The BCCI-CIA Connection: Just How Far Did It Go?

[Octafish]

The tentacles from 1981, when Poppy was "Vice President," touch us today.

The BCCI-CIA Connection: Just How Far Did It Go?

NEWSWEEK
From the magazine issue dated Dec 7, 1992

BCCI was involved in some of the most sensitive intelligence operations of the Reagan-Bush years, including the secret sales of arms to Iran. When questions were raised about the CIA's ties to BCCI after the shutdown of the bank, however, spokesmen for the agency insisted that its hands were clean. "Any allegations of unlawful use of BCCI by the agency are without foundation," the CIA said in a statement.

Congressional investigators and others familiar with BCCI have their own theories about the CIA's conduct. There are strong suspicions that the agency wanted to protect an important intelligence asset. As Norman Bailey, a former National Security Council official, said, the CIA was not interested in "blowing the BCCI cover." There is another alarming possibility: some investigators believe a portion of money stolen from BCCI's depositors financed covert operations sponsored by the U.S. government. If BCCI's frauds were exposed, this source of funds would dry up. There are even indications that CIA officials were involved in the founding of BCCI.

One former officer of the bank recalls a conversation he had in the early 1980s with a close associate of Abedi's, a Pakistani who had worked for United Bank and then joined BCCI when it was established. The Pakistani said that Abedi had worked with the CIA during his United Bank days and that the CIA had encouraged him in his project to launch BCCI, since the agency realized that an international bank could provide valuable cover for intelligence operations. The Pakistani mentioned one U.S. intelligence official by name: Richard Helms, the director of the CIA until early 1973. Helms later became a legal client of Clark Clifford's and a business partner of two BCCI insiders. "What I have been told," says this source, "is that it wasn't a Pakistani bank at all. The guys behind the bank weren't Pakistani at all. The whole thing was a front."

Helms has described reports of his involvement in the BCCI takeover of First American as absolute nonsense. Yet regardless of what Helms says, no one can deny that virtually every major character in the takeover was connected in one way or another to U.S. intelligence:

George Olmsted, head of the OSS's China section during the war, controlled Financial General Bankshares (later First American Bankshares) until 1977.

CONTINUED...

http://www.newsweek.com/id/126126

This is just one example of global criminality, a corrupt financial institution harnessed to move money for drug runners, arms merchants, terrorists, spies, warmongers and war profiteers. BCCI used its power to influence most of the world's governments -- all in service to the world's financial elite.

You know, personally, this is not ancient history affecting some ghost in time. They've just ripped you and America's taxpayers off to the tune of $24 trillion. Good, for them, a LOT of that money has gone to foreign banks. Best of all, for them, they're out of reach of American Justice. Too bad for you, me, the planet and the Constitution.

[yourout]

1. The Bush Crime Syndicate is the most powerfull criminal enterprise of the last 100 years.

And not a damn one of them has been tried.

[elleng]

3. And how many are aware of it, actually?

I'd say a 'small' elite, on all 'sides,' are aware of the history.

[Octafish]

4. Continuing criminal enterprises are the reason we got a RICO act.

Here's a nice analysis or organized crime from a qualified university professor who may need an graduate assistant food taster:

The Bush Family: A Continuing Criminal Enterprise?

Gary W. Potter, PhD.
Professor, Criminal Justice
Eastern Kentucky University

The S&Ls, the Mob and the Bushs

During the 1980's hundred of Savings and Loan Banks failed. Those bank failures cost U.S. taxpayers over $500 billion to cover federally insured losses, and much more to investigate the bank failures (Pizzo, Fricker, and Muolo, 1989; Brewton, 1992; Johnston, 1990). More than 75% of the Savings and Loan insolvencies where directly linked to serious and often criminal misconduct by senior financial insiders (Pizzo, Fricker and Muolo, 1989: 305). In fact, less than 10 percent of bank failures are related to economic conditions, the rest are caused by mismanagement or criminal conduct (Pizzo, Fricker and Muolo, 1989: 305).

A good example of the Savings and Loan failures can be found in the activities of Mario Renda, a Savings and Loan insider who often worked in close collaboration with organized crime (Pizzo, Fricker and Muolo, 1989: 123-126;302). Renda served as a middle man in arranging about $5 billion a year in deposits into 130 Savings and Loans, all of which failed (Kwitny, 1992: 27). Many of these deposits were made contingent on an agreement that the Savings and Loan involved would lend money to borrowers recommended by Renda, many of whom were organized crime figures or people entirely unknown to the banking institution involved (Kwitny, 1992: 27).

Equally good examples of financial misconduct in the Savings and Loan scandal is found in the activities of the Bush family. In some cases Bush family members helped skim Savings and Loan funds which were delivered to outsiders as a part of deals involving lucrative payoffs to bank directors. In other cases, members of the Bush family intervened to influence decisions involving highly speculative and unsound investments involving loans that would not be repaid if the venture was not profitable. And finally, the Bush family’s political connection served to protect those guilty of misconduct in the Savings and Loan scandal (Kwitny, 1992: 24).

SNIP...

Jeb Bush: Influence Peddling for a “Bust-Out” Scam

But, Neil Bush was not the only Bush brother involved in the Savings and Loan collapses. Jeb Bush’s, the current Governor of Florida, curious relationship with Miguel Recarey is another illustration. Recarey was a long-time business associate of Tampa organized crime figure Santos Trafficante. Recarey also fled the U.S. facing three separate indictments for labor racketeering, illegal wiretapping and Medicare fraud (Freedburg, 1988: A1). Recarey’s business, International Medical Centers, was the largest health maintenance organization for the elderly in the U.S. and had been supported from $1 billion in payments from the Medicare program. International Medical Centers went bankrupt in 1988 (Freedburg, 1988: A1; Royce and Shaw, 1988: 4). When International Medical Centers went under it left $222 million in unpaid bills and was under investigation for $100 million in Medicare fraud (Freedbrug, 1988: A1; Frisby, 1992: G1). The U.S. Office of Labor Racketeering in Miami referred to Recarey and his company as “the classic case of embezzlement of government funds ... “a bust-out operation” (Freedburg, 1988: A1)

Jeb Bush’s role in this saga being in 1985 when Recarey’s attempt to create his “bust-out scam” corporation ran into a federal regulation that said no HMO could get more that 50% of its revenue from Medicare (Freedburg, 1988: A1; Royce and Shaw, 1988: 4). Jeb Bush intervened on Recarey’s behalf with Helath Human Services Secretary Margaret Heckler and one of her top aides. Convincing them to waive the regulation in the case of Recarey’s company (Freedburg, 1988: A1; Royce and Shaw, 1988: 4). In addition to Jeb Bush’s intervention, Recarey had paid $1 million to senior Republican lobbyists in Washington, who were also working the staff of Health and Human Services in pursuance of a waiver (Freedburg, 1988: A1; Royce and Shaw, 1988: 4). In addition, Jeb Bush had contacted Secretary Heckler earlier about complaints from doctors over the quality of International Medical Centers’ care and allegations that Recarey had embezzled funds form another hospital (Royce and Shaw, 1988: 4). Jeb Bush told an aide to Secretary Heckler that “contrary to any rumors that were floating around concerning Mr. Recarey, that he was a solid citizen from Mr. Bush’s perspective down there , that he was a good community citizen and a good supporter of the Republican Party” (Royce and Shaw, 1988: 4).

Not surprisingly, in 1988 Recarey’s company gave Jeb Bush’s real estate company $75,000 to help it find a site for a new corporate headquarters (Freedburg, 1988: A1; Royce and Shaw, 1988: 4). It was a bad investment because International Medical Centers had already selected a corporate headquarters location when it hired Jeb Bush (Royce and Shaw, 1988: 4).

