Comprehensive New Cut-Rate Directory Opens Public Window To World Leaders' Identities

Longtime global affairs commentator and author Wayne Madsen last week published a comprehensive, 888-page directory of world leaders that provides a rare if not unique low-cost tool for businesses, non-profits and governments that seek to foster relationships around the world.

Madsen — author of nearly a score of previous books and also a prolific investigative reporter whose cutting-edge stories are frequently cited here by the Justice Integrity Project, as elsewhere — published the directory via the subscription news and investigative site that he publishes, The Wayne Madsen Report (WMR).

WMR announced on April 2 that the titled WMR International Political Handbook “provides information on every government in the world” regarding leaders. In an interview, he said that directory includes many government entities and personnel who are typically ignored for political reasons in other directories.

Madsen, shown at left in a photo by our project taken at one his lecture appearances, said that one of his goals in the English-language directory was to provide more comprehensive information than readily available elsewhere, in part to enable American entities and their personnel to compete effectively in the international arena.

Madsen believes that well-financed foreign and domestic operatives with authoritarian and/or corrupt track records are solidifying their influence over international officials who remain unknown to many Americans with relevant interests.

Madsen has frequently reported, for example, on what he regards as dangerous efforts by Trump advisor Steve Bannon to foster a worldwide neo-fascist alliance of nations and key officials. Bannon is shown at right with one of his billionaire backers, Guo Wengui, right, a fugitive from his native China. Bannon, pardoned by Trump from felony charges in a massive grifting scheme, also has been financially supported in his political efforts by the vulture capitalist Mercer family. The Italian government recently forbade Bannon from operating a global right-wing political academy in castle that he and his backers had acquired.

In the interview, Madsen expressed hope that his new directory could help provide new opportunities for both Americans and local officials to withstand such pressures by providing government information more widely. The directory, currently published only in electronic format, lists its price as $35 but is available on an introductory basis at half that cost, or $17.50, via the WMR “special studies bookstore” here:   

Madsen is a computer security and data privacy specialist, as well as an investigative journalist specializing in intelligence and technology matters. He previously served in computer security positions in the Department of State, the National Security Agency, Department of the Navy, RCA Corporation, and Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC). His reporting and military service have taken him to five continents and many small island nations, with projects that included street reporting investigating genocide in Rwanda and sex trafficking in Southeast Asia involving VIP American officials.

A former Navy intelligence officer and analyst with the National Security Agency, his first book was The Handbook of Personal Data Protection, published in 1992 by Palgrave / Macmillan while he was chief scientist at CSC. The book extended to 1,045 pages. It summarized in English the data protection laws in dozens of nations at a pivotal time when the Internet and Net-enabled services were rapidly expanding, with relevant law evolving quickly but difficult to ascertain because it was being enacted for the most part in non-English languages.

Later, Madsen became a Senior Fellow with the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and the principal author of two of its reports: Critical Infrastructure Protection and the Endangerment of Civil Liberties and Cryptography and Liberty. In that role, he was a frequent guest commentator on nearly all of the major U.S. network and cable news programs.

More recently, he has been a syndicated columnist with opeds appearing hundreds of times in U.S. newspapers and an investigative reporter on controversial topics, many of them receiving little or no coverage by mainstream media. His outlets have included controversial U.S. and international ones, including in years past RT and the Alex Jones “Infowars” show.

He has often broken with past outlets and their managements, such as Jones, when he believes the facts warrant, and has frequently received death threats as a consequence from political zealots who believe he should not break new ground on stories that reflect poorly on past outlets and their political positions.

The Justice Integrity Project has worked closely with him on many stories, including major investigations of sex scandals involving House Speaker Dennis Hastert and, separately, ones involving Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump.

As such, this editor is in a position to recommend strongly this new book as a highly cost-effective tool — indeed one that is vastly underpriced, considering the value of the information. The publisher’s announcement is republished below.

Wayne Madsen Report (WMR), Publication of WMR International Political Handbook, Wayne Madsen, April 2, 2021. WMR today announced publication of an 888-page reference book, titled WMR International Political Handbook, which provides information on every government in the world.

“Unlike the recently-released annual U.S. Department of State’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, replete with judgmental calls and biases,” the announcement said, “WMR’s report does not rest upon what the United States considers to constitute a sovereign state. Since the United States recognized several Native American nations as independent international treaty partners, our report includes their governments and legislative bodies as sovereign entities.”

