Le Cercle. The Deep Politics of Europe

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Le Cercle. The Deep Politics of Europe
closed transnational structure
https://zavtra.ru/blogs/le_cercle_glubinnaya_politika_evropi

When it comes to the phenomena of the "deep state" (deep state) or "deep politics" (deep politics), first of all pay attention to the United States. However, the European events of the second half of the 20th century also deserve consideration. Moreover, in scope they are by no means inferior to the processes in the United States. And this is not least due to the organization, which we will talk about now. It operated (and operates!) on the territory of all the key states of Europe, as well as on other continents. Usually this structure appears under the name Le Cercle (literally from French - "circle"), but is also known as the "Circle of Pinay" (Le Cercle Pinay).

Le Cercle is a closed, privately funded transnational entity. Officially, it is positioned as a conservative discussion group. Politicians, diplomats, bankers, businessmen, editors, publishers, the military and representatives of the intelligence community take part in its work. The members of the Krug themselves sought to emphasize the exclusively "harmless" nature of their organization. Thus, Brian Crozier, who ran Le Cercle in the 1980s, writes:"The most accurate way to describe Le Cercle Pinay... as a "forum". There was no formal membership. It was an informal group of like-minded people who, as a rule, met twice a year, once in America, once in Europe. Usually some prominent figure was invited to speak. Guest speakers have occasionally included Strauss, Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, David Rockefeller and Giulio Andreotti .

Many members of Le Cercle, as a rule, were associated with European aristocratic circles or various structures of the Vatican. The greatest enemy of the "Circle" was considered the Soviet Union and the Communists.

Initially, Le Cercle was strongly oriented towards European integration. The significant presence among its participants of members of Opus Dei and the Knights of Malta associated with the idea of ​​​​Pan-Europe, as well as such a person as Otto von Habsburg, clearly indicates that the participants of the Circle meant the creation of a new Holy Roman Empire as their goal.

Over time, leadership in the organization passed to the British. And the latest generation of British leaders at Le Cercle are doing everything in their power to keep Britain out of the "European superpower."

At the origins of Le Cercle. French prime minister, cagoulard and monarch without a state

Le Cercle originated in the early 1950s. thanks to the efforts of the French statesman Antoine Pinay, which is why the organization was originally known as Cercle Pinay ("Circle of Pinay"). The main organizer was a man named Jean Violet, a close associate of Pinay since 1951.

Pinay entered politics in 1929, having been elected mayor of the city of Saint-Chamond (Department of the Loire). By 1940 he had become a member of the French Senate. During the occupation and the Vichy regime, Pinay did not hold public office, returning to the post of mayor of Saint-Chamon. It wasn't until after the war that Pinet's career really took off:"One of the most prominent members of the new Bilderberg Group was the French politician Antoine Pinay, who served as Minister of Public Works, Transport and Tourism from July 1950 to March 1952 before becoming President of the Council (Prime Minister) and Minister of Finance (until January 1953). Pinay would later serve under President Coty as Minister of Foreign Affairs from February 1955 to February 1956, and as Minister of Finance under the Prime Minister and later under President Charles de Gaulle from June 1958 to January 1960. In addition to a distinguished career in public office, Antoine Pinay had other, less obvious achievements - and not only within the select circle of the Bilderbergers.[2].

Jean Viollet had a much more curious past. In particular, there is evidence that before World War II he was a member of the far-right "Secret Committee for Revolutionary Action" (CSAR). Another name is Cagoule ("Hood"). This organization was built according to the Masonic type, including initiation rites. The aim of the Cagoulars was to undermine the French Republic. After the war, Jean Violet was arrested for collaborating with the invaders. However, he was released "by order from above."

After General Grossen took over as head of the SDECE intelligence service in 1957, Viole was hired as an agent and was entrusted with the most important missions. Viole will become SDECE's most respected "correspondent of honor". One of the evidences of Violet's importance is the fact that for fifteen years of service in the SDECE, the head of the service himself acted as his curator ... Reporting directly to General Grossen, " Violet led the service aimed at advancing the goals of General [de Gaulle] in the field of defense and foreign policy" , sounds rather ironic, given that Brian Crozier, Viole's future collaborator at Le Cercle, was watching de Gaulle's initiatives across the Channel with some suspicion."One of Violet's first collaborators in his work for the SDECE was the former chaplain of the French Far East Expeditionary Force in Indochina, the Reverend Father Yves-Marc Dubois, the "foreign political figure" of the Dominican order and an unofficial member of the Pontifical Delegation to the UN, whom the SDECE considered the head of the secret service of the Vatican ... In Viole's tasks at the UN included ensuring that Lebanon did not break off relations with France after its involvement in the Suez fiasco of 1956, and influencing the Latin American republics to block the UN's condemnation of France's Algerian policy in 1959. He also prepared the ground for de Gaulle's tour of Latin America in 1964. Another important activity of Violet and Dubois for the SDECE was Eastern Europe "[3].

In the same years, Viole established ties with Opus Dei. He was able to meet Opus Dei celebrities such as Alfredo Sánchez Bella and Otto von Habsburg, who in 1949 founded an influential organization called the European Center for Documentation and Information (CEDI). Von Habsburg was co-founder and chairman for life of CEDI and later of the Pan-European Union: "In 1949, after the communists took power in Czechoslovakia, he [Alfredo Sánchez Bella] together with Archduke Otto von Habsburg founded the European Center for Documentation and Information (CEDI) , the purpose of which was to create a federation of European states around the Spanish Bourbons, united by Christianity and anti-communism. It sounded very similar to the modern revival of the Holy Roman Empire "[4].

Pine-Viola's "Circle" was to act in the same vein. However, he faced slightly different tasks: "Many pan-European activists belonged to the right-wing association, which had no particular formal structure, but became known as the "Pine Group" ... Since it was wider than the Pan-European Union, its members were not exclusively Catholic, but on its meetings were regularly attended by right-wing Americans. These included former CIA director William Colby, banker David Rockefeller, and PR pioneer Crosby M. Kelly "[5].

Interestingly, Viole's close association with Vatican circles created problems for him with the SDECE. In 1970, the secret service broke up with him because of doubts about his loyalty. Viole "said he was in charge of covert political operations for the SDECE until he retired as an active spy in 1970. According to Alexandre de Marenches, head of intelligence from 1970 to 1981, Viola was "kicked" because he cost the French government more than any other spy on the SDECE's long list of secret agents. De Marenches also claimed that Viole was a triple agent, working also for the Vatican and the West German BND "[6].

Founders of Europe

Pinet and Viola were patronized by Otto von Habsburg, a key figure in the post-war pan-European movement, and funded by the controversial Italian tycoon Carlo Pesenti II. The founders of Le Cercle believed that the foundation of a strong and stable united Europe would be Franco-German reconciliation. In Germany, they turned to Konrad Adenauer. Thus, the first members of Le Cercle represented the Pan-European Union, the European Coal and Steel Community, France, Germany and Italy. His people initially brought together Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman and a number of other prominent personalities.

About Jean Monnet, who is called the "Father of Europe", it is worth mentioning especially. Right before and after World War I, he collaborated with leading figures in the Anglo-American establishment. In particular, Lord Kindersley was among them. Another very important man was Lord Arthur Salter. In 1931 he wrote the book The United States of Europe. In addition, Monnet did business with the leaders of the Chinese Green Triad and Chiang Kai-shek close to her.

