Winter Patriot Community Blog

Retired US Colonel James Steele

After establishing that the Iraqi Government had no chemical weapons as either left-overs from the Iran Iraq war (which the US military had supplied) or from their own manufacture in the intervening years, the US military invaded the sovereign territory of Iraq.

The US had no business being in Iraq and knew full well that their exceedingly thin excuse for the attack and occupation searching for “Weapons Of Mass Destruction” would evaporate back into the smoke from which it came in the first place. So they needed a replacement excuse to remain in occupation. The US found this excuse by fabricating a civil war within Iraq and then claiming they had to stay to 'bring peace' to the country.

All the while, though, they were stoking the chaos, of course.
The CIA and their progenitors, the British SIS, are past masters at this game of internecine chaos.

Enter James Steele. Steele, as you will hear from the documentary (linked at the foot of this article) is a veteran of the chaos of Vietnam and, more particularly, the bloody civil wars of terror in Central America. Steele learned his trade directly from a Son of Darkness, the curiously named US Ambassador, John Negroponte.

The minority Sunni population, who had controlled the Iraqi military, had already been betrayed by the US having been promised to be left in place during the occupation if they (the Iraqi [Sunni] military) did not resist the incoming invasion. They did not resist and the US promptly disbanded the Iraqi military!

The CIA and Mossad arranged false flag attacks on the (heavily armed) Sunni population. The Sunnis (many now ex-military) returned the attacks but aimed them, as intended, at the Shia population. The Shia population was offered training and weapons as you will see in the documentary (link below) and the rest is history, as they say.

Torture became 'de rigueur' and was intended to intimidate (passivity which invites more violence) and/or outrage and retaliation (which provokes escalating violence). Torture programs are mass behaviour modification programs. They are not about obtaining information.

Though Pompeo asserts that the CIA's actions "have kept us safe since 9/11," the Senate torture report shows no evidence that any useable information was extracted through torture.

But, torture programs (programmes) are great for starting wars and civil wars.

Well done, Colonel. (Too easy, isn't it?!)

. . . . . . . . .

(originally posted Apr 5th 2013. The following is a repost of an article originally written and posted here at Winter Patriot on Apr 5th 2013. It is presented here as background for following articles on the present day situation and likely near future in Iraq, Iran and the pivotal role played by oil and banking in the centuries long game to control the world.)

Below is a link to a BBC film about retired Colonel James Steele who was employed by the US to foment civil war in Iraq after the invasion in 2003. Colonel Steele is a veteran of the bloody terror campaigns in Central America. No doubt, it was that experience in bringing terror and destruction upon whole civilian populations that made him the candidate of choice for a similar program in Iraq.

The Americans, of course, would have had a very difficult time in occupying and remaining in Iraq if the Iraqi factions were united against them. Hence the need for what amounted to civil war. It's an old strategy. English governments at the behest of their masters, the merchant bankers, have used it for centuries to further their commercial interests. Nothing changes. 'Divide and conquer' goes back to at least the Romans.

The film is remarkably candid. So what is the BBC doing backing the making of it?

Well, it is more about what is not in the film. There is no mention of the benefits for Israel of this invasion and the subsequent destruction of civil life in Iraq. There is no mention of the israeli assassination squads that roamed Iraq murdering doctors, academics and other middle class professionals together with any capable local leaders.

So the fact is that this mayhem is entirely deliberate and all the consequences were planned. Against this larger scenario, it could be reasonably said that the film amounts to a 'limited hangout'

It could be argued that the film crew were focussing on one character, James Steele, and that was the point of the film. All true and reasonable. A film cannot be about everything. However, there is one point that pervades the film that is obviously there but the salient truth about it is not. And that is torture.

The perpetrators are interviewed, one in particular. The torture is justified on the usual, 'we needed the information and the situation was desperate', type of thing. But I cannot believe that anyone seriously researching this topic, (which would have been done for the film) would not have come across the widely known truth in military and intelligence circles that 'truth' is more often than not, the last thing you hear from those who are tortured. They want, above all, to stop the pain and terror. So the victims will say whatever they think the torturers want to hear; whatever will fit with torturers' psychotic view of the situation.

