Kissinger & BCCI spells BUSH & 9-11

[Octafish]

Smells too, like burning oil...

The Bank of Credit and Commerce International BOUGHT INFLUENCE at the highest levels of the US Government, establishing a base of operations with the help Clark Clifford and those close to Jimmy Carter on the Democratic side. BCCI did even BIGGER Business with the Repukes, using the services of Henry Kissinger and his crowd — and wherever there's a Kissinger, a Bush won't be far behind.

Anyway, fueled by all its oil money, BCCI did Big Time Business with the BFEE. So, DUers might be interested in seeing how the BCCI affair involves many of the same crooks who run the BFEE today, people like James R. Bath, kicked off the Texas ANG flight line along with fellow officer, George W Bush, who also was involved with BCCI through the bin Laden family. Small world.


BCCI AND KISSINGER ASSOCIATES

Introduction

Beginning in the fall of 1986, and continuing through early 1989, BCCI initiated a series of contacts with perhaps the most politically prominent international and business consulting firm in the United States -- Kissinger Associates.

At the time, Kissinger Associates had five partners: former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, former Assistant and current National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, former Under Secretary and current Acting Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, international economist Alan Stoga, and investment bank T. Jefferson Cunningham III.

Ultimately both Stoga and a retired Brazilian Ambassador working as a consultant to Kissinger Associates, Sergio Correa da Costa, seriously explored finding ways to link BCCI's global network of banks with the services being offered by Kissinger Associates. Discussions between representatives of BCCI and representatives of Kissinger Associates took place over an 18 month period concerning the possibility of merging the capabilities of BCCI and Kissinger Associates on various, mostly unspecified, projects. Following BCCI's indictment, discussions continued as to whether Kissinger Associates could help BCCI respond to the ramifications of that indictment. These discussions ended in early 1989 at Henry Kissinger's personal insistence.

During the discussions, Stoga provided advice to BCCI on a possible public relations campaign. At their conclusion, Kissinger Associates referred BCCI to one its own directors, former Assistant Secretary of State William Rogers, and his firm, Arnold & Porter, who already represented Kissinger Associates on its own legal work. Rogers and Arnold & Porter in turn agreed to provide BCCI with legal services arising out of its indictment, although few services were provided as a consequence of the opposition of Clark Clifford and Robert Altman to the firm's involvement.

Although discussions concerning a broader relationship were cut short by the indictment, the BCCI-Kissinger Associates correspondence reveals much about BCCI's approach to seeking political influence in the United States. The correspondence also highlights BCCI's focus on doing business with, and ability, given its $23 billion in reported assets and 73 countries of operation, to attract interest from, some of the most politically well-connected people in the United States.


CONTINUED…

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/20kiss.htm


“OIL”

a famous prayer by Firesign Theatre:

“...anointed with oil on troubled waters? Oh Heavenly Grid,
help us bear up thy Standard, our Chevron flashing bright across the Gulf of Compromise, standing
Humble on the Rich Field of Mobile American Thinking? Here in this Shell, we call Life...”

[Octafish]

1. Bin Laden & Bush Business (A Kick for Future History)

Strange no one seems to want to talk about an important issue directly addressing 9-11 and the Bush Organized Crime Family. It's no onder why, since its successful prosecution will involve the work of my horse, the candidate with the credentials to bust the BFEE. — Octafish

Bush & Bin Laden — George W. Bush Had Ties to Billionaire bin Laden Brood

The unexplained death of Salem, Osama bin Laden's oldest brother, in 1988, brought to an abrupt end a long and intriguing relationship between President Bush and the head of the bin Laden family fortune.
 
By Roger Miller
 
The world now associates the bin Laden name with Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect be hind the terror atrocities of Sept. 11. As President George W. Bush leads an intense international manhunt for Osama, few Americans realize that Osama's eldest brother, Salem, was one of Bush's first business partners.

A photograph from 1971 has surfaced and been printed in English papers showing Osama, age 14, and his brother Salem, age 19, enjoying a summer holiday at the Astoria Hotel in Falun, Sweden. Christina Akerblad, the hotel owner, told the Daily Mail, "They were beautiful boys, so elegantly dressed. Everybody loved them."

Osama embraced Islamic fundamentalism and is now the world's most wanted man. "Salem went on to become a business partner of the man who is leading the hunt for his brother," the Daily Mail's Peter Allen said. "In the 1970s, he and George W. Bush were founders of the Arbusto Energy oil company in Mr. Bush's home state of Texas."

President Bush and the bin Laden family have been connected through dubious business deals since 1977, when Salem, the head of the bin Laden family business, one of the biggest construction companies in the world, invested in Bush's start-up oil company, Arbusto Energy, Inc.

CONTINUED...

http://www.americanfreepress.net/10_07_01/Bush___Bin_Laden_-_George_W__B/bush___bin_laden_-_george_w__b.html

[Minstrel Boy]

2. BCCI opens a can of

well-connected worms.

Here's a book people need on their shelves: "The Mafia, CIA and George Bush" by Pete Brewton, published in '92. (That's GHW Bush, naturally.) It ties the BCCI story together with the S&L fraud.

Never let another Bush in the White House!

[Octafish]

4. Looting S&Ls was a revenue source for BFEE

Brewton's book is a must-own for those interested in the workings of the Bush Organized Crime Family. Written by a former Houston Post reporter, the book documents, literally, the way the Mafia, the CIA and those connected and related to George Poppy Bush looted the nation's Savings and Loans — and got away with it.

