BCCI figure AQ Khan back in news. US sez Syria trying to get nukes

[blm]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6921799,00.html

U.S.: Syria on Nuclear Watch List


Friday September 14, 2007 4:16 PM

By NICOLE WINFIELD

Associated Press Writer

ROME (AP) - A senior American official said Friday that Syria was on the U.S. nuclear ``watch list,'' asserting that foreign technicians were in the country and that there had been possible contacts with suppliers for nuclear equipment.

Andrew Semmel, acting deputy assistant secretary for nuclear nonproliferation policy, did not name the suppliers, but said there were North Koreans in Syria and that he could not exclude the possiblity that the network run by the disgraced Pakistan nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan was involved.
Semmel was responding to questions about an Israeli airstrike in northern Syria last week. Neither side has explained what exactly happened, but a U.S. government official confirmed that Israeli warplanes were targeting weapons from Iran and destined for Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.

The Washington Post reported Thursday that Israel had gathered satellite imagery showing possible North Korean cooperation with Syria on a nuclear facility.
>>>>>>>



Um....isn't it interesting that this BCCI figure keeps popping up and keeps finding his way back to being a source for weapons to countries that US neocons want to invade?

Isn't it past time the newsmedia starts talking STRAIGHT about AQ Khan for a change?

Let's refresh for the newsmedia and see if they can figure out WHY these 20 outstanding matters, listed in the Dec 1992 BCCI report as matters that needed further investigation, why they can't be discussed as part of the background to the overall terrorism debate and to our foreign policy decisions?

It's past time the newsmedia do what it SHOULD have done on Sept. 12, 2001 - REVISIT the entire BCCI operation and press for answers.

Start with the Outstanding Matters and questions left on the table in Dec 1992 report:


Matters For Further Investigation

There have been a number of matters which the Subcommittee has received some information on, but has not been able to investigate adequately, due such factors as lack of resources, lack of time, documents being withheld by foreign governments, and limited evidentiary sources or witnesses. Some of the main areas which deserve further investigation include:


1. The extent of BCCI's involvement in Pakistan's nuclear program. As set forth in the chapter on BCCI in foreign countries, there is good reason to conclude that BCCI did finance Pakistan's nuclear program through the BCCI Foundation in Pakistan, as well as through BCCI-Canada in the Parvez case. However, details on BCCI's involvement remain unavailable. Further investigation is needed to understand the extent to which BCCI and Pakistan were able to evade U.S. and international nuclear non-proliferation regimes to acquire nuclear technologies.


2. BCCI's manipulation of commodities and securities markets in Europe and Canada. The Subcommittee has received information that remains not fully substantiated that BCCI defrauded investors, as well as some major U.S. and European financial firms, through manipulating commodities and securities markets, especially in Canada, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. This alleged fraud requires further investigation in those countries.


3. BCCI's activities in India, including its relationship with the business empire of the Hinduja family. The Subcommittee has not had access to BCCI records regarding India. The substantial lending by BCCI to the Indian industrialist family, the Hindujas, reported in press accounts, deserves further scrutiny, as do the press reports concerning alleged kick-backs and bribes to Indian officials.


4. BCCI's relationships with convicted Iraqi arms dealer Sarkis Soghanalian, Syrian drug trafficker, terrorist, and arms trafficker Monzer Al-Kassar, and other major arms dealers. Sarkenalian was a principal seller of arms to Iraq. Monzer Al-Kassar has been implicated in terrorist bombings in connection with terrorist organizations such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Other arms dealers, including some who provided machine guns and trained Medellin cartel death squads, also used BCCI. Tracing their assets through the bank would likely lead to important information concerning international terrorist and arms trafficker networks.


5. The use of BCCI by central figures in arms sales to Iran during the 1980's. The late Cyrus Hashemi, a key figure in allegations concerning an alleged deal involving the return of U.S. hostages from Iran in 1980, banked at BCCI London. His records have been withheld from disclosure to the Subcommittee by a British judge. Their release might aid in reaching judgments concerning Hashemi's activities in 1980, with the CIA under President Carter and allegedly with William Casey.


6. BCCI's activities with the Central Bank of Syria and with the Foreign Trade Mission of the Soviet Union in London. BCCI was used by both the Syrian and Soviet governments in the period in which each was involved in supporting activities hostile to the United States. Obtaining the records of those financial transactions would be critical to understanding what the Soviet Union under Brezhnev, Chernenko, and Andropov was doing in the West; and might document the nature and extent of Syria's support for international terrorism.


7. BCCI's involvement with foreign intelligence agencies. A British source has told the Bank of England and British investigators that BCCI was used by numerous foreign intelligence agencies in the United Kingdom. The British intelligence service, the MI-5, has sealed documents from BCCI's records in the UK which could shed light on this allegation.


8. The financial dealings of BCCI directors with Charles Keating and several Keating affiliates and front-companies, including the possibility that BCCI related entities may have laundered funds for Keating to move them outside the United States. The Subcommittee found numerous connections among Keating and BCCI-related persons and entities, such as BCCI director Alfred Hartman; CenTrust chief David Paul and CenTrust itself; Capcom front-man Lawrence Romrell; BCCI shipping affiliate, the Gokal group and the Gokal family; and possibly Ghaith Pharaon. The ties between BCCI and Keating's financial empire require further investigation.


