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==Rogue Agents: Habsburg, Pinay and the Private Cold War 1951 1991==
'''By David  Teacher''', a former translator at the EU, now (2011)  working as an international administrator in Geneva. He may be contacted  at
david-teacher[at]hotmail.com

Third revision September 2011© 1993, 2008 and 2011. All rights strictly reserved. 

==Preface to the 2008 edition==
The  text which follows is the 100,000 word manuscript of a book intended  for publication in 1992-1993 as the culmination of several years of  research on the Cercle Pinay complex of groups, some of which had  previously appeared in the Lobster Magazine in the UK in 1988-1989.

Back  in those pre-Internet days, publication meant paper; as the text had  soon swelled beyond the limits of a Lobster Special Issue, this meant  commercial publishers. Ironically foreshadowed in the Introduction, the  manuscript fell victim to its main claim to any merit – that it was the  first multinational investigation of a paneuropean covert complex, the  Cercle Pinay and its many national associates. Editors in several  countries expressed great interest in publishing the manuscript …  providing that the "foreign bits" could be reduced and the book  re-focused on their respective countries.

With little  chance of integral publication, the book project was shelved and, apart  from one major revision in 1993-94 to integrate [[Brian Crozier]]’s  memoirs which confirmed the main thrust of this investigation, the  manuscript gathered dust for the next fifteen years. The world moved on,  and the events described below, hot news when the book was completed,  became old history.

Things would have remained like  that had I not recently come across the ISGP website run by Joel van der  Reijden <ref>[https://wikispooks.com/wiki/ISGP_Archive Joel van  der Reijen's ISGP web site]</ref> - as far as I can see, the only  serious investigation of the Cercle Pinay since the original articles by  Robin Ramsay and myself in the Lobster twenty years ago. In  appreciation of Joel's efforts, I am happy to dust off the manuscript  again and add it to his impressive research in the hope that the  information contained here will serve those who wish to continue the  investigation.

In revisiting the manuscript in 2008, I  have not integrated print sources published after the book was last  revised in 1993-94, a mammoth task and a superfluous one in the light of  the ISGP website. The most recent print source integrated here is  therefore Alan Clark's diaries, published in 1994; a list of  unintegrated print sources can be found at the beginning of the  Bibliography. I have however expanded the biographical information on  some individuals mentioned in the original manuscript, taking further  details from the Web, recent press reports and the ISGP site. Apart from  that, I have not integrated Joel van der Reijden's research which  stands on its own; this investigation should therefore be read in  conjunction with his and, of course, with Crozier's memoirs.

==Introduction (1993)==
One  of the paradoxes of modern political journalism is its inherent  cultural isolation. Whilst no-one would deny that the major political  developments in a given country may owe much to international forces,  the investigation of political processes has remained overwhelmingly  confined within national boundaries. This is partly due to the  linguistic problems, specialist knowledge and additional burden involved  in researching foreign politics; however, this cultural isolation is  also compounded by a vague and usually unexpressed opinion that the  connections of a foreign Conservative MP cannot be of great import to a  better understanding of the murkier side of politics at home in one's  own country. Yet it is clear that no country is an island. This is  nowhere more true than in the field of parapolitics, the networks of  unofficial power that, usually via serving or retired friends in the  world's major intelligence and security services, exert greater  influence than is generally realized on national political life. Both  the private networks of influence and the intelligence services work  internationally; more often than not, they work hand in hand in a shady  world that brings together top politicians and veterans of covert  action, counter-subversion and media manipulation. An investigation to  delineate such networks of covert transnational cooperation must, to  succeed, tackle the complexities of the unseen political world in many  countries.

This study is an attempt at a preliminary  transnational investigation of the Paneuropean Right and particularly of  the covert forum, the Cercle Pinay and its complex of groups. Amongst  Cercle intelligence contacts are former operatives from the American CIA  DIA and INR, Britain's [[MI5]], [[MI6]] and [[Information Research  Department|IRD]], France's SDECE, Germany's BND, BfV and MAD, Holland’s  BVD, Belgium's Sûreté de l’Etat, SDRA and PIO, apartheid South Africa's  BOSS, and the Swiss and Saudi intelligence services. Politically, the  Cercle complex has interlocked with the whole panoply of international  right-wing groups: the Paneuropean Union, the European Movement, CEDI,  the Bilderberg Group, WACL, Opus Dei, the Moonies, Western Goals and the  Heritage Foundation. Amongst the prominent politicians associated with  the Cercle Pinay were Antoine Pinay, Konrad Adenauer, Archduke Otto von  Habsburg, Franz Josef Strauss, Giulio Andreotti, Paul Vanden Boeynants,  John Vorster, General Antonio de Spinola, Manuel Fraga Iribarne,  Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.

Despite a wealth  of covert operations centring on media campaigns to promote or denigrate  election candidates, the international impact of the Cercle complex has  not yet [1993] been the main focus for an investigation in any  language. The information contained in this study was compiled from a  sheaf of internal documents from the Cercle Pinay and its partners, the  Belgian AESP, the British ISC and the Swiss ISP, as well as over one  hundred books and numerous Press reports in English, French, German and  Spanish (all translations by this author).

