September 11 Commission Report - Gnostic Liberation Front

More important than demonstrating the ‘partnership’ between the Bush organization and
the Russian crime organization, the Riggs-Valmet/Konanykhine affair demonstrates that
the Bush organization actively attempted to ‘bury’ and hide the Russian moneylaundering
scheme on multiple occasions.
Miss Gerhke-Thompson, upon learning Konanykhine’s intent, went to the CIA and
volunteered to report his money-laundering activities. Her efforts to voluntarily report the
activities of Khonankhine were brought to an abrupt end when she was “outed” to the
KGB as a U.S. operative by double-agent Aldrich Ames. Khonankhine “fired” Miss
Gerhke-Thompson upon being informed by the KGB that she was feeding information to
the CIA.
“The operation was abruptly ended in September of 1993 when Konanykhine telephoned his
Washington associate Elena Cidorchuk-Heinz-Volevok from Turkey to instruct her to terminate the
contract with First Columbia Company, Inc., and to cut off all further communications with us. She
cited Konanykhine's decision to terminate the contract was based on his belief that I was a phoney.
In April of 1994, I was advised by two CIA intelligence officers that the operation had been
compromised by convicted spy Aldrich Ames. Mr. V corroborated that I had been compromised on the
operation. He personally had routed the traffic on the operation to Ames who was responsible for
monitoring money laundering operations at the CNC—the CIA's Counter Narcotics Center. An FBI
report submitted to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence confirmed that Ames and
Konanykhine were in Turkey in September of 1993 at the same time, in the same location, and at the
precise time that Konanykhine telephoned his assistant from Turkey to terminate the contract with First
Columbia Company, Inc.” [Statement of Karon von Gerhke-Thompson, Vice President, First
Columbia Company, Inc.]
The matter might have ended there, but in a subsequent report of the damage done to the
US intelligence operations by Ames, the CIA illegally excluded from its report to the
Congressional Oversight Committees (as mandated under the National Security Act of
1947) any mention of Miss Gerhke-Thompson’s activities.
“The failure of the CIA's money-laundering investigation, she said, was the only operation
compromised by Ames that was not reported to Congress as required by US law.” [White House under
fire for 'covering up' Russian corruption, Julian Borger, The Guardian (UK), September 23, 1999]
When Miss Gerhke-Thompson discovered that the CIA had omitted her operation from
its damage assessment, she directly reported it to Congress, against great political
pressure.
“Since my involvement with the Central Intelligence Agency and my efforts to bring the issues of
Russian money laundering operations to the attention of appropriate oversight committees, Washington
has been ever a city at my throat. And my career has been dormant.” [Statement of Karon von Gerhke-
Thompson, Vice President, First Columbia Company, Inc.]
At this point of the inquiry, the appropriate question might be posed: why did Ames use
the KGB to “protect” Konanykhine? If Ames’ Soviet handlers were protecting
Konanykhine, who was clearly and publicly aligned at this time with George Bush, it
suggests that Ames, his Soviet handlers, and Konanykhine were all part of larger Bush
plan. It is speculated that Bush tried to keep his operation quiet by suppressing the
Gerhke-Thompson incident during congressional hearings, and had pressure put on her to
THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 210