Episode 146: The Octopus Tendrils

Welcome to the one hundred and forty sixth episode of the Supernatural Occurrence Studies podcast So Damn Paranormal. My name is Jason Knight, host of the show, and with me, as always is your very own Oscar Spector, producer, extraordinary and podcast co host. Listeners. If you'd like to skip our intro, please go to the show notes. There'll be a time stamp there waiting for you to get you right to the topic. Oscar. We kind of

talked offline. There hasn't been much going on in our lives these past two weeks. Anything you want to mention. No, no, I've just been working on this show and I've been twitching on our Twitch channel and that's all I've been doing, really and people can already see those if you're interested. I've been playing, we playing actually I started my second run of The Last of Us Part two if you want to check that out, which isn't a horror game, but it has it's almost a horror game, you know.

Yeah, So I've been doing that. And otherwise I said, I have no life. I've had no life in the last two weeks since because of the show, because of the series. Thing, been writing and I haven't done anything else. We mentioned it in the last episode that this now three part series will likely crest one hundred pages, right. I was pretty sure at the time, but now I am. It's over one hundred page script you put together for this three parter. Mm hmm wow. Great job man,

and this one the octopus tendrils. This is what I've been waiting for all that I know. I teased you off air about it a lot. Yes, you did. You did so great job on that. Well, we'll keep the intro short so you get right to the topic. For me, kind of the same man. Nothing, just work, work, work, incredibly tiring. I got a new fridge, you know, adulting that that was exciting for us. Does talk to you, No, but it

is wi Fi you know who. I can't say her name because she's sitting right next to me and she'll go off, But it's you know who enabled ex a. Can we do that? If she went off when I spelled, that would have been really creepy. Yeah, that would have been actual creeper. He would be like, what if what if he spoke to you by spelling? Now to you responses he and I'm out out in the backyard. She goes, so, yeah, we got a new fridge and the

I mentioned this on the last episode. The Jason Vorhees I'm building from Part four is coming along great so far. I've got ten videos from my video journal for Patreon of Jason's build. I'm really happy with the way it's coming out. So my free time weekends I've been I've been working on that. So that's pretty exciting. But other than that, I got nothing else. Iand what do you say we get into the contact information. This is going to be record setting intro for us, just so you know, yes,

that is. That is and I'm fine with it because I have nothing right now, nothing to say. Yeah. The easy way to contact the Supernatural a Current studies podcast is by visiting our website, Chicago Ghost Podcast dot com. From Chicago Ghost podcast dot com, you can get to all of our social sites including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and of course Patreon. And I do want to give a shout out right here to two new patrons we picked up, Madison Kidd and David Thompson. Guys, thank you

very much for the support. We love you and if you're not a patron, for just five dollars a month, you get access to a library of exclusive audio and video content. That's content that will not be played here on this public podcast feed. It's just for our patrons to say thank you. That's go to patreon dot com, forward slash Supernatural Accurrent Studies Podcast, or just click the Patreon link in this episode show notes, it'll get your right

to us. Another way to contact the podcast is by calling our phone number that Chicago area code eight seven two five two nine zero seven six seven eight seven two five two nine zero seven six seven. Leave us a message, send us a text. We'll read them and play them on the show. I'm not even gonna fight you on it today. I know. Wow, this is amazing. This is amazing. So yes, this is a parting my voice. You're gonna need it. And I'll just say it now.

This is a part three if you if you're just joining in now, make sure and go back and listen to episode one four and one forty five to get caught up on the octopus. And I think with that we could take a break. Yeah, let's do it. Listeners, Welcome back to the show. Well, the lights are turned down low, the ceremonial candle is lit, and the drinks are flowing. Let's start this show. So I

think it bears repeating that this is a part three. If you're not caught up, if you're just joining us, make sure and go back and listen to episodes one and one forty five because Oscar Spector really lays the groundwork for this octopus conspiracy. And in this episode we're going to see just how far reaching these octopus tendrils really are. And I've been dying to hear this final episode. So Oscar, could you please take us on this next journey,

this final journey. Yes, And normally I, you know, have this whole you know, musings of an intro, of an opening that gets you going, gets maybe the juice is flowing. Maybe ask some questions that are along the way. I will have answer right in the body of the of the show. I didn't give myself a chance to really write an opening, so it's gonna jump in on it. But you know, luckily is that it's a part three and the easiest thing for me to do in this case

is jump in with a recap. So previously on the Supernatural Current Studies podcast, we expand the world beyond the deaths of Danny Casilero and Fred Alvarez by talking about some of the men and companies in power that have led to disaster on a bigger scale and across the world. Beginning in the US, the first hurdle was the Wackenhut Corporation, a prestigious security firm and offices in several

dozens of countries, especially the US. Wackenhut was very right wing and anti communism, either as a result of the political nature of their sixties and seventies, or pushing agendas towards their own means, or both, and they did

their part to ward off any communist threat. They did this by sidestepping congressional investigations in the form of a partnership with Cabison Band of Mission Indians and sending arms manufactured on preservation land to countries like Nicaragua to help the contrast or the Middle East against other communist footholds. Old Intelligence Book and Cabison financial advisor John Philip Nichols managed his partnership through connections that led to people like Earl W.

Bryant and Michael Riconoshudo to work for their means. Besides anti communist rhetoric, it's clear that money was valued as much as power in any former takes. Next is the Inslaw affair. William Hamilton started and owned Inslaw, an information technology company based in Washington, DC designed to get contracts for utilitarian software for the US government. A great and useful software that they developed was called Promise

in the nineteen seventies. This program served to itemize, organize, and filter large volumes of data to easily track and input new information, perfect for attorney offices and police stations. Install went bankrupt though, after their contract with the Department of Justice led to broken promises. In back room scheming, the DOJ used their influence to refuse paying Inslaw millions of dollars for Promise while demanding the

rights to own their property. Congressional and Senate investigation investigations said they tricked and stole from Inslaw, despite the fact that no one was brought to justice and Inslaw went bankrupt. What's worse is that the DOJ and Attorney General Edwin mess paid off a competitor of Inslaw, EARL W. Bryan, with copies of

the Promise software. Earlbrien then gave it to Israel, Canada and other countries after contracting a CIA slash wagon Hut Lackey working at Cabazon Alm arms Michael Rignoeshudo to install a backdoor and other changes in order to spy on foreign governments. This was both for information on enemies or potential enemies, but also to the

highest bidder. Though unproven. William Hamilton fought the good fight in many ways, including befriending and being Danny Cassilero's primary source for his research into Octopus, and still fights to this day. Lastly, we delve deeper into Microwinknoshuda's background. He was Cassilero's second primary source of information, providing key players and background to scandals that made front page news throughout the years and in several countries.

Besides Wackenhut and Inslaw, Reconoeshudo had a slew of wild allegations that were hard to believe but contained real possibilities. This includes conspiracy theories like the October Surprise which implicator O'Brien, as well as the newgan Handbank scandal in Australia. A gifted man of science, Reconnaseshuda at first proved to be a witness with real heft in the eyes of congressional investigations until his arrest in nineteen ninety one.

His sworn statement that involved everything in this recap and much more, was damaged in credibility when his alleged involvement in manufacturing and selling drugs led to a prison sentenced days eight days after testifying. After Cassilero's death in August nineteen eighty one, we can shoot a keptain contact with his allies, journalists, and family. Further allegations and knowledge bombs are due to arrive in this final chapter.

The octapus tendrals okay, and for that the show actually will start, And we're gonna start with a series of events and big companies too big to fail. Some of them do fail, but it's gonna be a lot of fun. Hopefully go along with it. There will be low breaks for discussion if we if there's any, and we're gonna start with something called the BCCI scandal. This is kind of a big one. This segment may seem to require some knowledge in finance or history of finance, but I personally don't think so.

Similar to how I treated the Instas segment in the last show, you don't need to know the intricacies of computer. Therefore, you don't need to know how the world of banking works to understand this part. It definitely couldn't hurt though, of course. BCCI stands for the Bank of Credit and Commerce International. It was founded by a Pakistani financier in nineteen seventy two named Aga

Hassan Abdi. The BCCI was registered in Luxembourg with primary offices in Karachi and London, and managed to achieve over four hundred branches in seventy eight countries. Only a decade later this bank hat yeamt. This bank had assets and excess of twenty billion US dollars, making it the seventh largest private bank in the world. BCCI was created with capital, of which twenty five percent was from the Bank of America and the remaining seventy five percent from Sikh Zayed bin Sultan

al Nayan, the ruler of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. The company divided itself into BCCI Essay in Luxembourg and BCCI Overseas in Grand Cayman. They did this because it allowed several transactions like buying the BCO for example, bank to commerce replacements. That's French. By the way, I can't do

French. They also created KIFKO, the Kuwait International Finance Company, and a series of other companies through ICIC, which is the International Credit and Investment Company, And they did all this through BCCI, and all of this was done by seventy six, by the way, so these are big purchases, That's what I'm saying. There were pieces in newspapers saying that this type of rapid expansion was done through cash deposits, when most companies of this magnitude used the

money to make investments from here. It was alleged that quote the bank's transformation was guided by the head of Saudi Intelligence with a view to enable enabling it to finance covered American operations at a time in the aftermath of Watergate, when the American intelligence agencies were defending themselves from investigation by domestic authorities unquote, which kind of reminds me of the enhanced interrogation we did under Bush Bush Junior and

became controversial and then was frowned upon later under Obama. If you remember this time, you know it's a time to back pedal, check your surroundings and cover your ass. But already the crafts of conspiracy are showing. BCCI also entered the African financial markets in nineteen seventy nine and Asia in the eighties, one of the first foreign banks awarded a license to operate in China. Actually, to give an example of Aga Hassana Betty's networking skills, JP Morgan and

City Corp. Wish they had those licenses. Wow. Yeah, Let's get into how they worked, not just their accomplishments. The two hundred plus managers and general managers reported directly to Abeti and CEO Swallee Nakvi. The company was structured in such a way that no single country had overall regulatory supers over it, so it's not to hinder potential growth and expansions from blossoming. It was

also not regulated by a country that had a central bank. Finally, it should be mentioned as part of background, of course, that the reason Luxembourg and Grant Cayman are desirable locations to start a bank is because they have shall we say, weak banking regulations, notoriously so. In fact, American cinema constantly references big wig bad guys boasting their offshore accounts created from illegal activities.

Because of such things, a bureau within the US Department of Treasury warned the Federal Reserve on several occasions that, in no uncertain terms, should be CCI be allowed to buy any American bank because it was poorly regulated. I believe saus is the correct term here, little saus, Yes, a little bit. By the way, I really love that sentence, big wig, bad guys boasting. It's just like a lot of bees in there alteration. Anyway,

there were other dealings and maneuvers that produced worry in Western minds. Through many loans and using BCCI's stock as collateral, they made one point four to eight billion dollars which found its way to secretly owning First American Bank. Here's how they did it quote. One of the pieces of the schemes was Washington based First American Bank Shares Inc. For a fee, prominent Middle Eastern individuals served as fronts for BCCI in gaining control of the Washington bank in nineteen eighty

one. These illegally held shares in First American were then used as collateral a second time by BCCI to raise about six hundred million dollars in new loans. Set A source investigating the affair for British authorities BCCI used that money to cover up losses elsewhere. He said, unquote, that's a big fucking deal. This was discovered through audits when BCCI's numbers acted suspiciously. There were strange lending practices too, which led the United Kingdom to set a cap on their number

of branch networks allowed in their country. Lending law violations galore here. Beyond all of this, I said, so far, there's an incredible amount of money laundering, causing corruption, peddling, and bribery that was done through BCCI. This is why there are my radar firsts on this. Part three. I consider buying the book The BCCI Affair, a report to the Committee on Foreign Relations by Hank Brown. But I figured there's an insane amount of coverage

already in articles and such that I'll think, I'll be fine. What do you think so far? These have you heard of them? I haven't heard of BCCI, But these wizard like accounting practices are just h it's unbelievable, unbelievable that someone could come up with this sort of thing. Yeah, no, it is all that is just what's been one hundred percent proven so far.

