
              Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 10  Num. 20
             =======================================
                     ("Quid coniuratio est?")
 
 
-----------------------------------------------------------------
 
BEHIND THE OCTOBER 1995 AMTRAK DERAILMENT
=========================================
 
This excerpt, written  by  David  Hoffman,  was  taken from Craig
Robert's book, "The Medussa File:  Crimes and  Cover-Ups  of  the
U.S.  Government," published by Consolidated Press:  3171-A South
129th East Ave, Suite 338, Tulsa, OK 74134, 1996.
 
A 20-year Tulsa  Police  Officer  (retired), and Vietnam Veteran,
Roberts wrote "Walking Dead," and "Kill Zone:  A Sniper Looks  at
Dealy Plaza."
 
"The  Medussa  File"  contains  extensive sections about Oklahoma
City, TWA 800, and  other  crimes.  Roberts has collaborated with
David Hoffman on the Oklahoma City bombing investigation.
 
                               -+-
 
On October 9, 1995, the nation witnessed its first  attack  on  a
passenger  train,  when  Amtrak's  "Sunset  Limited" was derailed
while enroute from Phoenix to  San Diego.  The derailment, caused
by sabotage, resulted in over 100 injuries, including one death.
 
The terrorists left behind a cryptic note, calling themselves the
"Sons of the Gestapo."  The mainstream press  quickly  jumped  on
this  latest "terrorist" attack, coming as it did only six months
after  the  Oklahoma  City  bombing.   While  no  one,  including
law-enforcement officials, had  ever  heard  of  the "Sons of the
Gestapo," the purveyors of deception immediately played it up  as
the obvious work of a "Right-wing" militia group.
 
FBI  officials  were  more cautious however, speculating that the
attack may have  been  the  result  of  a "disgruntled employee."
Exhaustive searches through numerous data-bases revealed no group
called "Sons of the Gestapo," and only someone with the technical
knowledge necessary to disable a warning  system  on  a  railroad
track would be capable of executing such a stunt.
 
It  may  not  have  mattered  however.   In  the aftermath of the
Oklahoma City bombing, any such attack on American citizens would
be  excuse  enough  to   push  the  Anti-Terrorism  Bill  through
Congress.  And the press and anti-militia activists such  as  the
ADL  and  the  SPLC were eager to jump on the militia connection.
"Sons of the Gestapo," they asserted, could only be the pseudonym
for a Right-wing hate-group.
 
Yet law-enforcement officials  had  only  an enigmatic message to
guide them.  The note left behind by the saboteurs railed against
the BATF and FBI for their actions at Waco and  Ruby  Ridge,  and
stated, "This is not Nazi Germany."
 
Why  anyone  would  attack  a passenger train to exact revenge on
government officials  for  killing  innocent  civilians is beyond
credulity.  Yet, as in the  Oklahoma  City  case,  this  was  the
message  that  the  saboteurs and the government-controlled press
wanted us to believe.  America was filled with hateful Right-wing
extremists who would do anything -- kill anyone, women, children,
babies -- to pursue their violent anti-government course.
 
As Attorney General  Janet  Reno  announced  in the Oklahoma City
case, so the local U.S. Attorney, Janet Napolitano would declare:
"We are going to pursue every bit of evidence and every lead very
thoroughly until we find the person or persons who committed this
crime."
 
While  the  FBI  swarmed  through  Maricopa County, interrogating
local residents and harassing the  few isolated "desert rats" who
inhabited the surrounding countryside, a real  investigation  was
being  conducted  by  a  lone  Maricopa County Sheriff.  With the
assistance of Craig Roberts, a  retired Tulsa police officer with
military intelligence experience who worked on the Oklahoma  City
investigation,  the  Sheriff  was  able  to  uncover some amazing
information.
 
What they found was that  other  than rescue vehicles, there were
no vehicle tracks entering or exiting the crash site.   Moreover,
the  site  itself  was extremely remote, being near the summit of
the rugged Gila Bend Mountains,  which surrounded the site to the
east, north, and west.  It was there, along a sharp S-curve, that
the perpetrators had pulled 29 spikes from  the  tracks,  causing
the fatal crash.
 
