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Bob Bottom Journalist, this wicked and murderous wretch, portrayed in the media as a crime fighter, as being hard down on organized crime is in fact a double agent, as it were. Thus someone who finds himself on the rough end of corruption by being stiffed by some filthy murderous politician or copper for instance, and finding the main stream media, the police, NCA, CJC etc either uninterested or downright hostile, that person tends to seek out like Bottom. Who then it appears auctions them to the highest bidder. Thus when people contact him from all over Australia in just those circumstances, he trades them back to those same corrupt elements to be murdered. Snuff porn see pages 4&5 is one of his specialities, the good citizens of Bongaree on Bribie Island and the good folk of Redcliffe should be aware this monster is in your midst.
Ted's remarkable record in illegal pharmaceuticals landed him the top job at Vietnam's Phoenix program where his talent for drug smuggling could be optimally utilized. He also proved to be adept at wholesale slaughter as the Phoenix program claimed tens of thousands of lives of innocent Vietnamese.
Ted was also good with special projects. He helped in the organization of and embezzlement from the Nugen/Hand Bank. From a super-secret location, former Nugen/Hand cochairman, Michael Hand had this to say to the Assassinated Press on hearing of Shackley's death: "I worked under the Blond Ghost cutting throats and threading ears in Phoenix with all the guys. The one's who show up again in Iran contra---Secord, North. You know who I mean. And then I was told to form Nugen/Hand bank for the Agency. We proceeded to run arms and drugs through Australia and rip off American service men who were told to put their money in Nugen/Hand by their superior officers who we had either been bribed or flat-out given a piece of the action. Then somebody blew off Frank Nugen's head and it all just went to shit."
Ted then moved to the top CIA job in Latin America where he, along with Henry Kissinger at NSC/State, oversaw the CIA's role in the murder of Salvador Allende and Rene Schneider. He and Kissinger were known to kibbitz over who could create the most bloodthirsty pronouncements. It's at this time that Kissinger uttered his now famous call to slaughter, "I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people." Shackley countered, "Now's the moment to let the rhetorical mask fall. We don't give a fuck whether a government's elected or non-elected. We love 'em or leave 'em dead based on whether they're giving up the booty."
Ted then formed a CIA front company with Edwin Wilson. But when Wilson was caught selling arms to Libya, Shackley let the 'cock crow thrice' and Ed did(is doing) some very hard time.
Then Ted pretended to retire, a classic feint by clandestine operatives, so that he could take part in the October Surprise which resulted in the American hostages in Iran being held until Reagan had won the 1980 elections. Moments after Reagan triumphed the hostages were released predicated on the notion that Reagan and his people were out of control and would take decisive action against Iran.
Which they did. They turned around and sold arms to Iran in what has come to be known as Iran-contra by the half-dozen or so Americans not on heroin and/or Prozac. Money went to the contras. Drugs flowed through Hampstead Air Force Base in Florida and Mena, Arkansas down the road from the third Iran contra President, Bill Clinton. And Ted was there for it all, even later efforts then to tilt toward Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War.
But when Wilson was caught selling arms to Libya, Shackley let the 'cock crow thrice' and Ed did(is doing) some very hard time.
MinM wrote:It can't happen here...could it?
There is not a great deal on the web on Michael J. Hand. He has not been seen since disappearing from Australia after the death of his partner, Frank Nugan. It is believed that the CIA arranged for him to start a new life in the US. Anyone know anything about him?
Michael Jon Hand, the son of a civil servant, was born in the Bronx on 8th December, 1941. According to Jonathan Kwitny in his book The Crimes of Patriots: A True Tale of Dope, Dirty Money, and the CIA: "Hand passed every class he took, and was noted for exceptional character, courtesy, cooperation, and appearance. His IQ registered an also exceptional 131."
In 1959 his mother died after falling or jumping from a third-floor window. Soon afterwards he attended a one-year course at the New York State Ranger School. This was followed by a year managing a sports school in Los Angeles.
