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You're listening to The Corbett Report:
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CorbettReport.com
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(Prof. Tjeerd Andringa) All right, people:[br]welcome.
0:00:39.000,0:00:44.806
Welcome to this fourth lecture [br]in a series on resources.
0:00:44.806,0:00:48.571
Today we have a speaker [br]from Japan, James Corbett.
0:00:49.601,0:00:53.086
James Corbett is well-known [br]among some circles,
0:00:53.086,0:00:57.240
So I am actually a little bit interested[br]in who of you
0:00:57.240,0:01:03.251
already knew James Corbett [br]and his work before: before this.
0:01:03.251,0:01:07.834
OK, that is about... wow: that's [br]more than half, I would say.
0:01:07.834,0:01:12.236
OK, so the other half basically [br]comes for the topic,
0:01:13.286,0:01:14.932
instead of for James Corbett.
0:01:14.932,0:01:20.276
So, for those people, I think it's useful[br]that I explain a little bit
0:01:20.276,0:01:25.943
about what type of journalist [br]James Corbett is.
0:01:25.943,0:01:29.423
What he does: he calls himself an [br]open source journalist,
0:01:29.423,0:01:35.002
so basically he looks at all the available[br]information and then he synthesizes it.
0:01:35.002,0:01:38.535
But you could also call that[br]open source intelligence.
0:01:38.535,0:01:42.685
He is, basically, a one-man [br]intelligence agency
0:01:42.685,0:01:47.033
who integrates information [br]from pretty much any source
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and then comes up with a narrative[br]
0:01:50.812,0:01:56.895
that is usually a story[br]that is very easy to understand.
0:01:56.895,0:01:58.427
Well, not so easy to understand, [br]
0:01:58.427,0:02:03.319
but it helps you to understand [br]how the world might be working.
0:02:03.319,0:02:04.543
So for me,
0:02:04.543,0:02:07.059
and for, I think, for many other people,
0:02:07.059,0:02:10.086
listening to his media [br]-- especially his podcasts --
0:02:10.086,0:02:12.677
is extremely empowering.
0:02:12.697,0:02:15.852
You learn things that you would [br]not normally learn
0:02:15.852,0:02:18.584
from the regular, mainstream media.
0:02:18.584,0:02:22.226
And that is kind of special,
0:02:22.230,0:02:26.636
and for that reason [br]we have invited him tonight here.
0:02:26.636,0:02:32.722
So I think I shouldn't talk too much, [br]and let James do the talking.
0:02:32.722,0:02:34.249
James, please.
0:02:34.249,0:02:41.242
(sustained applause, cheers)
0:02:48.785,0:02:53.064
(distant voice) All right.[br](laughter) All right.
0:02:54.290,0:02:57.502
(James) OK. So, thank you very much.[br]Thank you very much.
0:02:57.502,0:03:00.379
First of all, thank you, Tjeerd [br]for the lovely introduction,
0:03:00.379,0:03:02.149
and thank you for [br]setting the ball in motion
0:03:02.149,0:03:03.491
for me to come here to Groningen.
0:03:03.491,0:03:04.685
I appreciate that.
0:03:04.685,0:03:09.483
And let me also thank Studium Generale[br]and their Dutch hospitality
0:03:09.483,0:03:11.435
that I've been shown so far on this trip.[br]
0:03:11.435,0:03:12.993
I very much appreciate it.
0:03:12.993,0:03:15.095
And of course, lastly but not leastly,
0:03:15.095,0:03:17.111
thank you to all of you [br]for showing up tonight.
0:03:17.111,0:03:20.480
I really do appreciate you coming here[br]for this lecture.
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And as you can see, of course, [br]this is a lecture entitled:
0:03:23.560,0:03:26.222
The Secret War: [br]Gladio and the Battle for Eurasia.
0:03:26.222,0:03:29.377
So why don't we start by talking about[br]what we're going to talk about,
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namely: Central Asia is one of the regions[br]that we'll be talking about tonight.
0:03:33.759,0:03:36.972
And Central Asia is a vast [br]expanse of the map
0:03:36.972,0:03:42.580
whose defining characteristic is [br]its ability to defy characterization.
0:03:42.580,0:03:45.866
Stretching from the shores [br]of the Caspian Sea on the west side
0:03:45.866,0:03:47.751
to the border of China in the east,
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and from Iran and Pakistan’s doorstep [br]in the south
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to Russia’s in the north,
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it encompasses everything [br]from the snow-capped slopes
0:03:55.218,0:03:56.961
of Victory Peak in Kyrgyzstan
0:03:56.961,0:04:01.044
to the remarkable “Door to Hell” [br]in Turkmenistan’s Karakum Desert...
0:04:01.044,0:04:04.091
-- which, if it is not on your list [br]of things to see before you die,
0:04:04.091,0:04:06.154
you should put it on that list --
0:04:06.154,0:04:09.201
to the sprawling grasslands [br]of the Kazakh Steppe.
0:04:09.201,0:04:15.949
And settled by migrants from the Persian,[br]Turkic, Chinese and Slavic civilizations,
0:04:15.949,0:04:21.707
its inhabitants speak Kyrgyz, Kazakh, [br]Russian, Tajik, Uzbek, Turkmen;
0:04:21.707,0:04:26.767
and include Muslims, Christians, [br]Buddhists, Hindus and assorted others.
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The much smaller Caucasus region,
0:04:29.483,0:04:33.459
is a narrow land bridge sandwiched between[br]the Black and Caspian seas,
0:04:33.459,0:04:35.062
and is equally diverse.
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In fact, the region contains [br]over 50 ethnic groups
0:04:37.654,0:04:41.259
and is home to three [br]local language families...
0:04:41.259,0:04:45.227
-- which is something [br]that linguists still puzzle over
0:04:45.227,0:04:48.355
and is very fascinating [br]in and of itself --
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...and there are several dozen languages[br]spoken in the region,
0:04:51.033,0:04:54.211
from the obscure [br]Bohtan Neo-Aramaic tongue,
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which has less than 500 native speakers,
0:04:57.293,0:05:01.387
to the more widely-spoken Azerbaijani [br]and Armenian languages.
0:05:01.387,0:05:05.944
But despite the rich culture[br]and the history of the region,
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it is still completely off [br]the radar screens
0:05:08.059,0:05:10.501
of most of the general public.
0:05:10.501,0:05:14.077
“Tajikistan," “Abkhazia,"[br]and “Astrakhan Oblast"
0:05:14.077,0:05:19.032
are hardly names to conjure by [br]in the popular imagination, after all.
0:05:19.032,0:05:23.607
But the fact that those names [br]do not resonate with us
0:05:23.607,0:05:26.943
is perhaps something that is [br]part of a grander strategy
0:05:26.943,0:05:28.660
that we're going to talk about tonight. [br]
0:05:28.660,0:05:30.454
And those names that do resonate with us
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tend to be the names that we have seen[br]
0:05:34.064,0:05:37.234
in various media stories in the West.
0:05:37.234,0:05:41.036
For example, Dagestan equates to[br]“The Boston Bombing"
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in the minds of most Americans,
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And Chechnya might be familiar [br]to Europeans
0:05:45.565,0:05:48.463
as “that place that Russia [br]is at war with.”
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But just because these -stans,[br]and Oblasts,
0:05:52.294,0:05:57.350
and autonomous republics [br]and autonomous regions in this area
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do not resonate with the general public,[br]for the most part,
0:06:00.501,0:06:05.170
does not mean that they are not important[br]squares on the global chessboard.
0:06:05.730,0:06:08.994
And just because they may not be [br]on the radar of the general public
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does not mean they are not on the radar
0:06:11.141,0:06:16.263
of some of the most powerful players [br]in global geopolitics.
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And as evidence of that,[br]I present to you
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the United States-Azerbaijan[br]Chamber of Commerce,
0:06:22.894,0:06:25.937
which sounds about as important [br]to global geopolitics
0:06:25.937,0:06:29.036
as the Groningen Chamber of Commerce.[br](laughter)
0:06:29.036,0:06:33.629
But when you actually look at some of[br]the current and former advisors,
0:06:33.629,0:06:36.741
directors, and board members[br]of this organization,
0:06:36.741,0:06:41.987
you encounter some of the richest and most[br]powerful players in global geopolitics.
0:06:41.987,0:06:47.647
For example, former Vice President [br]of the United States, Dick Cheney;
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James Baker III, a Bush family advisor,
0:06:49.874,0:06:53.903
and his son, James Baker IV,[br]for those of you keeping track at home;
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Henry Kissinger, of course; [br]
0:06:56.698,0:07:00.989
Brent Scowcroft; Richard Armitage [br]of the US State Department,
0:07:00.989,0:07:05.500
and perennial Washington insider [br]and former National Security Advisor,
0:07:05.500,0:07:07.085
Zbigniew Brzezinski,
0:07:07.085,0:07:11.034
along with many, many others[br]that are, I think, worth checking into.
0:07:11.034,0:07:17.133
So, the question becomes: [br]What is it that these people...
0:07:17.133,0:07:19.230
-- some of the most influential people
0:07:19.230,0:07:22.382
in the field of global geopolitics [br]over the past 50 years --
0:07:22.382,0:07:26.878
...know about this region [br]that the general public doesn’t?
0:07:26.878,0:07:29.491
And I think there are[br]at least two answers to that question.
0:07:29.491,0:07:32.526
The first answer is [br]the old real estate adage:
0:07:32.526,0:07:34.738
"Location, location, location!"
0:07:34.738,0:07:37.585
The region’s key location in the backyard
0:07:37.585,0:07:41.061
of some of the key players and powers [br]of the Eurasian landmass,
0:07:41.061,0:07:43.622
Russia and China foremost amongst them,
0:07:43.622,0:07:47.779
has made it a geostrategic prize[br]stretching back thousands of years.
0:07:48.329,0:07:50.769
Dominated at different times [br]and in varying degrees
0:07:50.769,0:07:53.328
by Persian empires, Chinese dynasties,
0:07:53.328,0:07:55.834
Mongol invaders and Soviet forces,
0:07:55.834,0:07:59.369
the region has a rich history [br]of being acted upon
0:07:59.369,0:08:04.053
and a relatively short history as [br]a geopolitical actor in its own right.
