BFEE Pal Berlusconi Built 007 Villain's Tunnel (like Moon & Hitler)

[Octafish]

If this doesn't flip out your inner conspiracist, you need to get your paranoid fixed. WARNING: A few DUers will need to re-read their Fleming. This is not a drill:

Opponents shaken and stirred at Berlusconi's 'James Bond' tunnel

By Peter Popham in Rome

28 May 2004

President George Bush, who flies to Italy next Friday to mark the 60th anniversary of the country's liberation from the Nazis, may be the first VIP to enjoy a massive expansion of facilities at the Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's holiday home on the island of Sardinia. Protected by coastguards, labourers have been working against the clock to finish a tunnel which will give visitors high security access to La Certosa, Mr Berlusconi's 47-acre estate.

Described as the "James Bond tunnel" because of its resemblance to a tunnel in the film The Spy Who Loved Me, the prime minister's tunnel is said to be equipped with a lift that will deposit visitors inside the villa. The tunnel, which local media only learnt about this week, is nearing completion and major construction activity has shifted to a 400-seat amphitheatre being constructed of pink-veined orange granite, a step away from the small castle in which Mr Berlusconi accommodates the bodyguards who escort him on his morning walks.

Italian government officials will neither confirm nor deny that Mr Bush plans to visit La Certosa. Carlo Giovanardi, Minister for Relations with Parliament, said of the tunnel: "It is just a protected mooring for the embarkation of small boats, with an underground passage. The works have been kept secret for obvious reasons of security."

SNIP...

Mr Berlusconi bought the first seven hectares of La Certosa20 years ago from another old friend, Flavio Carboni, who this year went on trial in Rome, accused with others of murdering Roberto Calvi, the banker found hanging underneath London's Blackfriars Bridge in 1982.

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=525617

CONTINUED...



Now, who else wanted to built an Austrian mountain redoubt?



National Redoubt

A 1945 U.S. Army map showing the possible extent of the National Redoubt The National Redoubt was the English term used to describe the possibility that Adolf Hitler and armed forces of Nazi Germany would make a last stand in the alpine areas of Austria, Bavaria and northern Italy in the closing months of World War II in Europe. In German this concept was called the Alpenfestung (Alpine Fortress).

Source:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/encyclopedia/national_redoubt

And who else built a jungle redoubt in the virgin Paraguayan Amazon?

WHY HAVEN'T THE BUSH ADMINSTRATION UTOPIAN LUNATICS SCREECHING ABOUT "ISLAMIC TERRORISTS" OPERATING ON THE BRAZILIAN SIDE OF THE TRI-BORDER AREA, SAID DIDDLY ABOUT MOON'S OPERATIONS?

RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct. 23 (EIRNS) — Rev. Moon's cult has been the subject of a multi-agency, federal and state, national security investigation in Brazil, since at least July 2001.

The investigations were undertaken at the initiative of the Army, because the Moon cult was accumulating enormous, contiguous tracts of land on both sides of the Paraguayan and Brazilian border--in an area very near the Triple Border region (where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet), notorious for drug, arms and other contraband.

It was estimated back in 2001, that the Moonies had made a $2 billion dollar investment in building their supposed "Garden of Eden" in the Brazil-Paraguay area. The Brazilian magazine {Isto E} described it in this way in its Feb. 19, 2002 story, "Paradise Under Suspicion":

"A kind of independent territory is being created in silence, in an area between the border of Brazil and Paraguay. It is the tropical paradise of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, formed through a succession of nature preserves, where the rivers Nabilequie, Miranda, Paraguai, Prata, and Salobra cross. In total, the properties add up to 833,000 hectares, which is the equivalent of more than three Luxembourgs, the European Grand-Duchy. In it, would fit the whole Federal District, plus the cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. If the lands were used for agrarian reform, they would be enough to provide for 41,650 families. Although they are not yet continguous, the lands being acquired are so close to one another that it is impossible to imagine that this is not being done to unify them."

CONTINUED...

http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi?read=24826



Now what Global Organized Crime Family has been involved INTIMATELY with ALL THREE?

One guess:


"I’m weird! Ask me about bin Laden!"

EDIT: changed header.

[seemslikeadream]

The cover is ugly. The topic uglier. The truth ugliest of all.

But not to know the truth is to be an obedient lemming chasing the tail of the doomed critter in front of you

[Octafish]

2. Thanks, seemslikeadream!

You always come through, SLaD!
Hey! D'ya know fish SWIM in that stuff?



Mussolini wasn't that bad, says Berlusconi

John Hooper in Rome
Friday September 12, 2003
The Guardian

Even some of Silvio Berlusconi's own supporters and allies were last night squirming with embarrassment at their leader's latest extraordinary gaffe.

In an interview published yesterday by the Spectator, Italy's prime minister appeared to defend the actions of his country's fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini.

"Mussolini never killed anyone," the magazine quoted him saying.

"Mussolini sent people on holiday to confine them ."

CONTINUED...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0,12576,1040340,00.html

The BFEE is principally made of nutty turds. And like in the polluted waters by the pig farm in Crawford, the scum rises to the top.

[seemslikeadream]

4. Mussolini just one misunderstood guy

[Octafish]

7. Sic semper moronus.

When it comes to these folks, it's hard to separate the facts from the guilty. We're Democrats and we believe all accused by the State deserve to have a fair trial. Toward that day, here's some information:



ACES AND PLACES

Ethnic massacre of '88 still haunts GOP

by Myron B. Kuropas

Regardless of what one believes about President Bill Clinton, there's no denying he's a superb campaigner. That's why he won the ethnic vote in 1992 and again in 1996. While Bob Dole's people didn't get around to appointing an ethnic campaign chairman until October 1996, President Clinton had his ethnic team in place and rolling by the end of 1995.

What ever happened to the GOP ethnic lock of the 1980s? I believe it started to unravel during the 1988 Bush/Dukakis campaign when eight ethnic activists (including two Ukrainians) were dumped from the Bush election team for what Bush people themselves called "unsubstantiated allegations." In my column of October 16, 1988, I called the development "an abomination."

The debacle began in July 1988, when GOP candidate George Bush attended a dinner sponsored by the Captive Nations Committee of Detroit and the American Friends of the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations at the Ukrainian community center in Warren, Mich. In his introduction of Mr. Bush, Bohdan Fedorak, a Bush campaign activist appointed by Ukrainian campaign chairman Taras Szmagala, stated: "It is important that the United States stand firm and not allow to influence and defame our communities, achievements and the heroic struggle for national independence which many of our people have fought for. Specifically, the Justice Department Office of Special Investigations and their collaboration with the Soviet authorities, and deportation of people to the Soviet Union are two issues which we strongly oppose."

That statement helped convince Bush campaign strategists that Mr. Fedorak should resign from the campaign along with seven others, including then-UCCA President Ignatius Bilinsky. All had been active in the National Republican Heritage Groups Council (NRHGC), for years an effective grassroots arm of the Republican National Committee (RNC).

CONTINUED...

http://www.ukrweekly.com/Archive/1997/139715.shtml

[seemslikeadream]

1. damn the dupe

[Octafish]

3. No problem! Gives me the chance to say something again...

Rev. Rich Lang:

'George Bush and the rise of Christian Fascism'

Date: Monday, March 08 @ 10:10:27 EST

Topic: The Religious Right

By Rev. Rich Lang

The Imperial Presidency

The men who wrote the Constitution of the United States knew that if power accrued into the hands of an elite the experiment of democracy (power spread out into the realm of the people) would be over. So they created a system of checks and balances which blocked access to any one person, or any one special interest or elite gaining too much power over others. Thus our executive, legislative and judicial branches of government "balanced" each other. The media was yet another "check" on the accrual of too much power, as was the Bill of Rights, and to some extent the Church (or churches). The system wasn't perfect but it kept alive the possibility of true democracy. It kept alive the dream that one day "we the people" could live in a peaceful commonwealth where every person has what they need to survive and thrive.