Why  had  the perpetrators chosen such a remote location, Roberts
wondered?  Had they picked  a  more accessible spot, he reasoned,
it would have surely lessened their chances of being  caught,  as
all  they  would have had to do was drive to the nearest highway.
In this case, the  nearest  road  was  Highway  8, 38 miles away,
necessitating a difficult drive over rugged terrain, at the  same
time  as law-enforcement officers would surely be on a heightened
state of alert.
 
What Roberts and his sheriff partner also discovered was that  90
minutes  away  by air, in Pinal County, was a mysterious air-base
known  as  Marana.   The   locked-down   facility  was  owned  by
Evergreen, Inc., a government contractor reportedly  involved  in
drug  smuggling during the Iran-Contra period.  The base, located
off of Highway 10  between  Phoenix  and  Tucson, was the site of
strange  night-time  training  maneuvers  involving   black   and
unmarked military-type helicopters.  Passersby had also witnessed
black-clad  troops  dropping  into  the  desert  en  masse, using
steerable black "Paracommander" parachutes.
 
This began to raise  some  interesting  possibilities.   Had  the
perpetrators been dropped into the site by air, then picked up by
chopper?   Both  Roberts  and  his  colleague  at  the  Sheriff's
Department  were experienced military pilots.  They observed that
it would have been easy for  a  helicopter to fly low through the
mountain passes, avoiding radar, and insert and extract  a  team.
As Roberts noted, "A full moon, wind out of the south at 8 knots,
and a clear sky would be an ideal night for air operations."
 
The  possibilities  of  a covert paramilitary commando team being
responsible for the attack raised more than a few eyebrows at the
Maricopa   County   Sheriff's   Department,   until   they  began
investigating a lead provided by a  sympathetic  FBI  agent  that
several  hikers  had  seen a small group of parachuters drop into
the  desert  that  night.   They  also  discovered  the following
information:
 
A VFR target  squawking  1200  that  left  Tri-City  airfield  in
Albuquerque  on a southwest course, climbed to 10,500 feet, then,
when it was exactly due east  of the Amtrak site, turned due west
and flew a course line that took it one mile south of  the  site.
But just before arriving over the site, it dropped to 8,500 feet.
After  crossing  the  target  zone,  it turned on a southwesterly
course towards California  at  8,500 feet.  Albuquerque contacted
the Los Angeles Center which tracked the aircraft to a landing at
Montgomery  Field  in  San Diego.  It crossed the valley south of
the bridge at 1940 hours (7:40 p.m.)
 
Since  the  winds  that night were at 8 knots out of the south, a
drop one mile  from  the  target  site  would compensate for wind
drift.  Moreover, such a flight is not required to file a  flight
plan listing  its  passengers,  and  an  aircraft  flying  out of
Albuquerque,  squawking  on  transponder  1200,   wouldn't   look
particularly suspicious.
 
When they checked with the  refueler  at  Montgomery  Field,  the
records  indicated  that  the "N" number checked to a Beachcraft,
registered  to   Raytheon.    Raytheon   owns   E-systems.   Like
Evergreen, E-Systems, based in Greenville,  Texas,  is  a  covert
government  contractor,  reportedly involved in drug-running, and
reputed to have "wet-teams"  (assassination teams).  The director
of E-Systems was former NSA  Director  and  CIA  Deputy  Director
Bobby Ray Inman.
 
While  it  is  possible  a  jump  was  made  from the twin-engine
Beechcraft, a plane  commonly  used  for  such purposes, it still
left the problem of the team's extraction.  With the radar  track
information,  the  Maricopa Sheriff then went to the Air Force at
Yuma, who monitor  the  Aerostat  radar  drug  balloons.  The DEA
balloons have "look-down"  capability  for  detecting  low-flying
aircraft.   The  Master  Sergeant  at Yuma agreed to help out.  A
short time later he called back.
 
"Sorry," he said. "We can't help you out."
 
"What? Why?" asked Jack.
 
"The plug's been pulled."
 
"What does that mean?"
 
The sergeant sounded  very  uncomfortable  when  he replied.  "We
really wanted to check this  out,  but  all  I  can  say  is  the
balloons were down that night."
 
