Posted on 05/06/2002 6:20:04 PM PDT by Ivan the Terrible
The author began compiling this article only one day after a new airline terrorist attempt: An American Airlines aircraft narrowly avoided an attack by a person with a brand new British passport.
What was UK Prime Minister Tony Blair doing at that moment? He was holding talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on upgrading UK-Russian relations, particularly on closer cooperation between the FSB (Russia's Federal Security Service, one of the two KGB successor services, along with the SVR, or Foreign Intelligence Service) and British special services.
Mr. Blair probably didn't read an article published by the author on NewsMax Dec. 20, which directly pointed to the Kremlin and Russian intelligence community as major participants in preparations for the "9-11 attacks."
1. What's Going On In and Around the Kremlin?
Now, about the Russian intelligence community and its core, the FSB/KGB. During most of December 2001, major Russian papers — or at least those not entirely controlled by the Kremlin (Nezavisimaya gazeta, Sovershenno sekretno, Versiya, etc.) — published several articles about vicious infighting at the top level of the Russian power pyramid.
Most of these reports characterize this struggle as an offensive by "Putin's St. Petersburg team" against the remnants of the "Family [i.e., former President Boris Yeltsin's] team" in the Kremlin and the Russian government.
One or two of the most insightful among these reports, however, came to the correct conclusion that we are observing the process of the FSB/KGB finally taking power in Russia.
Let's look at the group of "almighty ghosts" (to use the term in Nezavisimaya gazeta) closely surrounding Putin — the very group that is now effectively running Russia:
1. Nikolai Patrushev, FSB director: 50, 27-year KGB/FSB veteran who has spent most of his life and career in Leningrad/St. Petersburg. Patrushev, who is very closely tied to Putin, became FSB Director in August 1999, immediately upon Putin's promotion from FSB Director to Prime Minister of Russia.
2. Yuriy Zaostrovtsev, FSB Deputy Director: 45, a 20-year KGB/FSB veteran (with some hiatuses) who has spent most of his career in Leningrad/St. Petersburg. Zaostrovtsev, very closely tied to Putin and Patrushev, is concurrently chief of the FSB's Economic Counter-Intelligence Department and was in charge of a successful operation against former oligarch Vladimir Gusinsky and his media-holding MOST. Zaostrovtsev also has close ties to the "Siberian Aluminum" industrial-financial group.
According to a private investigation by Nezavisimaya gazeta, Zaostrovtsev receives a monthly income of several hundred thousand dollars from the suburban-Moscow-based "Solntsevo" organized crime group — possibly the most influential such group in Russia — as well as from several Solntsevo-controlled companies that import furniture and other consumer goods.
Most important, Zaostrovtsev is said to be in "supreme charge" of exports of Russian arms and arms-related technologies.
3. Igor Sechin, Putin's chief secretary and deputy chief of the Kremlin administration: 41, a 15-year KGB/FSB veteran (with some hiatuses) extremely closely tied to Putin since 1991. Sechin controls access to President Putin.
4. Viktor Ivanov, deputy chief of the Kremlin administration in charge of personnel (both in the Kremlin and the Russian government): 51, worked in the FSB/KGB system from 1977 to 2000; very closely tied to Putin.
5. Sergei Pugachov, president of Mezhprombank Bank: 38, closely tied to Putin since 1990. "Model Orthodox banker" Pugachov is the chief banker of the "almighty ghosts" group and the middleman between them and the top bishops and archbishops of the Russian Orthodox Church. Pugachov, who lives permanently in Southern France but has great influence over the Russian economy, intends to establish control over the fabulously rich natural resources of the Sakha-Yakutia Republic in Russia's far Northeast.
Some other prominent figures, closely tied to the FSB/KGB by career or unofficial cooperation, are directly subordinate to the "almighty ghosts" and obediently fulfill all their orders. These figures include:
- Minister of the Interior (chief of police) Boris Gryzlov;
- Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov;
- General Prosecutor Vladimir Ustinov;
- Chief of the Audit Chamber Sergei Stepashin, who was prime minister of Russia in May-July 1999.
The major enemies of the "almighty ghosts" and their top subordinates in the second half of 2001 include the following top-ranking officials:
- Minister of Communications (chief of the Russian railways) Nikolai Aksyonenko;
- Secretary of the Security Council Vladimir Rushailo;
- Minister of Emergency Situations Sergei Shoigu;
- Chief of the Customs Service Mikhail Vanin;
- Minister of Mass Media Mikhail Lesin;
- Minister of Finances Alexei Kudrin;
- President of the UES (Russia's power supply system) Anatoly Chubais; and
- Chief of the Kremlin administration Alexander Voloshin.