That dream died in December 2000 when the checks and balances of our Constitution collapsed and George Bush was inserted into the Presidency of the United States. September 11, 2001 furthered the atrophying of democracy handing the country into the hands of an emerging Corporate (and I say Christian) Fascism.

Fascism meaning the collapse of diverse spheres of power into one. Since that time we have witnessed, and have been unable to prevent, the emergence of an Imperial Presidency that has the unrestricted power to declare war against any country it chooses. The Imperial Presidency has brought to end the Constitutional mandate that 'ONLY CONGRESS' has the authority to declare war. It has furthered weakened international law and undermined the potential of the United Nations to spread democracy throughout the earth.

The Imperial Presidency has also gained unrestricted potential to round up American citizens incarcerating them in military brigs or concentration camps for unlimited amounts of time. The presidency can keep the accused from ever again communicating with friends, families, and attorneys, simply on the certification that the incarcerated are "terrorists," as he has done with Jose Padilla and Yaser Esam Hamdi. The Presidency may also now kill American citizens abroad solely on the basis of naming the one killed "a terrorist". Just ask the family and friends of Ahmed Hijazi, anAmerican killed with a U.S.-fired missile in Yemen. This nullifies the Constitutional right: "no person shall be denied life, liberty or property without due process of law."

CONTINUED...

http://smirkingchimp.com/print.php?sid=15261

[seemslikeadream]

6. they aroused the emotions of the uneducated and the disenfranchised.

THE COUP PERPETRATED BY MUSSOLINI'S BLACK SHIRTS

Opposite. On October 29, 1922, 50,000 fascist militia, led by Mussolini, and under the command of six generals, marched on Rome. The placards they carried read "Rome or Death."

The picture on the left shows the fascist militia entering the gates of Rome at the end of the march. The march, with so many men, shouting slogans calling for the return of the glory-days of ancient Rome, had a profound emotional effect on an ignorant and despairing public, leading to ultimately in perceiving fascism as a means to salvation.



THE METHODS BY WHICH FASCISM CAME TO POWER


Mussolini's quasi-paramilitary Black Shirts.
Fascism had its first successes in Italy. Mussolini took advantage of the social tensions and longing for change among the Italians, and after the war, mobilized former soldiers, the unemployed and university students, with slogans calling for a return of the glory days of ancient Rome. Mussolini organized his supporters, known as "Black Shirts," in a quasi-military format, and whose methods were founded on violence. They began to carry out attacks in the streets against groups they identified as their rivals. With their Roman greetings, songs, uniforms and official parades, they aroused the emotions of the uneducated and the disenfranchised.


On October 29, 1922, 50,000 fascist militants under the command of six generals marched on Rome. Because the king knew what the force that opposed him was capable of, and that there was no way he could oppose them, he called on Mussolini to form a government. As a result of the developments that followed, the Italian fascists finally came to power. A while later, Mussolini banned all other political parties. Some of the opposition leaders were sent into exile abroad, and others were imprisoned


http://www.islam-australia.com.au/harunyahya/fascism3.html

[maggrwaggr]

5. you two always seem to have the most interesting threads .....

I don't know what else to say

[seemslikeadream]

8. Fascism can be fun!

Above are some examples of publications reflecting Italian fascism and its pagan roots.

"THE DUCE, THE PERFECT MAN" PROPAGANDA IN ITALY

Images and publications trying to portray Mussolini as the perfect man were widespread in fascist Italy. Images of him with farmers in their fields, or with children in schools, were everywhere. The picture above typifies Mussolini propaganda.



Although fascist propaganda tried to portray him as divine and infallible, in actuality, Mussolini was psychologically ill and unbalanced. His psychological problems could sometimes be discerned in his face.
http://www.islam-australia.com.au/harunyahya/fascism3.html

I'm starting to think we should re-evaluate that bush-hitler thing

Thanks maggrwaggr but you know after awhile ya just get stuck on him!

[yardwork]

12. Interesting essay on fascism, but the author's ideas about paganism

are uninformed and extremely biased.

[seemslikeadream]

13. Went back to look for the pagan stuff got stuck on this

Left. Six Muslim Ethiopian resistance fighters hanged by the Italian forces of occupation.
Fascist propaganda: The Italian occupation was portrayed as bringing the "advanced" civilization of Rome to Ethiopia.

FASCIST ITALY'S OCCUPATION OF ETHIOPIA

Mussolini occupied Ethiopia in 1935 with dreams of "restoring the Roman Empire." 15,000 innocent Muslims were killed by the Italians. Mussolini gave the order that any civilian who opposed the occupation should be shot, and carried out massacres with the use of poison gas.

more
http://www.islam-australia.com.au/harunyahya/fascism3.html

It's sounding more and more BFEEy

Maybe you could help us out with the pagan info

[psychopomp]

22. The ol' Roman fascia

Why the fuck do we have these on display in our Congress???

[Octafish]

9. Thanks! You're a good read yourself, maggrwaggr!

Feel free to chip in whatever you want.



You don't need a tin helmet.

But seeing how I don't have to rabbit tomorrow, except for putting the final coat on the kid's bedroom, I'd like to add a little something on what Bush's backers have to look forward to:

http://physics911.org/net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=18

http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=b5fe6585.0301010713.920d822%40posting.google.com&oe=UTF-8&output=gplain

September 11--Islamic Jihad or Another Northwoods?

by Tim Howells, Ph.D. (November 10, 2003)

INTRODUCTION

In 1962, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, our highest and most responsible military officers, proposed to commit acts of terrorism aimed against U.S. citizens, designed to look as though they had been the work of operatives of Fidel Castro. The object was to provide a pretext for an invasion of Cuba. Among many imaginative proposals, the Chiefs suggested:

*
We could develop a communist cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington.
*

And further ...

*
We could blow up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba ... casualty lists in U.S. newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation.

"Justification for US Military Intervention in Cuba," the Joint Chiefs of Staff, March 13, 1962 http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20010430/doc1.pdf

*

Although these plans were never carried out (they were rejected by President Kennedy), similar proposals WERE actually implemented during the 1970's and 1980's in Europe by the CIA, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of innocent civilians. In one bombing of a busy train station in Bologna Italy in 1980, 86 people were killed and over 200 wounded. The bombings were designed to look like the work of communist extremists although they were in fact committed by right wing extremists working under the direction of the CIA. The aim of these operations was to whip up anti-communist sentiment among our European allies. ("Gladio: The secret U.S. War to subvert Italian Democracy," Arthur E. Rowse, Covert Action Quarterly, No. 49, Summer 1994 http://www.mega.nu:8080/ampp/gladio.html 1)

CONTINUED...

http://www.talkaboutgovernment.com/group/alt.politics.nationalism.texas/messages/2102.html

EDIT: tippo in title. argh.

[maggrwaggr]

10. interesting. When I was a kid in Germany in the early 70's

everybody was all freaked out by a gang of terrorists known as the "Baader Meinhof Gang" who were running around Germany bombing this and that. They bombed the I.B. Farben building at one point, and also killed an American Lt. Col in some sort of attack.

Even though we were kids, we were told to keep an eye out for anyone who resembled them.

Now I wonder if perhaps they were a fiction, like the Italian job you mention.

Know anything about Baader Meinhof? It's probably Bader with an umlaut.

[seemslikeadream]

11. You've found us out! seems and the fish - IN LOVE WITH TERROR

BAADER-MEINHOF: IN LOVE WITH TERROR
Tuesday 8 July 2003 9pm-10.20pm; rpt Monday 14 July 12.45am-1.45am


How do you start a revolution in one of the world's richest, modern democracies? The Baader-Meinhof group, aka the Red Army Faction attempted to in 1970s West Germany with bombings, kidnaps and murders.

Ben Lewis' stylish film provides a unique insight into the notorious terrorist group and includes interviews with former RAF members and leaders of the West German government.