9. BCCI's financing of commodities and other business dealings of international criminal financier Marc Rich. Marc Rich remains the most important figure in the international commodities markets, and remains a fugitive from the United States following his indictment on securities fraud. BCCI lending to Rich in the 1980's amounted to tens of millions of dollars. Moreover, Rich's commodities firms were used by BCCI in connection with BCCI's involving in U.S. guarantee programs through the Department of Agriculture. The nature and extent of Rich's relationship with BCCI requires further investigation.


10. The nature, extent and meaning of the ownership of shares of other U.S. financial institutions by Middle Eastern political figures. Political figures and members of the ruling family of various Middle Eastern countries have very substantial investments in the United States, in some cases, owning substantial shares of major U.S. banks. Given BCCI's routine use of nominees from the Middle East, and the pervasive practice of using nominees within the Middle East, further investigation may be warranted of Middle Eastern ownership of domestic U.S. financial institutions.


11. The nature, extent, and meaning of real estate and financial investments in the United States by major shareholders of BCCI. BCCI's shareholders and front-men have made substantial investments in real estate throughout the United States, owning major office buildings in such key cities as New York and Washington, D.C. Given BCCI's pervasiveness criminality, and the role of these shareholders and front-men in the BCCI affair, a complete review of their holdings in the United States is warranted.


12. BCCI's collusion in Savings & Loan fraud in the U.S. The Subcommittee found ties between BCCI and two failed Savings and Loan institutions, CenTrust, which BCCI came to have a controlling interest in, and Caprock Savings and Loan in Texas, and as noted above, the involvement of BCCI figures with Charles Keating and his business empire. In each case, BCCI's involvement cost the U. S. taxpayers money. A comprehensive review of BCCI's account holders in the U.S. and globally might well reveal additional such cases. In addition, the issue of whether David Paul and CenTrust's political relationships were used by Paul on behalf of BCCI merits further investigation.


13. The sale of BCCI affiliate Banque de Commerce et de Placements (BCP) in Geneva, to the Cukorova Group of Turkey, which owned an entity involved in the BNL Iraqi arms sales, among others. Given BNL's links to BCCI, and Cukorova Groups' involvement through its subsidiary, Entrade, with BNL in the sales to Iraq, the swift sale of BCP to Cukorova just weeks after BCCI's closure -- prior to due diligence being conducted -- raises questions as to whether a prior relationship existed between BCCI and Cukorova, and Cukorova's intentions in making the purchase. Within the past year, Cukorova also applied to purchase a New York bank. Cukorova's actions pertaining to BCP require further investigation in Switzerland by Swiss authorities, and by the Federal Reserve New York.


14. BCCI's role in China. As noted in the chapter on BCCI's activities in foreign countries, BCCI had extensive activity in China, and the Chinese government allegedly lost $500 million when BCCI closed, mostly from government accounts. While there have been allegations that bribes and pay-offs were involved, these allegations require further investigation and detail to determine what actually happened, and who was involved.


15. The relationship between Capcom and BCCI, between Capcom and the intelligence community, and between Capcom's shareholders and U.S. telecommunications industry figures. The Subcommittee was able to interview people and review documents concerning Capcom that no other investigators had to date interviewed or reviewed. Much more needs to be done to understand what Capcom was doing in the United States, the United Kingdom, Egypt, Oman, and the Middle East, including whether the firm was, as has been alleged but not proven, used by the intelligence community to move funds for intelligence operations; and whether any person involved with Capcom was seeking secretly to acquire interests in the U.S. telecommunications industry.


16. The relationship of important BCCI figures and important intelligence figures to the collapse of the Hong Kong Deposit and Guaranty Bank and Tetra Finance (HK) in 1983. The circumstances surrounding the collpase of these two Hong Kong banks; the Hong Kong banks' practices of using nominees, front-companies, and back-to-back financial transactions; the Hong Banks' directors having included several important BCCI figures, including Ghanim Al Mazrui, and a close associate of then CIA director William Casey; all raise the question of whether there was a relationship between these two institutions and BCCI-Hong Kong, and whether the two Hong Kong institutions were used for domestic or foreign intelligence operations.


17. BCCI's activities in Atlanta and its acquisition of the National Bank of Georgia through First American. Although the Justice Department indictments of Clark Clifford and Robert Altman cover portions of how BCCI acquired National Bank of Georgia, other important allegations regarding the possible involvement of political figures in Georgia in BCCI's activities there remain outside the indictment. These allegations, as well as the underlying facts regarding BCCI's activities in Georgia, require further investigation.


18. The relationship between BCCI and the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro. BCCI and the Atlanta Branch of BNL had an extensive relationship in the United States, with the Atlanta Branch of BNL having a substantial number of accounts in BCCI's Miami offices. BNL was, according to federal indictments, a significant financial conduit for weapons to Iraq. BCCI also made loans to Iraq, although of a substantially smaller nature. Given the criminality of both institutions, and their interlocking activities, further investigation of the relationship could produce further understanding of Saddam Hussein's international network for acquiring weapons, and how Iraq evaded governmental restrictions on such weapons acquisitions.


