Visas for Al Qaeda – Part 2

It’s revoltingly unthinkable that treasonous diplomats put our country in jeopardy, but it happens. From the early 70’s to now, it’s still common practice to deceive.
Here are stories told by someone who was there, and forced to participate in the critical corruption firsthand.

J. Michael Springmann entered what he thought was truly honest, important, protective federal career; The foreign service as part of the Commerce and State Departments, from Economic/Commercial Officer to State Dept. Bureau of Intelligence and Research.

His extensive background and experience have brought disturbing revelations to the forefront, through his book, “Visas for Al Qaeda” and this interview.

Visas for Al Qaeda

RB ~ What was the most egregious, most dangerous acts you witnessed putting our country and its visa program in jeopardy?

MS ~ I would say one of the Inspectors sent to Jeddah to examine the Consular Section. Joseph P. O’Neill (now fortunately dead) had interviewed me about the Visas for Terrorists Program. I had been warned about him by a contact, likely tied to the CIA, Nestor Martin (who has since disappeared). I had been told not to say a word about questionable liquor sales or visa issues or I would lose my job. O’Neill pressed me and pressed me, insisting that what I said would be confidential. Not so, he turned the info I confirmed to him in our conversation to Jay Freres, the Consul General who did his best to get me fired. O’Neill had been involved in the first takeover of the American Embassy in Tehran in 1979. He had helped the Israeli embassy staff escape while opposing cutting the American staff in Tehran. Additionally, he was presumably involved in getting a visa for the Blind Sheikh when he was assigned to Khartoum in the Sudan. (O’Neill blamed one of the local staff for issuing the visa). I wrote O’Neill about all this when he was assigned to Bermuda. No response.

RB ~ With all you’ve seen, experienced, and participated in, you’ve been openly critical of the US and its Middle East involvement and elsewhere with a number of overt and covert operations? Was there pushback as an unpatriotic, unsympathetic malcontent or was your justification overwhelming?

MS ~ There was indeed pushback. One form was economic. After State had fired me, I couldn’t get a job for 3 years. When I went to law school, I couldn’t get a job after graduation. I assumed I had been blacklisted. I had gotten a firm to check references and was given a weasel-worded reply by Day O. Mount, one-time Consul General in Stuttgart who I believed worked for the Agency. Mount’s response guaranteed no one would hire me. Another form of pushback is isolation by the Mainstream Media. While others who’ve been critical of the government have gotten ink in the press or TV interviews, I don’t exist. When I give them a story, it goes nowhere. One case is my book on migrants. A friend had gotten the DC-based Women’s National Democratic Club to invite me to talk about it. Suddenly, the invitation was withdrawn. The only explanation given to me was that I was a conspiracy theorist. I have had chances to speak on PressTV (Iran), Al-Arabi (Qatar), and Al-Maydeen TV (Lebanese). However, no one from any large newspaper or media outlet in the US will talk to me or follow up. I had once been on Fox News and was cut off when I noted that the attacks on the World Trade Center were a cheap means of getting the US involved more deeply in the Middle East. Same for Los Angeles Times. I gave one of their reporters information on the visa issue. That was the end of its involvement. I believe I was entirely justified in writing the book and earlier complaining. I swore an oath to uphold the Constitution and defend it against all enemies, foreign and DOMESTIC. I still feel justified in what I did and wish I had done more.

RB ~Over the years we’ve seen America promote, then oppose regimes. Friends become enemies, weapons sold or given to support, become offensive tools against us. From your perspective, what’s the purpose of this political badminton, what really do we have to gain by losing trillions of dollars and thousands of lives?

MS ~We have nothing to gain and everything to lose. Trump has been attacked for continuing his predecessors’ wars in South & Southwest Asia and North Africa. Nancy Pelosi was disgusted, not that Trump murdered al-Muhandis and Gen. Soleimani in Iraq, but that she hadn’t been told in advance. The only explanation I can see is that the ruling professional politicians and the generals are obsessed with the power they can wield and the benefits, financial and otherwise, that power brings them.

