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<h1 class="reader-title">The Curious Case of ‘Han Solo’, a CIA
Contractor Accused of Terrorism in Venezuela who Claims he was
on a Simple Boating Holiday</h1>
Mar 7, 2021.- This week, from the disturbing CIA operations
file, comes the case of Matthew John Heath, an American and
former Marine accused of sabotage, terrorism, trafficking
illegal weapons and conspiracy.</div>
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<p>You could be forgiven for thinking that an ex-Marine
going on trial for terrorism charges in Venezuela might
meet with the sort of US media coverage that the Amanda
Knox story attained, but the start of Heath’s trial has
warranted barely a whisper.</p>
<p>Heath was arrested last September alongside six
Venezuelans, including some military personnel. The gang
were apparently planning attacks on oil refineries, a
major bridge and possibly military installations, and
were caught at a roadblock with bricks of American
currency, high explosives, a satellite phone and a
grenade launcher.</p>
<p>Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro has accused Heath
of being a spy and terrorist working for the US
government, while his family maintains his innocence.
One of several letters<a
href="https://newschannel9.com/news/local/mystery-surrounds-former-marines-imprisonment-in-venezuela"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> smuggled</a> out
of prison and sent to Heath’s relatives reads, <em>“Don’t
WORRY! Han Solo always wins!”</em> His family have
opined that he was either simply an American in the
wrong place at the wrong time, or that the evidence was
planted in order to frame him.</p>
<p><strong>Seeking leverage or deafening silence?</strong></p>
<p>So, what are we to make of this? Sean McFate of
Georgetown University<a
href="https://newschannel9.com/news/local/mystery-surrounds-former-marines-imprisonment-in-venezuela"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> suggested</a> that <em>“A
soldier like Heath, whether or not he’s guilty, is
very attractive to authoritarian leaders like Maduro
seeking leverage with the US.” </em></p>
<p>But the US government has had little or no contact with
Heath, hasn’t moved to negotiate his release, and there
is no sign of Maduro using ‘Han Solo’ as leverage,
either with the Trump administration or with the new
Biden White House.</p>
<p>Instead, the deafening silence of US officials and
major media in response to Heath going on trial suggests
that they want to keep a lid on the situation. This is
likely due to the implication that this self-styled
pilot of the Millennium Falcon was working as part of an
ongoing disruption campaign being waged against
Venezuela by the CIA.</p>
<p>Investigative journalist Alan Macleod pursued this
angle in a recent<a
href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/media-completely-ignore-american-secret-agents-trial-for-terrorism-in-venezuela/275712/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> expose</a>,
noting Heath’s widely reported background working not
just for Marine Corps intelligence but also for the CIA,
before he joined MVM – an intelligence services firm who
contract almost exclusively for the US government.</p>
<p><a
href="https://orinocotribune.com/matthew-heath-part-of-covert-terrorist-operations-in-venezuela/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener">RELATED CONTENT:
Matthew Heath Part of Covert Terrorist Operations in
Venezuela</a></p>
<p>Macleod’s article highlights, <em>“Although MVM is
technically a private company, it was founded by three
former Secret Service agents and continues to work
closely with Washington… The only clients listed on
its<a href="https://www.mvminc.com/our-services/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> website</a> are
American government agencies. “Need a secret agent?”
begins its description of the company.”</em></p>
<p><strong>The Bay of Piglets: Recycling the Cuba playbook</strong></p>
<p>In May 2020, two former Green Berets led an amphibious
assault on Venezuela with the aim of storming the
presidential palace and<a
href="https://thegrayzone.com/2020/05/10/guaido-mercenary-contract-venezuelas-maduro-us-bounty-death-squad/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> installing</a> Juan
Guaido – the US’s preferred puppet leader of the country
– as the new president. As Macleod points out, this
event was quickly dubbed the ‘Bay of Piglets’ – a
reference to the CIA botched coup attempt against the
Castro government in Cuba in 1961.</p>
<p>In an interview with RT, he added, <em>“That this could
occur without at least the knowledge of the State
Department seems unlikely, at best.”</em></p>
<p>Following the Bay of Pigs, the CIA embarked on an
extensive program of black operations designed to
destabilise the Castro government. One<a
href="https://farm7.static.flickr.com/6063/6072930830_fd0de7f8ea_o.jpg"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> memo</a>,
titled ‘Possible Actions to Provoke, Harass or Disrupt
Cuba’, details a string of ideas including industrial
and military sabotage, economic warfare, and spreading
misinformation and disinformation.</p>
<p>Operations were carried out to <em>“create unrest and
dissension among the Cuban people” </em>and to
encourage the view that Castro’s <em>“value to the
revolutionary cause has diminished to the point that
plans are being made for his removal.”</em> Plans were
even made, under the codename <a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuUoDR-VTu8"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Operation
Dirty Trick</a>, so that if the first manned
spaceflight were to fail, they would manufacture
evidence to <em>“provide irrevocable proof… that the
