Does D.C. Have Her Own Salon Kittys? (Revised version, originally written in June of 2007)

Washington D.C./Nazi Germany--It's highly doubtful that Deborah Jeane Palfrey knew anything about the subterranean activities of some of her associates, but could some of them have been agent provocateurs or spies? Or, with the capabilities of current surveillance technology, would it even be necessary? Could elements within the government and the two major political parties run sexual blackmailing operations under the color of legitimate investigations? Could foreign agencies be using escort services for similar ends? There is smoke.

Time and technology have changed the West's social landscape in substantial respects since 1933-1945 , but some things never change. Generally speaking, only the technology changes. This is another age, and some political tactics never die because they're always going to be useful later-on, and sometimes they get results. Instant communication was once the sole domain of the State, but today, we all have cell phones, pagers, laptop computers, GPS locators, unparalleled surveillance capabilities, and toys like the Blackberry and the new iPhone. Things have changed in the "secret world" as well, though the full-extent of these technological developments are unknown.

On Salon Kitty:

Although brothels were officially outlawed by the Third Reich, the elite Nazi SS security police had been authorized by Himmler before the war to engage prostitutes in intelligence gathering. The infamous Salon Kitty in Berlin's Giebachstrasse [11] was the brainchild of the Deputy Reichsfuhrer SS, Reinhard Heydrich. The high-class brothel was set up to increase surveillance of foreign diplomats and visitors as well as to gather dossiers on the sexual indiscretions of Nazi party big-wigs and government guests [Ed.-my emphasis]. ... (pp. 241-242) (heretical.com, "Love, Sex and War," by John Costello From Chapter 12: 'Black Propaganda and Sexpionage')

But Nazi Germany was hardly the precedent of this approach--it's ubiquitous throughout human history in various incarnations. The story of Samson and Delilah comes-to-mind. "Honey traps" or "plots" are nothing new, and the examples are common in the secret world. Interestingly, "Operation Kitty" was an overall failure for the Nazis controlling the enterprise. It didn't provide the huge-swath of intelligence that its creator--Reinhard Heydrich of the SS--had wanted, just a lot of compromising smut on NSDAP party officials and lower-rung functionaries.

This was most useful against other "Gauleiters" in the National Socialist hierarchy. Heydrich likely used some of this information, though the extent is unknown. Heydrich was assassinated by Czech partisans in 1943, and had been an architect of the "final solution." Interestingly, it was an "open secret" amongst NSDAP functionaries who frequented Giebachstrasse 11 that all conversations were being recorded!

The Salon Kitty was a German SD (Gestapo) establishment in which, according to German spy chief Walter Schellenberg, "...important visitors from other countries could be 'entertained' in a discreet atmosphere and...offered seductive feminine companionship. In such an atmosphere the most rigid diplomat might be induced to unbend and reveal useful information." Salon Kitty was set up in a large multi-storied apartment structure in a fashionable district of Berlin. Today, it's another kind of shop. It is described in The Schellenberg Memoirs (1956):

["]Double walls were built for the incorporation of microphones. These were connected by automatic transmission to tape recorders which would record every word spoken throughout the house. Three of our department's technical experts, bound by oath, were put in charge of his apparatus. The ostensible owner of the house [Kitty Schmidt] was provided with the necessary domestic and catering staff for the establishment to be able to offer the best service, food, and drink.["] (Spy Tech Agency.com, 12.02.1999)

The brothel's madam--Kitty Schmidt--had no control over the arrangement, and was a virtual captive of the regime, just like everyone else under the rule of NSDAP. It's entirely possible we have an entire network of this sort in North America today, just with different contours. This leads us to the role of sexual blackmail in politics.

There have been quite few "retirements" at the Pentagon under the Bush administration, and under Donald Rumsfeld's Department of Defense, there was an intense struggle for control of the Pentagon's bureaucracy. Of course, it hasn't been isolated to the DoD under Bush and Cheney. One can safely assume that the officer class of the United States are amply represented in the D.C. Madam's phone records, especially considering the presence of several numbers originating from Annapolis, as well as most of the region surrounding Washington D.C. Hotels adjacent to the Pentagon are also present.

