Wayne Madsen (journalist): Difference between revisions

Wayne Madsen (born April 25, 1954) is a Washington, D.C.-based author and columnist specializing in intelligence and international affairs. Al Jezeera, RT, and Alex Jones have referred to him as an investigative journalist.^[1] He is the author of the blog Wayne Madsen Report.^[2]

He has been described by several journalists including Andrew Sullivan at the Atlantic Monthly and Salon as a conspiracy theorist.^[3][4]

Madsen was born in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania on 28 April 1954 to an American mother and a Danish mariner. His grandmother, who emigrated to the U.S. with his father after World War II was Victoria Madsen, a Danish communist party official.^[5][6] In the 1950s Victoria Madsen was deported by the FBI^[7]

Madsen attended the University of Mississippi where he joined the Navy ROTC.

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Upon graduation from University of Mississippi, he joined the U.S. Navy. He was commissioned an ensign.

In 1982 he was stationed at the Coos Head Naval Facility. Naval Facility Coos Head had an allowance of twelve officers, ninety-five enlisted and 15 civilians. He was later given a bad fitness report by his executive officer, Lt. Cmdr. Marney Finch.^[8]

His new commanding officer at Coos Bay transferred him to Washington D.C. He resigned from the Navy in 1985 as a lieutenant, having been passed over for promotion. Madsen described himself as the "most senior lieutenant in the Navy"^[9] at the time of his resignation and has blamed his lack of advance on a powerful group of pedophiles hidden in the top of the U.S. Navy ranks. Madsen says that independent investigations into illegal homosexual activity in the federal government by other journalists were eventually published by the Washington Times in 1989.^[10][11]

In 1984 he "benefitted from the 1983 bombing of the Computer Area in the Washington Navy Yard" and the 1984 White House screening of the movie War Games which he suggests prompted President Reagan into putting money into computer security. He was loaned in 1984 to the NSA by the Navy to work in computer security.^[10]

Between 1985 and 1989 Madsen held a series of jobs, first working for RCA as a government consultant on contracts for the National Security Agency (NSA). Later he worked for the Navy's Naval Data Automation Command as a civilian employee. After this Madsen briefly established his own consulting firm, then worked for the National Bureau of Standards, and later for the State Department.^[10]

In 1990 Madsen joined CSC, working there from 1990 until 1997,^[10] when he joined the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) as a senior fellow. In late January 2005 Madsen left EPIC.^[10]

Madsen says that in 2001 he was denied a press pass as an Internet journalist to cover the first inauguration of George W. Bush.^[12]

In 2005 Madsen began working as a free-lance journalist for publications such as The American Conservative, CorpWatch, CounterPunch, CovertAction Quarterly, In These Times, Multinational Monitor, The Progressive and The Village Voice. His columns have appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Columbus Dispatch, Houston Chronicle, Philadelphia Inquirer, Miami Herald and the Sacramento Bee. Madsen also publishes his own news blog.^[7]

In 2002 he suggested to the Guardian newspaper that the United States Navy had aided in an attempted overthrow of Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez.^[13]

In January 2002 he expressed concern over the possible use of torture by the United States government against suspected terorrists,^[14] as well as possible plans to use the military in domestic law enforcement, in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act.^[15]

In 2003 he said that he had uncovered information linking the September 11 attacks to the government of Saudi Arabia as well as to Bush administration.^[16] In 2005, he wrote than an unidentified former CIA agent claimed that the USS Cole was actually hit by a Popeye cruise missile launched from an Israeli Dolphin-class submarine.^[17]

In 2005 he said that the pro-Israel lobby, AIPAC, had pressured American politicians to stay away from protests against the Iraq War.^[18]

In 2006 he criticized the Iraq Study Group, saying:

"I think it is a whitewash group and nothing will come of it, except that they may concoct some reason for the US to stay the course in Iraq, with perhaps a little more international support, like Germany and Canada. The commission is a whitewash because the members are all consummate Washington insiders, many of whom have a political and financial stake in the successful outcome of the war. The longer the war goes on the more money they make."^[19]

Later that year he criticized the movie industry for indirectly causing suffering in Africa by promoting diamonds in movies like Breakfast At Tiffany's and Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend. He included Leonardo DiCaprio, whose film Blood Diamond dealt with the issue, as well as Russell Simmons who is selling a line of "nonconflict diamonds." Madsen said about them, "It's a p.r. campaign. They should be saying, 'Don't buy diamonds at all.'"^[20]

In a 2008 ArabNews article, Madsen is quoted as suggesting that the criminal prosecution of New York State governor Eliot Spitzer was partly due to the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad.^[21]

On June 9, 2008 he reported that unnamed "GOP dirty tricks operatives" had found a Kenyan birth certificate registering the birth of Barack Obama, Jr. on August 4, 1961. "However, the registration is a common practice in African countries whose citizens abroad have families with foreign nationals."^[22] This birth certificate was a cornerstone of the "Kenyan Born" subset of the birther conspiracy theories, and Madsen's article was cited in a Washington state petition challenging Obama's eligibility to serve.^[23]

On April 25, 2009, Madsen reported that some unidentified UN World Health Organization officials and scientists believed the 2009 new H1N1 strain of swine flu virus appeared to be the product of U.S. military sponsored gene splicing, as opposed to natural processes.^[24][25] While it can not be ruled out that the virus was created in a research laboratory or vaccine factory, the most plausible explanation is that the virus is the result of modern farming techniques. New Scientist magazine cited the example of a H1N2 influenza pandemic in the 1990s that only affected pigs in the United Kingdom. This subtype of the H1N2 was also a reassortment (mix) of swine, human and avian strains.^[26]

In July 2009, Madsen released a report saying there was a Q Group within the National Security Agency tasked with concealing US government involvement in 9/11.^{[27][verification needed][unreliable source?][dead link]}

In 2010, Madsen reported in the Pakistan Daily that unnamed sources suggested that the company formerly known as Blackwater, had been conducting false-flag operations in Pakistan that were blamed on the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan.^[28]

• Jaded Tasks—Brass Plates, Black Ops & Big Oil: The Blood Politics of Bush & Co. (TrineDay, 2006) ISBN 0-9752906-9-X
• America's Nightmare: The Presidency of George Bush II with John Stanton (Dandelion Books, 2003) ISBN 1-893302-29-6
• Forbidden Truth: U.S.-Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy, Saudi Arabia and the Failed Search for bin Laden (foreword) Jean-Charles Brisard, Guillaume Dasquie (Nation Books, 2002) ISBN 1-56025-414-9
• Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa 1993-1999 (African Studies) (Edwin Mellen Press, 1999) ISBN 0-7734-8002-1
• Handbook of Personal Data Protection (New York: Macmillan Publishers Ltd, 1992) (reference book on international data protection law) ISBN 1-56159-046-0

• Wayne Madsen Report

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