Zena Halpern talking to Rick Lagina and Doug Crowell on The Curse of Oak Island Season 4. Pic credit: History
I first heard of the Deep State a month ago from my ex-friend, Christine Wandel. I could tell she was using this term to spin a covert web around me, and I ended our long friendship. Why hasn’t the Biden administration and his think tanks – fought this virus in the open?
I revealed the Real Deep State in my old blog The Bohemian Democratic Register, that crashed because of a virus. I had made enemies. Margaret Thatcher and Enron topped the list.
I believe I know the true linage of Kash Patel. I exchanged messages with Zena Halpern of Oak Island fame. I know the linage of the secret name found on a alleged Templar map. These knights were persecuted on Friday the 13th. Today is the aniversary of that trecherous event. Were they victim of the..
DEEP STATE?
John Presco
Patel has promoted multiple conspiracy theories,[b] and has been described as a conspiracy theorist.[62][64] Conspiracy theories promoted by Patel include the deep state conspiracy theory, false claims about 2020 election fraud, QAnon, COVID-19 vaccines, and false claims that the FBI instigated the January 6 United States Capitol attack.[44][b]
Patel is a believer of the deep state conspiracy theory.[62] In 2023, he published the book Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy, which Trump praised as a “roadmap to end the Deep State’s reign”.[60]
According to an American political conspiracy theory, the deep state is a clandestine network of members of the federal government (especially within the FBI and CIA), working in conjunction with high-level financial and industrial entities and leaders, to exercise power alongside or within the elected United States government.[1]
The term deep state originated in the 1990s as a reference to an alleged longtime deep state in Turkey, but began to be used to refer to the American government as well, including during the Obama administration.[2] However, the theory reached mainstream recognition under the presidency of Donald Trump, who referenced an alleged “deep state” working against him and his administration’s agenda.[3][4]
The term has precedents since at least the 1950s,[5] including the concept of the military–industrial complex, which posits a cabal of generals and defense contractors who enrich themselves through pushing the country into endless wars.[6]
Opinion polling done in 2017 and 2018 suggests that approximately half of all Americans believe in the existence of a deep state in the United States.[7][8]
Prevalence
Although the term deep state is thought to have originated in Turkey in the 1990s,[9] belief in the concept of a deep state has been present in the United States since at least the 1950s. A 1955 article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, quotes Americans sharing their belief in the existence of a “dual state”: a hidden national security hierarchy and shadow government that monitors and controls elected politicians.[10][11]
Usage by journalists and academics
Political scientist George Friedman alleges that such a deep state has existed since 1871, when the president’s power over federal employees was restricted.[12]
Historian Alfred W. McCoy argued that the increase in the power of the United States Intelligence Community since the September 11 attacks “has built a fourth branch of the U.S. government” that is “in many ways autonomous from the executive, and increasingly so”.[13]
Tufts University professor Michael J. Glennon stated that President Barack Obama did not succeed in resisting or changing what he calls the “double government” and points to Obama’s failure to close Guantanamo Bay detention camp, a major campaign promise, as evidence of the existence of a deep state.[14]
In a 2017 interview several weeks before Trump was inaugurated, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called Trump “really dumb” for having repeatedly criticized the CIA, saying, “Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you.”[15] Various commentators, as well as the ACLU, have pointed to this statement as evidence for the existence of a deep state.[16][17][18][19]
Rebecca Gordon, a teacher and author at the University of San Francisco, wrote in a 2020 piece for Business Insider that Trump has used the term “deep state” to refer to the U.S. government, in particular government Institutions that “frustrate” him, as well as block or fail to implement his government policy such as courts, the Justice Department, and the news media.[20]
Usage by public figures
In 2014, former Congressional staffer Mike Lofgren alleged that there was a deep state protecting “powerful vested interests” and that a “web of entrenched interests in the US government and beyond … dictate America’s defense decisions, trade policies and priorities with little regard for the actual interests or desires of the American people”.[21][22][23]
In 2017, former Democratic U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich alleged that there were individuals in the intelligence community attempting to sabotage relations between the United States and Russia.[24][25]
Former NSA leaker Edward Snowden has alleged that there is a deep state made up of civil servants.[26]
Usage by Trump and allies
U.S. Attorney GeneralMerrick Garland (pictured) has been targeted by numerous “deep state” conspiracy theorists and Donald Trump supporters for the 2022 FBI search of Mar-a-Lago.
