Mel Elorche- on "Writer With No Hands" (New 11/22/24)

Operations Corrupt America and the World Douglas Valentine Author of three books on CIA operations, Valentine’s research into CIA activities began when CIA Director William Colby gave him free access to interview CIA officials who had been involved in various aspects of the Phoenix program in South Vietnam. It was a permission Colby was to regret. The CIA would rescind it, making every effort to impede publication of The Phoenix Program, which documented the CIA’s elaborate system of population surveillance, control, entrapment, imprisonment, torture and assassination in Vietnam.While researching Phoenix, Valentine learned that the CIA allowed opium and heroin to flow from its secret bases in Laos, to generals and politicians on its payroll in South Vietnam. His investigations into this illegal activity focused on the CIA’s relationship with the federal drugs agencies mandated by Congress to stop illegal drugs from entering the United States. Based on interviews with senior officials, Valentine wrote two subsequent books, The Strength of the Wolf and The Strength of the Pack, showing how the CIA infiltrated federal drug law enforcement agencies and commandeered their executive management, intelligence and foreign operations staffs in order to ensure that the flow of drugs continues unimpeded to traffickers and foreign officials in its employ.Ultimately, portions of his research materials would be archived at the National Security Archive, Texas Tech University’s Vietnam Center, and John Jay College.This book includes excerpts from the above titles along with subsequent articles and transcripts of interviews on a range of current topics, with a view to shedding light on the systemic dimensions of the CIA’s ongoing illegal and extra-legal activities. These terrorism and drug law enforcement articles and interviews illustrate how the CIA’s activities impact social and political movements abroad and in the United States.A common theme is the CIA’s ability to deceive and propagandize the American public through its impenetrable government-sanctioned shield of official secrecy and plausible deniability.Though investigated by the Church Committee in 1975, CIA praxis then continues to inform CIA praxis now. Valentine tracks its steady infiltration into practices targeting the last population to be subjected to the exigencies of the American empire: the American people.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-opperman-report--1198501/support.

“This shocking expose of the CIA operation aimed at destroying the Vietcong infrastructure thoroughly conveys the hideousness of the Vietnam War” (Publishers Weekly).In the darkest days of the Vietnam War, America’s Central Intelligence Agency secretly initiated a sweeping program of kidnap, torture, and assassination devised to destabilize the infrastructure of the National Liberation Front (NLF) of South Vietnam, commonly known as the “Viet Cong.” The victims of the Phoenix Program were Vietnamese civilians, male and female, suspected of harboring information about the enemy—though many on the blacklist were targeted by corrupt South Vietnamese security personnel looking to extort money or remove a rival. Between 1965 and 1972, more than eighty thousand noncombatants were “neutralized,” as men and women alike were subjected to extended imprisonment without trial, horrific torture, brutal rape, and in many cases execution, all under the watchful eyes of US government agencies.Based on extensive research and in-depth interviews with former participants and observers, Douglas Valentine’s startling exposé blows the lid off of what was possibly the bloodiest and most inhumane covert operation in the CIA’s history.The ebook edition includes “The Phoenix Has Landed,” a new introduction that addresses the “Phoenix-style network” that constitutes America’s internal security apparatus today. Residents on American soil are routinely targeted under the guise of protecting us from terrorism—which is why, more than ever, people need to understand what Phoenix is all about.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-opperman-report--1198501/support.