So what do the torturers want if it is not the truth? They want to terrorise the whole community into cowering submission or violent reprisals which escalates the violence and helps those intent on destruction. This is why mutilated bodies are dumped in public places for everyone to see.

That information should have been central to the film and its absence is inexcusable. The result is that it misrepresents the uses and purposes of torture and so goes some way towards legitimising it.

The purpose of torture is to destroy the victim and the society that the victim is connected to and part of. How many times does this destruction have to play out wherever the US (and now NATO) go before the world recognises that this is the primary objective? "By their deeds, you shall know them"

So we start to see why the BBC might finance this film and why the Guardian publicises it. Both media organisations are often cited as being under banker control who also control the direction of US and NATO forces. We have yet again the 'scapegoat ritual' whereby we have two goats; a sacrificial goat, Iraq, to be ceremonially sacrificed and a scapegoat, the US administration and military, to carry the blame for the ritual bloodshed.

At first it was the Sunnis and Shia militants and civilians who were both sacrificial and scapegoats. Now, through this lens, we see that the Sunnis and Shia militants as largely (though not blameless) victims and the US military (hardly blameless, either) as the perps and scapegoats all orchestrated by the High Priests.

Will the camera pan out far enough to take in the involvement of the israelis and their masters, the bankers, behind the scenes? Somehow, I think not.

This scapegoating reminds me of the Palestinian camp massacres (Shabra and Shatila) of the defenceless Palestinians by the Maronite Christian forces (sacrificial goat and scapegoat) in Lebanon and, again, all orchestrated by israel.

However, after criticising the film, it is well worth watching from the point of view of what is there while being mindful of what is not there. It shows well the psychopathy that surrounds war and violence. It shows that psychopaths are so far away from the consciousness of ordinary human beings. It shows evil talking and almost sounding reasonable.

You can watch it at youtube - Iraq's sectarian war | James Steele: America's mystery man

Or at The Guardian (but you'll get an advertisement first).

There is also a link on the Guardian page to a short 5minute edited version

On Monday 6th Jan 2020 at 8pm local time, the Iraqi Government received a letter from William H Seely III, Commanding General US Marine Corps, informing them that the American military would be withdrawing from Iraq and that the government should expect to witness increased flights in and out of the International Zone (IZ).
The Letter
Also see here

This increased air activity at night was nothing to worry about as it was being undertaken to “alleviate any perception that we may be bringing more Coalition Forces to the IZ (International Zone)”.

When the letter became public, the military first denied its authenticity and then claimed it was an unsigned draft that had been sent out prematurely. This last excuse had some surface plausibility because the contents were extremely odd. Here is a military commander saying they will be withdrawing because the Iraqi Parliament voted on them leaving. So they were going to leave because, "We respect your sovereign decision to order our departure"! What's wrong with that picture?

Much of the international press got it wrong. Here is an example of that misunderstanding complete with an amusing cartoon-
Daft Draft

The leaked letter was unsigned but the acting Iraqi Prime Minister, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, confirmed that he had actually received this letter and that his copy, complete with Arabic translation was signed and there were in fact two versions of it – the second one had an amended Arabic translation on the reverse side.
https://www.france24.com/en/20200107-iraq-pm-abdel-mahdi-says-he-receive...

So the US military are lying about the letter being first a fraud, then the letter being a draft and never being intended to be sent. Should we be surprised at the lies when we know that General William H Seely III is in charge of Marine Intelligence? What do we know about all intelligence agencies? They Lie. Lies are their 'stock in trade'. That's what they do. Its not called Psychological Warfare (Psy-Ops) for nothing.

So what's going on? Here is what I think William of Ockham would say about it.

'The Letter' was sent as designed and received by the Iraqi Prime Minister as intended and its purpose was to deceive the Iraqi government into thinking that troops were leaving the International Zone at night when in fact, under the cover of darkness, more troops were being brought into the IZ.