One way they did it was to get people inside the S&Ls to make high-risk loans for imaginary project, such as a mega-mall construciton project, then, before a spadeful of dirt got turned, was to go bankrupt. By then, the money was offshore and the bankruptee went on with his or her life as normal. The crooks behind them had additional, tax-free revenue.

Like with other real journalists, writing about this stuff eventually cost Brewton his job. Heck, the original publisher dropped the book after getting "the call."

Brewton's book is a difficult read, because of the complex nature of the conspiracies surrounding the S&Ls, money laundering, black ops, and Big Oil. Then again, complex is how things are on a detailed road map. Here's what I mean from a reference available on-line (I'll post an excerpt from the book ASAP):

EXCERPT from "The Mafia, CIA & George Bush: The Untold Story of America's Greatest Financial Debacle — Corruption, greed and abuse of power in the nation's highest office."

The original subscribers to Cotopax, who then turned Skyways Aircraft Leasing over to Bath, were Cayhaven Corporate Services, Ltd., of George Town, Grand Cayman; David G. Bird of George Town; and Grant J. R. Stein of George Town. Bird and Stein are both directors of Cayhaven Corporate Services and attorneys with W. S. Walker & Company, a law firm in George Town headed by William S. Walker.

Cayhaven Corporate Services and Bird were two of the three subscribers to a Cayman Islands company called I.C., Inc., which was incorporated April 26, 1985. I.C. sits right in the middle of a chart drawn by Oliver North, and found by investigators in North's White House safe, that shows the private network that provided support and money to the Contras. Here's how it worked:

The money started with donations to Spitz Channell's National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty (NEPL). Then it was wired from NEPL's account at Palmer National Bank to the account of IBC, a Washington, D.C., public relations company formed by Republican operative Richard Miller at another Washington bank. Next, IBC wired the money to I.C. in the Cayman Islands, which then transferred a majority of it to the Swiss bank account used by North's "Enterprise" to fund the Contras.

On March 7, 1987, the Washington Post published the only account of these transactions. It called the flow of money a "circuitous route" and then stated: "It is not clear from the documents who is behind I.C., Inc., the Cayman Islands company, or why it was needed to transfer the money." Apparently no investigator with the Tower Commission probe of Iran-Contra or the congressional Iran-Contra committees was able, or even tried, to get to the bottom of I.C. either.

CONTINUED...

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

[protect freedom impeach bush now]

3. one word -- Octopus

many reporters have ended up dead trying to expose
THE OCTOPUS.

BushSR
Kissinger

both are prime OCTOPUS members.


remember Danny Casolaro ?

[Octafish]

6. I'll never forget Danny Casolaro or his work.

Nor what happened to him. Casolaro was tying together the BCCI scandal, Arab Oil, about every major US conspiracy from the JFK Assassination to Vietnam to Watergate to Iran-Contra to arming Iraq to CIA drugs when he set off to West Virginia to meet with someone who was going to clue him in on the INSLAW - PROMIS affair. Here's some backgroundand and a link to a GREAT resource for those who may just be learning about the BFEE, or The Octopus:

The Strange Saga of BCCI

"The Bank of Crooks and Criminals International"

Sightings from The Catbird Seat

From The Outlaw Bank, by Jonathan Beaty & S.C. Gwynne:

THE DEVIL'S PAYMASTER


EXCERPT...

Less than two weeks later a similar story hit much closer to home. On August 10, a Washington, D.C., freelance writer named Danny Casolaro, who had also been working on BCCI as part of a larger story, was found dead in a Martinsburg, West Virginia, motel room. He was discovered in a bathtub surrounded by a pool of blood.

Though it was immediately ruled a suicide, there were enough unanswered questions that the press jumped all over the story. He had supposedly killed himself by slashing his wrists - except that the cuts had been phenomenally deep, all the way through the tendons. There was also evidence that someone else had been in the room with him.

"It looked like someone tried to wipe up the blood on the floor and slid the towels under the sink," one of the motel's housekeepers said in a magazine interview.

"It looked like someone threw the towels on the floor and tried to wipe the blood with their foot, but they didn't get the blood, they just smeared it on the floor."....

CONTINUED...

http://www.the-catbird-seat.net/BCCI.htm

[Aries]

10. More from "The Outlaw Bank"

which is sadly out of print...this is an exchange on ABC's "Nightline" involving one of the authors, with Robert Mueller in his role as a functionary in the Bush I administration, and Senator John Kerry in his role as head of the Senate's BCCI Investigation Committee:

From "The Outlaw Bank", pp.119-121, by Jonathan Beaty and S.C. Gwynne, Random House, 1993:

"...Kerry and Mueller duelled politely over whether the plea bargain with BCCI in the Tampa money-laundering case was a giveaway. Mueller insisted that the Justice Department had won a major victory. He also disputed any charges that his department had not proceeded vigorously with further investigations, and he ignored Senator Kerry's attempt to bring up the subject of the missing tape of Blum's interviews with the former BCCI bankers who talked about political payoffs and BCCI's secret ownership of First American. When Koppel tried to point out that the assistant attorney general had not answered the Senator's question about the missing tapes, Mueller ignored him too and bragged that BCCI's offices in Florida had been shut down as a result of information the Justice Department provided the Florida banking regulators.

Kerry was beginning to sputter, and Beaty, outraged enough at Mueller's deceptive tactics to forget that he was on national television, jumped in. "But Mr. Mueller--I'm sorry, but the senator is quite accurate. You may have provided the reason for shutting down the bank by convicting it of money laundering, but then a very high-level person in your own department turned around and asked the State of Florida to keep this bank open, despite the fact that your own prosecutors had testified that drug-money laundering was a policy of the bank and that it wasn't a matter of employees taking some kind of independent action. When you plea-bargained out, you let the bank go and took the low-level employees, which is kind of in reverse..."