DIRECTOR INTERVIEW

BBC Four: What was the attraction of the Baader-Meinhof Gang at the time?
Ben Lewis: Guilt. I think young Germans were very guilty about the past and Baader-Meinhof offered them an attractive and very simple way to absolve themselves of that guilt. When we say attractive, we don't mean they had a lot of supporters, we mean there were a lot of people who were quite attracted by them.

There were only a very small number of people doing these attacks and sheltering them. But a lot of school children thought they were cool. They wore leather jackets and were full of sexy girls and were run by a sexy guy. This was the German answer to the Rolling Stones. Typically, Germans couldn't come up with the Rolling Stones because they have to be very serious about things; so they came up with a terrorist group rather than a rock group.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/baader-meinhof.shtml

[maggrwaggr]

14. man, I'm getting old

they're making movies about my youth, and they're period pieces.

[burrowowl]

18. Yup!

Getting old and frustrated that many oldsters (like us) and youngsters in the U$ of A don't know or remember or are off in their Alger Hiss Dream ......
By the way: Berlus(que)coni is a FASCIST, pure and simple.
Con means cunt (meant like dick, I am female, if cunt meant dick, it would be better) in French and change the e and u, he is burlesque and con!

[Octafish]

16. Red Army Faction

The RAF and the Baader-Meinhof gang may've been state-sponsored set-ups. From one side, it looks like the East German STASI forked over the dough, from another perspective, it looks like the same folks behind GLADIO. Either way, terrorism is the work of governments, a conspiracy.

[VolcanoJen]

15. L'Americano scares the crap out of me.

My wonderful Italian boss has told me so many fascinating stories about the Italian view of Berlusconi, and his riches, and his ownership of all things media, and his Fascist leanings.

His coziness with Chimp makes me uneasy... I can only imagine how Italians feel.

I wish I knew more... I'm learning and educating myself rapidly.

[Octafish]

17. What's your boss say regarding SB?

Does he believe what the Italian TV tells him, the monopoly of which is owned by Berlusconi? He sounds like the Chimperror and Rupert Murdoch rolled into one. Here's a bit of background from Reference Library online encyclo:

Silvio Berlusconi

Silvio Berlusconi (born September 29, 1936) is currently (2004) the Prime Minister of Italy. He is the leader of the Forza Italia political party (which he created specifically for his entrance into politics), and the owner of an Italian media empire. As an entrepreneur, he has interests in a variety of businesses. Forbes Magazine lists him as the wealthiest person in Italy, with an estimated net worth of $7.2 billion (as of 2002). His official tax returns declare far less.

SNIP...

A good friend of former premier Bettino Craxi, he has been accused of having used political pull throughout his business career, and of various sorts of corruption, including conflicts of interest. These accusations are dismissed by Berlusconi as political smears. Berlusconi is still very much locked into the cold war ideology, and anybody who is against him is branded as a communist. Many consider this rather ironic given that his legislation whould not look out of place in Orwellian novels such as 1984 and Animal farm.

Berlusconi has often been criticised of using his media power for his own political propaganda. The fact that he owns a large portion of Italy's media channels makes it harder for anti-government criticism to take place, according to critics.

Berlusconi owns three national television channels (in addition to his, and his brothers, interests in publishing), which prior to the elections took around 45% of viewer share. He made an election pledge to resolve this obvious conflict, however after taking office his government immediatly re-organised the state TV channels (claiming it was run by communists) so that around 90% of Italian telvision is controlled by people appointed by himself or his government. Several noted giornalists who where critical of Berlusconi have dissapered from the media and a series of hiccups in the running of the state television channels has allowed his own company (mediaset) to increase market share. His government has presented a new legislation for a reform of the media, but this actually incresead the percentage share that an individual was allowed to control (it should be noted that Berlusconi was allready outside the previous limits). The legislation also deals with the roll-out of digital television and internet based publishing, and hence his government claims it resolves the problem of conflict of interest and his media monopoly "by opening up more channels".

CONTINUED...

http://www.campusprogram.com/reference/en/wikipedia/s/si/silvio_berlusconi.html

[VolcanoJen]

19. Oh, no. He's completely aware that SB owns the media in Italy.

He insists to me that this is why L'Americano can't be defeated. He's well aware. I learned so much, the truth, you know, about Silvio from my boss. I enjoy his stories of how Italians openly discuss politics, and how heated it can get, but in America, the subject is practically taboo in public spaces. It strikes him as one of our most curious cultural differences, especially considering that America is supposed to be the land of free exchange and expression of thought, and what-not.

Is it a European thing? I lived awhile in Germany, and found it to be more political, more ripe, than America at the time (mid-1980s).

My boss is a naturalized US citizen now, and he supports Bush. Well, sort-of. He admits Bush's shortcomings, he's just not really convinced it could get any better with anyone else. He's cynical about the entire political system, as many Europeans are.

[Octafish]

23. Vielen dank, VolcanoJen! My Brazilian buddy's the same way.

The guy is as as nice as anybody in the world -- to me, my wife and kids, my neighbors, everybody he meets. He's lived in the USA for 30 years and is a naturalized citizen. But he's a Republican. My friend knows Chimp's a Crook, but he thinks he'll win because he's got all four of his hands on the levers of power.

Regarding the taboo on discussing politics: Oh yeah. During the blackest days post-9-11 my extended family were gathered to celebrate Mother's Day at a busy restaurant. We weren't too loud, but we got to dissing Bush and all. The discussions got going, louder and more pointed in our criticisms of the campaign against Al Qaeda and the coming war against Iraq.

As things escalated, a few people around us began to give us a look as if to say "Bush can have us arrested as terrorists for talking like that." None of us caved and we kept talking, I'm proud to report. This is a fairly conservative town, so I hope a few of those people learned a thing or two, too.

[devilgrrl]

20. History repeating itself...

[seemslikeadream]

21. when fascism comes to America

[Octafish]

30. Deja nasty vu NAZIs.

Anyone who's still friends with Berlusconi after he said that "Mussolini wasn't that bad, because he never killed anybody" is also a NAZI.



The NAZIs liked oil.

That's how they got to know the Bushes in the first place.

[phoebe]

24. What was the result of Cheney's dig? Anybody know?

n/t

[Octafish]

26. If it's good enough for Sneer, it's good enough for Disney!

What else the acting presidunt is doing to protect his underground lair is anybody's guess. Mine is he's hot-wired Uncle Sam's ATMs to directly feed his numbered accounts in Zurich.

Disney makes terror upgrade

Steel barricades in place at parks' service entrances

LAKE BUENA VISTA - High-security, anti-terrorist barricades that can stop speeding trucks have been installed at Walt Disney World, an added level of protection to the theme parks' service entrances.

Disney is not responding to any specific threats, choosing instead to make the upgrades as part of continually evolving security policies, park spokeswoman Jacquee Polak said Friday.

SNIP...

The barricades at Disney are of the same model that the manufacturer - Delta Scientific Corp. - recently shipped to Baghdad, Iraq, for use at the new U.S. Embassy.

Delta, based in Valencia, Calif., has installed barricades at the U.S. embassies in Jordan and Yemen, and soon, Iraq. One of its barricades protects the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., the residence of Vice President Dick Cheney. Another protects a nuclear fuel-reprocessing plant in Idaho.

CONTINUED...

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/democrat/news/local/8677727.htm

[seemslikeadream]

29. Somebody was gonna do it

it might as well be me.

[Octafish]

33. I was going to say instead of whiskers, a toothbrush mustache...

... but I'd end up getting sued by Cap Cities.



They're still angry about 9-11.
The film, not the national disaster.

[seemslikeadream]

31. Who Were The Gremlins?

Chesty, mascot for 1943 Los Angeles
War Chest Fund Drive.

Who Were The Gremlins?

According to Keith Larue, in the darkest hours of World War II, the British Secret Service, led by "A Man called Intrepid" (aka William Stephenson), infiltrated agents into both enemy and neutral countries. The purpose of these agents behind enemy lines is obvious; but in neutral America, Intrepid's agents had a less obvious purpose: inspire sufficient public sympathy to enable Roosevelt to openly support Britain.