0:08:04.053,0:08:06.539
Its position has long made it [br]a key transport route,
0:08:06.539,0:08:10.232
from the Han Dynasty’s Silk Road
0:08:10.232,0:08:12.938
connecting China to Persia [br]thousands of years ago
0:08:12.938,0:08:16.710
to the current attempt by Xi Jinping
0:08:16.710,0:08:19.604
to make a New Silk Road [br]of the 21st Century
0:08:19.604,0:08:23.420
that includes connecting China [br]to Turkey and beyond,
0:08:23.420,0:08:25.805
straight through the heart[br]of this region.
0:08:25.805,0:08:29.499
But more important even than [br]its location and strategic value
0:08:29.499,0:08:32.824
are the region’s vast, [br]largely untapped resources.
0:08:32.824,0:08:37.741
The oil and gas fields of the Caspian Sea[br]region are particularly sought-after,
0:08:37.741,0:08:41.936
containing the third-largest reserves[br]of any fields on the planet.
0:08:41.936,0:08:45.349
Azerbaijan in the Caucasus [br]and Kazakhstan in Central Asia
0:08:45.349,0:08:48.322
both have direct access [br]to Caspian Sea oil,
0:08:48.322,0:08:52.589
with Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan[br]providing ample gas reserves.
0:08:52.589,0:08:56.120
The dream of a Trans-Caspian pipeline [br]has been in the works for years now
0:08:56.120,0:09:00.204
to transport Central Asian reserves [br]across the Southern Caucasus
0:09:00.204,0:09:02.133
and the so-called “BTC” pipeline
0:09:02.133,0:09:04.622
funneling the energy [br]through Azerbaijan and Georgia
0:09:04.622,0:09:06.881
to Turkey, and then off to Europe:
0:09:06.881,0:09:11.525
that has been equally prized as a way [br]for Europe to find an alternative
0:09:11.525,0:09:14.024
to Russia’s increasingly-threatening[br]stranglehold over energy
0:09:14.024,0:09:16.112
known as Gazprom.
0:09:16.112,0:09:20.486
The region also contains strategically[br]important deposits of uranium,
0:09:20.486,0:09:22.372
as well as industrially useful minerals
0:09:22.372,0:09:27.150
such as copper, manganese, tungsten, [br]zinc, et cetera.
0:09:27.150,0:09:30.381
And also gold: don't discount gold.
0:09:31.221,0:09:34.074
Another equally important [br]-- although seldom acknowledged --
0:09:34.074,0:09:35.726
resource in this region revolves
0:09:35.726,0:09:39.556
around the extensive opium trade,[br]especially in Afghanistan.
0:09:39.556,0:09:41.948
The Afghan opium trade is [br]estimated to bring in
0:09:41.948,0:09:46.324
as much as $200 billion annually,
0:09:46.324,0:09:50.267
accounting for as much as 92% [br]of the world supply.
0:09:50.997,0:09:53.011
As we shall see, control of this region
0:09:53.011,0:09:56.265
involves domination of the [br]especially lucrative business
0:09:56.265,0:10:01.557
and all of the attendant economic benefits[br]that result from from this connection.
0:10:01.837,0:10:04.452
The importance of a long-term [br]US presence in the region
0:10:04.452,0:10:08.586
to establish Western dominance [br]over this location and its resources
0:10:08.586,0:10:09.830
is no secret.
0:10:09.830,0:10:11.491
In fact, it has been written about
0:10:11.491,0:10:15.500
extensively and repeatedly,[br]time and again,
0:10:15.500,0:10:18.725
by the think tanks that typically [br]serve as the mouthpiece
0:10:18.725,0:10:21.255
for NATO’s foreign policy interests.
0:10:22.065,0:10:23.332
Case Exhibit Number One:
0:10:23.332,0:10:27.411
Take, for example a 1992 analysis [br]of the region
0:10:27.411,0:10:30.455
from RAND’s National Defense Research[br]Institute entitled,
0:10:30.455,0:10:33.004
Central Asia: The New Geopolitics,
0:10:33.004,0:10:35.582
which was written shortly after [br]the collapse of the Soviet Union
0:10:35.582,0:10:37.762
while the newly-independent [br]republics of the region
0:10:37.762,0:10:42.394
were still orienting themselves to [br]their new geopolitical reality.
0:10:42.394,0:10:47.437
And it was penned by Graham Fuller, [br]a former CIA station chief in Kabul
0:10:47.447,0:10:49.867
whose name will come up again[br]later in our study:
0:10:49.867,0:10:53.404
so keep that face and that name in mind. [br]
0:10:53.404,0:10:58.843
He wrote: “It is primarily Central Asia’s[br]strategic geopolitical location
0:10:58.843,0:11:00.801
-- truly at the continent’s center --
0:11:00.801,0:11:04.502
and the broadly undesirable course [br]of events that could emerge
0:11:04.502,0:11:06.744
if the region were to drift [br]toward instability,
0:11:06.744,0:11:10.108
that constitute the primary American[br]interest (in the region).[…]
0:11:10.638,0:11:11.915
Thus, given the potential
0:11:11.915,0:11:16.442
for untoward developments in the region[br]for Western interests,
0:11:16.442,0:11:21.036
modest hands-on American influence[br]in the region is desirable.” .
0:11:22.176,0:11:23.800
Hmm
0:11:23.800,0:11:29.866
This “modest hands on American influence”[br]gained momentum, and by 2004,
0:11:29.866,0:11:33.353
we had an article published in the[br]Cambridge Review of International Affairs
0:11:33.353,0:11:37.963
called “The United States [br]and Central Asia: In the Steppes to Stay?”
0:11:37.963,0:11:41.572
Svante E. Cornell of the [br]Central Asia-Caucasus Institute
0:11:41.572,0:11:45.952
raising some of the key reasons for[br]increasing US involvement in the region:
0:11:45.952,0:11:49.496
“As US engagement in Central Asia [br]becomes more permanent,
0:11:49.496,0:11:52.753
it will increasingly become a factor [br]in both regional politics
0:11:52.753,0:11:56.553
and the domestic politics of [br]the several Central Asian countries.
0:11:56.553,0:11:58.513
That role raises a host of questions.
0:11:58.513,0:12:02.464
Chief among them is how regional powers[br]such as Russia and China
0:12:02.464,0:12:04.852
will react to the US presence.
0:12:04.852,0:12:06.685
A second concerns the implications
0:12:06.685,0:12:09.873
both for the political development [br]among the region’s states
0:12:09.873,0:12:12.922
and for the future of radical Islam.”
0:12:16.172,0:12:19.850
Also, in 2011, the Project 2049 Institute,
0:12:19.850,0:12:24.028
which includes Zbigniew Brzezinski’s [br]son on its Board of Directors,
0:12:24.028,0:12:25.785
published a document proclaiming
0:12:25.785,0:12:29.094
“An Agenda For the Future of[br]U.S. – Central Asia Relations”
0:12:29.094,0:12:31.618
which contains this interesting passage:
0:12:31.618,0:12:34.806
“U.S. policymakers have been careful [br]to avoid the metaphor
0:12:34.806,0:12:37.410
of a 'Great Game' in Central Asia.
0:12:37.410,0:12:39.810
Yet it has been often invoked by others,
0:12:39.810,0:12:44.890
not least by observers in Moscow, Beijing,[br]and other neighboring powers.
0:12:44.890,0:12:47.272
The U.S. must continue [br]to reject this metaphor,
0:12:47.272,0:12:49.584
for such notions are based [br]on flawed assumptions
0:12:49.584,0:12:53.920
and fraught with risks [br]for the United States."
0:12:55.170,0:12:56.642
Intereresting.
0:12:57.462,0:12:59.694
So what is this “Great Game” [br]
0:12:59.694,0:13:03.989
that the think tanks[br]like the Project 2049 Institute
0:13:03.989,0:13:07.171
are so eager to avoid comparisons to?
0:13:07.171,0:13:09.795
The 'Great Game' refers [br]to the struggle for supremacy
0:13:09.795,0:13:13.822
between the British and the Russians[br]in the Central Asia region,
0:13:13.822,0:13:15.555
primarily in the 19th Century.
0:13:15.555,0:13:16.844
The Game broadly took place
0:13:16.844,0:13:20.250
from the signing of the [br]Russo-Persian Treaty of 1813
0:13:20.250,0:13:24.173
until the Anglo-Russian [br]convention of 1907,
0:13:24.173,0:13:26.938
but although the term was coined [br]in the early 19th century
0:13:26.938,0:13:29.215
it didn’t hit the popular imagination
0:13:29.215,0:13:32.879
until Rudyard Kipling’s Kim[br]was published in 1901.
0:13:33.756,0:13:36.341
It was three years after that, in 1904,
0:13:36.341,0:13:39.307
that The Geographical Journal[br]published an article
0:13:39.307,0:13:42.794
that articulated the reasons[br]these great powers
0:13:42.794,0:13:45.893
were engaged in the struggle [br]for this piece of the globe.
0:13:46.443,0:13:49.719
The article was called [br]“The Geographical Pivot of History,”
0:13:49.719,0:13:55.125
and it was written by [br]Sir Halford John Mackinder PC,
0:13:55.125,0:13:58.020
-- don't forget the PC.[br]"Privy Council:" very important! --
0:13:58.020,0:14:00.221
the Director of the [br]London School of Economics
0:14:00.221,0:14:02.207
that was founded by the Fabian Society
0:14:02.207,0:14:04.800
and folded into the heart [br]of the British establishment
0:14:04.800,0:14:06.611
in the University of London in 1900.
0:14:06.611,0:14:08.155
And just as an example of that,
0:14:08.155,0:14:10.797
the cornerstone of the Old Building [br]on Houghton Street
0:14:10.797,0:14:14.223
was laid by King George V himself,[br]interestingly.
0:14:14.693,0:14:18.257
Mackinder is considered the father[br]of the study of geopolitics,
0:14:18.257,0:14:21.561
and The Geographical Pivot of History[br]is the document
0:14:21.561,0:14:24.517
that is often said to be [br]the founding document of geopolitics,
0:14:24.517,0:14:26.816
and constitutes the first formulation
0:14:26.816,0:14:31.099
of what would come to be Mackinder's [br]"Heartland Theory."
0:14:31.099,0:14:35.933
This theory states that the division of[br]what Mackinder called the “World Island”
0:14:35.933,0:14:38.856
into inherently divided isolated areas
0:14:38.856,0:14:42.872
was the principle by which we could[br]understand the evolution of history
0:14:42.872,0:14:45.362
and the future of the world.
