Blackwater: A Secret Private Army of Soldiers, Spies and Assassins

Over the past years Blackwater have performed intelligence, counterintelligence, counterterrorism, interrogations and assassinations for US and foreign governments.

Over the past several years, entities closely linked to the private security firm Blackwater (which now calls itself Xe Services) have performed security, training, intelligence, counterintelligence, counterterrorism, interrogations and assassinations for US and foreign governments as well as several multinational corporations, including Monsanto, Chevron, the Walt Disney Company, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and banking giants Deutsche Bank and Barclays.

Blackwater's work for government agencies, including the CIA and SOD (Special Operations Division) was contracted using two companies owned by Blackwater's owner and founder, Erik Prince: Total Intelligence Solutions and the TRC (Terrorism Research Center). Sounds like something from the hit series, “24”, but better!

Blackwater Founder & CEO, Erik Prince

In April 2002, the CIA paid Blackwater more than $5 million to deploy a small team of men inside Afghanistan during the early stages of US operations in the country. A month later, Erik Prince, the company's owner, heir to a family fortune and a former Navy SEAL, flew to Afghanistan as part of the original twenty-man Blackwater contingent.

Blackwater worked for the CIA at its station in Kabul as well as in Shkin, along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, where they operated out of a mud fortress known as the Alamo. It was the beginning of a long relationship between Blackwater, Prince and the CIA. Sounds like something straight out of the series, “The Unit”, doesn’t it?

In 2004 the CIA hired Blackwater "as part of a secret program to locate and assassinate top operatives of Al Qaeda." According to the Times, "it is unclear whether the CIA had planned to use the contractors to capture or kill Qaeda operatives, or just to help with training and surveillance."

The Times reports that "the CIA did not have a formal contract with Blackwater for this program but instead had individual agreements with top company officials, including Erik Prince. This was standard procedure, as to allow for deniability by the Agency and the US government in case something went wrong.

The Post reported that Blackwater "was given operational responsibility for targeting terrorist commanders and was awarded millions of dollars for training and weaponry, but the program was canceled before any missions were conducted."

"What the agency was doing with Blackwater scares the hell out of me," said Jack Rice, a former CIA field operator who worked for the directorate of operations, which runs covert paramilitary activities for the CIA. "When the agency actually cedes all oversight and power to a private organization, an organization like Blackwater, most importantly they lose control and don't understand what's going on," Rice told The Nation. "What makes it even worse is that you then can turn around and have deniability. They can say, 'It wasn't us, we weren't the ones making the decisions.' That's the best of both worlds. It's analogous to what we hear about torture that was being done in the name of Americans, when we simply handed somebody over to the Syrians or the Egyptians or others and then we turn around and say, 'We're not torturing people.'"

It is also still uncertain but probable, that Vice President Dick Cheney ordered the CIA to conceal an assassination program from Congress.

"What we know now, if this is true, is that Blackwater was part of the highest level, the innermost circle strategizing and exercising strategy within the Bush administration," Illinois Democrat Jan Schakowsky, a member of the House Intelligence Committee told The Nation. "Erik Prince operated at the highest and most secret level of the government. Clearly Prince was more trusted than the US Congress because Vice President Cheney made the decision not to brief Congress. This shows that there was absolutely no space whatsoever between the Bush administration and Blackwater."

As The Nation has reported, Blackwater continues to operate on the US government payroll in both Iraq and Afghanistan, where it works for the State Department and the Defense Department. The CIA will not confirm whether Blackwater continues to work for the agency (or, for that matter, if it ever has).



Blackwater's work for the CIA was the result of meetings in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 between Prince and Alvin "Buzzy" Krongard, then-executive director of the CIA, the agency's number-three man. Krongard and Prince, according to a former Blackwater executive interviewed by The Nation, "were good buddies."

The relationship between Blackwater and the CIA quickly evolved as the Blackwater owner focused on winning more business with government agencies, providing private soldiers for hire. In 2002 Prince, along with former CIA operative Jamie Smith, created Blackwater Security Consulting, which would put former Navy SEALs and other special ops on the market.

Blackwater also hired many senior Bush-era CIA officials. In July 2007 Buzzy Krongard joined the company's board; Prince offered him a $3,500 honorarium per meeting attended plus all expenses paid. At the time his brother, Howard "Cookie" Krongard, was the State Department inspector general responsible for overseeing Blackwater's work for the State Department.

In September 2007 California Democratic Representative Henry Waxman accused Cookie Krongard of impeding a Justice Department investigation into Blackwater over allegations the company was illegally smuggling weapons into Iraq.

Blackwater hired several other former CIA officials to run what amounted to their own private CIA. Most notable among these was J. Cofer Black, who was running the CIA's counterterrorism operations and leading the hunt for Osama bin Laden when Blackwater was initially hired by the CIA in 2002. Black left the government in 2005 and took a job at Blackwater running Prince's private intelligence company, Total Intelligence Solutions.

While at the CIA, Black ran the "extraordinary rendition" program and coordinated the CIA "Jawbreaker" team sent into Afghanistan to kill or capture bin Laden and senior Al Qaeda leaders. In the days immediately after 9/11, he told Bush that his men would aim to kill Al Qaeda operatives. "When we're through with them, they will have flies walking across their eyeballs," Black promised Bush. When Black told Bush the operation would not be bloodless, the president reportedly said, "Let's go. That's war. That's what we're here to win."

Before the CIA Jawbreaker team deployed on September 27, 2001, Black gave his men direct and macabre directions: "I don't want bin Laden and his thugs captured, I want them dead.... They must be killed. I want to see photos of their heads on pikes. I want bin Laden's head shipped back in a box filled with dry ice. I want to be able to show bin Laden's head to the president. I promised him I would do that." According to CIA operative Gary Schroen, a member of the Jawbreaker team, it was the first time in his thirty-year career he had been ordered to assassinate an adversary rather than attempt a capture.