The announcement continues as follows:

The report also includes secessionist governments and governments-in-exile. Therefore, there are entries for the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics in eastern Ukraine, Republic Srpska, the governments-in-exile of Cabinda and Tibet, and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Our report also groups nations within their spheres of influence. Thus, the so-called “Freely Associated States,” although members of the United Nations, are included under the United States. The nations of the Commonwealth are listed under the United Kingdom, the members of the Commonwealth of Independent States/Eurasian Economic Union under the Russian Federation, and much of Francophone Africa under France.

Other de facto entries are made for Myanmar. The governments of the autonomous regions of Myanmar are listed even though many have gone underground and are fighting against the Myanmar military junta that seized control from the civilian government in January 2021.

Our report notes the rise of fascist, neo-Nazi, Islamist radical, and Christian fundamentalist racist political parties in legislatures and executives around the world.

We also point to the growth of “vanity” political parties that serve the interests of single political figures. These include the United Russia party of President Vladimir Putin in Russia, below right; the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India, and the Alliance for Brazil (ALIANÇA) of President Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil.

Russia, India, Ethiopia, and Somalia have adopted policies that are aimed at limiting the autonomy of constituent members of their federal governmental arrangements. Our report continues to list Russia’s autonomous republics and regions as separate entities, as is also the case with the states of India, Ethiopia, and Somalia.

Right-wing and libertarian movements around the world have found it fashionable to demonize governments as public enemies.

Our survey points out that many governments today are more responsible to their citizenry in providing essential services than ever before. For example, Australia’s Agriculture Ministry now includes “Drought” as one of its major areas of responsibility — a recognition of its precarious future with regard to climate change. Scotland’s Cabinet includes a Secretary for the Environment and Climate Change as do those of Canada, Belize, Gibraltar, Jamaica, New Zealand, and the Australian state of Victoria and the Northern Territory.

Governments have also included Cabinet-level portfolios for prevention of family violence, assistance to seniors and the disabled, gender equality, digital development, and E-governance. Contrary to what the right-wing and so-called “libertarians” propagandize about “big government,” these ministries and agencies represent responsive good government.

Every morning, around the globe, from mountainous capitals over 6,000 feet in elevation and arid cities in deserts to government centers deep in jungles and mega-cities of over 20 million people, government officials head to work to perform legitimate and needed services for their fellow citizens. Efforts to demonize government, in general, are a cynical ploy by special corporate interests and fascist-oriented politicians to absolve themselves of responsibility for the common welfare of the citizenry.

The sub-title of our report is “Vital Information for an Ever-Changing World.” There are over 500 legislatures at various levels of national, state, provincial, and regional government having varying degrees of power in the world today. This report identifies every one of those and provides the names and offices of government and legislative officials.

West Pokot, Labuan, Caprivi Strip, Akwa-Ibom, Garo Hills, Chuuk, Ngiwal, Koofur Orsi, Kathiri State of Seiyun, and Kabylie are likely not household names to members of the U.S. Congress, Pentagon generals and admirals, or politically-appointed U.S. ambassadors. They are, however, well known to Chinese “Belt and Road” planners and engineers, Russian military planners, and Japanese businessmen. Each represents a potential geo-political flashpoint or a lucrative place to conduct business. This WMR report explains where these critical locations are situated and who is in charge of them.

Note on pricing: WMR is offering the WMR International Political Handbook to its members at a significant 50 percent discount — $17.50. “The report took six months to research and compile,” according to the site’s editor, Wayne Madsen. “The pandemic resulted in a drastic financial toll on WMR, from which we are currently striving to recover.”

Contact the author Andrew Kreig

  Other Wayne Madsen books include:

Trump’s Bananas Republic (2018)

The Almost Classified Guide to CIA Front Companies, Proprietaries & Contractors (2017)

The Christian Mafia (2015)

Tales From the CIA Crypt: Political Assassinations (2014)

The Betrayal of ‘The Scorpion’ and ‘The Poet’ (2014)

National Security Agency Surveillance: Reflections and Revelations, 2001-2013 (2013)

The Manufacturing of a President (2012)

Decade of Death: Secret Wars and Genocide in Africa 1993-2003 (2012)

Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa 1993-1999 (1999)

The Handbook of Personal Data Protection (1992)