When World War II broke out, Monet was in contact with both the French resistance and Churchill's government. While in London, Monnet proposed to General Charles de Gaulle the creation of a Franco-British alliance. After the war, de Gaulle instructed Monnet to reorganize the French economy. However, Monnet began to reorganize the whole of Europe. He attended the Hague Congress in May 1948, along with Robert Schumann, Konrad Adenauer and other figures.

In 1949, with the support of Adenauer, French Prime Minister Robert Schuman proposed the so-called Schuman Plan. This plan formed the basis of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). The creation of the ECSC in 1952 is considered the birth of the European Union. It was Monnet, who became the leader of the Association, who completely wrote the Schuman Plan. Monnet's proposed structure for Europe was a slightly adapted version of Arthur Salter's ideas.

In 1956, Monnet founded the Action Committee for a United States of Europe (ACUSE), which, together with the US State Department, actively lobbied, including behind the scenes, for the preparation of the 1957 Treaty of Rome, which effectively created the European Economic Community (EEC). All of Monnet's most important associates in this process were members of the Pilgrim Society.

In 1961, Monet succeeded in replacing the ECSC with the more broadly oriented Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Around the same time, Monnet met with future British Prime Minister Edward Heath, who at that time, in his capacity as Lord Privy Seal, was in charge of the initial negotiations for Britain's accession to the European common market. Heath became a member of the Action Committee for a United States of Europe, and in 1973 brought Britain into the EEC. This became possible only after Georges Pompidou, a protege of Guy de Rothschild, replaced de Gaulle.

"Genius Operations Influence"

According to Brian Crozier, president of Le Cercle in the early 1980s, the founder of the Circle, Jean Viollet himself, played an important, albeit behind-the-scenes, role a few years after the founding of the EEC : . A genius for (non-violent) influence operations, Viole played a historically key role between 1957 and 1961 in bringing about this rapprochement, which is the true core of the European Community. He established close friendly relations with Antoine Pinay... They paved the way for the meetings of Charles de Gaulle himself with Adenauer, which culminated in the Franco-German Treaty of January 1963 [Elysee Treaty] "[7].

The Élysée Treaty is a relatively little-known agreement between France and Germany, in which both countries agreed to consult each other on important foreign policy and economic issues before the general meetings of the EEC. This is the core of the Franco-German alliance, which has had a great influence on the European project ever since.

The Élysée Agreement was concluded at the same time that de Gaulle first vetoed Britain's inclusion in the EEC. A few years later, in June 1966, de Gaulle also withdrew from the NATO military organization, expelled all allied troops from France, and tried to build good relations with the Soviet Union. Neither the members of Le Cercle nor the UK and US liked this at all. In April 1969, he was forced to resign.

Le Cercle, de Gaulle and OAS terrorism

Le Cercle was originally a strictly Catholic continental European group, with members from the Vatican, Italians, French and Germans. However, later the leadership of the "Circle" passed into the hands of the British. This change came in 1971 when British intelligence agent Brian Crozier found himself at Le Cercle and soon began presiding over its meetings. In 1959, he was invited by Colonel Antoine Bonnemaison to a "mysterious organization" called Le Center de Recherche du Bien Politique. Founded in 1955, just two years after Le Cercle, Le Centre, in fact, operated in the same way as the Circle. While the German members from the BND reported directly to General Reinhard Gehlen, the Dutch members, Louis Einthoven and especially Seees van den Heuvel, were close to Prince Bernhard.

How Crozier got involved with Le Center and then Le Cercle is an intriguing story, which he details in his Free Agent biography. In February 1958, returning from French Algeria, Crozier sat next to Colonel Antoine Bonnemaison. The latter was an ardent nationalist who wanted France to fight its way back to greatness. He was in Algiers to raise the morale of the French army and help it hold on to the colony. A relationship began between him and Crozier.

Bonnemaison was associated with General Raoul Salan, who in 1956, at the height of the war of independence, served as commander-in-chief of French troops in Algiers. He soon retired. Believing that de Gaulle would continue the war under any circumstances, Salan was then still his supporter. The situation changed in January 1961, when 75% of the French voted in favor of granting independence to Algeria. In response, Salan created the Secret Armed Organization (OAS). In 1961–1962, the OAS carried out a huge number of terrorist attacks in an attempt to disrupt peace negotiations and reignite the war. However, all this did not lead to anything.

Judging by Crozier's description, it is quite clear that Antoine Bonnemaison was at least a spiritual ally of the conspirators against de Gaulle. Brian Crozier himself, along with other members of Le Cercle and the CIA, supported right-wing regimes and movements around the planet. And OAS was no exception. Its co-founder and CIA darling, Jacques Soustelle, later attended conferences with various members of Le Cercle.

Crozier and his associates rejected Henry Kissinger's policy of détente, introduced at the end of the Vietnam War, because they were of the opinion that the Soviets still continued to significantly influence Western labor, socialist and green parties.

Crozier is invited to the "Circle"

In Free Agent, Crozier described his recruitment process: "On March 1, 1971, a long interview I gave to Joseph Fromm appeared in US News and World Report. The theme was terrorist and communist intentions. After reading this interview, a Frenchman named Jean Violet came to visit me at my office in Piccadilly. It was introduced to me by François Duchen, my former colleague, an economist and director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies... Viollet impressed me with the clarity and precision of his arguments—Gallic logic at its best—and with his intellectual understanding of world problems "[9].

Interestingly, Duchenne introduced Viola not only to a man who worked for French intelligence, but also to someone who "represented a powerful consortium of French business interests"[10].

However, there is a big difference between Jean Viollet and partners such as Jean Monnet, François Duchene and several other members of the British Le Cercle. Violé, as a French member of Opus Dei and aide to Otto von Habsburg, was part of a far-right pan-European network heavily influenced by the Vatican, while others were part of the liberal Anglo-American establishment.

Cement king Le Cercle recruits Rockefeller

Now let's say a few words about another key figure of Le Cercle, this time representing Italy. Entrepreneur Carlo Pesenti became the first financial donor of the Circle and ensured its connection with Rockefeller. He was a member of one of the richest families in Italy. At one point, Pesenti owned Italy's largest financial holding company."The foundations of Carlo Pesenti's concrete business empire were laid by his uncle, who was close to Mussolini. Thus, he achieved a privileged position in the export of cement to Ethiopia conquered by Italy. At the end of the war, Carlo tried to whitewash the image of his family firm; and under his leadership, with the spiritual and material support of the Vatican and the Christian Democratic Party, it grew into a financial empire, dealing in banking, insurance, newspapers, and a host of other businesses... "[11]

However, in the 1970s, the mafia-connected financier Michele Sindona, a member of the famous Propaganda Due ("Propaganda Two", P2) lodge, laid eyes on the assets of the Pesenti empire. Pesenti rescued his firm from Sindona with a financial injection from Banco Ambrosiano, led by fellow Mafia-connected P2 member Robero Calvi, dubbed "God's banker" and ending his days hanging from London's Blackfriars Bridge. Pesenti became the largest minority shareholder of Banco Ambrosiano. Both Sindona and Calvi would later play a key role in the Vatican bank scandal.

