PART I
Noetic Continental Inc. Foists Military Equipment Through Private War Companies
[Source: ciagate.substack.com]
[CIAGate is a new website set up on substack that draws on information from an anonymous CIA whistleblower to publicize and expose criminal conduct being carried out by the CIA. Its mission statement reads: “We the people. We oppose all wars and military conflicts. Our purpose is to abolish the CIA and military-industrial deep state. We stand firmly on our principles. ciagate@proton.me.” Below is a series that CIAGate published on the CIA’s involvement in the arms pipeline to Ukraine through a shadowy CIA company that supplies drones to Kyiv—Editors]
Analyzing the CIA’s records, we’ve noticed that there were many references to the Noetic international Inc., a company with questionable origin and activity.
According to its website, the enterprise specializes in “delivering products and services including assessments, operations and finance to clients in the energy, telecom, space, cybersecurity and intelligence sectors.“
In a previous article on substack we wrote that the CEO of the Noetic International Inc. was Johnna May Holeman, a former U.S. artillery soldier and CIA operative, who took part in the supply of 155mm white phosphorus rounds to Ukraine through a tea-trade company in Bulgaria.
Now we can say that there was another CIA officer behind the creation of the Noetic International Inc. Ladies and gentlemen, please meet John Alan Irvin–the godfather of clandestine operations.
So, it was John’s idea to establish a company that would carry out the CIA’s clandestine activities without attracting much attention. However, being a top-tier spy John himself does not really conceal his affiliation with the Agency. According to his track record, John is a specialist in the field of analyzing the activities of covert secret agents. He also has decades of experience conducting clandestine operations.
John’s affiliation with CIA and DoD [Source: ciagate.substack.com]John’s portfolio [Source: ciagate.substack.com]
Through his extensive ties, resources and expertise, John Irvin has developed a vast network of contacts, informants and partners to achieve a comprehensive range of goals in accordance with the CIA’s design. Given John’s age, today the bulk of the work is now done by Johnna Holeman. The Noetic International Inc. has offices in Illinois, California, Germany, England and Austria.
The Noetic “specialists” address complex problems in wide range of domains including air- and sea-based drones, renewable energy, cybersecurity and cryptocurrency, technology and robotics, as well as strategic influence campaigns and analysis and decision making.
The Noetic International website. [Source: ciagate.substack.com]
The network includes hundreds of influencers connected by both personal acquaintance and virtual meetings. The Noetic operatives help local and foreign authorities to achieve goals in order to enlist the support afterwards.
According to our source, the Noetic International Inc. has a shell company in Puerto Rico, that under the guise of cannabis dispensary addresses essential tasks on behalf of the CIA, such as supply of various kinds of unmanned aerial and maritime drones to foreign countries, including Ukraine, reshore of semiconductor production to the U.S., as well as the supply of small-module nuclear reactors.
Initially, we doubted the veracity of the source’s information. Yet, as it was with the investigation surrounding Chanda Creasy, a yoga coach and a head of the CIA division responsible for arms transfers to militants in Africa and Middle East, painstaking analysis and careful sieving of information made it possible to determine that it was the Anyon Minds LLC.
CIA’s “Up in Smoke” Special Operations Group
Established in 2021, the Anyon Minds LLC sees itself as the “preferred supplier of reliable, high-quality cannabis products in Puerto Rico.” The company is incorporated at 407 Calle del Parque San Juan, PR 00906.
The Anyon Minds data [Source: ciagate.substack.com]
While visiting company’s website, we were unable to find any proposed product, its price or any other intelligible information. Complicated phrases that would most likely confuse an average cannabis-buyer—the only thing the website was filled with. It seems like this outlet is not a trading platform, but a certain communication hub for a dedicated circle of persons.
Extremely clear Anyon Minds Strategic Synergies. [Source: ciagate.substack.com]
Our informant was able to obtain a document about the employees and management of the Anyon Minds LLC. It turned out that almost every single employee, including management, had no relevant experience or education. Moreover, these cannabis cultivators had close ties with the DOD (including the DIA), as well as PaxSafe and Pax Mondial LLC private military companies. Manuel Enrique Benitez-Marquez is a co-founder and, apparently, key individual in the Anyon Minds LLC.