Everything I said exactly how in that way. Wow. Obviously they backtracked that, and now that their b CCI is gone whichever kind of alluded to earlier, obviously they don't no longer own back of America whatever, but they they pulled it off for a while there. Yeah, too, amazing. I never that's a weird that's like a that's like a scheme that that works maybe to get like a few box off someone, but they did it on such a large scale, right, Anyway, It's funny. Here's how I

saw BCCI. If a regular bank with all of his you know bullshit is like Facebook, then b CCI was fortune unregulated, unregulated, borderline to actually illegal and finally dismantled. You know how casinos, especially especially in Las Vegas, are built as labyrinths to keep you from leaving and distract you with pretty lights, legs and alcohol. Absolutely mm hmmm. It was similar with b

CCI. When otters came calling, the byzantine internal workings confused everyone, including BCCI employees themselves, making it all the more difficult to keep track of their scheming until the point where I don't even have to ask you where this is going and how it all might fit. Right. Here's a few more examples though to underline BCCI's darker side, the most active countries were Brazil, Argentina,

Colombia, Uruguay, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela. Beyond the fact that Venezuela was name dropped a couple times in this trilogy, you know that the reason for this is fucking drugs. Quote. According to one BCCI source, by far the largest operation was in Colombia, where BCCI ran essentially a

full service bank with branches in the centers of drug production. The bank developed a reputation for asking no questions, dealing in large amounts of cash, and generating a lot of wire transports of the kind that can be used to launder money. Sources said, unquote wow. In nineteen eighty eight, BCCI did business when with an undercover agent in Florida who was posing as a drug operative looking to launder millions of dollars. This is a little example. I read

that article. By the way, it seems like the guy stole the money from drug dealers and instead of handing it off to the federal he tried to like launder it through BCCI. That's a Hollywood script right there. That's a Hollywood script. Essentially, another example. Quote. BCCI had a wide network

in the Middle East and Africa, and was especially dominant in Pakistan. It was a favorite bank under the regime of former Pakistani President Zia, for instance, the diseased US ally who worked whose government, sorry, whose government was assisting the CIA's funding in the Afghan rebels. I Betty could just walk in and out of Zia's office, said a former customer. They knew how to get to the top in third world countries. Unquote. BCCI's clients were people

like Manuel Noriega, Fernand Marcos, and Saddan Hussein. All big deals. Obviously Sadam Usam is more famous for US, but all big deals. Yeah, here's a juicy name though that maybe you don't know. Jay. It was alerted to Bank of England officials that Abu Nidal was using an account at a BCCI branch in London. Abu Nidal, which is his Nomniger, was the founder of Fatah the Revolutionary Consul, a Palestinian splintered group thought to be

the most ruthless in the seventies and eighties. People into modern history and politics may know of him already. He's believed to have ordered attacks in over twenty countries, killing more than three hundred people. His most famous attacks were of Rome and Vienna's airports in nineteen eighty five. A revolutionary to some and a terrorist to others, Abu Nidal was killed and bagged that in two thousand and two, supposedly on orders by Saddam Hussein. Nadal wasn't just in it for

a cause, though he was often contracted as well. But I did not read too much into his actions, although he is an interesting one for me for several reasons. For the show, terrorism or whatever, men like Ablin Nadal happened to be. It's something we almost could cover on the show, but not quite you know, not quite serial killer and not quite enough for conspiracy. It's almost too historical and political to discuss in depth, you know, on the fringes of a subject of ours. But what do you think

so far? I don't know yet. I don't know yet. I mean I could just see these Manuel Noriego or Isadam Hussein walking up to a teller in one of these banks. Could I catch him this fifty for some I'm pretty sure they send someone someone that this bank had them as clients. Yeah, not shady at all. No, No, not at all, No, forget them. That being said, I want to go over a few

things that hit closer to our show. They shouldn't be a surprise, but the motherfucking CIA used the CCI pull their covert operations, particularly in the Middle East and South America. What those accounts were allegedly used for was to aid foreign governments, launder money, to purchase arms, and controlling, at least in a financial way, the drug interests funneling in and out of the United States. I say allegedly because there is no evidence, though it is quite

fucking obvious. A former Commissioner of Customs told the people investigating BCCI about the CIA several accounts. A nineteen ninety one article stated that the National Security Council also had accounts at BCCI which had been used in a slew of covert operations, including transferring money and weapons during the Iron Contra affair. I will explain more about that in a bit. After the audits came the myriad of investigations

from all fronts. There was a massive regulatory battle in nineteen ninety one, and in early July of that year, customs and bank regulators in seven countries raided and locked down records of its branch offices. Yeah quote. Investigators in the United States and the UK the determined that BCCI had been set up deliberately to avoid centralized regulatory view and operated extensively in bank secrecy jurisdictions. Its affairs

were extraordinarily complex. Its officers were sophisticated international bankers whose apparent objective was to keep their affairs secret, to commit fraud on a massive scale, and to avoid detection. With a lifespan between nineteen seventy two to nineteen ninety one, mere weeks before Danny Casilero is found dead, the BCCI gets liquidated in force

closure. I want to say that too much of this is fucking true, and I have skipped many many other problems and key people connected with that piece of recent history that either used or were used by the BCCI, you know, in a director and direct manner, I went with the Bank of Credit and Commerce International first because establishing what it was at the top of the show

will help when they come up again later on. Beyond this that, all saying, follow the money kept coming into my thoughts when researching this three part series. Financial gain, especially if it's tax free is the greatest motivator for the conspiracies happening here. It's not the only one, but the one that brings all the suspects together. Danny Cassilero had found connections between the Octopus and BCCI, and I'd argue that after install it was probably the main focus for

him. I'm not done with BCCI, but we will move on. So that's the end of the BCCI part. What do you think? Okay, so Casilearra was starting to investigate them. Oh yeah, he had been Yeah, and then he wound up being suicided. Yeah, just wakes weeks apart from the actual downfall of the company all weeks. Yeah, you're gonna see a lot of the same, like years popping up, ninety one, eighty one, all those are gonna pop up a lot here, and like,

oh it's a little too coincidental. See, you're gonna see more of that. Now we're on to our next bit here. It's called this next segment is called the Reagan Administration. H Okay, man, No, sorry, guess this segment is not as political as you may think. I will not be going over the infamously bad slogan of just saying no, I will remember that, right. Yeah. I will not go over Reagan's policies. I'm going to focus on two events, one in the beginning of his first presidential

term and the other in the middle of a second. We will begin with the October surprise, no mystery. I'll just say what it is. This is a conspiracy theory directly involving then California governor. Governor said that word, Ronald Reagan and others in a plot to use the release of fifty two American hostages in Iran in order to win the nineteen eighty election for presidency. Now

that sing sounds too simple, so let's figure it out. What prompted the fifty two Americans to be came a group of militarized college students belonging to the Muslim student followers of the Immam's Line who supported the Iranian Revolution, took control of the US embassy in Tehran. This happened on November fourth, nineteen seventy nine, and they were held for four hundred and forty four days until January

fourth, nineteen eighty one. At the time, then President Jimmy Carter called this atrocity an act of blackmail, and the hostages as victims of terrorism and anarchy. Iran saw this as an act against the US for influencing Iran, perceived or not, through the Shaw of Iran named Mohammad Reza Pahiavi. The US did give long standing support to the Shaw and what caused the Iranian Iranian

Revolution led to Pahiavi's overthrow in seventy nine. You see, when he was overthrown by the people of Iran, Pahiavi was admitted to the US for cancer treatments, which in turn led to those college students to take action against American citizens in Tehran. They took American diplomats in exchange for the Shah who were supposed to stand trial for the crimes against the people of Iran. That's why they did it. In response, the US rejected Iran's Iran's demands, that's

funny. In response, the US rejected Iran's demands to release the shot to them, and Iran saw the Americans as complicit in the atrocities that they suffered. Let's finish talking about the crisis. In the official capacity, the Iranians were in violation of international law, specifically the Vienna Convention, which grants immunity to diplomats on foreign soil. We all know that the crisis reached the climax

after diplomatic negotiations failed to win the release of the hostages. This led President Krter to send the US military to try and rescue them with something called Operation Eagle Claw, using the US as limits and US's choral c on April twenty fourth, nineteen eighty. The attempt failed and resulted in one Iranian casualty and the accidental deaths of eight Americans. In September nineteen eighty, the Iran War

began when Iraq invaded Iran. This led to negotiations with the Iranan government concerning the hostages and used Algeria as a goat between. It was too late for Carter, however, when he lost the election in a landslide and the algiers of courts weren't signed until literally minutes after Reagan's inaugural addressed to the Nation was over. The crisis strengthened Ayatola Kammane's power and weakened relations between the two countries.

I'll explain who Commane was in a second. Even all of this so far, it's just a simplified version of the intricacies between the two regions and the people. One could easily go as far back as nineteen fifty three, when the CIA entered Iran through Operation Ajax, which defended British oil interest and involved the Prime Minister at the time, the famously known political schemer Henry Kissinger. That fucking asshole was involved in Iraq and Iran beginning in the nineteen sixties,

and so on, and so on and so on. Danny Cassilero, the man who has quickly become the source for all these connections to the octopus in this series, heavily researched this nefarious group's dealings overseas throughout administrations like Nixon and Reagan. Cassilero and several others believed that individuals high in the Reagan administration arranged for those fifty two American hostages to be held in Iran and detained until

after the election. This comes from an excerpt in then Cassilero's never published book quote. While rumors of the hostage release delays circulated for years after the election of Ronald Reagan, it wasn't until nineteen eighty eight that testimony was offered by two covert operatives in two different courts regarding their knowledge and participation of a hostage

release stall managed by then Reagan campaign chief William Casey. But now two more COVID operators have emerged from that desert reservation in the journey of this story effort to confirm that previous testimony and provide richer details regarding the laundered payment by the Saudis and other particularities in order to prevent what Casey feared the most, a surprise release of the hostages before the election, almost guaranteeing windfall votes for President

Jimmy Carter. The alleged reward to another Reagan insider for that mission to Iran in the summer of nineteen eighty has been almost wholly responsible for the leagues leading to this odyssey, for it was in that reward, in the form of a multimillion dollar contract government contract, that technologies were found were found to have been stolen by the government from another company in that other companies recovery from bankruptcy.

CEO has been the real life star and gumshoe in this drama that continues to unfold each day. Cassillar also wrote, since Reagan was not a favorite son of the octopus. Why did it work so hard to ensure his selection in nineteen eighty even if the participation by campaign officials and holding the hostages until the election was limited to just the acquiescence of smiling gentleman who knew better. Why was the veil removed when it could have been so absolutely secret unquote.