It was Carlo Pesenti who, in 1967, invited David Rockefeller to join Le Cercle. In his memoirs, Rockefeller gave one of the most convincing descriptions of the group:"For a while, Bilderberg coincided with my membership in a relatively obscure but potentially even more controversial organization known as the Pesenti Group. I first learned about it in October 1967, when Carlo Pesenti, owner of a number of important Italian corporations, met with me at the Chase investment forum in Paris and invited me to join his group, which discussed current trends in Europe and world politics ... Jean Monnet, Robert Schumann and Konrad Adenauer were founding members of the group, but by the time I joined they had been replaced by an equally distinguished line-up, which included Antoine Pinet, former President of France, Giulio Andreotti, who served several times as Prime Minister of Italy, and Franz Josef Strauss, head of the Christian Social Union of Bavaria... Discussions were held in French,»[12]

american friends

After Nixon's victory in the presidential election, the very first Le Cercle meeting in the United States was organized, which was held at Rockefeller Center. A few months later, Rockefeller appeared again at the Le Cercle meeting, this time in Bavaria, ahead of Nixon and Kissinger's efforts to strengthen ties between the United States and European NATO countries. Rockefeller and Kissinger served as a conduit for information from Le Cercle to the Nixon administration and, no doubt, to many of their friends in the American establishment. For example, David Rockefeller gave Kissinger a document from a group calling itself Sint Unum, which warns of underground "communist" infiltration into the church network, including Latin America, through "progressism", "modernism" and "liberalism". Understanding that Sint Unum was actually Le Cercle is not that difficult.

At the same time, it is worth recalling that David Rockefeller and his friends were closely associated with the CIA and even formed a kind of "super-CIA" network through close personal relationships with successive CIA presidents and directors, holding the position of national security adviser and others. high-ranking government positions, as well as through connections with almost all key NGOs. David Rockefeller was kept informed by various CIA chiefs of everything that was going on in the agency, so his positions at Bilderberg, the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and Le Cercle can be seen as one big private intelligence sting operation.

American Security Council and the strategy of "provoked conflict" with the USSR

However, Le Cercle's connections in the USA were by no means limited to the Rockefellers and the Eastern Establishment. The main partner of the Circle during the Cold War was the American Security Council (ASC). It was controlled by "former" US military and intelligence officers and acted as both a think tank/lobbying group and a full-fledged intelligence network that was dedicated to combating "communist subversion".

Brian Crozier first appeared on the outskirts of the ASC thanks to the curious figure of Frank Rockwell Barnett. When Crozier first confronted Barnett, the latter had technically already cut ties with the ASC, but was linked to another national defense-oriented group known as the National Strategy Information Center (NSIC):"In Madrid – in Franco's waiting room – Crozier met one of the future main supporters of the British anti-subversive lobby: Frank Rockwell Barnett, who from 1962 ran the New York-based National Strategy Information Center (NSIC). Barnett had extensive experience in Cold War propaganda, having served from 1958 to 1962 as program director for the Institute of American Strategy (IAS)... During their meeting in Madrid in 1966, Barnett invited Crozier to come to the United States as soon as his work with Franco would completed " [13].

NCIS is a curious organization in its own right. Barnett was a specialist in "political warfare" and it appears to have been the main target of this think tank. Another character associated with the NSIC also had a deep experience: "... In 1962, Casey, along with his protégé Frank Barnett, as well as brewing magnate Joseph Kors and Prescott Bush, Jr., brother of George W. Bush, helped create the National Strategy Clearinghouse (NSIC). NSIC received $1 million for the defense spending campaign "[14].

Barnett has previously worked with the American Security Council (ASC) and the ASC-sponsored group known as the Institute for American Strategy (IAS)."...The Council was actively involved in Cold War 'education' aimed at the general public. Between 1955 and 1961, the ASC co-sponsored an annual series of meetings called the National Military Industrial Conferences, at which Pentagon and National Security Council personnel met with executives from United Fruit, Standard Oil, Honeywell, US Steel, Sears Roebuck, and other corporations. . At the 1958 Conference, the ASC founded the Institute of American Strategy with the aim of indoctrinating the elites and the public with an anti-communist ideology. Through National Military Industrial Conferences, Regional Meetings, Seminars, and National War College Publications, the Institute began to take on the role of a quasi-state propaganda agency... "[15]

Defenders of Christian culture, "Muslim brothers" and General MacArthur's "beloved fascist"

The International Committee for the Defense of Christian Culture (ICDCC) is an organization that has played a key role in establishing contacts between Le Cercle and the far right in the United States. It arose after the Second World War, but did not show much activity until the end of the 50s. Its first president, Lindrath, had a rather ambiguous past. In 1933, he joined the far-right Steel Helmet. In 1934, Lindrath joined the SA, and in 1937, the NSDAP. In 1951 he fled East Germany. At the first CIDCC international conference in 1958, the vice-presidents of the conference were Pine, Solis Ruiz (a Spanish politician who held a number of important posts under Franco), as well as the recent Italian foreign minister Gaetano Martino, who later served as president of the European Parliament.

It is also interesting to note that Oberländer, a supporter of political Islam, financed the Spiritual Directorate for Muslim Refugees in his capacity as Minister for Refugees. At that time, this organization mainly consisted of Muslims of Turkish origin who served the Nazis on the Eastern Front. The Office will promote close ties with the Muslim Brotherhood*.

Of particular interest will be the Committee's relations with America: "... The next meeting of the Presidium was held in Paris in December 1962, and for the first time an American representative, US Major General of German origin Charles Andrew Willoughby, who during most of World War II, the occupation Japan and the Korean War was General Douglas MacArthur's chief of intelligence. A longtime admirer of Franco and Mussolini, whom MacArthur called his "beloved fascist," Willoughby traveled to Spain after his retirement in 1951 to act as an adviser and lobbyist to the Franco government... "[18].

Heritage Foundation: action is the main thing!

There is another US group worth considering that is closely associated with many of the above organizations, especially the ASC network and the Unification Church. Founded in 1973, the Heritage Foundation has become one of the most influential think tanks in the country since the election of Ronald Reagan. To this day, he retains a huge influence on the American conservative movement. The source of his original seed capital should surprise no one:"In 1975, the Skaife family charitable foundation donated $195,000 to a new conservative think tank in Washington, the Heritage Foundation. Over the next ten years, Skaife became his biggest contributor...By 1998, his donations totaled about $23 million... Skaife used to be the largest donor to the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an older, rival conservative think tank in Washington, but Heritage there was a new model that won him over. Unlike the think tanks of the past, the Foundation was single-mindedly politically oriented, taking pride in creating and injecting deeply conservative ideas into the American mainstream "[19].

By the way, Richard Mellon Skaife is Brian Crozier's longtime financial backer. Not surprisingly, Heritage co-founder and longtime president Edwin Feulner was apparently very close to Le Cercle:"The main private sector funding for the Le Cercle/6I campaigns will also be provided by the American Heritage Foundation, whose president since 1977, Edwin Feulner, attended the December 1979 meeting of the Circle. The Heritage Foundation, whose role is obscured in Crozier's memoirs, provided the infrastructure and funding for the three Le Cercle/6I groups engaged in anti-peace propaganda in the UK. While some of the funding was direct and therefore public, the Heritage Foundation also created an intermediary that acted as a conduit for covert financing of Le Cercle/6I campaigns: the International Freedom Fund Establishment (IFFE), run by Crozier himself, which thus became the representative of the Foundation in the UK. ... Crozier acknowledged that IFFE received a total of 200,000»[20].