19. The alleged relationship between the late CIA director William Casey and BCCI. As set forth in the chapter on intelligence, numerous trails lead from BCCI to Casey, and from Casey to BCCI, and the investigation has been unable to follow any of them to the end to determine whether there was indeed a relationship, and if there was, its nature and extent. If any such relationship existed, it could have a significant impact on the findings and conclusions concerning the CIA and BCCI's role in U.S. foreign policy and intelligence operations during the Casey era. The investigation's work detailing the ties of BCCI to the intelligence community generally also remains far from complete, and much about these ties remains obscure and in need of further investigation.


20. Money laundering by other major international banks. Numerous BCCI officials told the Subcommittee that BCCI's money laundering was no different from activities they observed at other international banks, and provided the names of a number of prominent U.S. and European banks which they alleged engaged in money laundering. There is no question that BCCI's laundering of drug money, while pervading the institution, constituted a small component of the total money laundering taking place in international banking. Further investigation to determine which international banks are soliciting and handling drug money should be undertaken.

[mmonk]

1. that's ok.

Working with the AQ Khan network is apparently ok. Ask Waxman. Oh that's right. He can't recall Sibel's case.

[blm]

3. Yep - and let's not forget the irony in Khan's restrictions being reversed the same

day that Scooter Libby's sentence was commuted by Bush. Libby - the lawyer for another BCCI figure - Marc Rich.

Oh, there are many in the newsmedia who can SEE the overall story, but they aren't allowed to write it.

[ewoden]

2. syria and nukes

http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/6251

"Something didn't smell quite right in Glenn Kessler's recent story in the Washington Post about a possible nuclear link between North Korea and Syria. It looked to me like déjà vu all over again. So I asked Joseph Cirincione, senior fellow and director for nuclear policy at the Center for American Progress, author of Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons, and a frequent FP contributor, to weigh in. Here's his take:

. . . This story is nonsense."


Here's the NTI Profile for Syria

http://www.nti.org/e_research/profiles/Syria/Nuclear/index.html



'nuff said.

[blm]

10. This is why they needed Khan freed from his 'restricted' custody last summer, too.

It's so transparent to those who have been watching this choreography play out over the last two decades.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

4. That Khan fellow appears quite the tool for the other Cons,...

,...the neocons.

Too bad Sibel has been censored, altogether.

I no longer believe the truth will see the light of day because the corporacrats have a stronghold on this country. I really hate that: having become such a cynic. I never wanted to be one but have read and seen enough shit that, what's left of my hope has very rough edges.

[blm]

5. We can't just stop demanding the answers though. That will guarantee the books

stay closed.

If those of us familiar with the overall operation give up, then history will, indeed, be FULLY rewritten.

[mmonk]

16. What I can't figure out though

is why no one in the information field will dig, see the connections, patterns, and links. Are all our institutions run by the same people?

[Name removed]

23. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[cosmicdot]

41. "Thank Bush, Sr. for A.Q. Khan, UBL and the Plame Case"

by leveymg

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/7/8/14653/71820


Sibel: it's all connected



re Marc Rich (pardoned by B. Clinton)

google Marc Rich and Rahm Emmanuel for more possible 'connections'
... might explain Rahm's rapid advancement on the Hill ...


a post to kick;
already recommended thread

[Name removed]

43. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Solly Mack]

6. Needs more recommendations :) (pretty please)

They keep popping back up...and they'll keep popping back up as long as they get away with their BS.

Why am I not surprised?

[blm]

7. I think many are caught up in campaign politics and don't get that more war

is on the line here.

THIS is how BushInc 'gets' its power to manipulate, but, people can't wrap their brains around that concept as easily as who is ahead in a poll. So, they close their eyes and turn the volume up on MSNBC.

[Karenina]

17. Weil...

K&R!!! Done.

[blm]

8. ^^ kicking - puzzle pieces big as Texas here, folks^^

.

[AntiFascist]

27. Speaking of Texas...

the new Hunt Oil deal involves a large oil field in Northern Iraq. The question is, how will they get the oil exported out? Going through Southern Iraq seems too risky. The logical answer is to utilize the pipeline through Syria. Hmmmmm. No wonder Condi Rice has protected AQ Khan, they need to wheel him out when he is needed.

[amandabeech]

30. The oil from the Kirkuk fields, which is what the Hunts are interested in,

goes by pipeline through southern Turkey to Ceyhan, a small Turkish port on the Med. There has been some talk of trying to get the oil out through Jordan and Israel, but the pipe would still have problems in Iraq and probably Syria.

The pipeline has only been open sporadically since the war started.

It appears that everyone tries to blow it up because they're not getting paid enough.

The Turks could get pissed at the Kurds and blow the thing up permanently while blaming it on others.

Really, it's a risk.

[amandabeech]

31. Also, the pipeline through Syria is in very, very bad shape.

It would have to be completely reconstructed.

