Reply #69: Lots of questionable dealings through the Channel Islands

[starroute]

IIRC, those islands are a remnant of the feudal system, and though they're under the sovereignty of the queen, they're not actually part of this United Kingdom. This apparently makes it possible to get away with stuff. For example, Khaled bin Mahfouz (BCCI figure, Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law, and the center of many shady dealings) established the Middle East Capital Group on Guernsey in 1996. I would assume that banks on Jersey are equally unaccountable.

However, in terms of what I'm wondering about, $5 million is chump change. Let me put it this way . . . the extraordinary and ever-growing volume of illicit trading and general graft and corruption on this planet now amounts to, as a very rough figure, a trillion dollars a year. This is enough money to make a lot of slimeballs rich beyond their wildest dreams -- or to give a small number of people power beyond anything known in history. Which do you think is really happening?

It may be tinfoil of me, but I willing to bet that #2 is the case -- or, at least, that certain people are dreaming of it and working towards it. There is certainly already enough financial clout in private hands to destabilize the economies of small to medium-sized nations. There may not yet be enough to take on countries like the US or China, but I'm sure that is coming. Already a well-funded nutcase like Reverend Moon can exercise an unholy degree of influence over Congress. Now try imagining something several degrees of magnitude beyond that . . .

Something bigger than any of us can easily imagine is going on, and we need to take it into account while we still have freedom of action to do something about it.