6I: privatization of CIA operations

Now it's time to talk about the operational activities of Le Cercle, so to speak. The "Circle" had no less intelligence potential than David Rockefeller and his "super-CIA". The potential that the leadership of the group intended to direct not just to "contain" Soviet influence, but to actively counteract it. Crozier himself wrote:"The decade of the 1970s was characterized by the concept of détente, which meant the relaxation of international tensions. This concept was misleading. Throughout my tenure as director of the Institute for Conflict Studies, I have been involved in exposing the fallacies of détente and warning the West of the dangers of the politics of illusion. Detente meant different things on both sides of the Iron Curtain. In the West, supporters of "détente" ... believed that it would lead to a general reduction in the burden of armaments by reducing fear. Many even hoped, against all evidence, that in time the "détente" would be able to convince the Soviet leadership that the USSR should now stop its ideological war against the West and all countries that were not yet in the Soviet orbit. It was supposed that trade would make the Soviet Union more prosperous and therefore more prepared to stop subversive activities against other countries. On the Soviet side, the aspirations were strikingly different. The Soviets hoped that the West would unilaterally cut defense budgets and remove any obstacles to the Soviet acquisition of high technology with which to build up the already excessive military power of the USSR. They hoped that the West would give permanent—that is, de jure—recognition of Europe's post-war borders: in other words, Stalin's conquests and annexations. Their ultimate hope was that a European Security Treaty would be concluded, leading to the dissolution of NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The Americans will withdraw their troops from Europe, and the Soviet troops will be able to intimidate her, and, if necessary, occupy therefore, more willing to stop subversive activities against other countries. On the Soviet side, the aspirations were strikingly different. The Soviets hoped that the West would unilaterally cut defense budgets and remove any obstacles to the Soviet acquisition of high technology with which to build up the already excessive military power of the USSR. They hoped that the West would give permanent - that is, de jure - recognition of the post-war borders of Europe: in other words, Stalin's conquests and annexations. Their ultimate hope was that a European Security Treaty would be concluded, leading to the dissolution of NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The Americans will withdraw their troops from Europe, and the Soviet troops will be able to intimidate her, and, if necessary, occupy therefore, more willing to stop subversive activities against other countries. On the Soviet side, the aspirations were strikingly different. The Soviets hoped that the West would unilaterally cut defense budgets and remove any obstacles to the Soviet acquisition of high technology with which to build up the already excessive military power of the USSR. They hoped that the West would give permanent - that is, de jure - recognition of the post-war borders of Europe: in other words, Stalin's conquests and annexations. Their ultimate hope was that a European Security Treaty would be concluded, leading to the dissolution of NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The Americans will withdraw their troops from Europe, and the Soviet troops will be able to intimidate her, and, if necessary, occupy more willing to stop subversive activities against other countries. On the Soviet side, the aspirations were strikingly different. The Soviets hoped that the West would unilaterally cut defense budgets and remove any obstacles to the Soviet acquisition of high technology with which to build up the already excessive military power of the USSR. They hoped that the West would give permanent - that is, de jure - recognition of the post-war borders of Europe: in other words, Stalin's conquests and annexations. Their ultimate hope was that a European Security Treaty would be concluded, leading to the dissolution of NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The Americans will withdraw their troops from Europe, and the Soviet troops will be able to intimidate her, and, if necessary, occupy more willing to stop subversive activities against other countries. On the Soviet side, the aspirations were strikingly different. The Soviets hoped that the West would unilaterally cut defense budgets and remove any obstacles to the Soviet acquisition of high technology with which to build up the already excessive military power of the USSR. They hoped that the West would give permanent - that is, de jure - recognition of the post-war borders of Europe: in other words, Stalin's conquests and annexations. Their ultimate hope was that a European Security Treaty would be concluded, leading to the dissolution of NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The Americans will withdraw their troops from Europe, and the Soviet troops will be able to intimidate her, and, if necessary, occupy The Soviets hoped that the West would unilaterally cut defense budgets and remove any obstacles to the Soviet acquisition of high technology with which to build up the already excessive military power of the USSR. They hoped that the West would give permanent - that is, de jure - recognition of the post-war borders of Europe: in other words, Stalin's conquests and annexations. Their ultimate hope was that a European Security Treaty would be concluded, leading to the dissolution of NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The Americans will withdraw their troops from Europe, and the Soviet troops will be able to intimidate her, and, if necessary, occupy The Soviets hoped that the West would unilaterally cut defense budgets and remove any obstacles to the Soviet acquisition of high technology with which to build up the already excessive military power of the USSR. They hoped that the West would give permanent - that is, de jure - recognition of the post-war borders of Europe: in other words, Stalin's conquests and annexations. Their ultimate hope was that a European Security Treaty would be concluded, leading to the dissolution of NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The Americans will withdraw their troops from Europe, and the Soviet troops will be able to intimidate her, and, if necessary, occupy with the help of which it would be possible to build up the already excessive military power of the USSR. They hoped that the West would give permanent - that is, de jure - recognition of the post-war borders of Europe: in other words, Stalin's conquests and annexations. Their ultimate hope was that a European Security Treaty would be concluded, leading to the dissolution of NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The Americans will withdraw their troops from Europe, and the Soviet troops will be able to intimidate her, and, if necessary, occupy with the help of which it would be possible to build up the already excessive military power of the USSR. They hoped that the West would give permanent - that is, de jure - recognition of the post-war borders of Europe: in other words, Stalin's conquests and annexations. Their ultimate hope was that a European Security Treaty would be concluded, leading to the dissolution of NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The Americans will withdraw their troops from Europe, and the Soviet troops will be able to intimidate her, and, if necessary, occupy»[21].

Members of Le Cercle were ready to lend a helping hand to their intelligence colleagues and even take on some of their functions. In the early 1970s, the CIA was heavily criticized for its role in the Vietnam War and Watergate. Reporters and official committees of inquiry began scrutinizing the administration, and stories soon surfaced of domestic espionage, media infiltration, subversion of foreign governments, assassinations of foreign leaders, and large-scale mind control experiments. Additional doubts about the CIA were related to its alleged role in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Against the background of all this information, measures were taken to reduce the autonomy of the CIA. The ban on domestic espionage was strengthened, while Congress and the Senate gained much more influence over the appointment of CIA officials and the allocation of its budget. They requested numerous briefings and decided which undercover operations were allowed and which were not. The CIA no longer had the right to overthrow any foreign government or kill any leader at will.

These changes in the oversight of covert CIA operations did not sit well with many intelligence officials and allies, such as Brian Crozier. They argued that the CIA's intelligence-gathering and operational capabilities were now almost completely destroyed; especially after the director of the CIA, Admiral Stansfield Turner, appointed by President Carter, began in 1977 to purge the administration of anti-Soviet employees. Crozier and his associates at Le Cercle were looking for a solution and came up with the idea of ​​creating their own transnational secret intelligence agency. For security reasons, this group did not initially have a name: it became known as 6I.

In Crozier's words, 6I became "a private sector operational intelligence agency reporting to no government, but at the disposal of allied or friendly governments..." ), or because political circumstances have made such investigations difficult or potentially difficult, and to carry out covert anti-subversive operations in any country where such activities would be considered possible. It was agreed that outsiders should not be made aware of the existence of the organization in question, except when, in the opinion of one of us, that person was considered a suitable candidate for recruitment "[22].

