Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN advisor

[Bozita]

Source: Guardian UK

Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN advisor
Drugs and crime chief says $352bn in criminal proceeds was effectively laundered by financial institutions

Rajeev Syal
The Observer, Sunday 13 December 2009
Article history


Drugs money worth billions of dollars kept the financial system afloat at the height of the global crisis, the United Nations' drugs and crime tsar has told the Observer.

Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said he has seen evidence that the proceeds of organised crime were "the only liquid investment capital" available to some banks on the brink of collapse last year. He said that a majority of the $352bn (£216bn) of drugs profits was absorbed into the economic system as a result.

This will raise questions about crime's influence on the economic system at times of crisis. It will also prompt further examination of the banking sector as world leaders, including Barack Obama and Gordon Brown, call for new International Monetary Fund regulations. Speaking from his office in Vienna, Costa said evidence that illegal money was being absorbed into the financial system was first drawn to his attention by intelligence agencies and prosecutors around 18 months ago. "In many instances, the money from drugs was the only liquid investment capital. In the second half of 2008, liquidity was the banking system's main problem and hence liquid capital became an important factor," he said.

Some of the evidence put before his office indicated that gang money was used to save some banks from collapse when lending seized up, he said.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2009/dec/13/drug-money-banks-saved-un-cfief-claims

[Hello_Kitty]

1. I don't even know what to say about that.

:wow:

[Bozita]

7. Banksters are more of a danger to society than druglords?

[sasquatch]

2. Keep snortin' Dubya, the world needs your $$$

[Rage for Order]

9. Hmmm...it appears he may be good for something after all

Of course, on the whole it doesn't even begin to balance out

[cutlassmama]

13. Truth

[Scruffy1]

3. So much for the war on drugs

I've long maintained that only with the collusion of international bankers and money men can the the global drug trade exist. They have filled the prisons with their victims while reaping huge untaxed profits. No I don't find this surprising, but the public has been convinced that a "dealer" is that guy standing out on the corner in the cold to pay for his own habit (or his or her rent) not the guys in the Brooks Brothers suits. One goes to prison the other to Club Med.

[PJPhreak]

5. +1000 nt

[defendandprotect]

14. So much agree with you .... Drug War is faked -- only way this could go on is

with complicity with government officials -- police enforcement, etal --

everything is corrupted by creating this illegal market.

Years ago, Maxine Waters was talking about this -- and Gary Webb?? "Dark Alliance"?

Can't recall the names/title at the moment. Hope I'm close!

I think 10 years and more ago, Maxine Waters was talking about one of the NYC banks --

Citibank? -- and it's yearly haul of half a billion a year in drug money --

There is also, of course, a lot of racism involved in this Drug War -- John Erhlichman

made that clear during the Nixon administration -- and ever since it's been true.

We need to overturn this Drug War which is basically a fascist war on all of us!!

[juno jones]

24. Yep Gary Webb RIP.

The Big One (the story that would change one's life) would be like a bullet with your name on it. You'd never hear it coming.

From the first page of 'Dark Alliance'. Considering what happened to him I found his rather light-hearted words chilling.

It doesn't surprise me that at this point illegal drugs are the backbone of our economic system, after all, it was engineered that way.

[defendandprotect]

26. Obviously, our government/CIA couldn't have anyone becoming more powerful ...

i.e., wealther --

Amazing quote by Gary Webb . . . !!

Certainly anyone trying to penetrate our nations dark secrets/conspiracies is in

danger --

Gary Webb was concerned and courageous -- and he died for it, IMO.



:)

[Aragorn]

4. ha ha ha

and uour elected "representatives" still don't get it?

Sorry, the question mark is s/w sarcastic.

[Froward69]

6. Because the bankers were too afraid to squander

it.
or Invest it frivolously.

the US taxpayer cash?? Joe every-day's cash??? okey dokey

Definitely an unspoken set of regulations for Drug money there.
:hide:

[marcg]

8. This Is Why Obama Overthrew Honduras Govt

not that folks here will be willing to admit Obama actually did it. I know that. So sure, something of a rhetorical bomb. But surely, even the most diehard DUer knows that Obama could have turned back the coup if he so wished. That he didn't and hasn't and will not, is telling. Honduras will now become a narco state that helps do what this article is explaining, keep the 'legitimate' system afloat.

[AlphaCentauri]

18. what about those military bases in Colombia?

are they protecting those drugs assets?

[Vidar]

35. Welcome to DU. Many of us agree with you about our government's

despicable actions in Latin America.

