The Darkened Hour

In this episode we follow up our previous talk about the Ukrainian uprisings of the last 30 years which led to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to begin covert operations that involved far-right separatist groups who began spying on Soviet influences in the region. Myself and Richard Cox, speak about Operation Aerodynamic, and Mykola Lebed and the nefarious connection with the CIA and how the agency connects with these violent nationalist orgaznaition to use them to suppress Russian influence in the "disputed" territories of Luhansk and Donetsk which led to NATO to expand far eastward. The topic of CIA led coup d'état's and how the United States facilitates civil unrest in Central America and Middle East thru-ought the last 75 years, while international orgaznaition such as NATO act as the instigator in certain instances such as what had happened in Yugoslavia and currently in Ukraine. Meanwhile the Biden administration continues to send billions of dollars to assist in the Ukrainian conflict, similar to what the CIA and State Department did thru "Operation Cyclone", funding the rabid Mujahedeen fighters who later became our enemies in the war on terrorism. 
Operation Aerodynamic:
https://cryptome.org/2016/01/cia-ua-aerodynamic.pdf

In today's episode, i interview my co-host of The Darkened Hour, Richard Cox. We speak on Richard's first book, available on Amazon, "Contemplating Conspiracy: Excursions Into Undiluted Madness" . The book covers the elements of fringe conspiracies and realism. Richard's experience into the realm of fringe conspiracy, becoming introduced with known British sports announcer who later delved into the extreme forms of conspiracy, David Icke. Thru Icke, Richard investigates the "secret world" which lead him to understand that between the fringes and the worldly narrative lies a truth which can be known to everyone. They just have to take that first step. Richard Cox runs his own website that speaks on multiple topics such as conspiracy theories, spirituality, anarchism and geopolitics. 
Deep State Consciousness:https://www.deepstateconsciousness.com/
Contemplating Conspiracy: Excursions Into Undiluted Madness:
https://www.amazon.com/Contemplating-Conspiracy-Excursions-Undiluted-Madness-ebook/dp/B09WNDZCP3

Adam Fitzgerald, and co-host, Richard Cox speak about the latest 510 page cache of declassified documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (PENTTBOM) into Saudi financing of two Al Qaeda operatives living inside the United States in the year 2000. After the terrorist attacks on September 11th 2001, FBI officials, as well as 9/11 Commission panelists, interviewed Saudis such as Omary al-Bayoumi, Osama Basnan and Fahad al-Thumairy who all denied knowing two Al Qaeda operatives who were involved with the hijacking of American Airlines Flight 77, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi. In today's podcast, we go over the documents which now show their statements to be misleading and even outright false. Not only did al-bayoumi know al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi, but he was a Saudi government official being paid a government salary whose kin also seem to have known certain 9/11 hijackers as well. For the first time, a definite connection between the Saudi government and the 9/11 attacks are revealed! So why isn't the public and media talking about it? We discuss this in full!The Declassified FBI files: https://vault.fbi.gov/9-11-attacks-investigation-and-related-materials/9-11-material-released-in-response-to-executive-order-14040/documents-responsive-to-executive-order-14040-2-c-part-4/view

Nick Fielding is a journalist and author. He has worked for the Sunday Times, the Mail on Sunday and the Independent. At the Mail on Sunday he broke the story of the renegade MI5 officer David Shayler, and for the Sunday Times he covered the story of Richard Tomlinson, a MI6 whistleblower (Fielding is the author of the introduction to Tomlinson's book The Big Breach). He was launch editor for the online magazine, China Outlook, and he writes the Circling the Lions Den blog about Afghanistan. He is the author, together with Yosri Fouda, of Masterminds of Terror, which contains the only interviews ever given by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his co-conspirator Ramzi Binalshibh. Fouda would spend the next two days talking with Mohammad and al-Shibh, where they would also be recorded on video, detailing the orchestrating of the "blessed Tuesday" terrorist attacks and how they used flight manuals, security lapses at airports to coordinate with the hijackings of the planes used in the attacks of the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11th 2001. Fielding reveals how the interview took place, the security measures ensured by Al Qaeda, the interview and the immediate responses from the public when Al Jazeera published the story.
Masterminds of Terror: The Truth Behind the Most Devastating Terrorist Attack the World Has Ever Seen:
https://www.amazon.com/Masterminds-Terror-Behind-Devastating-Terrorist/dp/1559707089

