Opus Dei's and Erik Prince's emerging secret army in the Middle East By The Wayne Madsen Report

Opus Dei's and Erik Prince's emerging secret army in the Middle East By The Wayne Madsen Report


Amid nonsensical claims by congressional Republicans, including Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Representatives Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), and John Ratcliffe (R-TX), that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is hosting a "secret society" intent on ousting Donald Trump from the presidency comes word from our Middle East sources that the founder of the infamous Blackwater mercenary firm, Erik Prince, is creating a secret army in the Middle East with strong links to the secret fascist Roman Catholic sect, the Opus Dei. Prince runs a number of private military firms based in the Sheikh Zayed Military City, located outside of Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, and in nearby Dubai, the UAE's financial hub. 

Opus Dei was founded in Spain in 1928 by Catholic priest Josemaria Escriva, canonized in 2002 by Pope John Paul II as a saint. This "patron saint" of fascism was a major supporter of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. Escriva justified countless war crimes committed by Spanish fascist forces in the civil war waged against Spain's Loyalist supporters and international volunteers who came to their assistance. Today, Opus Dei is waging a covert battle against Pope Francis I, the first pontiff from Catholicism's Jesuit order and an opponent of the policies of Trump.

Prince sold Blackwater in 2011 and moved to the UAE where, with the financial backing of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan (MBZ), he established a new network of mercenary entities. These include Reflex Responses (R2) and Frontier Resources Group (FRG). FRG, which is based in Hong Kong, is also involved in energy resources and rare earth mineral exploitation and receiving Chinese investments, along with financial largesse from MBZ. Prince's firms have become influential in the UAE and other Middle Eastern countries due to the fact that his major patron, MBZ, is also the deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, a close friend and ally of Saudi Arabia's emerging strong man, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman al Saud (MBS). 
R2 personnel, many recruits from military units in Colombia, Chile, El Salvador, and South Africa with blemished records of committing human rights abuses, are active in supporting UAE and Saudi forces in Yemen's bloody civil war. R2 has also reportedly hired Baathist military personnel in Iraq, who were once loyal to Saddam Hussein.

Prince is also believed to be instrumental in the creation of a domestic UAE armaments industry, which is not bound by international regimes and domestic laws prohibiting the export of war materiel to countries subject to international sanctions. Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies (ADAT) and Calidus LLC, are reportedly jointly manufacturing UAE versions of the Brazilian B-250 Bader turboprop and the Embraer 312 Tucano, both highly-prized for counter-insurgency operations. Prince's operations in the UAE have also been involved in transforming light aircraft used for agricultural operations into armed surveillance and counter-insurgency aircraft. This has been accomplished by a deal between Prince and LASA Engineering Ltd. of Bulgaria. LASA stands for "Light Armed Surveillance Aircraft." The Trump administration, which has called for the tightening of international sanctions on arms exports to Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, and North Korea, is turning a blind eye to Prince's and the UAE's sanctions-evading operations in Abu Dhabi.

Another Prince firm, Phoenix Aviation Malta Limited, is believed to be involved in Libya's civil war. Its parent, Phoenix Aviation Ltd., based at Wilson Airport in Nairobi, Kenya, is involved in various African civil wars, including those in Somalia and South Sudan. Prince has forged a cooperative agreement with Ivor Ichkowitz, the chairman of South Africa's Paramount Group, a military equipment manufacturer, to market the firm's armored military vehicles in Abu Dhabi in cooperation with the UAE firm, International Golden Group. Ichkowitz is close to the scandal-plagued presidents of South Africa and Kazakhstan, Jacob Zuma and Nursultan Nazarbayev, respectively. Trump recently hosted at the White House Nazarbayev, whose vast interwoven network of offshore companies have funneled suspected embezzled Kazakhstan funds into Trump's own network of shell corporations.