Members of the 6I, which existed from 1977 to 1988, were from England, France, Germany, South Africa, the United States, and most likely some other countries. The organization forged ties with Prince Turki of Saudi Arabia and the Shah of Iran. On at least some occasions, 6I reported intelligence received to the Pope. According to Crozier, there was only a "minor overlap" between Le Cercle and 6I. This is somewhat misleading, as many of the Circle's key figures were part of the 6I, including Brian Crozier himself, Jean Viole, Georges Albertini, Count Hyun, Hans Christoph Schenk Freiherr von Stauffenberg, and General Stilwell. Other famous members of Le Cercle include Nicholas Elliot, Robert Moss, William Wilson, General Fraser.

In his biography, Crozier recounted the meeting that launched 6I: "The question was whether something could be done in the private sector — not just in the UK, but in the United States and other countries of the western alliance. Some of us, having exchanged opinions, decided that action is indeed possible. And they took the initiative by convening a very small and top secret meeting in London... "[23]

It can be assumed that the third Briton was Le Cercle member Sir Peter Tennant of Barclays (one of the most aristocratic banks with a historically large number of members of the Pilgrim Society, the 1001 Club and the Order of St. John). Tennant appears as chairman of one of the Circle's sessions. In 1977, Tennant was a director and industrial advisor to Barclays Bank, formerly based in the City of London, near the Bank of England. Tennant himself was a City salesman for a long time.

In addition, it is worth bearing in mind that at the beginning of World War II, Tennant was recruited into the Special Operations Executive (SOE) by Colonel Sir Charles Hambro, who founded him in 1942. Sir Charles was the chairman of Hambros Bank, another very aristocratic bank represented in the Pilgrim Society and the 1001 Club. He was a very good friend of Winston Churchill, the Bilderberg family, and the Wallenberg family. Interestingly, Sir Hambro's deputy in the SOE, Henry "Harry" Sporborg, ended up on a small committee of another Crozier group called the Shield, which aimed to promote M. Thatcher to the chair of prime minister.

Brian Crozier did not mention in his biography that the 6I operations, which cost at least $1 million a year, were paid for by Richard Mellon Skaife, Rupert Murdoch and Sir James Goldsmith. All of these people were wealthy neoconservatives with ties to the CIA and the Mossad.

Champion of overthrowing foreign governments

Now let's say a few words about the figure that Crozier has named quite openly as a co-founder and member of 6I. It's about retired General Vernon Walters, a major figure who seems to represent a faction of US intelligence that was not particularly pleased with the changes in the CIA's control system.

Like many leading members of Le Cercle and some of the top CIA leaders, Walters was close to the Vatican. He was educated by the Jesuits and later became a member of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, which gave him permanent access to the Vatican at all times.

At the start of the Cold War, in 1947-1948, Walters served as military attaché to Brazil and attended with President Truman and Secretary of State George Marshall the summit of the Organization of American States in Rio de Janeiro in 1948. In the period 1948–1954. Walters was assistant to Pilgrim Society member Averell Harriman, first in Europe, where Harriman was in charge of the Marshall Plan, then in Korea in 1950, and finally in Iran in 1951. In the latter case, Harriman tried to mediate between Mossadegh's Iranian government and the British over the nationalization of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Corporation. Negotiations broke down, and in 1953, as a result of a coup organized by MI6 and the CIA, Mossadegh was overthrown, and an anti-communist shah came to power. Another diplomatic mission with Harriman followed in 1954 to Iran and Yugoslavia. In 1951, Harriman was a co-founder of the Psychological Strategy Council, which included Nelson Rockefeller.

In 1951, Walters was involved in the establishment and management of NATO Headquarters in Paris, serving there until 1956. In 1958, Eisenhower sent his Vice President Richard Nixon on a Latin American tour with Walters as his assistant and interpreter. Walters performed a similar role for Eisenhower at various conferences. In 1958–1960 Walters was the US military attaché in Paris. He subsequently served as a military attaché in Italy from 1960-1962, when he and the CIA tried to stop the left from coming to power. Then, from 1962 to 1967, he was an army attaché in Brazil, a period that coincided with the 1964 military coup by his old friend, Colonel Humberto Castelo Branco. Then, from 1967 to 1972, he returned to Paris as a military attache.

In 1972, apparently on Kissinger's recommendation, Walters was appointed deputy director of the CIA under Richard Helms, remaining in that position under James Schlesinger, William Colby, and George W. Bush. From early July to early September 1973, between Schlesinger and Colby, Walters was the de facto director. Under Helms, Walters appears to have been heavily involved in the Watergate scandal of 1972-1973.

In addition, as deputy director of the CIA, Walters was one of the key organizers of Operation Condor to create a network of anti-communist death squads in Latin America. In the summer of 1974, he traveled to Chile to confer with the newly minted pro-American dictator Augusto Pinochet. For the next few years, the head of the Chile branch of the CIA, Stuart Burton, and Walters were considered "bosom buddies" of Manuel Contreras, Pinochet's head of security. On November 25, 1975, it was Contreras who invited the military intelligence chiefs of the dictatorial regimes of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay to Chile to formally approve the Condor plan.

The FBI suspected Walters of involvement in the September 21, 1976, murder of Chilean exile Orlando Letelier in Washington. Walters apparently hid from the FBI the fact that he met with Contreras more than once, while the CIA ruled Pinochet out as a suspect.

With the arrival of Jimmy Carter in 1976, Walters left the civil service and became involved in black arms and oil deals. In 1981, with the election of Reagan, Walters returned to the US government as Ambassador-at-Large, apparently on the recommendation of Secretary of State Alexander Haig, a Knight of Malta who served under Kissinger under Nixon as Deputy National Security Adviser and therefore knew Walters. Walters remained under George Schulz, who took over from Haig in July 1982. During the Reagan years, Walters visited 108 countries, meeting with heads of state in almost every one of them.

Among Walters' first assignments from the Reagan administration were visits to a number of Central American regimes to organize and support the struggle of the Nicaraguan Contras. In 1981, he twice visited Guatemala, led by the right-wing General Romeo Lucas Garcia, whose financial aid was cut off by the Carter administration in 1977. Now Israel and the Reagan government were happy to supply arms to Lucas Garcia. However, he was reluctant to join the Contras' struggle, which necessitated visits from Walters. In May 1981, Walters met with Colonel Gustavo Alvarez and other Honduran officials. Alvarez was an important organizer of the anti-communist drug-trafficking death squad. In June of that year, Walters traveled to Argentina,

Not surprisingly, at one point, Walters was described as someone who "participated directly or indirectly in the overthrow of more governments than any other U.S. government official "[24]. He himself was inclined to attribute such statements to communist propaganda: "The communists and their friends find it necessary to denigrate those who defeated them, so they spread the rumor that the Americans were really behind the Brazilian, Chilean or any other revolutions that they do not like. Unfortunately, many guilt-ridden Americans naively believe them. "[25]

It was with such people that Crozier was going to do what he describes in his book:"... We planned both to start secret operations in our countries and to coordinate the ongoing open actions of many private groups involved in resisting Soviet propaganda and active measures. At that time, we had no plans to act as a spy agency in the Soviet bloc countries. We felt that this task could still be delegated to the existing intelligence services, including the CIA. Our main task was to combat subversive activities. We expected that inevitably, from time to time, we would have secret intelligence. We handed them over at our discretion to interested allied agencies. We also intended to supplement the analysis provided to the American, British and other allied governments by the official secret agencies.»[26]

"Strategy of Tension", P2 Lodge and "Black Baron"

With its powerful intelligence capabilities and ideological guidelines, Le Cercle actively joined the CIA's "strategy of tension" for Europe. It set as its goal the fight against "communist subversive activities" and most intensively unfolded in Italy and Belgium. Therefore, it is not surprising that among the participants of the "Circle" there were a large number of key figures in the shadow politics of these countries.

