The Conspirators:
Secrets of an Iran Contra Insider
by Al Martin
Just $19.95
The Man Who Knows Too Much
An Interview with Al Martin, author of "The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran
Contra Insider"
(PART 1)
by Uri Dowbenko
Al Martin is the man who knows too much.
About government fraud at the highest levels.
About Iran Contra.
And about the unindicted conspirators who continue to do their dirty work.
In the past, Lt. Cmdr. Al Martin (US Navy, Ret) has testified before
Congress for the Kerry Committee and the Alexander Committee, which
investigated the illicit deals of so-called Iran-Contra.
Al Martin's new book, "The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran Contra Insider,"
is a true crime story and an unprecedented expose of high-level government
crimes, coverups and scandals.
The book includes first-hand accounts of US Government-sanctioned narcotics
trafficking, illegal weapons deals, and an epidemic of securities fraud,
real estate fraud, banking fraud and insurance fraud by high-level
government perps.
These criminal perpetrators are members of the cryptocracy, those who
rule from the shadows of government.
In his landmark historical study, "Operation Mind Control," author
Walter Bowart describes the cryptocracy as "a secret bureaucracy still
supported by all the power of the federal government, but which operates
outside the chain of government command."
Former Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams called it "a shadow
government in the United States." In Al Martin's own words, it's a
"Government Within a Government, comprising some thirty to forty thousand
people the American Government turns to, when it wishes certain illegal
covert operations to be extant pursuant to a political objective."
Bowart describes the cryptocracy as "a technocratic organization without
ideology, loyal only to an unspoken, expedient, and undefined patriotism...
Its funds are secret. Its operational history is secret. Even its goals are
secret."
IRAN-CONTRA: IN THE BEGINNING
"Iran-Contra" itself is a euphemism for the tremendous frauds
perpetrated by military, corporate and government criminals for profit and
control using the cover story of "Fighting Communism."
Ostensibly this inaccurate term entered history as shorthand for the
public scandals of illicit arms sales to Iran (which were really to Iraq)
coupled with the illicit weapons deals and narcotics trafficking to fund the
Nicaraguan-based CIA army called "The Contras." The real story, however, is
much more complex.
One of Al Martin's roles was acting as a fundraiser for the bogus "War
Against Communism" in Nicaragua. His expertise as a finance and corporate
securities specialist served "The Cause," as Oliver North called the
enterprise of raising cash for secret illicit operations.
After he retired as from the Navy, Al Martin's life went into the fast
lane as a black ops specialist and an Office of Navy Intelligenc (ONI)
officer. In his book "The Conspirators," Al Martin tells the facts that have
been ignored, ripping off the covers of the sleaziest secrets of the
Washington power-mongers.
Because of his failing health, Al Martin has decided to go public and
tell the whole story of the Iran-Contra Conspiracy.
His book "The Conspirators" is a secret history of the late 20th century
and an uncensored version of what really goes on in the back rooms of
realpolitik brokers and go-fers.
In a recent interview, Al Martin decided to share some of his knowledge
of this covert world of global fraudsters.
LAWRENCE RICHARD HAMIL: INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY
At a meeting with General Richard V. Secord and government-sponsored con
man Lawrence Richard Hamil, Martin was briefed about Iran Contra operations
and allowed to view CIA white papers on "Operation Black Eagle," code name
for the illegal program of narcotics trafficking, massive fraud and weapons
deals.
"Hamil was the type of guy who had a big ego, and he liked to impress
people," says Martin. "I thought he was trying to impress me because of the
level of his access, but it was much more sublime than that. He knew that
later on these documents would become increasingly valuable as Iran-Contra
would start to fall apart."
The documents he showed Martin revealed an operation that was basically
government-sanctioned fraud, a "license to steal," as it were, in other
words, a government-protected racket.
