Spooky Murdoch: Additional research

Back in 2011, I posted a request for information. I was trying to confirm or deny the long-heard rumors that Rupert Murdoch had once had a relationship with the CIA. As I said on that earlier occasion:

Of course, any important and powerful figure will eventually stand accused of being a creature of one or more intelligence agencies. I'm not interested in the mindless accusations offered by the shoddier conspira-blogs. We need some actual evidence.

So far, the most intriguing avenue of inquiry concerns CIA operative Michael Hand, co-founder of the Nugan-Hand bank. Nugan-Hand was the CIA's bank for a while (after Castle Bank collapsed and before the advent of BCCI).

Before he got into banking, Hand was CIA -- and a Green Beret -- and a notoriously lethal Phoenix Program operative in Vietnam. His bank is said to have laundered a lot of drug loot -- and may even have played a role in the strange tale of Yamashita's Gold. (If you believe in that sort of thing. There are lots of wild tales about that quasi-legendary treasure, and I've given up on trying to dope out which ones are credible.) When the bank collapsed, Hand's partner, Frank Nugan, died mysteriously -- and Hand himself disappeared.

As in: Vanished. Poof. Thin air. Even Wikipedia opines that the Agency gave him a new identity.

Hand does link up to Murdoch, but in a rather roundabout way. A rather spooky guy named Peter Abeles links them up. Long story. (You may want to look at the wild claims here.)

There's also the (likely) link to Israel's Unit 8200. Go here, watch the video I made, and do just a small bit of reading between the lines. (Added note: Maybe I should just embed the video at the bottom of this post. Once again, sorry for the temporary narration, but the situation can't be fixed now.)

Anyways, after I posted that 2011 request for further data, I received some intriguing comments from readers. They're worth a look.

I did not know until tonight that a site called Dangerous Minds linked to my article and added some fascinating additional info about a strange trip Rupert Murdoch made during his college days.The story comes from a British book (unread by me) called Special Relationships by Asa Briggs, an historian. When he was a younger man, Briggs traveled with a college-aged Murdoch from Istanbul to Cairo. (The Guardian tells the story here.)

Now, that's starting to sound a little spooky already, isn't it? (In fact, it sounds a bit like that famous overseas episode in Barack Obama's college career.)

Briggs himself was at one time an intelligence "asset." Even Wikipedia says so.

So keep that fact in mind as you read this bit...

Accompanying them was a fellow of Worcester College, Harry Pitt, and another Australian undergraduate, George Masterman. "We met Rupert and George in what had been Constantinople, now Istanbul. Rupert had travelled there with his father in the Zephyr, which he had promised his father he would send back to Australia by sea from Port Said. They had had trouble... in crossing Yugoslavia. Curiously, Rupert was to have trouble too in Jordan."

"King Abdullah had recently been assassinated, upsetting the whole balance of power in the Arab world, and there were many signs of tension in all the places on our journey beyond Turkey, through Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.

There's also a story in there about a mysterious "benefactor" who funded the trip, and who goes unnamed even though we're told that he died.

Dangerous Minds says that these recollections convey "the aroma of skullduggery," and may constitute "thinly veiled spying anecdotes." It's hard not to agree.

The George Masterman mentioned here is probably the same fellow who later became an Australian political figure -- well, actually, he was an Ombudsman, which is an investigator of the government on behalf of the public. (We need an office like that in this country.) He was generally considered to be somewhere on the left.

So what does this all come to? I'm not sure. Obviously, we can't prove that Murdoch is or was "spooked up." On the other hand, I'm still not sure exactly how Murdoch got the money to create his world-spanning media empire. The literature has never been very clear on that point. It is very tempting to suggest that Michael Hand's illicit money was used to fund a right-wing propaganda operation that just grew and grew and grew.

Tempting, yes -- but making such a suggestion would also be shamefully irresponsible. So please put the idea out of your head. I never said any such thing.