...Koppel (...) broke it up and turned to Time's charges that U.S. intelligence agencies employed BCCI as a means of funding covert operations and asked if that might have had something to do with the Justice Department's limited response to evidence. "That is absolutely incorrect...there is just no truth to the allegation and unsupported allegation that the intelligence community is in any way trying to shape or stop this investigation.," Mueller stated...

..."Mr. Mueller," Beaty cut back in, "we haven't made the accusation that this has been shaped by the intelligence community. All we have tried to do is point out the stunning lack of curiousity and aggression on the part of the Justice Department."....

[Octafish]

12. BCCI gives us the means to bust BUSH and BFEE!

These crooks, like the crazy evil genius in Ian Fleming's 007 novels, want it ALL. If not for us on DU spreading the word, and good people everywhere learning about the Bush Organized Crime Family, they would get it, too! From some serious (and politcally more neutral) people at Northwestern U:

Background: Investigating BCCI and Savings and Loan Fraud

The BCCI scandal and the savings and loan crisis are complicated by near-incomprehensible numbers, multitudes of players, and the heightened secrecy that often protects negligent and criminal behavior. Allan Dodds Frank, a business investigative reporter and producer at ABC News, observed that " people are spending lifetimes constructing complex crimes....(I)f it were so easy, they wouldn't have made them so complicated."

In spite of the magnitude of numbers, names, and places, the BCCI affair and the savings and loan crisis can be reduced to a few basic themes. Reporters who discussed the coverage of these stories at The Annenberg Washington Program provided brief overviews of the scandals and tried to distill the issues for conference participants in much the same way they would for viewers or readers.

Although the scandal surrounding the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) is perhaps the biggest banking scandal in history, it received limited media coverage. BCCI was a Pakistani-managed, Middle East-financed international bank with branches in 70 countries. Peter Truell, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal who has written some of the most significant stories on BCCI, described the essence of the scandal:

It is a story about stealing very large amounts of money and using it for a multitude of illegal purposes, perverting governments, corrupting politicians, corrupting regulators, corrupting bank regulators.

(GEE. THAT SOUNDS FAMILIAR) CONTINUED...

http://www.annenberg.nwu.edu/pubs/news/news03.htm

Thanks for the great info and the heads-up, Aries! Here's from our pals at NAMEBASE:

Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S.C. The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride Into the Secret Heart of BCCI. New York: Random House, 1993. 399 pages.

Of the several books in NameBase about the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, this is the spookiest, and has the most material about BCCI's connections to shadowy figures in organized crime and the international intelligence community (these days it's difficult to distinguish between the two). Surprisingly enough, the authors were Time magazine's point men on the story -- a magazine that doesn't often support the sort of journalism that won these authors two awards for persistent and fearless reporting. To top it off, we almost missed this book, and spotted it only by chance six years later, in a used bookstore. Most curious: another vapor-scandal, here today and gone tomorrow.

Author Jonathan Beaty was close to the people working on Robert Morgenthau's investigation of BCCI, just as the massive dimensions of BCCI's "Black Network" were beginning to unfold. The book is presented as something of a day-by-day thriller, with Beaty risking his neck while meeting sources in Middle Eastern countries, where the long, spooky arm of BCCI thuggery was strongest. Time magazine's generous expense account would get him in, but could Time's editors and the local U.S. ambassador get him out? This book is a fascinating look into the dark side of BCCI -- a side that doesn't come across in other reporting we've seen.

ISBN 0-679-41384-7

This book was recently listed at UsedBookCentral.com

http://www.namebase.org/sources/cL.html

[nolabels]

24. Understanding that they might be one step ahead at certain times

It is easy to see that the Bin Laden character was home grown at the very least (something they will never come clean on, surely).
Anyone that has worked with computer software knows it is the user or network using it that make it hum and buzz. Never the less there are some implications in this story. The links at the bottom have a lot of details too

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/magic_carpet.html

Bin Laden's Magic Carpet - Secret U.S. PROMIS Software

FBI/Justice Claims of Discontinued Use Leave Questions Unanswered

FTW, October 26, 2001 - 1300 PDT (UPDATED Nov. 16, 2001) - An October 16 FOX News report by correspondent Carl Cameron indicating that convicted spy, former FBI Agent Robert Hanssen, had provided a highly secret computer software program called Promis to Russian organized crime figures - who in turn reportedly sold it to Osama bin Laden - may signal a potential intelligence disaster for the United States. Admissions by the FBI and Justice in the FOX story that they have discontinued use of the software are most certainly a legal disaster for a government that has been engaged in a 16-year battle with the software's creator, William Hamilton, CEO of the Inslaw Corporation. Over those 16 years, in response to lawsuits filed by Hamilton charging that the government had stolen the software from Inslaw, the FBI, the CIA and the Department of Justice have denied, in court and under oath, ever using the software.

Bin Laden's reported possession of Promis software was clearly reported in a June 15, 2001 story by Washington Times reporter Jerry Seper. That story went unnoticed by the major media. In it Seper wrote, "The software delivered to the Russian handlers and later sent to bin Laden, according to sources, is believed to be an upgraded version of a program known as Promis - developed in the 1980s by a Washington firm, Inslaw, Inc., to give attorneys the ability to keep tabs on their caseloads. It would give bin Laden the ability to monitor U.S. efforts to track him down, federal law-enforcement officials say. It also gives him access to databases on specific targets of his choosing and the ability to monitor electronic-banking transactions, easing money-laundering operations for himself or others, according to sources."