0:14:45.362,0:14:48.021
Each of these areas had[br]its own part to play
0:14:48.021,0:14:49.593
in the unfolding of that history,
0:14:49.593,0:14:53.486
with the area he called the “Heartland”[br]of the central Eurasian landmass
0:14:53.486,0:14:56.126
being the pivot point [br]from which a civilization
0:14:56.126,0:14:59.225
could derive the geopolitical [br]and economic leverage
0:14:59.225,0:15:02.079
with which to dominate [br]the world as a whole.
0:15:02.079,0:15:03.630
This was summarized in a famous dictum[br]
0:15:03.630,0:15:06.940
from his 1919 work,[br]Democratic Ideals and Reality:
0:15:06.940,0:15:10.166
“Who rules East Europe[br]commands the Heartland;
0:15:10.166,0:15:13.147
Who rules the Heartland[br]commands the World-Island;
0:15:13.147,0:15:16.561
Who rules the World-Island[br]commands the World.”
0:15:17.861,0:15:21.026
Looking at the map of what Mackinder[br]had in mind for the Heartland,
0:15:21.026,0:15:23.147
it’s apparent that the “heart” [br]of this Heartland
0:15:23.147,0:15:25.933
is indeed the Central Asia-[br]Caucasus region.
0:15:25.933,0:15:28.373
This is what Russia and Britain were [br]so intent
0:15:28.373,0:15:29.952
on wresting from each other's control
0:15:29.952,0:15:32.490
in the 19th century Great Game:
0:15:32.490,0:15:34.634
control of the region from which
0:15:34.634,0:15:37.976
the building of a world empire [br]would be possible.
0:15:37.976,0:15:40.572
And this is why the Project 2049 Institute[br]
0:15:40.572,0:15:43.929
and the other mouthpieces [br]for the Establishment in the US,
0:15:43.929,0:15:45.593
NATO, foreign policy interests,
0:15:45.593,0:15:48.142
want to downplay this idea.
0:15:48.142,0:15:52.071
They don’t under any circumstances[br]want you to think about the idea
0:15:52.071,0:15:56.381
that the US and its NATO allies [br]are building regional domination
0:15:56.381,0:16:01.023
in a part of the globe from which [br]they plan to project world dominance.
0:16:02.343,0:16:03.843
But fast-forward to 1997.
0:16:03.843,0:16:07.173
And in that year, our old friend[br]Zbigniew Brzezinski released his book,
0:16:07.173,0:16:12.070
The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy[br]and its Geostrategic Imperatives:
0:16:12.210,0:16:15.022
because, evidently, [br]Zbigniew Brzezinski was not so shy
0:16:15.022,0:16:19.152
about proclaiming the quest [br]for world domination.
0:16:19.152,0:16:22.221
He also did not mince his words[br]about the Eurasian Heartland
0:16:22.221,0:16:26.458
and how important it is[br]to America's “global primacy":
0:16:26.788,0:16:30.539
“For America, [br]the chief geopolitical prize is Eurasia.
0:16:30.539,0:16:35.072
For half a millennium, world affairs were[br]dominated by Eurasian powers and peoples
0:16:35.072,0:16:37.083
who fought with one another[br]for regional domination
0:16:37.083,0:16:39.595
and reached out for global power.
0:16:39.595,0:16:42.418
Now a non-Eurasian power [br]is preeminent in Eurasia
0:16:42.418,0:16:45.641
-- and America’s global primacy [br]is directly dependent
0:16:45.641,0:16:48.171
on how long and how effectively
0:16:48.171,0:16:52.294
its preponderance [br]on the Eurasian continent is sustained."
0:16:54.623,0:16:57.975
He goes on to refine [br]Mackinder’s “Heartland” notion
0:16:57.975,0:17:02.389
down to a specific area that he calls [br]the Eurasian Balkans.
0:17:02.389,0:17:06.213
And this area is precisely the [br]Central Asia-Caucasus region.
0:17:06.213,0:17:10.070
He explains its importance thusly:
0:17:10.070,0:17:11.264
“The Eurasian Balkans,
0:17:11.264,0:17:14.084
astride the inevitably emerging [br]transportation network
0:17:14.084,0:17:15.464
meant to link more directly
0:17:15.464,0:17:19.108
Eurasia’s richest and most industrious [br]western and eastern extremities,
0:17:19.108,0:17:21.768
are also geopolitically significant.
0:17:21.768,0:17:23.574
Moreover, they are of importance
0:17:23.574,0:17:26.523
from the standpoint of security [br]and historical ambitions
0:17:26.523,0:17:29.617
to at least three of their most immediate [br]and more powerful neighbors,
0:17:29.617,0:17:31.751
namely, Russia, Turkey, and Iran,
0:17:31.751,0:17:36.348
with China also signaling an increasing[br]political interest in the region.
0:17:36.348,0:17:38.950
But the Eurasian Balkans are [br]infinitely more important
0:17:38.950,0:17:41.853
as a potential economic prize:
0:17:41.853,0:17:44.580
an enormous concentration [br]of natural gas and oil reserves
0:17:44.580,0:17:46.280
is located in the region,
0:17:46.280,0:17:51.789
in addition to important minerals, [br]including gold."
0:17:51.789,0:17:57.615
The use of the metaphor of the Balkans is[br]doubly evocative for students of history;
0:17:57.615,0:18:00.126
it represents not only the strife [br]and ethnic conflict
0:18:00.126,0:18:03.346
we saw in the “Balkanization” [br]of Yugoslavia
0:18:03.346,0:18:04.980
at the end of the 20th century,
0:18:04.980,0:18:08.311
but also the powder-keg of tensions[br]that ignited the First World War
0:18:08.311,0:18:10.284
at the beginning of the 20th century.
0:18:11.210,0:18:15.636
Subsequently, Brzezinski predicted that[br]the first great war of the 21st century
0:18:15.636,0:18:18.047
would take place [br]in this Eurasian Balkans region,
0:18:18.047,0:18:21.896
and lo and behold: four years after [br]The Grand Chessboard was published,
0:18:21.896,0:18:25.764
the first great war of the 21st Century[br]was being waged in Afghanistan
0:18:25.764,0:18:28.863
by the United States and its NATO allies.
0:18:28.863,0:18:31.506
Meet the New Great Game, [br]same as the Old Great Game.
0:18:32.046,0:18:34.855
This time, it's NATO against China, Russia,
0:18:34.855,0:18:39.167
and what might loosely be termed [br]a "resistance bloc,"
0:18:39.167,0:18:41.115
but the idea is almost the same:
0:18:41.295,0:18:43.468
dominate Central Asia-Caucasus
0:18:43.468,0:18:46.783
and use it as pivot point [br]to dominate the world.
0:18:48.074,0:18:51.347
The Old and the New Great Game [br]are similar in many ways.
0:18:51.715,0:18:54.000
The Old Great Game sprang [br]from the British fears
0:18:54.000,0:18:56.812
that Russian incursion into Central Asia[br]would threaten
0:18:56.812,0:19:02.109
to topple their hold over the crown jewel[br]of the British Empire: India.
0:19:02.109,0:19:04.096
The New Great Game springs from the fear
0:19:04.096,0:19:08.611
that Russian and/or Chinese dominance [br]over Central Asia and the Caucasus
0:19:08.611,0:19:12.592
would prevent NATO from achieving [br]its goal of “full spectrum dominance.”
0:19:12.592,0:19:17.110
The Old Great Game involved the[br]British invasion of Afghanistan in 1838
0:19:17.110,0:19:19.490
in attempt to install a puppet regime.
0:19:19.760,0:19:22.997
The New Great Game involved [br]the NATO invasion of Afghanistan in 2001
0:19:22.997,0:19:25.385
in attempt to install a puppet regime.
0:19:25.385,0:19:30.164
The Old Great Game relied heavily [br]on espionage, spycraft and subterfuge
0:19:30.164,0:19:32.253
to undermine Russia’s sway [br]over the Heartland;
0:19:32.703,0:19:38.121
and as we shall see, the New Great Game [br]also heavily relies on covert means
0:19:38.121,0:19:42.440
to undermine Russian and Chinese [br]influence in the region.
0:19:45.534,0:19:50.579
To understand the way that subterfuge is[br]being used in the New Great Game today,
0:19:50.579,0:19:53.425
we must first understand[br]an important clandestine operation
0:19:53.425,0:19:56.723
which is commonly known[br]as “Operation Gladio."
0:19:57.073,0:20:00.525
In very brief and rough terms, [br]“Operation Gladio" was a NATO plan
0:20:00.525,0:20:03.171
to use “stay-behind” paramilitary armies
0:20:03.171,0:20:06.335
to counter a potential Soviet invasion[br]of Europe.
0:20:06.335,0:20:08.681
Although this is the way [br]that “Operation Gladio”
0:20:08.681,0:20:11.643
is commonly understood [br]amongst the general public,
0:20:11.643,0:20:16.312
almost every piece of that description [br]is technically incorrect.
0:20:16.312,0:20:20.076
Firstly “Operation Gladio” was not [br]a name for the overall program,
0:20:20.076,0:20:23.049
which involved 12 NATO member nations
0:20:23.049,0:20:26.897
-- Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, [br]Greece, Italy, Luxembourg,
0:20:26.897,0:20:30.344
The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, [br]Spain and Turkey --
0:20:30.344,0:20:32.044
and four neutral countries
0:20:32.044,0:20:34.661
-- Austria, Finland, Sweden [br]and Switzerland --
0:20:35.381,0:20:38.308
but the program Operation Gladio [br]referred specifically
0:20:38.308,0:20:41.138
to its most famous incarnation in Italy.
0:20:41.698,0:20:46.088
In Belgium the operation [br]was codenamed “SDRA-8.”
0:20:46.088,0:20:48.715
Sweden had its “Projekt-26.”
0:20:48.715,0:20:51.471
In Greece it was...[br]-- apologies to Greek speakers --
0:20:51.471,0:20:55.603
"Lochos Oreinon Katadromon”[br](Λόχος Ορεινών Καταδρομών)
0:20:55.603,0:21:01.466
and here in the Netherlands [br]it was “GIIIC” later rebranded as “G7.”