Together with MBZ and MBS, Prince is also helping to carry out the new "strategy" for the Middle East crafted by Trump's son-in-law and Middle East special envoy Jared Kushner and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's government. Kushner has personally hammered out the new strategy during all-night sessions with MBS in Riyadh. Prince has added influence with the Trump administration through his sister, Betsy De Vos, Trump's Secretary of Education. De Vos is a covert from the Dutch Reformed Church to Mormonism. She is the wife of Amway co-founder Dick DeVos. Erik Prince converted from Dutch Reformed to Roman Catholicism at the same time he joined Opus Dei. Prince and Betsy De Vos are both heirs to an automobile parts corporate fortune created by their right-wing industrialist father, Edgard Prince.

Prince was a major supporter of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. On January 11, 2017, a little over a week from Trump's inauguration, Prince and MBZ arranged a clandestine meeting with a Russian government envoy in Seychelles. Prince, representing the Trump transition team, offered Russia a deal that would have seen Russia curtail its support for Syria and Iran in exchange for a lessening of Western sanctions against Russia. The previous month, MBZ met with key Trump transition figures, including Kushner and Stephen Bannon in New York. The Seychelles and Manhattan meetings, as well as the Trump-Kazakhstan connection, are among many issues being investigated by Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his team of prosecutors and FBI agents.

Covert meeting in Seychelles revives memories of a planned CIA "false flag" attack BY THE WAYNE MADSEN REPORT

Covert meeting in Seychelles revives memories of a planned CIA "false flag" attack BY THE WAYNE MADSEN REPORT

A January 11, 2017 covert meeting in the Seychelles has revived memories of an all-but-forgotten Cold War plan by Central Intelligence Agency-linked mercenaries to attack a U.S. military base and blame it on the Soviets. Reportedly, a clandestine meeting was

arranged on or about January 11 by the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi between Blackwater founder Erik Prince, representing the Donald Trump transition team, and a Russian government envoy in Seychelles. Prince currently heads up an Abu Dhabi-based mercenary firm, Reflex Reponses (R2), and a Hong Kong-based company also involved with mercenaries called Frontier Services Group. Prince's companies have been involved in civil wars in Yemen, Libya, South Sudan, Somalia, and Syria.

The January meeting between Prince, the brother of Trump's Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, and the Russian representative was reportedly designed to establish a back channel between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. In addition, the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahayan, was trying to broker a deal with the Trump administration that would see Russia curtail its support for Syria and Iran in exchange for a lessening of Western sanctions against Russia. The Crown Prince reportedly met with key Trump transition figures Jared Kushner and Stephen Bannon in New York in December. 

The Russian government denied the Seychelles meeting took place. The identity of the Russian envoy supposedly involved was never disclosed in press reports. Seychelles Foreign Secretary Barry Faure said he was not surprised that such a meeting could have taken place in his nation, adding, "The Seychelles is the kind of place where you can have a good time away from the eyes of the media." It is also a place from which the U.S. Navy, Air Force, and CIA operate MQ-9 Reaper drones, some armed with Hellfire missiles and satellite-guided bombs, in operations in the Horn of Africa.

The Indian Ocean multi-island nation of Seychelles is certainly no stranger to international intrigue. During the Reagan administration, when CIA director William Casey gave the green light for CIA "off-the-shelf" companies to engage in coup plotting and arms and drug smuggling, there were several aborted attempts to overthrow the Seychelles government of President France Albert Rene. One, in 1981, saw South African-based mercenaries led by the noted British-Irish mercenary Colonel "Mad Mike Hoare" attempt to overthrow Rene. Hoare and his mercenary team were working directly for former Seychelles president James Mancham, who was ousted in a 1977 coup by Rene. Hoare and his team masqueraded as drunken tourists but exposed when a rifle was uncovered by Seychelles Customs personnel at the international airport in Victoria on the main island of Mahe. Operation Anvil ended after fighting broke out at the airport. Several Seychelles security personnel were killed along with one of Hoare's team members. Six South African mercenaries were taken prisoner by the Seychelles government.

