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“The art of war is of vital importance to the state. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.”
~Sun Tzu

By Catherine Austin Fitts

This week, I discuss the assassination of James Forrestal with economist, researcher, and author David Martin. Martin just published the best work to date on Forrestal’s death: The Assassination of James Forrestal. Read my book review here.

James Forrestal rose from an entry-level position to serve as President of Dillon, Read & Co. Inc. on Wall Street. Forrestal was nominated to be Undersecretary of the Navy by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940 where he led the national push for industrial mobilization during World War II. He was named Secretary of the Navy in May 1944 (then a cabinet-level position) and became the first Secretary of the newly created Defense Department under Roosevelt’s successor, Harry S. Truman, after the passage of the National Security Act in 1947.

After Truman’s reelection, Truman forced Forrestal to resign on March 28, 1949. Forrestal was then essentially placed under house arrest at Bethesda Naval Hospital, where he was murdered in the early morning hours of May 22, 1949, shortly before his brother was expected to arrive to assist him in leaving the institution.

It was the National Security Act of 1947 that created the CIA—but the Agency’s powers were expanded dramatically a month after Forrestal’s assassination. The CIA Act of 1949 was passed by the House on March 7, 1949, by the Senate on May 27, 1949, reported and agreed to by the joint conference committee from June 2-7, and signed into law by President Truman on June 20, 1949. It authorized the CIA “to use confidential fiscal and administrative procedures” and exempted it from many of the usual limitations on the use of federal funds. The Act (Section 6) also exempted the CIA from having to disclose its “organization, functions, officials, titles, salaries, or numbers of personnel employed.” And it created a program called “PL-110” to handle defectors and other “essential aliens” outside normal immigration procedures, as well as give those persons cover stories and economic support.

Forrestal’s death is a case study in fake news and the use of the media to kill a man’s name, making it easier to kill the man. If you look at the policies that Forrestal argued for—against the creation of the state of Israel and for greater transparency regarding the black budget—we would be living in a different world today if he had remained as the Secretary of Defense. Indeed, it is more than possible that there is a direct connection between Forrestal’s death, the deaths of a series of politicians over the following two decades—including Senator Joseph McCarthy, President John Kennedy, and Senator Robert Kennedy—and the steady rise of “secret monies for secret armies” and funds disappearing from the U.S. Treasury.

Truth matters. David Martin’s hard work and persistence have laid bare the dirty tricks used to protect Forrestal’s assassins, including the claim that Forrestal’s death was a suicide. Using primarily information provided in the Navy’s official investigation, which had been kept secret for 55 years until he obtained it through the Freedom of Information Act in 2004, Martin demolishes the notion that Forrestal’s fall from a 16th-floor window of the Bethesda Naval Hospital was an act of suicide. Martin has spent years interviewing and accessing the detailed accounts of numerous parties in and around Forrestal in the months before he was killed. As I read Martin’s book, I was inspired by the miracles that occur when one good man keeps digging and never gives up.

You can learn more about Dave’s work at DCDave.com.

This week in Let’s Go to the Movies, check out the news clip of Forrestal on the day he resigned as Secretary of Defense that Martin refers to in our discussion:

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Get the Book:

The Assassination of James Forrestal by David Martin

Related Reading:

Wall Street Lessons: Dillon Read’s James Forrestal

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22 Comments

  1. This guy was really irritating. I kept wanting him to wait and let you have a moment to comment or ask relevant questions. He may be wonderfully knowledgeable but my GOD what a blowhard and egoist!!!

    1. I think it was that intensity that helped him stick with it through thick and thin. You have to be very focused and self motivated to accomplish what he has done. I am quite grateful for what I have learned – he has been very generous with his knowledge. So this must be my Wall Street training. Everything is about results, not a lot of concern about style. When I was an associate at Dillon Read, I used to get assigned to work with the screamers – people who were too difficult to work with many of the associates. I liked working with them because their screaming included massive information, training and honest feedback – which was otherwise impossible to get as a woman. It was one of the reasons I rose so quickly – much higher learning metabolism thanks to the screamers.