There is a possible analog here from the era of NSDAP. In 1938, Hitler was finalizing his consolidation of power, but there were a few loose ends in the officer corps of the Wehrmacht:

For Hitler, the moment had arrived to clean house, to replace the crusty old generals with younger men eager to serve their Führer and follow orders, regardless of the consequences. The two highest ranking officers in Germany at this time were hold-overs from the days of President Hindenburg; Field Marshal Werner [V]on Blomberg, the Commander in Chief of the German Armed Forces, and General Werner [V]on Fritsch, the Commander in Chief of the Army. These stiff-lipped men with their rigid codes of honor were about to be toppled by that most vile of all things from their point of view, personal scandals involving sex. (historyplace.com, "Hitler Becomes Army Commander," 2001)

For Blomberg, it would involve the fact that the elder Field Marshal married a "former-prostitute," conveniently found in Weimar police records by Herman Goering, the founder of the SD. Himmler also got in on the game. Thanks to this information, on January 25th, Hitler could finally force Blomberg's resignation. Finally, no one would stand in-his-way, and there would be war. For General Werner Von Fritsch, things would be worse than Blomberg's predicament. Much worse.

He would be blackmailed by an obscure account in Gestapo files that he had had an homosexual encounter in an alley in 1935, the same year that Hitler purged the SA (Brown shirts) in the "Night of Long-knives." In short, Fritsch was felled by a "confidential informant." At about that same time, Stalin was using similar methods in purging the Central Committee of the Communist Party, killing his prey outright...because he could.

The irony was, the informant who "outed" Fritsch (the notorious Hans Schmidt--no relation to Kitty) had the wrong man. It was an officer named "Frisch." It didn't matter to the blackmailers and state pimps: Hitler moved swiftly to remove Fritsch anyway. Sixteen other generals would be removed through various methods, but the downing of Blomberg and Fritsch was that crucial beginning of total control over the German Army by NSDAP. Ironically, a number of these generals would be brought back as the war deteriorated...

"Hitler Becomes Army Commander," 2001:
http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/triumph/tr-army.htm

"Love, Sex and War,":
http://www.heretical.com/costello/12sexspy.html

Spy Tech Agency, December 2nd, 1999:
http://216.87.7.9/Intel%20Bulletin/Intel%20Bulletin%20019991202.htm

The Missing-Thread in Coverage of the Spitzer Scandal

New York City--Soon-to-be former governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, has a lot to be proud of and ashamed of. When he was New York State's Attorney General, he was busting many of the same shady lending and mortgage firms who were bailed-out by the fed and J.P. Morgan today. $200 billion was given in-loans to Bank of America (current owner of Countrywide, now under investigation), Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, and all the other sub-prime lenders--namely Bear-Stearns--who have run amok in a regulation-free environment thanks to the Bush administration looking the other way. But then along came state Attorney Generals like Spitzer.

Was the federal bust of Spitzer selective--was it payback for all the busts the former "Sheriff of Wall Street" made? We don't know this yet, but it's a possibility. The timing is very curious: just a few days before the bailout, we get the break in the Spitzer story and his name is thrust into-the-foreground.

What about the other clients identified in the investigation? If they're Republicans, we're not going to find-out anytime soon. Recall that Senator Vitter's presence on wiretaps of a 2001 investigation in New Orleans were suppressed for years by the Bush Justice Department. Then there were all the "mysterious" break-ins during 2007 at the campaign headquarters of Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, and the offices of Senator Christopher Dodd.

It's a real twilight time. But all that aside, one has to wonder if the newly-appointed Governor Paterson will be initiating any new investigations on Wall Street. Taking-down Spitzer surely had the aim of limiting them, underscoring the stupidity of his actions.

Historians are likely to be stunned at how selective most of the Justice Department investigations were under the Bush administration, and how Congress looked-aside when it was obvious for all to see. Funny how Americans are the last to know their own history. This aspect of the whole story is likely to be neglected into oblivion, down the memory hole, but the questions and suspicions are going to be there, forever. They'll just be classified until all the primary players are dead.