"Hamil was a master of 'The Game,' one of the best in the United
States," Martin says. "He's one of the best political manipulators behind
the scenes to ever come down the pike. He is not just a simple con man, a
government-connected swindler and money launderer, as people seem to think.
He was very deeply involved in all sorts of political deals at the same
time. In late 1984, Hamil undertook a separate operation. He began
dispensing money to House and Senate Republicans, and I don't think anyone
else knew this."
The payoffs and systemic corruption were just "business as usual,"
according to Martin. "You have to look at the states where Hamil did a lot
of business. Not only are they states controlled by Republicans, but they
are also states where Hamil passed out a lot of envelopes. Illinois,
Tennesee, Kentucky. On three occasions, I met then Governor William Thompson
of Illinois. We met him and his aide several times, in the bar at the
Whitehall Hotel in Chicago [to pass envelopes of cash to him]. Also to the
governor of Kentucky, Marcia Lane Collins."
You've heard of COD (Cash On Delivery) but to maintain this level of
fraud requires CIE. That's Cash In Envelope.
AL MARTIN'S COVERT OPS CAREER
And how did he start? "I was in the Naval Reserves for a long time," he
continues. "How I actually got involved was in 1975, with an old chum of
mine George W Carver III, son of George W. Carver Jr., one of the then
Deputy Directors of Intelligence for the CIA. He was DDI on their Central
and Southern Desk. Actually I volunteered for ONI [the Office of Naval
Intelligence.] I went from being a lowly 'G' (G's were essentially citizens
who kept their eyes and ears open) They weren't looked at as particular
assets or resources. Apparently, I did a pretty good job."
"We were in Peru," he continues. "At the time the country had a military
dictatorship and its political line was officially pro-Moscow. There were
about 4,000 so-called Russian advisors in Peru at the time. Peru has always
been a problem for Washington because of the number of Russians in the
country. The Russian military presence increased for another two years until
the installation of civilian president Bernando Terry. In 1975, my function
was to simply keep an eye out on any movement of Russian troops."
So did he realize that Peru would become a staging area for CIA cocaine
production and trafficking? "I didn't notice any organized effort in
narcotics trafficking when I was there," he replies. "But I knew the CIA
Deputy Station Chief in Lima at the time, the famous Buzz Barlow, Eugene
'Buzz' Barlow."
"As you well know, the Tingo Maria Huallaga Valley area of Peru became a
focal point of cocaine processing," I pressed on. "That wasn't until after
the Russians were kicked out," he answers. "The only thing the CIA seemed to
care about at the time was perpetually subverting Soviet interests in Peru
and continuously attempting to establish a narcotics base of operations as
it were. But the Russians would continually frustrate that. They [the
Agency] wanted to establish a network of narcotics traffickers within Peru
who would cooperate with the Agency."
Was CIA looking forward to a time when the Soviet presence would be gone
and they could step in? "They were trying to build a network," Al answers.
"That was already in the process, when I was there in 1975. I lived in
Central and South America from 1975 to late 1979 -- early 1980. Then I
became involved in smuggling American Express cards into Argentina. I also
became involved in circumventing the Dominican sugar embargo of 1981. That's
how I first met Hamil, from weapons sales to Argentina during the so-called
Falklands War in 1982."
"As you can imagine, the CIA could not be put in the political position
of helping Argentina during the Falklands War. The American Express Card
Affair in Argentina and the subsequent subversion of the Dominican Sugar
Embargo were CIA-instituted. Through the operation in Argentina, I also met
the famous Carlos Cardoen, the Chilean arms merchant. That was simply
business."
"In my service career as an active oficer, I was never involved in
anything covert," Al continues. "That came later. Also there has never been
a whole lot of interagency cooperation. There has never been a truly joint
operation between the CIA and ONI. I know people like to say that, but the
only people the CIA wouldn't step on to accomplish their aims was ONI. They
would easily subvert an FBI or DEA investigation, but never ONI, because
they were frightened of them.