0:21:01.466,0:21:03.632
Thankfully, for those of us[br]who have problems
0:21:03.632,0:21:06.316
saying "I" three times in a row.
0:21:06.316,0:21:09.512
Secondly, the operation was not[br]inherently a NATO one.
0:21:09.512,0:21:14.523
It was first coordinated in 1948[br]by a trans-Atlantic body based in France
0:21:14.523,0:21:18.232
known as the “Western Union [br]Clandestine Committee.”
0:21:18.952,0:21:21.082
After the creation of NATO in 1949
0:21:21.082,0:21:22.985
the body was folded[br]into the organization’s
0:21:22.985,0:21:27.370
Supreme Headquarters [br]Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE)
0:21:27.370,0:21:32.881
and under the revised name of the [br]Clandestine Planning Committee.
0:21:33.331,0:21:36.474
The plan’s origins stretch back, [br]arguably, even further,
0:21:36.474,0:21:40.612
to the creation of MI6’s [br]“Section D” in Britain:
0:21:40.612,0:21:44.394
a ramshackle group of recruits[br]from England’s North Sea coast
0:21:44.394,0:21:48.769
that would commit sabotage [br]and guerrilla warfare
0:21:48.769,0:21:52.522
in the event of a Nazi invasion [br]of the British Isles.
0:21:52.522,0:21:56.132
The central role of the CIA’s [br]“Office of Policy Coordination”
0:21:56.132,0:22:00.608
and Special Operations Branch of MI6[br]in establishing the operation,
0:22:00.608,0:22:02.955
as well as the training [br]of stay-behind forces
0:22:02.955,0:22:06.445
alongside British SAS units [br]at Fort Monckton
0:22:06.445,0:22:11.466
and American Special Forces at [br]the infamous School of the Americas,
0:22:11.466,0:22:13.797
needs also to be stressed.
0:22:14.297,0:22:17.103
Thirdly, although the individual[br]stay-behind programs
0:22:17.103,0:22:18.415
were organized in Europe,
0:22:18.415,0:22:21.252
the scope of their operations[br]were not limited to Europe
0:22:21.732,0:22:26.713
and strayed far from any supposed mandate[br]to prepare for a Soviet invasion.
0:22:26.713,0:22:31.743
As we shall see, “Gladio” operations[br]included -- and include --
0:22:31.743,0:22:33.905
everything from drug running [br]and money laundering
0:22:33.905,0:22:37.392
to terror attacks [br]and political assassinations.
0:22:38.442,0:22:39.996
I won't get into the specifics
0:22:39.996,0:22:43.292
of how these stay-behind units operated[br]in the various countries
0:22:43.292,0:22:46.030
or the various incidents[br]that they participated in.
0:22:46.030,0:22:48.998
If any part of the “Gladio" story[br]is well-known,
0:22:48.998,0:22:50.072
-- and I hope it is --
0:22:50.072,0:22:53.187
but if any part is well known, [br]it is the operations in Europe
0:22:53.187,0:22:56.871
and their role the events [br]of Italy’s “Years of Lead.”
0:22:56.871,0:22:58.991
These topics have been covered [br]in great detail
0:22:58.991,0:23:04.419
by very capable writers, filmmakers,[br]historians, researchers, documentarians...
0:23:04.419,0:23:07.503
And I’ll refer you to some of the most[br]valuable English-language resources
0:23:07.503,0:23:09.245
on the overall program,
0:23:09.245,0:23:11.907
including Alan Francovich’s [br]groundbreaking documentary,
0:23:11.907,0:23:14.779
-- that you can't really see very well[br]in that picture --
0:23:14.779,0:23:17.716
Gladio: The Ring Masters;
0:23:17.716,0:23:21.731
Daniele Ganser’s seminal work,[br]NATO’s Secret Armies;
0:23:21.731,0:23:26.159
Richard Cottrell’s Gladio: NATO’s Dagger[br] at the Heart of Europe,
0:23:26.159,0:23:33.017
and the various resources available [br]at sites like Operation-Gladio.net.
0:23:33.017,0:23:35.049
What is important for our study today
0:23:35.049,0:23:38.788
is the strategic doctrine employed [br]by Gladio operatives
0:23:38.788,0:23:40.897
known as the “strategy of tension."
0:23:41.336,0:23:45.556
This doctrine involves the creation,[br]encouragement or exacerbation
0:23:45.556,0:23:50.453
of political, religious, ethnic [br]or other forms of conflict
0:23:50.453,0:23:56.312
in order to incite fear in a population[br]and manipulate public opinion.
0:23:56.312,0:23:58.649
An oft-cited example [br]of the strategy of tension
0:23:58.649,0:24:00.644
are the “Years of Lead” in Italy
0:24:00.644,0:24:03.486
that rocked that nation with [br]a wave of terrorist atrocities,
0:24:03.486,0:24:06.924
from the 1969 bombing [br]of the Piazza Fontana
0:24:06.924,0:24:09.447
to the Bologna railway station [br]bombing of 1980.
0:24:10.167,0:24:13.071
The story of the links [br]between NATO Gladio operations
0:24:13.071,0:24:14.802
and the various paramilitary groups
0:24:14.802,0:24:19.115
whose bombings, kidnappings and[br]assassinations terrorized a nation
0:24:19.115,0:24:24.300
is a fascinating one, [br]but far too detailed for today’s study.
0:24:24.300,0:24:26.960
The takeaway point is that [br]the national psychosis
0:24:26.960,0:24:29.422
caused by spectacular terror attacks
0:24:29.422,0:24:32.656
can be used to turn public opinion [br]against certain groups
0:24:32.656,0:24:37.178
and make actions that were formerly[br]politically inconceivable
0:24:37.178,0:24:40.039
virtually inevitable.
0:24:40.039,0:24:42.371
It isn't difficult to see how this strategy[br]
0:24:42.371,0:24:46.986
could be used in some form in a region [br]as linguistically, ethnically,
0:24:46.986,0:24:50.313
culturally and religiously diverse[br]and divisive
0:24:50.313,0:24:52.214
as Central Asia and the Caucasus.
0:24:52.224,0:24:54.476
Indeed, as Brzezinski points out
0:24:54.476,0:24:57.140
in regards to his [br]“Eurasian Balkans” concept:
0:24:57.660,0:25:00.139
“Every one of [br][the Eurasian Balkans] countries
0:25:00.139,0:25:02.768
suffers from serious [br]internal difficulties,
0:25:02.768,0:25:04.610
all of them have frontiers
0:25:04.610,0:25:06.800
that are either the object [br]of claims by neighbors
0:25:06.800,0:25:09.280
or are zones of ethnic resentment,
0:25:09.600,0:25:11.486
few are nationally homogeneous,
0:25:11.486,0:25:13.307
and some are already embroiled
0:25:13.307,0:25:17.066
in territorial, ethnic, [br]or religious violence.”
0:25:17.776,0:25:21.265
With regards to the Central Asia-Caucasus[br]region in particular,
0:25:21.265,0:25:25.248
Gladio operations in Turkey [br]are of primary importance.
0:25:25.928,0:25:28.575
Noting that the Turkish Gladio [br]operations[br]
0:25:28.575,0:25:30.965
relied on cooperation with [br]the nationalistic,
0:25:30.965,0:25:34.914
racist, baldly expansionist[br]Pan-Turkism movement,
0:25:34.914,0:25:37.364
Daniele Ganser describes [br]the Turkish secret army
0:25:37.364,0:25:42.032
as “more violent than that of any other[br]stay-behind in Western Europe."
0:25:42.712,0:25:45.107
He describes the origin[br]of the Turkish stay-behind,
0:25:45.107,0:25:48.118
known as “Counter-Guerrilla,” thusly:
0:25:49.048,0:25:52.442
“Under the headline [br]‘The Origins of “Gladio” in Turkey’
0:25:52.442,0:25:54.427
the Paris-based Intelligence Newsletter[br]
0:25:54.427,0:25:56.604
reported in 1990[br]that they had obtained
0:25:56.604,0:26:00.870
one of the recently declassified [br]original strategy documents
0:26:00.870,0:26:04.908
engendering the Western European [br]"stay-behind" or "Gladio" network:
0:26:04.908,0:26:07.171
US Army General Staff’s Top-Secret
0:26:07.171,0:26:11.607
March 28, 1949 [br]Overall Strategic Concepts.’
0:26:11.607,0:26:17.884
In an adjoining document,[br]JSPC 891/6, section ‘Tab B,’
0:26:17.884,0:26:20.196
a specific reference is made to Turkey
0:26:20.196,0:26:22.125
highlighting how the Pan-Turkism movement
0:26:22.125,0:26:25.541
could be exploited strategically [br]by the United States.
0:26:25.541,0:26:27.643
Turkey, according to [br]the Pentagon document,
0:26:27.643,0:26:31.000
is an ‘extremely favourable territory [br]for the establishment
0:26:31.000,0:26:34.764
of both guerrilla units [br]and Secret Army Reserves.
0:26:34.764,0:26:38.647
Politically the Turks are strongly [br]nationalistic and anti-Communistic,
0:26:38.647,0:26:40.694
and the presence of the Red Army in Turks
0:26:40.694,0:26:44.099
will cause national feeling to run high.’
0:26:44.099,0:26:46.815
Intelligence Newsletter[br]thereafter correctly related
0:26:47.175,0:26:49.984
that the Turkish secret army [br]called Counter-Guerrilla
0:26:49.984,0:26:54.592
was run by the Special Warfare Department[br]and consisted of five branches:
0:26:54.592,0:26:58.824
‘Training Group, including interrogation [br]and psychological warfare techniques;
0:26:58.824,0:27:03.749
Special Unit, specialised since 1984 [br]in anti-Kurd operations,
0:27:03.749,0:27:06.574
Special Section, special operations [br]in Cyprus;
0:27:06.574,0:27:09.158
Coordination Group, also called [br]the Third Bureau;
0:27:09.158,0:27:12.290
and Administrative Section.’"
0:27:17.780,0:27:20.392
The violent atrocities committed [br]by Counter-Guerrilla
0:27:20.392,0:27:22.482
are beyond the scope [br]of this investigation,
0:27:22.482,0:27:25.978
but they include a September 1955[br]‘false flag’ bombing
0:27:25.978,0:27:28.425
of a key Turkish target in Greece
0:27:28.425,0:27:30.986
which was blamed on the Greek police,
0:27:30.986,0:27:35.007
participation in three military coups [br]against Turkey’s own government,
0:27:35.007,0:27:39.561
the torture of political opponents [br]in the torture villa of Erenköy,
0:27:39.561,0:27:42.813
and assorted robberies, assassinations,[br]kidnappings, sabotage,
0:27:42.813,0:27:45.628
and other terrorist activities.