In this special episode, Richard Cox and Adam Fitzgerald, speak on the Ukrainian-Russian crisis. Richard opens up the dialogue by explaining the Holodomor Genocide, which was a famine in Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 that killed millions of Ukrainians. From there, we speak on the Orange Revolution which took place in Ukraine from late November 2004 to January 2005, in the immediate aftermath of the run-off vote of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, which was claimed to be marred by massive corruption, voter intimidation and electoral fraud, in which Viktor Yushchenko won. In the years proceeding this was rife with protests in the Ukrainian capitol, Kiev, where ultra-right wing separatists, such as the neo-nazi group, Azov Battalion, are covertly trained by the Central Intelligence Agency to repel the Russian military in the disputed territories, Donetsk and Luhansk. The United States, NATO expansionism of Eastern Europe, CIA covert operations with neo-nazi groups, as well as foreign interference and the hypocrisy from political pundits who are creating a divisive atmosphere. The conflict portrayed by the legacy media shows it as evil verses good, yet there are multiple variables at play where there are no "good" sides.

In todays episode, The Taliban and the war for Afghanistan. When the Soviet Union negotiated a retreat out of Afghanistan in 1979, it was Pakistan who mediated the talks. However, the civil war between the Afghan factions, most notably, the Northern Alliance under Ahmed Shah Massoud, the leftover communists and the Taliban with Mohammad "Mullah" Omar began as the fight for control of the country left many tens of thousands dead. The Taliban were led by Mullah Omar, who received weapons left behind by the Soviets in trucks, who in turn, quickly took control of most of the South of the country due to the weapons left behind. It was the notorious Pakistan ISI which led the Taliban to receive the weapons as well as getting funding by Saudi sympathizers and allegedly the CIA. Also, opium traders began to work with the ISI and Taliban, in allowing for the drug trade to exist, uninterrupted, by the Pakistan authorities and intelligence. Soon the drug trade extended to a Saudi, Osama Bin Laden, who by this time began to work alongside the Taliban, and assist their conflict against the Northern Alliance by 1996. 
An American pipeline company, Unocal, began offering their plans to involve the Taliban, to construct a transnational pipeline. However, the plan fails when the Taliban finds that their cut of the profits weren't what they expected. The deal was off, and the CIA began conducting intelligence operations against, Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, after the 1998 US East Africa Embassy bombings. The Taliban were then labeled a terrorist orgaznaition  while pressure Saudi intelligence tried to negotiate with the Taliban High Council to hand over Bin Laden to Saudi courts. Fearing he would be handed over to the West, they declined. Al Qaeda would deal a blow to the Norther Alliance on September 9th 2001, as they sent two men acting as journalists to assassinate Massoud with a bomb hidden inside a camera. Two days later, the United States would be attacked, just three weeks later, the United States would respond with a military invasion of the country which saw the decimation of the Taliban.

James Schwartz is a senior fellow with the Program on Crisis Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and teaches in the Executive Education programs including, Leadership in Crises, the General and Flag Officer Homeland Security Executive Seminar, and Leadership in Homeland Security. Schwartz is a member of the International Association of Fire Chiefs Committee on Terrorism and Homeland Security which he chaired from 2008 until August 2014. He previously served on the Advisory Council for the Interagency Threat Assessment and Coordination Group (ITACG) and subsequently the Joint Countererrorism Assessment Team (JCAT) at the National Counter Terrorism Center. He also served on the Homeland Security Science and Technology Advisory Committee and was a member of the Advisory Committee for the Department of Homeland Security’s first Quadrennial Review in 2010.
Jim Schwartz retired in 2021 after serving five years as the Deputy County Manager for public safety and technology in Arlington, Virginia. Prior to that he served in the Arlington County Fire Department for 32 years, the last eleven as Chief of Department. The Arlington County Fire Department was the lead agency for the response to the September 11, 2001 attack at the Pentagon. Chief Schwartz led the unified command effort for the Pentagon incident.
Arlington After Action Report:
https://911digitalarchive.org/collections/show/51Arlington After Action Report
Firefight: Inside The Battle To Save The Pentagon:https://www.amazon.com/Firefight-Inside-Battle-Save-Pentagon/dp/0891419055

