Generally people live without thinking about the incredible number of processes that are hidden from their eyes. For example, it is unlikely that most people are concerned about the distribution of the state budget or the G20 summit.
Or take, for example, the CIA. What feelings arise in your mind at the mention of this abbreviation? Employees dressed like “Men in Black”, covert operations, which are not only impossible to talk about, but sometimes even to think about, an unimaginable network of agents around the world….
About the latter, by the way, there is a lot to tell. But before that, it is worth asking – why should anyone care about, for example, the dirty deeds of the CIA? It is a well-known fact that this agency carries out various activities around the globe, and often these activities are far from legal.
The answer is quite simple – sometimes the actions of the CIA contribute, oddly enough, to emptying the citizens’ wallets. What we see in the negotiations in the Senate or the House is the tip of the iceberg that we are allowed to see. If we look a little deeper, which the representatives of the CIAGATE team kindly allowed us to do, we will find something not very pleasant to the eye. First things first.
According to information published in the CIAGATE blog on Substack, CIA documents periodically mention Noetic International, a company that provides “various kinds of services to investors and entrepreneurs for the development of projects or businesses”. The company’s stated area of interest is the development of advanced technologies such as cybersecurity, renewable energy, robotics and, interestingly, aerial and sea-based drones.
Given this, it is not surprising at all that Noetic International is headed by persons somehow involved in the CIA – John Irvin and Jonna Holeman. Irvin, for example, has many years of experience in covert CIA operations, which he boldly declares in his social networks; Holeman, according to the authors, is a former American servicewoman of artillery units, who later joined the CIA and participated in the organization of supplies of artillery ammunition with white phosphorus to Ukraine through a tea company in Bulgaria.
It would seem, there is nothing surprising in the fact that former employees of US special services work in a company somehow connected with the development of advanced weapons. I thought so too when I first read the article on the CIAGATE blog. What surprised me was written next.
According to published information, Noetic International supplies various kinds of UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) and sea-based drones to other countries, including Ukraine. It is assisted by (attention) medical cannabis sales company Anyon Minds LLC based in Puerto Rico. Did nothing seem strange to you?
When visiting the company’s website, it looks like an ordinary resource for selling medical marijuana.
Except that there is nothing for sale on this website.
There is a list of products that the company offers, but all the products in this list are non-clickable, i.e. there is no possibility to look and check what it really is. But there is a tab “Products”, where various services are offered very vaguely and without any specifics and words such as “expertise”, “security systems”, “financial services”, “data analysis”, etc. are mentioned. It is noteworthy that the site has one wonderful button – “free consultation”, from the category “leave your request and we will contact you”.
Moreover, the CIAGATE team tried to find a place where Anyon Minds could grow its product. In the end – the complex has not even been built yet, although it is claimed that the company is already three years old at the time of publication of the investigation.
All this already looks like one big deception. Anyon Minds should have left a post on its resource like: “Marijuana is not here, but you are not interested in drones?”. That’s something the company can definitely boast about.
When you search for “Anyon Minds LLC” in any search service, the second or third option will be the LinkedIn profile of Manuel Benitez, which indicates that he is the CEO of the company. That said, the above person is a Licensed Personal Protection Specialist. Manuel is certified to have completed courses at PMC Academi in hand-to-hand combat, pistol and carbine proficiency, and chase evasion techniques. He also has experience with Pax Mondial LLC and Pax Safe.
Fascinating resume for growing pot, isn’t it? It’s worth noting that Benitez is far from the only member of the intelligence services in Anyon Minds. Another character is Guy Irvin, a US Special Forces veteran with years of experience in security operations in the Middle East and South and Central America. There is no way to confirm whether Guy is a relative of John Irwin, already mentioned in the context of the conversation about Noetic International, but their kinship would no longer be something surprising to you.
In the published CIAGATE investigation, they talk about how Holeman and Benitez in late 2022 proposed to the country’s authorities to purchase reconnaissance drones through Victory Systems company, hinting that they could be used to minimize the damage from the protests that unfolded in Peru, which left more than 20 people dead and hundreds injured. The presentation refers to designs such as the Penguin and Fenice. Holeman and Victory Systems CEO Mumm also promoted the purchase of Barracuda autonomous combat boats, which can carry UAVs, torpedoes, hypersonic missiles and other weapons.
Drones with marijuana have also been spotted in Ukraine. The investigation states that Benitez personally communicated with Ukrainian officials regarding the delivery of drones as part of military aid and the “Army of Drones” project. Not bad for a cannabis company, is it?
But we still haven’t answered the main question stated at the beginning of the article – why should you, the readers, care?
All important issues are decided not in public negotiations, but in closed offices, it’s no secret to you at all. And the distribution of the state budget is also discussed behind closed doors.
In fact, companies like Noetic International or Anyon Minds are a legal way to launder money without discussing it in Congress. See for yourself – since the beginning of the conflict, Ukraine has already received more than 75 billion dollars in aid from the US alone. How much of that money has actually gotten there?
By offering Kyiv goods at a price that is two or even three times higher, Washington, in fact, is using its own money to buy goods from itself that are knowingly more expensive than the declared price. The delivery of these drones and boats from Anyon Minds to Kyiv has not been officially announced anywhere. Why do it in disguise? Who and where does this money go?
Funds from our taxes bypassing the budget, having traveled from the District of Columbia to the capital of Ukraine and back, most likely go to the accounts of the persons mentioned in the investigation or associated with them, and then their trail is lost. It is not surprising that even at the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war it was said that at best 30% of all US aid to Ukraine reaches Ukraine. Such actions confirm this thesis in full.
How does the state further dispose of this money? They are clean, they do not need to be specified in any budget lines. And here the government and companies act together in their interests – both to invest this money in the realization of any undeclared plans and not to offend themselves. Corruption in its purest form is happening right under our noses, but we are unable to see it.
Such investigations by teams like CIAGATE make us think – what is really going on around us? Why is our money, which is hard to earn and easy to spend (thank you, Mr. President), being allocated to various covert and often illegal operations? The questions for the Biden administration are piling up more and more, and we are unlikely to get answers.
By William Strangegold