[AntiFascist]

33. Recent tensions with Turkey on the northern border add to the risk...

this article mentions a Syrian pipeline utilized in 2000 by Saddam:

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl1726/17260470.htm

DESPITE the international price of crude oil remaining high, Iraq has been providing cheap oil to several countries. Iraq pumps 150,000 barrels a day through an oil pipeline in Syria, which was reopened after 20 years. India has agreed in principle to th e Iraqi proposal for counter-trade.

in 2003:

http://www.iraqfoundation.org/news/2003/fjun/23_pipeline.html

...

Washington halted the Syrian pipeline by bombing a pumping station during its invasion of Iraq in April, stopping some 200,000 barrels a day of exports at preferential prices.

The U.S. has not announced any intention of reopening the pipeline, and lists Damascus as "a state sponsor of terrorism."

The Syrian pipeline is Iraq's second largest cross-border export link after the northern pipeline which runs from the Kirkuk fields to Ceyhan on Turkey's Mediterranean coast.

Iraq resumed its first oil exports since the war from Ceyhan on Sunday and pumping on the Ceyhan line is expected to restart by mid-July.

Note that Saudi Arabia is also not happy about exploitation of Iraqi oil:

http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/61/20480

That makes the Saudis even unhappier. It would take a decade or more, but start drilling in Iraq and its reserves will about double, bringing it within gallons of Saudi Arabia's own gargantuan pool. Should Iraq drill on that scale, the total, when combined with the Saudis', will drown the oil market. That wouldn't make the Texans too happy either.

[amandabeech]

34. I disagree with Truthout on the current status of the various oil producers.

I suggest that you check out theoildrum on this topic. I've been following the oil and energy theme consciously for about 5 years.

In my opinion, the Saudis gargantuan pool has been half pumped. I don't think that they are capable of increasing production for any length of time to the amount that would drown the world in oil. In addition, more and more of the Saudi production is heavy and sour, which makes it very difficult to refine into gasoline.

Mexico is in serious decline, as is the North Sea (Britain and Norway). The Omanis destroyed their field with the bottle-brush well. The Canadians rely on tar sands. We peak in the '70s. The Iranians aren't able to up production.

When and if the Iraqis come back on line, their output will make up for the decline in other fields for awhile. In addition, I think that the Iraqi reserves will not be nearly as great as some hope. I do not think that the Iraqis are sitting on anything like what the Saudis originally sat on. Since the main Saudi reservoir is not in good shape, the Iraqis may make some difference, but I don't know if the Saudis are really quaking in their boots about it. There's just too much demand for too little oil

I don't think that the scenarios that could have played out even ten years ago are possible today.

[AntiFascist]

35. I agree that the Saudi oil fields are in decline...

which makes their situation all the more desperate, ie they need to keep oil prices high in order to maintain their profit margin, but the Iraqis may be sitting on tremendous oil reserves. Here is an article published in Forbes that I often link to, "Hitting OPEC by Way of Baghdad":

http://www.forbes.com/home_asia/free_forbes/2002/1028/126_2.html

...

At its peak, in 1980, Iraq reached a capacity to produce 4 million barrels a day. Since then, battered by wars, underinvestment and economic sanctions, production has declined to 2 million barrels. "Iraq will require a minimum of $30 billion in investments to develop its oil industry," says Chalabi. "With that, it could reach a production rate of 7 million to 8 million barrels a day within four or five years."

That's close to what Saudi Arabia produces today. With such a huge new supply of oil on the world market, prices could plummet. Saudi Arabia might lose its swing position within the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and the cartel itself might lose what little ability it has left to set prices.

...

the main problem with exploiting the oil today is both political, and the risk from terrorism.

[amandabeech]

36. I'm afraid that I'm not convinced.

Surely, the Saudis need a good price, but they don't want the world economy to tank, either, because the price of oil would tank with it. They have perfected this balancing act over the years.

I haven't seen the optimism of Forbes or Chalabi on Iraqi production echoed on the websites devoted to energy issues. OPEC is a not only an association but a propaganda tool. Forbes, as you know, is bizarrely optimistic. This article was from 2002 when the general idea was to drum up support for going into Iraq. Lots of folks don't like the Saudis, and one reason for people to support the Iraq war was because Iraqi oil might take away Saudi power.

The Iraq fields are in exceptionally bad shape due to previous Iraqi pumping decisions. Oil fields are geologic entities, and overpumping and other forms of exploitation can change the situation inside the reservoirs to the point that the amount of oil that can be extracted eventually will decline. That may have happened in Iraq. Government claims of reserves are often suspect, as well. They are often political numbers. For example, almost all the OPEC nations raised their reserve numbers in the 1980s at the same time after Saddam did in order to keep their share of the OPEC quota, which is based on reserves. Now no one really knows how much oil is left in OPEC reserves. What we do know is largely based on spies watching tankers leaving ports in the Gulf and estimating the amount of the cargo from how low the tankers are riding and the known capacity of the tankers. Seriously.

Again, I urge you to look for other information about oil supply. Many otherwise decent publications and authors have put out information in the past several years that I think is simply dated or out there for a purpose. The issue is too important for that.