In May 1963 Hand joined the US Army and started his training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. During the Vietnam War he won the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC). According to the DSC citation he almost single-handedly held off a fourteen-hour Vietcong attack on the Special Forces compound at Dong Xaoi.
In 1966 he left the army to work "directly for the U.S, Government". Friends of Michael Hand have suggested that he was employed on undercover missions for the Central Intelligence Agency in Vietnam and Laos. One reported that he "helped train the mountain people - Montagnards - and worked closely with the Air America crews that supplied them". According to Jonathan Kwitny Hand worked under William Colby during the Vietnam War.
Michael Hand moved to Australia in September, 1967. At first Hand went to work selling development lots along the Australian coast. The company, Ocean Shores Development, was run by lawyer Fred Miller, a senior executive for the shipping empire owned by Sir Peter Abeles, the longtime business partner, Rupert Murdoch. One of the largest investors in this scheme was the singer Pat Boone. The registered directors included Boone of Beverly Hills, California and Patricia Swan of Sydney, Australia. Swan was Frank Nugan's secretary.
It was while working for Miller that Hand made contact with Bernie Houghton who had also moved to Australia in 1967. Houghton had established the Bourbon and Beefsteak Bar and Restaurant in Sydney. He claimed that he met Hand in the autumn of 1967. However, in one interview he admitted he had been told about Hand in 1964: "I had heard of Mike Hand's great combat exploits and courage, which was well-known in Vietnam."
Regular visitors to the Bourbon and Beefsteak Bar included two Central Intelligence Agency station chiefs in Australia (Milton Corley Wonus and John Denley Walker). Lieutenant Colonel Bobby Boyd, a Texan who was a former U.S. embassy military attaché in Latin America, also went to work for Houghton.
In 1969 Hand formed his own company called Australian and Pacific Holdings. His two partners were Clive Wilfred Lucas and John J. Foley. The plan was to develop an island off Australia's barrier reef. Hand and Lucas visited Vietnam where they raised $16,000 from members of the U.S. Army. On 16th January, 1970, the directors of Australian and Pacific Holdings decided to lend the $16,000 to Frank Nugan.
In May 1970 a list of Australian and Pacific's shareholders was filed with the government. Of the thirty-seven listed shareholders, four had the address c/o Air America whereas another had the address c/o Continental Air Service. Later both Air America and Continental Air Service exposed as a CIA front. Five shareholders were reachable through the U.S. Agency for International Development. This agency posed as a cover for CIA covert operatives such as David Sanchez Morales.
In the early 1970s Hand spent a lot of time travelling. A former CIA colleague, Douglas Sapper, claimed "Michael showed up in Laos a lot. I saw him in Phnom Penh (Cambodia) from time to time." Sapper also saw Hand with Houghton in Vietnam. Bernie Houghton later told the police that he was with Hand buying surplus U.S. war material for resale.
Houghton clearly had important contacts in Australia. When he applied for a new Australian visa in 1972, he gave the immigration officers the name of Leo Carter, director of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) in New South Wales, to support his application. Carter also arranged for him to get permission for unlimited re-entries to Australia in the future.
Allan Parks claims that Houghton was active in the drug trade in the 1970s. "There's no doubt about it, he'd fly anything. The Golden Triangle, that's where he got his opium from. There was one flight, he flew in slot machines. He did some deals over in India."
There is no doubt that Michael Hand and Frank Nugan were involved in promoting anti-socialist political causes. As Jonathan Kwitny points out in The Crimes of the Patriots: “By associating with the more hard-hat attitudes of the right wing of Labour, Nugan and Hand may have done more to help their cause than they could by sticking to the more right-wing parties. Certainly it is a standard ploy of the CIA to work less with the most openly anti-communist parties than with the anti-communist wing of the party on the borderline.”
In 1973 Michael Hand and Frank Nugan, an Australian lawyer, established the Nugan Hand Bank. Another key figure in this venture was Bernie Houghton, who was closely connected to CIA officials, Ted Shackley and Thomas G. Clines.