0:27:45.628,0:27:47.812
In the vicious Turkish [br]nationalist movement,
0:27:47.812,0:27:50.387
with its interest in uniting [br]all of the Turkish people
0:27:50.387,0:27:52.817
into one Pan-Turkic nation,
0:27:52.817,0:27:55.762
NATO found a convenient ally in its quest
0:27:55.762,0:27:58.418
to counter Soviet influence [br]in the Caucasus region
0:27:58.418,0:28:01.646
and to gain a toehold [br]in the Eurasian Balkans.
0:28:01.646,0:28:04.884
In order to understand [br]how this alliance operated,
0:28:04.884,0:28:08.166
let’s examine one particular person [br]who has been identified
0:28:08.166,0:28:13.338
as one of the top Turkish [br]“Gladiators”: Abdullah Çatlı.
0:28:13.338,0:28:17.223
Probably the single most famous [br]members of the Counter-Guerrilla,
0:28:17.223,0:28:21.005
Abdullah Çatlı’s remarkable [br]and highly improbable career
0:28:21.005,0:28:24.369
tells a story of assassinations, [br]terror attacks,
0:28:24.369,0:28:26.778
drug running, [br]daring prison escapes
0:28:26.778,0:28:29.930
and international intrigue [br]outrageous enough
0:28:29.930,0:28:34.098
to make even the most imaginative [br]Hollywood script writer blush.
0:28:34.098,0:28:37.385
Beginning as a petty street thug [br]with the nationalist movement,
0:28:37.385,0:28:40.416
Çatlı rose through the ranks [br]to become a brutal enforcer
0:28:40.416,0:28:43.498
for the dreaded Grey Wolves [br]“youth organization”
0:28:43.498,0:28:46.615
connected to the Turkish Gladio movement.
0:28:46.615,0:28:50.149
By 1978 he had become the second [br]in command of the organization
0:28:50.149,0:28:52.484
and a top Counter-Guerrilla operative,
0:28:52.484,0:28:55.447
implicated in multiple [br]high-profile assassinations,
0:28:55.447,0:28:58.088
including the murder of Abdi İpekçi
0:28:58.088,0:29:01.297
the country’s most well-known [br]newspaper editor.
0:29:01.297,0:29:03.411
Forced underground [br]by his growing notoriety,
0:29:03.411,0:29:06.420
Çatlı became an important [br]international Gladiator,
0:29:06.420,0:29:10.553
participating in the 1981 [br]assassination attempt of the Pope.
0:29:10.553,0:29:15.644
He traveled with Italian Gladiator[br]Stefano Della Chiaie
0:29:15.644,0:29:18.264
to Latin America and Miami in 1982
0:29:18.264,0:29:20.751
and then headed to France [br]where he planned the bombing
0:29:20.751,0:29:23.188
of the Armenian Genocide Memorial [br]at Alfortville,
0:29:23.188,0:29:27.553
and the failed assassination attempt[br]against activist Ara Toranian.
0:29:28.123,0:29:31.637
In 1984 it seemed that [br]the long arm of the law
0:29:31.637,0:29:33.318
had finally caught up with him.
0:29:33.318,0:29:36.957
Paid by his Turkish intelligence [br]handlers in heroin,
0:29:36.957,0:29:39.596
Çatlı was arrested in Paris [br]for drug trafficking
0:29:39.596,0:29:42.370
and sentenced to seven [br]years imprisonment.
0:29:42.370,0:29:46.850
By 1988 he was sent to Switzerland, [br]where he also wanted for drug trafficking,
0:29:46.850,0:29:51.090
but in March 1990 he was [br]sprung from prison
0:29:51.090,0:29:56.296
in a nearly unbelievable prison break [br]that involved the use of a helicopter.
0:29:56.296,0:30:01.674
Le Monde Diplomatique, in an explosive[br]report in 1998 on the Turkish Deep State,
0:30:01.674,0:30:06.215
referred vaguely to the[br]“mysterious forces"
0:30:06.215,0:30:07.822
who helped him to escape,
0:30:07.822,0:30:11.075
but others have specifically identified [br]the escape helicopter
0:30:11.075,0:30:14.420
as a NATO vehicle.
0:30:14.420,0:30:15.422
In subsequent years,
0:30:15.422,0:30:19.533
while still an international fugitive[br]on INTERPOL’s “Most Wanted" list
0:30:19.533,0:30:23.302
and wanted by authorities of multiple[br]countries for a series of crimes,
0:30:23.302,0:30:24.623
Çatlı returned to Turkey
0:30:24.623,0:30:28.394
where he was recruited by the police [br]for “special missions"
0:30:28.394,0:30:31.367
and entered and exited the United Kingdom[br]and the United States
0:30:31.367,0:30:34.239
with complete impunity.
0:30:34.239,0:30:40.344
This is the character profile [br]of an Operation Gladio gladiator.
0:30:40.344,0:30:42.386
And I hope we can realize [br]that when we see
0:30:42.386,0:30:46.067
this type of remarkable, amazing, [br]unbelievable career
0:30:46.067,0:30:48.928
of someone who is consistently, [br]at every turn,
0:30:48.928,0:30:51.469
able to evade every type [br]of police authority,
0:30:51.469,0:30:53.232
every type of law of the land,
0:30:53.232,0:30:56.461
every type of Constitutional rule[br]wherever he travels,
0:30:56.461,0:30:58.883
and is always protected [br]and always busted out,
0:30:58.883,0:31:01.581
I think we understand that there is [br]a Deep State
0:31:01.581,0:31:04.507
that is working to lay the groundwork
0:31:04.507,0:31:06.668
and to prepare the way [br]for someone like this.
0:31:06.668,0:31:11.547
So, this is a confirmed Gladio operative[br]who had a really remarkable career.
0:31:11.547,0:31:15.982
So keep that in mind as we proceed[br]with our analysis tonight.
0:31:16.812,0:31:18.921
Returning to the question [br]of Gladio interference
0:31:18.921,0:31:21.952
in the Central Asia-Caucasus [br]area of operations,
0:31:21.952,0:31:26.814
one lowlight from Çatlı’s ignoble career[br]is particularly instructive.
0:31:26.814,0:31:31.044
In 1995 Çatlı participated [br]in a planned coup attempt
0:31:31.044,0:31:34.311
against Azerbaijani president [br]Helmar [sic: Heydar] Aliyev,
0:31:34.311,0:31:37.269
the father of the country’s [br]current president.
0:31:37.269,0:31:39.122
The planned assassination failed,
0:31:39.122,0:31:42.053
but Çatlı, as usual,[br]was not caught or brought to justice
0:31:42.053,0:31:44.837
for his participation in the scheme.
0:31:44.837,0:31:48.876
But while the assassination itself [br]did not result in the death of Aliyev,
0:31:48.876,0:31:53.413
it did have a desirable effect[br]for NATO’s designs on the South Caucasus.
0:31:53.413,0:31:57.540
From that point on, Azerbaijan began [br]to leave the diplomatic orbit
0:31:57.540,0:31:59.962
of its old Soviet-era Russian masters
0:31:59.962,0:32:03.479
and has since become a staunchly [br]Western-oriented nation
0:32:03.479,0:32:09.260
with an all-star roster of power players [br]on its US-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce
0:32:09.260,0:32:13.553
and ongoing relations with Chevron, [br]Texaco, BP, Pennzoil,
0:32:13.553,0:32:17.592
and every other major oil conglomerate[br]you can think of.
0:32:17.592,0:32:19.772
In fact, the country has been [br]a NATO partner
0:32:19.772,0:32:23.340
and prospective member of the alliance[br]for several years now,
0:32:23.340,0:32:27.009
a potentially important NATO ally [br]right in Russia’s backyard,
0:32:27.009,0:32:32.459
and one with access to the prized [br]Caspian oil and gas field reserves,
0:32:32.459,0:32:36.604
and the pipelines that will help[br]to transport that out of there.
0:32:37.474,0:32:41.483
But all careers, no matter how remarkable,[br]come to an end,
0:32:41.483,0:32:44.159
and the end of Abdullah Çatlı’s career
0:32:44.159,0:32:49.206
was, perhaps fittingly, almost as amazing [br]as his career itself.
0:32:49.206,0:32:55.003
At approximately 7:25 PM [br]on the evening of November 3, 1996,
0:32:55.003,0:32:58.154
a Mercedes 600 SEL crashed into a truck
0:32:58.154,0:33:01.121
near the Northwestern Turkish [br]town of Susurluk,
0:33:01.121,0:33:03.965
killing three of the four passengers.
0:33:03.965,0:33:06.548
But this was no ordinary car crash.
0:33:06.548,0:33:13.268
Among the dead: a senior police chief, [br]a former beauty queen, and Abdullah Çatlı.
0:33:13.268,0:33:18.782
The survivor: a Turkish MP who came away[br]with a fractured skull and a broken leg.
0:33:19.442,0:33:23.996
A 1998 LA Times report on the crash[br]described the scene this way:
0:33:24.376,0:33:26.134
“Strewn amid the roadside wreckage
0:33:26.134,0:33:30.353
was evidence of Çatlı’s collusion [br]with the Turkish secret service.
0:33:30.353,0:33:33.754
Along with several handguns, silencers,
0:33:33.754,0:33:38.238
a cache of narcotics and [br]a government-approved weapons permit,
0:33:38.238,0:33:44.168
Çatlı was carrying six photo ID cards, [br]each with a different name,
0:33:44.168,0:33:49.316
and special diplomatic credentials[br]issued by Turkish authorities."
0:33:49.836,0:33:53.986
The importance of this car crash[br]to the course of Turkish politics
0:33:53.986,0:33:56.722
is difficult to overstate.
0:33:56.722,0:34:00.348
For many, it conclusively confirmed[br]the “deep state" connections
0:34:00.348,0:34:03.926
between terrorists like Çatlı and [br]the upper reaches of government power
0:34:03.926,0:34:06.846
that many had long believed existed.