During his presidency, Donald Trump and his strategists alleged that the deep state was interfering with his agenda and that the United States Department of Justice was part of the deep state because it did not prosecute Huma Abedin or James Comey.[27][28][29] Some Trump allies and right-wing media outlets alleged that Obama was coordinating a deep state resistance to Trump.[27][30] President Trump’s supporters used deep state to refer to allegations that intelligence officers and executive branch officials were influencing policy via leaks or other internal means.[31][32][33]
In 2018, Newt Gingrich alleged that Robert Mueller was part of the deep state for the Special Counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.[34]
In 2018, The New York Times published an anonymous op-ed by DHS chief of staff Miles Taylor titled “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration“, attributed at the time to a “senior official in the Trump Administration”. In the essay, Taylor was critical of President Trump and claimed “that many of the senior officials in [Trump’s] own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations”.[35] Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy described this as evidence of the deep state at work,[36] and David Bossie wrote an op-ed at Fox News saying this was the deep state “working against the will of the American people”.[37]
In 2018, Republican U.S. Senator Rand Paul alleged that the CIA only briefing the “Gang of Eight” on sensitive intelligence issues was an example of the deep state.[38][39][40]
In 2020, Trump cabinet member and acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney alleged that claims of a deep state working against Trump were “absolutely, 100% true”.[41]
The concept of a deep state is a central tenet of the QAnon pro-Trump conspiracy theory movement.[42][43][44][45][46] Trump’s talk of a deep state has been described as “repeating a longtime [John Birch Society] talking point.”[47]
Criticism
Niall Stanage has described how critics of Trump’s use of the term deep state maintain that it is a conspiracy theory with no basis in reality.[48]
UCLA School of Law professor Jon D. Michaels argued that compared with developing governments such as Egypt, Pakistan, and Turkey, governmental power structures in the United States are “almost entirely transparent”.[49][50][51] Michaels argues that the American ‘deep state’, which is really the ‘American bureaucracy’, includes federal agencies responsible for regulation, welfare, crime prevention, and defense, and the employees who operate them, fundamentally differs from Trump’s use of the term in five important respects:[51]
- Not Elitist – In the US, bureaucrats come from a diverse range of socio-economic backgrounds, especially when compared to those in the Middle East, and even Western Europe.
- Not Shadowy – American agencies are generally “transparent and accessible”, in comparison to those of the Middle East, Asia, and Europe.
- Not Monolithic – the American deep state is “internally diverse and fragmented.”
- A Bulwark, Not a Battering Ram – actions of civil servants in the US are inherently defensive, not proactive.
- Not an Extraconstitutional Force – the bureaucracy should be seen as part of the constitutional system of checks and balances in the US, which often serves as a final check on presidential or agency overreach.
Critics warned that use of the term in the United States could undermine public confidence in institutions and be used to justify suppression of dissent.[27][52]
Political commentator and former presidential adviser David Gergen said that the term had been appropriated by Steve Bannon, Breitbart News, and other supporters of the Trump administration in order to delegitimize the critics of the Trump presidency.[32]
Stephen Walt, professor of international relations at Harvard University, argued that there is no deep state and that “to the extent that there is a bipartisan foreign-policy elite, it is hiding in plain sight”.[53]
Anthropologist C. August Elliott likened military involvement in the Trump administration as a “shallow state” in which they were forced to guide the administration “away from a potential shipwreck”.[54]
Linguist Geoffrey Nunberg said that deep state is an “elastic label” in that “its story conforms to the intricate grammar of those conspiracy narratives”, referencing the transition of conservative rhetoric regarding “big government” from “meddlesome bunglers” to “conniving ideologues”.[55]
Fox News panelist Charles Krauthammer called the idea ridiculous, arguing that the United States government is controlled by a bureaucracy, rather than a government-wide conspiracy.[56]
Polling
According to an ABC News/Washington Post poll of Americans in April 2017, about half (48%) thought there was a deep state, defined as “military, intelligence and government officials who try to secretly manipulate government”, while about a third (35%) of all participants thought it was a false conspiracy theory, and the remainder (17%) had no opinion. Of those who believe a deep state exists, more than half (58%) said it was a major problem, a net of 28% of those surveyed.[7][57]
A March 2018 poll by Monmouth University found most respondents (63%) were unfamiliar with deep state but a majority believe that a deep state likely exists in the United States when described as “a group of unelected government and military officials who secretly manipulate or direct national policy”. Three-fourths (74%) of the respondents say that they believe this type of group probably (47%) or definitely (27%) exists in the federal government.[8][58][59]
An October 2019 The Economist/YouGov poll found that, without giving a definition of deep state to respondents, 70% of Republicans, 38% of independents, and 13% of Democrats agreed that a deep state was “trying to overthrow Trump”.[60]
A December 2020 National Public Radio/Ipsos poll found that 39% of Americans believe that there is a deep state working to undermine President Trump.[42]
Closely related concepts
In his 2015 book The State: Past, Present, Future,[61] academic Bob Jessop comments on the similarity of three constructs:
- The deep state, for which he cites Mike Lofgren’s 2014 definition: “a hybrid association of elements of government and parts of top-level finance and industry that is effectively able to govern… without reference to the consent of the governed as expressed through the formal political process.”[22]
- The dark state, or “networks of officials, private firms, media outlets, think tanks, foundations, NGOs, interest groups, and other forces that attend to the needs of capital, not of everyday life” while “concealed from public gaze” or “hidden in plain sight,” citing political scientist Jason Lindsay’s 2013 article.[verify][62]: 37–38
- The 4th branch of U.S. government, which consists of “an ever more unchecked and unaccountable centre… working behind a veil of secrecy,” citing Tom Engelhardt‘s 2014 book.[63]
Deep state has been associated with the military–industrial complex by author Mike Lofgren, who has identified this complex as the private part of the deep state.[64] University professor and journalist Marc Ambinder has suggested that a myth about the deep state is that it functions as one entity; in reality, he states “the deep state contains multitudes, and they are often at odds with one another”.[65]
Knights Templar and Zena Halpern
Posted on March 13, 2023 by Royal Rosamond Press
“This text is her life’s work. Some believe the story uncovered by her research to be a hoax. If so, it would be the most elaborate hoax in the history of hoaxes.”