Potiphar's Wife: The Vatican's Secret and Child Sexual AbuseThe ‘cover-up’ of child sexual abuse by the Catholic  Church has been occurring under the pontificate of six popes since 1922.  For 1500 years, the Catholic Church accepted that clergy who sexually  abused children deserved to be stripped of their status as priests and  then imprisoned. A series of papal and Council decrees from the twelfth  century required such priests to be dismissed from the priesthood, and  then handed over to the civil authorities for further punishment.That  all changed in 1922 when Pope Pius XI issued his decree Crimen  Sollicitationis that created a de facto ‘privilege of clergy’ by  imposing the ‘secret of the Holy Office’ on all information obtained  through the Church’s canonical investigations. If the State did not know  about these crimes, then there would be no State trials, and the matter  could be treated as a purely canonical crime to be dealt with in secret  in the Church courts. Pope Pius XII continued the decree. Pope John  XXIII reissued it in 1962. Pope Paul VI in 1974 extended the reach of  ‘pontifical secrecy’ to the allegation itself. Pope John Paul II  confirmed the application of pontifical secrecy in 2001, and in 2010,  Benedict XVI even extended it to allegations about priests sexually  abusing intellectually disabled adults. In 2010, Pope Benedict gave a  dispensation to pontifical secrecy to allow reporting to the police  where the local civil law required it, that is, just enough to keep  bishops out of jail. Most countries in the world do not have any such  reporting laws for the vast majority of complaints about the sexual  abuse of children. Pontifical secrecy, the cornerstone of the cover up  continues. The effect on the lives of children by the imposition of the  Church’s Top Secret classification on clergy sex abuse allegations may  not have been so bad if canon law had a decent disciplinary system to  dismiss these priests. The 1983 Code of Canon Law imposed a five year  limitation period which virtually ensured there would be no canonical  trials. It required bishops to try to reform these priests before  putting them on trial. When they were on trial, the priest could plead  the Vatican ‘Catch 22’ defence—he should not be dismissed because he  couldn’t control himself. The Church claims that all of this has  changed. Very little has changed. It has fiddled around the edges of  pontifical secrecy and the disciplinary canons. The Church has been  moonwalking.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-opperman-report--1198501/support.

Jules Cameron - Pontifical SecretJules Cameron runs a website called Pontifical Secrets, a website dedicated to exposing child abuse in the Catholic Church. She tells Ed Opperman about her experiences, her Mother's experiences and her driving passion to expose and destroy the organised child abuse networks which exist in both the Catholic Church and other organisations.With the death last month of George Pell, this is Julie's campaign to expose Pell and his enablers.From her WebsiteIt’s no secret the Catholic Church fails to protect children.Pontifical Secret* facilitated and covered up sexual crimes against children and vulnerable adults for the past century.Thank you, Pope Francis, for lifting “Pontifical Secret” on matters related to child sexual abuse and abuse of vulnerable adults,on your 83rd birthday.A step on your path to protect children from criminal clergy and religious staff.Please make protection of children your pontifical priority by plugging and creating clear canon laws. Embrace mandatory reporting of abuse to civil authorities with the same devotion Mary has for her child Jesus.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-opperman-report--1198501/support.

Explores the murder of Mary Pinchot Meyer and her connected to President KennedyIdeal book for fans of The Devil’s Chessboard by David Talbot, The Reporter Who Knew Too Much by Dorothy Kilgallen, Dr. Mary’s Monkey by Edward T. Haslam, and other JFK conspiracy booksUpdated edition of the true crime expose, including new evidence and government documents corroborating the conspiracy to assassinate JFK’s trusted ally and final true loveThe death of Mary Meyer left many Americans with questions. Who really killed her? Why did CIA counterintelligence chief James Angleton rush to find and confiscate her diary? Had she discovered the plan to assassinate her lover, President Kennedy, with the trail of information ending at the steps of the CIA? Was it only coincidence that she was killed less than three weeks after the release of the Warren Commission Report?Fans of The Murder of Mary Russell, JFK: A Vision for America, and other JFK books will love Mary’s Mosaic. Building and relying on years of interviews and painstaking research, author Peter Janney follows the key events and influences in Mary Pinchot Meyer’s life—her first meeting with Jack Kennedy; her support of her secret lover, President Kennedy, as he worked towards the pursuit of world peace and away from the Cold War; and her exploration of psychedelic drugs. Fifty years after the assassinations of President Kennedy and Mary Meyer, this book helps readers understand why both took place. Author Peter Janney fought for two years to obtain documents from the National Personnel Records Center and the US Army to complete this third edition. It includes a final chapter about the mystery man who could be the missing piece to learn the truth behind Meyer’s murder.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-opperman-report--1198501/support.

Tony Ortega - School of ScientologyTony Ortega is a journalist who was formerly the editor of The Village Voice. He's written about Scientology since 1995, and in May 2015 released a book about Scientology's harassment of Paulette Cooper titled 'The Unbreakable Miss Lovely.' He continues to monitor breaking developments in Scientology and other controversial subjects from an undisclosed location in an underground bunker he shares with four cats and one of them wrinkly Shar Pei dogs. Despite his super-secret security protections, you can still reach him pretty easily by sending him a message at tonyo94 AT gmail.comThe Underground BunkerBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-opperman-report--1198501/support.