[AntiFascist]

37. Then the war in Iraq is truly a quagmire without a purpose....

even American businessmen, many of whom probably took the Forbes article seriously, were led astray and probably continue to believe that there is a huge pot of gold at the end of the long tunnel. 100s of $billions of American debt, down the drain!

I've never felt that we should be over there fighting for oil, but now its nice to know that many of the business class may also be coming over to our side, eventually. No less than Alan Greenspan now admits that we are there fighting for oil.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1816762

[amandabeech]

38. Yes, it is a complete quagmire and there is no purpose for the U.S.

In addition to there not being as much oil as Forbes says, it also belongs to the Iraqis. You may have noticed that there has been no ratification of any law or constitutional article regarding who will develop or redevelop the Iraqi fields.

The U.S. and western oil companies want to get their hands on it desperately. That's because there are so few opportunities for them out there. The U.S. is kaput, Canada is declining, the North Sea is playing out, the westerners don't seem to be too eager to get into Africa considering the disaster that Nigeria has become for everyone, mostly her people. The Chinese seem to be having some success in Angola, but it is dangerous.

All the other prospects are controlled by governments who have kicked or are kicking the westerners out. I'm talking Russia and Venezuela.

Really, the only hope for Total, BP, Shell, ExxonMobil was getting their hands on Iraqi oil. And it would be OURS! Not Russian and not Saudi. No dealings with hostile and maybe unstable countries. It just looked great! And capitalists are optimists so any crazy, wild estimate would do. You can bet this Chalabi character was looking to make a decent profit for himself as some sort of middle man.

Well, the Hunt brothers have taken a gamble in Kurdistan. The contract may not even be valid if Iraq can ever get an oil law. I predict that there will be no law because we and the Iraqis are not going to see eye to eye on this. Eventually, we'll give up, then maybe the army will leave.

To my mind, Iraq was about Oil (Cheney), Israel (Wolfowitz, Libby, Perle, Pipes, etc.), Ego (Rummy didn't like Saddam thumbing his nose at him) and, last, but not least, Daddy. It was a ridiculous, hopeless, selfish enterprise right from the git-go, as far as I am and was concerned.

[blm]

44. Thanks for adding to this discussion, amandabeech

the more information shared on this agenda, the better. We certainly get so little from the newsmedia. It seems they are afraid to touch this subject matter.

[The Cleaner]

9. K&R

:kick:

[kineneb]

11. think there is a BCCI-BFEE connection- paging octafish

Somewhere in octafish's collection I seem to remember BCCI mentioned...

...maybe my memory is faulty.

[blm]

12. Your memory is fine - BCCI has always been the key to all of it.

The same characters popping up in 9-11, this Iraq policy, Scooter Libby/Plame, armsdealing, drugrunning, Dubai ports deal, Halliburton-KBR, and now Iran and Syria and proliferation scenarios is just way too 'coincidental' dontcha think?

[KamaAina]

13. Senator Kerry, pickup on line one. Senator Kerry, line one.

Lest we forget who was largely responsible for bringing BCCI to light in the first place.

[politicasista]

14. Good idea n/t

[dailykoff]

15. Thirded.

:thumbsup:

[scarletwoman]

21. I've never forgotten, but I wonder if Kerry remembers. Why has he been content to leave all of this

in the memory hole all these years?

[blm]

22. He brought up BCCI in 2004 and Dem party spokespeople wouldn't carry that

water. Bill Clinton had to have influenced that because he didn't even mention one word about BCCI in his entire book, though the questions and outstanding matters listed in the OP were handed to him when he took office.

How serious is that? Imagine Bush writes his book and completely leaves out the Hart-Rudman Report on Global Terror that was handed to him when he took office.

Not saying a word about BCCI or its impact on the world's events in the 90s and still going on today - that's called protecting secrecy and privilege. And at what cost?

I also remember when Kerry talked about BCCI during the campaign and a WaPost reporter complained that Kerry spoke about it and droned on about it for 12 minutes. You think people at the rally really weren't interested in BCCI and how it figured into today's issues or te reporter was just doing the same old 'sweep BCCI under the rug' routine we've seen repeatedly?

[Richard Steele]

18. K&R

[cadmium]

19. People cant understand the world of terror, war, and politics if

they dont understand the history of BCCI, and similar operations. Thanks BLM.

[blm]

24. Exactly - and that furthers the point that the NEWSMEDIA is acting counterintuitive

on this - and must be doing so DELIBERATELY. Because the links are plain as day. So something way more powerful than the truth is keeping this from being reported in full. The scraps printed here and there are never used to form a full picture.

[lonestarnot]

20. K & RRR

[blm]

25. Thanks - with the nukes in the bomber report, I'd say we are being set up

for Phase III of the Fascist Agenda.

[antigop]

26. k&r. Thanks, blm! n/t

[bemildred]

28. Steven Hadley is smack in the middle of this "story" too. nt

[blm]

29. But we're supposed to believe it's just coincidence, aren't we?

.

[Name removed]

32. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[NYC]

39. Amazing how many unanswered questions there are.

Amazing that no one investigates.

[blm]

45. Look what they do to those who DO investigate.

They get undermined within their own party by those in league with the DC powrestructure and its profiteers.