The two covert operatives Cassiller was talking about is Michael Riconaeshudo and Ari Ben Menashi, who were mentioned we gonna SHOOTO especially many times in the last show. The technologies and theft from a company is referring to Install again as a spotlight in the last episode, oh be talking about it. The multimillion dollar laundering that occurred was through BCCI at least some of it. That payment was to an another man we talked about on the last show, also called Earl O'Brien,

who we see a certain software as his reward. That was Yeah. My thinking on Reagan's involvement is that it is passive at best. Reagan winning the election provided a way or an easier way to manipulate events and people to suit the octopus, particularly having a slightly younger Bush senior in the administration. Having a republican instead of a democrat was useful to them. Like Cassilero began with statements made by former President of Iran, albo Hassan Bani Sader. I'm

mispronouncing that for sure. He was the first president of Iran after the Iranian Revolution of nineteen seventy nine. That is, he abolished a monarchy and was impeached in nineteen eighty one. The Iranian political and religious leader and founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran who led the Iranian Revolution of seventy nine was Ayati Ruhollah Kohmani, a famous figure worldwide. Kohmane was close friends with Bannie Satter's

father and was Supreme Leader when he helped them become Prime minister. Anyway, Dannie Sator claimed that the allegations about the October Surprise were true. Something he said he figured out after the fact, but still A source we've talked about in the last episode that backed up this claim was Ari Ben Menashi, who was an Israeli intelligence officer that was prominent on the Inslack case. Here's something else quote This one's potentially fucked up. It won't sound that way, but

it will be later. Quote. There is a twenty one hour gap in George Bush's schedule corresponding to the time he is supposed to have been in Paris negotiating the hostage detainment and conflicting stories from Bush and his staff about what he was doing when the alleged negotiations with the Iranians took place. In an AFID Daydavid attorney Paul D. Wiltshire sent to Attorney General Janet Reno, He too, detailed the existence of a shadow government, paralleling in precise terms the Castelero

octopus and their participation in the October Surprise. Quote Within the quote, the October Surprise Treason refers to the top secret trip then vice presidential candidate and former CIA Director George Bush, along with a planeful of some twenty five to thirty other top CIA covert operatives, including a handful of prominent Republican and Democratic senators and congressmen, took to Paris on the weekend of October eighteenth and nineteenth,

nineteen eighty. While in Paris, Bush secretly met with representatives of Ayatola Comane paid them pribes in the amount of forty million dollars and promised to deliver to

the man additional five billion dollars in arms. The shipments of these arms began flowing even before the election, in exchange for the Iranians agreement not to release the fifty two American hostages they held in Tehran until after the November fourth, nineteen eighty US presidential elections, in order to guarantee the humiliation and defeat of President Jimmy Carter in that election, and in order to cement the CIA's block

on the White House for the next twelve years under George Bush. What what what what? What's the what's insane? Yeah? It is. Do you believe this? Ah? Yeah, a little bit. Wow. There's actually more stuff later on that kind of details. Back to at that twenty one hour gap, okay, okay, but yeah overall, Yeah, they talk a lot about that weekend. H yeah. Uh yeah. I'm not gonna play it. I'm gonna let's go rolling on. There's a lot to unpack

there. Remember, Remember, this is happening, or allegedly happening, just as the Apartment of Justice, via shadowy figures in the American intelligence community are gearing up to steal the promised software from William Hamilton and insult. This is when the Cavison Wackenhot partnership was flourishing as they made and shipped weapons to god knows where. Think of the alleged promise of five billion dollars worth of arms

to Iran. I just quoted right. This is when the BCCI is thriving with corrupt loans and branches, when the CIA used the bank accounts to help their interests in places like Iran. This time also leads. This time also leads to more people speaking out like we can a Shooto and Cassillaro and Wiltshire.

This attorney, Paul Wiltscher is very interesting and will be coming up later, but I will say now that he was the last of three lawyers that tried to help we kin a Shooto when he was behind bars in the nineteen nineties in Ariban. Mnashi knows so much about this Paris meeting is because he says he was there as well as we can Shudo, who said he helped facilitate such meetings and bribes for the higher ups, so they were like Lackey

level people. One of those higher ups was an asshole we talked about in the last show. Or O'Brien, the man with CIA connections and tech companies that stole the promise software from anslaw quote amazingly, even we can shoot those allegations about Brian's involvement in the so called October Surprise could also be verified,

at least to a degree. Brian had told several persons that he planned to visit Paris the weekend of the October Surprise meetings, and Ariban Menashi, who claimed to be present that the Paris meetings, said, quote, I saw Brian in Paris unquote. What do you think of that? What do I think? With the connections? Now with the arms? M wow. Now back to the Kabazan band of Mission Indians, and right back to the first

episode and second episode. WHOA Okay? There were investigations into the October Surprise. Of course. The TV news series Frontline produced a documentary in nineteen ninety one which investigated evidence about how both the Carter and Reagan camps may have tried to forge secret deals with the Iranian hostages. A man named Gary Sick. He's not sick, his name is sick. Gary Sick published an editorial in The New York Times in November nineteen ninety one and wrote a book titled October

Surprise, America's Hostages in Iran and the election of Ronald Reagan. Six's credibility was high because he was a retired naval captain who had served on Ford's, Carter's and Reagan's National Security Council. Quote. Sick wrote that in October nineteen eighty, officials in Ronald Reagan's presidential campaign, including future CIA director William Casey, made a secret deal with Iran to delay the release of the American hostages

until after the election. In return for this, the United States purportedly arranged for Israel to ship weapons to Iranquote. The Senate investigation in November nineteen ninety two found that the evidence fell short to prove this October Surprise theory. In

nineteen ninety three, the House of Representatives report concluded the same. For the public and skeptics of the politics of that era, they immediately saw that there was something suspicious with those fifty two hostages when Iran released them only minutes after Ronald Reagan concluded his twenty minute inaugural address. They were not very subtle about

this. No no, no, no. Now you look at it, but as not result, there was so much chatter concerning the October Surprise, the name coined in an issue of Executive Intelligence Review in December nineteen eighty. However, the height of this conspiracy came years into the Oreagan administration and the

Iron Contra affair occurred. Publications like Newsweek had said that the Iron Contra created fertile ground for the October Surprise theory, meaning since this affair, which broke in November of nineteen eighty six, was true, then it makes sense that

the October Surprise one could be too. Right. Quote an article by Bob Woodward and Walter Pinkus A few days later in the November twenty ninth, nineteen eighty six, The Washington Post said that the United States officials tied to Reagan well before the Iron Contra affair, considered an initiative to sell US made military

parts to Iran in exchange for the hostage just held there. The House October Surprise Task Force credited the Woodward Pinkus article as raising claims that would become keystones in the October Surprise theory. Unquote, you know Bob woodwood Oh, absolutely, Bernstein, that's the Bob Woodward Right, who teamed up with Kyle Bernstein and did the reporting on the Watergate scandal that led to Nixon's downfall. The famous film All the President's Men is based on this. This is yepantastic,

exactly fantastic movie. This is deep throw territory we're talking about. Yes, the Aran Contra affair is far more convoluted, but that's because it builds on previous history, like the October Surprise theory and the overall American involvement in the Middle East. I'll try my best to simplify. The following comes from history

dot Com. I went simpler on this quote because quote the Iran Contra affair was a secret US arms deal that traded missiles and other arms to free some Americans held hostage by terrorists in Lebanon, but also used funds to I'm sorry, but also use funds from the arms deal to support armed conflict in Nicaragua. The controversial deal, the ensuing political scandal threatened to bring down the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Unquote that's maybe too simplified. Let's add some color.

Winning the White House didn't have the political momentum Reagan needed to push his agendas, especially when the GOP was taken from the majority in both the Senate and the House. This resulted in the Reagan Doctrine, which is a promise to

assist anti communist insurgencies around the world. You can see where this is going Already, having taken down, having taken control of Congress Democrats, Democrats passed something called the Bolan Amendment, which restricted the activities of the CIA and the DoD in foreign conflicts. This amendment was supposed to prevent things like the Iron

Kanter affair and the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. Quote. Meanwhile, in the Middle East, where US relations with many nations were strained to the breaking point, two regional powers, Iraq and Iran, were engaged in bloody conflict. At the same time, Iranian backed terrorists and Hesbolah were holding hot seven Americans, diplomatic, private contractors, and Lebanon. Reagan delivered another ultimatum to his advisors find a way to bring those hossages home. In nineteen eighty five, McFarland

sought to do just that. He told Reagan that Iran had approached the United States about purchasing weapons for its war against neighboring Iraq. There was, however, a US trade embarber with Iran at the time, dating back to that country's revolution and subsequent overthrow of We talked of ahm SHAHPAHIAVII of Iran, during which fifty two American hostages were held for four hundred and forty four days in a diplomatic stand up known as the Iran Hostage Crisis or for US, the

October Surprise. Although several months of Reagan's administration opposed it, including Secretary of State George Schultz and Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger, McFarland argued that an arms deal with Iran would not only secure the release of the hostages, but it would help United States improve relations with Lebanon, providing the country with an ally

and a region where it desperately needed one. And as an aside, the arm steel would secure funds that the CIA could secretly funnel to the Contra to the Contra insurgency in Nicaragua. This is with the backing So with the backing of McFarland and CIA Director William Casey, Reagan pushed ahead with the trade over the objections of Wineberger and Schust. So in comes Oliver North. Have you

heard of him? Yes, it's okay, so even you know, Okay, Well, if I can real quick, what I remember is when I would come home from school, I would want to go to the TV and watch some cartoons. Man, but every day was the goddamn I ran iron contract scandal with fucking Oliver North sitting there getting deposed, and I couldn't watch my cartoons. That that was the center of my life. Yes, it was disrupting my life. I know that happened. Yes, I definitely that

pain. Wow, that's pretty funny. That's how you know, that's how you remember him. So like maybe Jay's too young for this, you know, but like because you're old by in reality you're not that cold. Um, so you were just a child. But I guess you remember the waking breaking atomaniacs or whatever. Medi mouse to bring you this message, right,

all right, So in comes Oliver North. By the time this arms deal was reported in the press, first by Al Jhazero, the Lebanese newspaper in nineteen eighty six, the Americans had sold fifteen hundred missiles to Iran for thirty million dollars. Attorney General Edwin miss launched an investigation and found that eighteen out

of the twenty million were missing or on account for quote. It was then that Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North of the National Security Council came forward to acknowledge that he had diverted their missing funds to the Contrast in Nicaragua, who used them to you know, acquire weapons. North said that he had done so with the full knowledge of Nashville Security Advisor Admirald John Poindexter. He assumed Reagan was

also aware of his efforts. I talked about Edwin Nice in the last show as having connections with earlbrien, helping him with inslaw and stealing promise from Bill Hamilton. Anyway, it was seen that Reagan's lack of oversight enabled the people he appointed to divert fronts to the Contrast funds to the Contrast. Despite the fact that this followed the Reagan doctrine, he said he wasn't fully aware and only partially. The press and colleagues hounded the Reagan administration over this, and

LA launched several investigations. An eight year investigation led to fourteen people being charged for what was called the Iron Contra affair, including Oliver North. Poindexter and McFarland. Remember what I said in the last episode about conspiracies, Even if unaware, you are responsible for your actions when charged or tied to a conspiracy.

Hence why people like Poindexter was charged. It should be no that Reagan was never charged and key players like North were given slaps on the wrists for the laws they broke. The bold and Amendment I mentioned earlier was meant to stop something like this from happening. Some people in power saw what places like Lebanon, Iran, and Nicaragua were leading to and tried to take actions with

the amendment, but it failed. You see, the anti communist group the Contrasts, were fighting the communist government called the Sandinistas while Reagan was in office. Reagan described the contrasts asked, quote the moral equivalent of the founding fathers unquote. I know, yes, he's an actor. What do you want? Right? And wanted to help. Again, as one can see from

the Reagan doctrine, it makes sense he would want to help. He asked is he asked his National security advisor, Robert McFarland, to find a way to assist, no matter the monetary of political costs. Where are the connections between this Iron Contra affair and the Octopus? You might ask, I'm going to quote a paragraph from the last show. It's now I'm requoting myself.