Hoare and his team managed to commandeer a recently-arrived Air India plane and directed the pilot to fly them to Durban, South Africa. The 1981 coup attempt was directly linked to the South African intelligence services. 

The coup also involved Kenyan Attorney General Charles Njonjo and Irish-Kenyan national Bill Parkinson, a former Kenyan Special Branch officer and owner of Kenyan-based airlines, some tied to previous CIA and British MI6 operations in Africa. Parkinson was also known to have significant links to South African intelligence.

Parkinson was involved in the 1981 coup plot against Rene and it was one of Parkinson's aircraft that was to fly exiled Seychelles President Mancham and his cabinet back to Seychelles on the day of the planned coup to resume power after Rene's ouster. Parkinson's Sunbird Aviation Beechcraft 200 was to fly a "Mr. Morgan," an American tourist with a U.S. passport, from Mombasa, Kenya to the Seychelles. "Mr. Morgan" was, in fact, Mancham. The U.S. passport was courtesy of the CIA.

The CIA decided that the South Africans were incapable of ousting the pro-Soviet Rene, and opted to stage its own coup in 1983. A 1982 coup involving South Africa and disgruntled Seychelles military personnel, many of whom disliked the North Korean advisers salted througout their ranks, also failed.

The December 1983 coup plan, signed off by Langley, involved coup plotters assassinating President Rene and launching a "false flag" attack on a U.S. Air Force satellite tracking station, near Victoria International Airport atop La Misere (Poverty) Mountain. The blueprint was a duplicate of the scenario that resulted in the U.S. invasion of Grenada two months earlier. A Marxist coup that overthrew the leftist government of Grenada Prime Minister Maurice Bishop saw U.S. troops invade the island nation to "protect" U.S. medical school students on the island. U.S. forces subsequently expelled Cuban and other Soviet bloc and Libyan personnel from Grenada. 

In the case of Seychelles, an attack on the U.S. Air Force facility would result in calls for U.S. military troops to invade and occupy Seychelles, resulting in the expulsion of Soviet, Chinese, North Korean, and East German personnel. According to declassified CIA documents, the scenario in Seychelles would have involved CIA-supported coup plotters potentially killing U.S. Air Force and NASA personnel working at the satellite station. The coup plotters involved two British nationals, a dual British-Zimbabwe citizen, and two French nationals.

In 1983, CIA-backed mercenaries in the Seychelles planned to attack the U.S. Air Force satellite tracking station on Mahe island in a "false flag" attack designed to bring about a U.S. military invasion of the Indian Ocean islands. In the 1960s, there were proposals for the U.S. to buy the Seychelles from Britain and turn the islands into an "Indian Ocean Hawaii."

Today, on the grounds of the satellite station is now found a massive palace built by Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahayan, the Emir of Abu Dhabi and President of the United Arab Emirates. The palace is heavily guarded by Gurkha mercenaries from Nepal.

In 1986, there was another coup attempt against the Rene government. Code named Operation Distant Lash, the revolt involved Seychelles Defense Minister Ogilvy Berlouis, 30 mercenaries, and 350 Seychelles citizens, including military personnel. 

The 1986 plot against Rene involved his assassination upon his return from the Non-Aligned Summit in Harare, Zimbabwe. While in Harare, Rene was tipped off about the coup plot by Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, a summit participant. Gandhi arranged for Rene to be flown back to Seychelles in the Indian Prime Minister's official airplane, "Air India One." In what Indian intelligence dubbed "Operation Flowers are Blooming,” Rene was disguised upon arrival as an Indian woman wearing a traditional sari dress. The coup, like its predecessors, was a failure, as Rene rallied his supporters in the Seychelles capital.