In a series of excellent stories by The Times, and as confirmed by parts of the FOX broadcast, it appears that Hanssen, who was arrested in February, in order to escape the death penalty this summer, agreed to provide the FBI and other intelligence agencies with a full accounting of his sale of Promis overseas. Reports state that almost until the moment of his capture, Hanssen was charged with "repairing" and upgrading versions of the software used by Britain and Germany.

On October 17, two different spokespersons at the FBI's Office of Public Affairs told FTW, "The FBI has discontinued use of the Promis software." The spokespersons declined to give their names.
(snip)

Also there is some good background links here on this thread

Connect the Dots, America!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=133055

[cosmicdot]

18. I'll never forget reading of his death in The Washington Post

... in August 1991 ...

and, then, nothing

the 1991 article never left me ... I constantly wondered what had happened

a few years ago I emailed one of the Post writers who had worked on the article to see 'what had happened' ... he just acted casual and naive, and wrote back: if I hear of anything, let him know ...

very strange

the Senate investigation, which included the Inslaw/PROMIS software thing, really didn't go the whole 9 yards either

[Octafish]

23. Jack Brooks investigated Inslaw/PROMIS.

The Democratic US Rep from Texas and his staff were thwarted by the Reagan-Bush White House, and politicians on the DEMOCRATIC side of the aisle, as well. No wonder we're in the pickle we're in today. It should make everybody pretty darn mad — Democrat and Republican alike. For those new to the subject:


A Primer on INSLAW

by Brian Wright

Excerpt from:
NEWS RELEASE
August 11, 1992

U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary

Jack Brooks, Texas, Chairman

JUDICIARY COMMITTEE REPORT CALLS FOR INDEPENDENT COUNSEL TO INVESTIGATE THE INSLAW CONTROVERSY

The ("INSLAW Affair") report concludes that there appears to be strong evidence, as indicated by the findings of two Federal court proceedings, as well as by the Committee investigation, that the Department of Justice "acted willfully and fraudulently," and "took, converted and stole," INSLAW's Enhanced PROMIS by "trickery, fraud and deceit." The report finds that these actions against INSLAW were implemented through the Project Manager from the beginning of the contract and under the direction of high-level Justice Department officials. The evidence presented in the report demonstrates that high-level Department officials deliberately ignored INSLAW's proprietary rights and misappropriated its PROMIS software for use at locations not covered under contract with the company. Justice then proceeded to challenge INSLAW's claims in court even though its own internal deliberations had concluded that these claims were valid and that the Department would most likely lose in court on this issue.

According to the report, the second phase of the Committee's investigation concentrated on the allegations that high-level officials at the Department of Justice conspired to drive INSLAW into insolvency and steal PROMIS. In this regard, the report states that several individuals testified under oath that INSLAW's PROMIS software was stolen and distributed internationally in order to provide financial gain to associates of Justice Department officials and to further intelligence and foreign policy objectives of the United States. Additional corroborating evidence was uncovered by the Committee which substantiated to varying degrees the information provided by these individuals.

(Chairman) Brooks stated, "Although (the Department of Justice was) faced with a growing body of evidence that serious wrongdoing had occurred which reached to the highest levels of the Department, both Attorney General Meese and Thornburgh ignored these findings of two Federal courts and refused to seek the appointment of an Independent Counsel."

CONTINUED…

http://www.copi.com/articles/inslaw_primer.htm

[Octafish]

29. Jim Keith wrote about Casolaro–Octopus and died ...

...after going into the operating room for routine knee surgery.

Mr. Keith co-wrote The Octopus with Kenn Thomas. The book documented the circumstances surrounding Danny Casolaro's death and picked up the Promis/INSLAW trail where Casolaro left off.

http://www.hallhistory.com/military/119.shtml

And possibly a third mysterious death who died while grappling with the Octopus. Ron Bonds, publisher of The Octopus, died after food poisoning:

EXCERPT...

Jim Keith, co-author of The Octopus, was developing a book about the death of Princess Diana when he suddenly died, supposedly as a result of knee surgery. Ron Bonds, Keith's publisher (IllumiNet Press), died about a year ago, apparently from food poisoning. (See Atlanta Journal-Constitution report.)

SNIP...

The report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution cites Thomas as suggesting "that someone wanted to silence Keith -- and Ron was Keith's publisher." Critical of the newspaper report, Thomas sent a letter to the editor. That letter may or may not be published by the newspaper, so with Kenn Thomases permission it is included below:

Dear Editor:

Writer Jim Auchmutey used very little of what I told him about Ron Bonds' unusual death ("Widow: 'All we did was go out to eat'" Atlanta Journal-Consititution, 6/9/02 -- web only?). He ignored, for instance, the interesting fact that a series of similar deaths happened in Minnesota last November, due to closteridium bacteria traced to a tainted tissue bank called Cryolife in Kennesaw, just twenty miles north of Atlanta. These deaths resulted from knee-surgery, a procedure halted for a while in Minnesota while they traced the cause. The chief author working for Bonds' IllumiNet Press, Jim Keith, died of complications after knee surgery. It doesn't take a conspiracy theorist to acknowledge the questions that remain in the deaths of both Bonds and Keith.

I also thought it was a bit unfair for Bonds' widow to characterize him as "laughing all the way to the bank" over the books he published. Perhaps it was a misquote. Ron, his writers and his audience maybe laughed together at some of the absurdities of parapolitics and conspiracy, but my impression was that he had great respect for the material.