Jeb Bush had a role in yet another Savings and Loan fiasco when he defaulted on a loan from Broward Federal Savings and Loan (LaFraniere , 1990: A24). Broward Federal loaned $4,565.000 to J Edward Houston, a real developer in February, 1985. The loan was secured only by Houston’s personal guarantee. On the same day, one of Houston’s company lent the same amount to a partnership made up of Jeb Bush and Armondo Codina for the purpose of purchasing a building in Miami. The Bush-Condina partnership was required to repay the loan only if revenues from the building were sufficient to cover the repayment. Bush and Condina made no payments on the loan at all and in 1987 Houston defaulted on the Broward Federal loan and the Bank sued both Houston and the Bush-Condina real estate partnership. In a sweetheart settlement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Bush and Codina only had to repay $500,000 of the $4.5 million loan and got to retain ownership of the building which had been the collateral on the loan. In 1991, the FDIC sued the officers and directors of Broward Federal charging that the loan ultimately used by Bush and Codina was an example of the bank’s negleient lending practices (Frisby, 1992: G1). The Bush-Codina loan played a key part in the failure of Broward Federal which cost taxpayers $285 million (LaFraniere , 1990: A24).

CONTINUED...

http://critcrim.org/critpapers/potter.htm

As you know, yourout, we are way past time for justice. We can't continue to allow these treasonous gangsters to get away with it.

[Hannah Bell]

10. but who do they work for?

[Octafish]

16. Big, Big. Big. Old. Monee-ah.

Rothschild and Freshfields founders’ had links to slavery, papers reveal



Baron de Rothschild and Prescott Bush,
sharing a moment together.

PS: Most Bushs and Rothschilds are good folk.
This is intended to shed light on those who work
to concentrate money and power,
for themselves and to the detriment of democracy.

[Hannah Bell]

24. rothschild = parvenu. not very old money. banking house founded 1811.

brown brothers (as alex brown & sons) is (slightly) older. so is dupont.

this is old money:

http://www.fuggerbank.de/

http://www.fugger.de/




edit just to be clear: i don't see much evidence that the bush family works for the rothschilds. i see a long history of association with brown bros, & brown bros is historically anglo-american capital.

[Octafish]

55. Thanks for the heads-up, Hannah Bell. Fully concur. Bushes don't work for anybody, anymore.

They just visit the same haunts with the higher class.

Thanks also for the links to real old money. Around here, it's Brahmans for the old. Texans for the big.

One family helped bridge that Yankee Cowboy gap through Midland.

The Yankee and Cowboy War

Carl Oglesby
The Education Forum

Introduction

The assassination of John Kennedy and the downfall of Richard-Nixon have both been viewed as isolated moral disasters for American democracy: Kennedy's murder as a demonstration of our continuing national inability or unwillingness to cope with violence; Nixon's downfall as a demonstration of the failure of our democratic institutions to overcome the abuses of secret intelligence and electronic surveillance at the seat of national power.

But these two events represent neither isolated disasters nor a generalized failure of American institutions but something almost beyond the ability of ordinary people even to see, much less control. The two events - Dallas and Watergate - are actually concrete links in a chain of related and ominous events passing through the entire decade in which they occurred and beyond. And this chain of events itself represents only the violent eruptions of a deeper struggle of rival power elites identified here as Yankees and Cowboys.

This book proposes to show that Dallas and Watergate are intrinsically linked conspiracies in a hidden drama of coup and countercoup which represents the life of an inner oligarchic power sphere, and "invisible government," capable of any act in the pursuit of its objectives, that sets itself above the law and beyond the moral rule: a clandestine American state, perhaps an embryonic police state.

We see the expressions and symptoms of clandestine America in a dozen places now-the FBI's COINTELPRO scheme, the CIA's Operation Chaos, the Pentagon's Operation Garden Plot, the large-scale and generally successful attempts to destroy legitimate and essential dissent in which all the intelligence agencies participated, a, campaign whose full scope and fury are still not revealed. We see it in the ruthlessness and indifference to world, as well as national, opinion with which the CIA contracted its skills out to ITT to destroy democracy's last little chance in Chile. We see it as well, as this book argues, in the crime and coverup of Dealey Plaza, the crime and cover-up of Watergate.

How could the clandestine state have stricken us so profoundly? How could we - as we might have fancied, "of all people" - have given way with so little resistance, in fact with so little evident understanding of what was happening? What accounts for the way the various organs of state force-defense and security alike-became so divided - against each other? CIA-Intelligence against CIA-Operations, the CIA, the Pentagon, the FBI, and the presidency at one time or another against each other-what is this internal conflict all about? Why should the country's premier political coalition, formed after Reconstruction and reformed by Franklin Roosevelt, have begun to destabilize so badly in the 1960s and 1970s?

The intensification of clandestine, illicit methods against racial and antiwar dissent as a "threat" to the (secret) state precisely coincided with the intensified use of such methods in conflicts for power and hegemony taking place within the secret state, against a background of declining consensus.

This book proposes to show that Dallas and Watergate are intrinsically linked conspiracies in a hidden drama of coup and countercoup which represents the life of an inner oligarchic power sphere, and "invisible government," capable of any act in the pursuit of its objectives, that sets itself above the law and beyond the moral rule: a clandestine American state, perhaps an embryonic police state.

CONTINUED...

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=7287

Thank you for helping get the story straight for the younger generations who may never have heard about BCCI and concentrated power. For You, Hannah Bell, and all who know and understand this, thanks for giving a damn. Spreading light on these "Victors in the Class War" improves our chances to survive their predations.

[Hannah Bell]

56. do you really think they work for themselves? serious question.

[Octafish]

57. They breathe in concert with others. It's not work. It's what they do.

"One of the things that is interesting about reading conspiracy theory is that much of what folks think is conspiracy is really many people acting in concert to make or protect their money." - Catherine Austin Fitts

Personally, I think that when it comes to questions of money and power, many members of the power elite will do whatever necessary to advance their cause. To maintain their positions of privilege and to advance their secret agenda, the record shows the Bushes and their cronies, associates and patrons resort to war, mass murder, terror, and all manner of treason.

They're not working. They're on a mission.

[leftstreet]

2. K&R

[Octafish]

7. 1992 was about the last time I heard BCCI mentioned on the tee vee.

And that wasn’t for very long. Like the CIA-Drugs story.

BCCI, BANK OF
CROOKS AND CRIMINALS

EXCERPT...

MADE TO ORDER FOR CIA ACTIVITIES

The CIA knew about BCCI's activities, finding this mindset suitable to its own operations. If, for argument, the CIA was not in partners with the BCCI activities, its world-wide network of operatives and assets should have discovered the BCCI activities that brought about the world's worst banking loss. BCCI was custom-made for the covert and corrupt activities of the CIA, the Mossad, drug dealers, and terrorists. My CIA contacts, including Russbacher, described how CIA operatives used the bank to launder money from CIA enterprises, including drug trafficking proceeds, money from its various financial activities within the United States, including its looting of savings and loans, to fund unlawful arms shipments, finance terrorist operations,(373) undermine foreign governments, and other covert activities.

Three years before the BCCI scandal broke, Robert Gates, Deputy Director of Intelligence Operations at the CIA, stated to another CIA official that BCCI stood for the Bank of Crooks and Criminals!

CONTINUED...

http://www.copi.com/defrauding_america/chp_23.htm

BCCI is just a window on how the ghastly empire works.

[readmoreoften]

5. K&R. It's a big club. And you ain't in it.

Ol' George Carlin. Actually its a rather small club with big bank accounts. I mean, big banks.

[Octafish]

8. BCCI: The Bank of the CIA

Perspective from a specialty pub:

BCCI: The Bank of the CIA

Jack Colhoun
Covert Action Quaterly
Spring 1993

Jack Colhoun was Washington correspondent for the (New York)
Guardian news weekly from 1980 to 1992. He has a Ph.D. in
history and specializes in post-World War II U.S. foreign
policy. His soon-to-be-published book The George Bush File (Los
Angeles: ACCESS, 1993) includes reprints of several of his
articles cited below.

The Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) scandal
opens a window with a spectacular view of a subject usually
shrouded in secrecy: How the CIA uses banks to finance
clandestine operations.


The view is spectacular because BCCI, which earned the
moniker the “Bank of Crooks and Criminals International,” worked
closely with former Director of Central Intelligence William
Casey and the Reagan administration’s off-the-shelf arms
Enterprise. BCCI financed some of the Enterprise’s arms-for-
hostages deals with Iran. Arms merchants linked to the October
Surprise banked with BCCI. The CIA funneled funds through the
bank to underwrite the Agency’s secret wars in Afghanistan and
Nicaragua.

But BCCI’s ties to the shadowy world of intelligence go deeper.
Clark Clifford and Richard Helms--retired, but still connected
senior members of the U.S. intelligence community--helped pave
the way for BCCI’s secret acquisition of the Washington, D.C.-
based banking network, Financial General Bankshares. Sheikh
Kamal Adham, the founder of Saudi Arabia’s intelligence service,
also played a key role on behalf of BCCI in the takeover of
Financial General, which was renamed First American Bankshares.

Casey met “every few months” with Agha Hassan Abedi, the
Pakistani founder of BCCI, in Washington, D.C. and Islamabad,
Pakistan, over a three-year period in the 1980s. Casey and Abedi
talked about Iran-Contra arms deals, the Agency-funded war in
Afghanistan, and the ever volatile situation in the Persian
Gulf. Abedi even made arrangements for Casey’s travels in
Pakistan.1

1. For the Casey-Abedi meetings, see Peter Truell and Larry
Gutwin, False Profits: The Inside Story of BCCI, The
World’s Most Corrupt Financial Empire (Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
1992), p. 133; and NBC News, Sunday Today, February 23, 1992.

CONTINUED...

http://web.archive.org/web/20001117161900/http://www.alternatives.com/library/pol/polintel/cova0008.txt

As you know, readmoreoften, Mr. Carlin understood.
The only reason more people don't know is
no one offered Mr. Carlin a radio show like Rush Limpnut's,
seven words or no.

[hootinholler]

6. Where is that photo from?

Ol Ronny ain't looking so pleased with the evening's proceedings.

-Hoot

[Octafish]

9. I wanna say Detroit.

Heh heh heh. Yeah, Pruneface looks perterbed and Poppy says, "Cheese. Grab that camera."

I don't remember, but I seem to associate the image with a nice dinner around the time of the 1980 GOP convention in Detroit.

Here's a nice one, from what I remember as a Club for Growth dinner:

Bin Laden linked to BCCI

September 26, 2001: 3:21 p.m. ET
Accused WTC terrorist tied to BCCI bank scandal of 1990s
By Allan Dodds Frank

WASHINGTON (CNNfn) - New details of suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden's finances emerged Wednesday in a Senate Banking Committee hearing on money laundering.

Among other things, the committee learned of a bank established by bin Laden with links to banks around the world and bank accounts at the fraud-ridden Bank of Credit and Commerce International, which was closed in the early 1990s.

This tidbit of information had been in the possession of U.S. investigators as long as a decade ago, but overlooked, a senator testified. This is because bin Laden had not then been identified as a focus of U.S. terrorism concerns.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who conducted an investigation into the fraud-ridden Bank of Credit and Commerce International, said bin Laden held a number of accounts with BCCI.

"When we shut it down, we dealt him a very serious economic blow." Kerry said.

The global BCCI, established by Pakistanis but incorporated in Luxembourg, was shut down by regulators in a multibillion-dollar collapse in the early 1990s. It was not only a haven for money launderers but a major route of financing for the volunteer Islamic force that went to Afghanistan – of which bin Laden was a part – to fight the Russian army.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., also highlighted information that his committee made public several months ago but was overlooked generally with regard to the operation of a bank in Sudan that was established by bin Laden in the early 1990s.

Levin said bin Laden allegedly provided the AlShamal Islamic Bank (www.shamalbank.com) with $50 million in start-up capital.

CONTINUED...

http://money.cnn.com/2001/09/26/news/binladen/

Nice thing to teach kids, associate dinner with firepower.

[leveymg]

12. Guess what other bank was established in Luxembourg - First American Bancshares

And guess who managed it? Right after he was fired as CIA Director, in early 1977, Houston banker Joe Allbritton appointed George H.W. Bush to direct his First International Bancshares (dba, First Interbank) and its London and Luxembourg affiliates, according to Kevin Phillips. After Poppy was appointed Reagan's VP, Allbritton bought Riggs Bank in DC, which became a financial hub of the 9/11 conspiracy.

Not many people know that Poppy was a spook-banker extraordinaire, and that he and Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal used BCCI as the funding vehicle to carry out the Safari Club deal, by which the Saudis and Pakistani ISI took over many of the dirtier, high-risk operations the CIA was forced to abandon after the Watergate and Church Committee hearings. See, http://journals.democraticunderground.com/leveymg/280

[Octafish]

14. McCain and BCCI, the Bush Bank

History just keeps on repeating, especially the trickle-up part.

Here's an excellent resource on the subject:

"REFORMER"

THE CRIMES AND COVER-UPS OF JOHN McCAIN
Part 2

McCain’s 30-Years of Service to
Saudi Bank Raiders and Junk Bond Kings

By Mark G. Levey
Part 1, Part 3

EXCERPT...

McCain and BCCI, the Bush Bank

Before he was selected to as Ronald Reagan’s 1980 running mate, George H.W. Bush had a short and little-known career as an international banker. That effectively started in 1976, while Bush was still CIA Director, a post he held for part of the Nixon and Ford Administration. In the final months of the Ford presidency, Bush made a deal with the newly-appointed head of Saudi General Intelligence Directorate, Prince Turki al-Faisal. The two spy chiefs agreed the CIA would look the other way while the Saudis ran their own global operations. In exchange, the Saudis financed the sort of black ops that had been banned by the Democratic Congress after Watergate and the Church Committee hearings. The arrangement was called “The Safari Club” , and the funding mechanism for this was the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, “BCCI”. See, Link ; Link

Newly-elected President Jimmy Carter fired the CIA Director. In early 1977, Houston banker Joe Allbritton appointed Bush to direct his First International Bancshares (dba, First Interbank) and its London and Luxembourg affiliates. According to Kevin Phillips, Bush’s bank was among the first outposts in America for BCCI. Link In the early 1980s, Allbritton followed G. H. W. . to Washington, purchasing Riggs Bank, installing brother Jonathan Bush as a Director.

Riggs closed in 2004 after being fined $25 million dollars for violation of federal money laundering and anti-terrorism laws. Riggs had catered to high-end foreign customers and the diplomatic trade in Washington, as well as having “a relationship” with the CIA. Link / After 9/11, the bank was found to have transferred money from Saudi Embassy accounts that ended up supporting two of the 9/11 hijackers, Flt. 77 leaders Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khaleed al-Midhar after their arrival in the U.S. See, Link

Know Your Banking Customer: Salem Bin Laden

Meanwhile, back in Texas, First Interbank merged with Jim Baker’s Republic Bank, in which the Saudis had taken a stake with the 1978 purchase of the bank’ headquarters building by members of the Bin-Laden and bin-Mahfouz families. The merger of these two Texas banks several years later created the largest regional financial institution in the U.S. Infused with capital from Saudi Arabia, First RepublicBank went on a massive bargain buying binge in the Southwest oil patch. Link

This Saudi-financed merger of the Bush bank with the Baker bank created the nation’s largest bank holding company, and soon the largest bank failure, resulting in a $1 billion tax-payer funded bailout in 1987. This was to become a pattern for the trillion dollar rip-off to come. See, Link

CONTINUED w LINKS...

http://www.electionfraudnews.com/News/US/McCainCrimes2..htm

As you know, my brave Friend, crooked banking is a house speciality.
Thank you for helping raise awareness, leveymg.
If we had a few dozen in Congress asking similar questions and demanding answers, this would be a different country.