In September 2002, five months after Blackwater's first known contract with the CIA in Afghanistan, Black testified to Congress about the new "operational flexibility" employed in the "war on terror." "There was a before 9/11, and there was an after 9/11," Black said. "After 9/11 the gloves come off." Black outlined a "no-limits, aggressive, relentless, worldwide pursuit of any terrorist who threatens us," saying it "is the only way to go and is the bottom line." Black would later brag, in 2004, that "over 70 percent" of Al Qaeda's leadership had been arrested, detained or killed, and that "more than 3,400 of their operatives and supporters have also been detained and put out of an action." The Times reported however, that the Blackwater-CIA assassination program "did not successfully capture or kill any terrorist suspects."

In addition to Black, Blackwater's Total Intelligence's executives include CEO Robert Richer, the former associate deputy director of the CIA's Directorate of Operations and second-ranking official in charge of clandestine operations. From 1999 to 2004, Richer was head of the CIA's Near East and South Asia Division, where he ran covert operations in the Middle East and South Asia. As part of his duties, he was the CIA liaison with Jordan's King Abdullah, a key US ally and Blackwater client, and briefed George W. Bush on the burgeoning Iraqi resistance in its early stages.

Former CIA Agent, Enrique "Ric" Prado

Total Intelligence's chief operating officer is Enrique "Ric" Prado, a twenty-four-year CIA veteran and former senior executive officer in the Directorate of Operations. He spent more than a decade working in the CIA's Counterterrorist Center and ten years with the CIA's "paramilitary" Special Operations Group. "Total Intel brings the...skills traditionally honed by CIA operatives directly to the board room," Black said.

Governmental recipients of intelligence services and counterterrorism training from Prince's companies include the Kingdom of Jordan, the Canadian military and the Netherlands police, as well as several US military bases, including Fort Bragg, home of the elite Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), and Fort Huachuca, where military interrogators are trained, according to the documents. In addition, Blackwater worked through the companies for the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the US European Command.

On September 3, 2010, the New York Times reported that Blackwater had "created a web of more than 30 shell companies or subsidiaries in part to obtain millions of dollars in American government contracts after the security company came under intense criticism for reckless conduct in Iraq." The documents obtained by The Nation reveal previously unreported details of several such companies and open a rare window into the sensitive intelligence and security operations Blackwater performs for a range of powerful corporations and government agencies. The new evidence also sheds light on the key roles of several former top CIA officials who went on to work for Blackwater.

The coordinator of Blackwater's covert CIA business, former CIA paramilitary officer Enrique "Ric" Prado, set up a global network of foreign operatives, offering their "deniability" as a "big plus" for potential Blackwater customers, according to company documents. The CIA has long used proxy forces such as Blackwater, to carry out extralegal actions or to shield US government involvement in unsavory operations from scrutiny. In some cases, these "deniable" foreign forces don't even know who they are working for. Prado and Prince built up a network of such foreigners while Blackwater was at the center of the CIA's assassination program, beginning in 2004. They trained special missions units at one of Prince's properties in Virginia with the intent of hunting terrorism suspects globally, often working with foreign operatives. A former senior CIA official said the benefit of using Blackwater's foreign operatives in CIA operations was that "you wouldn't want to have American fingerprints on it."

While the network was originally established for use in CIA operations, documents show that Prado viewed it as potentially valuable to other government agencies. In an e-mail in October 2007 with the subject line "Possible Opportunity in DEA—Read and Delete," Prado wrote to a Total Intelligence executive with a pitch for the Drug Enforcement Administration. That executive was an eighteen-year DEA veteran with extensive government connections who had recently joined the firm. Prado explained that Blackwater had developed "a rapidly growing, worldwide network of folks that can do everything from surveillance to ground truth to disruption operations." He added, "These are all foreign nationals (except for a few cases where US persons are the conduit but no longer 'play' on the street), so deniability is built in and should be a big plus."

The executive wrote back and suggested there "may be an interest" in those services. The executive suggested that "one of the best places to start may be the Special Operations Division, (SOD) which is located in Chantilly, VA," telling Prado the name of the special agent in charge. The SOD is a secretive joint command within the Justice Department, run by the DEA. It serves as the command-and-control center for some of the most sensitive counternarcotics and law enforcement operations conducted by federal forces. The executive also told Prado that US attachés in Mexico; Bogotá, Colombia; and Bangkok, Thailand, would potentially be interested in Prado's network. Whether this network was activated, and for what customers, cannot be confirmed. A former Blackwater employee who worked on the company's CIA program declined to comment on Prado's work for the company, citing its classified status.



In November 2007 officials from Prince's companies developed a pricing structure for security and intelligence services for private companies and wealthy individuals. One official wrote that Prado had the capacity to "develop infrastructures" and "conduct ground-truth and security activities." According to the pricing chart, potential customers could hire Prado and other Blackwater officials to operate in the United States and globally: in Latin America, North Africa, the Middle East, Europe, China, Russia, Japan, and Central and Southeast Asia. A four-man team headed by Prado for countersurveillance in the United States cost $33,600 weekly, while "safehouses" could be established for $250,000, plus operational costs. Identical services were offered globally. For $5,000 a day, clients could hire Prado or former senior CIA officials Cofer Black and Robert Richer for "representation" to national "decision-makers." Before joining Blackwater, Black, a twenty-eight-year CIA veteran, ran the agency's counterterrorism center, while Richer was the agency's deputy director of operations. (Neither Black nor Richer currently works for the company.)