These agents included actors, astrologers, and — a children's author! Not only that, but the children's author was infiltrating Walt Disney's studios!

Roald Dahl, then a pilot injured in action with the RAF, was sent to the U.S. as an air attache. His outspoken style made him at once unpopular with his Air chiefs, and a favorite of the cocktail set. He was packed home, recruited by Stephenson, and sent back with a promotion, much to the chagrin of the Air chiefs.

In 1943, Dahl wrote "The Gremlins", a book for children about the hazards of being an RAF pilot. The Gremlins were little havoc-wreaking creatures, the anthropomorphized explanation for any mishaps experienced by pilots and their machines. If a plane experienced a hydraulic failure over the North Sea just as it was being bounced on by Nazi fighters, it was said that it was the work of the Gremlins. According to the Warner Brothers Cartoon Companion,
mythical beasties, "the little men who aren’t there," allegedly responsible for "die-a-boll-lickal sab-o-tay-gee" in aircraft. While the Roald Dahl versions of the critters are probably best remembered — he wrote a best-selling book about them while serving in the war — variations on the characters go back to at least World War I. The critters took on a life of their own, and became part of the lore of World War II. The Disney studio attempted to make a movie out of the Dahl book, but ultimately abandoned the project. Disney tried to urge other studios against working with his characters — so of course, Robert Clampett went on to make two separate cartoons featuring Gremlins. First, he used a gremlin to battle Bugs, who, unusually, gets the worst of it in Falling Hare (1943). The title of the second cartoon was changed from Gremlins from the Kremlin to the somewhat less effective Russian Rhapsody (1944) before being released.
(The background on this page depicts the Gremlins ... view a color version.)

Gremlins weren't quite Dahl's invention though: the name gremlin was first coined during the 1920's. RAF insider jokes blamed gremlins for all the technical malfunctions in airplanes. Douglas Bader tells of a German Lager-Offizier nicknamed "Gremlin George" in early 1942. Gremlin jokes were widely used by the RAF during the World War II and so got into popular culture as well.

The book came to the attention of Walt Disney, who planned to make a cartoon film version. In the process, one small edition of a cartoon book was printed, featuring somewhat Mickey Mouse–ish Gremlins. These certainly looked much milder than some more recent portrayals of their species, and probably much milder than Dahl's idea of them. At any rate, the film was never made, some say because of the difficult task of making loveable creatures who exist solely to destroy Allied airplanes.(Disney actively tried to stop others from making Gremlin cartoons, however.)

http://www.skylighters.org/disney/index2.html

[Octafish]

34. Gremlin George

How apropos.



"Don't be pushy. Jes' tell me where's the cig lighter!"

[Lars39]

25. Well, damn!

And here I thought the Gores might have a country of refuge if needed further down the road.

[Octafish]

27. Yes, it probably won't be Italy that will give refuge to the Gores.

It's South Africa, where he'll join other real Democrats -- people who believe all people are created equal.



Aristide given warm welcome in South Africa

01.06.2004
1.00pm - By BASILDON PETA

JOHANNESBURG - Deposed Haitian leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide arrived in South Africa to a full red carpet welcome on Monday amid strong opposition protests over how President Thabo Mbeki has warmed to the former dictator.

Mr Mbeki, who rarely greets heads of state at airports, and who was not on the tarmac when US President George Bush or Germany Chancellor Gerhard Schroder visited his country, was at Johannesburg airport to meet Mr Aristide on his arrival.

Most of his cabinet were also present as well as diplomats, members of the US congressional black caucus who have denounced the US "coup" against Mr Aristide, and Mozambique's foreign minister, representing the African Union (AU).

"I want to say welcome to President Aristide, Madame Aristide and the children. Welcome to the African continent and to South Africa," Mr Mbeki said during a brief media appearance at the airport.

CONTINUED...

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3569880&thesection=news&thesubsection=world

Of course the OPPOSITION in SA takes the POV trat Aristide is a dictator in exile. LOL -- That's the same thing Dick Cheney says.

EDIT: Whoops. Forgot link. Duh.

EDIT2: Real whoops! Sorry I failed to mention: "Thanks! For remembering on LBN, Lars39! Much obliged!"

.. and what a tragic story on LBN...

[Minstrel Boy]

28. Guess which future Italian PM was a member of the P2 lodge?

Yes: one Silvio Berlusconi. Even before he entered politics, Berlusconi was in the pocket of murderous fascist kingpin Licio Gelli.

From Searchlight, May 2002:

In his testimony given last year before the Commissione Stragi (Commission on terrorist massacres), General Maletti, who in order to escape justice took refuge in South Africa under apartheid, said that the creation of "second generation Red Brigades" was discussed at the highest level of the Italian government. He did not deny that some of their members were trained at Campo Maraggiu, in Sardinia. This was the secret training ground for the Gladio forces, which were linked to a network of fascist organisations. The favourite of the CIA, and undoubtedly of Henry Kissinger himself, was Ordine Nuovo, led by Pino Rauti, the avowed admirer of Hitler and Himmler. Only last year Rauti made an electoral deal with Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia. At the very top of the secret plans however was the fascist Licio Gelli, head of the notorious P2 Masonic Lodge.

Gelli, known to the CIA and friendly with the former US President Ronald Reagan, recruited about 1,200 members, including Maletti and other heads of the secret services and the military. P2 was later described by an investigative commission as a "government within the government". It was a subversive organisation, a military coup in waiting, with men ready to take control of key structures throughout the country. An attempted coup did in fact take place during the night of 7-8 December 1970, when the Home Office in Rome was briefly taken over. Known as the "Borghese coup", it was called off at the last minute apparently because Gelli did not get the green light from the United States.

On the list of P2 members found in Gelli's villa in Tuscany was the name of Berlusconi. Among the many mysteries in the tycoon's early career concerning the source of the funds that enabled him to buy estates in Milan and later launch his television channels with licences given to him by the corrupt Christian Democratic-Socialist government, the Gelli link highlights the Gladio-P2-Berlusconi-CIA jigsaw.

Berlusconi is now flanked by deputy Prime Minister Gianfranco Fini, the former secretary of the fascist MSI (Movimento Sociale Italiano), and by Umberto Bossi of the racist Northern League. The rise of what has been described as the most dangerous political triad in Europe appears to be the successful fruition of a long sought objective. "The CIA wanted to assist nationalism with the extreme-right contribution", declared Maletti to the Commission.
http://www.searchlightmagazine.com/stories/ItalyMay2002.htm

[Octafish]

32. That's a trick question, Minstrel Boy! Where's Henry?

Sheesh! I was trying to avoid reading your post because I hadn't the slightest clue. I thought "Craxi," but he's about to face trial for killing the Vatican Bank president (IIRC) and besides, he's already been PM. Then I read your thing and found that you were thinking the BFEE Italo-turd Berlusconi already. Then I got to the end of the post and read about the neo-NAZIs Fini and Bossi. Had heard a bit on the Northern League, but didn't remember any names. Some of our friends in Italy sure know them. Seems they may've been players back in the BNL-Iraqgate days....

http://amorpatrio.splinder.it/1064970000

Sorry my Italian is so bad I can't even guess more than a "fascisti" here and there. I'll see if one of my buddies at the barbershop can translate. In the meantime, I'll drop a reminder about BNL and Henry B Gonzalez:

KISSINGER ASSOCIATES, BNL AND IRAQ

* More on Kissinger and BNL
* BNL actually a client of Kissinger Associates
* Letter to President Bush
* Scowcroft stock ownership
* Many large defence contractors
* Background on National Security Council
* NSC influence over export licensing for Iraq
* Scowcroft and EXIMBANK military sales
* Conclusion
* Financial Times, 26 Apr 1991
* Stock Holdings of Brent Scowcroft

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Texas is recognized for 60 minutes. Mr. GONZALEZ. Mr. Speaker, during a special order last week, I revealed that Henry Kissinger was a paid member of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Consulting Board for International Policy. Mr. Kissinger held this position during the height of the biggest banking scandal in United States history-$4 billion in unreported loans to Iraq by the Atlanta branch of BNL. This week I will reveal some new information regarding Mr. Kissinger and his relationship with BNL. I will also include in the RECORD a detailed list of Mr. Brent Scowcroft's stock holdings.