Manuel has no social media profiles (at least under his own name), and there is almost no information about him in open sources, that is unusual for an ordinary person. In addition, according to the received document, he has no any experience in hemp cultivation, but a very rich experience in some another area…
Mr. Benitez is a graduate of the Criminal Justice Services Department of the Executive Protection Institute bodyguard school in New York. He is a licensed personal protection specialist. Manuel has certificates of successful completion of courses at the Academi PMC (former Black Water), including: tactical handgun, carbine operator and evasive driving. He also worked at the Pax Mondial LLC and the Pax Safe PMCs.
We assume that Mr. Benitez has always dreamed of growing cannabis and staying low (or maybe high?), and his hand-to-hand combat as well as shooting skills probably will need him in case of fighting competitors and possible problems with the police.
Jokes aside. We know Manuel is a professional mercenary with a vast experience in conducting special operations.
If this information is not enough for you to make sure that the Anyon Minds is not just a cannabis shop, we invite you to familiarize yourself with the dossier of another founder of the company, Guy Dennis Irvin.
Guy Dennis Irvin is a U.S. Special Forces veteran with decades of experience in security operations in the Middle East, South and Central America, and the Pacific Region. Mr.Irvin’s portfolio indicates that he also negotiated large deals worth millions of dollars.
According to Guy’s LinkedIn page, from 2003 to 2015, he held various senior positions in companies such as DynCorp International (McLean, VA) and GRAAL Group LLC (Columbus, GA), as well as Parsons Corporation (Centerville, VA).
From 2015 to the present, Guy Irvin skillfully combines his “high” duty with the position of managing director at Pax Mondial PMC.
We are also extremely curious what kind of advice the cannabis company could receive from a former Chief of Staff of the 82nd Airborne division, Jouni Keravuori, who also worked at the SAS Institute, General Dynamics and the same Pax Mondial and Pax Safe. Perhaps his daughter-in-law and, concurrently, Brigadier General Rose Lopez Keravuori, helps him with this. Since 2023, she has been serving as the Director of intelligence (J2) of the U.S. Command in Africa.
The Anyone Minds adviser Jouni Keravuori [Source: ciagate.substack.com]
There’s only one big question–how in this world having so many professionals at service, the Anyon Minds hasn’t even started the business?
The fact is that we managed to find a project for the construction of a hemp cultivation complex, dated to the end of 2022. However, according to the Google Maps, the construction process on the coordinates (18.03068, -67.08988) at the time of publication hasn’t even begun, and the AgReliant Genetics, a seed research and production company, still owns the land.
Hemp complex construction project [Source: ciagate.substack.com]
We’ve got a feeling that the CIA, represented by the Anyon Minds, had fallen back into old habits and is not engaged in the cultivation, but the legalization of cannabis products through established supply channels from cartels in Latin America. That’s why the Anyon Minds was registered in Puerto Rico.
After all, it is likely that in distant future the cannabusiness would be one of the sources of income, after Manuel and his team decide to retire. After all, let’s figure out what these amigos exactly do.
Drones’ modernization and delivery to foreign countries
According to our source, Mr. Benitez maintained close cooperation with Johnna Holeman and another member of Noetic International, Hans Mumm, mentioned in one of our previous investigations.
The cooperation was focused on:
- improving capabilities of automated drones manufactured by the Airgility and the Safehaven Marine paramilitary companies;
- optimizing the automated functionality of existing UAVs, including an anti-missile drone capable of intercepting shells and counterattacking a missile launch site;
- improving the “world’s fastest sea drone” with a customer-tailored weapons system (aerial and underwater) (Project Barracuda by Safehaven Marine).
- Noetic team also discussed a special “Vanilla program” related to a new unmanned aerial system. Check the project summary here.
[Source: ciagate.substack.com]
Moreover, according to our source, in October 2022 Manuel Benitez participated in coordination meetings on drones in Washington, D.C. with some individuals from the DOD and intelligence. These meetings were attended by the aforementioned Jouni Keravuori as well as a number of representatives of interested countries (including Finland and Poland).
