice James Kershaw of Stevens Express Leasing has two very different signatures. One on page 9 and another on page 17.






Signing on behalf of Samaritan's Purse was their Director of Aviation, Virgil Gottfried.


http://www.linkedin.com/pub/virgil-gottfried/30/307/1a5


Virgil Gottfried was tied to another CIA-linked drug trafficking plane, tail number N391SA.


http://fareport.noblogs.org/post/2011/12...e-of-keys/

His signature also appears on the FAA records for two other planes with suspicious ownership histories.

In August 2004, Bates sold the plane to Sky Way Aircraft, Inc. in St. Petersburg, Florida. One month later, it was sold to Mario Gonzales Restrepo of Caracas, Venezuela. Two months later, N391SA bearing the false tail number of N168D was found on an airstrip in Nicaragua loaded with cocaine and some AK-47s.

Sky Way Aircraft will be familiar to anyone who follows CIA-linked drug trafficking. Because that company is linked, in one way or another, to nearly every CIA airplane that later turns up full of drugs.

[Doug Fisher]

http://www.narconews.com/print.php3?Arti...31&lang=en

Foreign law enforcement authorities confiscated two of these cocaine planes - one in the Dominican Republic and one in Nicaragua, (tail numbers N1100M and N391SA, respectively) - on suspicion of cocaine trafficking. A third plane (tail number N12DT) is cited along with N1100M in a pending FBI money laundering case involving a Venezuelan-based drug-trafficking organization.


The fourth aircraft, a Gulfstream II jet (tail number N987SA), crashed in Mexico in late September last year with a payload of some four tons of cocaine onboard.


The companies at the center of this parade of cocaine planes are Skyway Aircraft Inc. of St. Petersburg, Fla., and Planes and Parts Enterprises LLC of Doral, Fla.


In addition, a third Florida company, also named Skyway Aircraft Inc., but based in Clearwater, Fla. (just north of St Petersburg in the greater Tampa area), is linked to a fifth cocaine plane, a DC-9 jet (tail number N900SA), which was apprehended by Mexican authorities in April 2006 with some 5.5 tons of white powder onboard. The DC-9 had been sold to an unknown Venezuelan buyer only days before it was busted in Mexico.


Two of these cocaine planes - the Gulfstream II and a Beech 200 (N391SA) found in Nicaragua with the false tail number N168D - have been tied to the CIA's terrorist rendition program via their Federal Aviation Administration-issued tail numbers, according to European investigators.

Skyway Aircraft painted their planes to look like they were from the Department of Homeland Security.











N391SA is the plane that's connected to Virgil Gottfried. You can read about the other Skyway Aircraft, N900SA and N987SA, here:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendition_aircraft#N987SA


http://www.madcowprod.com/2014/09/12/mys...cia-plane/

His name is Glen Kovar. He was Chairman of SkyWay Communications in St Petersburg, Florida. In a profile, a business magazine touched on his resume:


"The senior Kovar worked for five U.S. presidents under the nebulous title of "director of special projects for the U.S. Forest Service." Pressed for a more precise job description, he said: "I did a number of special projects. Let's just leave it at that."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Forest...ng_seizure

[Doug Fisher]

Then there's the registration number N146SP. This tail number was on a South Pacific Island Airways Jet, which was then registered as Southern Air Transport jet N527SJ.


http://onespotter.com/aircraft/N146SP

Southern Air Transport (SAT) (1947-1998), based in Miami, Florida, was a cargo airline best known as a front company for the Central Intelligence Agency (1960-1973) and for its role in the Iran-Contra affair in the mid-1980s. Southern Air carried four loads of US weapons bound for Iran from the US to Israel, and on the return flights carried weapons destined for the Nicaraguan Contras from Portugal. The shooting down of an SAT flight in Nicaragua in October 1986 helped expose Iran-Contra.

Of course, the part of Iran-Contra that usually gets glossed over is the fact that it was also a massive, government-sanctioned drug running operation. Is it also a coincidence that now this tail number is on a Samaritan's Purse helicopter, seen here in Liberia?


https://flic.kr/p/mL8siD

[Doug Fisher]

The FAA has a program called the Blocked Aircraft Registration Request, or BARR, which allows you to request that your plane not be tracked. Luckily, a court ruled that the list of blocked aircraft had to be released if a FOIA request was submitted. You still can't track them, but you can see the tail numbers.


http://issuu.com/wsj.com/docs/jettracker-blocked3.pdf


On this 2011 list, you'll see the CIA aircraft from Stevens Express, Devon Holding and Leasing, as well as some aircraft from Samaritan's Purse.


Here you can read Samaritan's Purse request to have their aircraft blocked.


https://archive.org/stream/686315-threat...3_djvu.txt

In compliance with the Federal Aviation Administration June 3, 201 1 Notice (Docket No. FAA-201 1-0183), Samaritan's Purse is certifying that a Valid Security Concern clearly exists. A Valid Security Concern is a verifiable threat to person, property, or company, including a threat of death, kidnapping or serious bodily harm against an individual.