[Octafish]

40. Khan is the Father of the Islamic Bomb. BCCI is the Financier of same.

The Bushes are the beneficiaris of both.

Thanks for the heads-up on the Syria connection, blm.

Finding an excuse for America to bomb Syria to stone age would make one Middle Eastern nuclear power most happy. Regarding the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, it financed Abdul Qadeer Khan, who provided the know-how to Pakistan, Libya, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Iran and anybody else willing to pony up.

Robert Gates, now Secretary of Defense and once Director of Central Intelligence (CIA head), called BCCI, laughingly, the "Bank of Crooks and Criminals International." Hardy har har. The bank only funded terrorist, laundered narco and war monies, and was used by the likes of Manuel Noriega, Abu Nidhal, James R Bath, George W Bush, and Oliver North.

Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan - The Father of the Islamic Bomb

The Risk Report
Volume 1 Number 6 (July-August 1995) Page 5

Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan is the undisputed hero of Pakistan's nuclear saga. Called "the father of the Islamic bomb," Dr. Khan pioneered and led Pakistan's effort to enrich uranium with gas centrifuges. In 1976 he took charge of the secretive Engineering Research Laboratories at Kahuta, now named the A.Q. Khan Research Laboratories in his honor, where he assembled the machinery and manpower it would take to produce weapon-grade uranium. Khan recruited scores of Pakistani scientists living abroad to work with him at Kahuta, boasting that "the scientists and engineers whom I recruited had never heard of a centrifuge, even though some of them were Ph.D.'s."

Khan had learned about gas centrifuges when he worked on uranium enrichment technology for a Dutch company from 1972 to 1975. Khan says he and his colleagues devised "a strategy to buy everything we needed in the open market to lay the foundation of a good infrastructure and would then switch over to indigenous production." In 1983 Khan was sentenced in absentia for trying to steal enrichment secrets from the Netherlands. He denies the charges, and his conviction was overturned in 1986.

In 1990, Pakistan President Ghulam Ishaq Khan, lauded A.Q. Khan's contributions to the nuclear field and declared: "The name of Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan will be inscribed in golden letters in the annals of the national history of Pakistan." And even Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has acknowledged his "invaluable contribution not only in the nuclear field but also in other fields including defense production."

A.Q. Khan says Western governments repeatedly tried to prevent Pakistan from developing a nuclear weapon capability, but they were foiled by the greed of their own companies: "Many suppliers approached us with the details of the machinery and with figures and numbers of instruments and materials ... In the true sense of the word, they begged us to purchase their goods. And for the first time the truth of the saying, They will sell their mother for money,' dawned on me. We purchased whatever we required..."

SOURCE:

http://www.wisconsinproject.org/countries/pakistan/khan.html

BCCI also moved mountains of weapons and cash around the world, for everyone from the KGB to Ollie North, from Abu Nidhal to Manny Noriega. You know, the BFEE's typical warmongers, terrorists, drug-runners, money launderers, and other assorted patriots.

Scandals: Not Just a Bank

By JONATHAN BEATY and S.C. GWYNNE
TIME Sunday, Jun. 24, 2001

"We were representing a joint venture and chasing a sale of military equipment to the Belgian government. We had gone pretty far down the line when suddenly B.C.C.I. showed up, representing the Italians. I was staying at the Hilton in Brussels, and I got a phone call from a B.C.C.I. guy asking me to come down to the lobby. When I go down, there's a B.C.C.I. guy, Pakistani, and next to him is this 220-lb. French guy named Andre -- the kind of guy who stuffs people in car trunks. They have business cards with a B.C.C.I. logo. So Andre says, 'You're getting out of this thing. This is our deal.' Then the other B.C.C.I. guy says, 'You're out, and go and tell your client you're out.' They scared the hell out of me. B.C.C.I. had two functions, as bagmen and as thugs. They pushed the competition out."


Bagmen, thugs, arms deals and B.C.C.I. Common ingredients, it turns out, in the murky world of international arms sales, where experiences like that of the American dealer quoted above are common fare. While prosecutors and auditors from governments and regulatory bodies continue their scramble to unravel the role of the Bank of Credit & Commerce International in the world's first truly global financial scandal, TIME has learned that what looked like a bank was in fact a multipurpose, multinational enterprise. In the past two decades, the organization created by Pakistani financier Agha Hasan Abedi has become, among other things, a powerful player in the netherworld of international arms. Using the clandestine routes and alliances originally created for money laundering, B.C.C.I. has brokered, financed and, in some instances, initiated transactions that have often upset the uneasy technomilitary balance sought by the U.S. and other major powers engaging in government-to-government sales.

Many of the B.C.C.I.-brokered arms deals are perfectly legal, involving shipments of conventional weapons -- rocket launchers, tanks and even sophisticated jet fighters such as the Mirage 2000. But many more are not. Moreover, government sources, former B.C.C.I. bankers, and arms merchants doing business through B.C.C.I. have described the bank's more sinister role in providing nuclear-weapons technology for Pakistan, Iran, Iraq and Libya -- nations widely believed to be pursuing development of the so-called Islamic bomb to counter the nuclear force they assume Israel possesses. According to these sources, B.C.C.I. has also been busy providing Pakistan and other customers throughout the Middle East with the capacity to deliver such weapons.