[leveymg]

17. Thanks.

A few dozen voices in Congress? I can remember only one or two. How come Senator Kerry doesn't talk about this, anymore?

[Octafish]

19. Chris Floyd reports it has to do with demonstrating affability and safety for the 'ruling class.'

Chris Floyd ties Bush and BCCI to Sibel Edmonds bombshell

While I stand with Floyd on most stuff, I've met the Senator's people and believe he's on the up-and-up.

I Lost My Son to a War I Oppose. We Were Both Doing Our Duty.

EXCERPT...

To be fair, responsibility for the war's continuation now rests no less with the Democrats who control Congress than with the president and his party. After my son's death, my state's senators, Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kerry, telephoned to express their condolences. Stephen F. Lynch, our congressman, attended my son's wake. Kerry was present for the funeral Mass. My family and I greatly appreciated such gestures. But when I suggested to each of them the necessity of ending the war, I got the brushoff. More accurately, after ever so briefly pretending to listen, each treated me to a convoluted explanation that said in essence: Don't blame me.

To whom do Kennedy, Kerry and Lynch listen? We know the answer: to the same people who have the ear of George W. Bush and Karl Rove -- namely, wealthy individuals and institutions.

Money buys access and influence. Money greases the process that will yield us a new president in 2008. When it comes to Iraq, money ensures that the concerns of big business, big oil, bellicose evangelicals and Middle East allies gain a hearing. By comparison, the lives of U.S. soldiers figure as an afterthought.

Memorial Day orators will say that a G.I.'s life is priceless. Don't believe it. I know what value the U.S. government assigns to a soldier's life: I've been handed the check. It's roughly what the Yankees will pay Roger Clemens per inning once he starts pitching next month.

CONTINUED...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/25/AR2007052502032.html

He's been outmanned and they are under the same guns of the War Party. To have a chance, we need all hands on deck.

[Name removed]

23. Deleted message

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

[karynnj]

33. One question - why post this if you do not believe it

The fact is it is a polemic that uses the death of a soldier to fuel emotions. Ignoring Senator Kerry for a moment, the comments also dismiss Kennedy's position as pretending to listen. The fact is I think both men did listen and both men cared. The "convoluted explanation" likely were in both cases honest attempts to explain that the answer is not the simple answer the person longed to hear. The fact was that neither Senator had the power to end the war. As this was written in 2006 or 2007, Kerry had already led the effort to set a deadline and get out. He was vilified by many powerful people in his party for doing it - and Kennedy was one who firmly backed him. The fact is ONLY the President can really end a war.

Then with no backup in terms of either logic or proof, the writer leaps from the Senators inability to end the war to saying they are controlled by the same people. That is a jump about the size of the Atlantic Ocean. This is a piece of garbage attacking 2 people clearly on our side.

[Octafish]

49. In order to better answer a question.

I didn't mean to smear John Kerry or Chris Floyd. It's best to know as much as possible and see how things fit together. That way, we can know and tell the truth.

Regarding JK, I busted my keyboard -- and chops -- for the guy.

Regarding Floyd, that guy is a real journalist -- canned from Pravda for telling the truth about Pooty Poot.

The last 46 years have made me something of an expert on the Big Lie. In a way, I've, eh, dedicated my life to getting to the Truth.

[karynnj]

59. I've seen your posts, read them and learned from them

I certainly did not take this as a smear of Kerry or Kennedy. It seemed more like something written by someone whose vision was clouded by grief, seeing Kerry and Kennedy as powerful Senators who did not prevent this. That does not mean that neither tried. My comment was likely too harsh on the author.

[karynnj]

31. Kerry does speak of it

He even spoke of it in 2004 when he gave his speech on how to deal with terrorism - with law enforcement, intelligence and occasionally force. He also was able to get the legislation he wrote in the 1990s because of what he learned to make international money laundering harder.

More recently, he has spoken of it in committees, where he is still working on increasing transparency. Here is a link to a SFRC hearing he had where Morgenthau, the DA who used Kerry's leads to close BCCI testified. http://foreign.senate.gov/hearings/2009/hrg090506a.html (well worth watching - Morgenthau in his 80s is still sharp as a tack - the 1990s relationship between the two men continues.

Here is a Finance committee hearing where Kerry and Jack Blum address the national security risks of secret overseas accounts (to avoid taxes). http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/hearing072408.htm

[mod mom]

36. "BCCI affair showed Kerry to be a politician driven by a sense of mission, rather than expediency":

Second, the BCCI affair showed Kerry to be a politician driven by a sense of mission, rather than expediency--even when it meant ruffling feathers. Perhaps Sen. Hank Brown, the ranking Republican on Kerry's subcommittee, put it best. "John Kerry was willing to spearhead this difficult investigation," Brown said. "Because many important members of his own party were involved in this scandal, it was a distasteful subject for other committee and subcommittee chairmen to investigate. They did not. John Kerry did."

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0409.sirota.html

[Karenina]

13. I would imagine that Sen. Kerry knows where

quite a few bodies are buried. ;-)

[Octafish]

15. Ménage a Trois: Oil Money, BCCI, and the CIA

Kerry does, Karenina. And he mentioned it during the Democratic candidate debates of 2004.

But way before then, the press corpse worked hard to fail picking up on it.

Ménage a Trois: Oil Money, BCCI, and the CIA

Fred Dexter
Covert Action Information Bulletin No.39, Winter 1991-92

In early August 1991, the global scandal surrounding the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) hit the headlines, and linked the powerful financial institution with the CIA. Acting CIA director Richard Kerr quickly decided to go public with a part of the Agency’s relationship to what prosecutors have called the largest bank fraud of all time.

His choice of forum, a lecture to a group of U.S. high school students meeting at the National Press Club in Washington, was odd but rational. His chosen audience was obviously less prepared than journalists or members of Congress to ask tough questions about the Agency’s relationship to the drug-corrupted bank. Within this context, Kerr could put the information out in such a way that the CIA had total control over what was said and could thus cast it in an entirely positive light.

Kerr told the students that the bank’s global reach and ties to various Middle Eastern groups early on made it a key vehicle for intelligence-gathering by the Agency. At the same time, the Agency expanded its links with the bank, Kerr explained, both as a source for information on drug money laundering and drug trafficking, and as a mechanism for moving U.S. government funds. Because the bank operated branches in so many countries - some 73 around the world - the CIA used it also for moving Agency monies to its local assets. When the CIA found out the bank was engaged in improper activities, explained Kerr, it passed the information to federal law enforcement. Once it determined that the bank’s activities were criminal, the acting director stated, the CIA of course began reducing its operations with the bank, and stopped them completely by the end of 1988.

Acting Director Kerr had indeed chosen his audience well. None of the high school students challenged his superficial account of the CIA’s role with BCCI.

SNIP...

Add to this BCCI’s habit of making pay-offs to prominent public officials in a variety of countries around the world -pay-offs which BCCI insiders claim went to people close to the CIA - like General Zia ul-Haq of Pakistan, Manuel Noriega of Panama, and the leaders of the Afghan Mujahedeen.

Finally, consider the odd sale of the BCCI affiliate Banque de Commerce et Placements (BCP) in Geneva only two weeks after the closure of BCCI on July 5, 1991.