In his book, Al writes that contrary to popular belief, ONI is the most
powerful US intelligence agency.
"The ONI already had a deep existing covert illegal structure. They had
a mechanism before the CIA even existed. They had contacts in foreign
intelligence services and in foreign governments that the CIA never could
have hoped to obtain."
"Also ONI controlled its own assets, which the CIA had to build from
scratch later on. The CIA can't control any of its own assets domestically
because it's against the law for it to do so, thus the ONI is obviously in a
superior position. For instance, you don't see an airfield that says 'Owned
by the CIA' on it in the United States. The ONI doesnt have any such
restrictions because it's part of the US Navy."
"ONI is where the real deep control is. It's where the real deep secrets
are kept. That was what ONI always did the best. Keeping secrets.
Accumulating secrets. Warehousing secrets for the purposes of control."
When I asked him 'what secrets?' he replied, "One thing I can tell you
is the ONI was instrumental in dethroning former Mexican President Louis
Portillo. Portillo got very friendly with George Bush and the CIA, and ONI
had never alligned with the Bush faction. I know what people think, but
that's not true. From what I can tell, it has never been alligned, but has
always been hostile to that Eastern Country Club Bush Cabal and their
friends in the CIA. The Bill Casey faction is the George Bush-Allen Dulles
Faction."
The principals of the ONI faction are "people that you wouldnt know.
Admiral Anderson. Admiral Garrett. Their power comes from the fact that
they're not known. Their names wouldn't really mean anything, therefore,
they can act in such a behind-the-scenes fashion -- much more than the CIA.
It's because of their established structure. They're very deep in old
contacts. They've simply been around longer than the CIA. They are able to
blend overt and covert operations in the same breath because they are
essentially not a covert agency like the CIA. It allows them great cover to
operate in the open."
OFFSHORE MONEY FLOWS
To understand the secret flow of money from the US "offshore," or to
tax-free jurisdictions, where bits and bytes of monetary transactions can be
hidden from public scrutiny, is to understand global finance.
For instance, so-called "Dutch Sandwiches" are well-known in certain
well-heeled circles, including movie moguls like Saul Zaentz, the recording
impresario and producer of "Amadeus" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."
The novel "Black Money" by Michael Thomas also deals with them, as well as
other arcane money laundry techniques.
When asked about them, Al laughs knowingly. When pressed further, he
replies, "A Dutch Sandwich is a certain exotic money transaction. What
allows it to exist is a peculiarity in the Dutch legal system and Dutch
banking laws. You can retain a lawyer in the Netherlands for offshore trusts
in the Netherlands Antilles, and you can give the lawyer exceptional power.
He also has exceptional protection from Dutch law, as long as that lawyer is
a Dutch citizen. If he is outside the Netherlands, then he can break certain
financial laws with impunity. What you're talking about [Dutch sandwich] has
been used in the past for the flow of monies. In Hamel's personal address
book, he always had a bunch of names of Dutch law firms in Amsterdam and the
senior law partners in those firms. I still have those names."
And where did the money from rich Republican donors go?
"The money went in two different directions," Martin answers. "Hamil had
to pay some of the money over to Oliver North and Richard Secord. Otherwise
he wouldn't have been allowed to operate. I know what the arrangements were
with me. I imagine he had other arrangements with them. I know one of the
principal asccounts he used to pay into was the account of International
Industries S.A. of San Jose, Costa Rica, which was an account controlled by
Oliver North and Richard Secord. This very account, as a matter of fact,
became public during the Kerry Committee Hearings of 1987. It was one of the
principal accounts North used to launder money through."
"Surprisingly enough, from what I could see, North operated through very
few accounts, of which Intercontinenatal Industries SA happened to be a big
one. He also operated through Secord's accounts. Secord had longstanding
accounts and the names are quite famous. Stanford. Stanford Technologies
Overseas. Stanford Exports Overseas. During Iran-Contra, when it came to the
money end, anything with the word 'Stanford' in it was controlled by Richard
Secord."