"National Security" will be the tired refrain, which in some respects is accurate: if Americans knew half of what's going-on under the color of authority, they might revolt. With all of the economic-woes created by this unprecedented era of corruption, it's unsurprising that both parties are alright about domestic surveillance--they might need it to survive our wrath when things have gotten so bad from their actions.

But if you look at how the exposure of Republican Senator David Vitter was handled and look at Spitzer's case, the Democratic governor's treatment certainly appears to be selective and blatantly partisan. This is not coming from a fan of the Democratic Party. Not only that, but it should be noted that the Spitzer case has a strange parallel with the blank inaction to impeach the vice president and president for far more heinous crimes. Calls for impeachment from the Republicans was resounding, while we can readily recall the sound of crickets on-their-part when it comes to their own.

Centrally, these would be war crimes, but the scope and depth of the Bush administration's overarching crimes are going to be marveled at for generations. Remember reading about slavery, or the Holocaust? Remember saying to yourself, "Were they stupid? Why did they put-up with that?!" Welcome to why not, your wondering is over. Have fun looking in the mirror tomorrow morning, then write, call, e-mail, and contact your representative and ask them what the hell they actually do there in Washington D.C. Better yet, if you have no ties to the establishment, why not run for office? Do what you do best.

DOES D.C. HAVE HER OWN "SALON KITTYS"?

Washington D.C./Nazi Germany--It's highly doubtful that Deborah Jeane Palfrey knew anything about the subterranean activities of some of her associates, but could some of them have been agents provocateurs or spies? Could the government run sexual blackmailing operations under the auspices of legitimate investigations?

Could foreign agencies be using escort services for similar ends? Time and technology have changed the West's social landscape since 1933-1945 in substantial respects, but some things never change. This is another age, and some political tactics never die because they're useful and get results. Instant communication was once the sole domain of the State, but today, we all have cell phones, pagers, laptop computers, GPS locators, unparalleled surveillance capabilities, and even the new iPhone. Things have changed in the "secret world" as well.

On Salon Kitty:

Although brothels were officially outlawed by the Third Reich, the elite Nazi SS security police had been authorized by Himmler before the war to engage prostitutes in intelligence gathering. The infamous Salon Kitty in Berlin's Giebachstrasse [11] was the brainchild of the Deputy Reichsfuhrer SS, Reinhard Heydrich. The high-class brothel was set up to increase surveillance of foreign diplomats [Ed.-my emphasis] and visitors as well as to gather dossiers on the sexual indiscretions of Nazi party big-wigs and government guests. ...(pp. 241-242) (heretical.com, "Love, Sex and War," by John Costello From Chapter 12: 'Black Propaganda and Sexpionage')

But Nazi Germany was hardly the precedent of this approach, it's ubiquitous throughout human history in various incarnations. "Honey traps" are nothing new, and the examples are numerous and wide-in-scope in the secret world. There is more. "Operation Kitty" was an overall failure. It didn't provide the huge-swath of intelligence that its creator--Reinhard Heydrich of the SS--had wanted, just a lot of compromising smut. This was useful against others in the National Socialist hierarchy, and Heydrich likely used it. Interestingly, it was an "open secret" amongst NSDAP functionaries who frequented Giebachstrasse 11 that all conversations were being recorded.

The Salon Kitty was a German SD [Ed.-Secret Service, or Gestapo] establishment in which, according to German spy chief Walter Schellenberg, "important visitors from other countries could be 'entertained' in a discreet atmosphere and...offered seductive feminine companionship. In such an atmosphere the most rigid diplomatic might be induced to unbend and reveal useful information." Salon Kitty was set up in a large house in a fashionable district of Berlin. It is described in The Schellenberg Memoirs (1956): ["]Double walls were built for the incorporation of microphones. These were connected by automatic transmission to tape recorders which would record every word spoken throughout the house. Three of our department's technical experts, bound by oath, were put in charge of his apparatus. The ostensible owner of the house [Kitty Schmidt] was provided with the necessary domestic and catering staff for the establishment to be able to offer the best service, food, and drink.["] (Spy Tech Agency.com, 12.02.1999)

The brothel's madam--Kitty Schmidt--had no control over the arrangement, a virtual captive of the regime, just like everyone else under the rule of NSDAP. It's entirely possible we have an entire network of this sort in North America. This leads us to the role of sexual blackmail in politics.