MORE ON KISSINGER AND BNL

In order to learn more about Mr. Kissinger's role at BNL, committee investigators contacted an attorney representing BNL in the United States and asked him to contact BNL in Rome. The BNL employee in Rome told BNL's attorney the following:

Mr. Kissinger has been a member of the BNL International Advisory Board since 1985. Mr. Kissinger is paid $10,000 for appearing at an Advisory Board meeting and he is paid extra for speaking at BNL functions. It is important to bring these facts out because BNL is owned by the Italian government. In effect, Mr. Kissinger's fees are indirectly paid for with Italian taxpayer money.

Banking Committee investigators were also told that Mr. Kissinger may still be a member of BNL Advisory Board. His term does not expire until next month. This information conflicts with what Mr. Kissinger was quoted as stating in a Financial Times article on April 26. In that article Mr. Kissinger stated that he resigned from BNL's advisory board on February 22, 1991. I will write BNL and Mr. Kissinger in order to clear up this discrepancy.

Mr. Kissinger went on to state in the same Financial Times article: I resigned earlier this year because I don't want to be connected, I don't want to be asked about this sort of thing.

http://www.webcom.com/~pinknoiz/covert/iraqgate04.html

[seemslikeadream]

35. Henry Kissinger Riggs National Bank

I'm looking around


Remember when Henry Kissinger had to quit when as chairman of the 911 Investaging commottie he was asked to reveal his "business contacts"?

The New York Times > Business > Your Money > A Washington Bank, a ... ... of America; and others with surnames like Greenspan, Kissinger and Rehnquist. ... Today, however, Mr. Allbritton and Riggs National Bank, which provides ... www.nytimes.com/2004/04/11/business/ yourmoney/11riggs.html

Bush Week in Review ... Kissinger still holds thousands of state department documents that he took to ... the form of cashier's checks, purchased from Washington's Riggs Bank by Princess ... www.literalpolitics.com/BushWeek/bushweeknov02.htm

Currents - When Do We Call It Corruption? ... Inevitably the list includes both Henry Kissinger and Richard Perle, whom I hereby propose (stealing an ... It appears that the Riggs Bank is feeling a little heat ... forums.alternet.org/ guest/motet?show+-uibDGd+-ilad+Currents+931+-25

Democratic Underground Forums - great link from BartCop ... III Lloyd Bentsen Zbigniew Brzezinski Dick Cheney (Resigned in November, 2000) Henry Kissinger Brent Scowcroft John ... Treasurer Karl Mattison - VP Riggs Bank, NA. ... www.democraticunderground.com/ cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi? az=show_thread&om=4093&forum=DCForumID70

Inside the Mind of Gloria Brame: Impolitics ... President Bush's uncle, was appointed CEO of Riggs Bank's investment arm ... to actually FIND the facts on the Riggs/Bush connection ... Of course, Kissinger was right ... gloriabrame.typepad.com/inside_the_mind_of_gloria/ impolitics/

US-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce ... Dick Cheney (Resigned in November, 2000). Henry Kissinger. Brent Scowcroft. ... Karl Mattison, Treasurer. VP Riggs Bank, NA. Seymour Khalilov, Executive Director. ... www.cooperativeresearch.org/organization/ profiles/usacc.html

http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:glbkK79X86oJ:www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi%3FArtNum%3D51227+riggs+bank+kissinger&hl=en


"POOR PINOCHET"-- AN UPDATE ON THE TRIALS OF THE TYRANT
By Saul Landau

The Santiago Appeals Court apparently voted 13-9 to revoke General Augusto Pinochet's parliamentary immunity. This makes Pinochet vulnerable to prosecution in Chile for allegedly ordering his subordinates to carry out a mass murder campaign - which they did. The court can now prosecute him in more than 100 cases of people murdered in the so-called "Caravan of Death" cases. Needless to say, the appeal process will take years. "Poor Pinochet," a conservative Chilean politician remarked to me. "A man who brought order to our country, dealt with the troublemakers and put good people in charge of our economy. He's being nibbled to death by the leftwing courts."

I agreed on the nibbling process, but I don't quite share the politician's admiration for Pinochet, who led the 1973 military coup. He ruled for 15 years, before calling and losing a 1988 plebiscite and, in 1990, a presidential election. So, he made himself army chief for a decade. In 1998, he retired and made himself Senator for Life. "Poor Pinochet," said his supporters after he had ventured to London in October 1998. (At the rime, his Riggs Bank checking account had $1.8 million.) Indeed, "poor Pinochet" never dreamed that a Spanish judge would issue an arrest order and that British authorities would hold him prisoner for some 15 months for the solid anti-Communist work he had done in Chile.

Henry Kissinger had praised his efforts. Former Prime Minister Thatcher regularly invited him to tea. And, Kissinger and Thatcher both chimed in on his behalf. "Poor Pinochet," they intoned. "Let the poor old man alone." Then, in March this year, British Home Secretary Jack Straw, bowing to this kind of pressure from the old boys and girls network, declared that in captivity "poor Pinochet's" deteriorating health made him unfit to stand trial.

But, those opportune southwesterly winds accompanying his airplane back home proved recuperative powers for the ailing ex-dictator. After landing in Chile, poor Pinochet bounced out of his wheelchair and danced a cueca step on his way to hug his old military pals. Then, he recovered enough cogency to complain about how Chileans didn't appreciate all he'd done for them. Poor Pinochet felt downright sorry for himself. The mighty Chilean military would not-could not-allow lowly civilians to pester the great hero further. They made martial noises. But incoming President Ricardo Lagos gave the Chilean joint chiefs a finger-wagging lecture on the nature of their subservience to civilian authority. And, behind the scenes, the Chilean corporate elite sent their warning to the military: this is not the time to threaten a coup, lest it interfere with business. President Lagos pledged that he would allow the courts to handle the Pinochet affair.
http://www.zmag.org/ZSustainers/ZDaily/2000-06/10landau.htm

[Octafish]

37. Your BFEE at work

Riggs... Riggs. Isn't that the bank that Jonathan Bush serves as BFEE stooge over?

A Shift in Strategy for Riggs

Bank Struggles to Find Focus for Investment Advisory Business

By Terence O'Hara and Kathleen Day
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, May 27, 2004; Page E01

Riggs Bank's slogan for much of the past 20 years -- "The most important bank in the most important city in the world" -- was intended to distinguish Riggs from the common run of banking.

This upper-crust vision of Riggs, cultivated by former chairman Joe L. Allbritton to attract Washington's unique class of moneyed demi-celebrities, guided many of the bank's strategic moves under his tenure.

One of these moves was the 1997 purchase of J. Bush & Co., a Connecticut money-management firm founded, owned and run by Jonathan J. Bush, the former president's brother and the current president's uncle, for an estimated $5.5 million.

At the time, Riggs was positioning itself as a personal bank and investment adviser to the wealthy after it lost ground in its core retail banking operations to larger, out-of-state competitors. J. Bush & Co., with a successful track record and a sterling name, fit the bill. Bush is now an employee of Riggs and continues to run the company with his name on it.

CONTINUED BFEE Fraud 24/7/365(6)/Since 22 Nov 1963:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58805-2004May26.html

Your BFEE at work, all right. Busting out yet another bank from the inside.

BTW: Certainly right. Poor Pinochet. I bet the line of volunteers to kick him out of a helicopter somewhere over the Antarctic Ocean is only 3,000 miles long now.