  2. Very informative. I have ordered a copy of the book. Both Forrestal and Kennedy were Catholics and one cannot but imagine a certain strain of “patriot” who might find papists in high American positions repugnant in that regard, alone, to say nothing of aggravating circumstances. We talk about a lot of things but as was eloquently described in James Cornwell’s Hitler’s Pope, a lot of Nazi’s, including Goebbels, Himmler, Heydrich and Hitler, himself, were Catholics and the book suggests accommodations were made between the Vatican and the Reich, all along. These decapitations of high-placed American Catholics could very well have had aspects of retribution between secret society factions.

  3. Outstanding interviewing skills, Catherine. This is the first I have heard of James Forrestal. I now understand how stopping him was integral to create what the world has since experienced. Will look deeper. Thanks!

  4. Catherine, it was magisterial the way you persuaded Martin to reconsider his Jewish conspiracy thesis and see the broader perspective of a CIA-Wall Street-drug connection with all its astonishing implications. Because this was the first time I’d heard about the CIA/Wall Street nexus, could you please direct me to some sources where I could get up to speed. Thank you for the splendid interview.

  5. Thanks so much for this excellent interview! I liked the quote from DC Dave, referring to his time at college when Vince Foster was also there (VF was a fraternity pres)- “I was then independent and have been independent ever since.” That really resonated with me because I have experienced the same. Great work as always! 🙂

    1. Amazing the contribution Dave Martin has made. I feel unleashed by the facts and evidence he has put on the table. Proof of what one good man can do.

  6. It appears that the 33rd President of U.S. ,a 33rd degree mason, who gave the go ahead to drop the 2nd atomic bomb on Nagasaki that is on the 33rd latitude pushed out Forrestal to create a powerful overt & covert deep state operation.

    The video you included Catherine of Truman, Johnson & Forrestal show them giving one another a thumb to knuckle handshake, known as a masonic handshake.

    2. Catherine, agreed it was a big deal. If one look at how quickly the CIA Act of 1949 was introduced, pass by House and Senate and signed by Truman in June 20, 1949 one may assume there was some kind of urgency.

      Timelines are very helpful in assisting in connecting the dots to understand events.

      Today is June 28th and it is almost to the day the 72nd anniversary of Roswell as the crash site was found on July 4, 1947. There are couple of things (to me) that makes Roswell interesting, one is the latitude of the crash site (33 degrees) that matches Mt. Hermon & Nagasaki. Then when the longitude is divided by the latitude you get the value of pi. (Side note – if one multiples pi times ten you will get the probable latitude of the birthplace of Jesus). The other interesting thing about Roswell is that seems to be the start of kidnappings of humans for experimentation and animal mutilation after hundreds of years of UFO sightings. So what changed?

      Timeline of events:
      July 4, 1947 Roswell crash site found
      Sept. 18, 1947 National Security Act of 1947
      May 22, 1949 Forrestal death
      June 20, 1949 CIA act of 1949

      I have no idea if Roswell had anything to do with the passing of the laws and Forrestal death but it does seem there was some kind of urgency going on in the late 40’s.

      Also I thank you for sharing your thoughts about the existence of a non human intelligence that may be in play to shape human events. The reason I look at symbols, dates and numbers is that these may be a form of communications of the non human intelligence with those that serve it.

      1. Highjump and Roswell as well as a variety of other events were the inspiration for the 47 Act. Question was why the 49 Act. CIA was already created by 47 act. I think it is was secret and illegal monies and covert operations. It was a vehicle for Wall Street to engineer and rig globally with impunity. I need to research further both the 49 Act, the covert roll out that followed, including Gladio up and through the GLADSTONE GROUP.