"Why?" asked Jack.
 
"Maintenance."
 
"All of them?" asked Jack, incredulously.
 
"Yes, sir." The sergeant sounded very nervous.
 
"Why?"
 
"All  I  can  tell  you  is  that  they  were  ordered  down  for
maintenance.  It came from above my pay grade."
 
One has to wonder what "above my pay grade" means.  Why would all
the  balloons  be  ordered  down  for  maintenance?  Obviously, a
cover-up was in progress.
 
It  was  beginning  to   sound   suspiciously  like  the  hurried
demolition of the  Oklahoma  Federal  Building,  to  prevent  any
independent  forensic  analysis  of the bomb site.  Or the Secret
Service removing President  Kennedy's  protective bubble from his
limousine; failing to secure the windows and rooftops  along  the
parade route; and changing the route at the last minute.
 
Like the two foregoing examples, only the government -- or shadow
elements  within  the government -- had the capability of pulling
that off.  No "lone nut"  or  criminal syndicate could order such
last-minute  changes,  or  orchestrate   such   a   massive   and
well-executed  cover-up.   Moreover, no militia group could order
all the radar balloons down on the night of the attack.
 
As a Maricopa  County  resident  stated  to  the Arizona Republic
regarding the FBI's so-called militia theory, "Buddy,  you  can't
get  three people out here to get together on what kind of pickup
to drive, and you think we're going to form a militia?"
 
Obviously, no militia  would  benefit  from  such an attack.  And
what about the "Sons of the Gestapo?"  As Roberts wrote:  "As  an
old  Southeast  Asia  hand  (a  marine  sniper during Vietnam), I
remember that one of the  terms used by Phoenix Program assassins
working under MACV-SOG (Military Advisory  Command,  Studies  and
Observations  Group)  was  a twisted bar-room version of the last
acronym.  "Yeah," a drunk trooper  would mention.  "I'm SOG a son
of the Gestapo."
 
The Phoenix assassination program, as previously  discussed,  was
organized  by  the CIA's William Colby, Ted Shackley, and fielded
by General John  Singlaub.   Singlaub commanded Second Lieutenant
Oliver North.  Shackley, Singlaub,  and  North  would  go  on  to
orchestrate   the   secret  and  illegal  Iran-Contra  operation,
smuggling  drugs  into  this  country  at  such  places  as Mena,
Arkansas and Marana. {1}.
 
Interestingly, whenever Iran-Contra drug shipments  came  in  for
the   California   run,   the   drug  balloons  under  "Operation
Watchtower" were shut  down.   Could  this  be the same mechanism
that shut them down the night of the attack?
 
Apparently, the "Sons of the Gestapo"  note  left  behind  was  a
"false  flag,"  a  distraction  designed  to  serve  a  political
purpose.  In this case, that purpose -- like the Oklahoma bombing
which  preceded  it  -- was to connect the Amtrak attack with the
Patriot/Militia  movement.   Considering   the  reaction  of  the
mainstream press, it appears they have largely succeeded.
 
_____________________
 
{1} In fact, Singlaub is known to control at least  one  airfield
in Arizona.
 
-----------------------------------------------------------------
       Views expressed do not necessarily  reflect  those
       of Conspiracy Nation, nor of its Editor in Chief.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
        I encourage distribution of "Conspiracy Nation."
-----------------------------------------------------------------
If you would like "Conspiracy Nation" sent to your e-mail 
address, send a message in the form "subscribe cn-l My Name" to 
listproc@cornell.edu          (Note: that is "CN-L" *not* "CN-1")
-----------------------------------------------------------------
    For information on how to receive the improved Conspiracy 
  Nation Newsletter, send an e-mail message to bigred@shout.net
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Want to know more about Whitewater, Oklahoma City bombing, etc? 
(1) telnet prairienet.org (2) logon as "visitor" (3) go citcom
-----------------------------------------------------------------
       See also: http://www.shout.net/~bigred/cn.html
-----------------------------------------------------------------
          See also: ftp.shout.net  pub/users/bigred
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt.
Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et 
  pauperem.                    -- Liber Proverbiorum  XXXI: 8-9 