There have been quite few "retirements" at the Pentagon under the Bush administration, and under Donald Rumsfeld's Department of Defense, there was an intense struggle for control of the Pentagon's bureaucracy. Considering there are several numbers originating in Annapolis, as well as most of the region surrounding Washington D.C., one can safely assume the officer class of the US is amply represented in the phone records of Pamela Martin & Associates. There is a possible analog here from the era of NSDAP. In 1938, Hitler was finalizing his consolidation of power, but there were a few loose-ends in the officer corps of the Wehrmacht:

For Hitler, the moment had arrived to clean house, to replace the crusty old generals with younger men eager to serve their Führer and follow orders, regardless of the consequences. The two highest ranking officers in Germany at this time were hold-overs from the days of President Hindenburg; Field Marshal Werner von Blomberg, the Commander in Chief of the German Armed Forces, and General Werner von Fritsch, the Commander in Chief of the Army. These stiff-lipped men with their rigid codes of honor were about to be toppled by that most vile of all things from their point of view, personal scandals involving sex. (historyplace.com, "Hitler Becomes Army Commander," 2001)

For Blomberg, it would involve the fact that had the elder Field Marshal marrying a "former prostitute," found in Weimar police records by Herman Goering, the founder of the SD. Himmler also got in on the game. Thanks to this information, on January 25th, Hitler could finally force Blomberg's resignation. Finally, no one would stand in-his-way. For General Werner von Fritsch, things would be worse than Blomberg's predicament, much worse. He would be blackmailed by an obscure account in Gestapo files that he had had an homosexual encounter in an alley in 1935, the same year that Hitler purged the SA in the "night of long-knives." In short, Fritsch was felled by a "confidential informant." At about the same time, Stalin was using similar methods, killing his prey outright...because he could.

The irony was, the informant who "outed" Fritsch (the nefarious Hans Schmidt, no relation to Kitty) had the wrong man--it was an officer named "Frisch." It didn't matter, and Hitler moved to remove Fritsch anyway. Sixteen other generals would be removed through various methods, but the downing of Blomberg and Fritsch was that crucial beginning of total control over the German Army, the Wehrmacht. Ironically, a number of these generals would be brought-back as the war deteriorated...

"Hitler Becomes Army Commander," 2001:
http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/triumph/tr-army.htm

"Love, Sex and War,": http://www.heretical.com/costello/12sexspy.html

Spy Tech Agency, December 2nd, 1999: http://216.87.7.9/Intel%20Bulletin/Intel%20Bulletin%20019991202.htm

HOOKERGATE: DEBORAH JEANE PALFREY TEMPORARILY BANNED BY FEDERAL JUDGE FROM RELEASING MORE PHONE RECORDS

"The Court is ordering both the Defendant and her agents and attorneys, including counsel in her civil cases, Montgomery Blair Sibley, to not release, further distribute, or otherwise provide any person or organization the phone records of Pamela Martin & Associates and/or the phone records of Deborah Jeane Palfrey." -- From the court order issued today by U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler.

Washington D.C.--And so, we have the reason for why Ms. Palfrey's site is down, it was by a court order. This last Sunday, the "DC madame" and her civil attorney, Montgomery Blair Sibley, threatened to release her remaining phone records (once stated from 1993-2002, now "1996-2002"). In a strange twist, federal U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler has placed a "temporary restraining order" on the records, claiming the situation is akin to "witness intimidation."

So let's get this straight: I go and have illegal sex with a "prostitute," and I'm suddenly a "witness" to the crime that I was a co-conspirator in. That's a pretty creative interpretation of the law, isn't it?

Not that Palfrey seems the type to let this deter her; if she's as cunning as I assume she is, there's an individual (or more) out there who's going to do timed-releases onto the Internet of the phone records--if the judge and prosecutors turn up the heat or jail Ms. Palfrey. It could be done from another country, too, and shutting it down would be a real challenge, especially if the people releasing it were mobile.