As Blackwater became embroiled in controversy following the Nisour Square massacre, Prado set up his own company, Constellation Consulting Group (CCG), apparently taking some of Blackwater's covert CIA work with him, though he maintained close ties to his former employer. In an e-mail to a Total Intelligence executive in February 2008, Prado wrote that he "recently had major success in developing capabilities in Mali [Africa] that are of extreme interest to our major sponsor and which will soon launch a substantial effort via my small shop." He requested Total Intelligence's help in analyzing the "North Mali/Niger terrorist problem."

In October 2009 Blackwater executives faced a crisis when they could not account for their government-issued Secure Telephone Unit, which is used by the CIA, the National Security Agency and other military and intelligence services for secure communications. A flurry of e-mails were sent around as personnel from various Blackwater entities tried to locate the device. One former Blackwater official wrote that because he had left the company it was "not really my problem," while another declared, "I have no 'dog in this fight.'" Eventually, Prado stepped in, e-mailing the Blackwater officials to "pass my number" to the "OGA POC," meaning the Other Government Agency (parlance for CIA) Point of Contact.

Representative Schakowsky says the House Intelligence Committee is investigating the CIA assassination program and will probe alleged links to Blackwater. "The presidential 'findings' authorizing covert action like the lethal activities of the CIA and Blackwater have not yet surfaced," says Ray McGovern, a retired twenty-seven-year CIA analyst who once served as George H.W. Bush's national security briefer. "They will, in due course, if knowledgeable sources continue to put the Constitution and courage above secrecy oaths."

In August of 2009 Blackwater and the State Department reached a $42 million settlement for hundreds of violations of US export control regulations. Among the violations cited was the unauthorized export of technical data to the Canadian military. Meanwhile, Blackwater's dealings with Jordanian officials are the subject of a federal criminal prosecution of five former top Blackwater executives. The Jordanian government paid Total Intelligence more than $1.6 million in 2009.

This past summer Erik Prince put Blackwater up for sale and moved to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. But he doesn't seem to be leaving the shadowy world of security and intelligence. He says he moved to Abu Dhabi because of its "great proximity to potential opportunities across the entire Middle East, and great logistics," adding that it has "a friendly business climate, low to no taxes, free trade and no out of control trial lawyers or labor unions. It's pro-business and opportunity." It also has no extradition treaty with the United States.

USTC Holdings, an investor consortium led by private equity firms Forte Capital Advisors and Manhattan Partners said Friday, December 17th, 2010, it will acquire Xe, formerly known as Blackwater, and its core operating subsidiaries, but did not disclose the price or terms of the agreement in a statement.

Eric Price will sell his entire stake in the company and "will not be involved in the management or operation of the company," USTC Holdings said, though I strongly suspect that its operations will continue as before.

As Blackwater’s former owner, Prince is currently facing allegations of war crimes, extra-judicial killings and assault and battery over the Baghdad's Nisour Square Massacre of September 16, 2007, when seventeen Iraqi civilians were killed.

Edited By: Tom Retterbush

Sources

Blackwater's Black Ops (thenation.com)

Blackwater: CIA Assassins? (thenation.com)

Blackwater Assholes Gone Wild, Party On in Baghdad (conspiracyplanet.com) 

The Bohemian Grove Conspiracy Meeting of the New World Order

Each year, Bohemian Grove hosts a two-week encampment of the most powerful men in the world.

Bohemian Grove is a 2,700 acre campground located at 20601 Bohemian Avenue, in Monte Rio, California, belonging to a private San Francisco-based men's art club known as the Bohemian Club.


Summer Camp for the Rich and Powerful

In mid-July each year, Bohemian Grove hosts a two-week encampment of some of the most powerful men in the world, somewhat like the even more secretive Bliderberg Group does in Europe (see my post, The Bilderberg Group Conspiracy, from Wednesday, January 26, 2011).

The Bohemian Club's all-male membership includes government leaders, even royaly such as the King of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf and many former U.S. presidents, such as Herbert Hoover, Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan and both George Bush Sr. and Jr., government officials such as Robert F. Kennedy, Colin Powell and Donald Rumsfeld, movie and music celebrities such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jimmie Buffet, senior media executives including Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corporation and the management of Time Warner, as well as many prominent business leaders, such as the Rockefeller and Rothschild banking  family dynasties.

Members may invite guests to the Grove although those guests are subject to a screening procedure. A guest's first glimpse of the Grove is typically during the "Spring Jinks", in June, preceding the main July encampment. Bohemian club members can schedule private day-use events at the Grove any time it is not being used for Club-wide purposes, and are allowed at these times to bring spouses, family and friends, though female and minor guests must be off the property by 9 or 10 p.m.

After 40 years of membership the men earn "Old Guard" status, giving them reserved seating at the Grove's daily talks, as well as other perquisites.

Illustration of rumored ritual child offerings

The Club motto is "Weaving Spiders Come Not Here", which implies that outside concerns and business deals are to be left outside. When gathered in groups, Bohemians usually adhere to the injunction, though discussion of business often occurs between pairs of members. Important political and business deals have been developed at the Grove.

The Grove is particularly famous for a Manhattan Project planning meeting that took place there in September 1942, which subsequently led to the atomic bomb. Those attending this meeting, apart from Ernest Lawrence and military officials, included the president of Harvard and representatives of Standard Oil and General Electric. Grove members take particular pride in this event and often relate the story to new attendees.

The tradition of a summer encampment was established six years after the Bohemian Club was formed in 1872. Henry "Harry" Edwards, a well-loved founding member, announced that he was relocating to New York City to further his career. On June 29, 1878, somewhat less than 100 Bohemians gathered in the Redwoods in Marin County near Taylorville (present-day Samuel P. Taylor State Park) for an evening sendoff party in Edwards' honor. Freely flowing liquor and some Japanese lanterns put a glow on the festivities, and club members retired at a late hour to the modest comfort of blankets laid on the dense mat of Redwood needles.