Nugan ran operations in Sydney whereas Hand established a branch in Hong Kong. This enabled Australian depositors to access a money-laundering facility for illegal transfers of Australian money to Hong Kong. According to Alfred W. McCoy, the "Hand-Houghton partnership led the bank's international division into new fields - drug finance, arms trading, and support work for CIA covert operations." Hand told friends "it was his ambition that Nugan Hand became banker for the CIA."
In 1974 the Nugan Hand Bank got involved in helping the CIA to take part in covert arms deals with contacts within Angola. It was at this time that Edwin Wilson became involved with the bank. Two CIA agents based in Indonesia, James Hawes and Robert Moore, called on Wilson at his World Marine offices to discuss "an African arms deal". Later, Bernie Houghton arrived from Sydney to place an order for 10 million rounds of ammunition and 3,000 weapons including machine guns. The following year Houghton asked Wilson to arrange for World Marine to purchase a high-technology spy ship. This ship was then sold to Iran.
By 1976 the Nugan-Hand Bank appeared to have become a CIA-fronted company. This is reflected in the type of people recruited to hold senior positions in the bank. For example, Rear-Admiral Earl P. Yates, the former Chief of Staff for Policy and Plans of the U.S. Pacific Command and a counter-insurgency specialist, became president of the company. Other appointments included William Colby, retired director of the CIA, General Leroy J. Manor, the former chief of staff of the U.S. Pacific Command and deputy director for counterinsurgency and special activities, General Edwin F. Black, former commander of U.S. forces in Thailand, Walter J. McDonald, retired CIA deputy director for economic research, Dale C. Holmgren, former chairman of the CIA's Civil Air Transport and Guy J. Pauker, senior Republican foreign policy adviser.
One of those that Earl P. Yates brought in to help the Nugan Hand Bank was Mitchell WerBell. Yates later told the Joint Task Force on Drug Trafficking he recruited WerBell as a consultant because he "had extensive experience in Central America".
On 27th November 1979 Michael Hand wrote to Ted Shackley. It concerned a meeting the two men had recently attended in Washington: "The opportunity of meeting you again on different terms was very enjoyable and I sincerely trust that something worthwhile businesswise may surface and be profitable for both of us."
Former CIA agent, Kevin P. Mulcahy later told the National Times newspaper "about the Agency's use of Nugan Hand for shifting money for various covert operations around the globe." ...
Michael J. Hand - The Education Forum
John Pilger Q&A Transcript: embedded journalism, Murdoch press, Israel-Palestine, WikiLeaks
Posted by Kate Ausburn On April 19th, 2011 / No Comments
John Pilger addressed a sold-out crowd of over 400 people in Sydney at a special screening of his new documentary, The War You Don’t See. Following the screening Pilger answered questions on the Australian and international media, relationships between corporations or governments and our media, embedded journalism, Israel-Palestine media coverage (including the current campaign against Marrickville BDS supporters), WikiLeaks and much more......
QUESTION 11: United Stated media manipulation and propaganda, is there similar in Australia?
PILGER: There doesn’t have to be. They do it for them. That’s the point about – I mean, you’re right to suggest – there was a famous senate enquiry in the United States in the 1970′s that found that the CIA was involved in some form or another with most leading journalists.
[Camera cut out - a few seconds of this answer were missed]
[Question 11 answer continued...]
PILGER: They will do it. They won’t have the jobs if they don’t do it. That is why they are there to do it. I don’t want to in anyway minimise what you are suggesting, because Australia is absolutely overloaded with intelligence agencies. You know, we’ve got the famous UK and USA Security Act from the second world war that has allowed British intelligence, American intelligence, and our friends at ASIO and ASIS, there are so many of them with so many different basis [indecipherable] a lot of these weather bases across Australia are run for the benefit of international agencies and so on, the point is that we don’t, journalist enquiry into this doesn’t happen. Australia has been traditionally full of spooks -
.....
Hugh Manatee Wins wrote:Pilger outed Murdoch's role as CIA toady in his 1991 book, 'The Secret Country.' See many pages including 207-208.
http://www.johnpilger.com/books
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