fault lies with the Communists.”</em></p>
<p>Fast forward to today, and it appears that the CIA have
simply recycled their 60s playbook and used it as a
manual for targeting the Venezuelan government and
people. In between regular failed coup attempts, the US
government is deploying regular economic warfare,
sabotage and disinformation tactics to try to erode
domestic support for Maduro and ‘soften’ the country’s
resistance to the corporate empire.</p>
<p>Macleod summarised, <em>“For two decades now, there has
not been a day that has gone by that the US government
was not working in some way to overthrow the
government of Venezuela. They have tried organizing
coups and protest movements as well as longer term
strategies like funding political and social
organizations, as well as levying sanctions on the
country. There have also been many mysterious
incidents in Venezuela that the government alleges
were the work of unknown saboteurs.”</em></p>
<p><a
href="https://orinocotribune.com/who-is-the-us-mercenary-john-matthew-heath-and-what-about-mvm-inc/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener">RELATED CONTENT: Who is
the US Mercenary John Matthew Heath and What About MVM
Inc.?</a></p>
<p><strong>A blank space in a book</strong></p>
<p>If Heath, a.k.a. ‘Han Solo’, was indeed working as part
of a CIA black operation, which seems likely given the
evidence compiled by MacLeod and the general pattern of
events in Venezuela in recent years, then he is probably
a NOC – a non-official cover operative.</p>
<p>As outlined by Al Pacino’s character in the film ‘The
Recruit’ – which was originally written by the CIA’s
Hollywood liaison – most CIA officers working out of
embassies around the world enjoy official cover and
diplomatic immunity, but some become NOCs.</p>
<p>Pacino’s character says: <em>“The NOC is the truest
practitioner of espionage – always out there, always
alone, unprotected. If you are caught, you will most
likely be tortured, shot, and/or hanged. And here’s
the best part – no one will ever hear about it. You
will become a star on a wall, a blank space in a
book.”</em></p>
<p>Macleod commented on the increased contracting out of
NOC activities, saying, <em>“Much of Washington’s actual
dirty work has been outsourced to third parties,
however, through organizations like USAID (United
States Agency for International Development) and the
NED (National Endowment for Democracy).”</em></p>
<p>Back in the bad old days in Cuba, NOCs and other
disposable assets came in the form of Cuban exiles and
mafia lieutenants, but today, proxy war has been
corporatised and NOCs work for three letter
abbreviations like MVM, blowing up bridges and firing
grenades at oil refiners. Or at least, trying to.</p>
<p><strong>The world’s weirdest holiday?</strong></p>
<p>The CIA has remained predictably silent about Heath,
while the State Department’s only comment on the case
came in the form of a tweet by a spokesman asking for a
fair trial.</p>
<p>Neither the Trump nor Biden White Houses have had
anything to say about Heath, suggesting that there is an
official policy of not commenting on this politically
controversial case.</p>
<p>If Heath is, as he claims, an innocent civilian with a
military record and a penchant for ‘Star Wars’, who went
to Venezuela during a global pandemic to<a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNyZy1jXNqc"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> gain</a><em>“more
boating experience,”</em> then the State Department
would be advocating for him. If this were the travesty
of justice that Heath will no doubt make out it is when
the trial moves to the defence phase, then the US media
should be screaming blue murder.</p>
<p>Instead, the American government and major media
response to this innocent man on the world’s weirdest
holiday has been to politely ignore him, as though
getting caught with high explosives, surveillance photos
and machine guns is regular behaviour for Americans on
nautical vacations.</p>
<p><strong>Han Solo: A Matthew Heath story</strong></p>
<p>As Joshua Goodman, an American journalist,<a
href="https://newschannel9.com/news/local/mystery-surrounds-former-marines-imprisonment-in-venezuela"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> observed</a>, <em>“Heath’s
reputation for discretion, background in signals
intelligence for the Marines and past work as a US
government contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan seemed
straight out of a Tom Clancy novel.” </em></p>
<p>The Clancy parallels are apt, especially given the
latest adaptation of his work – Amazon’s ‘Jack Ryan’ –
focused its entire second season on glamourising an
off-the-books CIA coup against the Venezuelan
government, including storming the presidential palace.
The show, which is supported by<a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HHE2JTNwsE"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> both</a> the
CIA and the Pentagon, went to great efforts to project
Venezuela back into the public consciousness as a
desperate threat to US national security and in need of
extreme prejudice.</p>
<p>Macleod commented, <em>“Unfortunately, many of the plot
lines of shows like Jack Ryan have a tendency to come
true. This is because the writers are in close contact
with government agents who help them craft realistic
scenarios for their plots based on actual events or
plans.”</em></p>
<p>Despite this, I wouldn’t expect ‘Han Solo: A Matthew
Heath Story’ to be coming to a theatre near you anytime
soon.</p>
<p><em>Featured image: © Getty Images / Konstantin
Trubavin</em></p>
<p>(<a
href="https://www.rt.com/op-ed/517343-cia-contractor-terrorism-venezuela/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener">RT</a>) by Tom Secker</p>
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