The Noetic International and the Anyon Minds also interacted with the Peruvian government in late 2022. They offered the country’s authorities to purchase reconnaissance drones through Hans Mumm’s Victory Systems. The presentation described such unmanned aerial systems as Penguin and Fenice. It was noted that these UAVs would allow Peru’s security forces to identify protest leaders’ meetings in real time, as well as monitor points of large crowds of people.
Conversation between Hans Mumm and the head of the Command and Control Division of the Joint Chief of Staff Angel Augusto Sosa Guevara. [Source: ciagate.substack.com]
Holeman and Mumm also promoted the purchase of Barracuda autonomous combat boats, which are capable of carrying both UAVs and torpedoes, hypersonic missiles.
Project Barracuda by Safehaven Marine [Source: ciagate.substack.com]
And, last but not least, in their opinion, such a cooperation would improve the company’s reputation and provide new opportunities for concluding long-term contracts.
Victory Systems Presentation Slide [Source: ciagate.substack.com]
What’s the most interesting is that the representatives of the Anyon Minds DIRECTLY negotiated with the Ukrainian authorities. It should be noted that during his trip to Kyiv in October, 2022, Benitez personally communicated with Mykhailo Fedorov, the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine for Innovations, Education, Science and Technology–Minister of Ukraine for Digital Transformation. They discussed the issues related to the supply of drones as part of military assistance. By the way, the representatives of notorious Gallant Knights PMC also attended to the meeting, however, due to some disagreements, the company left the project.
And, of course by coincidence, Fedorov oversees the Army of Drones project that implies UAV procurement at the request of the Ukrainian military.
Forbes article on the supply of commercial drones as part of military assistance to Ukraine. [Source: ciagate.substack.com]
This article refers to the Penguin UAS. It was this type of drone that the Victory Systems intended to sell to the Peruvian government. According to United 24, ten sets worth more than $17M.
United 24 website. [Source: ciasubstack.com]
It turns out that the cost of one set exceeds $1.5M. We are extremely curious how much more expensive these drones were within the framework of military assistance to Ukraine. We also possess reliable information that several Barracudas have already been purchased for Ukraine. So, while the official cost ranges between $3-5M per boat, imagine final amount of the contract.
This war not only fabulously enriched Benitez and his team, but also allowed the CIA to establish gray-trading schemes and market channels for the sale of unmanned vehicles to Ukrainian officials. And this is only the tip of the iceberg.
PART II
The Gallant Nights LLC
Below we talk about one dubious private military company (PMC) also involved in CIA’s corruption scheme in Ukraine. We will show how the agency uses Hollywood celebrities to empty the wallets of their fans.
It’s not a secret that the CIA occasionally uses PMCs in its operations around the globe. In 2009, The New York Times reported that the agency hired BlackWater PMC as part of its secret program to find and kill Al-Qaeda leaders.
Blackwater mercenaries in Iraq. Blackwater served as a cover for CIA operations. [Source: brewminate.com]
But why does the agency need mercenaries to do the job, considering that it has own Special Activities Center (former Special Activity Division), a paramilitary unit capable of performing tasks in extreme, life-threatening conditions?
There are at least three reasons for this:
- Flexibility to operate in a “gray zone”, which is still not clearly defined by international legal norms
When it comes to a covert operation, the CIA has unlimited variations of how to conduct it. It means that one of the SAC units, using fake documents, can be transferred to any war zone under the guise of, for example, Mission Six Zero instructors or the average volunteer. It should be noted that such a mechanism may go both ways, so a mercenary can count on the CIA’s offer to join the agency. - Extensive ties in a small world of mercenaries
Current operatives and senior CIA officials maintain regular contact with their former brothers-in-arms in the private sector. In Part I we also showed how former mercenaries from the PaxMondial and the PaxSafe brought up their colleagues to the CIA. - Recruiting foreign intelligence officers
Surprisingly, The New York Times allegations that in 2016 Kyrylo Budanov had been trained by the CIA instructors went practically unheeded. In fact, from that very moment Mr. Budanov should be treated as a CIA asset. We can’t know for sure, but this version has common sense, because four years later, in 2020, the newly elected president Zelenskyy, another CIA puppet, apoints Budanov to the head of Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR). What a spectacular career leap, isn’t it?