Sincerely,

Kenn Thomas

CONTINUED...

http://www.shout.net/~bigred/Update.htm

[MetaTrope]

5. Never mind Kissinger Associates

Kissinger sits on the board of directors of one of the largest insurance companies in the world, American International Group--which landed a huge windfall in federal terrorism funds a few days before Kissinger agreed to sit on Bush's 9-11 investigative board, and was the first foreign insurance firm granted a license to operate in Nepal less than two months after the royal family there was assassinated.

AIG is worthy of one long, hard and deep investigation.

[Octafish]

7. AIG is big money.

Remember when the insurance companies and commercial banks were the only ones with the needed funds to loan Uncle Sam the money needed to finance the national debt? Now, thanks to Pruneface Reagan, Poppy Bush, and Smirko, there are many, many individuals who hold such power. Unfortunately, they had to penure the middle class to create these turds' portfolios.

Thanks for the heads-up on AGI! And a hearty welcome to DU, Meta Trope! Here's a bit of news from AIG, a particularly dirty company:


September 12, 2003

AIG PAYS $10 MILLION FOR ALLEGED FRAUD

'Insurance policy' helped second company falsify earnings report

Associated Press

WASHINGTON - American International Group, one of the biggest U.S. insurance companies, yesterday agreed to pay a $10 million fine to settle federal regulators' allegations that it fraudulently helped another company falsify its earnings report and hide losses.

The insurer, known as AIG, also failed to provide documents subpoenaed during the government's investigation of the alleged fraud involving financial reports by cellular-phone distributor Brightpoint Inc., the Securities and Exchange Commission said.

AIG, of New York, neither admitted nor denied the SEC's allegations in its settlement, in which it also is forfeiting a $100,000 fee paid by Brightpoint.

SNIP...

It was Henry Kissinger, the former Secretary of State, who advised against harsh sanctions after the Tienanmen Square massacre. . . . (3) AIG has also been the focus of SEC and BCCI investigator, Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau's attention . . . to explore its ties to the BCCI. (4) And finally, AIG is headed by Maurice Greenberg, one-time chairman of the NY Federal Reserve Bank, and in 1995 a candidate to head the CIA.

CONTINUED...

http://www.the-catbird-seat.net/AIG.htm

[cosmicdot]

17. Both Greenberg and Kissinger sit at the top of The Nixon Center

http://www.nixoncenter.org/boardac.htm

... the must like being close to each other ...

AIG's Board has some interesting people and connections:

M. BERNARD AIDINOFF
Director since 1984
Retired Partner, Sullivan & Cromwell
(Attorneys)
Age 74
Director, First SunAmerica Life Insurance
Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of AIG

PEI-YUAN CHIA
Director since 1996
Retired Vice Chairman, Citicorp
and Citibank, N.A.
Age 64
Director, Baxter International Inc.

MARSHALL A. COHEN
Director since 1992
Counsel, Cassels Brock & Blackwell (Barristers
and Solicitors); Former President and Chief
Executive Officer, The Molson Companies
Limited
Age 68
Director, Barrick Gold Corporation
Collins & Aikman Corporation
Haynes International, Inc.
Lafarge North America Inc.
Metaldyne Corporation
Premcor Inc.
The Premcor Refining Group Inc.
Premcor USA Inc.
Toronto Dominion Bank

BARBER B. CONABLE, JR.
Director since 1991
Retired; Former President, World Bank; Former
Member, United States House of Representatives
Age 80

MARTIN S. FELDSTEIN
Director since 1987
Professor of Economics, Harvard University;
President and Chief Executive Officer, National
Bureau of Economic Research
(Nonprofit Economic Research Center)
Age 63
Director, Eli Lilly and Company
HCA Inc.
(isn't HCA the Frist HMO company?)

ELLEN V. FUTTER
Director since 1999
President, American Museum of Natural History
Age 53
Director, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company
Consolidated Edison, Inc. (also serves
as Trustee of Consolidated Edison
Company of New York, Inc.)
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

MAURICE R. GREENBERG
Director since 1967
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, AIG
Age 77
Director, Transatlantic Holdings, Inc.
(''Transatlantic''), which is owned
59.7 percent by AIG
Also serves as Chairman of Transatlantic, a director,
President and Chief Executive Officer of C.V. Starr
& Co., Inc. (''Starr''), and a director of Starr
International Company, Inc. (''SICO'') and
International Lease Finance Corporation (''ILFC'');
Starr and SICO are private holding companies (see ''Ownership of Certain Securities''); ILFC is a wholly-
owned subsidiary of AIG

CARLA A. HILLS
Director since 1993
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer,
Hills & Company;
Former United States
Trade Representative
(Hills & Company provides international
investment, trade and risk advisory services)
Age 69
Director, AOL Time Warner Inc.
ChevronTexaco Corporation
Lucent Technologies Inc.

FRANK J. HOENEMEYER
Director since 1985
Financial Consultant;
Retired Vice Chairman,
Prudential Insurance Company of America
Age 83
Director, Carey Fiduciary Advisors, Inc.
Cincinnati, Inc.

RICHARD C. HOLBROOKE
Director since 2001
Former United States Ambassador to the United
Nations;
Former Vice Chairman, Credit Suisse First Boston
Age 61
Director, Human Genome Sciences, Inc.
Quebecor World Inc.