[Unvanguard]

10. Reminds me of Avenue Q.

"In volatile market, only stable investment is..."

[bobshin]

11. Maybe I'm too cynical but I believe the government has to be in the drug trade.

From the local police to the CIA and military. If they're not then the system is pretty pathetic- how else do the drugs get to all the drug-dealing locations in every community in the amount to sustain the drug trade? Let's face it, our economy for the number of people we have in this country is full of air with little substance. Wall Street, military-industrial complex, bigPharma, government(including schools). Say No to Drugs and D.A.R.E. are obvious farces.

In my community, although we get a bad rap for the drug dealing, 99.9% of the crime is between the perps. It is obviously too big to fight, so why even pretend?

[flyarm]

12. I read about that shortly after the crash last year!I wish i could find that article but i have this

but i did find this in my files..it was posted by Seemslikeadream..who has incredible postings here at DU

here is her post..i have edited with highlights i found quite interesting..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2223366

Oil and Drug Cartel Behind WWII Nuremberg Records Reveal
http://www.profit-over-life.org /


New York Times, July 20, 2007

Tens of Thousands of Historical Documents Online for the First Time:

Oil and Drug Cartel Behind WWII
Nuremberg Records Reveal

After six decades of silence, the historic records of the key war crimes tribunal that determined the responsibility for WWII is finally being made available to a world audience. Currently, history books teach that WWII was launched by a lunatic dictator, Hitler, and his ruthless Nazi henchmen.

However, tens of thousands of historical documents from the Nuremberg Tribunal – newly released online – unequivocally document that:

WWII – a war that cost the lives of more than 60 million people – was planned and financed by the world’s largest chemical/ pharmaceutical cartel. At that time Germany’s IG Farben consisted of Bayer, BASF, Hoechst and others.
The driving force behind WWII was IG Farben’s ambition to achieve control of the global oil and drug markets and eliminate, by force, any competition.
The IG Farben companies financed the rise to power of the Nazi party and the transformation of German democracy into a dictatorship.
The Nazi/IG Farben coalition’s plan for world domination had three stages: first, the conquest of the Eurasian continent; second, the take-over of Great Britain and all of its colonies; third, the military defeat of the USA and the rest of the world.
As everybody knows, the Nazi/IG Farben coalition’s plan for world domination was destroyed by the efforts of the great majority of nations of the world and the extraordinary sacrifices they made.

While this victory was important for all mankind, the newly emerging post-war order was already influenced by the oil and drug interests from the victorious countries:

The shares of the IG Farben cartel went to their economic competitors in the victorius countries. The corporate executives of the IG Farben cartel – after a mere ”reprimand” at Nuremberg – were soon reinstated by the new owners of the IG Farben shares in the USA and the UK to help them consolidate the oil and drug cartel at a global level. However, these important facts have essentially been concealed from the people of the world, who were made to believe that with the first Nuremberg trial – against the military and political stakeholders – the ”main war criminals” had been brought to justice.

This was, of course, not the case. Beside this first trial there were 12 further trials that made up the Nuremberg Tribunal. The most important among them was the case against the oil and drug cartel, IG Farben. The executives of this cartel, according to the chief US prosecutor, Telford Taylor, were the main war criminals – without whom WWII would not have been possible.
It is inconceivable and intolerable that mankind should continue to be left in the dark about the ultimate responsibility for WWII – the greatest crime thus far committed on this planet.

The online academy ”Profit Over Life” is an educational resource for the benefit of the people of the world. Students, teachers, academic researchers, politicians and millions of people worldwide are invited to use this archive as the basis for better understanding history.

This is particularly important because multinational corporate interests continue to this day to use military force to reach their global goals.

The crimes with which these men are charged were not committed in rage or under the stress of sudden temptation. One does not build a stupendous war machine in a fit of passion nor an Auschwitz factory during a passing spasm of brutality. Their purpose was to turn the German nation into a military machine so it could impose her dominion on Europe and other nations beyond the seas. They were the warp and woof of the dark mantle of death that settled over Europe.”

The fact that this information was buried in international archives and is not part of any history book is no coincidence. The interest groups that kept this critical knowledge hidden for six decades will now have to answer many questions. Whatever their reaction to the online opening of these archives will be – the truth is now out and these facts will be common knowledge to this and all future generations.

This online archive has been made possible by the Dr. Rath Health Foundation, a non-profit organization

[Iowa]

23. Thanks for posting this. n/t

[Rosa Luxemburg]

15. absorbed. How convenient!