So, what is this private military company we want to tell you about? Ladies and gentlemen, please meet The Gallant Knights, LLC.
The head of the company is Nathan White-Wilson, “an accomplished subject matter expert and versatile executive with more than 24 years of experience as a former Senate and congressional adviser in national politics, military operations and international business.”
We are not going to talk about the history of the Gallant Knights, as this information you can find on the Internet. However, analyzing this PMC, we’ve detected a couple of inconsistencies:
- The Gallant Knights claims to have its own office at Patrick Air Force Base, in Florida. However, they’re only renting a post office box there. By the way, the Noetic International Inc. also has no any physical address (special thanks to Ileen Fahr-Wright for the tip).
- The GK also claims it has an office at the McDill Air Force Base (Tampa, FL), but this is also a false statement. During our phone call with the press office of the military base, they said there are no GK offices on their property.
- The PMC says it is GSA-certified. Yet according to records at our disposal, the Gallant Knights never held a certificate like this.
In other words, this PMC is of dubious origin. Nevertheless, it signed a contract with the Ukrainian government. At least, this is evidenced by the document we received, dated August 2023.
Document confirming the deal between the Gallant Knights, LLC and Ukraine. [Source: ciagate.substack.com]
It seems that one of the main GK’s purposes in Ukraine was to develop and modernize the necessary skills of Ukrainian active servicemen and law enforcement officers to perform “sensitive operations.” Under the contract, the GK also has to provide services to the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the field of “air support operations.” In particular, their activities involve the training, equipment, deployment and use of unmanned (including sea-based) vehicles.
7183_Short_Form_20230824_2 Download
According to Intelligence Online, over the next four years the GK is to train about eighteen thousand Ukrainian troops, which is approximately 4.5 thousand soldiers per year. To find out how realistic it is to train such a number of soldiers, we turned to the veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces, a specialist in combat training, Jeffry Prather.
… “This is quite possible… My own training center trained tens of thousands of people in five-day courses. In any case, it all depends on the skills you need to get.”
Since NATO ways of training had no any effect on the battlefield, different war lords from the private sector got involved. And, of course, Mr. Wilson didn’t want to stand aside either.
Initially, having ties to the American government, White-Wilson hoped his services could be funded by the U.S. financial aid to Ukraine. However, money provided by the White House were mainly used to pay for military equipment and weapons. Thus, the chance to appropriate the Americans’ money was getting smaller every minute. But White-Wilson refused to give up. He had to do something…
To get out of this awful crisis and find an interested party in Ukraine, the GK turned to a specific problem-solver company you already know—the Noetic International Inc.
After receiving a “modest fee,” these advisers helped Nathan to find the right person in the Ukrainian government.
Note: In Part 1 we said that the GK left the project. However, we found out that there was some kind of conflict between the parties. We assume that the disagreement was related to the amount of the fee taken by the Noetic International.
When it comes to training, weapons supply or anything that affects military sector, any contract should be concluded at least with the local defense department. (the Ministry of Defense in Ukraine).
This time, by a strange coincidence, the interests of Ukrainian military were represented by Yuri Matsyk, one of the assistants to the Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov. If you remember, in October 2022 Fedorov personally welcomed Emanuel Bentitez, one of the Noetic International figures, in Kyiv. Do you see where this is going?
As a result, we see an extremely amusing CIA scheme for money laundering:
CIA’s scheme to launder U.S. Financial Aid Through Noetic International Inc. [Source: ciagate.substack.com]
- The Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov orders all the necessary equipment/service/weapons through “liaison officer” Manuel Benitez;
- Mr. Benitez redirects the application to Johnna Holeman and John Irvin, who call their “friends” in the intelligence community to look for a “preferable” contractor;
- After the contractor is found, the Noetic International organizes a communication channel with the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine;
- After the work’s done, the Noetic International takes a “small” fee from both sides, depending on the amount of the contract.