Another prime way of hiding the flow of money was through the use of
tax-free foundations, designated 501c3 entities, by US tax code.
"That was a whole separate diversion scheme instituted by Senator
[Jesse] Helms in collusion with Oliver North," Martin continues. "Money
could be raised through a 501c3, then made tax-exempt for a seemingly
charitable or innocuous purpose. Even political monies can be raised through
tax-exempt organizations, and this is a quirk in the law -- as long as they
support a charitable purpose. This is when North came up with the idea of
setting up all those medical clinics. He wanted to set up a string of
medical clinics in Guatemala and Mexico. It was those medical clinics in
concert with his partner Dr. Louis Oschner of New Orleans. He's a very
fanous name in covert circles. He was a longtime friend of Bill Casey. I
dont know exactly what their relationship was, but North went to Oschner to
set up a series of medical clinics. Supposedly tax free charities would fund
these."
The entire Contra Clinic fable was a great cover story. "The real
purpose of these clinics, by the way, was to treat Contra wounded because
they didn't want a lot of Contra wounded coming to the United States for
medical treatment and the obvious questions that would be raised. Therefore,
North came up with this idea much closer to the scene, ostensibly for the
purpose of treating Contra wounded. Of course, the reason it didn't happen
is because there wasn't that many Contra wounded because they never engaged
in any pitched battle with the Sandinistas. There were very advanced plans
made and certainly a lot of money was raised. The clinics were never
established, but a lot of tax-free money went into them."
GLOBAL MASTERS OF FRAUD
Al Martin has plenty of behind the scenes information about the career
tracks of government insiders like Frank Carlucci, Richard Armitage and
their Blackstone Investment Group.
Because of Blackstone's involvement in many high-level high-profile
frauds like the Russian Bailout and the Mexican Bailout, one could assume
that the company itself was a CIA "cut-out," an actual propretary of the
Agency.
"No, it's not," says Martin. "They're just sympathizers. They're an
asset of the agency. They're not a cut-out. They're just one of the legion
of financial companies, mostly domiciled in Washington or northern Virginia,
which the CIA turns to, on occasion, to launder money, or for some other
illegal purpose."
And who gave them the green-light to go to Russia for the post-glasnost
scams?
"You're talkng about long established relationships that probably
existed since the 1950s. Assistant Secreatry of State Richard Armitage and
National Security Advisor Frank Carlucci were not young in the mid 1980s,"
answers Martin.
"They had been involved with their Blackstone Investment Group, and they
have other partners, originally Assistant Deputy Secretary of Defense
Richard Stilwell, the son of the famous General Stilwell. Stilwell himself
was a retired Major General. Stilwell was also very close to Armitage,
Carlucci, and Pete Peterson."
"There was a whole cabal of these guys," Martin continues. "They had
been involved in all sorts of stuff for a long while. For instance, when we
were bailing out the Mexicans in 1994, the new covert thing became to commit
frauds in Mexico, against the Brady Plan, not the Brady Bonds themselves,
the whole plan of using Brady Bonds to back up Mexican debt. There was a
window of about a year, when you could commit fraud against the Bank of
Mexico and other Mexican companies. You would buy essentially worthless
Mexican bonds, and you could give a Mexican company in a file drawer a face
lift, and then you could get Brady Bonds in exchange for them, which were
backed by the US Government."
"Or, to back those up, to securitize essentially worthless Mexican
corporate securities -- you could take a security that was essentially worth
two or three cents on the dollar and make it suddenly worth thirty or forty
cents on the dollar in the marketplace. The only thing Brady Bonds are is a
collateral guarantee."
"A Brady Bond is essentially a strip-down, what's called a strip or a
stripped down US Treasury bond that essentially guarantees the ultimate
mature capital value of a note. It does not however guarantee the interest
of that note. It only guarantees the return of capital."