This festive gathering was repeated the next year, without Edwards, and became the club's annual encampment. By 1882, the members of the Club camped together at various locations in both Marin and Sonoma County, including the present-day Muir Woods and a redwood grove that once stood near Duncans Mills, several miles down the Russian River from the current location. From 1893, Bohemians rented the current location and, in 1899, purchased it from Melvin Cyrus Meeker who had developed a successful logging operation in the area. Gradually over the next decades, members of the Club purchased land surrounding the original location to the perimeter of the basin in which it resides.

Since the founding of the club, the Bohemian Grove's mascot has been an owl, symbolizing knowledge. A 40-foot (12 m) hollow owl statue made of concrete over steel supports stands at the head of the lake in the Grove; this Owl Shrine was designed by sculptor and two-time club president Haig Patigian, and built in the 1920s. Since 1929, the Owl Shrine has served as the backdrop of the yearly Cremation of Care ceremony.

The Club's patron saint is John of Nepomuk, who legend says suffered death at the hands of a Bohemian monarch rather than disclose the confessional secrets of the queen. A large wood carving of St. John in cleric robes with his index finger over his lips stands at the shore of the lake in the Grove, symbolizing the secrecy kept by the Grove's attendees throughout its long history.

Writer and journalist William Henry Irwin said of the Grove:

"You come upon it suddenly. One step and its glory is over you. There is no perspective; you cannot get far enough away from one of the trees to see it as a whole. There they stand, a world of height above you, their pinnacles hidden by their topmost fringes of branches or lost in the sky."

Not long after the Club's establishment by newspaper journalists, it was commandeered by prominent San Francisco-based businessmen, who provided the financial resources necessary to acquire further land and facilities at the Grove. However, they still retained the "bohemians"—the artists and musicians—who continued to entertain international members and guests.

Past and Present Members

The Bohemian Club is a private club; only active members of the Club (known as "Bohos" or "Grovers") and their guests may visit the Grove. These guests have been known to include politicians and notable figures from countries outside the U.S. Particularly during the midsummer encampment, the number of guests is strictly limited due to the small size of the facilities. Nevertheless, up to 2,900 members and guests have been reported as attending some of the annual encampments.

The membership list has included every Republican U.S. president since 1923 (as well as some Democrats), many cabinet officials, directors and CEOs of large corporations including major financial institutions. Major military contractors, oil companies, banks (incl. the Federal Reserve), utilities (incl. nuclear power) and national media have officials as members.

The members stay in different camps at the Grove, which have varying status levels. Members & frequent guests of the most prestigious camp (Mandalay) include: Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, S. D. Bechtel, Jr., Thomas Watson Jr. (IBM), Phillip Hawley (B of A), William Casey (CIA). and Ralph Bailey (Dupont). George Bush resides in a less prestigious camp (Hillbillies) with A. W. Clausen (World Bank), Walter Cronkite, and William F. Buckley.

Other well known members include both the Rockefeller and Rothschild families, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld, former US presidential advisor Karl Rove, former US Surgeon General, Richard Carmona, former Chancellor of Germany, Helmut Schmidt, former Consul General of Japan, Makoto Yamanaka, even the King of Margaritaville, Jimmy Buffett, and the list goes on.

For a list of most past and present Bohemian Grove members, see my Players page. Note, that due to the secrecy surrounding the Bohemian Grove membership, it is impossible to be sure of each and every member, regardless of what some sources may claim.

Activities

The primary activities taking place at the Grove are varied and expansive entertainment, such as a grand main stage and a smaller, more intimate stage. Thus, the majority of common facilities are entertainment venues, interspersed among the giant redwoods.

The Cremation of Care ceremony was first conducted in the Bohemian Grove at the Midsummer encampment in 1881, devised by James F. Bowman with George T. Bromley playing the High Priest. It was originally set up within the plot of the serious "High Jinks" dramatic performance on the first weekend of the summer encampment, after which the spirit of "Care", slain by the Jinks hero, was solemnly cremated. The ceremony served as a catharsis for pent-up high spirits, and "to present symbolically the salvation of the trees by the club..." The Cremation of Care was separated from the Grove Play in 1913 and moved to the first night to become "an exorcising of the Demon to ensure the success of the ensuing two weeks." The Grove Play was moved to the last weekend of the encampment.

Photo by Mike Hanson
Picture secretly taken of actual ceremony ritual 

The ceremony takes place in front of the Owl Shrine, a 40-foot (12 m) hollow owl statue made of concrete over steel supports. The moss- and lichen-covered statue simulates a natural rock formation, yet holds electrical and audio equipment within it. For many years, a recording of the voice of club member Walter Cronkite was used as the voice of The Owl during the ceremony. Music and pyrotechnics accompany the ritual for dramatic effect.

Each year, a Grove Play is performed for one night during the final weekend of the summer encampment. The play is a large-scale musical theatrical production, written and composed by club members, involving some 300 people, including chorus, cast, stage crew and orchestra. The first Grove Play was performed in 1902; during the war years 1943–1945 the stage was dark. In 1975, an observer estimated that the Grove Play cost between $20,000–30,000, an amount that would be as high as $122,000 in today's dollars.

The culmination of this event ends with this all-male “Club” wearing red, black and silver robes and conducting a ceremony in which a human effigy is ritualistically burned at an altar beside a forty-foot concrete statue of an owl. The owl itself is said to be connected to wisdom and the occult symbolism of the Illuminati. A depiction of an owl figure, the “Great Owl of Bohemia,” can be seen within the architecture of the streets surrounding the United States Capital in Washington D.C.