After all, if you want to avoid the perception that troops might be coming in when in fact they were going out, wouldn't it be better to do that in daylight? Clearly, Seely III's intention was to deceive and that was the purpose of the letter.

What General William H Seely III didn't count on was someone in his command taking a picture of it (before it has been signed) and releasing it on the net. He also didn't calculate on the Iraqi PM confirming its existence when asked. Seely III would have had a reasonable expectation that it all would be confidential as the Iraqi PM admitted that multiple threats of extra-judicial killings had been threatened over the years and had even been carried out and all without the public being any the wiser. (Folks, you need to read that last link!) Here is an example from it -

"Later on, when the Iraqi Minister of Defense publicly said that a third side was targeting both protesters and security forces alike, Abdul-Mahdi allegedly received a new call from Trump who threatened to kill both him and the Minister of Defense if they kept talking about this "third side".

That, along with much else in the Middle East has changed now courtesy of the US/Israel extra-judicial killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.

Well done, chaps!

POSTSCRIPT

Here is a very important article written by Frederico Pieraccini that directly quotes Iraqi acting Prime Minister, Adel Abdul-Mahdi addressing the Iraqi parliament regarding Trumps threats of violence -

The Deeper Story Behind the Assassination of Soleimani

Like a wounded Leviathan, the US and its military is thrashing around causing as much damage as it can with no thought of its impending death except that, “It has to do something . . . . NOW”.

The Leviathan hopes to entangle Iran in its death throws, but Iran will do what it has done for the last twenty years. It will step back, do the minimum it needs to do to defend itself from the US, attack and defeat the US proxies and otherwise give the US the room it demands to undo itself.

You can't go against the Laws of Nature, the Law of Non-aggression, forever and hope to survive. Empires exist solely through coercion and they fall when the coercion no longer works. The corruption promotes incompetence from within and fear of the coerced without is replaced with a determination to end the violence. That moment has come for the US in the Middle East.

The killing of General Qassem Soleimani is the lightning rod for that determination. The days of the US occupation of the Middle East are surely numbered.

The war hawks behind the decision to kill Soleimani and Iraqi government militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis are blatantly attempting to incite a war with Iran and cower the Iraqi government.

The fact that these men were Iraqi and Iranian government officials and were murdered while engaged in official, publicly scheduled, business on Iraqi sovereign territory in broad daylight is outrageous. The significance of this unprecedented arrogance of the US government will not be lost on the governments of many countries around the world, least of all Russia and China.

Now that fear of the US is waning along with its declining image of omnipotence and mental competence, the US is hoping to replace that fear in the hearts of Iraqi's with anger - anger that will cause them to do something stupid. What the US does not want, but what it is going to get, is a cold, calculating determination to be rid of them for good.

That determination is going to be led by the Iranian government through the Quds Force, through the Iraqi government, through the Iraqi military including the PMU's (Popular Mobilization Units).

It is unlikely that the Iraqi Prime Minister (or acting Prime Minister) will formally order the US military Forces to leave Iraq. That would be signing his own death warrant. But what we will certainly see is all effective co-operation with the US Forces cease. The US will be increasingly isolated within Iraq and increasingly the soldiers will be effectively confined to base.

We can expect the Iraqi government factions to pull together with Iran's Qud Forces and unite against the occupying US forces.

Next, the Iraqi military (including the PMU's) will go after the Kurds, Turkmen and any Sunni's or one else tempted to continue to co-operated with the US military.

This will remove the US's proxies and force them to do their own dirty work on the ground. This means increasingly exposing themselves outside of their bases and increasingly becoming targets.

They will have to get used to being stopped and harassed at checkpoints and their mobility generally being hampered – not to mention shot at. Everyone has a gun in Iraq.

Next, further constraints will be imposed through US Air Force jets and helicopters coming under ground fire when taking off and landing.

With ground patrols severely limited and Iraqi government and military co-operation withdrawn, these hit and run attacks against US aircraft will become far more viable and effective.

Russia will provide Iran with more intelligence and weapons, such as the S400 missile defence system, to defend itself from attack.