In a letter dated Sunday, Palfrey's civil attorney, Montgomery Blair Sibley, had demanded that Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales conduct a special investigation into what Sibley described as an unfair prosecution of Palfrey's business. Sibley said that he would release Palfrey's phone records for all to peruse -- including Internet bloggers -- if Gonzales did not take action. Noting that ABC News had identified one federal prosecutor -- now deceased -- in its review of Palfrey's phone records, Sibley suggested that the remaining records probably contain the numbers of other notable customers and escorts. (Washington Post, 05.11.2007)

Man, what I would give for those records. Why, I would be proud to be one of the millions of bloggers who posted some of them on my site (with analysis). Ms. Palfrey and her lawyer might want to invoke whistle-blower laws, but one has to wonder the precise reasoning for the judge's injunctions.

Surely, it could be a bluff on Palfrey's part, but we have no reason to think so. Just ask Randall Tobias. It should be noted that Sibley has an expertise in federal forfeiture laws, and has even written a textbook on it that's available through Amazon.com. Perhaps Ms. Palfrey is ignorant in her ideas of "fairness" in Washington D.C., and all the other corridors of power. Has "fairness" ever entered into it? I should think not, and so her path is clear: she has to play as dirty and as ruthless as her former clients, and she has begun to.

This woman is a real quandary to established power, and it's not unlikely that she and her service were part of an infrastructure of rewards, secrets, and information networking. The reason for the new injunction is made clear in an AP release from May 8:

In his letter to Mr. Gonzales, Mr. Sibley said several years of phone records were never given to ABC News and that he plans to widely distribute the records in seven days unless a deal can be reached with the Justice Department. Mr. Sibley suggested in the letter that "the journalists and Internet bloggers who will receive these records have decidedly different standards than that of ABC News." Further release of the phone records might cause conflict with a judge's order barring Miss Palfrey from making certain disclosures. The exact scope of the order is under dispute [Ed-my emphasis.]. (AP, 05.08.2007)

And today, it's no longer disputed. Let's face it, powerful men usually never have anyone they can confide in--not even their trophy-wives--and that's OK. They should feel isolated, paranoid, and lonely because they covet power. In intelligence parlance, "pillow talk" has always been one of the easiest routes in obtaining intelligence. Getting into a man's--or woman's--head tends to work best after coitus.

You can see the possibilities in this, can't you? It's possible--even likely--that a whole lot of blabbing occurred [Ed., 06.14.2007-Ms. Palfrey has been comparing the whole case with the Profumo scandal in the UK, during the 1960s recently]. Damage control is almost impossible in this situation, especially with the potential for dissemination in the age of the Internet. But what's lost in all of this is the dead federal prosecutor:

In a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Palfrey’s civil lawyer, Montgomery Blair Sibley, contends that the Justice Department should compel ABC to disclose the prosecutor’s identity and whether he had any role in the Palfrey investigation. (ibid)

Today, the Department of Justice (Gonzales) has stated the prosecutor is "long-dead." Can we trust them at their word? Considering we know attorney general Gonzales is a serial liar, the reasonable answer would be "no." Simply releasing his name would clear everything up, wouldn't it? That's what we should expect from any legitimate investigation. Which leads us to...The investigation of Pamela Martin & Associates: when did the investigations really begin? Justice seems to be implying it wasn't before 2004. The problem is, how does the Justice Department have the name of the deceased prosecutor? Was ABC's statement that he was dead a tip-off to Gonzales? Did ABC have contact with the Justice Department over the contents?

A "career Justice Department prosecutor" identified in a news report as a client of alleged Washington madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey has been dead for nearly three years, the Justice Department said Tuesday. ...In a statement Tuesday, the Justice Department said the individual died in 2004, presumably before authorities began investigating Palfrey. "I don't know how dead people can influence prosecutions," Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said. (AP, 05.08.2007)

Curious, all that. I think Ms. Palfrey knows more about what's in those records than she's letting-on. Is the dead prosecutor a red-herring? He could be, but it's obvious you cannot trust anyone at face-value in this story.

The Washington Post Today: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/10/AR2007051001450.html

AP, 05.08.2007: http://washingtontimes.com/metro/20070507-110432-5627r.htm

AP on the dead prosecutor, 05.08.2007: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/05/08/national/a102104D46.DTL&feed=rss.crime