This is ridiculous. Yes, sorry, that wasn't the script. It's part of the affid David Michael Bikinishudo made and March first, nineteen eighty one. Quote the Wackenhat Cabston joint venture was intended to support the needs of a number of foreign government's forces, including forces and governments in Central America and the Middle East. The contras in Nicaragua represented one of the most important priorities for the joint venture. Unquote, there it is. That's it. I did all

that just just to tie that one in there. I don't really have to say anymore because you know all about that reservation, the security firm with ties to the Middle East, rote government elements selling install software to other countries, and now the banking and political opportunities they took to understand this, everything is connected. It's yeah, it's amazing, it really is. Yeah, so is his Octamus. Maybe this is too soon. Is Octopus the shadow government

that everyone's always talking about? Yes, the one I mentioned that wheelchair quoted. Yes, that's what they are. Shit, You're like, shit, where am I gonna do that? Uh? Yeah, that was funny. That was the funny. Yeah. So that's the Reagan administration segment. So much unseaid really, but that's how connect to us. Now I want to the next one here. Lets see, have you heard of the Knugan Handbank scandal. I have not. This one I added in late in the show.

I wasn't gonna add it in, but then I found too much connections, of course, so I went with it. So this next segment, this next segment is shorter but potent. Nougan Handbank was an Australian merchant bank that had a short life span of seven years from seventy three to nineteen eighty. Founded by an Australian lawyer, Frank Nugan and co founded by former US Green Beret Michael John Hand or Mike Hand. This bank is the smaller yet

still loud version of the BCCI in its controversy and illegal activities. According to our historian, the bank was formed with a fraudulent claim of one million dollars in share capital, and Neugan wrote his own company a personal check of nine hundred and eighty thousand dollars to buy four hundred and ninety thousand shares of its stock. This bank attracted I see your head? Sorry, what kind of balls that people have here? The bank attracted investors with promises of up to

sixteen percent interest rates on their deposits. What right I would join that ship too? So what promises up to sixteen percent? Inter I can you can't even say it? What a straight face that is? That's like, uh, sorry, finding the pot at the end of the rainbow. Holy shit, yes, clearly sorry, seriousness, promises of up to sixteen percent interest

rates on their deposits, and assurances of anonymity and tax reaccounts. Right after its collapse, a former employee said that the newgan Hand Bank paid commission of up to two point five percent on unsecured investments of one million dollars or more, while the standard at the time was only point five percent. Amazing, They had special investment assistance and services such as money laundering. Who knew they have that on? Why not? It's I'm telling you it must have been.

The way people talk about it, it must have been. That's the only way it makes sense to me. Quote. Nougan Hand rapidly gained business and expanded its offices from a single Sydney office to a global network that included branches in Chiang Mai, Manila, Hawaii, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Washington, d C. And the Cayman Islands where it was registered where

we talked about Kyman. I. Of course, the Chiang Mai office in Thailand was interesting because it was the heart of the Golden Triangle heroin trade. Perfect for money laundering, really the perfect spot. Really wow. It reminds me of BCCI setting up shopping Colombia for the cocaine. Absolutely m hm. Anyway, Nugan Bank gained a certain level of respectability when it hired or by hiring retired US military and intelligence personnel, such as former Rear Admiral Ropyates and

bank president and CIA head William Colby. This Colby character is someone to watch out for. In World War Two he served with the Office of Strategic Services. Afterwards, Colby joined the newly created CIA and became station chief in Saigon. Before and during the Vietnam War, he was overseer of the Phoenix Operation. Have you ever heard of the Phoenix Operation? I haven't known, or Operation Phoenix Maybe, which was designed by the CIA and involved the US,

Australia and South Vietnamese to identify and destroy Via Kong. This included infiltration, torture, capture, counter terrorism, and assassination, and may also explained his Australian connection to joining Nougan Bank later on. For the record, I, like other people in the series, believe Colby to be a member of the Octopus Yes anyway. Nougan Handbank's downfall was precipitated by the death of Frankkugan on

January twenty seventh, nineteen eighty. He was facing charges on stock fraud when he was found dead in his car in New South Wales by a thirty caliber rifle shot. It was deemed a suicide, but the lack of fingerprints on the weapon and questions regarding the police who found Nougan dead were left unanswered. Also, people thought it suspicious when William Colby's business card was found in the vehicle. Shit. I don't know if it was a calling card of what

he was doing from here. People asked more questions about the bank and its dealings, which led to investigations Michael Hand and early Yates had ordered important company documents destroyed or hidden, as the authorities found Nugan's office ransacked. This apparent suicide made front page news, and after destroying records, Hand fled Australia under

a false identity In June nineteen eighty. There were three major investigations from New South Wales and the Royal Commission of Inquiry looking into the scandal and his drug money connections, which even included a link to former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos to the bank he was using. That other bank too would set him. You remember it's good, Yeah, it's good. I'm glad. I was worried

that people would dismiss that early quote. The Royal Commission found that the Knugan Hand Bank was implicated in money laundering, illegal tax avoidance schemes, and widespread violations of banking laws. One witness, a former New Hand director, stated that Hand threatened bank executives quote within the quote. If we didn't do what we were told and things weren't handle property, our wives would be cut into

pieces and put in boxes and sent back to us. However, the Royal Commission did not find credible evidence of drug smuggling arms dealing and the CAA involvement unquote sure yeah, sure, sure, Jan, to which I say, what, how do what this results astonish people? And ultimately said that the Royal Commission, from a government's perspective, decided that having a good relations having good relationships with the Australian Security Intelligence Organization ASIO and the CIA was more important

than implicating them. So it was a political reason why he said that, I think now what happened to Mike Hand. He was technically never found or should I say, never brought to justice an Australian magazine in nineteen ninety one. This is ten years or so after an Australian magazine nineteen ninety one reported that Hann was living in the United States, even giving details like the address in the article oh doocked, Yeah right, The Australian government did not make

a move to any on any possible extradition. By the way, In the book titled Merchants of Menace, I love that Merchants of Mena is the true story of the New and Hand Bank scandal, author Peter but I swear to God that's his last name. Butt. Peter but said that Hand was living under the name of Michael John Fuller in Idaho Falls, Idaho. The book

was published in twenty fifteen, so he's still not caught. It's mine so as far as we know anyway, I guess that we see an obituary for Michael John Fuller than we were, then we can say, oh, okay, he died anyway. As usual, the connections between the Octopus and the Newgan Hand Bank was emphasized by Danny Casilero. Through Michael Wikneshudo, he was able to find these drug connections like the Golden Triangle trade, as well as

arms deals. Quote Other newg and Hand of officers included a network of US generals, admirals, and CIA employees. Their identities officially surfaced two decades later in Texas when a judge unsealed classified CIA internal documents in response to an appeal filed in a US and a sorry in a Houston federal court. The appeal was filed by Edwin Wilson, a former CIA agent convicted in the US for selling C four high explosives to Libya and charged with supplying trained men, arms

and technology to Libya and other military buyers. He had served seventeen years of a twenty five year sentence and was eligible for parole at his nineteen eighty three trial. Wilson never identified his compatriots with the NEWGENHN galaxy, but David Adler, his appeals lawyer, in nineteen ninety nine, reviewed hundreds of CIA documents confirming Wilson's relationship with William Colby, Thomas Kleins, Bernie Houghton, and others with Nougan Hand Bank and as an aside, real quick, all of these

are artuples people. They're all octopus people, except for Bernie Houghton probably, but William Colby, Thomas clients, Edwin Wilson, Yeah, just an't aside. I don't know why didn't put that in the script, but I'm just telling you just between you and I, you know, between us girls.

Yeah, Betwen, those girls. The Texas Observer had reported in nineteen ninety one the CIA officials Theodore Shackley, chief of clandestine operations in the Far East in the mid nineteen seventies, and Thomas Kleins, along with their subordinate Edwin Wilson, utilized secret bank accounts at Nougan Hand to fund a variety of COVID operations, including destabilization of Australia's Labor Party in seventy five. Both Shackley and

clients would later resurface as key figures in the Iron Contra scandal. I never mentioned them on purpose. By the way, Maurice Bernard Houghton, the closest friend and advisor to Michael Hann, had daringly traded goods all over Southeast Asia war zone in the nineteen sixties. The mysterious Texan played an active role in Nougan Hand's affairs since its exception in nineteen seventy three. Acording to The Wall

Street Journal in nineteen eighty two, unquote all that was quote. It should be noted that no one connected with Noogan Hand has ever been convicted of a car no one. I will also note something that it is obvious about Edwin Wilson's sentence. The quote mentioned that in addition to explosives and trained men, he sold technology to Libya. That technology was most likely the promised software. Nineteen eighty three fits the timeline, and Libya does show up on the long

list of countries where people like earlbrien sold the inslas software. Lastly, I'll note that we are getting further back in time here the octopus potentrals didn't just operate in the seventies and eighties and nineties. We just got our first real series of hits from the fifties and sixties with the creation of the CIA and highly suspected individuals that operated in the Vietnam War. Food for thought. As we sink deeper here, you know what I've realized so far listening to the

these episodes. I live a real boring fucking life. I mean, these guys are just they have their hands and everything. Oh pie, well, pie, put my hand in that one, all right, Oh pie, boring life I live, Jesus, that's funny that that's how you get out of Sorry no, oh no, this this next one's gonna it's gonna break your heart or no, or lift your spirits, do both at once.

We'll see. This next segment is called Connections, Suspects and Mysterious. That's yes, okay, your face all right, look, yeah, it is is that one. Yes, this section might be the most interesting one and the longest. It'll basically cover everything I couldn't fit into all the previous segments and the trilogy of the episodes. It is because it's this is because I thought it might confuse and already confusing spider Web information or a point of a

story I was trying to tell. Or it could be because I felt the juicier to wait until this time to reveal it now that the major Octopus events have been revealed, or I just fucking forgot will I did forget some key things up for real, I will disclose mini biles on people suspected as members of the Octopus. These entries have no particular order, and their lengths vary, and I'll pause for a moment between them. Expect a lot of quotes here. I'm going to start with an easy one. I'm gonna start with

an easy one. Back on the Octopus Murders the first show of this series, when discussing Danny Casilero, I mentioned that a few days before his death, Danny had shown his friend Ben Mason several important papers about his research. One of those was a photocopy of a passport of someone named Ibrahim. Authorities found, yes, remember, authorities found no connections to this Ibraim, But it was obvious that people believed that Castilero might have met him in Martinsburg in

a Martinsburg bar a day before he died. The reason I never explained it at the time because I wasn't yet sure where it would lead, and I didn't have enough information to reveal it. But no, now I do. He showed him a twenty two point outline for his book, plus alarming papers

referring to the Iron Contra arms deals. He had photocopies of a one million dollar check and a four million dollar check drawn from BCCI accounts that were held by an international arms merchant named Annan Koshogi by another arms dealer and middleman to the Iron Contra scandal, Manucher Gurbanifar. I love that name. She just loves saying that Gerbonifart anyway. It's like a Pokemon Gobonifar. I choose you anyway. In this stack of photocopies, Ben Mason noticed Abraham's passport as the

last sheet quote. Castilero had emphasized that Ibrahim had made a big deal of showing him Cassilero his Egyptian passport. Ibrahim was obviously the informant of whom Olga Casilero's housekeeper had seen sitting in the kitchen with Danny on August fifth. Hassan Ali Ibraim Ali born in nineteen twenty eight, was later identified as the manager

of Citico, an alleged Iraqi front company for arms purchases. Castilera had obtained these papers from his confidante Bob Bickle, who in turn obtained them from October

surprise source Richard Brenneke. Neither Danny or Bob Bickle were aware at the time of a document from the US Department of Justice dated May sixteenth, nineteen eighty five, written by William Bradford Bradford Reynolds, Assistantney Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division, to William Weld, United States Attorney in Boston, advising mister Well that the promised software was being provided to an Arab chiek for resale and

general distribution in his region. The letter read as follows, Dear mister Wild, as agreed Messer's manager gurbanifar Adnan Kashogi and Richard Armitage will broke the transaction of promised software to Sikh Khalid bin Mafus for resale and general distribution as gives in his region, contingent upon the three conditions we last spoke of promise. Promise the software it means must have a soft arrival, no paperwork, customs

or delay. It must be equipped with a special data retrieval unit. As before, you must walk the financial aspects through Credit Suis into National Commerce Bank. If you encounter any problems, contact me directly, Sincerely, W. M. Bradford Reynolds, Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division, Bill Hamilton, owner of Inslaw, said he had received this document in the in November two thousand and four from a consistently reliable US intelligence source. He said Donald

Carr showed the document to Bradford Reynolds in two thousand and five. Carr was writing a biography on of Elliott Richardson and served with Reynolds in the Edwin MEAs and Richard Thornberg Justice Department as a Republican political appointee. Reynolds authenticated the document.