The Seychelles has now drawn the malevolent attention of Prince and his CIA-linked mercenary armies. There is an ironic postscript to the story about the failed Seychelles coups. Before his recent death, Parkinson agreed to sell his Phoenix Aviation Ltd. aircraft company, based at Nairobi's spy-infested Wilson Airport, to Prince's Frontier Services Group. Prince had previously established Phoenix Aviation Malta Limited that is believed to be involved in Libya's civil war.

With Prince's sister Betsy, a Mormon convert and wife of Amway co-founder Dick DeVos, firmly ensconced in Trump's Cabinet and Christian creationist Mike Pompeo in charge of the CIA, Africa should be very wary of "Christian missionary" organizations and their "flying services." In fact, Africa should be doubly-wary of Prince, a convert to the far-right Opus Dei sectarian wing of Roman Catholicism.

SPECIAL REPORT. Scalia's hunting ranch was meeting place for secret society by Wayne Madsen Report

SPECIAL REPORT. Scalia's hunting ranch was meeting place for secret society
The story of the late Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia's last hours spent at the exclusive Cibolo Creek Ranch nestled in the Chinati Mountains, near Marfa, Texas, is as strange as the peculiar treatment his body received after his sudden death during his first night at the 30,000 acre compound. WMR's editor first speculated that there was more going on at ranch with Scalia and 35 other men during the Valentine's Day/President's Day weekend. First, it was a male-only "hunting" Valentine's Day weekend event for some influential married and family-oriented figures, including Scalia. Scalia's "friend" from Washington, who accompanied him from Washington to Houston where they boarded a private jet the Cibolo Creek Ranch airport, was also kept secret.

That was until the most unlikeliest of all sources, the "connected" Washington Post, revealed on February 24 that the hunting event attended by Scalia included a number of officials of the over three-century old International Order of St. Hubertus, founded in 1695 by Count Franz Anton von Sporck of the Kingdom of Bohemia, a vassal state of the Habsburg Empire. Today, the order is presided over by its "Grand Master His Imperial and Royal Highness Istvan von Habsburg Lothringen, Archduke of Austria, Prince of Hungary." The secretive hunting order, which upholds the Latin motto, "Deum Diligite Animalia Diligentes” or “Honoring God by Honoring His Creatures,” claims royal protection under "His Majesty Juan Carlos of Spain, the Grand Master Emeritus His Imperial and Royal Highness Archduke Andreas Salvator of Austria," as well as Istvan von Habsburg Lothringen.

As far as its motto of "honoring God's creatures," King Juan Carlos of Spain ultimately fell from power after hunting scandals. In 2012, the king was photographed in front of an elephant in Botswana, which was shot to death by hunters. In 2006, the king rejected as false a rumor that he shot a bear in Russia that was plied with vodka. As a teenager, Juan Carlos shot and killed his brother Alfonso in an accident in Portugal. The pistol was allegedly given to Alfonso as a gift from General Franco, Spain's dictator. Spanish priest Josémaria Escriva founded the far-right wing Catholic Opus Dei sect, of which Scalia was a member, in 1928, under the patronage of Franco.

The circumstances surrounding Alfonso's death in 1956 remain clouded in mystery. Juan Carlos, a member of the royal House of Bourbon, abdicated the Spanish throne in 2014.


Juan Carlos's reign began to unravel after he was pictured with an elephant, shot to death by hunters in Botswana.

Ranch owner, Houston billionaire businessman John B. Poindexter, has been reticent about revealing the identities of the other 35 guests who stayed at the ranch with Scalia. Nor has Poindexter provided the names of other special guests who have participated in similar gratis functions held about three times a year. Poindexter did reveal that when he discovered Scalia's lifeless body, a pillow was partially covering his face.

It is now known, thanks to the Post article, which normally would be derided by the corporate media as "conspiracy theory" speculation had it appeared in any web-based publication, that Scalia's friend from Washington is C. Allen Foster, a prominent Republican trial lawyer who has argued cases before the Supreme Court. Foster ran as the Republican candidate for Attorney General of North Carolina in 1984.


