Thursday, July 14, 2011

Rupert Murdoch and the CIA

This is a request for aid in a possible research project. For years, I've heard dark whispers that the CIA helped Rupert Murdoch become who he is today. Rumors abound -- but where are the facts?

Of course, any important and powerful figure will eventually stand accused of being a creature of one or more intelligence agencies. I'm not interested in the mindless accusations offered by the shoddier conspira-blogs. We need some actual evidence.

So far, the most intriguing avenue of inquiry concerns CIA operative Michael Hand, co-founder of the Nugan-Hand bank. Nugan-Hand was the CIA's bank for a while (after Castle Bank collapsed and before the advent of BCCI).

In 1965, Michael Hand compiled an astounding record as a Special Forces "super soldier" in Vietnam. In 1966, he seems to have been recruited into the Operation Phoenix by the CIA's William Colby.

How does Murdoch come into this story? Well, in this same period, Murdoch was establishing himself as an up-and-coming news baron in both Australia and the U.K. In 1967, Michael Hand transferred his operations to Australia, where he became involved with a firm called Ocean Shores Development. This company was run by a senior executive for Sir Peter Abeles, who was then a business partner of...ta dah!...Rupert Murdoch.

Pretty much every enterprise that Hand ever joined or ran was actually a front for covert operations. Most spy-watchers think that Ocean Shores (allegedly in the land development business) was a front for something spooky. Alas, I don't know what that "something spooky" might be. I have guesses, but I don't know.

If you follow the trail of Michael Hand (start here), you'll come across a mighty impressive cast of spooked-up vagabonds: Paul Helliwell! Ted Shackley! Mitch WerBell! Ed Wilson! Richard Secord! And on and on; name after name after name. (One of those names is Pat Boone. Seriously.) You'll also come across some very credible evidence indicating that heroin smuggling was the main point of Hand's whole operation.

So, yeah, you can quickly find enough info about Hand and his pals to fill a book. But right now, I'm not interested in Michael Hand per se. I'm interested in Rupert Murdoch.

And Murdoch's connection to this world is tenuous. Suggestive, but tenuous -- based on the current state of our evidence.

Anyone out there know of a way to make the linkage stronger?

I've been reading The Man Who Owns the News, a biography of Murdoch. It doesn't give a terribly clear picture of how Murdoch originally made his fortune, except to note that his father was a news baron in his own right (albeit on a much smaller scale) and that Rupert learned early on how to "work" the banks. I think that something more was going on.

If you want to sneer at this line of inquiry, and possibly even offer a few ever-so-clever references to tin-foil chapeaus, feel free. I may not publish your insults, but I would never deny your right to make them. But before you cackle, note this: People used to pooh-pooh the rumors that Robert Maxwell (Murdoch's one-time great competitor) worked for Mossad. This is now an uncontroversial assertion, judging from Maxwell's Wikipedia entry.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Recently read the 1992 bio of Murdoch, "Murdoch" by William Shawcross. From p. 151:

"By this time, Murdoch had become a much more controversial figure in Australia- largely because his politics had shifted. In 1972 his papers had supported Gough Whitlam, whose labor party had won the election...In 1975 a constitutional crisis arose when the governor-general dismissed Whitlam and installed his opponent, Malcolm Fraser. There was widespread fury on the left in Australia, and there were allegations of CIA interference against Whitlam. In the subsequent election, the News ltd. took a strong position against Whitlam. Journalists went on strike to protest what they saw as deliberate slanting of the news to hurt Whitlam. The rows seriously damaged the Australian [Murdoch's paper] and its standing in the country Many people never forgave Murdoch and from now on saw him as an American agent"

Another interesting nugget from this early bio is that Murdoch dabble in communism as a young man and even kept a bust of Lenin on his mantle. No joke! Imagine what his news orgs would do with it if Van Jones, Obama, or Clinton ever had don that.

Anonymous said...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Australian_constitutional_crisis

The book Falcon and the Snowman tells the story of Christopher Boyce who worked
for a contractor who fielded teletype messages from sensitive sources. One message, inadvertently sent by CIA sent Boyce on an identity crisis.

the message clearly showed CIA fiddling in the domestic politics of Australia. I wonder if the above link, is a connection to Murdoch.

Semanticleo said...

comment 2 is mine. Had trouble log in.

Semanticleo

Anonymous said...

-> ?? http://alexconstantine.blogspot.com/2007/08/murder-of-theresa-duncan-jim-cownie.html

(->)

Anonymous said...

Murdoch is so filthy rich and so old that what future he still has is more than secure for him and his smarmy son.