Protests and controversies

With its combination of wealth and power, Bohemian Grove's secrecy has been a target for protest for many years. The Bohemian Grove Action Network of Occidental, California organizes protests and has aided journalists who wish to penetrate the secrecy surrounding the encampment. Over the years, individuals have infiltrated the Grove then later published video and claimed accounts of the activities at Bohemian Grove.

Infiltrations

In the summer of 1989, Spy magazine writer Philip Weiss spent some seven days in the camp posing as a guest, which led to his November 1989 article "Inside Bohemian Grove". He wrote about uninhibited behavior he witnessed: "You know you are inside the Bohemian Grove when you come down a trail in the woods and hear piano music from amid a group of tents and then round a bend to see a man with a beer in one hand and his penis in the other, urinating into the bushes. This is the most gloried-in ritual of the encampment, the freedom of powerful men to pee wherever they like..." Weiss noticed "hundreds of cigars whose smokers had ignited them in defiance of the California Forest Service's posted warnings."

On July 15, 2000, Austin, Texas-based filmmaker Alex Jones and his cameraman, Mike Hanson, walked into the Grove. With a hidden camera, Jones and Hanson were able to film the Cremation of Care ceremony. The footage was the centerpiece of Jones' documentary Dark Secrets: Inside Bohemian Grove. Jones claimed that the Cremation of Care was an "ancient Canaanite, Luciferian, Babylon mystery religion ceremony," and that the owl statue was Moloch. The Grove and Jones' investigation were covered by Jon Ronson in Channel 4's four-part documentary, Secret Rulers of the World. Ronson documented his view of the ritual in his book, Them: Adventures With Extremists, writing "My lasting impression was of an all-pervading sense of immaturity: the Elvis impersonators, the pseudo-pagan spooky rituals, the heavy drinking. These people might have reached the apex of their professions but emotionally they seemed trapped in their college years."

Also filmed for The Order of Death was Jones' return to the entrance of the Bohemian Grove in 2005 where he filmed a protest organized by the Bohemian Grove Action Network that took place at the Grove's entrance on Bohemian Highway, only to discover a majority of the protesters engaging in an "occult counter-ritual" known as the Resurrection of Care, supposedly a counter-ritual against the Cremation of Care. Jones' narration for the film lambasted the protesters' actions and motivations from a religious standpoint. In 2005, Chris Jones (no relation) walked into the Grove when hired as an employee, and videotaped the Owl Shrine in daylight, even venturing inside the hollow statue. He also got footage of effigies, the lakeside, and select camps; as well as stealing a membership list. Chris Jones said he was propositioned for sex several times by the Grovers. Chris Jones was subsequently sentenced to three years in state prison for a lewd act with minors. Alex Jones included Chris Jones' video in "The Order of Death".

Actor/writer Harry Shearer (This Is Spinal Tap, Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons), who has attended at least one Bohemian Club event, wrote and directed The Teddy Bears' Picnic, a parody of Bohemian Grove mock pagan pageantry and drunken revelry.

Now, for the First Time in History, an Outsider Has Infiltrated Bohemian Grove with a Hidden Digital Video Camera and Caught the Ritual on Tape. That Man is Alex Jones, an he released an awesome digital video about the encounter, called Dark Secrets: Inside the Bohemian Grove.

You can watch Alex Jones's full-length, 2 hour 2 minute and 56 seconds long video bellow. Enjoy!

Facilities

The main encampment area consists of 160 acres (0.65 km2) of old-growth redwood trees over 1,000 years old, with some trees exceeding 300 feet (90 m) in height. The primary activities taking place at the Grove are varied and expansive entertainment, such as a grand main stage and a smaller, more intimate stage. Thus, the majority of common facilities are entertainment venues, interspersed among the giant redwoods.

There are also sleeping quarters, or "camps" scattered throughout the grove, of which it is reported there were a total of 118 as of 2007.

These camps, which are frequently patrimonial, are the principal means through which high-level business and political contacts and friendships are formed.

Since there are lots of different venues and activities at Bohemian Grove, several different buildings were constructed to accommodate the gatherings. They included:

Grove Stage—an amphitheater with seating for 2,000 used primarily for the Grove Play production, on the last weekend of the midsummer encampment. The stage extends up the hillside, and is also home to the second largest outdoor pipe organ in the world.

Field Circle—a bowl-shaped amphitheater used for the mid-encampment "Low Jinks" musical comedy, for "Spring Jinks" in early June and for a variety of other performances.

Campfire Circle—has a campfire pit in the middle of the circle, surrounded by carved redwood log benches. Used for smaller performances in a more intimate setting.

Museum Stage—a semi-outdoor venue with a covered stage. Lectures and small ensemble performances.

Dining Circle—seating approximately 1,500 diners simultaneously.

Clubhouse—designed by Bernard Maybeck in 1903, completed in 1904 on a bluff overlooking the Russian River; a multi-purpose dining, drinking and entertainment building; the site of the Manhattan Project planning meeting held in 1942.

The Owl Shrine and the Lake—an artificial lake in the middle of the grove, used for the noon-time concerts and the 12:30 p.m. daily "Lakeside Talks." These significant informal talks (many on public policy issues) have been given over the years by entertainers, professors, astronauts, business leaders, cabinet officers, CIA directors, future and former presidents and have been the subject of ongoing controversy.

The transcripts of these talks are rarely released to the public (though have been known to be used for such mundane purposes as reading for the lecturer's graduate students).