0:34:06.846,0:34:09.774
The resulting scandal led to a series[br]of investigations and reports,
0:34:09.774,0:34:13.871
as well as arrests, convictions,[br]resignations, reforms,
0:34:13.871,0:34:17.675
promotions, and the death [br]of several Susurluk investigators
0:34:17.675,0:34:22.928
in car crashes that mysteriously resembled[br]the Susurluk crash itself.
0:34:23.528,0:34:25.890
And according to at least one [br]FBI whistleblower,
0:34:25.890,0:34:28.505
Susurluk marks the beginning [br]of a transition
0:34:28.505,0:34:32.940
from the original Gladio operations [br]using ultranationalist operatives
0:34:32.940,0:34:36.942
to a Gladio “Plan B” [br]involving Islamic terrorism
0:34:36.942,0:34:40.235
as the conduit for [br]the strategy of tension.
0:34:41.020,0:34:43.393
The whistleblower in question [br]is Sibel Edmonds,
0:34:43.393,0:34:46.784
hired by the FBI to work as a translator[br]in the Washington Field Office
0:34:46.784,0:34:48.897
in the wake of 9/11.
0:34:48.897,0:34:50.930
She worked with agents [br]around the United States
0:34:50.930,0:34:53.374
helping to translate [br]intercepted communications
0:34:53.374,0:34:55.929
in a number of counterintelligence cases,
0:34:55.929,0:34:59.319
including Agent Joel Roberts [br]in the Chicago Field Office
0:34:59.319,0:35:03.744
whose targets included Abdullah Çatlı [br]and some of his Gladio associates.
0:35:04.212,0:35:11.202
While there, one of the translators [br]she was working with was Jan Dickerson,
0:35:11.202,0:35:13.841
who had worked for both [br]the American Turkish Council
0:35:13.841,0:35:16.501
and the Assembly of Turkish [br]American Associations,
0:35:16.501,0:35:20.025
organizations that the FBI [br]publicly confirmed
0:35:20.026,0:35:23.900
were targets of FBI [br]counterintelligence operations.
0:35:23.900,0:35:27.520
Her husband, Douglas Dickerson, [br]was a Major in the US Air Force
0:35:27.520,0:35:31.154
who had served in Ankara [br]working on weapons procurement
0:35:31.154,0:35:34.822
for the Pentagon in [br]the Central Asia region.
0:35:34.822,0:35:39.467
In December 2001, the Dickersons [br]visited Edmonds and her husband
0:35:39.467,0:35:42.268
at their home in Alexandria, Virginia,
0:35:42.268,0:35:44.950
and attempted to recruit them [br]into a Turkish spying ring
0:35:44.950,0:35:49.528
that had penetrated the FBI, [br]the Pentagon and the State Department.
0:35:49.528,0:35:52.458
She refused, and her complaints [br]about the Dickersons
0:35:52.458,0:35:54.509
and their involvement [br]with Turkish lobbying groups
0:35:54.509,0:35:57.190
eventually led to her firing.
0:35:57.190,0:35:59.635
After years of fighting this dismissal
0:35:59.635,0:36:02.799
and attempting to go on record [br]with her knowledge,
0:36:02.799,0:36:06.004
first through official FBI channels and[br]then through the court system,
0:36:06.004,0:36:11.718
the FBI was eventually forced to admit [br]that her claims had “some basis in fact,"
0:36:11.718,0:36:13.233
a judgment later bolstered
0:36:13.233,0:36:15.455
by a Department of Justice[br]Inspector General report
0:36:15.455,0:36:20.289
that concluded, "Many of Edmonds’s core[br]allegations relating to the co-workers
0:36:20.289,0:36:26.172
were supported by either documentary[br]evidence or witnesses other than Edmonds"
0:36:26.172,0:36:30.856
and noting that “the evidence clearly[br]corroborated Edmonds’s allegations"
0:36:30.856,0:36:33.701
about Jan Dickerson’s work problems.
0:36:33.701,0:36:36.291
Despite all of this, a little-known [br]evidentiary rule
0:36:36.291,0:36:37.965
known as the “State Secrets Privilege"
0:36:37.965,0:36:42.286
was invoked by the Justice Department [br]to remove her First Amendment rights
0:36:42.286,0:36:46.444
and prevent her from going on record [br]about many of the specifics of her case.
0:36:46.444,0:36:47.842
This led to her being labeled
0:36:47.842,0:36:50.564
“the most gagged person [br]in American history"
0:36:50.564,0:36:52.685
by the American Civil Liberties Union.
0:36:53.685,0:36:57.400
Edmonds paints the story of[br]the FBI’s counterintelligence operations
0:36:57.400,0:37:01.943
against a Gladio network that had contacts[br]and operatives in the United States
0:37:01.943,0:37:04.925
but protection from powerful [br]Washington players
0:37:04.925,0:37:08.436
like some of those on the board[br]of the US-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce
0:37:08.436,0:37:10.883
and similar organizations.
0:37:10.883,0:37:13.288
After the turning point at Susurluk,
0:37:13.288,0:37:17.112
these operations started to focus[br]on Islamic terrorists and radicals,
0:37:17.112,0:37:21.644
who presumably could equally well be used[br]to maintain a strategy of tension
0:37:21.644,0:37:27.323
and help accomplish foreign policy goals[br]in Central Asia and the Caucasus region.
0:37:27.323,0:37:30.500
Again, it's important to look at [br]some of the careers of some of those
0:37:30.500,0:37:33.921
who have been identified as part[br]of this “Gladio B" plan,
0:37:34.601,0:37:38.871
in order to better understand [br]whether or not they are, in fact,
0:37:38.871,0:37:41.730
what has been claimed about them.
0:37:41.730,0:37:45.277
However, we have to note that,[br]unlike in the case of Abdullah Çatlı,
0:37:45.277,0:37:47.913
we have no official, independent[br]confirmations
0:37:47.913,0:37:53.594
of the existence of the Gladio B operation[br]or its various operatives.
0:37:53.594,0:37:56.213
Here we are relying on information [br]in the public record
0:37:56.213,0:37:57.935
which corroborates Edmonds' claims
0:37:57.935,0:38:00.330
and paints a vivid picture [br]of the intersection
0:38:00.330,0:38:04.039
between Muslim extremists, drug runners,[br]terrorists and money launderers
0:38:04.039,0:38:06.424
with the upper levels [br]of the US State Department,
0:38:06.424,0:38:09.115
Pentagon and NATO.
0:38:09.115,0:38:12.109
One such person is Fethullah Gülen, [br]a Turkish imam
0:38:12.109,0:38:14.414
who fled political prosecution in Turkey
0:38:14.414,0:38:18.517
for advocating that an Islamic state [br]replace the existing Turkish government.
0:38:19.097,0:38:22.104
Interestingly, he fled [br]to the United States,
0:38:22.104,0:38:24.268
eventually settling in Pennsylvania.
0:38:24.268,0:38:28.222
He then set up an educational foundation,[br]the “Gülen Movement"
0:38:28.222,0:38:31.661
and within four years [br]had opened up 350 madrasas
0:38:31.661,0:38:34.356
in the Central Asia-Caucasus region.
0:38:34.356,0:38:38.680
His network would go on to include [br]Islamic schools in over 140 countries,
0:38:38.680,0:38:42.827
with an estimated net worth [br]of over $20 billion.
0:38:42.827,0:38:46.795
In January 2001 a Turkish prosecutor, [br]
0:38:46.795,0:38:51.216
citing an Ankara University report whose[br]author was subsequently assassinated,
0:38:51.216,0:38:55.049
claimed that “there is a link[br]between Gülen and the CIA"
0:38:55.049,0:38:57.445
which included Agency help [br]in securing passports
0:38:57.445,0:39:02.264
for the school’s English teachers[br]in the Central Asia-Caucasus region.
0:39:02.264,0:39:07.736
This claim was bolstered by former Turkish[br]Intelligence Chief Osman Nuri Gündeş,
0:39:07.736,0:39:12.041
whose memoirs revealed[br]that 130 of these “English teachers”
0:39:12.041,0:39:14.615
-- in Kygyzstan and Uzbekistan alone --
0:39:14.615,0:39:16.768
were actually CIA operatives,
0:39:16.768,0:39:18.756
issued special diplomatic passports
0:39:18.756,0:39:22.974
under a program codenamed[br]“Friendship Bridge."
0:39:24.404,0:39:28.044
Interestingly, the Washington Post[br]attempted to deny the allegations
0:39:28.044,0:39:31.093
by seeking comment from Graham Fuller,
0:39:31.093,0:39:32.828
who you might remember [br]as the author
0:39:32.828,0:39:37.448
of the Central Asia: The New Geopolitics[br]report that we referred to earlier.
0:39:37.448,0:39:40.857
Fuller was a former CIA [br]Station Chief in Kabul
0:39:40.857,0:39:45.527
who claimed that the idea of a [br]CIA-Gülen connection was “improbable”
0:39:45.527,0:39:47.055
despite admitting he has,
0:39:47.055,0:39:53.320
“absolutely no concrete personal knowledge[br]whatsoever about this." (laughs)
0:39:53.320,0:39:56.710
Even more interestingly... [br]-- talk about non-denial denials!
0:39:57.430,0:40:01.776
Even more interestingly, Fuller himself [br]wrote a letter of reference for Gülen
0:40:01.776,0:40:04.367
that was used in Gülen’s [br]ongoing legal battle
0:40:04.367,0:40:07.418
over his immigration status in the US.
0:40:08.068,0:40:10.455
The remarkable rise of this imam
0:40:10.455,0:40:13.427
with no particular background [br]or accomplishments
0:40:13.427,0:40:14.427
to become the head
0:40:14.427,0:40:16.694
of a multi-billion dollar [br]Islamic school network
0:40:16.694,0:40:19.367
operated from a secret compound [br]in Pennsylvania
0:40:19.367,0:40:21.540
that appears to be working with the CIA
0:40:21.540,0:40:24.275
in the highly sensitive [br]Central Asia-Caucasus region
0:40:24.275,0:40:28.210
appears to fit in line with what we know [br]about the “deep state” actors
0:40:28.210,0:40:29.897
in this covert battle for influence
0:40:29.897,0:40:34.146
in this highly prized square [br]of the chessboard.
0:40:34.766,0:40:38.487
Another extremely interesting figure [br]is Yasin al-Qadi.