He told Carr that Lowell Jansen's secretary brought the letter to him for signature because Jensen was out of the building, the letter needed to be sent that day and it needed to be signed by someone in Edwin Mes's inner circle. He said he signed the letter but did not draft it. Reynolds said he had a vague recollection that MYE recused himself on promise when he became a Churney general in February nineteen eighty five, and Jensen said therefore to handle promise.

Reynolds told Carr that he had an independent memory of Armitage and Garbanifar working together on promise. I know, I know. Yes. The names that sound familiar to you have been talked about before in this series. Elliott Richardson, Edwin mess and Richard Thornberg are all mentioned in the last episode. Yeah, Elli Richardson being the Hotsha lawyer that said fuck you Nixon to Watergate. Yeah. All copies of this document were supposed to be destroyed, but somehow made

it to Hamilton in two thousand and four. Firstly, I wanted to get I wanted to get to Adnan Kashogi and other names like Monusher, Garbanifar, and they ran contra sction of this episode. But the flow would have been interrupted when I was connecting Casilero and the Octopus to the Reagan administration. So here we are. Anyway, this Anan Kashogi. Have you heard of him? Okay? Adnan Kashogi was a big deal in several circles. He was

the richest man in the world. In the nineteen eighties, and his yacht Nabila was used in the James Bond film Never Say Never Again. Oh Okay, he had his own custom monopoly board game of his properties. Oh you Son of a Bitch. Yeah. And the Queen has a song called Koshogi Ship No Shit Yeah, popular deal Yeah. Kashogi's sister, Samira was the mother of Dodi Sayed Dotie Zayet. You know that name. It sounds that

sounds familiar. That should You're also find out. Kashogi's sister, Samira was the mother of Dodi Sayad, an Egyptian and millionaire film producer who was romantically involved with Princess Diana of Wales. That's it. They both died on August thirty first, nineteen ninety seven in Paris. Became one of the most televised tragedies in that decade, spawning many films and documentaries and conspiracies. By the way, I'm not saying that that the octopus has anything to do with Princess

Diana's untimely Oh. I thought that. I was, like, I mean, people are people definitely say that I'm not Silla. Yes, people say that I'm only establishing Adnan Koshogi's wealth and power and that again everything is connected. That should be show. That's why I should call a show Everything's connect because everyone should cut it through their skulls. Anyway, Kashogi was a key MetalMan in the Iron Contra affair in the exchange of arms for hostages, along

with Gorbatnevar. This was a complex series of events where co investigators found that money borrow from BCCI was used for these arm purchase arms purchases having the US and Saudi backing. In addition to this, Kashogi was arrested in nineteen eighty eight for hiding funds, was held for three months before being extradited to the US, where he was acquitted. Of course, yeah, the US in nineteen ninety acquitted Kashogi and Emilda Marcos, widow of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos,

of fraud and bracketeering. In case you're not sure, I mentioned fernand Marcos ever so briefly on the show as having ties to both BCCI and the Newgan Hand Bank. I also mentioned that a Lebanese magazine, Al Shazero, was first to break the story of the Iran Contra affair. They were tipped off by a regular contributor of this series, Ari Ben Menashi. I'm sorry I lied, but that wasn't so easy. Instead of one, I gave you

like five connections there that began with the passport. This is how research for the show has been for me. I read something about a company and the people that run it, and they are close friends with people with another event or affair, which in turn are connected to a government project of some kind. And before you can say octopus, you're loss and I'm lost. Well said that was just that the whole thing. I just wrote it verbatim as

I followed through the line of research. That's how it would look like if I didn't like pad it. Wow, okay, yeah, yeah, ok yeah, I'm sorry. Don't worry. That's the only jokey. I mean, it's real, it's all real. But like that's the only one that's like that. All right, this next one? What is it? Oh? I know, I'm trying to read ahead, see where I'm at.

I'm going to quote a series of connections from Cherry Seamer's book The Last Circle, as I have been you know, here and there to springboard a man I want to discuss quote Cassilera was also investigating Colonel bo Gritz's expose of CIA drug trafficking in the Golden Triangle and had requested to meet with a former police officer who had information on Losan Laosian Laoshan Nowsian warlord Kun Saus Golden Triangle drug

trade proposal to the US. Grits had staged several expeditions to Laos in search of missing POW's but reportedly stumbled upon a massive drug network in Southeast Asia and American POWs were intertwined in that network, he told the Sacramento Bee in June sixth, nineteen eighty seven. Grits had been indicted in May in May of nineteen eighty seven for using a false passport under the name of Patrick Richard Clark from Vancouver, Canada, but at his arraignment before a US magistrate in Las

Vegas, he said he had proper authorization for his travels. Cassilero also learned through Sacramento b newspaper article dated June second, nineteen ninety that Patrick Moriarty, the Red Devil Fireworks magnet, convicted of money laundering, political contributions and bribing officials in Sacramento had been subpoenaed to testify on behalf of Grits. At his

trial in Las Vegas, Gritz was acquitted of the charges. Moriarty's lawyer, Jan Lawrence Hanslick told The Bee that Moriarty had paid Grits to make business trips to China, Singapore and other parts of Asia. Grid set his business trip to Asia in July eighty nine was for the purpose of negotiating an oil interest that he and Moriarty had set up between the People's Republic of China and Indonesia. At the time of Gritz's trial, Patrick Moriarty was a long time thirty

years partner of Marshall Riconashudo, Michael Vicunashutto's father. They owned several California businesses together, two of which were Hercules Research Corporation, of which Michael was a

partner, and Pyrotronics Corporation. I privately mused after reading the b article that Michael Hand, before he founded Neugan Handbank in Australia with Frank Neugan and officials and officials of the CIA owned Air America, had been a highly decorated Special Forces Green Beret soldier in Vietnam. Colonel Bo Gritz was also a highly decorated Green Beret in Vietnam. In both grits in Hand had special knowledge of intelligence

operations in Golden Triangle. After his first stint in Vietnam, Hand moved to the clandestine CIA war in Laos. According to a former station chief in Indonesia, Ted Shackley, the newgen Handbank, a primary CIA operation in the Pacific area, reportedly laundered profits from drug trafficking in the Golden Triangle, which in

turn financed subversive paramilitary activities in Southeast Asia in nineteen eighty. I know in nineteen eighty the newgen Handbank collapse, collapsed, five million dollars in debt and Michael Han disappeared unquote, and we know the rest of that story. So that is a long connection of frequent Issu's lineage his father that leads into what led to the Nowgan Hand Bank scandalate. Got it? Okay, that's a backwards, real deep, god fucking connection there. Stuff. It's so ever

ending. Yeah, yeah, yes, that's never ending. So I'm gonna talk about the person that I want to talk about based on that story I just said, I'm gonna start bringing in the wilder side of these theories and allegations, things might get less believable as we progress. Remember that former Vietnam chief Ted Shackley, That's who I want to focus on next. He was mentioned for the first time in this episode in the newgan Hanbank Scandal segment.

He joined the military in nineteen forty five as a private and became part of the Allied occupied for in best basic training, learning, counterintelligence, and recruiting Polish agents. He apparently posts about Polish very soon after. Shackley was bred to be a spook as one of the first wave of recruits in CIA history in nineteen fifty three. From sixty two to sixty five, Shackley was station chief in Miami, Florida. Can you think of what was happening in Miami

during this time? Drugs nice a little bit, but no. Shack along with Thomas Kleins, dealt with operations held in Cuba and the Miami CIA station was called JM Wave, which had more than two hundred CIA officers who then handled roughly two thousand Cuban agents. A big and popular project Shackley and others headed was called Operation Mongoose, which served to help Cuban exiles to overthrow the

communist regime in Cuba, primarily Fidel Castro. Quote. During this period as Miami station chief, Shackley was in charge of about four hundred agents and general operatives, and his tenure encompassed the Cuban Missile crisis of October nineteen sixty two, but it kept growing billy. At its height, this jmwave became the largest CIA station in the world, employing over three thousand agents and operating over fifty dummy corporations. You may or may not know this, but the Cuban

situation was severely complex. There were so many entities for and mainly against Castro and from the US government agencies within the US government, Coca Cola and other businessmen exiled and pissed off Cubans, mafia dons, and many more. Cashoer's Revolution in nineteen fifty nine resulted in kicking out the mafia from Cuban casinos, which the CIA used to launder payments to those mobsters. This partnership of the

OSS and CIA with the mafia began with something called Operation Underworld. But I'm not going to get into that right now, and I heavily digress here. This show isn't about the Cuban ship storm. My point here is that the CIA and Mob targeted Cuban leaders for assassination, people like Mafia Do Santos Traficante,

working through Frank Sturgis and Richard Wadley a mercenary. Cuban assassination teams included Felix Rodriguez, Raphael Kindetto under the supervision of E. Howard Hunt, whose boss was station chief Theodore Shackley. Look those names up and have fun with that. By the way, look them up. Here's something cool, and

by cool, I mean horrifyingly believable. Quote. Also alleged to have been involved in assassination attempts on castro It's doctor John P. Nichols, the administrator, and the Cabizon Wackenhunt venture, which Danny Cassilero investigated unquote Oh what, Yeah, he was a spook. We just didn't know what he did. Shit. Yeah. This Cuban era for Shakley is but a rest stop.

So we're gonna move on here from here. SHACKLEI went to Vietnam, which I mentioned earlier, was a station chief that wasn't involved in operation Phoenix to torture and detain viet Cong. In this setting, Shackley worked with people like Colby, a prominent figure in the Newgan Hand Bank scandal, as well as many others. Operation Phoenix was run by Shakley and clients, with alleged participation

by Earl W. Bryant in seventy four to seventy five. They were responsible for killing approximately sixty thousand civilian Vietnamese financed alleged allegedly by Vang Pro drug money. During his Vietnamese phase, Shacklee met arms dealer and CIA man Edwin Wilson, becoming close friends. Remember Wilson's the guy who was arrested for selling C four explosives in the nineties. Sorry, sorry, so doubly fast. I'm just remembering as I go, So where am I? They were close friends.

Edwin Wilson was deemed to be a member of the octopus by Danny Cassillro as well. For the sake of time, I'll skip further background involving Vietnam beyond what I said already and head to the relationship between George Bush and Ted Shackley, at least a little bit. Quote the career movements of alleged Octopus member Ted Shackley also illuminate Bush's secret life. From nineteen fifty two to nineteen fifty nine and nineteen sixty five to nineteen sixty six, Zacklie worked in Germany.

