George Wackenhut Dies; Security Pioneer

[seemslikeadream]

By Matt Schudel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 7, 2005; Page B05

George R. Wackenhut, the founder of a global security company that has guarded U.S. embassies, nuclear power plants and the trans-Alaska oil pipeline as well as neighborhood malls and countless private homes, died Dec. 31 of a heart ailment in Vero Beach, Fla. He was 85.

A hard-nosed businessman who began his career as an FBI agent tracking down counterfeiters and check forgers, Mr. Wackenhut capitalized on the nation's growing concern about corporate and personal security as he expanded his Florida-based company from a four-man operation in 1954 to a multibillion-dollar corporation.

George Wackenhut's firm protected nuclear plants and embassies.

In 1984, he launched a subsidiary to design and manage jails and detention centers for the burgeoning private prison market in the United States and abroad. In time, Wackenhut Corp. became the nation's second-largest private prison operator. When Mr. Wackenhut sold his company to a Danish firm in 2002, it operated in 54 countries and had $2.8 billion in revenue.

Mr. Wackenhut was an outspoken political conservative with ties to powerful Republicans and high-ranking leaders of the military, FBI and CIA. His office, with chairs carved in the shape of elephants, reflected his political leanings.

Frequent rumors that his company was in the employ of the CIA were never substantiated, but Mr. Wackenhut, who was obsessive about high-tech security gadgets in his private life, seemed to relish the suggestion. Several of his senior executives were, in fact, former CIA operatives, and his company's board of directors included former FBI director Clarence Kelly, former National Security Agency director Bobby R. Inman, and former Defense secretary and deputy CIA director Frank Carlucci.

more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54899-2005Jan6.html

[FarLeftRage]

1. Hell's population

just increased by 1....

[UpInArms]

2. where's the grave for me to dance upon?

[Skittles]

3. I am pleading the fith

:puke:

[UpInArms]

4. info on Wackenhut (for the uninitiated)

http://www.kings.edu/twsawyer/ttguides/whut-preface.html

GOP heavy-hitters support Jeb Bush's foundation

News-Journal Wire Services

MIAMI - A private foundation touted by gubernatorial candidate Jeb Bush as a grassroots educational group counts longtime Republican donors and some of Florida's biggest corporations among its top supporters

...more...

http://www.n-jcenter.com/1998/Jun/18/POL4.htm

UNTANGLING THE OCTOPUS

by Steve Mizrach

October Surprise, Iran-Contra, Noriega, Iraqgate, and BCCIThe Wackenhut Connection

The Wackenhut Security Corporation of Miami, Florida, has long been suspected of being a CIA front. The right-wing politics of George Wackenhut, who had ties to Belgian fascists and South American death squads, are well known. But few people realize that Wackenhut, a small company with "only a few" employees, gets some choice assignments, including guarding nuclear reactors, nuclear weapons facilities, the Alaskan Oil pipeline, and several American embassies; or that its board of directors contains several

luminaries from the FBI, CIA, and Army Intelligence, including Bobby Ray Inman. Wackenhut has led a covert crusade against whistleblowers at many nuclear power plants, using wiretaps to eavesdrop on them and various 'subtle' techniques to convince them not to talk; it also spied on Chuck Hamel, a critic of the Aleyska Oil Consortium's drilling policies, by setting up a fake environmental-law firm which sought to "pump" him for his sources. Wackenhut may have even used some operatives to try and help topple President Perez of Venezuela through a (failed) military coup, largely for money (rather than politics) it was given by Blanca Ibanez, the mistress of Jaime Luinschi, the former president.

...more...

http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/seeker1/activism/octopus.html

[Just Me]

5. Buh-bye, evil-doer.

:hi: Buh-bye!!!

[bemildred]

6. Burn, Baby, Burn. nt

[denverbill]

7. Weren't these the guys that let the 9-11 hijackers through?

For some reason, the article doesn't mention that. Privatized airport security is cheaper, don't ya know.

[madrchsod]

8. good bye

i hope he turns up the heat just for you. what a piece of (now dead )inhuman trash

[bobthedrummer]

9. They all seem to live long lives regardless of how many they destroy.

This specimen was 85.

[mitchum]

27. Because they can afford excellent medical care

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

10. BReaking: Internment pioneer dies after making a fortune locking up poor

[rooboy]

11. Lock his casket and throw away the key.

What those bastards did to detained refugees in Australia's detention centers made Wackenhut a household name over here.