Scalia attorney friend C. Allen Foster who left the U.S. for a trip to Argentina after Scalia's funeral in DC. Argentina's new right-wing president, Mauricio Macri, is affiliated with the right-wing Catholic sect Opus Dei. Foster is with the law firm of Whiteford Taylor Preston at 1800 M Street, NW Washington. The International Order of St. Hubertus, American chapter uses a UPS rental mailbox, or "suite," at 2100 M Street.

Last year, Poindexter's firm had an age discrimination case before the Supreme Court, which it, Scalia included, decided not to hear, providing a victory for Poindexter, the defendant. Foster could not be reached by the Post because his office said he was traveling in Argentina.


The 2013 investiture in Madrid of the International Order of St. Hubertus. Cibolo Creek Ranch owner John B. Poindexter is in front row. Poindexter is also the leader of the green-caped order's Southwest Priory, consisting of Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Arkansas. The order's Maltese Cross symbol suggests a tie-in with the Catholic Knights of Malta.
St. Hubertus's American chapter began in 1966 under the auspices of San Francisco's elite Bohemian Club, which sponsors an annual Bohemian Grove encampment in a dense forest north of San Francisco. The event has drawn the world's movers and shakers, including David Rockefeller and Henry Kissinger, and was once condemned by President Richard Nixon on White House tapes as "the most faggy Goddamn thing you could ever imagine." The event features male-only nudism as part of male bonding pagan ceremonies.

Poindexter and Foster are prominent members of the St. Hubertus Order as are two other guests from the hunting outing at Cibolo Creek at which Scalia died. The Post identified two private jets that arrived at Cibolo Creek airport from San Antonio just after that carrying Scalia and Foster arrived at noon from Houston. The two other jets, which departed Sunday, February 14, are owned by Wallace "Happy" Rogers III and A.J. Lewis III, both of San Antonio. Both are Republicans, in the restaurant business, and officers of the male-only Order of St. Hubertus.

So far, the description of Scalia's last outing sounds as if it is torn from the pages of a Dan Brown novel. But it gets better. WMR caught site of a number of Mexican "diablo" artifacts at the Cibolo Creek Ranch, which is odd for a Roman Catholic order like St. Hubertus.

    
Amid the Satanic artifacts, a baby's crib [left]. The ranch only has single beds, including made up beds found in the outside passageways [center], except for the king size bed found in Scalia's suite [right], remade after Scalia's death with door locked. Photos: WMR.
Outside of Scalia's room, the "El Presidente" suite, is a wood-burning pit. There was evidence that on the evening that Scalia died, there was a party outside his suite. There was ash still in the pit, some broken glass, and cigar ashes in the ashtray. Scalia was an avid cigar aficionado. Also found was a box of self-striking matches next to the ashtray, which was alleviated by the WMR editor as a "souvenir." Inside the corridor leading to Scalia's room was a statuette that can only be described as satanic in nature. Scalia's dinner, his last meal, was served under a phalanx of devil masks hanging from the ranch's dining room. A painting reproduction outside the dining room evoked memories of the pre-St. Valentine's Day Roman pagan holiday of Lupercalia, celebrated around February 14th and known for drinking and orgies.

 
Fire pit outside of Scalia's suite showed signs of a recent party: broken glass, cigar ashes, cigarette butts, and ash residue in the pit [left]. A box of strike-anywhere matches [right] was found next to the ashtray. Photos: WMR.


Paintings at ranch highly suggestive of Roman pagan Lupercalia festival in mid-February, a pre-Valentine's Day celebration of sex and orgies. Photo: WMR.


Statuette found in passageway not too far from Scalia's room. Photo: WMR

    
The strict Catholic Scalia had these devil masks staring down at him during his last meal in the ranch's dining room. Photos: WMR.