[seemslikeadream]

39. Riggs Bank, J. Bush

Snazzy
WaPo: A Shift in Strategy for Riggs (Riggs Bank, J. Bush)


A Shift in Strategy for Riggs
Bank Struggles to Find Focus for Investment Advisory Business
By Terence O'Hara and Kathleen Day
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, May 27, 2004; Page E01


Riggs Bank's slogan for much of the past 20 years -- "The most important bank in the most important city in the world" -- was intended to distinguish Riggs from the common run of banking.

This upper-crust vision of Riggs, cultivated by former chairman Joe L. Allbritton to attract Washington's unique class of moneyed demi-celebrities, guided many of the bank's strategic moves under his tenure.

One of these moves was the 1997 purchase of J. Bush & Co., a Connecticut money-management firm founded, owned and run by Jonathan J. Bush, the former president's brother and the current president's uncle, for an estimated $5.5 million.

...

Sources with knowledge of the matter, but who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that despite Bush family business and social ties to Saudi royals, Jonathan Bush had very little involvement in Riggs's banking relationship to the Saudi royal family. However, more than a year ago he did give some investment advice to a Saudi client connected to the embassy, the sources said.


....

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58805-2004May26.html

(some more trickle about the new BCCI)

eridani

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Pinochet_on_trial/Story/0,2763,409367,00.htm...

The Chilean army and secret police have spent almost two decades secretly flooding Europe and the US with massive shipments of cocaine. The trafficking began during the 17-year dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet and continues to this day, a year-long investigation for The Observer has established.

Pinochet, who is now fighting arrest on kidnapping and murder charges in Santiago, has not clarified how he and his wife, Lucia, had $1,169,308 (around £730,000) in their account in the Riggs Bank in Washington on 1 March 1997. As commander-in-chief of the Chilean army, his annual salary in March 1997 was $16,000 (£10,000).


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-oil22may22,1,88675...

Marathon Oil Corp. and ExxonMobil Corp. confirmed that company officials had met with Senate investigators, but would not provide details. Both firms said their dealings in Equatorial Guinea had been
proper and lawful.

Interest in the land deals grew out of a money-laundering inquiry involving accounts held by Equatorial Guinea at Riggs Bank in Washington. The biggest account contained hundreds of millions of dollars in oil revenues deposited by American oil companies operating in the country.

http://www.davidsirota.com /


PRESIDENT BUSH'S UNCLE IS A CHIEF EXECUTIVE AT RIGGS BANK
According to the nonprofit Texans for Public Justice, Jonathan Bush is the President and CEO of Riggs Investment Management - a major arm of Riggs Bank. He is also the uncle of President George W. Bush. The President "credits the investors sent his way by this banker uncle as a key to his 'success' in the Texas oil industry in the early '80s." According to Public Citizen, the uncle Jonathan was a Bush Pioneer, having raised more than $100,000 for his nephew in 2000.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/8670766.htm

Riggs Bank has been fined $25 million by the Treasury Department for failing to detect and report tens of millions of dollars in suspicious transactions by foreign governments, particularly Saudi Arabia and Equatorial Guinea.

On Friday, the Federal Reserve ordered Riggs' Miami operation, Riggs International Banking Corp., to hire an outside consultant to conduct a thorough review of the bank's transactions and money-laundering controls.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4661093


Among the payments that have drawn scrutiny, documents show, were $19,200 in checks between December 2000 and January 2003 from the Saudi Embassy to an Islamic cleric, Gulshair Muhammad al-Shukrijumah. The Florida-based imam has been on the FBI's radar screen for some time: he once testified on behalf of convicted terrorist Clement Hampton-El.

Hampton-El was convicted in trying to blow up the WTC the first time in '93. al-Shukrijumah is apparently still missing, also served as the blink sheik's interpreter and may have had a serious role in 9/11. So, it's not just the princess sending money to the West Coast cell.

http://www.911citizenswatch.org/print.php?sid=176

The UK publication of House of Bush, House of Saud, by the American writer Craig Unger, has been cancelled because Secker and Warburg, a Random House subsidiary, says it can no longer afford such risks.

The book focuses in part on the activities of a Jeddah-based Saudi billionaire, Khalid bin Mahfouz, who has been engaged in a war of words in the US, where there have been public accusations by officials linking him and others to funding received by Osama bin Laden.

http://www.tomflocco.com/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=53

Al Bayoumi and Basnan both befriended Alhazmi and fellow Saudi hijacker Khalid Almihdar after they arrived in San Diego, according to the sources; and the Riggs checks from Prince Bandar's wife helped the terrorists pay rent and living expenses in the months just prior to the attacks, according to reports. Newsweek said Al Bayoumi helped them obtain social security cards and helped them arrange for flying lessons in Florida--indicating dramatic evidence of the state of congressional internal security oversight.

Basnan was convicted of visa fraud and deported to Saudi Arabia on November 17, 2002. His wife Majida Ibrahim--who had also laundered checks from Riggs Bank--was deported the same day to her native Jordan for visa violations. (Washington Post, 9-24, 2002) Reasons were not given why the White House allowed the high profile suspects to leave the country on charges much less important than being implicated as an accessory to mass mu



seemslikeadream

BAC Florida hit with federal rebuke


BAC Florida hit with federal rebuke
Miami Herald (subscription), FL - 24 minutes ago
... Earlier this month, Riggs Bank of Virginia was fined $25 million by the Treasury Department for failing to detect suspicious transactions by the governments of ...



BAC agrees to cease & desist order
Coral Gables-based BAC Florida Bank has agreed to the issuance of a cease & desist order concerning operations that include its compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Tuesday.


The FDIC said BAC agreed to the order March 16, "without admitting or denying the alleged charges of unsafe or unsound banking practices and violations of law and/or regulations."

The order requires BAC to develop and put into action a written plan for compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act by Aug. 3.

That law requires banks to report all cash transactions of $10,000 or more to the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

The order also requires BAC to not engage in any unsafe or unsound practices regarding the Bank Secrecy Act, the Treasury Department's Know Your Customer policies and in its monitoring of payable through accounts and master account holders.
http://southflorida.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/2004/05/24/da...


Internet Translation Service
Growing pressure for consolidation in the U.S. banking sector
Karl-Heinz Goedeckemeyer


The restructuring of the U.S. banking market is rapidly taking shape. With the mergers between Bank of America and FleetBoston Financial and between JP Morgan Chase and Bank One, consolidation has clearly gained momentum. In the wake of these mega-mergers, National City Corp and Provident Financial Group also amalgamated recently, along with Regions Financial and Union Planters Corp. Given the brighter business and market climate, the wave of mergers is expected to continue during the current year.

Thanks to these mergers, the financial giants Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America currently have total assets of around $ 3,200 billion. This means that there are now three banks in the U.S. each with a market capitalisation of over $ 100 billion. Internationally, only the HSBC Group can compete in this top league.
http://www.die-bank.de/index.asp?channel=121010&art=321&issue=052004

Riggs Bank Retrenching Foreign Operations
Sarasota Herald-Tribune, FL - Apr 30, 2004
... Banks mentioned as potential acquirers of Riggs are Bank of America (BAC), BB&T, Citibank, SunTrust and Wachovia (WB), all of which already have a retail ...