[NYC]

16. Refugees?

[rooboy]

23. Yes, refugees.

If you turn up in Australia seeking asylum, the first thing they do is put you in a special jail, usually hundreds of miles from any city. Wackenhut ran these "detention centers", and to make sure they were profitable, cut the numbers of staff needed to properly look after the detainees. People died as a result of the neglect.

[NYC]

25. Was Wackenhut prosecuted?

I'm afraid to hear the answer.

Wackenhut has a "dark" past in the U.S. as well.

[rooboy]

30. No. n/t

[MountainLaurel]

31. Not too different in the U.S.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0404/S00314.htm

http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/pubs/descriptions/behindbars.htm

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/jul2003/ref-j03.shtml

http://www.phrusa.org/waronterror/release_032403.html

http://www.refugees.org/world/articles/detention_women_wrs97.htm

[Minstrel Boy]

12. George served up Wackenhut as an ill-disguised CIA front.

Of all the articles written about Wackenhut Corporation, probably the most provacative was written by John Connolly for SPY magazine, published in September 1992, pp. 46-54. Connolly, a former New York police officer turned writer, began his story with the following introduction: "What? A big private company one with a board of former CIA, FBI and Pentagon officials; one in charge of protecting nuclearweapons facilities, nuclear reactors, the Alaskan oil pipeline and more than a dozen American embassies abroad; one with longstanding ties to a radical rightwing organization; one with 30,000 men and women under arms secretly helped Iraq in its effort to obtain sophisticated weapons? And fueled unrest in Venezuela? This is all the plot of a new bestselling thriller, right? Or the ravings of some overheated conspiracy buff, right? Right? WRONG."

Connolly highlighted George Wackenhut as a "hardline rightwinger" who was able to profit from his beliefs by building dossiers on Americans suspected of being Communists or leftleaning "subversives and sympathizers" and selling the information to interested parties. By 1965 , Wackenhut was boasting to potential investors that the company maintained files on 2.5 million suspected dissidents one in 46 American adults then living. In 1966, after acquiring the private files of Karl Barslaag, a former staff member of the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities, Wackenhut could confidently maintain that with more than 4 million names, it had the largest privately held file on suspected dissidents in America.

Connolly wrote that it was not possible to overstate the special relationship that Wackenhut enjoys with the federal government. Richard Babayan, claiming to be a CIA contract employee, told SPY that "Wackenhut has been used by the CIA and other intelligence agencies for years. When they need cover, Wackenhut is there to provide it for them."

Another CIA agent, Bruce Berckmans, who was assigned to the CIA station in Mexico City, but left the agency in January 1975 (putatively) to become a Wackenhut international operations vice president, told SPY that he had seen a formal proposal submitted by George Wackenhut to the CIA offering Wackenhut offices throughout the world as fronts for CIA activities. In 1981, Berckmans joined with other senior Wackenhut executives to form the company's Special Projects Division. It was this division that linked up with ex-CIA man Dr. John Phillip Nichols, the Cabazon tribal administrator, in pursuit of a scheme to manufacture explosives, poison gas and biological weapons for export to the contras and other communist fighting rebels worldwide.

SPY also printed testimony from William Corbett, a terrorism expert who spent 18 years as a CIA analyst and is now an ABC News consultant in Europe. Said Corbett, "For years Wackenhut has been involved with the CIA and other intelligence organizations, including the DEA. Wackenhut would allow the CIA to occupy positions within the company in order to carry out clandestine operations." Additionally, Corbett said that Wackenhut supplied intelligence agencies with information, and it was compensated for this "in a quid pro quo arrangement" with government contracts worth billions of dollars over the years.
http://www.lycaeum.org/books/books/last_circle/4.htm

[seemslikeadream]

17. Wackenhut sponsered 1st bioterror College opens 4 mo.before 911 in Ohio

http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2002/03/118808.php


A FULL ON ANTHRAX bioterrorism drill on MAY 9 2001?

:hi:

[Minstrel Boy]

13. Wackenhut, arms for drugs and Danny Casolaro.

From chapter 3 of The Last Circle by Carol Marshall, which picks up the threads of Danny Casolaro's research:


"Who's behind this ring?" I asked. Riconosciuto paused for a moment, then took a deep breath. "It's The Company. Arms get shipped to the Contras, the Afghanistan rebels, the Middle East. You know, to fight the Soviet influence. But the Contras and the Mujahaden don't have money to pay for arms, so they pay with drugs, cocaine or heroin. The Company handles the drug end of it in the U.S.... It's a self-supporting system, they don't have to go through Congress ..."