All these people are, to put it mildly, no angels, but they have no close ties to the FSB/KGB system. The "almighty ghosts" and their associates intend to topple these people and to replace each of them with obedient "gebists" (the popular nickname for FSB/KGB officers in Russia and elsewhere in the former Soviet Union).
This would give the "ghosts" control over financial flows measured in tens of billions of dollars annually and would make them the unopposed rulers of Russia.
2. A Little Bit of Ancient Cosmology
In autumn 1997, the Republican-controlled Foreign Affairs Commission of the House of Representatives published a report — the first such report — detailing the real structure and major features of the present Russian power system. The report stressed that Russia's "political-economic elite" is composed of three major components:
1. "Full-time criminals," such as the aforementioned Solntsevo group;
2. Corrupt and criminalized officials; and
3. Criminalized businessmen, controlling almost all of the large and medium-sized enterprises in Russia.
According to ancient cosmology, three whales supporting the universe are, in their turn, standing on a great turtle. Now, at the end of 2001, we finally can observe this turtle — perfectly disguised for about a decade — holding up the three whales of New Russia. Yes, the turtle is the FSB/KGB.
The triply-accursed KGB is back, mighty as never before and ruling supreme in Russia, with the aid of criminal groups of all sorts. So much for Russian democracy, Russian market economy, and Russia's "difficult but glorious path to capitalism."
The VChK, a predecessor of the KGB, was founded on Dec. 20, 1917. Until recently, this was a kind of professional holiday, especially during 1991-98. Now, however, Russian President Vladimir Putin has made it a national holiday, equal to the Soviet/Russian "Army Day" on Feb. 23. Does anybody need better proof that that the FSB/KGB is ruling supreme in Russia?
Speaking at the Kremlin's Palace of Congresses on Dec. 20, 2001, during a ceremony commemorating Security Services Day, Putin told a group of Russian intelligence officers and KGB veterans: "Your most crucial task today is to protect the country's economy against foreign industrial espionage. Another vital role of the Russian services is combating terrorism. You must sustain the trust of your compatriots by protecting their civil rights freedoms."
Ridiculous and disgusting!
By the way, in the former Soviet Union (FSU) of 1953-91, the KGB was generally restrained by the Communist Party, the Red Army and the Interior Ministry (police). Soviet leaders could not forget the terrible purges of the 1930s and early 1950s, carried out mainly by the MGB, another KGB predecessor.
Now, however, nobody and nothing limits the FSB/KGB, at least inside Russia and Belarus.
Some uninformed person might ask: "Maybe FSB/KGB rule is necessary in present-day Russia? Maybe the FSB/KGB can clean up crime, end the chaos, and provide an environment for sustainable development?"
Let's look again at the results of the Nezavisimaya gazeta investigation, generally supported by data in other newspapers and magazines, mentioned in Part 1 of this article.
When Boris Gryzlov became interior minister about a year ago, he initiated a campaign of "struggle against corruption inside the police system." During this campaign, the Interior Ministry fired over 20,000 officers, most of whom were engaged in a direct struggle with organized crime. The Russian mafia could not have received a better gift!
The "almighty ghosts" have a lot of compromising material on every Russian businessman of middle rank or higher ("The KGB knows everything," as they used to say in the FSU). Instead of using this information for legal purposes, however, the "ghosts" have transformed it into a huge source of income.
The "ghosts" regularly milk their clients: "These several hundred thousand [or maybe even several million] dollars will be used for the new election campaign of President Putin, who will directly help your business!" Among these clients are the leading Russian organized crime groups – some of them, such as the aforementioned "Solntsevo" group, making fast, big bucks on the international black market for arms.
In modern society, no "supreme rule" is guaranteed without absolute control over the mass media. The Kremlin, i.e. the "ghosts," controls five of the six Russian national TV channels. The sixth one, TV-6, will evidently be silenced before long.
As for newspapers, not more than 10 percent of the people in impoverished Russia read them, and the circulation of the "serious" periodicals mentioned in Part 1 is not greater than 50,000 copies. Also, note that in Nazi Germany some remnants of the free press managed to survive up to 1935-36.