For the record, the underwriters of these bonds were powerhouse
investment banking firms Goldman Sachs, Shearson Lehman and Merril Lynch.
"They were making the one and a half point concession fees on the bonds and
they were known as the primary dealer of the bonds," Martin says.
The so-called Russian Bailout followed a similar scenario. "Follow the
money, and it will lead you to the new fraud," instructs Al Martin. "The
Blackstone Investment Group, even before the Mexican loan deal, was 'in the
bag' as it were. Blackstone immediately set up an office in Mexico City
because it knew that where there was fraud, there was money to be made. You
see it three years later in 1997 when Blackstone set up an office in Mexico."
Likewise there was massive trading activity in the Far East, where the
bottom- feeder investment bankers, would arrive to pick up "distressed
assets," defaulted stocks and bonds for pennies on the dollar. "That was
early in 1998 before things fell apart," says Al Martin, "because they knew
things were going to fall apart."
"The Carlyle Group, which is Frank Carlucci, and the Blackstone
Investment Group are virtually one and the same. Two different names, but
they are virtually the same organization," he continues. "All they do is
ride the crest of the waves of various frauds from country to country.
Before the so-called Global Financial Crisis of 1998, Blackstone and Carlyle
suddenly opened up an office in Jakarta. They didn't have an office in
Jakarta before because they were very friendly with President Sukarto.
Sukarto gave them all sort of inside capabilities to short, or sell short,
the Indonesian rupiah which nobody really had the ability to do because the
currency wasn't particularly liquid. They do on a large scale on a
multi-billion dollar scale what Richard Hamil does on a multi-million dollar
scale."
"They actually purchase a security, let's say US Treasury Bonds, one
security with their own money. They then use that security and hypothecate
it ten or twenty times to all different types of transactions. Now that kind
of fraud is not particularly hard to commit, particularly if you have a
trust company under your control or a trust company that's willing to play
ball with you. It isnŐt that hard to take the same asset and pledge it
twenty times."
Because bank officers don't do due diligence or what? I asked. "You have
to understand that the securities don't move anyplace. They're just pledged.
They're usually just held in an account in a securities firm."
And one bank won't tell another bank that these assets have been pledged
and there's no way of finding it out? I pressed on.
"Not if you got people willing to play ball with you," Al Martin
replies. "The people willing to play ball are the security firms in the
United States which have long-standing relationships with, not only the CIA,
but also this little Eastern Country Club Cabal, as I call it. The firms
that have had longstanding intelligence activities and illegal relationships
with wealthy Republicans would be undoubtedly Goldman Sachs and Merril Lynch."
You could call them the Insiders' Insider Deals. "Look where Press
Secretary Regan came from," Al Martin points out. "He was the chairman of
Merril Lynch."
THE BUSH FAMILY - HARKEN ENERGY FRAUD
In his online column, "Behind the Scenes of the Beltway,"
(http://www.almartinraw.com), Al Martin has written that "you have to look
at the entire Bush Family in this context -- as if the entire family ran a
corporation called 'Frauds-R-Us.' Each member of the family, George Sr. ,
George Jr., Neil, Jeb, Prescott, Wally, etc., have their own specialty of
fraud."
"George Jr.'s specialty was insurance and security fraud. Jeb's
specialty was oil and gas fraud. Neil's specialty was real estate fraud.
Prescott's specialty was banking fraud. Wally's specialty was securities
fraud. And George Bush Sr.'s specialty? All of the above."
In this context, the infamous Harken Energy Fraud takes on new meaning
as a multi-generational family of fraudsters, using high-level insider
contacts, are able to manipulate stock prices for their own profiteering.
"Harken was one of those deals that was a combination fraud as well as a
manipulation," says Al Martin. "There's different types of fraud when you
get into securities. When George Jr. was put in charge of Harken Energy by
his father [George Herbert Walker Bush], he essentially took it down the
tubes. You have to realize that every business that George Jr. has ever had
has failed. That's the man's business record."