Newsweek in Nov. 2002 Reported that Princess Al-Faisal's Account was with Riggs -- Jonathan Bush's Bank

Michael Isikoff reported on 11/22/02: "Sources familiar with the evidence say the payments--amounting to about $3,500 a month--came from an account at Washington's Riggs Bank in the name of Princess Haifa Al-Faisal, the wife of Saudi Ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan... After Al Bayoumi left the country in July 2001--two months before the September 11 terror attacks--payments for roughly the same amount began flowing every month to Osama Basnan, a close associate of Al Bayoumi's who also befriended the hijackers." A visit to the Riggs website (www.riggsbank.com ) shows that "Jonathan Bush, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of J. Bush & Co., Inc., founded the company in 1970... He is the son of the late Senator Prescott Bush and the brother of former President George Bush." Also, "J. Bush & Company manages assets for high net-worth individuals, corporate benefit plans and foundations" (Click on "Investments", then "Investment Advisors"). http://www.msnbc.com/news/838867.asp

__Riggs Bank Cited for Violating Money Laundering Laws

Kathleen Day reported for the WashPost on 7/16/03: "Federal bank regulators cited Riggs Bank for violating money-laundering laws, the bank said yesterday. The bank consented to an order from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency requiring Riggs to beef up its procedures for reporting potentially suspicious transactions under the Bank Secrecy Act. The law requires banks to report cash transactions of $10,000 or more. Riggs officials and regulators did not specify if the consent order was tied to any particular customer, or how many transactions Riggs failed to report over what time period. Sources said that in a separate but related investigation, the FBI continues a months-long probe into whether charitable contributions made by a Saudi princess with checks drawn on her Riggs account indirectly benefited two of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn /...
Evidence builds for Bush family corruption
posted 05/10, by Donald Grbac (viewed 1340 times) | Scope : National
Popularity : 33 (35 encourage, 2 discourage)
Relevance : 43

Much has already been written about the Carlisle Group. Now we can add the Riggs Bank to the list. It seems the 9/11 terrorists received funding through Riggs Bank. Some of those funds were originally provided by Princess Haifa Al-Faisal, wife of the Saudi Ambassador Bandar Bin Sultan, and daughter of the late King Faisal. The President and CEO of Riggs Investment Management Company is none other than George W. Bush's uncle Jonathan Bush (according to The INN Report). By law, suspicious money transfers are required to be reported to the FBI. Riggs Bank did not follow regulations in this case. Even worse, in what appears to be a cover up, the Bush Administration is blocking investigations into this terrorist money trail.

In another story,

George W. Bush's brother was on the board of directors of a company providing electronic security for the World Trade Center, Dulles International Airport and United Airlines, according to public records. The company was backed by an investment firm, the Kuwait-American Corp., also linked for years to the Bush family.

The security company, formerly named Securacom and now named Stratesec, is in Sterling, Va.. Its CEO, Barry McDaniel, said the company had a ``completion contract" to handle some of the security at the World Trade Center ``up to the day the buildings fell down."

http://www.e-thepeople.org/article/31752/view


Snazzy

Riggs BAC connection


http://www.fiba.net/board.asp

Florida International Bankers Association:

President
Thomas P. Noonan
BAC Florida Bank

Treasurer
Juan Luis Toro
Riggs International Banking Corp.

(Toro ran Riggs International--the one they are closing for the money laundering and terror funding and other good stuff like that. They hosted a Miami conference on money laundering in March. Good to have experts handy).

But more interesting probably is that BAC is the US subsidiary of Banco de America Central, Nicaragua. You can't have a good BFEE banking/money laundering scandal without it leading to Nicaragua, can you?


Snazzy

BAC Miami--more names for Google


(BTW--this is not Bank of America, although that's BoA's stock symbol. This is a huge Nicaraguan/CA bank.)

Officers

Chairman Carlos F. Pellas
Co-Chairman F. Alfredo Pellas, Jr.
Ernesto Cruz
President Thomas P. Noonan
Enrique Arguello
Jeff Gross
Marcello Correa
Robert C. Hill
Ramon Juncosa
Maria Yolanda Flores
Walter Carvalho
Fabio Fernandez
Jorge Alcalde
Pedro Soto
Jack Trufelli

Directors

Peter A. Conway
Ernesto Cruz
R. Bruce Cuthbertson
Timothy W. Davis
Thomas P. Noonan
Luis Parajon
Carlos F. Pellas
F. Alfredo Pellas, Jr.
Roderick N. Petrey
Frank Robleto
Fernando A. Tamayo
Stephen Freeman


------

The Pellas family owns Nicaragua apparently. Money from rum / sugar plantation, their banking control came into being after Ortega.

Jeb Bush has been particularly interested in Nicaragua, just like dad. Here's an op ed he wrote that was also published in their paper as an ad just before the election there:

In small letters above the headline: The Brother of the President of the United States (in blue) Massive Headline: GEORGE W. BUSH SUPPORTS ENRIQUE BOLANOS (blaring red)

"This November, Nicaragua will choose a new president. This decision rests where it should, in the hands of the Nicaraguan voting public. At the same time, we in Florida want the people of Nicaragua to know that they are not alone in making this decision.

"The elements which have made of Florida and the United States a place where exiles from diverse countries have found success - democracy, respect for law, transparency and confidence in public institutions - are being developed in many Latin American countries. Florida benefits when its neighbors adopt the successful formulas - free elections, open markets, the integrity of the public sector - which have produced such good results in our country.

"However, this formula for success is not automatic. Not everyone has the same commitment to these successful free institutions .... As I look at Latin America today, I'm reminded of the motto which is written above the entrance to the US National Archives: "The Past Is Prologue." The past is without doubt the key indicator of the future. In a world which has been transformed during the last decade through political and economic openings, it is inconceivable that a people would choose to return to a totalitarian past.

"The past and present of Daniel Ortega clearly indicate that he neither understands nor accepts the basic principles of freedom, democracy and the free market. Some say he has changed, that the years out of power have convinced him of the necessity for genuine democracy, for open markets, and for the maintaining of good relations with his neighbors and with the United States. This is what Ortega would want us to believe.

"Daniel Ortega is an enemy of everything the United States represents. Further, he is a friend of our enemies. Ortega has a relationship of more than 30 years with states and individuals who shelter and condone international terrorism.

"By contrast Enrique Bolanos is a man whose past promises a future of freedom. I knew him for the first time fifteen years ago, before the end of the Cold War, when freedom was not yet secured in many parts of the world. He spoke with clarity of purpose and with precision about the importance of democracy, of the free market, and of the absolute necessity to have a public sector with integrity. He not only spoke about these ideas but also defended them valiantly in the hostile and repressive climate created by the Sandinistas. Thanks to this experience, I can say that Enrique Bolanos will be an excellent leader for Nicaragua.

"To construct democracy is not easy. It puts a leader's commitment to the test as well as his will to hold to the true path. This is why Latin America needs people whose valorous past points to a promising future. Latin America needs leaders like Enrique Bolanos, people whose history shows a commitment to the construction of prosperous economies and solid democracies which are the necessary base for reinforcing bonds of brotherhood with Florida, just as with the whole United States of America.

Jeb Bush, Governor of Florida."

http://www.therationalradical.com/documents/jeb-bush-alert.htm

Same ad campaign: they also had a picture of Osama next to a picture of Ortega.

----

President Bush's brother, Florida's Governor Jeb Bush got into the act with a pre-election op-ed piece for the Miami Herald. Gov. Bush accused Ortega of having "a 30-year relationship with states and individuals who harbor and condone international terrorism." Bush promoted the candidacy of the Liberal Party's Enrique Bolanos, the 73-year-old conservative businessman and former vice president under Aleman, writing that Bolanos was "a man whose past indeed promises a future of freedom." The Washington Post reported that Gov. Bush's ringing endorsement was then reprinted in a full-page newspaper ad in Nicaragua under the headline: "Brother of the president of the United States backs Enrique Bolanos."

Other US officials accompanied Bolanos during the campaign, handing out bags of rice that were stamped "USA." While Bolanos dwelled on Ortega's so-called ties to "international terrorism," Ortega's campaign tried to distance itself from its radical past and concentrate instead on "the mounting allegations of corruption and spendthrift ways of the Aleman presidency," reported the Post.

http://www.workingforchange.com/printitem.cfm?itemid=13833

The former president, Arnoldo Aleman (Bolanos was his VP), made off with $100 million when he left office, in prison there (? may be out), not extradited when US claimed we wanted to prosecute. Guess he wasn't the BFEE guy anymore. Where'd that money go? Miami bank accounts and real estate (in Key Biscane for one place). Several articles say "Miami bank accounts" but no names of banks.

---

Back to BAC:

Jeb and Noonan opened the last Florida International Bankers Conf. in November where they were pushing for Miami (or Coral Gables) to be the seat of the FTAA secretariat. An idea that Nicaragua happily endorsed.
http://www.forrelease.com/D20040217/fltu040.P2.02172004171815.01550.ht...