There are many other similarities between Germany after 1933 and Russia after 1999. During the last few weeks alone, several people, including Islamic Committee party head Geidar Dzhemal and media mogul Boris Berezovsky, have once more accused the Kremlin and FSB of blowing up apartment houses in Moscow in September 1999, an act that parallels the deliberate burning of Germany's Reichstag on Feb. 28, 1933, by Adolf Hitler's supporters.
Finally, it would be senseless to make a distinction between the "almighty ghosts" and Putin. The "ghosts" are merely his "fingers."
3. Inspirers of International Terrorism
It is truly ironic that Russia – controlled by the FSB/KGB, a terrorist organization in essence – has become an active participant in the global war on terrorism. Moreover, this KGB-based regime is, by definition, antagonistic toward Western democratic nations, headed by the U.S.
And Moscow understands this perfectly. It should be no surprise that Russia is eager to cooperate with – and profit from the actions of – any rogue regime or terrorist movement fighting with America and the West.
On Dec. 26, Putin proudly announced that in 2001 Russian arms exports increased by 20 percent, to a level of $4.4 billion. The real export value, if nuclear and missile technologies and some other sensitive items are included, is much greater. Most of these exports went to China and Iran.
Now it is clear (as indicated in the author's article published at NewsMax on Dec. 20) that the "9-11" attacks were, in effect, planned and carried out by a "joint-stock enterprise," uniting a real batch of unholy forces:
- Al-Qaeda, based in Afghanistan but having branches in dozens of other countries, provided a suicide squad and most of the financing, and probably recruited – from some former secret service in Eastern Europe (East Germany or Czechoslovakia?) – a group of experts in terrorist actions to guide the entire operation and solve its most difficult planning problems.
- Cuba, which has hundreds of qualified agents in the U.S., provided the suicide squad with much useful information, particularly in regard to U.S. civilian airline routes and schedules.
- Russia's Lourdes spy center in Cuba shared sets of U.S. civilian airline secret flight codes with Cuban intelligence and eventually with Mohammed Atta and his suicide squad. And who provided the terrorists with the secret data needed to effectively penetrate Pentagon defenses? In the author's opinion, only Russian intelligence could have such information.
- Iran and Iraq obviously contributed to the Sept. 11 attacks in the form of money, information and trained personnel.
During the past four months, the author has accumulated some documents relating to the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes, and is ready to confirm the above accusations.
What is most essential in this case? Al-Qaeda, Cuba, Iran and Iraq are the open enemies, who have engaged in a struggle against America for many years. But Russia is the only one among the aforementioned "unholy forces" having official relations with the U.S. Some Washington officials are even inclined to consider Moscow a "friend and ally."
How many more harsh lessons and scandalous facts are necessary to see the truth in this matter? Remember, a false friend is more dangerous than a dozen open enemies lumped together.
In any case, the situation remains tense. The latest terrorist attempt shows that the international terrorist community and its nation sponsors are not scared by recent events in Afghanistan; to the contrary, now they want to "get even." New operations by ""sleeper cells" of al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations are probably being planned.
Right now, Russia is "lying low." In the author's opinion, the reasons are as follows:
1. The "9-11" attacks did not result in "the fall of America and the dollar"; to the contrary, the U.S. is stronger than ever before, the dollar is flying high, and the price of oil – Russia's major export – has fallen to a critical level.
2. Putin & Co. understand that, at any moment, they could be formally charged in regard to the attacks. This fact (along with Russia's financial dependence on the West) explains the Kremlin's comparatively mild reaction to U.S. withdrawal from the ABM Treaty, as well as to U.S. preparations to topple Saddam's regime. As they say in Russia, "The cat knows whose meat she stole." But for how long?
One of the most sensitive points: Russian secret services – mainly the FSB – have hundreds or even thousands of agents of all kinds in the U.S. and Canada. At some moment – say, just before a U.S. attack on Saddam's regime – these agents could be activated and cause incalculable harm and losses.
As shown above, the "ghosts" and the FSB have enormous assets at their disposal and have no special problems in financing their foreign affiliates and supplying them with dangerous weapons of all kinds.
Swift measures against the "Kremlin-FSB underground" in the U.S. are urgently needed. Nobody knows how many days are left before "Day X."
This paragraph makes me skeptical of the whole article. The 9-11 hijackers did not need "secret flight codes". And nothing at all was needed "to penetrate Pentagon defenses." There are none! At any time, a jet going to/from Washington National could turn and hit the building within minutes.
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