In the nineteen sixty two to sixty four period, he was station chief in Miami. Shackley became station chief in Saigon and Vietnam from nineteen sixty four to seventy four and chief of CIA's Far East Division thereafter, while George Bush served as ambassador to China. After Bush's ascension to CIA director, Shackley was promoted to Associate Deputy Director of Operations, considered the agency's third most powerful job. Shakley was put in charge of Central American operations. And we know what

the CIA was up to in Central America. One of those Central American operations involved Chile. On September eleventh, nineteen seventy three, the Chilean military under General Augusto Pinochet, aided by the United States and the CIA, staged a coup against Chilean President Salvadora Yende. You know this? No okay? Officially, Allende committed suicide as insurgents store the Palace, supposedly because he didn't want to suffer the humiliation of his aggressors. Is actually quite a quite a movie

scene. Allende was addressing the nation on the radio as they entered, describing himself in the past tense, knowing he's gonna die one way or the other. Oh yeah. Unofficially, it is said that Allenda's death was performed by two Cubans, as other eight assassination attempts occurred simultaneously. Shackley and Klines did

the strategy for this operation, That's how they involved. The reason some people find it hard to believe that Ayenda committed suicide was because the only people there to winness the events were the people out to fucking kill him, meaning unreliable sources and uninterested uninterested in damping them, dampening any effect the CIA and other

insurgencies wanted from this operation. As added bonus and his own admission, John P. Nichols was involved in the Allenda assassination plot before moving out west to California, apparently just before Wow. Casilerov wrote the following about Chile quote. A different, marginally more officious costume was worn in Chile. Since this operation

provided accumulated debt for favors performed. The octopus now mature enough to know how to collect those debts, What are the favors performed and what was the do bill unquote. That's not all Ted Shackli has to offer. As the third most powerful person in the CIA, Shackley was also involved in the Iron Conter affair, but mainly in the relationship and events leading up to it in Libya and when Wilson worked for Caadaffi training his air force and provided planes and weapons

and techniques related relating to assassinations and the sabotaged and explosives. This crash course in violent espionage was reported to Ted Shackli in the seventies. Despite being officially retired from CIA in the eighties. During the Iron Conter affair, Shackley passed information from manager of Grabanifar to Oliver North and to people of all sorts. Even if Shackley didn't gain or did a lot at this time. There's much more detail and other events I could cover, but once again I must move

on. People like Ted Shackley are fascinating because of how involved they were to one degree or another in major historical events and they seemingly do it so passively or indifferently. Take his involvement with Cuba, the Middle East, South America, and Vietnam with you as important as his relationships with George Bush Senior was. And how was he tied to senior? Again? He but Senior promoted him as third placeman when he went Busch oh, the third most powerful person

right in CIA. When he became the director of CIA, he promoted that guy to the third place post. I see, okay, got it. And then probably William Casey was second player, who was another octopuse guy. And then William Casey took over after Bush wanted to be in politics and then won the election. Well, he became vice president of Ronald Reagan first, right, and then from there a one presidency yep, which all comment is in October surprise, because if Brigan didn't win, Bush would never have been

probably president if you go that back that far. Yeah, anyway, now, oh, okay, this next part is designed to fascinate people that are into conspiracies like us, and will hopefully serve as something juicy to enjoy amid the confusing history, lessons and never ending connections. I've said before that Michael Kinnesshuda was one of the prime sources for Danny Cassilero's research. He showed the

freelance journalists where to find information and who to look into for connections. You might have asked yourself already why why was Ricineshudo allowed to live since he knew and has seen so much? There are two reasons for this. One is that we Canshudo claims to have documents and a tape recording involving prominent octopus figures implicating themselves in some, if not all, of the shady doings I've mentioned

already in this three part series. The second reason is that his willingness to tell anyone who asks him questions about everything about everything he saw, makes We're gonna shoot a kind of a loon, a loon prone to conspiracy gossip. If he's right about everything, hell even half, then it makes him look crazy and killing someone like that will make him a martyr, not unlike Casilera. By the way, these allegations Rickin a Shooter has made is while begintting

into here, well a few of them anyway. For instance, there was a rumor that the Cabstons belonged to something worldwide called reservation operation that was run by the Enterprise and Wackenhut on Indian land. The project name was Yellow Lodge. Have you heard of the Yellow Lodge. It's not super famous. It is low key, but maybe it's famous enough. I I'm gonna say no, okay, I never heard of it before. It's either in Yellow Lodge.

It is said that they produced advanced warfare like pathogenic viruses and biological weapons. Operations ran on Hikadia, Apoculans, Apache Land, Sorry, and other reservations, including an interesting center called D six located in Dulse, New Mexico. You know D six. Nobody know those in New Mexico, that's for sure. Yeah fucking will Yeah. Castilera learned through UFO enthusiasts that this D six location was the site of a huge underground joint human slash alien base.

Uh other more and more and more. This is what you're waiting for. I know you have, I know. Let's see where. Other notes of Danny Castilero mentions MJ twelve, Area fifty one and Pine Gap. What your face? I mean, I'm not gonna super get into MG twelve and Area

fifty one because we've done this just. Pine Gap supposed to be a top secret underground base located in Alice Springs, Australia, and has the official name of Joint Defense Space Research Facility. While rumors of alien activity have existed, what it's mainly known for is that it served to monitor spy satellites and interception and the coding of various forms of broadcast communications between foreign powers that were unfriendly to the US. Quote. Pine Gap was built in nineteen sixty eight,

ostensibly as a means of sharing space program data with the Australians. Opposition to the base grew as it became clearer that it had more of a prosaic purpose espionage. A book on this subject and secret Based demonstrated CIA manipulation, which led to the early end of Australia's Administrator of the Labor Party, Gau Whitman.

This was because he opposed Pine Gap operations. By the way, quote, one early page of Danny's notes seemingly ties together Area fifty one Pine Gap, a small Pennsylvania town called Tonoma, and possibly one of its citizens, someone named Fred Dick, perhaps tracing one of many convoluted dead ends that Danny

traced. The authors of this book dispatched an investigator to Tnoma, Pa in the notes, but failed to find Dick I know so bad, even after placing a classified in the classified in the local newspaper, or any indication of what they may have linked them to to the other, to the mysterious military basis. Buried in notes written much later, however, were references to Tonapa, Nevada, near area fifty one. Fred Dick, however, remains a mystery. Unquote, we were there by Tonapau yep, yep. Anyway,

what do you think that? So? Okay, I was so taken back where you went right there? So I guess I missed the connection. Oh way, so cassilero, what was the implication there? So also through we're canna shoot? Oh he said that there's a there was a theory, not that he said. He didn't say this is a theory. He said that this app but we don't know for sure. That Cabistan Band of mission Inions belonged to something called reservation operation where they use other reservation lands to build weapons,

mainly biological war first stuff. And then one of those was called D six, and that connects Aliens to the D six was supposedly the dudes say, what's it called? Yeah, and that's where UFO enthusiasts say that there's a base there that's human slash alien heavy. And then from there I went with Pine Gap because it was one of the three places that Cassilla had wrote and in his notes to research later Pine Gap and I mentioned what they were

an Australian base for espionage. They've put up the leader there. And then from there I put in the one last thing about Danny's notes, saying the area fifty one Pine Gap and the small town Tonoma and Fred Dick. At the end, it's like a little whatever based on what the we should have told them? Got it? Got it? That's how it connects. Love it. Yes, here's another one. Here's another rumor slash allegation about Viknaeshudo or from Konahudo. It is said that in addition to what we already know

of him, he also worked for Lear Aircraft and Reno Nevada. The speculation that evolved from here is that it immediately ties we can shootout with John Lear, senior, creator of the Lear Jet, and is someone that UFO conspiracy theorists claimed to have worked or done research on anti gravity for the government. The connection here is that Lear Junior, not Senior Junior, who also worked with his father, had many stories of flying saucers and aliens, even befriending

the infamous Babazar Ooh. Both men would appear in gatherings to tell their stories to believers. Two other connections are William Cooper and Gordon Novel. Cooper wrote a book that discusses the JFK assassination, Hairy fifty one and The Elders of Zion. Novel was supposedly a minor player in both the Kennedy assassination and the

Watergate scandal by his own admission, though people do not believe it. Some have even suggested that this wild claim about Gordon Novel is a way to distract from serious and real issues about black project weapons development and governmental gun running. Prince Vie allegation right there, Yeah, I love it. Yep, that's probably the shortest one I got here. Let's see here next one. This next bit is the sweetest in my arsenal, especially for the supernatural current studies.

It involves a little bit of aliens and a lot more into the assassination of John F. Kennedy. We all know that Kennedy, before his death wanted to splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces, mainly for the Bay of

Pigs fiasco, but he didn't get the chance obviously. Well. While being able to fire a CIA old sacred cows like Alan Dulles, the CIA continued in the shadows of his creators, people like Richard Helms, who became CIA Directors of the CIA sorry, who became director of the CIA in nineteen sixty six, and E. Howard Hunt. Hunt is the important connection here because Cassilero had spoken with him on the phone and believed was not only a CIA spook, but an octo spook as well. That's what you call them,

octo spooks. I love that term. Octos spook. Yeah, it's great. Hunt had helped set up the Bayo Pigs, was one of the plumbers on the Watergate scandal and supposedly was involved in mk ultra. Allegations that Hunt and a man named Frank Sturgis, another Watergate burglar, were in Dallas on the day of the assassination. People say that they were the two of the three hoboes on the railroad tracks behind the motherfucking Grassy Knoll, who were arrested

by Dallas police whoa quote. Mark Lane, one of the earliest critics of the Warren Commission, documented Hunt's inability to defend himself in court against accusations of his presence in Dallas in his book Plausible Denial. One of Lane's key witnesses in that trial, Marita Lorenz, named e Howard Hunt, Frank Sturgis, Orlando Bosch, Lee, Harvey Oswald, the Noble Brothers, Jerry Patrick Hemming, and Pedro Diaz Lance as part of a convoy that traveled from Miami to

Dallas for the JFK hit. Quote. There's also a follow up connection between George Bush and the close associate to Oswald's, George de Mornshield, but that it's a can of worms I'm not ready to open today. I am purposely staying away from Bush, to be honest. Now, this next dose of information is crazy. I'll be quoting the whole chunk here because I cannot reveal

it any better than they did, Okay. Quote Rigano Shudo had his own intergenerational connection to the UFO lore and his own link to the Kennedy assassination. His father, Marshall had been a business associate of Fred Christman, a man involved in the Maury Island incident, one of the earliest UFO incidents to follow

pilot Kenneth Arnold's famed flying discs over Mount Rainier in nineteen forty seven. Arnold in fact investigated claims by Chrisman and Harold Dahl that Dahl, his son, his dog, and two others witnessed six saucers as the crew boted in the Puget Sound along the shore of Maury Island. Dahl's child was burned and his dog killed when one of the saucers spewed metallic debris on the boat. Chrisman and Dahl mailed metal fragments of the debris to Amazon's from Amazon Amazing Stories editor

Ray Palmer, who hired Kenneth Arnold himself to investigate. Confused by what he was hearing from Chrisman and Dahl, Arnold called in two Air Force intelligence officers. They concluded some interviews, collected some of the debris, and were headed back home back to home base on A B fifty twenty five when an explosion

on their early morning flight killed them both. The Mourray Island incident was written off for years as a hoax, but recent research has brought up the possibility that Chrisman used his possession of the saucer debris as a means to a career among the spooks. Flying saucer crash retrieval rumors mounted in nineteen forty seven near

the Reconnahudo stopping ground in Tacoma, Washington. The Tacoma News Tribune reported upon a retrieval by William Guy Banister, the FBI special Agent in charge of the air area of the time. Banister became famous much later in life when he shared office space with the Fair Plague for Cuba Community Committee in New Orleans,

possibly employing Lee Harvey Oswald as an agent provocateur. Chrismin too had been connected to Oswald via a subpoena from the investigation of JFK's death by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison. Some alleged that Chrismin was one of the three Hoboes photographed after their arrest in the railroad yard behind the infamous Grassy Knoll on November twenty second, nineteen sixty three. Chrismin was notably silent about both Maury Island and