Though the discovery of irregularities led to the shutdown of B.C.C.I.'s banking operations last July, Abedi's $20 billion "bank" is in fact far more complex. It is a vast, stateless, multinational corporation that deploys its own intelligence agency, complete with a paramilitary wing and enforcement units, known collectively as the "black network." It maintains its own diplomatic relations with foreign countries through bank "protocol officers" who use seemingly limitless amounts of cash to pursue Abedi's goals. B.C.C.I. trades massively and for its own account in commodities ranging from grain, rice, cement and coffee to timber, carpets and anchovies. It is a force to be reckoned with in international oil markets and, through its intertwined relationship with the Gokal brothers' shipping interests, is a shipping conglomerate as well. Taken altogether, B.C.C.I. commands virtual self- sufficiency as a purveyor of goods around the world.

Through its practiced use of false documentation, the deployment of billions of dollars in unbooked letters of credit, and clandestine arrangements with compliant government officials in numerous countries, B.C.C.I. was ideally positioned for its role as arms marketeer to the world, particularly the Middle East. Though its tracks are often difficult to detect, TIME has discovered B.C.C.I.'s fingerprints on a startling array of transactions. Among them:

-- The victorious allied march into Kuwait City in the wake of Desert Storm was spearheaded by a contingent of returning Kuwaitis. Few if any noticed, however, that the Kuwaitis were riding atop Yugoslavian M-84 battle tanks -- upgraded versions of the Soviets' workhorse T-72 -- complete with East European backup personnel. Sixty-four such tanks and crews had been purchased, financed and supplied to the Desert Storm coalition forces by B.C.C.I.

-- An ongoing project in Abu Dhabi to develop a standoff land-attack missile system for the emirate's fleet of Mirage 2000s is being financed by B.C.C.I.

-- Recently B.C.C.I. brokered the sale of OF-40 Mark 2 main battle tanks -- also to Abu Dhabi -- from Italian arms manufacturer Oto Melara. B.C.C.I. later obtained and financed a dozen S-23 180-mm artillery guns from North Korea for Dubai.

-- In the past three years B.C.C.I. has brokered and financed the sale of Astros II battlefield multiple-rocket launchers from Brazil to both Iran and Iraq. The enterprise has also sold Chinese Silkworm missiles to both countries. A spokesman for Avibras Industria, maker of the Astros rocket system, concedes sales to Iraq but denies any sales to Iran or any deals involving B.C.C.I. A spokesman also allows that the company received "insignificant" financing from the Brazilian B.C.C.I. bank that was used for "domestic purposes."

-- B.C.C.I. arranged for the sale of Argentine TAM battle tanks to Iran in 1989, arms sources report. Argentina's Defense Ministry denies that any tanks were ever sold to Iran.

-- B.C.C.I. supplied Iraq with French-made Roland antiaircraft missile systems and with G-6 mobile artillery units from South Africa.

B.C.C.I. did more than finance or broker arms deals between nations that couldn't risk exposure of politically embarrassing relationships. Arms dealers from Europe and the Middle East, as well as a high-level operative from B.C.C.I.'s Karachi-based black network, have separately provided TIME with nearly identical descriptions of some of B.C.C.I.'s elaborate services for the sale of conventional weapons. "They could handle everything," says one of those sources. "Brokering, financing, letters of credit, false end-user certificates, shopping, spare parts, training and even personnel. You could order a bomb, a plane to deliver it and somebody to drop it."

SNIP...

But arms merchants interviewed in several countries say otherwise. "Asaf Ali has been an important Dassault agent for years, and everyone knows that," says a French businessman who has worked on arms deals in Pakistan.

The arrest last month of a retired Pakistani general brought into sharp focus B.C.C.I.'s role in selling nuclear secrets. General Inam ul-Haq, who was arrested in Germany, has been sought since 1987 by U.S. authorities in connection with the purchase of nuclear weapons-grade steel for Pakistan's bomb-development program. The Justice Department says that B.C.C.I. was Inam's financier, and the U.S. is seeking his extradition. The alarm has spread to other branches of the U.S. government. In a recent letter to Attorney General Richard Thornburgh, Senate Governmental Affairs Committee chairman John Glenn, a Democrat from Ohio, expressed concern that "B.C.C.I. has been providing financial services to agents of the Pakistani government for the illicit purchase of nuclear weapon-related commodities in the United States and in other nations." Glenn urged Thornburgh to pursue "a full examination of such activities."

"B.C.C.I. is functioning as the owners' representative for Pakistan's nuclear-bomb project," says an international businessman who has worked through the bank to supply Pakistan's nuclear-weapons and missile industry. "In the West, Abedi presented one face, but in the Muslim world, he and his bankers have always promoted themselves as a Third World, Muslim bank that would eventually dominate global finances by using oil dollars and Abedi's network of influence. And he whispered in the ears of the sheiks and the generals that he would bring them the Muslim bomb."