RB ~ And are there those who are so blinded to the good of America they will do anything for any reason to advance their wallets and themselves?

MS ~Yes. See above. There is a revolving door connecting big business, especially defense contractors and think tanks and news outlets. It’s highly lucrative and confers great prestige

RB ~ U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 7, clause 1:

“No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.”

And yet the CIA’s budget is never published, monies used for who knows what purpose and where… is this for true national security or to hide the very selective and secret activities meant to further its own agendas and existence? Is it true with all agencies?

MS ~ Hiding the CIA’s budget in those of other governmental organizations hides what is spent from other governments but it also hides all the questionable covert operations designed to overthrow governments and murder politicians. Some elements of the US government doesn’t like. Additionally, it hides corruption, mismanagement, and abuse of authority along with murder, war crimes, and human rights violations.

RB ~ Can America breathe a bit freer than these “questionable” acts carried out by alphabet agencies are for their own glory and advancement in some far off country, or should we worry that the blowback is truly coming here to destroy our 240+ years of freedom and human advancement?

MS ~ We should worry, really worry that the turkeys are coming home to roost. The current uproar over George Floyd resembles one of the Gene Sharp/George Soros color revolutions the US government used to overturn the government of the Ukraine or Romania. The idea is to turn the people against their government and the media against the government and turn the people against the police. Use a few agitators, get some violence, and shut the government down. Floyd had illicit drugs in his body (fentanyl & methamphetamines) and had the COVID virus in his blood. (NPR is the source) He had a long criminal record. Yet, somehow, the entire country was plunged into riots, looting, & insurrection. The basis is the fact that part of the elites have never accepted the fact that Hillary Clinton lost the last election and they’ve been trying to overturn the results ever since. They will and have used anything and everything to achieve their goal and prevent Trump from being reelected. This is like Guatemala in 1954 and Iran in 1953.

RB ~ We have mutual friends from both the FBI and CIA who were abused and ousted for wrongful reasons. Do these agencies have a pattern of eating their own for internal personal agency gain?

MS ~ I wouldn’t say internal personal gain. I would say the goal is to eliminate anyone who questions the illegal actions of those agencies. They want the wrong-thinkers out and jailed or impoverished or disgraced so that they can never organize a successful exposure of what was done to them and why. And to gather enough support to end the practice and force the agencies to adhere to the law.

RB ~ We’ve seen recent abuses, lies, misdeeds in agencies domestically regarding President Trump, are these subversive acts with visas, relationships, funding, regime manipulation continuing overseas, or have they been exposed and curtailed?

MS ~ No, the subversive acts are continuing, just perhaps, with better secrecy and more finesse. For example, I had thought that my complaints about the visas had ended the terrorist program. Then came 9/11. Then came the virus, which I and others firmly believe came out of a US lab to take down China and Iran. Politics is playing a big role still. The Russia Gate nonsense continues, and a Democrat in Congress denounced Trump’s plan to take part of the American forces out of Germany where they’ve been since 1945 as “a gift to Putin.” Some Germans think the soldiers are going to Poland, not the American border with Mexico

America’s involvements around the world are open, secret; beneficial, questionable; productive, wasteful. There are so many people involved in decision making, so many that have personal agendas, so many representing others, that the true security and welfare of the country is always in flux and in question.

The pervasiveness of abuse and misuse is hidden but still present in our overseas operations. In part 2 we look at more specifics and examine our foreign operations and motives, CIA budgeting abuses, and how visa abuses today are endangering us.

Our thanks to Michael for his time in this interview, for his service to our country. And for his patriotism and openness about the agencies and actions he experienced.

Part 1 of Michael Springmann’s interview can be found HERE

 

 

 

 

#

For updates follow @VideoRon on Twitter
© 2020 Group AMC, Inc.