JFK. In his nineteen seventy memoir of life in Tacoma entitled Murder of a City, written under the pseudonym of John Gold, he did have warm comments about Michael Marshall mcunastudo, however, and recounted that the young Michael had discovered several electronic bugs at his father's office. A lot going on there, A lot going on there. So we talked about the Morey Island incident. Yeah. I don't remember if it was in our extraterrestrial extravagant episodes or what,

but yep, I remember that quite well. The explosion of the airplane and and these ties to the JFK assassination. I mean that that's just amazing. And Rick, do you remember a guy Banister? The name sounds so familiar. He's definitely involved in Operation Mongoose and Shed. Yeah. I see, yeah. And that now you got Rick and Ashudo's father. So you said that the multi generational thing. Yes, Rick Shudle's fathers tied into the UFO side, the Kennedy assassination side. Yep, his son found the bugs in

his office. I mean, Jesus Christ, is this ever end? No? What you have to understand is that both we going to shootout and chrismin and were from Tacoma, Washington. Tacoma is a little over an hour away from Mount Rainier and Maury Island or the Pugey Sound Christmins Twilight Years where we can to shoot those upbringing. Let me expand a little more on Christmas connection

to Kennedy. It was on October thirty first, nineteen sixty eight, when a grand jury in New Orleans issued a subpoena for Fred Lee Christmin in connection to the assassination of JFK. This is the press release, writing by District Attorney Jim Garrison. Quote. Mister Christmin has been engaged in undercover activity for a part of the industrial warfare complex for years. His covert, his cover, sorry, his cover is that of a preacher and a person engaged in

work to help gypsies. Our information indicates that since the early nineteen sixties he has made many trips to New Orleans and Dallas areas in connection with his undercover work for that part of the warfare industry. Engage in manufacture of what is termed in military language a hardware, meaning those weapons to the US government which are uniquely large and expensive. Mister Christmin is a former employee of the Boeing Aircraft Company. This in the sense that one defendant in the case is a

former employee of Lockheed Aircraft Company and Los Angeles and Intelligence Terminology. This ordinarily means that connections still exists, but that the former employee has moved into underground operation. More often than not, a bad record or evidence indicating that he has been fired is prepared for the parent company to increase the disassociation between the two unquote com complicated there, but yeah. Chrismin was deposed in the case

against Clay Shaw, the XCIA businessman. Conspiracy theories believe that Chrismin was one of the three tramps of homeless people that were arrested by Dallas police, the other two already covered being E. Howard Hunt and Frank Sturgis quote again.

In nineteen seventy nine, the House select made the assassinations reported that forensic anthropologists and analyzed and compared the photographs of the three tramps with those of Chrismin, as well as with photographs of Watergate figures E. Howard Hunt, Frank Sturgis and two other men. According to the committee, only Chrismin resembled any of the tramps, but the same committee determined that he was not in dally Plaza

on that day of the assassination. So unquote, Chrismin died of kidney failure on December tenth, nineteen seventy five. Do you think, I don't know what to think was Were they the hoboes or I think so? Yeah? Huh yeah. Okay, Now let's get into a few of the mysterious deaths that surround the octopus. Okay, it's a lot of that actually. First off, is Alan Standorff. I mentioned Standoff in the last episode in the

Rigni Shudo segment, and I said, now I'm quoting myself again. A contact of his by the name of Alan Standorf said he worked at a secret military electronics listening post in Virginia and managed to supply Cassilera with classified information regarding the Enslock case. Many stipulate that those papers were among but went missing from his hotel room when he died. O course, yeah, when Cassi was murdered or suicide, so yeah or whatever, his papers were missing us.

Right. Standorff definitely had intelligence training through the military in Germany before the classified position of Vint Hill form in military security installation near Manassa's, Virginia. Apparently he had quite the job shortly before his death and probably around the time he

got into contact with Stany Casilero. Quote. Standorff supplied Castlera with classified information and in order to quickly return the materials to avoid detection, Castilero set up high speed commercial duplicating and collating equipment in room nine hundred at the nearby Hilton Hotel. On January thirty first, nineteen eighty one, seven months before Castle was to be found dead, Alan Standorf's body was found on the back floor

of his car at the Washington National Airport. He had been murdered by a blow to the back of the head. Possibly he was meeting someone at the airport clandestinely, but we don't know. Doctor Stephen she she he sorry, shee hi, I don't know of The medical Examiner's report office sorry. Medical Examiner's office in Northern Virginia said that Standorf's body had no visible wounds and was

found under clothing and luggage in the back of his car. Journalists from twenty eighteen to from twenty eighteen to twenty twenty one have sent Freedom of Information Act request onto Martinsburg Police Department about Alan Sturndorff, but received no answer up to

this date. A little background of this for this next ast. According to Ariban Menashi, the US developed this backdoor to the promised software with the help of Capisan slash wagonaut US and Israel began looking for a neutral company that they

could use to sell the software to other intelligence services. The company they chose was called day Game Systems, a computer firm with offices in Guatemala, South Africa, and Israel publishing mogul Robert Maxwell had taken over Dagam for the purpose of selling Promise sold to a military regime in Guatemala, for example, quote even if they travel under a false name. Various characteristics such as height, hair color, age were fed into roadside terminals, and Promise searched through its

database looking for a common denominator. It would be able to tell an army commander that a certain dissident who was in the north three days before had caught a train, then a bus, stayed at a friend's house and was now on the road under a different name. That's how fighting the system was quote. Officially, Maxwell's death was ruled as suicide or accidental since he was found floating in the ocean near his yacht. This was off the Canary Islands.

On November fifth, nineteen ninety one, Spanish authorities concluded that he died of a heart attack, despite the fact that Maxwell had no history of heart disease. Later on, forensic specialists who worked on the body found that a perforation under Maxwell's left ear could have caused by an injection of a lethal substance, but who knows who knows? There were several speculations as to why anyone wanted him dead, such as money troubles, business enemies, and inheritance issues.

In reaction in reaction to the octopus, it is said that his usefulness of selling promise was done and he officially became a loose end. This next series of hits broke in the San Francisco Chronicle on December thirtieth, nineteen ninety one, titled Business Murderers Puzzle Cops. This is a connection to the murder of Fred Alberts in nineteen eighty one. Yes all the way back, Yeah,

the ogks that began this case. The series sorry six months after Albarez was killed and let's not forget Bolger and Castro, police found the body of Paul Morasca. He was hogtied by a telephone court noose around his neck and had strangled slowly as his legs uncurled. Marascue's body was found in his condo in

San Francisco's Telegraph Hill. Three days after that, a sixty three year old woman named Mary Quick, head of the Women's Auxiliary of American Legion Post five h nine in Fresno, was killed by a shot to the head as she approached the Legion hall. Investigators at the time believed that these three murders were connected. Here's their connections. Marasca was an associate of Michael Wikineshudo and worked

with other confidants in the Cabizon Arms project. He reported that he had the access coats for offshore counts containing millions of dollars in drug money for covert operations. Mary Quick's death was seen as a mugging, but a year after her murder, police learned that we can Shooto claimed the business connection with Quick's nephew, Brian Weiss. Quote. Police sources told the San Francisco Examiner that Weiss gave his aunt a bank card with secret account numbers, perhaps the same access

codes that may have led to pal Morasca's murder. According to the police, she had no connection to any of the Principles and could be trusted. Mary Quick was to be instructed to give information only to Paul Morasca or Michael Vignashudo. She was not aware of what the computer card was for and had never received the car and had never received the card unquote. Within the quote, Riknaeshudo claimed that Mary Quick's murder was probably trying to recover the card unquote unquote.

Those are two that to us, right, well, reconstrucy right, Yeah, these associations to Reconshchudo turning up dead give credibility to his wild allegations a little bit. It does a little more than a little bit of Actually there are more deaths connected to him. An attorney named Dennis Weiss not Wi. Heisman was in contact with Danny Casilero and was planning and heading to Tacoma, Washington to defend Ricaneshudo when in April nineteen ninety one was shot and killed

in his car in Philadelphia. Heisman had plans on visiting a woman about threats to his client. Quote. Over time, Michael Knashudo lost three lawyers and an investigator under what could be construed as mysterious circumstances. In February nineteen eighty seven, Larry Garin, a private investigator conducting inslat connected work for Greek in

Nashudo, was killed in Mason County, Washington. After Iisman's death. In April nineteen ninety three, another attorney who worked at Riconnashudo, John Crawford, died suddenly from a heart attack in Tacoma. The deco Poe's body of a third we can shoot a lawyer, Paul Wilcher, was found in Wilcher's Washington,

DC apartment on June twenty third, nineteen ninety three. Wiltshire had also had been gunther Russbacher, who claimed to have videotape proof of and sixteen witnesses to his having flown George W. H. Bush to one of the October surprise meetings. Quote. Paul Wilcher, I've mentioned on the show before, is a very interesting figure in the series of conspiracies as well as others, but I can't get into him today. Wherever there's no four four, don't

get excited, four excited. I'm just not getting into him. Other mysterious does include Alan Michael May, who died in his home in San Francisco on June nineteen ninety one. He was a former Nixon campaign aide who we Can Shooto mentioned four days earlier in an interview about May's involvement in the October Surprise. The coroner at first reported May's death to be from a heart attack, but an autopsy revealed the presence of polypharmaceuticals in his body. Then there's Anson

Ng, who was a reporter for the Financial Times in London. He was doing a story on the wacken Hut security guard Jimmy Hughes on the first episode and followed him to South America trying to get an interview quote while in Watemala during July nineteen ninety one, and was murdered by a single bullet to the chest. His death was ruled as suicide. The Watermelon government was asked to retrieve in Ng's floppy disks and personal papers regarding his investigation. It did so

and turned them over to the US Intelligence Agency. In a press conference a few weeks later, Senator Alan Cranston requested that designers be returned, but they never were. Unquote. Then there's Jonathan Moyle. On March thirty first, nineteen ninety, Moyle's body was found hanging from a closet rail in his hotel room in Santiago, Chile. Morel was a British journalist who was researching some of the same people Danny Cassilero was doing, but from a different angle.