After the September 11th terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington D.C, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) headed a multi-operational attack on Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban in Afghanistan. The CIA's hunt for Bin Laden however predated the attacks upon the nation, according to news articles and documented intelligence reports, the agency were monitoring the embittered Saudi for many years while Bin Laden resided in the Sudan after he was forcibly expelled by the Saudis Bin Laden had built training camps and plotted against US military in Somalia with help from Al Qaeda.. US President Bill Clinton pressured Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, to expel Bin Laden. Meanwhile, CIA and Pentagon officials were often discussing about a capture or kill operation of Bin Laden. The Clinton Administration however, declined to ever commit to anything. By 1996, Bin Laden was welcomed back into Afghanistan, after Sudanese president al-Bashit had expelled him from the country,.
Bin Laden then began terrorist operations against the United States which started with two US embassy beings bombed in Kenya and Tanzania killing over 480 people. After the attacks of September 11th, the CIA then began constructing a covert operation which involved the CIA's National Clandestine Service's (NCS) Special Activities Division and 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne). The operation was also known as the "Battle of Tora Bora" which lasted 11 days. CIA case officers Gary Schroen and later, Gary Berntsen would lead the operation from Namghar Province, which had major success in eliminating large numbers of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters, With Bin Laden and about 400 Al Qaeda fighters trapped against the White Mountains north of the country, Bin Laden, as he did in the Sudan, escaped death.

In this episode i discuss how the Salafi/Wahhabi ideology which had manifested into a reactive, political Islamic response to Western foreign policy which is often dictated thru Israeli-Gulf lobbyists and their agendas for the Middle East. The responses from terrorist groups led by the Salafi such as the 1983 Beirut barracks bombings, 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and most infamously the September 11th 2001 attacks are often visited on the United States. Yet the West continues to show unwavering support to the Saudi Kingdom which propagates the Wahhabi-Salafi faith.
I also quote from those who wage ‘defensive jihad”, which comes from a preemptive or offensive attack, commissioned from by a political authority. These people ill be commonly know as "takfiri", or those who condemn other Muslims as apostates. In this case that authority comes from “uncommission” self appointed caliphs (rulers), not recognized overall by the ruling Islamic “ulema” or from the grand imam of the Al-Azhar Mosque and Al-Azhar University. The episode will delve into how the psychological mindsets of the more nefarious Salafi-Wahhabi individuals in world history and how they operate such as Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Hanbal, to Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahab, Hassan al-Banna, Sayyid Qutb to Ayman al-Zawahiri, Muhmmad Abd al-Salam Faraj, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Osama Bin Laden
In short, the essence of true Islam has been "corrupted", while being completely abrogated, by those i mention above in regards to the spiritual meanings from Muhammad and the purity of Dawah (inviting one to Islam). How does the West finally put an end to Salafi terrorism, while at the same time, revitalizes it with their disastrous foreign policy which undermines the Arab world? 

The Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities before and after the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001 was the the official name of the inquiry conducted by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence into the activities of the U.S. Intelligence Community in connection with the September 11, 2001 attacks. The selected co-chairs to lead the inquiry were Senator Bob Graham chair of the Select Committee on Intelligence, and Representative Porter Goss, chair of the House Intelligence Committee. The Committee lasted ten months which focused on the domestic intelligence services and their capacity to counter terrorist activities. The panel had 16 members of Congress involved, but one panelist had stood out than most, in regards to intelligence sharing and the malfeasance involved. However, one member of the committee stood out from the rest, as his demanding inquiries were met with perjury, and outright denial. Carl Levin, a Democratic senator from Michigan was selected to take part when the committee formed in 2002. He was also  the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee from 2001 to 2003 and again from 2007 to 2015 while also a member of the Select Committee on Intelligence. Levin passed away on July 29th 2021. Levin's authoritative voice, steely demeanor and authentic inquiries witnessed the Director of the Central Intelligence, George Tenet, commit an act of perjury, Director of the CIA's Counterterrorist Center, Cofer Black, mislead in his statements and former Chief of the Bin Laden Issue Station, Tom Wilshire, stammer in his response. In this episode, i will play specific excerpts from the Joint Inquiry regarding Senator Levin's interviews with a number of intelligence officials, some who were hidden behind security screens to protect their identities as i give additional commentary thru ought.