      2. Catherine

        If you are going to do further research on James Forrestal let me share a few thoughts. Because of Forrestal position I am sure any UFO information and sightings would have been placed on his desk. In April 1949 it was reported in the papers that he suffered a breakdown due to “state of fatigue” and was expected to be back to work the next month. On the premise that the breakdown was legit and that a physical fit man with an alpha male profile what would drive him to a “state of fatigue”? Was he face with a problem or threat to the country where it was not winnable or a solution accepted to him? Something happen in the months of April & May 1949 that put him out of favor with Truman. Could it be that Truman’s solution to the threat was not acceptable to Forrestal and Truman knew Forrestal was not going to play ball which sealed his fate? I keep coming back to the kidnappings and animal mutilations after Roswell. Plus we have Von Braun stating “he had help from them”. Who in the hell is “them”?
        Catherine, I sense your passion with James Forrestal as he was truly a giant among men and could have easily remained in the private sector instead of taking government jobs and being a public servant and putting his personal interests second. Due to the change of America’s character to adopt a global covert operations with a sinister personality James Forrestal became it’s first casualty

        1. IMO the chances that Forrestal had a breakdown are less than 1%. One of the things that put him out of favor with Truman was his communications with Dewey during the election. But Truman essentially was sponsored by the Kansas City/MO mob – who would certainly have been part of the network that was going to benefit on bringing the narcotics in etc. I think what put him crosswise of the deep state (Truman was an order taker, not the power behind the throne) was he was opposed to the 49 act’s transfer of secret money power to the CIA. Forrestal was first and foremost a money man. He would have understood the ramifications of creating secret armies outside the purview of the military controllable by the Dulles boys and Wall Street. I am sure Forrestal knew 100& of any secrets starting with High Jump and the Philadelphia Experiment (He was Secretary of the Navy at the Cabinet level before the infrastructure had been created to keep it dark) which I believe likely had a much more powerful impact on the MJ-12 thinking than Roswell.

          1. Let’s add, generally, to this timeline, the secret deals and finance network made possible by the recovery of “Yamashita’s gold” and other recovered war loot of the Nazi’s and Japan’s General Yamashita.

            I would think everything that was happening post WW2 had a furious pace and urgency. At that time, American ideals in the general public were far more traditional and reflective of our Constitutional Republic.

            Any exposure of things behind the scenes would pose dramatic risk to the new “Reich” they were rebuilding it would be 15+ years until CIA brought the meme virus “conspiracy theory” to the public lexicon.

          2. We need a new chronology deep dive on the Post WWII booty through 47 and 49 Acts and building of the secret money infrastructure.

        2. Didn’t Byrd report directly to Forrestal after his aborted expedition to Antarctica? There must be documents of Byrd’s Highjump operations that should shed light on what they encountered near the ice continent.

          Personal story – I remember when I was a kid and took my tomato picking money to purchased a Revell model construction kit of the US Navy Super Carrier, USS Forrestal. Took me a few weeks gluing (the glue with the wonderful smell) all those little pieces together, but the final product was awesome to this little kid. Also, did you know that the total length of the Super Carriers is 333 meters?

          1. Yes. I think Highjump and the Philadelphia Experiment were much more critical in the MJ12 discussions than Roswell.

    3. @Robert Lord Freemasonry is exactly what I am imagining when I suggested “secret society factions” might have had a retribution motive above and apart from the other aggravations Forrestal and Kennedy might have presented them.

  7. Catherine, this is really fascinating.
    From what I can tell, the Forrestal tragedy parallels the post-Manhattan Project and -WWII purging of other high-level patriots.
    Coincidentally, I had mentioned the Robert Oppenheimer (Father of the Atomic Bomb) story to you, and how it provided depth and dimension to the horror of the Deep State.
    Imo, studying the 1940s history of Forrestal, Oppenheimer, and many other targeted patriots is critical to understanding how the DS operates and how ruthless it is.

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