In Italy, Le Cercle member Giulio Andreotti was one of the main players behind the scenes throughout the Cold War. He began his career under the Pan-Europeian Alcide de Gasperi, one of the first builders of the European Union, who was likely invited to the first meetings of Le Cercle. From the 50s. and until the early 90s, Andreotti held almost all influential positions in the cabinet. He was prime minister from 1972-1973, 1976-1979 and 1989-1992.

As for Andreotti's behind-the-scenes influence, it is quite possible that Roberto Calvi's claims that Andreotti was the real head of the P2 lodge, along with his comrades, the Knights of Malta Francesco Cosentino and Umberto Ortolani, are true. The head of P2, Licio Gelli, may have been nicknamed "the puppeteer of Italy" and was probably also a member of the Order of Malta, but, unlike Andreotti and Ortolani, the background does not allow him to be considered the true mastermind of events. As later discovered Gladio documents showed, the foreign masters of Jelly's puppets were Nixon, Kissinger, and Haig.

The main goal of the P2 lodge was to form a right-wing elite that would resort to propaganda, terrorism and coups to keep the extremely powerful communist and socialist elements in Italy out of power. The CIA, the Italian Christian Democrats, the big banks and multinational corporations, the Vatican, Opus Dei and the aristocracy of the Knights of Malta revolving around Otto von Habsburg, no one was going to wait for the left to come to power, so P2 was their answer.

Another person attended meetings of Le Cercle in the 1980s, at the same time that the Banco Ambrosiano, P2 and Gladio scandals broke out. His name was Giancarlo Elia Valori, and he was involved in all these scandals. As early as 1960, Valori became the Pope's secret chamberlain. In this post, he was the protégé of the same Maltese knight Umberto Ortolani. Ortolani later introduced Valori to Jelly. The two continued to be close associates throughout the 70s, when the P2 network was at its most active. In addition, Valori was a friend of the Argentine dictator Juan Perón, whom he introduced to Gelli. Despite being in the shadows, Valori is still strong. In the 21st century, he has met the likes of Henry Kissinger, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, George Schultz, James Wolfensohn and others of the global superclass.

As far as Belgium is concerned, we must start with former Minister of Defense and Prime Minister Paul van den Buynants and his longtime cold war bosom friend, Baron Benoît de Bonvoisin. Father de Bonvoisin was the first member of the Bilderberg Club and director of the Societe Generale, the mainstay of the Belgian economy and the aristocracy associated with the Vatican.

Son and his associates came to represent a Vatican-influenced pan-European network largely opposed to the more liberal Bilderberg aristocracy. In 1969, Paul van den Buynants and Benoît de Bonvoisin - both said to have belonged to Opus Dei - were among the founders of the Cercle des Nations, a pan-European aristocratic Belgian club in which Le Cercle founder Jean Viollet happened to be one of the very few foreign members. When the club first started, it had about 80 members, but it grew rapidly. Van den Buynants and de Bonvoisin were also involved in Jean Violé's European Academy of Political Science (AESP), while another pan-European group, the Institut Europeen de Developpement (IED), was headquartered in the Baron de Bonvoisin's castle. The co-founder and vice-chairman of the IED was Paul Vankerhoven, a supporter of Otto von Habsburg and founder of the Belgian branch of the World Anti-Communist League. In 1972, Vankerhoven was a co-founder of CEPIC, the far-right inner group of the Social Christian Party (PSC) of van den Buijnants and Baron de Bonvoisin.

This group, which included many aristocratic figures, at times tried to undermine the democratic process in Belgium with the help of underground right-wing groups associated with the CIA, such as the Westland New Post, Front de la Jeunesse and Group G (secretly operating within the gendarmerie). One of these attempts was made in the early 1970s, the other in the early 80s. Not to be overlooked in this regard is an organization called the Public Information Office (PIO), a far-right private intelligence agency founded in 1974 and run by Major Jean Bougerols. According to high-ranking CIA officer Ray Kline, Bougerols was trained in the US in counterinsurgency tactics. In Belgium, he was a member of the CIA- and NATO-controlled Gladio network.

During the 1980s, Baron Bonvoisin became known as the "Black Baron". Various investigations have shown that he was the main financier of the underground right-wing fighters in Belgium and helped them to contact counterparts in other European countries. Needless to say, de Bonvoisin and his close allies such as Paul van den Buynants, Paul Vankerhoven and others were suspected of working for the CIA.

At the same time, as it turns out, Baron de Bonvoisin attended the meeting of Le Cercle, held in June 1982 in Bonn. In addition, a photograph from the 1970s appeared, in which the Baron de Bonvoisin stands next to David Rockefeller, talking with Antoine Pinay. Considering that they were all members of Le Cercle, it's safe to say that the photograph depicts a meeting of the Circle in the mid-70s in Washington. Thus, de Bonvoisin visited Le Cercle both in the 70s and in the 80s.

Another very important visitor to the Belgian Krug was Florimond Damman. Dammann was involved in the Pan-Europe Union of Otto von Habsburg, was the chairman of the Movement for the European Union (MAUE). He became a key founder of the European Academy of Political Science (AESP) Otto von Habsburg and Jean Viollet and a participant in AESP events called "Charlemagne dinners". Habsburg, Vankerhoven, Jaunet, Violet, Crozier, Andreotti and others took part in them. In 1969, Yves Guérin-Serac, a right-wing militant who founded the Portuguese Gladio group Aginter Press, was invited to such a dinner.

Mujahideen lovers from the Safari Club

However, the interests and influence of Le Cercle extended not only to the West, but also to the East. In the context of this, we should consider another project - the Safari Club (Safari Club), which has become a kind of analogue of the 6I network and the Latin American "Condor". Moreover, the same people often participated in the implementation of all these initiatives.

The main founders of the "Club" in 1976 were General Walters and Comte de Maranches. The latter was the head of the French SDECE from 1970 to 1981. He was appointed to this position by Georges Pompidou because of his friendship with Pompidou's son-in-law. He was instructed to purge Gaullism from the ranks of French intelligence and coordinate its activities with the United States. At the time of Maranche's appointment, Walters was the military attache in France. Both men belonged to the Knights of Malta and became good friends for life. When Walters was appointed Deputy Director of the CIA, their relationship took on an even higher level.

In 1976, Walters and de Marenches secretly recruited Anwar Sadat of Egypt, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, and the Shah of Iran into an anti-communist alliance called the Safari Club. While Walters worked with de Marenches, his boss, CIA director George W. Bush, through his oil connections, played a key role in bringing Saudis into the Safari Club. Former CIA director Richard Helms, who had by then become "ambassador" to Iran, and Le Cercle key member Ted Sheckley also played a major role in these links with Saudi Arabia.

"The Safari Club needed a network of banks to finance its intelligence operations. With the official blessing of George W. Bush as head of the CIA, Adham transformed Pakistan's small trading Bank of Credit and Commercial International (BCCI) into a colossal money laundering machine, buying up banks around the world to create the largest clandestine money transfer network in history. In addition, "Adham, his successor Prince Turki, and their Saudi agency GID, or Mukhabarat, have been accused of funding unofficial covert CIA operations around the world. This includes support for a supposed "private CIA" close to Bush and run by former CIA officials such as Ed Wilson, Theodore Sheckley... and Tom Clynes... "[27]

Both Kamal Adham and especially Prince Turki ibn Faisal were very close to Le Cercle. Both also had close contacts with the Pakistani military intelligence ISI. Adham, Prince Turki and the Safari Club played a critical role in supporting Islamic extremists in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation. Osama bin Laden was reportedly one of Prince Turki's personal contacts. This connection caused a lot of controversy around the prince after the events of September 11, when he was still the head of intelligence in Saudi Arabia.