It seems that the President of BCP, Alfred Hartmann, was simultaneously on the Board of Directors of BCCI and Banco Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL), the Italian bank involved in illegally financing arms sales to Iraq. Interestingly, Hartmann also served on the board of a New York bank, Intermaritime, owned by none other than Bruce Rappaport, a Swiss/Israeli businessman who was a frequent companion of CIA Director William Casey. In 1986, Casey used Rappaport to control the $10 million the Sultan of Brunei gave “Mr. Kenilworth” (Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abram’s pseudonym) for the Contras. The funds were then supposedly “lost,” before re-discovery during the Iran-Contra affair.

The remarkably well-connected Mr. Hartmann helped arrange the sale of BCP to a Turkish bank, Cukarova, at a speed which all but ruled out due diligence. Cukarova owned a company called “Enda,” which in turn owned a company called “EnTrade,” a New York-based trading company, which in turn handled financial transactions for the arming of Iraq by employees of none other than BNL- Hartmann’s other board of directorship. What other bank was found to have been involved with BNL in the U.S. in funding Iraqi arms transactions? BCCI.

One issue faced by Robert Gates in his confirmation hearings in the Fall of 1991 was the degree to which officials of the U.S. intelligence community may have assisted Iraq with dual-use technology and other help in its war against Iran. Accordingly, the BCCI-BNL-BCP connection becomes one more oddity leading back to the underlying issue of just what and how extensive was the BCCI connection to the CIA.

Kerr told the high school students that the CIA was conducting surveillance and gathering intelligence through BCCI. He neglected to tell them on whom, to what end, and with what result. Kerr and the CIA still have not answered some troubling questions: Did that surveillance reveal weapons sales to Iraqi entities within the United States? Was BCCI’s involvement with Iraqi a sales and the BNL affair another part of a Casey-inspired off-the-books operation?

Other important and as yet unanswered questions arise regarding the use of BCCI by China, Pakistan, and South Africa for weapons sales and purchases or sales of dangerous technologies; and additionally by Pakistan and South Africa to funnel U.S. funds to the Mujahedeen. Further investigation is also needed into BCCI’s pervasive involvement with laundering funds for the various business enterprises of former CIA asset Manuel Noriega.

CONTINUED...

http://covertaction.org//content/view/150/75 /

The stench of buried bodies makes it hard to believe they'd miss this Pulitzer Prize sized story,
so it must have been too complicated of a story for those with two-minute attention spans.



It may explain why it's been of interest to me for so long, despite my own, eh, shortcomings.

[Raster]

20. Unless I am mistaken, I believe that is a Gahan Wilson 'toon.

Wilson's cartoons and illustrations are drawn in a playfully grotesque style, and have a dark humor that is often compared to the work of The New Yorker cartoonist and Addams Family creator Charles Addams. But while both men sometimes feature vampires, graveyards and other traditional horror elements in their work, Addams's cartoons tended to be more gothic, reserved and old-fashioned, while Wilson's work is more contemporary, gross, and confrontational, featuring atomic mutants, subway monsters, and serial killers. It could be argued that Addams's work was probably meant to be funny without a lot of satirical intent, while Wilson often has a very specific point to make.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gahan_Wilson

[Octafish]

22. CLICK.

Here's something that may sum up our age and where we are heading:

Click

By Gahan Wilson




PHIL: This first slide here shows Madge and Bill standing right there in front of the New York Space Authority building, ready to start our trip. You can tell it was a pretty nice day on account they're not wearing any protective clothing except for goggles and a mask. The old guy got hit by our taxi–that was some wild driver we had–and the kid's playing a trick on him. Cute, hah?

MADGE: If he hadn't of done it someone else would of. CLICK.




PHIL: Now this here was some lucky shot. I was going to take a picture of Billy there, when this guy steps on the Hijacker Sentinel and pow, huh? What I mean is it really got him good. I asked why it done it and they said it was on account of he looked suspicious and if you study the expression on his face you can see how they got to wondering about him.

MADGE: It turned out he didn't have no gun or bomb or anything.

PHIL: Look, all they can do is the best they can and I'm glad they got those things up there protecting us, anyways. CLICK.




PHIL: Just a day out from Mars they announced everybody had to come and see the indoctrination lecture, and I hadn't been looking forward to that. It was something those stiffs at the United Nations had whipped up to teach you all about the Martians' customs and way of life and even their goddamn religion, for Christ's sake. But then I saw it was our social director, Earl, going to do it, and I relaxed right off.

MADGE: That Earl!

PHIL: You see, those UN creeps had given Earl a whole bunch of pictures and graphs and stuff he was supposed to teach us with, and I guess they'd bust a gut if they ever saw what he done with them. Here he is pretending to explain the sex life of a Martian; can you beat it? Only they don't have no sex life on account of they haven't had any babies in thousands of years. He sure had us all laughing. CLICK.




PHIL: Right at the space port they got these weird Martians trying to sell you pots and statues and stuff. Nothing but a lot of junk, if you ask me. Anyhow I was taking a picture of one of them when Billy did this here. It's a good thing those Martians can't talk or this one here would have really given the kid a couple of bad words I bet you.

MADGE: It's not that they can't talk, it's that they've taken an oath of silence. Don't you remember the joke Earl made on that, honey?

PHIL: Well, anyhow, the way that stuff broke up, he had a nerve trying to sell it. CLICK.

CONTINUED. CLICK...

http://www.bizbag.com/Click/click.htm

Thanks for giving a damn, Raster! I love Wilson and love Addams' work. Pure genius.

[G_j]

44. brilliant

:hi:

[Raster]

58. I am a huge Wilson fan. The years of toons for Playboy are some of his best.

My all-time favorite is a small, pencil black-and-white. It's the nuclear family-Dad, Mom, son and daughter--huddled in a corner in sheer mortal terror watching their Thanksgiving turkey-sans feathers, wings, feet AND head--running around the room!
heh heh heh

[leveymg]

11. I believe it was shot during a 1980 primaries rubber chicken event

Sorta sums up that ticket. Bipolar.

[PufPuf23]

18. The BCCI Affair Link - The Kerry Report to the US Senate

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/

[Octafish]

42. Banking CIA-Style - How the Money Moves Under The Table to Fund Covert Operations

Remember Nugan Hand Bank?

From the times, LA Times:

Banking CIA-Style - How the Money Moves Under The Table to Fund Covert Operations.

By Burton Hersh, Burton Hersh's new book, "The Old Boys," about the origins of the CIA, will be published next year by Scribner's
Los Angeles Times
August 04, 1991

BRADFORD, N.H. — The worldwide dredging operation on the Bank of Credit and Commerce International has carried with it to the surface the Central Intelligence Agency. This is an old story by now. Sink any hook deep enough, haul on it hard enough and up comes the CIA, again.

Perhaps this is inevitable--the consequence of climbing into bed for almost half a century with talent that ranged from the Mafia (repeatedly) to drug lords of every odor from Canarsie, N.J., to the palaces of Bangkok, Thailand. The CIA has always promoted itself as an equal-opportunity employer.

Created by the National Security Act of 1947 to counter by any imaginable means--preferably foul--the postwar depredations of International Communism, the CIA was expected to immerse itself at society's tangled depths. What it was not to do was join the heavies.

With BCCI debris increasingly scattered throughout world capitals, any number of questions on just this point are now bouncing around. Charges are already circulating that CIA representatives "collaborated with the (BCCI's) black network in several operations"; that, preoccupied with Afghanistan, CIA officers turned a "blind eye . . . to the heroin trafficking in Pakistan," and that BCCI money bankrolled the "covert sales of American arms to Iran in 1986." Administration involvement with the BCCI's warehouse of financial combustibles is likely to smolder through the remainder of the '90s. A slow fuse, promising a tremendous blast.

This may be unavoidable. Throughout U.S. intelligence history, whenever enough cash changes hands, those hands have rarely emerged clean. The money it requires to bribe an agent or buy off another country's senior officials seldom originates in a vestry collection plate. "Espionage is not for archbishops," Allen W. Dulles, the Eisenhower Administration's CIA director, was fond of confiding to his underlings. Dulles definitely knew.

