I am interested in researchers who can “connect the dots.” I have a tendency to learn a lot of facts, which I then quickly forget. But if someone is bright enough to relate those data points together into a coherent theme, I can see the bigger picture. One of those researchers is citizen journalist George Webb. George has assembled a number of researchers all over the world who send him stuff, which then he puts it together. George also goes to the places he researches and talks to as many people at the scene as he can. His Investigational IQ is about 200.

Today I learned about The Octopus, which is a Netflix four hour special about a book of the same name, written by journalist Danny Casolaro, who, according to Wikipedia, “was an American freelance writer who came to public attention in 1991 when he was found dead in a bathtub in Room 517 of the Sheraton Hotel in Martinsburg, West Virginia, his wrists slashed 10–12 times. The medical examiner ruled the death a suicide.” Casolaro said that he was there to meet a “source.”

The Octopus, according to Wikipedia (the home of orthodoxy) was

...a sprawling collaboration involving an international cabal, and primarily featuring a number of stories familiar to journalists who worked in and around Washington, D.C. in the 1980s—the Inslaw case about a software manufacturer whose owner accused the Justice Department of stealing its work product, the October Surprise theory that during the Iran hostage crisis Iran deliberately held back American hostages to help Ronald Reagan win the 1980 presidential election, the collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, and Iran–Contra.”

Wikipedia, “Danny Casolaro.”

That’s the “everybody knows” version.

According to Webb, The Octopus was/is much more than that. The Octopus has to do with the over 300 Indian reservations scattered throughout the US, particularly those west of the Mississippi. Many of these reservations are on land that contains natural resources such as oil, gold, uranium, etc. According to Webb there is a story behind this. And it of course involves money.

Adverse Possession

Before the FBI and the CIA were created, the Rockefeller oil companies (beginning with Standard Oil, which was broken up in 1911) did many geological and mining surveys on public land, and located the sites that contained these valuable natural resources. Some of these sites were on Indian reservations. This was good for the Rockefellers because Indian land was protected and no one could get to the resources. The Native American tribes had little interest in such things and didn’t know how to extract the resources. This allowed Rockefeller interests to set up extraction facilities so that they could claim the mineral rights to those pieces of land, under the doctrine of “adverse possession.”

According to MAJR Resources,

Adverse possession law is a concept in property law that allows a person to claim ownership of a property that is not originally theirs, provided they meet certain conditions. This concept is often referred to colloquially as “squatter’s rights.” The principle behind this law is that the utilization of land is encouraged and any land that is not being used should be turned over to someone who will use it beneficially....

“Unpatented mining claims are a unique aspect of property rights in the United States. This concept was established in the 19th century during the Gold Rush era, under the General Mining Law of 1872. Essentially, an unpatented mining claim gives an individual or entity the right to extract minerals from a specific parcel of public land, without actually owning the land itself.” [italics mine]

https://majrresources.com/does-adverse-possession-apply-to-unpatented-mining-claims/

So, even though resources are on tribal lands, powerful (and privately owned) outside companies can still take them.

Of course the Indians had title to this land and there were Native owners of these valuable parcels. But over the years these owners had a tendency to turn up dead. There was a movie about this called “Thunderheart,” starring Val Kilmer. It’s about an FBI agent of tribal heritage (Kilmer) who goes back to the res and finds that his boss (played by Sam Shepard) is protecting an illegal uranium strip-mining operation for a private group that is polluting the reservation’s water supply.The FBI boss is protecting the private group doing the extraction, and several of the Sioux tribal members are killed.

The tribes supposedly have autonomy over their lands, but apparently not when valuable resources are involved.

The point is that, by using the doctrine of adverse possession, you can extract valuable resources and make tons of money without even owning the land. And if you are powerful and connected, what can local tribal councils do to stop it?

The Osage murders

The most well-known of the resource extraction operations on Indian land was in Oklahoma, and the BOI (later renamed the FBI in 1933) was involved. One of the BOI’s first big cases was the Osage Indian reservation murders, most of which occurred between 1921–1926.

In the 1920s, oil-rich Osage Indians in Oklahoma kept mysteriously dying. During a period that came to be called the ‘Reign of Terror,’ scores, perhaps hundreds, were murdered.”

History.com, “The FBI’s First Big Case: The Osage Murders,” https://www.history.com/news/the-fbis-first-big-case-the-osage-murders

This was because of oil discovered on the reservation. The Osage, unlike the folks on the res in the movie Thunderheart, were wiser in the ways of the world.

The Osage had shrewdly retained the rights to any mineral discoveries, and oil barons such as J. Paul Getty, Harry Sinclair and Frank Phillips paid grand sums for leases at outdoor auctions held under the boughs of a vast tree dubbed the ‘Million Dollar Elm.’ The Osage became the richest people per capita in the world. They lived in mansions and had chauffeured cars. They had servants, many of whom were white.”

Id.

To make a very long story short, the wealth of the Osage attracted desperadoes and criminals, who began to murder the tribal members in order to get their money:

In order to maintain tribal control, shares of the oil money could not be sold by the Osage to white settlers, but they could be inherited. That loophole proved the genesis of a calculated, cold-blooded plot to gain inheritance rights from tribe members before killing them. In some instances, white settlers even married their marks to legally become the next of kin before murdering their spouses. Law enforcement generally turned a blind eye to the murders, and the FBI only investigated a fraction of the killings.”

Id.

In David Grann’s book Killers of the Flower Moon, he writes that the U.S. Congress appointed white “guardians” to approve every expenditure by the Osage, even down to the purchase of toothpaste. This led to the criminal enterprise that stole the Osage’s wealth. This all occurred before the creation of the CIA.

What is The Octopus?

So what is The Octopus? If you watch the four-episode Netflix series you don’t get an answer. It’s a limited hangout. “Oh, we’ll never know what really happened to Casolaro. The Octopus is just too complicated to unravel and it’s probably just another conspiracy theory.”

Well, someone killed that guy. Those who knew him said he had a fear of blood. He would never slash his own wrists.

According to George Webb and his researchers, The Octopus is the system of Indian reservations that became crime offices for the CIA in the US, and their organized crime controlled casinos that are used for money laundering operations. The Osage back in the 1920s is just one example of individuals and groups being taken advantage of by state actors and/or private interests. When I drive “up north” for my vacation (I live in Michigan) I always pass the brightly lit, well-attended casino on M-22. A few miles down the road is the town of Peshawabestown. Who controls the money that comes out of that casino? It sure as hell isn’t the people in whose name it was built, because they are living in ramshackle houses.

There’s a lot more to this story but I’ll stop here. What I’m learning as I investigate the history I lived through (I was born in 1951) is that the stories about important events I thought were true are either deliberate or an unintentional lies, coverups, or Narratives. Another thing I’ve learned is that Disclosure will come from people like George Webb, Steven Greer, and a host of citizen researchers not connected to Big Media.