by CIAgate
Preface
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.
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:
1) 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 average volunteer. It should be noted that such a mechanism may go both ways, so a mercenary can count on CIA’s offer to join the agency.
2) Extensive ties in a small world of mercenary
Current operatives and senior CIA officials maintain regular contact with their former brothers-in-arms in private sector. In Part I we also showed, how former mercenaries from the PaxMondial and the PaxSafe brought up their colleagues to the CIA.
3) Recruiting foreign intelligence officers
Surprisingly, but 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’s puppet, apoints Budanov to the head of Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR). What a spectacular career leap, isn’t it?
In the meantime, let’s go back to our investigation.
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 gonna talk about the history of the Gallant Knights, as this information you can find on the Internet so far. 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, FL. 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 the press office of the military base said it has no any GK’s offices on their territory.
• 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.
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 would also has to provide services to the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the field of “air support operations.” In particular, their activities affect the training, equipment, deployment and use of unmanned (including sea-based) vehicles.
According to the Intelligence Online, in four years the GK is to train about 18 thousand Ukrainian military, 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.
Since NATO ways of training had no any effect on the battlefield, different war lords from 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.
Important Note: In Part 1 we said that the GK left the project. However, we’ve managed to find 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 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’s scheme for money laundering:
1) The Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov orders all the necessary equipment/service/weapons through “liaison officer” Manuel Benitez.
2) 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.
3) After the contractor is found, the Noetic International organizes a communication channel with the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine;
4) 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 personell was 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 goes on American taxpayers’ money, sent by the U.S. Congress. And CIA’s 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 United24 charity fund, so warmly supported by numerous Hollywood stars, bands and other celebrities: Mark Hamill, Robert de Niro, Imagine Dragons and others.
So, we decided to know a little bit more about this fund. After making 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.”
So, here are key findings from the study:
