FTR-25 OTRAG (Two 30-minute segments) $8.50
These segments discuss a remarkable German company which leased thousands of square miles in Zaire in the 1970’s. This company, an extension of the [then] West German aerospace industry, had complete autonomy and functioned as, in effect, a state-within-a-state. The principal figures involved with OTRAG were veterans of the Nazi rocket development program during World War II, many of whom had gone to work for the United States after the war. Although the stated purpose of their operation was to develop inexpensive rocket delivery vehicles for civilian satellites, the vehicles they were developing had military applicability and, as such, may have been illegal. In addition, there is considerable evidence that the company was functioning as a NATO front organization for a variety of purposes including providing logistical support for U.S. covert operations in central Africa. Perhaps the most ominous aspect of OTRAG’s operations concerns the possibility that the company may very well have been involved in joint research with American institutions undertaking the development of genetically-altered, immune system-destroying monkey viruses. This research may have led to the development of AIDS and Ebola. (See also: FTR #’s 4, 16, 17, 19, 24, 35, 55, 56, 62, 63, 73, 76.) (Recorded on 1/5/97.)