Due to the controversy and sensitivity of the subject of Islam and the constant national and international media attention, Mr. Graham is subject to verifiable threats. For this reason, it is critical that the BARR service remain in place for the aircraft list above.

Another recent example of a verifiable threat occurred in March 201 1 . An agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigation contacted our offices to share information about a family that had moved from the United States to Yemen and back to the United States. While in Yemen, the teenage son attended a conventional Islamic school and then the family returned to the United States.


When the son returned to the United States the FBI reported to our Samaritan's Purse Security Department that in U.S. Customs ii was discovered that the young man carried a "hit list" and Franklin Graham's name was on the list, in addition, our ministry has received other calls regarding persons angry about comments Mr. Graham made when discussing the topic of Islam and its impact in the United States and countries around the world.

[Doug Fisher]

The Stevens Express planes are registered to a Douglas R Beaty in Tennessee. Unlike the other names associated with Stevens Express, Beaty actually exists.


http://vcnv.org/do-cordova-based-planes-...andings-th

A lawyer for Memphis developers Rusty and Kevin Hyneman as well as businessman William B. Tanner, Beaty may be best-recalled as a co-defendant with then-Congressman Harold Ford Sr. in the Butcher bank fraud scandal.

http://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/25/busine...icted.html




Both Ford and Beaty were acquitted. Interestingly, prior to the indictment, Congressman Ford had cosponsored legislation to investigate the CIA for trafficking cocaine.


https://www.congress.gov/bill/104th-cong...lution/520

H.Res.520 - To establish a Select Committee to Investigate CIA Involvement in Crack Cocaine Sales to Fund Contras.

[Doug Fisher]

Aircraft N845S, registered to Stevens Express, is a modified DC-3 transport plane. Seen here in Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Fort Lauderdale, and Washington DC.


http://jetphotos.net/showphotos.php?regsearch=N845S


This one was taken in Medellin, Colombia 2011.


http://img1.jetphotos.net:8080/img/4/3/7...689473.jpg




Here it is at Lajes Air Base in the Azores, Portugal, 2012. It had flown in from St Johns, Newfoundland and was heading to Morocco.










http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordina...n#Portugal

On the other hand, journalist Rui Costa Pinto was heard by the DCIAP, as he had written an article, refused by Visão, about flights passing by Lajes Field, a Portuguese airbase used by the US Air Forces, in the Azores.[127]


Approximately 150 CIA flights which have flown through Portugal have been identified

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordina...ion#France

It is investigated by the Canadian authorities, as it would have been flying from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada, via Keflavík in Iceland before going to Turkey

Many rendition planes pass through St Johns on their way across the Atlantic. Most stop at Shannon in Ireland or the Azores in Portugal.


Here it is taking off from Baghdad 2012:


https://flic.kr/p/bUH6Cc







But that's not the most interesting thing about N845S...

[Doug Fisher]

What's interesting about this aircraft is where it was before Stevens Express Leasing.


Some excellent detective work here:


http://www.ruudleeuw.com/hayes-c47-autec.htm

Checking my notes of a trip to Florida in April 1975, there quite clearly recorded at West Palm Beach Airport, north of Fort Lauderdale, on 22nd April was DC-3 N61696. It had a white fuselage with a mauve cheatline, white tail with a mauve band, and the title AUTEC in the tail band. N61696 was also noted and reported by many other enthusiasts who visited West Palm Beach during the early 1970s and was last reported there in January 1976, with the titles removed at that stage.

The aircraft was a CIA Air America plane. It was excluded from the FAA registry. In the 1970s it was an AUTEC plane, flying from the AUTEC base on Andros Island, in the Bahamas, to West Palm Beach. Eventually it wound up going back to the CIA / Stevens Express Leasing.


So if it was just ferrying personnel and supplies for AUTEC, why wasn't it in the FAA files?


Operation Watchtower


Lt. Cmdr. Al Martin (US Navy, Ret) has testified before Congress for the Kerry Committee and the Alexander Committee, which investigated the illicit deals of Iran-Contra. He writes:


http://www.stewwebb.com/Len_Millman_The_...Martin.htm

Watchtower was a series of very powerful radio transmitters on towers with beacons
on the end of them, built from Andros Island off the coast of Colombia all the way up into U.S. air space, essentially transversing all of Central America.


These beacons would emit a frequency which was changed from time to time for
security reasons. Aircraft could triangulate a position from them. The beacons in essence created a corridor. It was a so-called "safe corridor."


In other words, all aircraft flying in that corridor would not be intercepted. On the United States end, aircraft transmitting the correct frequency were not to be
inspected by Customs.

The corridor was created originally for the same purpose it got used in later on in Iran-Contra -- to provide a safe corridor for the shipping north of narcotics and the shipping south of weapons pursuant to authorized narcotics and weapons transactions.

Colonel Edward P. Cutolo's Affidavit of CIA Drug Smuggling


https://www.libertariannews.org/2013/08/...smuggling/


Colonel Cutolo died in a car accident 2 months after signing this affidavit.