0:40:38.487,0:40:40.945
He was an alleged financier [br]of Islamic terror
0:40:40.945,0:40:43.366
that was the subject of [br]an intensive investigation
0:40:43.366,0:40:46.315
by FBI Agent Robert Wright.
0:40:46.315,0:40:49.545
Wright’s investigation, [br]codenamed “Vulgar Betrayal,”
0:40:49.545,0:40:51.906
discovered evidence [br]that implicated Al-Qadi
0:40:51.906,0:40:55.060
in a terrorist financing ring [br]centered in Chicago
0:40:55.060,0:40:58.273
that linked to the 1998 [br]African Embassy Bombings,
0:40:58.273,0:41:01.232
but when he proposed [br]a criminal investigation,
0:41:01.232,0:41:05.817
his supervisor flew into a rage, [br]yelling:
0:41:05.817,0:41:08.126
“You will not open[br]criminal investigations!
0:41:08.126,0:41:10.106
I forbid any of you!
0:41:10.106,0:41:12.941
You will not open criminal investigations
0:41:12.941,0:41:17.156
against any of these [br]intelligence subjects."
0:41:17.156,0:41:20.652
Wright was taken off the Vulgar Betrayal[br]investigation one year later
0:41:20.652,0:41:23.681
and the investigation itself [br]was shut down the following year.
0:41:23.681,0:41:28.670
In 1999 and 2000, the UN [br]placed sanctions on al-Qadi
0:41:28.670,0:41:31.983
who was identified [br]in UN Security Council resolutions
0:41:31.983,0:41:35.610
as a suspected associate of al-Qaeda.
0:41:35.610,0:41:39.375
At the same time, al-Qadi was also [br]a key investor
0:41:39.375,0:41:41.088
in a company called Ptech,
0:41:41.088,0:41:43.917
which marketed “enterprise [br]architecture software"
0:41:43.917,0:41:46.589
designed to provide complete[br]"god’s-eye view"
0:41:46.589,0:41:48.351
of an organization’s structure,
0:41:48.351,0:41:51.310
from transactions, systems and processes
0:41:51.310,0:41:55.232
to inventory, transactions and personnel.
0:41:55.232,0:41:57.131
And Ptech’s client list included
0:41:57.131,0:42:00.688
some of the most sensitive databases[br]in the United States,
0:42:00.688,0:42:07.072
including the Defense Advanced Research [br]Projects Agency, DARPA, in the Pentagon;
0:42:07.072,0:42:09.728
the FBI; the Secret Service; [br]the White House,
0:42:09.728,0:42:11.532
the Navy, the Air Force, [br]
0:42:11.532,0:42:14.530
the FAA [br]-- the Federal Aviation Administration --
0:42:14.530,0:42:16.945
and NATO.
0:42:16.945,0:42:19.744
According to Ptech’s own business plan,
0:42:19.744,0:42:23.393
the company had a contract [br]to work on modeling the FAA’s:
0:42:23.393,0:42:26.058
“network management, [br]network security,
0:42:26.058,0:42:28.810
configuration management,[br]fault management,
0:42:28.810,0:42:31.194
performance management,[br]application administration,
0:42:31.194,0:42:34.952
network accounting management, [br]and user help desk operations"
0:42:34.952,0:42:41.354
that was operative on the morning of 9/11[br]-- and FAA's "failure."
0:42:41.884,0:42:44.974
After 9/11, Ptech’s offices were raided,
0:42:44.974,0:42:49.147
and the company’s CEO and CFO [br]were eventually indicted,
0:42:49.637,0:42:53.615
and Yasin al-Qadi was placed [br]on a special terrorist finance watchlist
0:42:53.615,0:42:56.887
by the US Treasury Department.
0:42:56.887,0:43:00.073
Despite being watchlisted [br]by both the UN Security Council
0:43:00.073,0:43:02.243
and US Treasury Department,
0:43:02.243,0:43:06.865
al-Qadi continued to operate [br]internationally with an Albanian passport,
0:43:06.865,0:43:08.981
spending time in Turkey.
0:43:08.981,0:43:12.691
He has since been revealed [br]to have engaged in numerous meetings
0:43:12.691,0:43:16.538
with then-Turkish Prime Minister [br]Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
0:43:16.538,0:43:18.482
and the Turkish Intelligence Chief,
0:43:18.482,0:43:21.731
and earlier this year, the ex-Istanbul [br]police chief revealed
0:43:21.731,0:43:25.365
that Erdoğan had helped al-Qadi [br]to enter the country several times
0:43:25.365,0:43:27.538
despite being banned by the Cabinet.
0:43:28.218,0:43:32.433
And for those who are wondering, yes: [br]this is actual surveillance footage
0:43:32.433,0:43:35.010
of al-Qadi meeting with Erdoğan,
0:43:35.010,0:43:38.916
the Prime Minister of Turkey at the time,[br]in 2012
0:43:42.116,0:43:43.528
Another figure of importance [br]
0:43:43.528,0:43:46.191
whose name comes up[br]in connection with this investigation
0:43:46.191,0:43:50.260
is Ayman Al-Zawahiri, formerly [br]Bin Laden’s right hand man
0:43:50.260,0:43:53.496
and the current nominal leader [br]of the al-Qaeda organization.
0:43:54.316,0:43:56.860
According to Edmonds,[br]he appeared as a figure
0:43:56.860,0:44:00.653
in several FBI counterterrorism [br]investigations in the 1990s,
0:44:00.653,0:44:06.345
turning up in Turkey, Albania, [br]Kosovo, and Azerbaijan.
0:44:06.345,0:44:08.756
He traveled to the Balkans [br]in the mid 1990s,
0:44:08.756,0:44:10.994
and that makes sense [br]given al-Qaeda involvement
0:44:10.994,0:44:13.125
in the so-called Yugoslav Wars,
0:44:13.125,0:44:15.752
but his involvement [br]in Turkey and Azerbaijan
0:44:15.752,0:44:18.920
is of particular relevance to this study.
0:44:18.920,0:44:24.488
Edmonds claims that he worked [br]with the Turkish arm of NATO
0:44:24.488,0:44:27.039
and NATO itself during this period,
0:44:27.039,0:44:30.286
meeting several times [br]with US military attachés
0:44:30.286,0:44:35.823
in Baku, Azerbaijan,[br]in the 1997-1998 window.
0:44:37.293,0:44:41.063
There are numerous such leads and clues[br]in this investigation
0:44:41.063,0:44:44.914
that point to... oh, sorry. One more:
0:44:44.914,0:44:47.186
Other tantalizing connections [br]present themselves
0:44:47.186,0:44:49.211
in figures like Hüseyin Baybaşin,
0:44:49.831,0:44:53.685
known as “Europe’s Pablo Escobar"[br]for his heroin operations
0:44:53.685,0:44:56.699
smuggling heroin to the UK.
0:44:57.029,0:45:00.496
After his imprisonment here [br]in The Netherlands for drug smuggling,
0:45:00.496,0:45:04.107
he contacted Edmonds with details [br]about Turkish NATO involvement
0:45:04.107,0:45:07.220
in the drug smuggling operations [br]he had been a part of.
0:45:07.220,0:45:09.337
There are numerous such leads, connections
0:45:09.337,0:45:10.922
and clues in this investigation
0:45:10.922,0:45:16.116
that point to a deep tie [br]between NATO and US covert operations
0:45:16.116,0:45:18.655
and this important area of the globe.
0:45:18.655,0:45:21.567
But what does it all mean?
0:45:22.727,0:45:27.037
It would be a satisfying conclusion [br]to this investigation
0:45:27.037,0:45:30.023
to present to you definitive [br]proof, documents or testimony
0:45:30.023,0:45:33.555
positively linking the increasingly deadly[br]terror attacks
0:45:33.555,0:45:36.974
and incidents taking place [br]in the Central Asia-Caucasus region
0:45:36.974,0:45:41.207
to a Gladio “Plan B" group [br]being directed by NATO and the Pentagon.
0:45:41.987,0:45:44.465
Everything that we have seen today [br]has demonstrated that:
0:45:44.465,0:45:49.304
A. There are vital strategic interests[br]for the US and its allies
0:45:49.304,0:45:50.986
in the Central Asia-Caucasus region
0:45:50.986,0:45:54.984
that make it a prime target [br]for covert operations;
0:45:54.984,0:45:59.685
B. Such “strategy of tension” operations [br]have been conducted in the past
0:45:59.685,0:46:04.998
by people we definitively know[br]were linked to NATO’s covert army; and
0:46:04.998,0:46:07.558
C. That there are a number [br]of influential people
0:46:07.558,0:46:09.834
operating in and around the region
0:46:09.834,0:46:12.661
and in close cooperation [br]with the Turkish deep state,
0:46:12.661,0:46:16.188
American intelligence, [br]the Pentagon, and NATO
0:46:16.188,0:46:19.579
who seem to be involved with [br]ongoing operations today
0:46:19.579,0:46:24.254
related to the fostering of [br]religious extremism in the region.
0:46:24.254,0:46:28.590
As I say, it would be satisfying[br]to conclude definitively
0:46:28.590,0:46:33.787
that A, B, or C persons[br]were connected to X, Y, or Z events,
0:46:33.787,0:46:37.062
but obviously that isn't possible[br]at this time.
0:46:37.062,0:46:39.571
The very nature of these [br]covert operations
0:46:39.571,0:46:42.119
means that, without [br]some explosive new evidence
0:46:42.119,0:46:45.094
or surprising new testimony [br]from other whistleblowers,
0:46:45.094,0:46:48.010
it is unlikely that Gladio B [br]will be revealed
0:46:48.010,0:46:51.376
in the way the original [br]Gladio operations were...
0:46:51.376,0:46:57.164
-- another fascinating story that we could[br]get into; but it would take too much time.
0:46:57.874,0:46:59.223
This does not mean, however, [br]
0:46:59.223,0:47:02.560
that we are completely powerless[br]to identify these operations
0:47:02.560,0:47:04.803
or to counteract the psychological effects
0:47:04.803,0:47:08.832
that they are aimed at producing[br]in the public.
0:47:08.832,0:47:12.511
The characters, events and storyline[br]painted in this presentation
0:47:12.511,0:47:15.067
are almost completely available [br]in the public record
0:47:15.067,0:47:18.088
through news reports, [br]government investigations,
0:47:18.088,0:47:20.188
think tank documents,[br]court filings,
0:47:20.188,0:47:23.159
interviews, and [br]dozens of other sources.