Discrepancy in Presidio Sheriff's report on Scalia By Wayne Madsen Report

 Discrepancy in Presidio Sheriff's report on Scalia By Wayne Madsen Report
On February 23,Presidio County, Texas Sheriff Danny Doinguez released his sheriff's report on the unattended death of Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia. The report contains a major discrepancy on how Scalia's body was transported from the Cibolo Creek Ranch to the Sunset Funeral Home in El Paso, where it was embalmed. Scalia's body was found in his bed at the ranch on the morning of February 13 after he flew by private plane into the ranch's airport, arriving around noon on February 12.

Dominguez noted in his report noted that a pillow partially covered Scalia's eyes but that it “did not seem to have inhibited Scalia’s breathing.” No autopsy was performed on Scalia's body nor did a qualified medical professional conduct an inquest, which is required under Texas state law. Presidio County District Attorney Rod Ponton claimed that there was nothing suspicious about Scalia's death.

News reports stated that the Alpine Funeral Home in Alpine, Texas was notified that a hearse was needed to transport Scalia's body to the Sunset Funeral Home in El Paso for embalming before being flown back to Washington, DC. However, Dominguez's report states that Scalia's body was transported to El Paso by a hearse sent by the Sunset Funeral Home.




Presidio County judge Cinderela Guevara pronounced Scalia dead over a telephone call with Dominguez, who was at the ranch, at 1:52 pm on February 13. Sarah Vasquez, a reporter for theBig Bend Sentinel, the local newspaper with which Dominguez and the county government has a close relationship, wrote in the February 13 issue that "Alpine Memorial Funeral Home was called to scene" of Scalia's death. But the Sheriff's report states that "at approximately 11:30 pm the El Paso Funeral Home arrived at the ranch to retrieve Scalia's body, and return to the funeral home." It adds, "at approximately 12:00 am (midnight) the funeral home departed the premises with Scalia's body," along with U.S. Marshals and Dominguez. The procession of the hearse and the marshals continued to El Paso, a three hour drive, after arriving in Marfa. Texas Department of Public Safety vehicles accompanied the procession to El Paso. The same Big Bend Sentinel report stated, that Scalia's body was to be "flown to a funeral home in El Paso per the family’s request." The Cibolo Creek Ranch airport can accommodate Gulfstream and Lear jets. If Scalia's body was to be flown anywhere, it could just have easily been flown back to Washington, DC directly from the ranch's airport.

WFAA/Associated Press reported on February 14 that "a funeral home in neighboring Alpine was called to come collect the justice’s remains, which were then transported to El Paso." It is noteworthy that Marfa, which is closer to the ranch than Alpine, also has a funeral home that could have accommodated the needs of the Scalia family, yet it was not used.

The San Antonio Express-News carried a photograph of the Alpine Funeral Home Cadillac hearse leaving the Cibolo Creek Ranch at around 5:00 pm on February 13. The photograph is clearly taken during daylight hours. However, the Sheriff's report states that the El Paso Funeral Home hearse left around midnight on the 13th. Media reports had the hearse arriving at the El Paso funeral home around 2:30 am on February 13th. Why the discrepancy? The Los Angeles Timeslater reported that George Van Etten, the ranch's property manager who works for owner John B. Poindexter, decided to use the Alpine Funeral Home hearse as a decoy to confuse the press. But why would Scalia's body be kept at the ranch for over six hours in order to confuse the press? Only the San Antonio Express-News had a crew outside the ranch's main gate. And why the cloak-and-dagger involved in transporting Scalia's body to El Paso if he died of a heart attack from natural causes?


Alpine Funeral Home hearse leaving Cibolo Creek Ranch at 5:00 pm on February 13. This hearse reportedly did not contain Scalia's body.

The Sheriff's report also identifies, for the first time, the close friend who traveled with Scalia from Washington to the ranch. His name is Allen Foster. Scalia has a friend in Washington named C. Allen Foster, a noted trial lawyer who has argued cases before the Supreme Court.