CONTINUED...

http://articles.latimes.com/1991-08-04/opinion/op-453_1_nugan-hand-bank

This is how the well-to-do, connected few concentrate money and power, they pass the plate to those they regard as peons and pissants.

[earthboundmisfit]

21. Kick

and recommended

[Octafish]

46. A Branch Bank in Heroin Country -- ''Crimes of Patriots''

Here's a decent review by John Prados of an excellent book by the late Jonathan Kwitney, "Crimes of Patriots":

A Branch Bank in Heroin Country

THE CRIMES OF PATRIOTS: A True Tale of Dope, Dirty Money, and the CIA by Jonathan Kwitny (W.W. Norton & Co.: $19.95; 394 pp.)

By John Prados, \o7 Prados' most recent book, "Presidents' Secret Wars" (Morrow) profiled U\f7 .\o7 S\f7 .\o7 paramilitary operations since World War II\f7
September 13, 1987


Lt. Col. Ollie North shredded documents every day of his White House assignment and was proud of it. The principals in this story, maybe not so proud, did the same thing and with the same result. "The Crimes of Patriots" is Jonathan Kwitny's reconstruction of the deeds and fate of the men who formed Nugan Hand, the Australian "investment bank" that collapsed in a spectacular fashion in 1980. Nugan Hand was more nearly an international confidence scheme, earning commissions by moving large sums of cash across national borders, evading currency controls, and fleecing small investors in several countries. The end began in January, 1980, with the violent suicide of Australian lawyer Frank Nugan, and proceeded swiftly thereafter. Nugan Hand associates immediately began systematic efforts to dispose of the firm's records, but claims by depositors and creditors soon established that much more than the usual chicanery was afoot. By 1987, Kwitny notes, the astonishing thing was that still no one had been sent to jail for any aspect of the Nugan Hand affair.

The other half of this enterprise was Michael Hand, an American Vietnam veteran who had also worked for the Central Intelligence Agency in Laos. Hand began a business relationship with Nugan in 1970, and in June, 1973, they incorporated in Sydney as a "trusted Investment House." Nugan Hand eventually had offices or even banks in Singapore, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Hawaii, Panama, the Cayman Islands, and Saudi Arabia. Along the way, the enterprise enlisted an impressive array of former intelligence or military, especially special operations, officers as representatives of its branches or boosters. The list included two generals, an admiral, a senior CIA economic analyst, and as corporate counsel in the United States, former CIA director Bill Colby. Nugan Hand also opened a very curious branch in the upland heart of Southeast Asia's "Golden Triangle" heroin country, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

All this is dramatic stuff. A rifle suicide, large sums of cash, drugs, other mysterious deaths, jilted depositors, official investigations, seemingly the stuff of a classic whodunit. The author is well equipped to tell the tale; as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, Kwitny followed the Nugan Hand affair from the beginning, sometimes reaching major participants or witnesses even before official investigators. He kept up with subsequent revelations in the Australian press, monitored the three successive official Australian inquiries and followed many of his leads to great lengths. The Nugan Hand case offers Kwitny the opportunity to explore microscopically the theme he sketched broadly in his last book, "Endless Enemies"; namely, that ham-fisted U.S. foreign policy methods needlessly create enmities where none need exist.

With great potential, the best resources, and good intentions, Kwitny nevertheless stumbles in good part because of the miscellaneous disposal of documents, in essence, shredding. A healthy dose of conflicting testimony from Nugan Hand principals further impedes the investigation. Kwitny opens his account with the inquest into the Nugan suicide, which left many questions unanswered. Soon afterwards, he warns, "this is not a book for people who must have their mysteries solved." In fact, "Crimes of Patriots" ends with an appendix listing 57 more questions that Kwitny supplied to the House Select Committee on Intelligence in 1982. In between, plenty of additional questions appear in the narrative.

CONTINUED...

http://articles.latimes.com/1987-09-13/books/bk-7438_1_nugan-hand

True, all that. I've read the book. The thing is, Mr. Kwitney could only go with what was available at the time. Today, we know a hell of a lot more. Unfortunately, fewer and fewer people give a damn.

Thank you for caring, earthboundmisfit. Very much appreciate it, my Friend.

[earthboundmisfit]

54. Thanks -

A definite must-read.

[Kurovski]

25. K&R. (nt)

[Octafish]

48. Questions Linger About Bushes and BCCI

Thanks for reminding me, my Friend!

Questions Linger About Bushes and BCCI

Analysis by Lucy Komisar*

NEW YORK, Apr 4 (IPS) - Now that the U.S. Congress is investigating the truth of President George W. Bush's statements about the Iraq war, they might look into one of his most startling assertions: that there was a link between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.

Critics dismissed that as an invention. They were wrong. There was a link, but not the one Bush was selling. The link between Hussein and Bin Laden was their banker, BCCI. But the link went beyond the dictator and the jihadist - it passed through Saudi Arabia and stretched all the way to George W. Bush and his father.

BCCI was the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, a dirty offshore bank that then-president Ronald Reagan's Central Intelligence Agency used to run guns to Hussein, finance Osama bin Laden, move money in the illegal Iran-Contra operation and carry out other "agency" black ops. The Bushes also benefited privately; one of the bank's largest Saudi investors helped bail out George W. Bush's troubled oil investments.

BCCI was founded in 1972 by a Pakistani banker, Agha Hasan Abedi, with the support of Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al Nahyan, ruler of Abu Dhabi and head of the United Arab Emirates. Its corporate strategy was money laundering. It became the banker for drug and arms traffickers, corrupt officials, financial fraudsters, dictators and terrorists.

The CIA used BCCI Islamabad and other branches in Pakistan to funnel some of the two billion dollars that Washington sent to Osama bin Laden's Mujahadeen to help fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. It moved the cash the Pakistani military and government officials skimmed from U.S. aid to the Mujahadeen. It also moved money as required by the Saudi intelligence services.

The BCCI operation gave Osama bin Laden an education in offshore black finance that he would put to use when he organised the jihad against the United States. He would move money through the Al-Taqwa Bank, operating in offshore Nassau and Switzerland with two Osama siblings as shareholders.

At the same time, BCCI helped Saddam Hussein, funneling millions of dollars to the Atlanta branch of the Italian government-owned Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL), Baghdad's U.S. banker, so that from 1985 to 1989 it could make four billion dollars in secret loans to Iraq to help it buy arms.

CONTINUED...

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37212

Filthy, indeed.

[Kurovski]

26. Kick. )nt(

[Octafish]

50. Arming Iraq: How George H W Bush and Reagan helped Iraq Develop their Weapons of Mass Destruction.

DUers were on top of the story.

Arming Iraq: How George H. W. Bush and Ronald Reagan helped Iraq Develop their Weapons of Mass Destruction

December 13, 2002
By Christian Dewar DU

There are many ironies regarding the seemingly inevitable war with Iraq. Despite wide spread protests around the world, the bellicose draft-dodger who appears to have gone AWOL from the Texas National Guard is hell bent on retribution for his father's mistakes in the Gulf War. Unable to articulate a reason for going to war and apparently willing to alienate our closest allies by doing so, chicken hawks like Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz and Frank Gaffney are apparently ready to attack regardless of what the inspectors find or don't find. Osama has been forgotten even as Al Qaeda continues to claim responsibility for ongoing terrorist attacks.

The biggest irony aside from the fact that these men who avoided military service are so eager to spill blood is that Dubya would not be going to war in order to destroy Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction if his father had not enthusiastically sold them to Hussein in the first place. Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of weapons and provided the technology for Saddam's chemical, biological and nuclear programs.