Enquiring minds want to know -- was it deliberate? "It was a deliberate
act by the old man, knowing that his son would take it down the tubes
because the son's incompetent," Al Martin replies.
"George Bush, Sr. and James Baker and Senator Tower would heavily short
Harken stock. I have a list of everybody because I was one of them but to a
much smaller extent. Harken stock was trading at 7-3/4 or 8, when George Jr,
was put in charge of it. A year later, the stock was trading at 1-1/8 bid,
3/8 offer. They pumped the stock back up through a lot of bogus press
releases and by using essentially worthless leases in Bahrain and
essentially worthless South American oil leases and through sympathetic
geologists making them appear to be really worth something and making it
appear that Harken's about to make a strike when in fact it's all made up.
It's all fictitious. And through carefully crafted broker releases and
broker statements and press releases, you can pump the stock back up. This
has happened sixteen times to my knowledge. Harken would get pumped back up
from the dead, from say a buck, buck and a half, back to seven, seven and a
half, then it would get dumped again. Originally George Jr. had control of
the company. He stayed on the board."
THE HIDDEN SIDE OF BARRY SEAL
The notorious Barry Seal was a legendary CIA drug smuggling pilot, but
there was another side to this 20th century government-pirate (or privateer)
which Al Martin reveals in this interview.
"Barry Seal was extensively involved in all manner of fraud," says Al
Martin. "His principal partner was after all, Larry Hamil. Hamil had an
equal relationship with Barry Seal. Barry provided seed money to set up
fraudulent oil and gas and real estate limited partnerships for Hamil. Hamil
later profited from them. Hamil would allow Barry to use these limited
partnerships for Barry to launder his money through."
"It was a laundry situation. Barry would provide the seed money perhaps
a million dolars or whatever to establish a fraudulent limited partnership,
then Barry would use that limited partnership to launder money in lieu of a
fee. That was his return."
Was it to launder Seals' money or CIA money? "From what I could tell it
was for Seals' own money, not an Agency thing. But where Seals' own money
stops and the Agency's monies begins -- the percentage or whatever deal they
had -- I'm not familiar with that. I just know what Seals' relationship was
with Hamil. Before I mentioned Triton Energy, one of Hamil's oil and gas
frauds that he set up in conjunction with Seal."
"It was a scam, but Barry wasn't really interested in the point of it
being a scam. What attracted Barry about it was Hamil's ability to launder
money, to hide money, to move money, and since these were fraudulent, since
they were all set up under temporary corporate names, it was easy to
disguise everything when it all fell apart. This is one of the peculiarities
of the 1980s which you can't do anymore.
"The laws in all the states have since changed," he continues. "In the
1980s, you could set up what's called a 'temporary' corporation. You would
go to the Secretary of State's office and set up what's called a 30 Day
Corporation for $10. At the end of 30 days, you had the right to convert
that to a regular full corporation. If you didn't do so, after 45 days all
records of your temporary corporation would be erased. There were other
states you could do this. Too may people were doing what Hamil was doing. He
was taking a temp corporation and treating it like it was a genuine
corporation. He would get a corporate seal, a charter. He would simply have
the 'T' for temporary removed off the charter and seal. All you need is some
body is friendly in the Secretary of State's office. In some cases he would
keep operating through those for two or three years. But there would be no
corprate records.There would be nothing left. He would never convert them to
full corporations."
And so the scams continue...
* * *
(PART 2)
Available in Whistleblower Gazette
* Broken PROMIS: Software Stolen by DoJ
* SDI-Star Wars: Monumental Defense Fraud
* The CZX Productions Mystery
* Burned by Oliver North: Operation Reassurance.
(c) Copyright 2001 Uri Dowbenko. All rights reserved.
Uri Dowbenko can be contacted at u.dowbenko@lycos.com
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