While munitions-control experts in the U.S. have evidence that B.C.C.I. played a role in the delivery of munitions-grade nuclear hardware and technology to Iraq and Iran, it is the Pakistanis who are the chief beneficiaries of Abedi's multifarious services. "You can't draw a line separating the bank's black operatives and Pakistan's intelligence services," says an international arms broker, who provided details of recent B.C.C.I.-generated orders for nuclear-bomb supplies for Pakistan. "And in Karachi his bankers are surprisingly patriotic."

CONTINUED...

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101910902-157768,00.html

To the Muslim World, Khan's a hero. To Israel, he's an enemy. To America, he's a business partner.

There's Something About Omar:

Truth, Lies, and the Legend of 9/11

Part 6 of 10 parts:

Backdrop–detecting the puppet masters

By Chaim Kupferberg
GlobalResearch.ca

EXCERPT...

The story goes that BCCI was founded by Pakistani financier Aga Hassan Abedi. In truth, it was mostly a British intelligence operation using Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates as fronts, while CIA elements allied with George H. W. Bush used the banking network to conduct a number of under-the-table operations throughout the '80s. Before it went under, BCCI served as the cardiovascular system for a global criminal milieu, its laundered arteries servicing the needs of various drug lords, arms dealers, fraudsters, dictators, corrupt politicians, terrorists, and intelligence agencies seeking loose cash for their extra-legal activities.

In short, BCCI was Disneyworld for the New World Order of political/corporate crime. With ample supplies of heroin leaving Afghanistan and heading stateside throughout the '80s, there were ample funds left to underwrite the activities of Osama bin Laden and his mujaheddin, ensconced in a battle to oust the Soviet occupation forces from their midst. And with cocaine coming stateside by way of Colombia, a little pocket money could be set aside to furnish the Nicaraguan Contras with their own anti-Soviet toys.

Could it, then, perhaps have been nothing more than a coincidence that Khalid bin Mahfouz, was reported in the early 90s to own a 20 percent stake in BCCI—and that bin Mahfouz, as reported by the Houston Chronicle on June 4, 1992, had intimate business dealings with James Bath, the personal representative of bin Laden brother Salim who had invested $50,000 in George W. Bush's company, Arbusto? Bin Mahfouz, incidentally, had taken over Salim bin Laden's interest in the Houston Gulf Airport after Salim met his demise in an airplane crash over Houston in 1988 (the same year that Iran-Contra witness, and Israeli counter-terror coordinator, Amiram Nir met his own fortuitous demise by airplane over Mexico, thus denying Congress one witness who could testify to Vice-President Bush's personal involvement in the scandal).

In the decadent 80s, Bush friend and CIA asset Manuel Noriega served as a critical conduit for the drug transit through Panama. Meanwhile, CIA asset Saddam Hussein played the essential role of wearing down the Iranian Revolution by throwing waves of Iraqi young men at waves of Iranian young men, costing over a million lives, though earning billions for a voracious world arms industry. As for John Gotti, on June 21, 1991, former CIA agent Richard Brenneke gave a sworn deposition before Congressman William Alexander, fingering Gotti as an active detergent in "laundering" the CIA drug shipments coming into the Mena Airport in Arkansas.

As history has shown, being a friend and/or CIA asset of George H. W. Bush can be an uncertain proposition. One by one, once these psychopathic proxies had served their purpose, they were "taken out." In the case of Noriega and Gotti, they were silenced through the capable tools of the American justice system. And overseeing the prosecutions—Noriega, Gotti, and BCCI—happened to be a man who would, years later, be entrusted with overseeing the investigation into the causes of 9/11—Robert S. Mueller III.

CONTINUED...

http://globalresearch.ca/articles/KUP310A.html

The great DUer Robert Paulsen does some real work explaining why George Herbert Walker Bush, Rudy Giuliani, Robert Mueller and the rest of these fellahs did all they could to impede Kerry and Morgenthau's investigations of BCCI.

http://americanjudas.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html

The great DUer LeveyMG also does real work:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=763077&mesg_id=763751

Me? I point out they're not called the BFEE for nothing.

[blm]

42. Yep - and we all noticed when AQ Khan was freed from resticted custody on the

same day Scooter Libby - BCCI figure Mark Rich's attorney - had his sentence commuted by Bush.

All the same players - and we're supposed to believe that none of this is connected to today, though it all connected to BCCI back then, as per Kerry's findings.

[Name removed]

46. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[blm]

47. Not so sure about that - methinks the pro-Israel pols get manipulated for

their support in order to protect the fascists from having their agenda made more apparent in the debate.

[AtomicKitten]

48. The fact that Clinton didn't mention it in his book means nothing.

I don't disagree with much of what you have to say regarding this, but you go too far with your inaccurate/inappropriate blaming of one person for this diffuse, pervasive systemic problem. I think our government en masse has been negligent on the issue of accountability and continues to act irresponsibly. Remedy? IMO electing someone outside the Bush-Clinton dynamics would be a good start to signal a new direction. Obama is a strong advocate for sunshine in government and part of the reason I support him.

[blm]

49. I don't blame one person - I blame a DC powerstructure and those who protect

it. That takes alot more than just ONE person. However, it can take ONE person in a key position to facilitate change and discovery.