The reasoning of the Reagan/Bush administrations for arming Iraq was that while Saddam was certainly an odious human being, he could serve as the region's policeman. He might be a bastard, but he was "our bastard". At the time, Iraq was fighting a war with Iran and the United States was worried that a victory for Saddam's nemesis could result in the spread of fundamentalist Islamic regimes which would destabilize the region and block our access to the oil in the Middle East.

There was another more nefarious justification which was best espoused by the CIA's Ted Schackley in his treatise "The Third Option". Schackley believed that by arming two enemies to kill one another, neither would be able to acquire hegemony over the region and both sides would be weakened. Since we had armed Iran under the Shah, selling weapons to Iraq would counterbalance the power in the region. Arming Saddam would also serve to coax him away from the orbit of his Soviet sponsor.

Another irony, of course, was that while they were arming Iraq and providing their army with satellite images of Iranian troop movements, Oliver North and John Poindexter were selling American taxpayer financed missiles to the Iranian Islamic fundamentalists who held American hostages.

Of course, George Bush and James Baker were also oil men and they realized the vast quantity of black gold under Iraqi sands. There were huge profits to be made importing Iraqi oil. Saddam could help to insure the safety of oil tankers and protect them from Iranian attacks, ensuring a constant flow. Bush and Baker sought to have a billion dollar contract for the construction of an oil pipeline in Iraq directed to their friends at Bechtel, the occasional employer of George Schultz and Casper Weinberger.

They also envisioned the huge profits that could be made selling Saddam weapons. Saddam was spending around a billion dollars a month in his war with Iran. It was a feeding frenzy of buying and selling that made fortunes for the merchants of death.

When Jimmy Carter was in office, he had prohibited the sale of weapons to either Iran or Iraq. Reagan removed Iraq from the list of nations that sponsored terrorism. Iraq was now eligible for U.S. government loan guarantees which he needed as the costly war was bankrupting his country. Although shipping arms to Iraq was illegal, by keeping this information secret from Congress and the American people, they were able to do an end-run around the Constitution and the War Powers Act.

Alan Friedman is a respected journalist for the Financial Times who has won numerous awards for his correspondence. His book entitled, "Spider's Web: How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq" outlines the efforts of the Reagan and Bush administrations to supply Hussein with the most sophisticated weaponry.

According to Friedman, President Reagan's special Middle East envoy, Donald Rumsfeld flew to Baghdad bearing a handwritten note to Saddam offering to renew diplomatic relations and to expand military and business ties. On November 26, 1984 diplomatic relations were restored. When Bush became president, he signed a waiver which said that prohibiting the sale of goods to Iraq were not in the best interests of the United States. Later, Bush signed a classified secret policy called National Security Directive 26 which encouraged U.S. oil companies to do business with Iraq.

Friedman writes that "Bush was to provide strategic battlefield advice to Saddam through intermediaries who were heads of state." While touring the Middle East, supposedly to promote peace talks, Bush discussed with the Egyptian president how Iraq could most effectively bomb Iranian troops. This information was to be relayed to the Iraqis The Reagan/Bush administrations provided Saddam with satellite photos of Iranian troop movements and later helped them create their own system for downloading this information themselves.

Friedman's book outlines how the Reagan/Bush administrations used criminal and corrupt banks such as the Atlanta Branch of the Banca Nazionale de Lavoro (BNL) to use American taxpayer dollars to assist Saddam and to export U.S. technology for "the Iraqi dictator's most cherished and lethal weapons projects." Money going for programs to arm Saddam were kept off the books and hidden from auditors.

According to Friedman, the Reagan administration sought to keep a low profile and avoid attention by using obscure U.S. government loan guarantee programs set up by the Department of Agriculture. These programs which were set up to help American farmers sell their produce overseas guaranteed the farmers would be repaid if the foreign buyer defaulted. One of these programs, the Commodity Credit Corporation was used extensively by the republican administrations to divert money to Saddam. These programs, of course, were financed by American taxpayers. By 1984, these U.S loans amounted to around $650 million.

The Reagan/Bush administrations were able to do this through fronts, cutouts and sham corporations, allowing for plausible denial. Deals were made to use Brazil as a transshipment point for these weapons. Jordan was used as an intermediary and a convenient false end-user destination. Saudi Arabia transferred hundreds of bombs to Iraq to use against Iran. Other countries were enlisted to arm Hussein.

The U.S. Government sent sophisticated technology directly to the Salah al-Din military factory which, among other things, built radar that was used to shoot at U.S. airplanes during the Gulf War. The land mines that we helped Saddam procure are still a threat to our forces if we invade.

The United States helped a factory in Chile to develop cluster bombs for use by the Iraqi air force, never mind that the U.S. had an arms embargo against Pinochet's government. High ranking American intelligence agents provided them with the blue prints and necessary materials. This factory sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of these weapons to Hussein.

The American company International Signal and Control (ISC) manufactured proximity fuses for artillery shells which were sent to South Africa and then routed to Iraq with the knowledge of U.S. intelligence.

Companies like American Steel received multi-million dollar requests from the Iraqis for weapons including radar, tanks and missiles, all in violation of the 1976 Arms Export Control Act which required State Department approval.

CIA contractors brokered deals for billions of dollars worth of weapons for Iraq. One such asset, Sarkis Soghanglian claimed the administration was aware of his sale of 45 Bell helicopters to Saddam.

Dow Chemical wanted to ship pesticides that acted like nerve gas on humans. Sidewinder components were transshipped through Italy to Iraq.

The gassing of the Kurds in 1984 by Iraq pilots, presumably flying these helicopters did not deter the administration which turned a blind eye towards Saddam's excesses. The administration then sold Iraq $220 million worth of trucks. They continued to provide backing for Saddam even after they knew he was developing a nuclear capability. Iraqi scientists were even brought over to the U.S. to attend symposiums on nuclear programs sponsored by Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore. Warnings by government employees about this dangerous program went unheeded. Whistle blowers were fired.

These are only a few of the examples which Friedman describes in his book. Other American allies also became involved in this feeding frenzy. The French sold Saddam around three billion dollars worth of equipment that could be used for creating a nuclear bomb as well as conventional weapons such as missiles and helicopters.

The English which had an official policy of neutrality sent missile components to Iraq at the same time that they were providing Iran with artillery shells. According to Friedman, this was done with the understanding of Margaret Thatcher who thought that England should exploit Iraq as a lucrative market for their lethal aid. They also provided the infamous Dr. Gerald Bull with components to build his super cannon for Saddam. Bull was later assassinated, probably by the Mossad.

Reagan also sought the help of the Italians in arming Iraq. They obliged him by selling Saddam weapons and the components for his nuclear program at Osirak. They built labs for the Iraqi atomic commission and trained his scientists and technicians so that they could extract plutonium . The Italians signed a $2.65 billion dollar contract with the Iraqis to build their navy. In 1984, Italy sold $165 million worth of helicopters to Iraq

Many of the Italian arms deals were done with the assistance of the BNL bank. They financed a deal for $225 million worth of land mines manufactured by a company partially owned by Fiat. These were a still a hazard for American troops during the ensuing Gulf War. The Fiat subsidiary also sold missile components to Iraq.

Another irony is that this policy of assisting the Iraqi dictator in acquiring the technology for WMD, Saddam was emboldened to invade Kuwait. Given hundreds of millions of dollars in weapons and dual-use technology as well as battle strategy plans, he thought that he had the green light from the Bush administration. Our ambassador to Iraq, April Glasspie, made it clear that any dispute among Arabs was of no concern to the the United States.

Like Manuel Noriega who had once been of use to George Bush, Saddam had out lived his usefulness. His declarations that he now possessed weapons of mass destruction and his bellicose posturing could no longer be ignored. Saddam was demonized. Public relations firms were brought in to sell the war to the American people. The Gulf war ensued. The story of how Reagan and Bush had armed Iraq was hidden and covered up. Low ranking employees of the BNL Atlanta branch were scapegoated. The architects of the scheme got off free.