China will step up infrastructure building and finance with Iran to further integrate it with the One Belt One Road transcontinental transport and trade system and thus alleviate the economic situation for Iranians.

Within a few months, US will become increasingly isolated internationally and the US bases within the US and Syria will cease to be fortresses and quickly become prisons.

And the morons behind the US's aggressive decisions will be left to wonder just what went wrong.

The previous instalment in this series, The Cover-Up" can be read here
For those wishing to read the series from the beginning, you can go to The Maria James Murder: the curious case of the still unsolved murder that has been solved

The “who” of who murdered Maria James has been answered together with how and why. It is fairly straight forward once the nature of the priests involved has been faced squarely and some logic is brought to bear on the evidence that is now in the public sphere.

The reason it has taken 37 years to solve this case, a police cover-up, is also straight forward once it is known that Maria was murdered by two Catholic priests and that a section of Victoria Police known as 'The Catholic Mafia' existed (and still exists) to cover-up, in collusion with the Church hierarchy, the many serious crimes of the Catholic clergy.

The nonsense spouted by police spokesmen at recent press conferences in 2017, the leads not followed, the known lies accepted (such as Bongiorno's alibi), bogus police reports (Operation Plangere) and the many obvious questions not asked, all confirm the cover-up by Victoria Police.

But there still remain some puzzling aspects to the case. One of the most puzzling is the failure of the media to ask some obvious questions regarding the friend of the James family who alerted Mark James to the possibility that Adam James had been 'touched' by Anthony Bongiorno.

Two obvious questions are-
“How did she know that this molestation of Adam James by Bongiorno might have happened?”

"How did she know it was Adam James and not Mark James who had been molested?"

She was talking to Mark yet failed to put the question to him. This failure to ask Mark if he had been molested, too, clearly indicates specific knowledge on the part of the 'Family Friend' regarding Adam's molestation. How else do you explain it?

Was this family friend interviewed by the ABC?

The ABC in a television report in 2014 did not ask these questions nor follow them up when the subject arose in an interview with Mark James.
Nor was this question asked when this family friend went to the media years earlier in 2007.

In view of the police cover-up, we can guess as to why the police apparently did not follow up on her testimony.

In the few days between when Adam James informed his mother about Bongiorno molesting him and the day she died, Maria will have talked to someone about this. She obviously did not talk to her ex-husband about it so it is reasonable to speculate that Maria talked to this family friend who finally suggested to Mark James in 2013 that he ask Adam about being 'touched' by Bongiorno. No one else has come forward saying they spoke with Maria about Adam's molestation by Bongiorno. If this speculation is correct, then the family friend has quite a valuable story to tell. But no one wants to hear it, it seems.

The Maria James Murder – The Cover-Up.

The previous instalment in this series, The Catholic Mafia" can be viewed by clicking on this live link.

Maria James' Bookshop circa 1980


Source

It is often the case in history that the crime that brings an institution down is not the original transgression but the subsequent cover-up. The initial crime is often perpetrated by one or more individual members of an organisation but the cover-up, usually rushed and ad hoc, exposes the whole hierarchy as complicit in criminal activity.

Over the last twenty or so years, we have been watching the ongoing exposure of the cover-ups engaged in by that slow-motion-train-wreck otherwise known as the Catholic Church. The Church's co-conspirator organisation in what has become known as The Catholic Mafia, Victoria Police, is now undergoing its own not-so-slow-motion-train-wreck.

The Maria James murder has remained unsolved for nearly 38 years now because of police cover-ups on at least three occasions starting in 1980, then again in 1998 and finally in 2017. It might be argued that all the evidence pointing to multiple cover-ups could be due to incompetence but the incompetence would be so spectacular and so consistent that the odds of it being so approach impossibility.

We will cover only some of the peculiar events and failures that point to a massive cover-up . There are so many things wrong with this investigation that it would take a book to list and explain them all.

We will also briefly look at what the point of all this cover up is: the clear and obvious guilt of two Melbourne Catholic priests of murder.

