Le Cercle in a global context

[Cain]

Le Cercle, also known as the Cercle Pinay, is one of those privately funded, low-key "think tanks" on security/international strategy that you've never heard of.

And there is a good reason for that.  From it's foundation in the 1950s, members of Le Cercle were almost uniformly far right in their politics, corporatist/MNC inclined in their economics, and aimed at not only defeating Communism abroad but also "subversion" at home, using a variety of methods which almost always included establishing links between establishment conservatives and European fascist organisations, such as the Portuguese Aginter Press.

However, finding out anything about Le Cercle is a nightmare.  Most of the really good work was done on it by a writer for the British parapolitical magazine The Lobster in the early 90s, when the group was linked to both Franz Josef Strauss and Jonathan Aitken.  The regular press tried to get some information on the group, but members uniformly used to refuse to talk to the press about the group.  As such, most of the information on it comes from a European and Cold War perspective.

However, a new article (on an admittedly somewhat untrustworthy website, by a sympathetic writer) suggests Le Cercle has a far more global vision, and included such infamous members of the American intelligence services as Theodore Shackley, the point man for some of the dirtiest operations in CIA history.  There are also links to Iran, Saudi Arabia and Georgia, as the text explains.  It was also lead at one point by Julian Amery, a very close friend of the SAS founder and UK-backed mercenary David Stirling, who, as the British empire steadily dissolved, undertook a covert strategy of continuing British influence in the Third World and Middle East in particular through setting up illicit arms deals and offering protection to every scum dictator who was not a problem for British interests in the region (see the Adam Curtis documentary The Mayfair Club for a good piece on Stirling, one which includes a significant quote from Amery, the same one quoted in this article).

The article also suggests that some possible Cercle members were responsible for spreading disinformation in the conspiracy community, especially in relation to UFOs, and tries to tie the group to the Brezinzkian "Grand Chessboard of Eurasia" strategy, one which of course nearly everyone involved in geopolitics is painfully aware of.

While a little high on speculation, the apparent new links this article brings up are interesting, and do shed more light on what Le Cercle may have been involved with when not attempting to combat Communism through alliances with fascism.

[LMNO]

I can't access at work, will try to read it at home.

[Cain]

Bump.

Link expired, go to https://wikispooks.com/ISGP/miscellaneous/2010_Le_Cercle_update.htm