Women

Though no woman has ever been given full membership in the Bohemian Club, the four female honorary members were hostess Margaret Bowman, poet Ina Coolbrith (who served as librarian for the Club), actress Elizabeth Crocker Bowers and writer Sara Jane Lippincott. Since Coolbrith's death in 1928, no other woman was made a member. These honorary members and other women guests have been allowed into the Bohemian "City Club" building and as daytime guests of the Grove, but not to the upper floors of the City Club nor as guests to the main summer encampment at the Grove. Annual "Ladies' Jinks" were held at the Club especially for spouses and invited guests.

What's wrong with this Picture?

When rich and powerful people get together, they form alliances to become even more rich and powerful. The Grove membership is wealthy, and becoming more so, while the middle class is steadily becoming poorer and the poor is constantly struggling to eat. By their control of the banking system, money supply, and markets, this close-knit society determines when prices rise and fall. They determine our rights and make laws that do not apply to them, by controlling the whole judicial system. They decide among themselves who is to be in office, from our mayors, our governors, congressmen, senators, to even our president, then selling candidates to us through the very media they own. Important issues are omitted and facts are hidden from discussion or slanted to suit their agenda, but believe you me, they are discussed at the Grove.

There has never been a true democracy in America. It was founded as a republic, which is by definition ruled by the rich and powerful elite. By definition, our forefathers never disguised the fact that the upper class was to rule America. All you have to do is look at who our Founding Fathers were. They were the same sort of people who still run our country today.

When talking about a democracy, it is implies direct rule by the people, all of whom are supposed to be equal, whereas a republic implies a system of government in which the will of the people is mediated by representatives, who might be wiser and better educated than the average person.

In the early American republic, for example, the requirement that voters own property and the establishment of institutions such as the Electoral College were intended to cushion the government from the direct expression of the popular will.

That is why the popular majority does not always get its way. That is why the will of the rich and powerful prevails. It has been as such since the beginning of society, even since the beginning of America, and it isn't about to change anytime soon. True democracy is an illusion. 

It is the members of Bohemian Grove who write the rules, make the money and get their way.  

Do you believe that Bohemian Grove is just a social club for the rich and powerful, or do you believe its something more sinister? Are there power-plays being made, alliances being formed and conspiracies being hatched at Bohemian Grove or is it nothing more than a glorified fantasy camp?

My readers and I would really like to know your opinion. Please leave your take on the The Bohemian Grove Conspiracy in the form of a comment, bellow.

Written By: Tom Retterbush

Bohemian Grove: Cult Of Conspiracy
Mike Hanson is a journalist and activist who, with Alex Jones, secretly infiltrated Bohemian Grove with a hidden video camera, the footage of which became the basis of this book.
Paperback, 446 pages, by Mike Hanson
Best Price $23.50
Buy HERE

Sources

Bohemian Grove (wikipedia) 
Secrets Inside Bohemian Grove (apfn.org)
2010 Bohemian Grove members list pdf download (Scribid)
Bohemian Grove Action Network (Sonoma County Free Press)

The JFK Conspiracy Conclusion

If You Were Alive At The Time You Remember That Day In Dallas

John Fitzgerald Kennedy born May 17th 1917 was the 35th president of the United States. He was also the youngest man to ever be elected President.

Some very important events in history occured during his time in office. Among them was The Bay Of Pigs , The Cuban Missle Crisis , The Building of The Berlin Wall and the start of the Space Race.

President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22 1963 and Lee Harvey Oswald was charged with the murder and he himself was Assassinated by Jack Ruby two days later.

Yes if you were alive that day in November, 1963, you remember where you were at and what was going on when you heard that the President had been shot.  They announced over the loudspeaker that the President had been shot and then just a few minutes later as we were standing at the check out they announced that the President had died in Dallas.

It has never been the same and never will be, Who really shot Kennedy. Its always been a question asked by people all over the world. I think that the USA goverment knows the truth and they have always hid the truth. This page will explore that question and you will find a lot of answers given. It is my belief that Oswald did not shoot anyone. A recent photo has come out of Oswald standing watching the motorcade. If he was he could not have possibly shot anyone.

That photo is below.

The Kennedy Car That Fateful Day In Dallas

The Warren Commision ruled that Oswald acted along however in 1979 The House Commitie on Assassinations ruled that it was likely that a conspiracy did exist and that Oswald did not act along.

The entire thing remains very controveral and there is still great public intrest in the Kennedy assassination. Maybe someday the real truth about President Kennedys assassination will come out but we will jave to wait for that day. The video here on this page does not have a lot of the old, standard, mainstream information, since pretty much everybody knows about it already. However, it does include some lesser known facts that you should find interesting.

First, before viewing the video, check out the picture, bellow. It is a recently released photo showing Oswald in a soorway during the JFK Presidential Motorcade when he was supposed to be shooting the President.

Photo Showing Oswald In Doorway During Motorcade when he was supposed to be shooting the President

The video bellow, Prof. Jerry Kroth's talk on the 50th anniversary of the assassination presents the single, most plausible theory of the assassination. It is based on the admissions of grassy knoll gunman, James Files, the deathbed confession of CIA spymaster, E. Howard Hunt, and the most recent scholarship to appear in the last decade. Dr. Kroth proposes that Lyndon Johnson, the CIA, and Mafia, acting in concert, carried off one of the greatest crimes in American history. This talk comes from his latest book, released just this September, Coup d'etat: The assassination of President John F. Kennedy. It is a concise, well-documented expose of a brazen overthrow of the United States government on November 22, 1963.

In all, there have been two official and countless unofficial investigations of the Kennedy assassination. One of the official investigations concluded Oswald acted alone, the other that there was a conspiracy. After forty four years, many of the key documents which could tell the whole story remain classified. John F. Kennedy's brain is still missing from the National Archives. Why, if it is an open and shut case? Why the secrecy, if Oswald was just a "crazed lone gunman"?

The House Select Commitee on Assassinations concluded that John F. Kennedy was the victim of a conspiracy based on the recording of the gunshots fired in Dealey Plaza, captured over a police radio. A total of 7 impulses were caught on the tape, but citing budgetary constraints, the HSCA only had 4 of them analysed. The analysis concluded that all 4 were gunshots, two of them occuring within 1/2 a second of each other, too close to be fired by one man. Comparisons of the echoes with test shots fired in Deakel Plaza confirmed that at least one of the recorded shots had indeed been fired from the Grassy Knoll. Needless to say, the existance of 5, rather than just 3, gunshots destroyed the Oswald as lone gunman cover-up.

Warren supporters quickly tried to dismiss the audio record of the gunshots by claiming that the recording was actually of gunshots in another part of the city, and confused for Dealey Plaza shots because of a timing error. Without explaining just where the other shots had occured, or why the echo patterns matched matched the test shots fired in Dealey Plaza, the Warren supporters declared victory.

New research has shown that the report that dismissed the audio recording of the gunshots was itself deeply flawed, and ignored evidence that confirmed both the location and time of the recording as being in Dealey Plaza at the time of the JFK assassination. This means that the original House Select Committee on Assassinations conclusion is the correct one. There were at least four gunshots in Dealey Plaza, two of them within 1/2 second of each other, and at least one of the shots came from the Grassy Knoll.

Accusations of a CIA hit job on our own president were common in conspiracy theory related to the assassination.  Certainly, the CIA or Secret Service has unfettered access to resources that could pull off such a mission, but I won’t attempt to convince you that the CIA was involved.

Do you believe the JFK assassination was a conspiracy? If yes, between who? Who was involved?

Please leave your theory in form of a comment bellow. My readers and I want to read all about it...

What is your conclusion? Please comment bellow, or go to my Conspiracy Watch Facebook Page.

Written in By: Tom Retterbush
Updated: 11/18/2013

Will Japan's Catastrophe Trigger a Worldwide Economic Depression?

Japan has just been hit by  biggest fall in stocks since the two-day fall of the 1987 global stock market crash.

Japan was already teetering on a bad economic situation before the current disaster. Their markets were already trashed.


Could this compound their problems and set in motion a ripple effect that will plunge the whole world into an economic meltdown?

We must not forget, that although China has surpassed Japan as the second largest global economy, it is still the third largest financial power in the world.

Still, just 16% of adults say America’s relationship with its former World War II enemy is not very or not at all important. 59% of Americans say Japan is an ally of the United States. Only 10% view the country as an enemy, while 24% think of it as somewhere in between an ally and an enemy. 46% believe America should help Japan militarily if it comes under attack, but 41% disagree.

So is the United States ready to help our second biggest financial trading partner master their disaster?

Japanese cash plays a crucial role in global bond and stock markets. Despite two decades of stagnant growth on home turf, Japan is the second largest foreign owner of US government securities, with nearly $900bn of America's public debt. This time it could be the rest of the world that takes a financial hit while the Japanese economy booms.

To understand how this could happen, we need but to follow the Japanese money. Savings by individuals and money held by Japanese insurers and financial institutions amounts to trillions of dollars in cash, much of which makes its way on to world securities markets. When natural disasters happen in Japan, individuals and companies need this cash to rebuild, and insurance companies need it for payouts.

Earthquake insurance is hard to get for most households in Japan, so much of the cost, estimated at $100 billion, will have to come from a mountain of ordinary savings held in Japanese financial institutions, much of it invested overseas. Japanese insurers will also have to sell overseas assets, but they will be spared the full cost because they have reinsured a lot of their risk with overseas insurance firms, who in turn have reinsured it with other insurers. This insurance trail is a global labyrinth. Japan's risk, it turns out, is the world's risk.

As was expected, when US markets opened on Friday, the sell-off of Japanese-held treasuries began. Bond prices fell and yields rose, although analysts say the selling was offset by buying from investors fleeing debt problems in the eurozone and unrest in the Middle East.

Within hours of the disaster the yen was sold off in record perportions. Japan's central bank says it will inject 15 trillion yen into the economy to stabilise markets, but that didn't stop the Nikkei index slumping 16% so far this week. This is the biggest two-day fall since the 1987 global stock market crash.



As stock markets plunge around the world, Ray Suarez talks with The Economist's Greg Ip about the economic fallout from the ongoing disaster in Japan on PBS Newshour.

Yet, all of this was predictable. In 1991 Peter Hadfield wrote a book, Sixty Seconds That Will Change the World, about the consequences of a major earthquake in the Tokyo area. Peter wrote that the rest of the world would come off far worse than Japan and that US treasuries would have to be sold to meet insurance claims and pay for rebuilding, resulting in falling bond prices and rising interest rates. The yen would then rise as these overseas savings were sent back to Japan. What a scam!

A model produced by the Tokai Bank in 1989 found that Japan, after experiencing severe short-term negative growth, would bounce back as the cash flowed home and the rebuilding began. It was the rest of the world, starved of this investment and hit with rising interest rates, that would end up in a recession.

However, today Tokyo's fiscal position, awash in debt that amounts to two years' worth of GDP, can ill-afford the generous injections it is making to stabilise markets and the spending that will be needed to restore infrastructure.

The immediate effect on the Japanese economy will likely be to send Japan into a worsening  recession, possibly escalating into a depression. However, if production of everything from cars to concrete will be ramped up to satisfy the expected demand, within a year the rebuilding effort could deliver growth.

The Japanese are tremendously energetic and disciplined race. They have more than a 1000 years of Martial Arts Culture and warrior spirit behind them. Even though their population is aging, they still have the capacity to recover quickly. They are a very able, talented, hard working people like the Chinese, Koreans and the Germans.