The insight  afforded is only partial; as Brian Crozier wrote in his memoirs about  this author's previous research on the Cercle complex: "There are  pitfalls in writing about confidential matters from the outside, and  drawing on similarly handicapped material". However, the publication in  1993 of Crozier's memoirs, Free Agent - The Unseen War 1941-1991, served  to confirm the main thrust of this investigation and filled in some but  by no means all of the loopholes; in turn, this investigation has  uncovered some of what Crozier preferred to conceal. Once the fragmented  information is pieced together, the network that emerges cannot be  overlooked: the Cercle complex can be seen to be an international  coalition of rightwing intelligence veterans, propaganda assets and top  politicians who would shape the [[1970s]] and 1980s.

To  take the British example, much of the destabilization of British  democracy in the [[1970s]] can only be fully understood by analysing the  international support given to groups like the Anglo-American “deniable  propaganda” outlet, the Institute for the Study of Conflict. The Cercle  Pinay was a major source of support for the ISC virtually from its  inception on; the Cercle Pinay and the ISC also tied in with another key  British group, the Foreign Affairs Research Institute, heavily funded  by BOSS, apartheid South Africa's secret service. BOSS's other  incursions into domestic politics in Britain, notably their smear  operations against leading Liberals such as Jeremy Thorpe and Peter  Hain, were a significant factor in the hijacking of British democracy in  the 1970s. Three Cercle members on the FARI Board assisted FARI's  actions from 1976 through to the early 1980s. FARI in many ways was the  British successor to a previous Cercle operation to support South  Africa; the Cercle and the ISC had been active partners in setting up a  Paris-based propaganda outlet in 1974 as part of South Africa's covert  media campaign later exposed in the "Muldergate" scandal.

German  intelligence reports on the Cercle Pinay written in late 1979 and early  1980 which were published in Der Spiegel in 1982 also shed new light on  a "Thatcher faction" within MI6 in the lead-up to the Conservatives'  1979 election victory. Whilst receiving wide publicity in France and  Germany, these reports have never been covered by the British Press.  This serious omission is astounding in the light of the undeniable  authenticity of the reports and the startling allegations they contain:  one of the German intelligence reports dated November 1979 quotes a  planning paper by Crozier about a Cercle complex operation "to affect a  change of government in the United Kingdom (accomplished)". The report  goes on to describe a working meeting held at Chequers, the Prime  Minister’s country residence, just after the Conservatives' election  victory which brought together Prime Minister Thatcher, serving MI6  Chief Sir Arthur Franks, and two Cercle complex members - Brian Crozier  and former MI6 Division Head Nicholas Elliott. Crozier's planning paper  quoted by the German report also specifically mentioned international  Cercle campaigns "aiming to discredit hostile personalities and/or  events".

This is no isolated example; throughout the  [[1970s]] the Cercle Pinay complex was active in similar ways in France,  Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Belgium. In the latter three  countries, the Cercle complex also had close links to those waging a  [[strategy of tension]] to support a right-wing coup, the latest example of  which was the [[strategy of tension]] which killed 32 people in Belgium from  1982 to 1985. The Cercle complex’s other covert campaigns to promote  right-wing candidates concentrated in two key periods: the mid-[[1970s]] and  1979-80, both central to the electoral defeat of the Left throughout  Europe generally.

The Cercle Pinay itself is an  informal but confidential strategic talking-shop consisting of a core of  "regulars" who invite occasional guests to Cercle meetings and who are  assisted by a range of associates in many nationally-based groups. In  order to make the complexities of the Right in several European  countries understandable to readers, I have focused on the personnel  links within and between the national groups forming part of the Cercle  Pinay complex. As one of the tendencies of such groups is for their  members to "play musical chairs", changing place frequently on the raft  of names sponsoring an organization, a personnel-based research approach  can give rise to the danger of over-estimating the ties that link some  characters or organisations. Sharing a Board membership with someone  does not necessarily imply intimate knowledge of the other's various  activities.

The fragmentary nature of the information  available does not allow us to draw definite conclusions about to what  extent a particular group or person was aware of Cercle operations,  particularly of those run by several of the Cercle "regulars" with  intelligence experience who would later form a private covert  intelligence service, the 6I, within the Cercle complex. Crozier himself  makes the point that many of the prominent politicians invited to sit  in on Cercle strategic sessions had no knowledge of their hosts’ more  clandestine operational activities – if only because of the "need to  know" principle. Nonetheless, a stalwart multi-functionary on the Boards  of several groups linked to the Cercle can be presumed to have some  deeper involvement beyond just lending his name to the cause. This study  can only be a beginning; a closer look at some of those involved at  national level could shed more light on the significance of the Cercle  complex. The only point of certainty beyond the information given here  is that the Cercle merits further investigation.

Finally,  this book is dedicated to the small community of unpaid parapolitics  researchers who have done much to uncover the truth that lies behind the  history of the 20th century. Two in particular deserve thanks for the  help and encouragement they have given me in compiling the information  given here: Robin Ramsay of the Lobsterand Jeffrey M. Bale of the  University of Berkeley, California. Many journalists have already  covered fragments of the Cercle Pinay complex: Péan, theSpiegel, Roth  and Ender, Ramsay and Dorril of the Lobster, Dumont, Mungo, the  Arbeitskreis Nicaragua who produced IGfM, the Young European  Federalists, Herman and O'Sullivan, Gijsels, and Brewaeys and Deliège  were all important sources.

==See Also==
*[[File:Le Cercle.rtf]] - by Joel van der Reijden based on research up to 2010 and referred to in the Preface above
*[[Le Cercle]] - Wikispooks main 'Le Cercle article
*[[Document:Circle of Power]] - an article by David Guyatt

==References==
<references/>


[[Category:Le Cercle]] 
[[Category:Secret Societies]]
[[Category:Doc]]