All the following information comes from the Trace podcasts except in a couple of instances where links are given. It is presumed that the reader has listened to the podcast series and has read the previous instalments of the Maria James Murder on this blog. (Start here)

The ABC's Rachael Brown has done an excellent job of digging up and bringing together a lot of valuable information. The opinions and conclusions from that now publicly available information in the following article are those of this writer.

1980 - Murder Investigation 101

John James arrived at Maria's shop minutes after she had been murdered and called the police. The homicide squad duly arrived and one of the first things that happened is that Sen-Sgt Rowland Legg took himself off to interview the assistant parish priest, Anthony Bongiorno, at the presbytery around the corner from the shop.

This is the strangest thing. No explanation for this has ever been offered except that Legg thought that the priest might know something about the murder from a confession from Maria or another parishioner. But that does not explain why it was the first thing Rowland Legg thought to do. Did he know Maria was a Catholic? You might think to do that days or weeks after if you have no leads but to seek out a priest straight away, as the Trace program remarked on, is very odd indeed.

It is especially odd when you understand that Legg only sought to interview one of the two priests resident in St Mary's Presbytery who ministered to the Thornbury Parish.

The previous instalment in this series, "Paul Delianis - The Golden Greek", can be read here

THE CATHOLIC MAFIA - The Honourable Society (with apologies to 'Ndrangheta)

The "Catholic Mafia" were/are a co-ordinated group of police officers who are organised around the principle of protecting Catholic priests from criminal charges and prosecution of their criminal behaviour. This behaviour ranges from traffic violations to the raping of children and, as we will see in further episodes, the murder of a Melbourne mother.

What is clear is that the Catholic Church leadership has for decades controlled the Victorian police force when it suits their purposes. The evidence for this is laid out in the following article.

THE POLICE

Denis Ryan was a detective at Mildura in Victoria in 1972 when he was forced through circumstances contrived by Victoria Police leadership to resign. He had the temerity to want to charge and prosecute serial child rapist, Monsignor John Day, Catholic parish priest for Mildura, for his many offences over many years.

Ryan first came across Day when he was a Constable at St Kilda, a suburb of Melbourne known widely as the 'red light district' of Melbourne. Day was found in his car in the company of two prostitutes with his pants around his ankles and paralytic drunk. Constable Ryan took Day to the police station and was shocked when he was not charged and was instead released into the company of two young priests who came from the Cathedral after Day managed to make a call to the Cathedral for help. Ryan thought that priests should be held to a higher standard rather than a lower one.

Later that evening, when Ryan approached the senior officer in charge, Tom Jenkins, saying, “Tell me, what's the drill when we lock up priests?”
Tom replied somewhat chillingly, “We don't lock them up. We let them go. Once you've been around for a while, you'll start to learn that the Catholic Church carries a good deal more clout than the local church on the corner.
It's a political organisation. It has wrapped itself around every layer of government. This happens everywhere. All across Australia and probably all over the world. But nowhere does the Catholic Church have more power than it does in the Victorian police force. Short of a murder blue, he'll walk every time.
Nothing would happen to Day. This goes all the way to the top. It's just not the police. It's the judges, lawyers, politicians. I don't agree with it but there are forces at work here that are stronger than you or me. I learnt early on in the job, don't pick fights you can't win.”
http://casefilepodcast.com/case-34-catholic-mafia/ (05:50min)

This is in 1956. Welcome to the Catholic Mafia, a group within Victoria Police that would keep the priests immune from being charged for any crime. The priests had carte blanche.

The next time Denis Ryan would knowingly come into contact with the Catholic Mafia was after he had became a detective in 1958. Det Sgt Fred Russell approached him to join their ranks saying, “There is a group of us who at the request of the Cathedral look into instances where priests have been charged with offences to see if we can have these matters dropped or dismissed so the church's good name will not be brought into disrepute. We know your strong belief. We'd like to invite you to join us.”
A group of police keeping a look out for and protecting priests; the Catholic Mafia.
http://casefilepodcast.com/case-34-catholic-mafia/ (08:30min)
Ryan declined to join.