HOWARD I. SMITH
Director since 1997
Vice Chairman, Chief Administrative Officer and
Chief Financial Officer, AIG
Age 58
Director, Transatlantic
21st Century Insurance Group (''21st
Century''), which is owned 62.6 percent
by AIG
Also serves as a director of Starr, SICO and ILFC

MARTIN J. SULLIVAN
Director since 2002
Vice Chairman and Co-Chief Operating Officer, AIG
Age 48
Also serves as a director of Starr and SICO

EDMUND S.W. TSE
Director since 1996
Senior Vice Chairman and Co-Chief Operating
Officer, AIG
Age 65
Also serves as a director of Starr and SICO

JAY S. WINTROB
Director since 1999
Executive Vice President, Retirement Savings,
AIG
Age 46
Director, AIG SunAmerica Life Assurance Company
(formerly Anchor National Life Insurance
Company) and First SunAmerica Life
Insurance Company, wholly-owned
subsidiaries of AIG
Also serves as a director of Starr and SICO

FRANK G. WISNER
Director since 1997
Vice Chairman — External Affairs, AIG
Age 64
Director, EOG Resources, Inc.
Ethan Allen Interiors Inc.

FRANK G. ZARB
Director since 2001
Former Chairman, National Association of
Securities Dealers, Inc. and The Nasdaq Stock
Market, Inc.; Senior Advisor, Hellman &
Friedman LLC (Private Equity Investment Firm)
Age 68
Director, FPL Group, Inc.

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/5272/000095011703001327/a34886.htm

[nolabels]

8. I am still sure many people don't know how much this guy has to....

do with things. I started this thread a few days back.
Also found this little piece with the Billionaire Soros

Is Henry Kissinger a war criminal, fascist or just misunderstood

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=345935

http://www.canadiandimension.mb.ca/extra/d1207hc.htm
George Soros, Imperial Wizard

"Yes, I do have a foreign policy...my goal is to become the conscience of the world."'

This is not a case of narcissistic personality disorder; this is how George Soros exercises the authority of United States hegemony in the world today. Soros foundations and financial machinations are partly responsible for the destruction of socialism in Eastern Europe and the former USSR. He has set his sights on China. He was part of the full court press that dismantled Yugoslavia. Calling himself a philanthropist, billionaire George Soros' role is to tighten the ideological stranglehold of globalization and the New World Order while promoting his own financial gain. Soros' commercial and "philanthropic" operations are clandestine, contradictory and coactive. And as far as his economic activities are concerned, by his own admission, he is without conscience; a capitalist who functions with absolute amorality.
(snip)
(snip)
He thrusts himself upon world statesmen and they respond. He has been close to Henry Kissinger, Vaclav Havel and Poland's General Wojciech Jaruzelski. 4 He supports the Dalai Lama, whose institute is housed in the Presidio in San Francisco, also home to the foundation run by Soros' friend, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. 5

When anti-globalization forces were freezing in the streets outside New York's Waldorf-Astoria hotel in February 2002, George Soros was inside addressing the World Economic Forum. As the police forced protesters into metal cages on Park Avenue, Soros was extolling the virtues of the "Open Society" and joined Zbigniew Brzezinski, Samuel Huntington, Francis Fukuyama and others.

WHO IS THIS GUY?

George Soros was born in Hungary in 1930 to Jewish parents so removed from their roots that they once vacationed in Nazi Germany. 6 Soros lived under the Nazis, but with the triumph of the Communists moved to England in 1947. There, Soros came under the sway of the philosopher Karl Popper, at the London School of Economics. Popper was a lionized anti-communist ideologue and his teachings formed the basis for Soros' political tendencies. There is hardly a speech, book or article that Soros writes that does not pay obeisance to Popper's influence.
(snip)

This other one might be interesting too

George W Bush connection to the BCCI scandal ?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=157573

[Octafish]

9. Soros is a player.

Thanks, nolabels! I'm not sure which side he's on. Other than his own, of course. From David Icke's excellent website, some light on Soros' connections to Big Money and BCCI:

The Rothschilds

George Soros and the Rothschilds Connection

EXCERPT...

But N.M. Rothschild & Sons is also entangled in some very dirty secret service operations dealing with "drugs vs. arms". Because of it's good relations to the highest places in the British secret service the Rothschilds succeeded in preventing their complicity in one of the worst illegal secret service networks, the BCCI (Bank of Credit and Commerce International) was never mentioned. In reality the Rothschilds bank belonged to the inner circle of these international money laundering banks of the CIA and M16 that financed in the 70's and 80's CIA projects like the "Contras" in Nicaragua".

SNIP...

The influencial Chairman of the Banking Commission in the U.S. House of Representatives, Henry Gonzales, chided the Bush and Reagen administrations for refusing to prosecute the BCCI. In addition the Dept. of Justice repeadedly declined to co-operate in the Congressional investigations into the BCCI scandal and the closely linked scandal of the "Banco Nazional del Lavoro" (BNL). This bank had made billions of dollars from loans that Bush had granted the Iraqi government shortly before the Gulf War. Gonzales had said that the Bush administration had had a Department of Justice which he thought "the most corrupt, most unbelievably corrupt Department of justice that I have ever experienced during my 32 years in Congress".

After the BCCI had been openly accused in the media for transgression of several laws, the New York prosecuting attorney Henry Morganthau announced official charges against the BCCI. Morganthau accused the BCCI of the "biggest banking fraud of the financial world. The BCCI during it's 19 year history operated as a corrupt criminal organization."

One of the directors of the BCCI, the Saudi-Arabian Shiekh Kamal Adham, had been the head of the Saudi secret service during the time Bush headed the CIA.