In this episode, Richard Cox and myself talk about the story of Mohamedou Ould Slahi and the film based on his life and time while imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay Prison in Cuba, "The Mauritanian". Slahi was accused of being involved with Al Qaeda and also being the conduit between members of the "Hamburg Cell" at Al Quds mosque in Germany who were allegedly involved with the September 11th 2001 attacks, and Al Qaeda. However, after his lawyer, Nancy Hollander, agreed to take on his case, all the charges against Slahi were made under extraordinary duress under the Central Intelligence Agency "enhanced interrogation techniques" which were defined as torture. Slahi even detailed his experiences while at Guantanamo Bay, which would later be made into a book "Guantánamo Diary" which was released in 2015. 
The discussion also details the abhorrent practices. Salahi was subjected to isolation, temperature extremes, beatings and sexual humiliation by military interrogators. In one incident, he was blindfolded and taken out to sea for a mock execution. Lt. Col Stuart Couch refused to prosecute Salahi in a Military Commission in 2003. He said that "Salahi's incriminating statements—the core of the government's case—had been taken through torture, rendering them inadmissible under U.S. and international law." Slahi was released without a single charge on October 17th 2016. 
The Mauritanian: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QQPJY0A/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Coleen Rowley had served as a Special Agent with the FBI and was assigned to the Omaha, Nebraska and Jackson, Mississippi divisions. Beginning in 1984, she spent six years working in the New York City field office on investigations involving Italian organized crime and Sicilian heroin. During this time she served three temporary assignments in the U.S. embassy in Paris and the consulate in Montreal. In 1990, she was transferred to the FBI's Minneapolis field office, where she became Chief Division Counsel. Her career with the FBI spanned 24 years. In 2002, Rowley wrote a memo to FBI Director Robert Mueller, detailing the mishandling of the intelligence her office had gathered, and later that year testified before the Senate. 
In 2006 she ran as a Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party candidate for Congress in Minnesota's 2nd congressional district. In this interview, Rowley speaks about the Italian Mafia "Pizza Connection" case, Bojinka Plot, Khobar Towers Bombing and how Minneapolis FBI supervisors at the Radical Fundamentalist Unit curtailed the Zacarias Moussaoui case by not authorizing a FISA warrant to search Moussaoui's personal belongings such as his laptop.

Robbie Martin is a journalist and filmmaker. He writes for the magazine White Fungus and Oakland-based news website Media Roots founded by his sister Abby Martin whom he also co-hosts a regular podcast with. He is the behind the documentaries American Bisque, American Anthrax and A Very Heavy Agenda. Robbie has made appearances on Buzzsaw TV, KPFA’s ‘Project Censored’, Russia Today, The Corbett Report, Brasscheck TV, Ring of Fire TV, Behind The Headline on FreeSpeech TV, Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Radio and has been interviewed by La Figaro, the BBC, Neural Magazine and the San Francisco Chronicle. In today's episode, Robbie speaks in depth about the 2001 Anthrax Attacks, the political influences of the Robert Kagan Family, the Neoconservative movement under the Bush administration and the Israeli Art Student ring which spied on US Authorities and Intelligence, specifically in Florida, where incidentally the members of the Hamburg Cell who were involved with the hijackings of September 11th 2001, had also lived.Media Roots Radio: https://mediaroots.org/A Very Heavy Agenda: https://averyheavyagenda.com/

Julie Sirrs is a former Middle East analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency (1992-1999). An ardent student of Afghanistan culture, she began by visiting the war torn country after graduating from Georgetown University. After college, she joined the Defense Intelligence Agency. Her analytic experience of Afghanistan and the Taliban was valuable to the DIA and in 1998 she went back to Afghanistan to meet Northern Alliance commanders (Ahmad Shah Massoud) whom were fighting against the Taliban for control of the country. Sirrs said she notified her supervisor of her trip, but her presence in Afghanistan caused a bureaucratic fight involving the State Department, C.I.A. and D.I.A. In this interview we talk about her experience with the DIA, her involvement with Afghanistan, the intelligence services indecision to back the Northern Alliance and being one of the last people to speak with Ahmad Shah Massoud alive. Sirrs is currently a Shareholder with Boone Karlberg a law firm based in Montana.

Co-host of The Darkened Hour, Richard Cox, returns to interview Adam Fitzgerald regarding the current state of Afghanistan and the United States military withdrawal of the capitol Kabul in recent weeks leading the Taliban to take complete control of the country. We delve into the history of what precipitated the US invasion in the first place which led to various points starting with the Unocal Pipeline deal with the Taliban,  the civil war between Northern Alliance and the Taliban and Al Qaeda training camps in Kandahar. We also talk about the recent book Adam Fitzgerald had read, "Jawbreaker: The Attack on Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda" authored by Gary Berntsen. Berntsen was the lead commander of the CIA operation code named, "Jawbreaker" , which also involved the Northern Alliance, Eastern Alliance and US Special forces who had surrounded Osama Bin Laden and approximately 450 Al Qaeda fighters in Tora Bora which saw Bin Laden & Al Qaeda fighters escape into Pakistan. We end the discussion giving our overall thoughts regarding the history of the US-Afghanistan conflict.