Jesus!

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

16. Imagine how far ahead they'd be if grass were legal and taxed.

:shrug:

[sasquatch]

17. Kentucky would have two cash crops then

:smoke:

[Capn Sunshine]

19. is Corn Likker considered a crop now?

:)

[sasquatch]

33. No, but Tobacco is

[Ter]

28. Grass!

My parents used to call it that! :)

[No Elephants]

30. Guess what the English translation of "hashish" (aka hash) is.

Btw, your grandparents probably called it pot and called your parents "potheads."

the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Love, Mary Jane.

[peacetalksforall]

20. If we knew a little more it seems logic would show that the real Drug War is

between U.S. and partners and the renegades growers and dealers who won't fall into line.

The U.S. doesn't really like independents, i.e., COMPETITION.

Notice that no one is referring to what we are purporting to be doing in Afghanistan as a war on drugs.

One day we may see an article naming the military brass who were given responsibility to hide the military role in the process - in Nicaragua, Columbia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, the Middle East, to name the high spots, but also in the world at large.

Riches equate to control and control of us is what they want. When the drug and weapons and earth resource income is great enough for the guys and gals at the top, they will stop destroying us and taking us down to a third world country, because they will have to have money flow to keep their income coming in. They want population control, but they also want consumers. They have such enormous responsibility - knowing when to put a halt to our fall. (With all due sarcasm.)

Drugs is the best way to pick up able bodies men and put them in prisons. It may be the best way of picking up duly elected leaders by aircraft and dropping them off at another continent. (Aristedes if you don't like to guess.)

[acsmith]

31. the taliban had completely eradicated opium production before the US invaded...

it once again erupted after the invasion though when they needed cash to kill US troops.

[AlphaCentauri]

21. No wonder in 1940 when Mexico did legalize Marijuana Harry Anslinger promoted a commercial embargo

against that country until Mexico did destitute Dr. Leopoldo Salazar Viniegra who was in charge of the Mexican department of public health and was promoting the creations of recovery centers for addict instead of jailing them. Mexico had to revert their law to make marijuana illegal.

[alcibiades_mystery]

22. There's no doubt this is true

Hundreds of billions of dollars swishing around and no downward pressure on demand. Of course the banks were running on the illicit market funds.

[Quasimodem]

25. Gangsters investing in banksters.

And vice versa.

[JohnyCanuck]

27. Well this article makes perfect sense then......

Britain is protecting the biggest heroin crop of all time

By CRAIG MURRAY (former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan)

Our economic achievement in Afghanistan goes well beyond the simple production of raw opium. In fact Afghanistan no longer exports much raw opium at all. It has succeeded in what our international aid efforts urge every developing country to do. Afghanistan has gone into manufacturing and 'value-added' operations.

It now exports not opium, but heroin. Opium is converted into heroin on an industrial scale, not in kitchens but in factories. Millions of gallons of the chemicals needed for this process are shipped into Afghanistan by tanker. The tankers and bulk opium lorries on the way to the factories share the roads, improved by American aid, with Nato troops.

How can this have happened, and on this scale? The answer is simple. The four largest players in the heroin business are all senior members of the Afghan government ? the government that our soldiers are fighting and dying to protect.

When we attacked Afghanistan, America bombed from the air while the CIA paid, armed and equipped the dispirited warlord drug barons ? especially those grouped in the Northern Alliance ? to do the ground occupation. We bombed the Taliban and their allies into submission, while the warlords moved in to claim the spoils. Then we made them ministers.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-469983/Britain-protecting-biggest-heroin-crop-time.html#ixzz0ZXkQVaUO

[leveymg]

29. Drug money also funds black intelligence operations and wars. It's all been intertwined since WWII

Goes back to the cooperation between the Sicilian and Corsican Mafias with the OSS in Europe, and the Chinese Triads and Burmese warlords with MacArthur. An enduring partnership.

[Generic Brad]

32. Which countries? Which banks?

Unless there is hard core proof and specific institutions are named, this is nothing more than rumor. People are currently pissed at banks in general for the state of the economy and it is all too easy to automatically pile on. Are some bankers crooks? I suppose. Are all bankers and banks involved in criminal activity? Not by a long shot.

This story lacks specifics to the point where it is nothing more than rumor mongering.

[VanW]

34. 1999: NY Stock Exchange President Richard Grasso

embraces FARC commander Raúl Reyes somewhere in Colombia.