In the Grand Scheme of things, however, Japan has little natural resources and no essential strategic location. A World Wide depression will originate from a strategic and natural resource rich region like Middle-East or Central Asia, which sucks in major world powers with natural resources like oil, diamonds and gold.

Japan will face orderly stagnation or very very gradual decline, but is not a likely candidate for causing a World Wide event.

Do you believe the world is headed for a financial  meltdown? If so, do you think Japan's current crisis could be the beginning of a downwards spiral towards a global economic depression?

My readers and I would love to know what you think, so please let us know your opinion in the form of a comment, bellow.

Written By: Tom Retterbush


For more on this subject, read my post, Economists Fear US Apocalypse, which includes predictions from world famous economist Nouriel Roubini, who first gained national recognition after predicting the chaos wrought by the mortgage crisis and the collapse of the housing bubble.

Sources

Japan Catastrophe Pressures Deadbeat Debtors buzzle.com

Global Economic Implications of Japan's Tragedy  seekingalpha.com

Japan's earthquake will cause a global financial aftershock guardian.co.uk

Japan’s Economy in Crisis: Growth in Q2 Shrinks to Near Zero globaleconomiccrisis.com

Japanese super earthquakes to cause worldwide interest rate spikes thecomingdepression.net

Though no longer in the Headlines, the Occult is Alive and Well under the Cover of the New World Order



The New World Order has attracted so much attention, that the Occult has been able to operate without much notice

The New World Order is said to be the goal of the Illuminati, consisting of mostly rich bankers, businessmen and politicians. It has attracted so much attention, as to distract the public from the fact that the Occult is a substantial part of this New World Order.

The New World Order itself is more of a mission, just like the Occult is more of agenda, than being secret societies. It is the Illuminati, the Freemasons, Skull and Bones, The Bohemian Grove Club and other fraternities that make up the actual secret societies, compartmentalized into a pyramidal hierarchy of need-to-know.

And though all are shrouded in mystery, secrecy and conspiracy, while the NWO is more the organizational part of the whole, it is the Occult that makes up the magic, mysticism and myth.

These secret societies communicate through ancient occult symbols, initiations and rituals. Such esoteric symbolism can be seen everyday, hidden in plain sight within America’s architecture, corporate logos, and even money. The most infamous of such symbols is the “all-seeing eye” found on the pyramid depicted on the back of the one dollar bill. You will also find that underneath the pyramid is the Latin inscription “Novus Ordo Seclorum”, which has can be roughly translated to read “New World Order”.

With the New World Order stealing all the thunder, the term "Occult" has pretty much disappeared from the headlines, and with it it's bad, evil, satanic reputation.

But just because satanic murders, cattle mutilations and seances no longer make up today's the headlines doesn't mean the occult has disappeared. In fact, the Occult is more popular now than ever.

The Occult today is no longer the stuff of small underground cults. It has gone mainstream. We no longer hear of their deeds, because they have become commonplace, everyday occurrences.

It is estimated that there are over 200,000 practicing witches in the United States and there are literally millions of Americans who dabble in some form of the occult, psychic phenomena, spiritism, demonology and black magic. Statistics show that occult book sales have doubled in the last four years! More people believe in conspiracies, the paranormal (see graphic) and extraterrestrials than ever before.

Don't be fooled, as the Occult is alive and well within every mission of the  New World Order and inside every one of these secret societies. It is all the same people, with the same agenda and the same sociopath personalities.
If one failed to take into account the occult nature of the New World Order, they would be amiss. America's secret destiny is the product of Rosicrucian and Freemason forefathers. The Ancient Mysteries are being studied for illumination and enlightenment by the New World Order's elite and New Age gurus on behalf of the Secret Brotherhood.

As far back as 1980, Marylin Ferguson wrote, "There are legions of conspirators... in corporations, universities, hospitals, on the faculties of public schools, in factories, in doctors' offices, in state and federal agencies, on city councils and the White House staff, in state organizations, in virtually all arenas of policy making in the country [U.S.]...[including] at the cabinet level of the United States Government." (ibid. p.24) However, other New Age proponents said that this is inaccurate, in that she had understated the influence of the New Age worldwide, especially in the UN and the EEC.

It is no coincidence that America has become the center of New Age and New World Order conspiracies. The Theosophical and Rosicrucian traditions hold that every nation has a spiritual destiny guided by a hierarchy of beings using all ethical (or un-ethical) means of manifesting the "divine plan" through the will of the nation's leaders.



“Man is a god in the making. And as the mystic myths of Egypt, on the potter's wheel, he is being molded. When his light shines out to lift and preserve all things, he receives the triple crown of godhood.” - Manly P. Hall, The Lost Keys of Freemasonry.

I guess this is what some of these egotistical rich sonsofbitches think they are. It is not enough that they think they are better than us common folk, many of them think they are gods.

They are no longer happy just controlling all the money, they want to control the world and everything in it.

Its all about constructing a one world government, implementing global domination and taking total control of everything. People's money, freedom and everyday affairs. If we let them have their ways, anyone who does not belong to the wealthy elite that makes up the New World Order would be nothing more than a slave.

Do you believe the New World Order, Illuminati, Freemasons, Occult, etc. are all the same thing? Or are there several different groups in a power struggle for supremacy? Or is it all a bunch of paranoid bull?

My readers and I are interested in your opinion, so please leave your comment bellow.

Written By: Tom Retterbush

Sources

Occult - How is it defined? allabouttheoccult.org

America’s Illuminati Occult Conspiracy squidoo.com

America’s Illuminati Occult Conspiracy obamaantichrist.org

New World Order or Occult Secret Destiny? deceivedworld.blogspot.com