Le Cercle's links with the Islamic world are very strong. Despite the militancy of Opus Dei and some other Catholic orders regarding Islam, Le Cercle nevertheless worked closely with Saudi Arabia and Iran until the overthrow of the Shah. The Safari Club's support for the Mujahideen in Afghanistan is very revealing in this regard. Here, religious extremism was openly used against the USSR with the support of Le Cercle. And perhaps most interestingly, Le Cercle-connected Eastern Establishment luminaries were involved in launching the Afghan project that replaced the "détente" under dove-president Jimmy Carter.

Détente first gained prominence in US foreign policy circles under Henry Kissinger during the Nixon and Ford administrations. Kissinger was a guest at Le Cercle, as was David Rockefeller. Rockefeller, along with Zbigniew Brzezinski, founded the Trilateral Commission, an elite organization that was most active in détente in the 1970s. The Carter administration was overwhelmed with members of the Trilateral Commission, such as Brzezinski, who served as Carter's national security adviser.

Yet it was Brzezinski, at the urging of David Rockefeller, who pushed the Carter administration to abandon "détente" in favor of "competition" with the Soviet Union in the Middle East. Carter embarked on significant programs to create new weapons, and also increased the military budget itself. Brzezinski created a Special Coordinating Committee (SCC) in the White House, which was busy with covert activities and various sensitive operations. It is significant that the State Department knew nothing about this activity.

In addition, Brzezinski thwarted the efforts of Secretary of State Vance, who advocated negotiations for the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. "The United States government was divided from the beginning between the bleeders who wanted to keep the Soviet troops in Afghanistan and thus avenge Vietnam, and the "treaties" who wanted to get them to leave through a combination of diplomacy and military pressure. ... Even in the late 1980s, the supporters of the "bleeding" fought against the Geneva Accords to the very end "[28].

Theodore Shackley, American curator

Let's say a few words about the key operational players in all these events. The first to come to mind is Theodore Sheckley, who was the most important "retired" CIA officer involved in Le Cercle. Sheckley was a veteran of the CIA's covert operations. He served in Berlin in the mid-1950s under his mentor Bill Harvey. After that, he, along with Harvey, moved to the CIA's JM / WAVE station in Miami, where they were primarily tasked with undermining the authority of Fidel Castro. After the radical Harvey was sent to work in Rome by Kennedy in October 1962 for ignoring retreat orders during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Shackley took over the station. Over the next year, CIA officers serving with JM/WAVE under Sheckley were involved in a variety of circumstances surrounding the Kennedy assassination.

Sheckley served as CIA station chief in Laos from 1966 to 1968, where hundreds of suspected double agents working for the CIA reportedly "disappeared". In 1972 he returned to the United States, where he served as chief of the CIA's Western Hemisphere Division until 1976, overseeing operations in the Americas.

In May 1976, new CIA director George W. Bush promoted Shackley to Deputy Director of Operations. Sometime during this period, Ted Shackley introduced Licio Gelli, the head of the P2 Lodge, the protagonist of the campaign to implement the "strategy of tension" in Italy, with Kissinger's aide Alexander Haig. And it was then, in 1976, that Bush, Sheckley, and Helms created the Safari Club network with the Saudis and other Middle Eastern regimes to bypass Congressional oversight of the CIA.

Unfortunately for Ted Sheckley and a number of other senior CIA officers, Jimmy Carter became president in 1977. The director of the CIA he appointed, Admiral Stansfield Turner, was an old friend of his and followed Carter's policy of human rights and non-intervention. In light of the countless coup investigations staged by the CIA by December 1977, Ted Sheckley was removed from his position as chief of covert operations. In 1979 he was fired.

After leaving the CIA, Shackley founded Research Associates International, a "consulting firm" specializing in the oil trade. In the 1980s, he remained a close friend of Vice President Bush, who helped him get started in the oil business. It is here that we again follow in the footsteps of Le Cercle. Sheckley is known to have visited Le Cercle in 1983, 1987 and 1990. In addition, in 1994 he founded a company called Atlantic Cercle, Inc., which was registered on the Sheckley estate in Miami. Julian Emery, an MI6 agent and president of Le Cercle from 1985 to the early 1990s, was featured as one of the key employees of Atlantic, which makes it clear that we are dealing with Le Cercle.

Richard T. McCormack, another co-founder of Atlantic Cercle, Inc., was the US government's international economic and business adviser for decades, principally during the Nixon, Reagan, and Bush Sr. administrations.

USA as a banana republic

Jean Wheaton, late 1980s involved in exposing the Irancontras helped clarify what Ted Sheckley and his CIA friends were aiming for in the late 1970s. At that time, many CIA operations were, so to speak, privatized through the above groups. This was the same period that Jimmy Carter pushed these people aside in favor of a less militant foreign policy (however, as we have seen, hawks are beginning to replace doves in his presidency).

Wheaton was a former police officer, military criminal investigator and security professional. He has also worked as a counter-terrorism consultant for the Rockwell Corporation, the Saudi royal family, and the Shah of Iran. All this was before he got into the "inner circle", which, as it turned out, consisted of people with whom he did not want to have anything to do. In 2002, Wheaton recalled:"In fact, in the late 70s, after Jerry Ford lost the election to Jimmy Carter in 1976, these guys were exposed by [an outside CIA director and an old friend of Carter] Stansfield Turner and company for some reason ... it was all different factions and power games... Ted Sheckley, Vernon Walters, Frank Carlucci, Wing West and a bunch of these guys were meeting on a park bench in McLane, Virginia in the late 70's so no one could eavesdrop. They basically said, "Having experience in putting dictators in power", I quote one of their comments almost verbatim, "why don't we treat the United States as the largest banana republic in the world and take them under your control?" And the first thing they had to do was put their man in the White House, and that was [1976 CIA director] George W. Bush. Reagan was never actually president. He was a figurehead. They chose a guy who had charisma, who was popular and just a good old boy, but they brought in George W. Bush to actually run the White House. They pulled Ronald Reagan and Nancy out of the closet and let them make speeches, put them up on the flagpole, saluted them and put them back down while "ghosts" ruled the White House. They made sure that George W. Bush was the chairman of every critical committee involved in covert operations. One was the Vice President's Counterterrorism Task Force. They brought Bush in as the head of the VP Narcotics task force, the South Florida task force, so they could place people in the DEA,»[29].

"Devil communist conspiracy" in the United Kingdom

However, these people not only treated the United States as a "banana republic". Something similar took place on the other side of the Atlantic, in relation to Great Britain. There, circles associated with Le Cercle planned to bring their man to power in the same years. This is one of the "internal operations" in which Crozier's structures - in particular, the Shield Committee - took an active (if not decisive) part. Namely, we are talking about the promotion of the conservative Margaret Thatcher to the post of prime minister.