0:47:23.159,0:47:26.303
Those parts of the story that [br]cannot be independently verified,
0:47:26.303,0:47:27.837
like some of Edmonds’ claims,
0:47:27.837,0:47:31.607
can be corroborated by the sources [br]in the public record.
0:47:31.607,0:47:34.260
The task of piecing these bits [br]of the puzzle together
0:47:34.260,0:47:36.451
is a nearly overwhelming one,
0:47:36.451,0:47:39.432
but it can be accomplished [br]by a concerted effort
0:47:39.762,0:47:42.979
by an informed and motivated public.
0:47:42.979,0:47:45.853
This is the principle [br]of “open source investigation"
0:47:45.853,0:47:49.491
which I am attempting to further [br]with my work at CorbettReport.com.
0:47:49.491,0:47:52.283
And next week this lecture will be [br]published to my website
0:47:52.283,0:47:54.090
along with a hyperlinked transcript
0:47:54.090,0:47:57.153
sourcing every single document[br]in this report
0:47:57.153,0:48:00.243
and other evidence used [br]in the creation of this presentation.
0:48:00.913,0:48:05.388
From that point, the public is encouraged [br]to use that source information
0:48:05.388,0:48:08.323
to begin investigating [br]other aspects of this case
0:48:08.323,0:48:11.006
and to see how this narrative [br]meshes or clashes
0:48:11.006,0:48:14.077
with other pieces of evidence [br]in the public record.
0:48:14.077,0:48:16.675
Members of the Corbett Report[br]community are, of course,
0:48:16.675,0:48:18.872
invited to participate [br]in this investigation
0:48:18.872,0:48:20.359
by logging on to the website
0:48:20.359,0:48:24.171
and posting their own comments, [br]analysis, links and replies
0:48:24.195,0:48:28.010
at the posting on CorbettReport.com.
0:48:28.010,0:48:30.346
This task is critical because,
0:48:30.346,0:48:34.537
in the quest to control the resources[br]of the Central Asia-Caucasus region,
0:48:34.537,0:48:39.457
a strategy of tension is being employed.
0:48:39.457,0:48:41.825
We see a nearly daily parade [br]of terror attacks
0:48:41.825,0:48:44.962
in the Northern Caucasus region[br]on Russia’s doorstep
0:48:44.962,0:48:48.685
and in the “New Silk Road” area [br]of Chinese interest.
0:48:48.685,0:48:52.651
Just this month, the head of the[br]Collective Security Treaty Organization
0:48:52.651,0:48:55.998
-- often seen as a counterbalance [br]organization to NATO --
0:48:55.998,0:48:57.995
claimed that instability in the region
0:48:57.995,0:49:00.445
was being deliberately [br]fostered by the West,
0:49:00.445,0:49:03.591
citing a disproportionate increase [br]in US Embassy staff
0:49:03.591,0:49:07.763
and influx of Western-backed NGOs [br]into the region.
0:49:07.763,0:49:13.151
“The West crudely interferes in [br]the internal affairs of other governments,
0:49:13.151,0:49:14.899
trying to manipulate public opinion,
0:49:14.899,0:49:18.914
economically and financially affecting the[br]government and population," he said.
0:49:20.674,0:49:22.861
If this is, indeed, the case,
0:49:22.861,0:49:26.130
then one of the key ways [br]to counteract this effect
0:49:26.130,0:49:28.280
is to simply retain our skepticism
0:49:28.280,0:49:32.261
when it comes to spectacular [br]terror attacks in the region.
0:49:32.261,0:49:35.119
With an increased awareness [br]of covert operations,
0:49:35.119,0:49:36.371
false flag attacks,
0:49:36.371,0:49:40.343
and other acknowledged instruments [br]of terror in the strategy of tension,
0:49:40.343,0:49:43.298
we thereby disarm the effectiveness [br]of these tools.
0:49:44.028,0:49:48.640
The psychological manipulation that [br]these geopolitical machinations rely on
0:49:48.640,0:49:53.710
is only possible if the public [br]is kept in fear and ignorance,
0:49:53.710,0:49:57.634
and the answer to that can only be[br]understanding and openness.
0:49:57.634,0:49:58.600
And with that,[br]
0:49:58.600,0:50:01.603
I thank you for your time and attention [br]during this very detailed lecture,
0:50:01.603,0:50:04.079
and I look forward to your questions.[br]Thank you very much.
0:50:04.079,0:50:11.071
(applause)
0:50:14.307,0:50:17.735
Hello, friends. James Corbett here,[br]back in the sunny climes of Western Japan.
0:50:17.735,0:50:19.766
I hope you appreciated that presentation.
0:50:19.766,0:50:21.936
That was the culmination [br]of what has, so far,
0:50:21.936,0:50:25.878
been almost two years' worth [br]of investigation into Gladio B,
0:50:25.878,0:50:29.759
going back to early last year, [br]when we, of course, conducted
0:50:29.759,0:50:32.828
that original Gladio B interview series [br]with Sibel Edmonds.
0:50:32.828,0:50:36.460
If you haven't checked out that series yet,[br]and if you are interested in Gladio B,
0:50:36.460,0:50:38.887
of course, that interview series[br]is the gold mine
0:50:38.887,0:50:41.079
of information that you should check out.
0:50:41.079,0:50:44.650
And of course, the link will be in this video[br]so you can go check that out.
0:50:44.650,0:50:47.749
And the transcript of that [br]has recently been provided
0:50:47.749,0:50:50.777
by an anonymous Corbett Report user,
0:50:50.777,0:50:53.977
so thanks to that person, we now have[br]the transcript of that series.
0:50:53.977,0:50:56.486
An extremely valuable resource for those
0:50:56.486,0:50:59.138
who are looking to get more[br]into this information.
0:50:59.138,0:51:02.333
If you do realize how important[br]this information is,
0:51:02.333,0:51:04.608
and if you do realize that,
0:51:04.608,0:51:08.326
if this operation is [br]as it is being portrayed in this lecture,
0:51:08.326,0:51:12.797
it really is one of the most important [br]geopolitical operations
0:51:12.797,0:51:15.003
ongoing in the world today,
0:51:15.003,0:51:19.668
then you might realize how uncomfortable[br]it is for me to be in the position
0:51:19.668,0:51:24.661
of realizing that I am one of [br]only a handful of people in the world
0:51:24.661,0:51:26.356
who has ever talked about this
0:51:26.356,0:51:29.165
and who is investigating it[br]at the moment.
0:51:29.165,0:51:31.444
So I certainly hope[br]that you'll do your part
0:51:31.444,0:51:33.483
to help pitch in with that investigation.
0:51:33.483,0:51:36.970
As I say, we do need more people[br]posting links, vetting sources,
0:51:36.970,0:51:39.666
talking about this information, [br]analyzing it.
0:51:39.666,0:51:42.764
Of course, if you're a Corbett Report[br]member, please sign in to the website
0:51:42.764,0:51:45.291
and start leaving your comments[br]on this post.
0:51:45.291,0:51:49.064
But also, in any way you can, [br]to help spread this information:
0:51:49.064,0:51:51.203
of course, greatly appreciated.
0:51:51.203,0:51:54.984
Because the more people who are [br]thinking about this, talking about this,
0:51:54.984,0:51:56.713
the better it will be for everyone.
0:51:56.713,0:52:00.061
Trust me: you don't want to leave it[br]in the hands of a few people.
0:52:00.061,0:52:02.044
We want this information[br]to spread far and wide.
0:52:02.044,0:52:05.551
So once again, please start [br]helping out with that
0:52:05.551,0:52:08.326
in any way that you can help[br]spread this information.
0:52:08.326,0:52:12.934
And once again, obviously, [br]this entire investigation
0:52:12.934,0:52:15.799
and everything that I do [br]is brought to you by you guys.
0:52:15.799,0:52:18.118
So I do appreciate your... [br]all of your support:
0:52:18.118,0:52:20.088
whether that be moral support,
0:52:20.088,0:52:23.055
whether that be the support [br]of helping to spread the information,
0:52:23.055,0:52:26.141
whether that be monetary support[br]-- which of course, I also need.
0:52:26.141,0:52:28.957
And on that note, [br]since it is December of 2014
0:52:28.957,0:52:30.755
and we're approaching Christmas,
0:52:30.755,0:52:34.721
for the month of December, [br]I am doing a 20%-off DVD discount
0:52:34.721,0:52:37.947
for any DVD at the Corbett Report shop.
0:52:37.947,0:52:40.641
Once again, you can go there[br]and take a look at all of the DVDs:
0:52:40.641,0:52:42.980
the Data DVDs, the Video Archives,
0:52:42.980,0:52:45.319
Last Word DVDs, Century of Enslavement:
0:52:45.319,0:52:47.520
All DVDs 20% off.
0:52:47.520,0:52:51.795
Just enter the coupon code "XMAS" [br]at checkout,
0:52:51.795,0:52:54.146
and you'll get 20% off your DVD purchase.
0:52:54.146,0:52:58.913
It makes it even cheaper and easier [br]for you guys to get these DVDs,
0:52:58.913,0:53:02.135
give them out as gifts [br]or however you want to distribute them.
0:53:02.135,0:53:04.579
And of course, you are free [br]to make copies of them
0:53:04.579,0:53:06.900
and hand them out that way as well.
0:53:06.900,0:53:09.945
And let's get this information out[br]to as many people as possible.
0:53:09.945,0:53:11.893
Once again, I do thank you all[br]for your support,
0:53:11.893,0:53:14.051
and if you did enjoy this presentation,
0:53:14.051,0:53:17.892
I should note that there is going to be [br]a posting of the audio only:
0:53:17.892,0:53:20.477
the Q&A after the presentation.
0:53:20.477,0:53:22.716
I'll be posting the audio of that[br]up on the website
0:53:22.716,0:53:23.845
in the next couple of days.
0:53:23.845,0:53:25.274
I hope you'll stick around for that.
0:53:25.274,0:53:27.181
Thank you again for all your support.,
0:53:27.181,0:53:29.159
I'm looking forward to talking to you [br]again real soon.
0:53:29.159,0:53:32.313
[Subtitled by: "Adjuvant"][br][CC-BY 4.0]