At the time, this campaign was proclaimed a great military victory with few casualties among the coalition forces, never mind the estimated one hundred thousand Iraqis who died, including many civilians. In retrospect, the victory appears to be a Pyrrhic one.

Ultimately, this secret policy of the Reagan/Bush administrations, like the Iran-Contragate scandal, resulted in "blowback", the unintended consequences of their illegal and unconstitutional actions. American weapons that we provided to Iraq were used against our own troops in the Gulf War. The chemical and biological weapons that we helped Saddam create may be one of the causes of the Gulf War Syndrome which affects perhaps 200,000 veterans and has killed over seven thousand. American troops will be once again exposed to the 300 tons of depleted uranium shrapnel which appears to be causing high rates of cancers in Iraq. The UN weapons inspectors who will be searching for the Weapons of Mass Destruction that we helped Hussein create will also be exposed.

George W. Bush says that our enemies hate us for our freedoms and our democracy. But the secret policies of the Reagan/Bush scandals and their cover-ups served to erode that democracy. Now, as the United States is preparing to go to war, this administration is using the fear of our citizens as an excuse to rob us of our rights. George W. Bush and his administration are stealing our democracy from us. This is something that neither Bin Laden nor Saddam could do and that may be the greatest irony of all.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/02/12/13_iraq.html

Whatever happened to Justice?

[troubledamerican]

27. Sibel Edmonds knows how far it goes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergenekon_network

http://americanturkishcouncil.org/

http://www.justacitizen.com/images/Gallery%20Draft2%20for%20Web.htm

[karynnj]

28. No wonder powers that be allowed all the lying and cheating in 2004

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Kerry stood alone in the Senate fighting BCCI - refusing to stop when Carter and Jackie Kennedy begged him to.

[frylock]

29. knr

[defendandprotect]

30. K&R back later --

[Name removed]

32. Deleted message

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

[robdogbucky]

35. For those that are interested

check out the recent film The International, which I think anyone would agree includes a not too veiled depiction of a BCCI. The bank in the movie is IBBC I believe. It stars Clive Owen and Naomi Watts. It was very good IMHO.

robdogbucky

[defendandprotect]

34. k i c k

[HughBeaumont]

37. Always on hand to recommend an Octafish thread.

Just starting now on Family of Secrets. I suspect there will be a lot written that DUers have already revealed, but it may surprise me. It's an intriguing read so far.

[rhett o rick]

38. Tell me. Is it possible to fight forces like this? nm

[jwirr]

43. That is my fear. I have John Kerry's book "The New War" and am

afraid to read it. This is deep and they are very powerful. Sometimes I think global warming and oil depletion will be the only way to stop them. And even then there will be remnants left in the country.

[KoKo]

39. Ahh...Thanks for keeping the Info ALIVE, "Octo."

K&R!

[swilton]

40. K & R

Bookmarked - Thanks for reminding us!:kick: :headbang:

[bertman]

41. Could it be that the fourth leg that holds this chair up is organized crime? Not Poppy's

family, per se, but the old-fashioned families we know as the Mafia.

All the good intentions and persistence of Senator Kerry and others to investigate and prosecute BCCI and other crimes are simply kabuki theater. Nothing changes the fact that it's a show, even though it may make us feel a bit better (debatable, of course). When you are able to extort and intimidate people all the way to the top of our government, the CIA, and the FBI, you can get away with a LOT.

And, of course, the Mafia is not the only organized crime organization in existence. The aristocracies all over the world have been playing these games for millenia, and playing successfully. They usually only run into trouble when they take each other on or try to make a power play and miscalculate.

Maybe that's what is meant by the world's financial elites.

I just finished reading "Legacy of Secrets" and am still a bit stunned by how much control the mob was/is able to wield over our government by infiltrating and compromising our supposed law-enforcement and national-security organizations.

A couple of years ago I read a piece in a national magazine, "Esquire" I think, about how the Mafia had been put out of business. That article made me laugh. They just went upscale and high tech, and got a better PR machine. But, of course, there are still the old turf battles to be fought occasionally, so we get a glimpse of the "good old days".

Excellent piece as always, Octafish.

On edit: perhaps the most revealing aspect of "Legacy of Secrecy" was how little was actually revealed by the MANY investigations conducted by the government since the JFK assassination--and not just relating to that horrible murder. These were congressional investigations that were sidetracked and hoodwinked at every turn. Richard Helms, in particular, and to a lesser degree his successors, was able to keep secrets from Congress and US that may never be revealed. These folks seem to be accountable to no one. Ever. Or at least until after they are dead.

[karynnj]

47. Kerry's "The New War" has a huge amount, of information

on various MAFIA like organizations. It was against them as much as anything that he wrote his legislation to deal with international money laundering.

[bertman]

61. thanks, karynnj. I'll put that one on my list.

[G_j]

45. that photo is very scary

chilling

[laststeamtrain]

51. K & R - n/t.

[ezdidit]

52. Check out history commons - It goes back to Nixon.

[BlueMTexpat]

53. Another very nasty one who scuttles out from under the BCCI-related rocks

and who also is alleged to have CIA connections is neocon favorite and source of Judith Miller's lies that helped propel the US into war with Iraq: Ahmed Chalabi.
Check out this Salon report from 2004. And just where is Chalabi these days?

http://dir.salon.com/news/feature/2004/05/04/petra

[Karenina]

60. bttt!

[Octafish]

62. Ménage a Trois: Oil, Money, BCCI, and the CIA

Something else we need to remember:

Ménage a Trois: Oil, Money, BCCI, and the CIA

Fred Dexter
Covert Action Quarterly 39
No.39(Winter 1991-92)

In early August 1991, the global scandal surrounding the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) hit the headlines, and linked the powerful financial institution with the CIA. Acting CIA director Richard Kerr quickly decided to go public with a part of the Agency's relationship to what prosecutors have called the largest bank fraud of all time.

His choice of forum, a lecture to a group of U.S. high school students meeting at the National Press Club in Washington, was odd but rational. His chosen audience was obviously less prepared than journalists or members of Congress to ask tough questions about the Agen cy's relationship to the drug‑corrupted bank. Within this context, Kerr could put the information out in such a way that the CIA had total control over what was said and could thus cast it in an entirely positive light.

Kerr told the students that the bank's global reach and ties to various Middle Eastern groups early on made it a key vehicle for intelligence‑gathering by the Agency. At the same time, the Agency expanded its links with the bank, Kerr explained, both as a source for information on drug money laundering and drug trafficking, and as a mechanism for moving U.S. government funds. Because the bank operated branches in so many countries ‑ some 73 around the world ‑ the CIA used it also for moving Agency monies to its local assets. When the CIA found out the bank was engaged in improper activities, explained Kerr, it passed the information to federal law enforcement. Once it determined that the bank's activities were criminal, the acting director stated, the CIA of course began reducing its operations with the bank, and stopped them completely by the end of 1988.

Acting Director Kerr had indeed chosen his audience well. None of the high school students challenged his superficial account of the CIA's role with BCCI.

Among staff and members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, however, there were grumblings of skepticism. In August 1991, as part of its review of the nomination of Robert Gates for DCI, the committee began an investigation and an audit. The results of that audit are stiff secret, but some scattered facts have emerged from the public record, and are therefore available to Senate Intelligence staff. Taken together, they suggest a rather different picture of the CIA's role.

There is evidence, for example, that from its 1972 inception, BCCI was a CIA‑related operation designed to strengthen ties between the U.S. conservative regimes in the Middle East. By the 1980s the Bank was being used by the CIA for money transfers, and may also have become one of William Casey's off‑the‑books operations.

CONTINUED (in Archives, #39)...

http://mediafilter.org/caq/

Thank you for remembering, my Friend. Ich liebe Sie und Ihren.

Idet: Forget da "d" in "und." Duh.