"Le Cercle's connections with the UK take us to the heart of a major manipulation of British domestic politics, the 'Thatcher coup', which culminated from Harold Wilson's two electoral victories in 1974 to the election of Margaret Thatcher as leader of the Conservatives on 11 February 1975, culminating in her election as Prime Minister on May 4, 1979. A significant body of verified information confirms the existence of a plot to undermine Wilson's Labor government, discredit Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe, and replace Conservative leader Edward Heath with someone "more determined". Colin Wallace, a former psy-ops officer and a key witness to MI5 interference in British domestic politics in the 1970s, writes:

"Various key members of the intelligence community—past and present—with the assistance of influential figures in civil service, politics, and economics, created a series of political and psychological warfare projects that were designed to:

a) preventing the election and re-election of a Labor government;

b) preventing a coalition between the Labor and Liberal parties;

c) discrediting key figures on both sides;

d) collection and dissemination of "black" information that can be used to discredit or "control" various politicians who were considered to have tacit power in all three major political parties;

e) removing Mr. Edward Heath as leader of the Conservative Party and replacing him with someone who takes a more assertive approach to political and industrial unrest."

The conspirators can be broadly divided into two groups, the first of which was associated with MI5 employees ... The second group was a powerful coalition of the private sector, consisting of retired MI6 officers, IRD disinformation agents and prominent members of the Tory party, some of whom would later be serve as ministers under Thatcher. ... It was this coalition – the "anti-subversion lobby" – that was closely associated with the Cercle Pinay complex... "[30]

Crozier orchestrated Thatcher's re-election campaign by adopting Jean Viollet's program of "psychological action". In addition, his "Shield" also fully convinced Thatcher of the seriousness of the threat of communist subversion in the UK. After Crozier and Haskings [a former MI6 official] handed her a memorandum exposing the "devilish nature of the communist conspiracy," Thatcher replied: "I have read every word and am shattered. What should we do?"

To sum up the description of Thatcher's quiet coup, Crozier's "Shield" with its goals was not unique, and its success can actually be seen as the culmination of twenty years of manipulation by the British right to elect the prime minister they really wanted. "... The Pinay circle was actively involved in attempts to elect right-wing governments in the 1970s (the most famous example is Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom). Crozier himself seems to have claimed victory in the election of Thatcher, as he announced at the meeting of the Circle "[31].

And besides, it seems that the secret campaign to elect Margaret Thatcher was somehow coordinated with the CIA group Ted Sheckley, who at the same time planned to replace Carter with Reagan.

Brexit. "Europe is a dysfunctional mess"

Unlike many other shadow structures, the end of the Cold War did not end Le Cercle's activities. Moreover, the 1990s mark a new stage in the evolution of this organization. Recall that in the late 70's - early 80's there was a kind of interception of control of the "Circle". The group's leadership shifted from Vatican-oriented pan-Europeans to members associated with the Anglo-American establishment. The first Britons to visit Le Cercle in the 1970s, such as Brian Crozier, may still have been open to the idea of ​​Britain joining the European Union as a third pillar (along with Germany and France). However, with the end of the Cold War and the ongoing rivalry with the same France, this view has changed radically. Recent heads of Le Cercle such as Jonathan Aitken,

In September 2005, Aitken stated: "People have realized that the dream of a federal Europe with Britain at the center was a dream that had failed. I and a few other people could have seen in advance that she would fail, and it happened "[32].

Lord Lamont echoes him: "The Europe of Delors, Mitterrand and Cohl is dead. No means no. Europe is a dysfunctional mess. Europe needs to get back to square one ."[33].

And so, in June 2016, the British public, despite massive propaganda warnings from the mainstream media about the economic apocalypse, voted for the UK to leave the European Union. However, this event, of course, was not an accident ...

The most prominent Eurosceptic activist of the 1990s was a distant cousin of the Rothschilds, Sir James Goldsmith, a 6I private intelligence financier who was also invited to Le Cercle. In November 1994, Goldsmith founded his Eurosceptic Referendum Party with a £20 million investment. After his death in 1997, his widow Lady Annabelle Goldsmith and brother-in-law Robin Beerley continued the project, first under the name of the Referendum Forum, then the name became the Democratic Movement pressure group. In 1999, wealthy but obscure businessman Paul Sykes donated £20 million to the Democratic Movement and merged his organization, the European Information Company, with it. Sykes even sold a yacht, a private jet, various houses and deprived his children of most of his inheritance,

Let's say a few words about the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), or rather about its financial donors. One of them is Aaron Banks, who once worked for Lloyds Bank and now owns a diamond mine in South Africa and a security firm with ex-MI5 and SAS employees. The other is Andy Wigmore, until recently British Honduras (Belize) Trade and Investment Envoy to the United Kingdom. Wigmore tweeted a picture of him with Reagan when he was very young. In November 2016, Wigmore arranged a meeting with Trump between UKIP leader Nigel Farage and Aaron Banks. Finally, a third party is American billionaire Robert Mercer, a top-notch spokesman for Christian conservative interests and a sponsor of groups associated with Le Cercle, such as the Heritage Foundation and the National Policy Council (CNP), as well as the Trump-supporting news agency Breitbart. In addition to being involved with CNP, Mercer attended the parties of Eric Prince, the founder of Blackwater. Mercer is also a shareholder in Trump's Mar-a-Lago Resort.

Clearly, Banks, Wigmore, and Mercer are deeply connected to the same CIA/National Security right-wing circles with which Brian Crozier once had a close relationship.

Notes:

1 1993, Brian Crozier, «Free Agent: The Unseen War, 1941–1991», p. 192.

2 2013, David Teacher «Rogue Agents: The Cercle and the 6I in the Private Cold War 1951–1991», p. 20.

3 Ibid., Pp. 20–21.

4 1997, Robert Hutchinson, «Their Kingdom Come — Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei», p. 153.

5 Ibid., P. 154–155.

6 Ibid., P. 156.

7 Crozier, 'Free Agent', p. 192.

8 Ibid., Pp. 29–33.

9 Ibid., P. 97.

10 Ibid.

11 1988, Naylor, R. T., Hot money and the politics of debt, p. 259.

12 2003, David Rockefeller, Memoirs, p. 412–413.

13 Teacher, Rogue Agents, p. 35–36.

14 2007, Peter Dale Scott, The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire and the Future of America, p. 97.

15 1995, Sara Diamond, 'Roads to Dominion: Right-Wing Movements and Political Power in the United States, p. 47–48.

16 Teacher, Rogue Agents, p. 472–473.

17 2003, Dick Russell, The man who knew too much, p. 528.

18 Teacher, 'Rogue Agents, p. 474–475.

19 2016, Jane Mayer, Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right, p. 77.

20 Teacher, Rogue Agents, p. 211.

21 Crozier, Free Agent, p. 96–97.

22 Ibid., P. 136.

23 Ibid., P. 135.

24 2005, Daniele Ganser, NATO's Secret Armies, p. 273.

25 August 29, 1982, Boston Globe, Mystery Man of American Diplomacy.

26 Crozier, Free Agent, p. 180–181.

27 Scott, The Road to 9/11, p. 62–63.

28 Ibid., P. 67–68.

29 January 2002, interview by Matt Ehlingfor for Declassified Radio.

30 Teacher, Rogue Agents, p. 85–86.

31 Scott, The Road to 9/11, p. 98.

32 Interview with Jonathan Aitken.

33 2005, Lamont»s comment on the rejected European Constitution for the Bruges Group.

* a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation




Here's a Wikispooks report about Le Cercle:  https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Le_Cercle