To this old CIA watcher, it seems that Murdoch's underlings are willingly (or grudgingly) "taking a hit for the Company," in that all the hullabaloo over News Corp's alleged bribery and hacking, to get at the voice-mail messages of 9/11 and 7/7 victims and survivors (many of whom may never have existed in the first place) is essentially a necessary psyop to freshly reinforce the official legend -- which is starting to seriously unravel.

(You have been following the latest indy research on CIA/Mossad terror-fraud, haven't you?)

The Grassy Knoll Geezer

Semanticleo said...

I followed some strings on the So-called Reagan 'edict' via the Senate wherein Murdochs citizenship was secured.

The National archives is a nightmare. What a datadump. Tried dozens of searches with different keywords.

No hits. I think it's buried in some other legislative business that day in September 1985. But, then i assumed 'edict' to be Executive order and framed search as such to limit the data. I do find the 'coincidental' Executive order in 1987 wherein Reagan ends the FCC;s Fairness Doctrine.

Imagine that,

Kathleen said...

Alas, no links to offer. But I strongly believe what Robert Perry of Consortium News has written - that America is being targeted with psyops, including propaganda -just as it has targeted other countries. These are not disconnected people or enterprises. They are linked. And my intuition has been telling me Murdoch is front man whose organization has outlived its usefulness. Makes me wonder what's next.

Anonymous said...

"Sullivan has defended the former head of the
New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Dick Grasso,
as well as, former U.S. military advisor Oliver North,
a central figure in
Iran-Contra scandal of 1986.
"Sullivan is flanked by Joel Klein,
the former New York school representative,
who recently moved to News Corp. and
whom Murdoch now charged with the internal investigation of the events.
Klein is also a defense lawyer:
He was formerly a White House counsel under Bill Clinton and
in 1998 led to the U.S. monopoly case against Microsoft."
->
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,druck-774557,00.html

My (->) translation

Anonymous said...

http://danielmorganmurderedbythemet.blogspot.com/

Alastair on twitter desperate for justice for his brother Daniel. Dan's mum afraid she will die before Dan can rest in peace...so please lets all start digging.

Anonymous said...

http://themurdochempireanditsnestofvipers.blogspot.com/2011/09/hackgate-america-paul-carlucci-on.html

Paul Carlucci links.

Anonymous said...

Mudochs Secret Defence Meetings

http://themurdochempireanditsnestofvipers.blogspot.com/2011/07/murdochs-were-given-secret-defence.html

Anonymous said...

Ian Hurst gave a good account of the corruption in England and of course Murdoch is in the centre.

Hackgate has revealed Murdoch runs in London a criminal organization where the Goverment, Media and Scotland Yard work as one.

http://themurdochempireanditsnestofvipers.blogspot.com/2011/11/leveson-inquiry-ian-hurst-now-installed.html

Anonymous said...

Australia had no national newspaper. It is somewhat curious that Murdoch established The Australian shortly before the vote for conscription and then it was only 3 months or so until the boys were sent to 'nam. Check the timeline on wikipedia. Coincidence? How long does it take to do a national newspaper?

The book 'Free Agent' by Brian Crozier is worth reading. Although he is sometimes slightly cryptic, the networks do reveal themselves.

The latest: Pressing Blair for the Iraq invasion in 2003. Iraq sold oil to France and Russia for Euros, bypassing USD.

Anonymous said...

Proof there is not, of course the 'networks' are clever enough to leave no proof. Too many coincidences though:

'The Australian' appeared close to legislating conscription for the Vietnam War in Australia. It takes a while to prepare this legislation and just when it comes out into the open there's the first national newspaper, The Australian, to soften up the public.

He's always been extremely well informed where the Achilles heels of his opponents are.

His closeness to the late Brian Crozier is curious. CIA financed Crozier prompted Thatcher how to word her 'policies', and Murdoch's papers supported her. Their common interest was to delete workers' representation (and the unions did not help by abusing their schtick). They all wanted profits in the corporations, not in the working population and of course they have largely succeeded.

Murdoch's financial troubles occurred about 15 months after the collapse of the Berlin Wall. One could conclude, that payments from Langley had been reduced or ceased altogether and therefore his whole calculation became shaky. The young lady who went around the whole world in a private plane to many, many banks where M. had borrowed money in smaller packages, said it was not easy to convince them all to extend the Murdoch loans but she was successful with all of them. It sounded very much like she could rely on a very, very reliable network of information with pressure points. I did not note down the name all those years ago, but I think it could have been Rebekah.

When there are too many coincidences .......