- According to our source, the amount of the four-year deal between the Ukrainian government and the GK was estimated at $60-80 million. It should be noted, that the contract amount exceeds the market price by 20-30%. Given the fact that the GK personnel were spotted on Ukrainian soil a couple of months ago, the deal had been eventually signed.
Is it possible that these 20-30% went to the Noetic International specialists for their work? We believe yes.
But anyway, if you think such inflated price tags somehow bother the Ukrainian government, you are wrong. In fact, all this comes from U.S. taxpayers’ money, sent by the U.S. Congress.
And CIA director William Burns keeps insisting on the need to give more money to Zelenskyy.
United24 and “useful idiots” from Hollywood
As we said before the Ukrainian digital minister Mykhailo Fedorov oversees the Army of Drones project, an initiative that implies combat UAV procurement at the request of the Ukrainian military. But what is important here is that all the purchase of these UAVs is carried out with money raised from the United24 charity fund, so warmly supported by numerous Hollywood stars, bands and other celebrities: Mark Hamill, Robert de Niro, Imagine Dragons and others.
You can find the full list of “United 24 Ambassadors” here. [Source: ciagate.substack.com]
So, we decided to learn a little bit more about this fund. After some research we came across the report of the Ukrainian Institute for Legislative Ideas’ entitled “Corruption risks during the use of funds from accounts United24.”
Here are key findings from the study:
- All the analyzed Procedures contain lists of possible uses of funds from the special accounts. However, in some cases the uses of funds are not clearly defined, the lists of potential uses are effectively approved as non-exhaustive, which invalidates any detailing of expenditure items. In this situation, funds can be directed to virtually anything.
- The Procedure does not contain criteria and requirements for members of the Commission, nor does it specify public access to information about the work of the Commission. This indicates that the Commission’s formation is insufficiently transparent as a process, which, in turn, may affect whether the distribution of funds is transparent, and may also prevent any public control over this.
- No specified deadlines for transfer of funds to recipients. The absolute majority of the procedures under study contain no deadlines for the transfer of funds to their recipients. This is a corruption risk because it may be used to influence specific recipients of funds (for example, force them to choose specific contractors or engage in other forms of undue influence).
- The procedure does not provide for any mechanisms of transparent, open consideration and allocation of funding for specific objects, no mandatory reporting, no maintenance of an open register of applications and their review status, etc. Currently, information on the number of submitted applications and the funds necessary to grant them, as well as information on the decisions already made, is not available.
- The procedures for the distribution of funds do not provide for mandatory registers (lists) of submitted applications for funding. Under such conditions, applicants will not be able to track the status of their applications, and the public will be deprived of tools to monitor this process.
See full document below:
Corruption_Risks_During_The_Use_Of_Funds_From_Accounts_United24 Download
This study was carried out in connection with the emergence of questions among the Ukrainian population about the final recipients of donations and transparency of the functioning of the fund. It is worth noting that after a year and a half, all the existing problems in the report were not only eliminated, but significantly worsened.
So, it turns out, that millions of dollars of donations spent on UAVs procurement could easily go straight to CIA-affiliated companies, such as Victory Systems, LLC. Another question is: were there any drones purchased after all? As we can see from the report, the transparency of the United24 fund leaves much to be desired. Anyway, this time the American celebrities played the leading roles of useful idiots, hiding America’s real enemies.
At the same time, the degree of cynicism of those who decided to plunder hundreds of millions of Star Wars fans around the world, who once associated themselves with the character of Mark Hamill, the brave Jedi knight Luke Skywalker, fighting tyranny for a better future, never ceases to surprise.
You can clearly see that today’s Central Intelligence Agency is nothing but a pretorian guard, the main goal of which is to defend the interests of the deep state. However, many people still don’t realize this, calling any evidence a “conspiracy theory” or describing the agency as something intangible.
▪ ▪ ▪
This article was first published in CovertAction Magazine