6. The purpose of Operation watch Tower was to establish a series of three electronic beacon towers beginning outside of Bogota, Colombia and running northeast to the border of Panama. Once the Watch Tower teams (Special Action Teams) were in place, the beacon was activated to emit a signal that aircraft could fix on and fly undetected from Bogota into Panama, then land at Albrook Air Station.


7. During the Feb., 1976, Watch Tower Mission, 30 high performance aircraft landed safely at Albrook Air Station where the plane were met by Col. Tony Noriega, who is a Panama Defence Force Officer currently assigned to the Customs and Intelligence Section. Noriega normally was in the company of other PDF officers known to me as Major Diaz-Herrera, Major Luis del Cid, Major Ramirez. Also present at most of the arrivals, was Edwin Wilson, and an unidentified male Israeli national.


8. The cargo flown from Colombia into Panama was cocaine.

16. Upon the assumption of command, I created and implemented 12 separate SATs. Their mission was to implement Army Regulation 340-18-5 (file number 503-05). My authority for this action came directly from FORSCOM through Edwin Wilson who appeared before me in my office at 10th Special Forces Group Headquarters. This action was taken to develop surveillance of politicians, judicial figures, law enforcement agencies at the state level, and of religious figures.


17. Mr. Edwin Wilson explained that it was considered that Operation Watch Tower might be compromised and become known if politicians, judicial figures, police and religious entities were approached or received word that U.S. Troops had aided in delivering narcotics from Columbia into Panama. Based on that possibility, intense surveillance was undertaken by my office to ensure if Watch Tower became known of, the U.S. government and the Army would have advance warning and could prepare a defense.

20. I instituted surveillance against Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Edward King, Michael Dukakis, Levin H. Campbell, Andrew A. Caffey, Fred Johnston, Kenneth A. Chandler, Thomas P. O'Neill to name a few of the targets. Surveillance at my orders was instituted at the Governors' residences of Massachusetts, Maine, New York, and New Hampshire. The Catholic cathedrals of New York and Boston were placed under electronic surveillance also. In the area of Ft. Devens, all local police and politicians were under some sort of surveillance at various times.

30. At approx. 0945 hours on 30 Jan. 1979 Pvt. Tyree reported to my office at 10th Special Forces Group Headquarters per my instructions. Pvt. Tyree reported that between 2400 hours and 0100 hours of the previous night that his wife had received another threatening phone call. I was notified of the call by the SAT in place at the tyree residence prior to speaking with Pvt. Tyree. I ordered Tyree to keep this matter to himself as it was being investigated. I notified Pvt. Tyree I would contact him between 1200 and 1300 hours at his duty station as soon as I could look into a matter that pertained to the threats. This meeting lasted until 1019 hours.


31. On 30 Jan. 1979, at approx. 1147 hours, two men were dropped in the parking area of the apt. complex that Pvt. Tyree resided within. One man was identified as Erik Aarhus. The second man due to his face being covered could not be identified as the two men entered the apartment building that the Tyree family resided within. Surveillance indicates that at least one of the two men entered the Tyree apt. and left prior to the arrival of Pvt. tyree and his wife at noon.


32. On 30 Jan 1979, at noon Pvt. Tyree and his wife were seen arriving at the apartment complex they resided in. Pvt. Tyree never exited his truck and Mrs. tyree entered the building where their apt. was located. After she disappeared, a car almost ran into Pvt. Tyree as he was leaving the complex parking lot. Mrs. Tyree was stabbed to death in their apt. shortly thereafter.

[Doug Fisher]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Un...ion_Center

The main AUTEC support base and downrange tracking stations are on Andros Island in the Bahamas, just west of Nassau and about 180 nautical miles (333 km) southeast of West Palm Beach, Florida.

In-air tracking is provided by radars and various other in-air tracking systems such as LATR, the Hyperbolic In-Air Tracking System (HITS), and Differential GPS (DGPS). These in-air systems cover the AUTEC Weapons Range up to a distance of 500 nautical miles (930 km) from Site 1 and a height of 70,000 feet (21,000 m). Surveillance radars operate to support air and surface safety.

Electronic Warfare Threat Simulator (EWTS) is a real-time system that can generate complex, dynamic, electromagnetic signal environments at the radio frequency (RF) level. With this system, AUTEC offers capabilities to test different platform receivers in an open-air, over-the-water range. The system consists of a radar simulator, pedestal and controller, antennas, high-power amplifiers, calibration equipment, and an operator workstation. The system is housed in an air-conditioned radome and located on a 74-foot (23 m) tower.

AUTEC complex at Andros Island:

Watchtower was a series of very powerful radio transmitters on towers with beacons on the ends of them from Andros Island off the coast of Columbia all the way up to US air space.


Aircraft could triangulate a position from the towers. The beacons created a "safe corridor." All aircraft flying through that corridor would not be intercepted. On the US end, aircraft emitting the proper frequency would not be inspected by customs.