Zena Halpern and I exchanged e-mails. I do not recall the year. I believe it was around the time the rival biographer of my family stories, Tom Snyder, tried to get me to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Halpern also wanted me to sing a NDA, before she showed me some amazing information. I was leery, and did not sign any NDAs. At the time it looked like I was the next author due for a book on he Templar-Grail Magdalene subject matter. I believe Halpern wanted to be in my book. Now, she will be.
Yesterday, I discovered for the first time Halpern published a book on the Templars in regards to the Oak Island series. I was researching the fictional genealogy of Victoria Rosemond Bond, when a Templar name came up in regards to the Oak Island Mystery – that I recognized! Zena and Rick Lagina missed it! they failed to strike – pay dirt! I will contact Rick. I believe Zena and I found each other on one of the Templar-Magdalene groups. I started Rennes-le-Hoax because some of the research was questionable – and any conflicting information was being oppressed.
I have not read Halpern’s book. I am willing to read exerts of this book – on television! I will answer questions. They say “Truth is Stanger than fiction”. In this case “Fiction is stranger than the truth – when it becomes – the truth. I have been saying my book ‘The Royal Janitor’ is writing itself – and is coming true. What if Victoria Rosemond Bond, and Miriam Starfish Christling were Goddesses in their past life, and….they meet again! A Viking and Phoenician Goddess – meet on the High Sea! This meeting – rocks half the world! If they unite, they will be a threat to controlling men. They would be forced to created a man-god to walk the earth and out an end to this heavenly duo.
John Presco
President: Royal Rosamond Press
Copyright 2023
Zena Halpern from The Curse of Oak Island died earlier this year
Wed Dec 05, 2018 at 2:20am ET
By Julian Cheatle
Researcher Zena Halpern, whose work and theories featured prominently on History’s hit show The Curse of Oak Island, passed away earlier this year.
The popular New York-based historian was a good friend of Rick Lagina, and had extensive knowledge of Oak Island after spending more than half a century investigating how members of the Knights Templar may have come to North America in the past.
Back on Season 4 of the show, she famously brought to light what was believed to be a 14th Century map of Oak Island, with possible links to the Templars. Last season she also presented a theory of how a mysterious lead cross found on the island could be a representation of the Goddess Tanit.
In 2017, she authored the book The Templar Mission to Oak Island and Beyond: Search for Ancient Secrets: The Shocking Revelations of a 12th Century Manuscript.
Zena’s passing was revealed back in June, with The Curse of Oak Island fans paying tribute to her on social media.
The Templar Mission to Oak Island
Quotes from Zena Halpern’s readers:
“I could not stop reading this book…”
“Thank you to all that helped share this journal.”
“The evidence that Ms. Halpern presents is truly surprising.”
“I think you’ll be highly impressed by this story 2000 years in the making.”
“A wonderful work of major historic importance.”
Zena Halpern has spent more than a
decade chasing down a fascinating story that has the potential to change history as we know it. It is the story, both of a secret 12th century Knights Templar mission to Oak Island and a mountain range in New York State, and of the efforts made by various secret societies over the centuries
to either conceal or uncover the reasons
for this mission.
Zena Halpern pulled together disparate evidence from unusual characters and researched other sources to prove or disprove this fascinating story.
This text is her life’s work. Some believe the story uncovered by her research to be a hoax. If so, it would be the most elaborate hoax in the history of hoaxes. And to what end? Who spends a century cobbling together false clues and fake artifacts just to have a laugh at an octogenarian’s expense?
Read on. Read her story. Read of the amazing journey to America by the medieval Templars. Read of the fascinating efforts over the centuries to both conceal the journey and later uncover its secrets. Read about the Vatican and the CIA—they all play a part in this adventure. Read about treasures and ciphers and betrayals, as well as Oak Island.
Her research is not complete, there’s perhaps 10% missing and unfortunately, now Zena is gone. There are still unanswered questions. But 90% will have to do.
A hoax? You be the judge.
Rosamond Press 
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