Not a single Western newspaper has so far uncovered the fact that the Rothschilds group linked with George Soros was at the hub of the vast illegal network of the BCCI. The key person in these activities was Dr. Alfred Hartmann, the managing director of the Swiss branch of the BCCI (Banque de Commerce et de Placement SA), head of the Zurich Rothschild bank AG and member of the board of N.M. Rothschild & Sons in London. He was also on the board of the Swiss branch of the Italian BNL and was vice-chairman of the "N.Y. Intermaritime Bank" in Geneva. A friendly secret service man who had worked on the "Soros" case disclosed that in Sept. 1993 Soros had amassed along with a group of "silent partners", a firtune in excess of 10 Billion dollars to use as a lever to unhinge the European currencies. Among the partners apparently were the little known metal and oil dealer Marc Rich and the Israeli arms dealer Shaul Eisenberg. For decades Eisenberg has been working for the Israeli secret service and has important arms deals in all of Asia and in the Near East. A third partner of Soros is Rafi Eytan who before was the Mossad connection to the British secret service in London.

CONTINUED...

http://www.davidicke.net/tellthetruth/rothschild/soros.html

[nolabels]

11. A little note though, you cannot always follow the money

I was amazed when I read up this little thing, it's complex so it cannot be done with sound bites, but really makes me think about Afganistan and their poppies

http://www.ratical.com/co-globalize/narcoDollars.html

Narco-Dollars for Beginners
"How the Money Works" in the Illicit Drug Trade
by Catherine Austin Fitts
Special to the Narco News Bulletin
2001

[Octafish]

13. Kerry, Ollie North, and Drugs ... through BCCI

A Bank so Crooked, it Corrupts whoever it Touches: Bert Lance. Clark Clifford. George Bush Sr (oops, too late!)...

http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/Mahfouz.html

Thanks for the narco backgrounder. It is effing amazing and helps me see why Ollie North hates John Kerry so. Ollie even sicced the FBI on Kerry;

OLLIE NORTH AND DRUGS

By Dennis Bernstein and Howard Levine
From The Texas Observer

EXCERPT...

If Iran-Contra prosecutor Lawrence Walsh had wanted to know the extent of former Colonel Oliver North's involvement in the smuggling of drugs from Central America to the United States, Walsh might have made at least one phone call to Celerino 'Cele' Castillo in San Antonio.

Between 1985 to 1991, Castillo was the Drug Enforcement Administration's main agent in El Salvador, where, he says, he uncovered "and reported" a huge drug and gun smuggling operation that was run out of the Ilopango military airport by the 'North Network' and the CIA.

North, now the Republican nominee for the U. S. Senate in Virginia, prevailed at the nominating convention last weekend by positioning himself far to the right of his rival, former Reagan budget director James Miller III, promising that if elected he will work to "clean up the mess" in Washington, and cultivating the support of the same fundamentalist Christian Republicans who
responded to the direct-mail campaign to finance the North defense committee.

But Castillo, the first government official with first-hand knowledge of North's drug dealing to speak publicly about it, says North belongs in prison, not in the U.S. Senate. "We saw several packages of narcotics, we saw several boxes of U.S. currency, going from Ilopango to Panama," Castillo said.

CONTINUED...

http://www.csun.edu/CommunicationStudies/ben/news/cia/961120.castillo.html

BTW: I just LOVE Ratical.com. Sniff... I can't help myself. I'm a DemocRAT!



A Ten-Gallon Hat on a Five-Gallon Head.

[cosmicdot]

15. in March 2001, I did a short research piece for buzzflash.com

... on The Carlyle Group ... and, I cut-n-pasted hoovers.com's then blurb on TCG ... and, this is what it said:

The Carlyle Group (formed in 1987) is the world’s largest private equity investment firm of “unparalleled” dimensions having over 25 portfolio companies. As of December 2000, the firm had more than $12 billion of capital under management.

The Reagan-Bush connection: Ex-Secretary of State and Bush family friend, James Baker, is its Managing Director and Senior Counselor. Ex-budget chief Richard Darman is one of its 40+ Managing Directors. Former U.S. Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci has joined to serve as its Chairman. Former President Bush and former UK Prime Minister John Major “have also made appearances” … and, “partners include George Soros and the Mellon Family.”

for what it is worth

[Octafish]

21. Great work, cosmicdot! Much, much obliged.

"One just has to know where to apply the hammer." — Proverbial engineer paid $10,000 to repair a constantly broke-down train by the unconventional means of tapping a certain spot, on the side of the boiler, a certain way, once.

[catzies]

14. KICK for Octafish!

Every day, we have new evil DUers to educate.

New DUers, read, and learn.

Then DO something.

[Octafish]

20. BCCI is the tip of just ONE tentacle!

THE OCTOPUS LIVES. The BFEE are only its stooges, henchmen and gangsters. It's a race to see who turns whom into calimari first. One thing's for sure: We'd better break some kind of pedagogical records in getting word out about this stuff. The Bush Body Count is real.

[9215]

16. Kissinger and Associates

Christopher Hitchen's book: "The Trial of Henry Kissinger" really touches the bases on all things Kissinger.

Kissinger, as well as then VP George Bush advised Raygun against sanctioning Iraq after HUssein purportedly gassed the Kurds. I say purportedly because it is suspecteed that Iran may have been responsible for the act. BUT at the time (1988)it was assumed Hussein ordered the gassing. Coincidently Kissinger and Associates was heavily invested in Iraq via the US Governments Commodity Credit Corporation and didn't want to risk any interruption to business as usual. Many Bush Cabinet officials were involved in K&Assoc. NSC head Brent Scowcroft was forced to divest his holdings in General Motors and was nailed for changing the designation of the vehicles sent to Iraq from "military" to "commercial". These "dual use" vehicles were found in Iraqi bunkers by US forces. The same thing was done for "recreational" helicopters sent to Iraq earlier in the decade.