"Michael," I pressed, "who ships the arms?" Riconosciuto quieted for a moment, gathering his thoughts. "Let's start with Wackenhut. I didn't play ball with Wackenhut so they poisoned the well for me. I'm in jail because I worked for Wackenhut. The government has put together a very simple drug case against me ... as if that's what I'm about, just a druggie."

"Tell me about Wackenhut."

"It's a security corporation headquartered in Coral Gables, Florida. Wackenhut provides security for the Nevada nuclear test site, the Alaskan pipeline, Lawrence Livermore Labs, you know, all the high security government facilities in the U.S. They have about fifty thousand armed security guards that work for minimum wage or slightly above. On the other hand, on the Wackenhut board of directors, they have all the former heads of every government agency there ever was under Ronald Reagan and George Bush; FBI, CIA, NSA, Secret Service, etc...."

[nashville_brook]

14. i remember reading about this in Spy Magazine

also a book called The Octopus (i think)

[Minstrel Boy]

20. That's right. Cabazon Arms, and a long bodycount.

There's a quote from the Spy piece in post # 12. And The Octopus: Secret Government and the Death of Danny Casolaro begins with Casolaro's research into an arms-manufacturing deal between the Cabazon tribe and Wackenhut, called Cabazon Arms.

From The Octopus, page 34-36:

In 1982, Fred Alvarez, a Cabazon tribal leader, and two companions, were found murdered on the Indio reservation. Alvarez had been critical of Nichols' and Wackenhut's dealings with the Cabazon tribe, and he had mentioned to friends that he had received death threats....

On the morning of July 1, 1981, a meeting was scheduled by Alvarez with attorney and former Cabazon chairman Joe Benitez. The intended topic of discussion was how to oust Cabazon control from Nichols. When Benitez arrived at Alvarez's home in Rancho Mirage he found Fred Alvarez shot through the head as he sat in a chair. Alvarez's girlfriend and another friend were also nearby shot dead.

The murder of Alvarez and his friends took place during a period when Nichols, Zokosky and a Wackenhut associate named Bob Frye were travelling around the country on munitions business. Zolosky told reporter John Connolly, "I felt like they were stalling. We had no meetings scheduled." Zokosky returned to Indio, and the following day the bodies of Alvarez and his companions were found. The day after that, Nichols returned to Indio. When Zokosky told Nichols about the murders, "Nichols seemed unaffected. Like he already new." Zokosky stated that Nichols "dialed a number and asked for Bob Frye. "Alvarez has been murdered," he said into the phone a few seconds later. After another few seconds, Nichols said, "Okay, so long," and hung up.

...

The investigation languished until the appearance of Jimmy Hughes. Hughes had been Nichols' Wackenhut bodyguard, and he reported to Indio police officials that he was Nichols' bagman for the murders of Fred Alvarez and his friends.... Hughes stated that, "Nichols admitted to me the ordering of the Alvarez murder. He stated there was a US-government covert action.... Pressure from unknown Washington DC government agencies have caused a possible shutdown of this case.... Nichols has made a deal with the FBI through the Wackenhut Corporation... Possibly he himself has been protected by the FBI."

[nashville_brook]

22. damn! i can't find my copy! thank you for that!

it was an amazing story!

[Shakespeare]

15. As Mark Morford would say....

"Hell Readies a Room #793"

[Cocoa]

18. aw, ain't that sweet

Wash Post paints such a colorful picture of such a colorful man. :puke:

[AlCzervik]

19. I hope he rots in hell

When i lived in a condo outside of Boston Whack-a-nut as we called them did the security detail for our building. The first guy started to steal things from people's units, the second guy belonged to a ring of car thiefs and the 3rd guy raped an elderly woman in our building.

[BiggJawn]

21. Another grave to piss on!

Along with Ronaldus Rex.

Seems almost a shame that he didn't live to see America become a totalitarian Theocracy, with most of us in Wackenhut-run prisons for "Thought Crimes".

[enki23]

24. i hope it really, really fucking hurt.

though it never could have hurt enough. i wish i were an idiot, so i could believe he was still suffering somewhere in hell.

[mitchum]

26. Good!

[goforit]

28. I'm sure Chavez fron Venezuela is celebrating.

Oh well!!!

When ya gotta go ya gotta go.

[w4rma]

29. That guy was evil incarnate. (nt)