Roderick N. Petrey is one interesting director who googles. He runs the Collins Center, appointed by Jeb to investigate what went wrong with the 2000 election and apparently implement HAVA (i.e. Diebold). They claim to be non-partisan. Dunno.

http://www.collinscenter.org/press/press_show.htm?doc_id=104953
http://www.electionline.org/site/docs/pdf/fl.task.force.rpt.12.2002.pd...


Snazzy

Riggs National shopping for potential buyer-sources


Riggs National shopping for potential buyer-sources

Thursday May 27, 7:55 PM EDT

By Tom Johnson

NEW YORK, May 27 (Reuters) - Riggs National Corp. (RIGS), which has faced a series of federal investigations into some of its operations, has hired Lehman Brothers to seek a potential buyer, sources close to the situation said on Thursday.

The process is in the early stages and no definitive decision has been made to sell the entire bank, based in Washington, D.C., but several Mid-Atlantic institutions have been approached to gauge their interest in a deal, several of the sources said on condition of anonymity.

...

The agency specifically charged Riggs with failing to report tens of millions of dollars in withdrawals from accounts related to the Saudi Arabian embassy, and additional large sums withdrawn from Equatorial Guinea accounts and deposited into private accounts. Riggs did not admit or deny any wrongdoing.

The Federal Reserve this month also directed Riggs to hire an outside consultant to review its board's conduct in connection with the OCC investigations and asked Riggs to submit a written plan to strengthen its board's oversight.

...

Bank President Timothy Coughlin announced his retirement after 21 years with the bank late Thursday.


http://finance.myway.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_rt.jsp?section=news&news_id=reu-n...

Snazzy

Riggs Nat'l says president Coughlin to retire


Riggs Nat'l says president Coughlin to retire

Thursday May 27, 6:29 PM EDT


By Jonathan Stempel

TORONTO, May 27 (Reuters) - Riggs National Corp. (RIGS), whose Riggs Bank unit was this month fined $25 million for having inadequate safeguards against money laundering, on Thursday said President Timothy Coughlin will retire from the company in mid-June.

The Washington, D.C.-based company made the announcement one month after a management shake-up in which Coughlin and Joe Allbritton, Riggs' chief executive for nearly two decades and its largest shareholder, decided not to stand for reelection to its board of directors. Allbritton is vice chairman.

Coughlin, who is in his early 60s, joined Riggs in 1983, and became president in 1992. He most recently also served as head of embassy banking. Riggs has long been considered the dominant force in diplomatic banking in the nation's capital.

Riggs did not say why Coughlin is retiring, and said its board will evaluate how best to fill his responsibilities. Riggs did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

....

http://finance.myway.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_rt.jsp?section=news&news_id=reu-n...


Snazzy

WaPo: Riggs Starts Exploring Possible Sale


Riggs Starts Exploring Possible Sale
President of Bank's Parent Firm to Resign
By Kathleen Day and Terence O'Hara
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, May 28, 2004; Page E01

...

Coughlin, through a Riggs spokesman, declined to comment. A source familiar with the matter, who would discuss the retirement only on the condition that he not be named, said Coughlin, 62, was not asked to leave the company but told board members he thought it was time to retire. He had relinquished his Riggs National board seat in April. He was paid $435,137 in salary and bonuses last year.

Coughlin was the number two executive at the company and serves on the boards of a number of local nonprofit and cultural institutions. Earlier this year he took on responsibility for Riggs's embassy banking division after it became the focus of regulatory scrutiny. Sources familiar with the matter, speaking on condition they not be named, said executive vice president and embassy banking head Raymond M. Lund was ousted early this year and is one of two Riggs officers subject to possible civil penalties for not adequately supervising their staffs.

...

The Senate Banking Committee and a subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee each plan to hold hearings next week at which lawmakers expect to question bank regulators on whether federal oversight of Riggs has been effective enough. Some Riggs executives and board members worry such questions from Congress will pressure regulators to impose fines, as they have warned they might do, on some current and former Riggs officers. Although Joe Allbritton has not been warned he might be fined, according to sources familiar with the matter, continuing publicity about Riggs's regulatory lapses has caused federal regulators to reconsider that decision.

....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61810-2004May27.html


9215 says BLAAAM!!!


lockdown

Aafia Siddiqui (part of yesterday's terror alert)


Siddiqui, included in yesterday's scaremongering, lived with two people involved in Saudi transactions via Riggs.

Fleet also spotted suspicious money transfers totaling $20,000 from the Saudi government's armed forces account to a man who lived in the same Boston apartment as Siddiqui. His name is Abdullah Al Reshood and he has been questioned by the FBI, according to a source.

Reshood wrote a $20,000 check to another Saudi, Hatem Al Dhahri, who then wired $17,193 back to an account in Saudi Arabia controlled by Reshood. Al Dhahri lived at the same address as Siddiqui, Fleet noted in its report.

The Newsweek report also highlighted the role of Riggs Bank in Washington, D.C., in the transactions from Saudi Arabia. Riggs never filed any suspicious activity reports with the U.S. Treasury, prompting an investigation.

The Riggs accounts, according to Newsweek, showed a number of checks sent to flight schools and flight school students in the United States.

http://theedge.bostonherald.com/tvNews/view.bg?articleid=483&format=


9215

BLAAAM!!!

Nice catch:

The Riggs accounts, according to Newsweek, showed a number of checks sent to flight schools and flight school students in the United States.

The bank I mentioned above, Suntrust, has some agreement to buy Riggs bank. I'll need to dig into that more.

[Octafish]

40. It's ALWAYS the money... What 9215 said.

And if your name is Bush, you just seem to get advice at the right time. It's a Rigged Bank.

Riggs hires Lehman to review options, stock soars

Fri May 28, 2004 02:42 PM ET
By Jonathan Stempel

TORONTO, May 28 (Reuters) - Riggs National Corp. (RIGS.O: Quote, Profile, Research) , long the dominant force in diplomatic banking in Washington, D.C., on Friday confirmed it hired Lehman Brothers to assist in a review of "strategic alternatives," including a possible merger.

Shares of Riggs on Friday rose as much as 16 percent to $21.80, their highest level since July 1999, following published reports about Riggs' plans and the Lehman(LEH.N: Quote, Profile, Research) hiring.

Riggs' stock traded at $21.10, up $2.36, or 12.6 percent, on Friday afternoon on the Nasdaq.

Based in the nation's capital, Riggs has not decided to sell itself, but some mid-Atlantic banks have been approached to gauge their interest in an acquisition, several people close to the matter said on Thursday.

Riggs said it is considering a "business combination with a third party." It said it plans no further announcements until an agreement is reached, or Riggs changes its strategy.

CONTINUED...

http://www.reuters.com/financeNewsArticle.jhtml?type=bondsNews&storyID=5290778

[Minstrel Boy]

36. Not a trick question, Doc Octofish, just poorly worded!

The corruption of the Italian oligarchs is a fascinating and complicated story.

I recently read David Yallop's In God's Name, which posits that the first John Paul was murdered, likely poisoned on Gelli's orders, with aid of fellow P2ers Roberto Calvi and Paul Marcinkus. Upon becoming Pope, Albino Luciani intended to clean house after learning of the Vatican banking scandal and the infiltration of the church by P2.

[Octafish]

38. You have a heck of a library, Minstrel Man!

"El que lee mucho y handa mucho, vee mucho y sabe mucho." -- Miguel de Cervantes, in the introduction to Don Quixote.

You hit on a most frightening subject there, MB. Exorcist W scare level. These guys have got to something with all that money.

I'm glad we had the Pope we did over the past quarter-century. He did more than Pruneface to bring down the Soviet Union.

OTOH: It would have been REAL nice to have purged the stain of Fascism from the Vatican Bank to Riggs Bank and all points 'round the BFEE world.

BTW: Thanks for the heads-up on Yallop's book. One more on the Must-Read List.