Both deaths were ruled as suicides, and both of their families did not believe that to be the case. The specific connection both Moral and Cassilero had had that involved Chile was an arms broker that lived there. Cassilera was looking into selling of the promised software to an Iraqi intelligence officer, and Moyle, who was the editor of Defense Helicopter World, was looking into weapon sales to Iraq

by that same broker. On the surface, it was concluded by several people and articles that both men didn't have enough evidence worth killing for, to which I say, they obviously did. Yeah. Here's a few quotes. Ah, sorry, a few others quote. Later, others would begin to develop lists of significant debts related to the Instack case in much the same way many began making connections between the deaths of witnesses and others associated to the JA assassination

twenty five years earlier. In addition to the Reconna shooter, lawyers deleasing the list included Valley de la Hanti, whose knowledge of a DA plan to set up Reconna shooter in a drug church would have made her an important witness for him. She disappeared on August eighteenth, nineteen ninety two, but her body was not discovered until the following April in a ravine in a ravine near Lake

Bay, Washington. Another Reaconda shooter, ally Pete Sanmingen, who was working to help reconn shoot defend himself from the drug charges, died the following December. An AMIL clip from the gun he carried mysteriously missing. Barry Kuznik, a computer engineer who had worked on Promise enhancements, also made the list. According to one report, Kuznick's enhancement was called Brainstorm, an artificially intelligent program

that applied the prognosticating ability of Promise to individual thought patterns. I don't know it extends civily allowed Promise to deduce from personality characteristics the potential action of the person being traced wow As in the Install case, Kushnik apparently has made the modifications under a government contract that the government failed to pay, attempting to drive Kusnik into bankruptcy. So unfamiliar, Yes, Kusnik had previously done communications and

intelligence work for Northrop Corporation in the US military. His body had not been found, and nine months after he was reported missing, family members were unable to get known business partners to acknowledge even knowing him. Five boxes of his belongings were found in the lack of facility not found body no. One. Most interesting of all the mysterious deb's connected to Install, however, was that

of nineteen sixties political activist Abby Hoffman. Hoffman wrote an early piece on the October Surprise for Playboy magazine, and shortly thereafter was involved in a suspicious automobile accident. Most regarded his death on April twelfth, nineteen eighty nine, as the suicide it was reported as cause, perhaps in due to depression he suffered from the continued pain resulting from that accident. Others, however, suspected foul

play in Hoffman's death, notably David Dellinger. Dellinger sorry a fellow member of the Chicago Eight. Dellinger's suspicions even led him to attempt to retrieve the coroner's report for examination, but he was stopped by a threatened court battle. They quote within the quote, they basically would not allow that to go to court. Dellinger concluded, But Abby's son Andrew and Abby's first wife, Sheila are convinced he was killed. Unquote. There's more a lot more, but I'll

stop there. You know, Abbi Hoffman, right, do you know the whole thing, Chicago seven, the Chicago seven? You see that movie? I have not. That's where he was famous. Well, the big famous thing. I know the case. I don't know the intricacies of the case. How about that? How good? All right? Now? That's that ends that segment. Essentially a lot of that. It really is a lot more. His last segments, called the Octopus never ends in conclusion to this

massive series. How the fuck do I end it? There are so many loose ends that I haven't tied. Some of them I can't because the evidence or chatter isn't there. But mostly I didn't have time for them. Part of my original bullet points to research and write about were the Lebanese drug connections to the octopus, Lester K. Coleman's Affter David, which I mentioned, William Bradford Reynolds, and Robert Booth Nichols. Nichols I've talked about here and

there, but his role is much bigger. He not, unlike we can the shoot out, was a small member of the octopus and had spoken with Cassileerro several times as a source of information. Funny enough, I don't think Nichols and who can Is should have liked each other, because I found that each warned the dad in Cassilera about the other, saying he's dangerous and not

to trust his information too much. I cut Robert Booth Nichols out because of time and length, but that brings up something I should address regarding the octopus. I will be dipping my sanity back into this well in the future. Robert Booth Nichols is a perfect subject to tackle later on. Another very interesting figure is is Paul Wilcher, who talked about a shadow government pulling strings and

other things before he was killed. He's definitely a revisit for me. Remember the reason the murders of Fred Avareez and Dany Casilero were the first focus was because of how much spotlight they had. Truthfully, there's dozens of Alvarezes and Castilero's, but it is their debts that brought many of the investigations, theories

and reporting. Cassilera wasn't the first to suggest that there's this group of nefarious people working within the halls of our government and in other countries for their own means and power gathering, only that it is when people started paying attention. Then there's an x FBI man named Ted Gunderson who became a conspiracy theorist private detective and was a source for Cherry Seymour. He has a different angle on this octopus thing, but it might be juicy enough for a standalone episode in

the future. With that, there were a few loose ends I'd rather tie up before ending the show. First. There's a book called Dark Victory Ronald Reagan MCA and the Mob by Dan E. Moldea or Moldia. It came out in nineteen eighty six and it is the first time in publication that the octopus was mentioned, and is a good chance that Casilera borrowed the idea for Modea next is summer. We can issue wild allegations that connects two segments in

this series as well as name drops another influential historical figure. Oh yeah, this is crazy quote. Riconoshudo made the dramatic allegation that William Casey, outside Council to Wakeenhut, prior to his work in the Reagan administration, had hired him and Brian in nineteen eighty to facilitate the now infamous October Surprise, in which the Reagan administration allegedly paid the Iranians not to release American hostages until after

his election. Riconoschudo claimed that he and Brian paid the Iranians forty million dollars in bribes. The promised software, so Riconosudo said, was Brian's payment for his participation. Riconoshudo also claimed that he had been instrumental in exposing the Newgan Hand Banks scandal, that he had met the Jackal, the famed international chur arrist, and that he had made a tape recording of a clandestine meeting with William Casey that he was holding as an insurance policy on his life. Unquote.

Whoa right I have and that would be a fun one to cover, right, That would be a fun one. Right, So there's that he says that, and I don't know if it's true. So I got on that it makes some sense that we can shoot those allies were dropping like flies. While he stayed alive in the Tacoma jail. Cell I couldn't find much on the jackal connection, which is why I didn't mention it until the end, as a fun way of illustrating that everything is connected, which reminds me.

Quote in nineteen ninety nine book by the British journalist Gordon Thomas titled Gideon Spies, The Secret History of the Massad repeated the claims of Ari Benmanashi that Israelian intelligence created and marketed a trojan horse version of Promise in order to spy

an intelligence ages in other countries. In two thousand and one, the Washington Times and Fox News each quoted federal law enforcement officials familiar with the briefing former FBI agent Robert Hanson as claiming that the convicted spy had stolen copies of a promised derivative for his Soviet KGB handlers. Later reports and studies of Hanson's activities

have not repeated these claims Hanson is a personal touch for me. In high school, I read a book called The Spy next Door The Extraordinary Life, Secret Life of Robert Philip Hanson, the most damaging FBI agent in US history, which is fascinating and makes sense in hindsight that he'd get hold of promise software to give to his KGB handlers. Have you heard of this guy?

I don't think so. Yeah, it made news. And when the book came out for sure in early two thousands, and I read in high school at a perfect time, and they made a movie called Breach furcing Breach. I haven't, but I'm gonna check it out, as Chris Cooper I want to say, and Ryan Philippe Philip Anyway. Lastly, is what the octopus called themselves? Most sources claim that they were called themselves simply the company or

the enterprise. You must understand that there were no business cards or letterheads. This is a shadowy group of people that worked on word of mouth and associations. You know that to break into Hollywood you got to know someone that works in it, right. The same applies to the company, who will probably say that they didn't me, that they didn't have a name for themselves. They just did it, did what they wanted. It's who you know that

matters. But also, just like Hollywood, if you're talented enough or make a big enough splash and are dirty enough, you may get invited in. I ascribe to the theory that this group of people came about organically and help each other out through mutual understanding and in favors. I don't believe that they meet once a decade in some big evil conference. It's small conferences. A few would meet in bohemian grow for example, while others meet in a board

meeting from a shady organization like BCCI or something else. A James Bond villain would a mass power to try to take over the world in some flashy manner. But what the octopus is doing is a more subtle version of it. They already control the world or as much as they want, but don't care about showing off. In fact, showing off will get you killed. I

tried my best piecing this thing together into something cohesive. In one way, this three part series is my magnum opus, and in another way it is a ball of nonsense with frayed, loose wires sticking out I've decided to go with a quote to end this series which puts things in Danny Cassilera's perspective about

the Octopus and recaps a little of the central figures quote. Danny Casilera believed the Octopus responsible for criminal conspiracies which linked formed a virtual history of intelligence double dealing from nineteen fifty to the present. These events, in Cassilero's view, included the ousters of US President Richard Nixon, Australian Prime Minister gou Whitlam, the Shaven and the murders of Chilean President Allende, and of course President John

F. Kennedy. Cassilera saw the Octopus's tentacles entwined throughout the creation of the Golden Triangle and Latin American drug trade, the Cuban Bay of Pigs debacle, the October Surprise, the BCCI banking scandal, and, almost as an afterthought, the theft of promise software. Cassilera found a secret team, a high

cabal of players operating at clandestine parallel government. Identified previously by other writers, the cabal had operated beyond the control or scrutiny of the elected government, financed by drug running from Southeast Asia and the Americas. Other researchers tended to see the octopus as a fog of political crimes ascribed to the alphabet soup of intelligence agencies, institutions, or even the natural dialectic of the modern terrorist state and

its citizenry. Cassilero's octopus, however, was no grand, unified mega conspiracy theory. Cassilera believed the crimes could best be identified by linking them to small network of named individuals that made up his octopus. He outlined their hierarchy and provided specific detail about their behind the scenes roles in contemporary political history. Casilero

named the people both familiar and unfamiliar to other researchers. He deemed the first level the first level operatives to be Richard Helms, George Pender, John Phillip Nichols, and Ray Klein. The second level included Robert Chasin, E. Howard Hunt, Edwin Wilson, Thomas Kleins, and Ted Shackley. Working backwards from the promised theft, Castilero saw them a new relationship, a nearly organic entity that impacted on both past and then current events. I don't even know

what to say, man right it's so involved. It's stupefying, how involved this thing is, how many players, how many world events, the finances, the murders, the software. It's literally unbelievable. Yeah, it's it's it's insane. And the thing is is that too much of it is true, and there's so much that is true that isn't proven. It's just so obvious. Then it makes you wonder the things that sound crazier are they also true because we can't prove it, just like this other stuff that seems more

obvious. I don't know, you know, like where does the lino? And that's where people like get lost in it, you know, as to how much of it to take in, But I think I think it's much easier in this case because so much of it is true. Like, like I said, even half is already too much. Yeah, from one of them, from one of them, it's too much. Like it says so much more about their their brazenly actions. You know, that they can just

do whatever they want, get away with it. You know. I think that even if half of it's true, we should we should assume that ninety percent of it this is true and then work our way backwards to disproving them. I don't think it should be, you know, innocence that they're proved guilty. I think these guys probably should get the reversal of that where like it should they're very guilty under the proven innocent. You know, you should

probably do that way. Now. The unfortunate thing, since this thing started in nineteen fifties with the sacred cows of those old bastards that you know, got all their glory from World War Two, Let's face it, they're all mostly dead, yeah, you know, because age is a bitch and we're all affected by that until they develop something. So we can only affect the ones that are still alive or still working. And I'm not saying there is

not none of those. There's definitely some of those. But it's like jen three of that, right, so just third generation of that. So like, I don't know what they look like, I don't know what they're doing. You know. The great thing about this conspiracy is that the hindsight of it is what works is because so many people have already died and have already come out. So many documents have been un earth and unsealed since the seventies, sixties, fifties, whatever that we get to reap the rewards. Now,

now we can piece things together more. Right, Now I can say this and say that with more vindication. If this was in nineteen eighty one, I couldn't say anything about most of this stuff because it wasn't known, right or you know, and then it just it sucks, like how much stuff will thirty years from now reveal about stuff that's been happening this decade. I have no idea. It's assuming it's still going and assuming they're still as brazen. I mean, we've seen a lot of examples and a lot of

other things, But do any of them connect to the octopus? Or are they dead? Did they just die off and that's it and there's just nothing anymore. Yeah, I don't know. It's hard, very hard, I don't know, very fun, very hard, You're right, but so incredibly interesting in what a level of research you put into these three episodes. Man, thank you. Yeah, and this I'll started with a TikTok from a TikTok, right, that's right, yep, mm hmm. I'm never going

on TikTok again. That's basically what's what I'm saying. I don't know. I think with that Oscar to take us home. Mm hmm