Saddam, IMHO, beleived he was going to be the Mideast's Suharto (Indonesia). The US assisted him in becoming a serious military power even to the point of nukes. This was quid pro quos for the business deals like the Aqaba pipeline. Then Sect of State George Shultz and Defense Sect. Caspar Weinberger were, at one time president and VP of Bechtel. Bechtel was slated to build the pipeline. They also were members of Kissinger and Associates.

When the US failed to respond to Saddam's saber rattling about Kuwait from early in 1990 he grew bolder. IMO he was given a greenlight to attack Kuwait, but the bigger game, one he wasn't aware of, is that Poppy wanted to insert the US into the Mid-east and seize control of Rumailiah as part of that.

[Octafish]

25. Oil business as usual for the connected and greased...

... Yesterday's business partner is today's terrorist. We have always been at war with Eastasia. And we secretly armed and played Iraq off against Iran, who Ollie North and John Poindexter sent Hawk missiles and F-4 spares as part of the deal over the hostages. At least a million people died, at least partly in thanks to the Reagan-Bush White House.

Thank you for the great info from Hitchens, who broke a LOT of stuff regarding the BFEE, includng J Edgar Hoover's memo linking "Mr. George Bush of the CIA" to the JFK assassination.

Regarding the Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait: Oh yeah. Saddam was given the "Green Light."

From "What Really Happened.com" comes this 25 July 1990 transcript of a meeting between Saddam Hussein and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie. The scene is the Presidential Palace in Baghdad, eight days before the invasion.

EXCERPT...

U.S. Ambassador Glaspie - I have direct instructions from President Bush to improve our relations with Iraq. We have considerable sympathy for your quest for higher oil prices, the immediate cause of your confrontation with Kuwait. (pause) As you know, I lived here for years and admire your extraordinary efforts to rebuild your country. We know you need funds. We understand that, and our opinion is that you should have the opportunity to rebuild your country. (pause) We can see that you have deployed massive numbers of troops in the south. Normally that would be none of our business, but when this happens in the context of your threat s against Kuwait, then it would be reasonable for us to be concerned. For this reason, I have received an instruction to ask you, in the spirit of friendship - not confrontation - regarding your intentions: Why are your troops massed so very close to Kuwait's borders?

Saddam Hussein - As you know, for years now I have made every effort to reach a settlement on our dispute with Kuwait. There is to be a meeting in two days; I am prepared to give negotiations only this one more brief chance. (pause) When we (the Iraqis) meet (with the Kuwaitis) and we see there is hope, then nothing will happen. But if we are unable to find a solution, then it will be natural that Iraq will not accept death.

U.S. Ambassador Glaspie - What solutions would be acceptable?

Saddam Hussein - If we could keep the whole of the Shatt al Arab - our strategic goal in our war with Iran - we will make concessions (to the Kuwaitis). But, if we are forced to choose between keeping half of the Shatt and the whole of Iraq (i.e., in Saddam s view, including Kuwait ) then we will give up all of the Shatt to defend our claims on Kuwait to keep the whole of Iraq in the shape we wish it to be. (pause) What is the United States' opinion on this?

U.S. Ambassador Glaspie - We have no opinion on your Arab - Arab conflicts, such as your dispute with Kuwait. Secretary (of State James) Baker has directed me to emphasize the instruction, first given to Iraq in the 1960's, that the Kuwait issue is not associated with America. (Saddam smiles)

CONTINUED...

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/ARTICLE5/april.html

[nolabels]

28. In essence, the setup for the dismantling of Saddam

Which 20 or more years of CIA opps had failed to do at the time. I one remembers, they bombed the crap out of Baghdad in the first gulf war, but still failed to kill him. That must have been a blow to them yet kept it under wraps like it was never intended. They had to keep it under wraps for the fact that so many would have to die in such a scam. Even in this effort they surely failed (funny thing is they even helped install him).

The other goal must of also been looking for somewhat of credible enemy to encounter, the Cold war was winding down and they needed something to do with all that military armament.

http://www.prorev.com/iraqwarone.htm
(snip)
It was not just Saddam Hussein who claimed the war would be the Mother of Battles. The Pentagon, Bush and the American media all agreed. But the facts of the war, meagre as they are, suggest something quite different. Either US intelligence was awful, which is highly unlikely, or the administration deliberately misled Congress and the public as to the nature of the Iraqi threat, perpetrating a major propaganda hoax to justify military action and an easy victory.

From the start, the Iraqi response to the war was not that of a nation with an aggressive military plan and the force to back it up, but rather that of a weak country somewhat desperately attempting to jury rig a defense. Consider, for example:

The near absence of any air engagement by the Iraqis. In fact, the major movement of the Iraqi air force was to the shelter of Iran.

The lack of air defenses in Baghdad. Although the anti-aircraft batteries firing into the night looked impressive on television, they were largely of a primitive variety that didn't even have the range to reach the allied planes. US intelligence undoubtedly knew this before the war began.

The reliance on SCUDS, missiles so outdated that if they were automobiles they would almost qualify for antique license plates.
The lack of any meaningful offensives by Iraqi troops with the exception of one minor foray into Khafji. Even military officials admit that the tank battle at the end of the war was only designed to protect retreating Iraqi soldiers.

Most significant, however, was the failure of Iraqi troops to respond to the US ground offensive. The propaganda from the Pentagon was that the Iraqis were surprised by the skill, speed and size of the American force. It is far more likely that the passive response was due to an uncertain combination of other factors including the death and demoralization caused by the American aerial massacre, a conscious effort by outgunned Iraqis to reduce casualties in what they knew would be a defeat and a physical presence on the battlefield that may have been less than the Pentagon claimed.
(snip)

[proud patriot]

19. Never Forget

:loveya:

[Octafish]

22. Yes we CAN!

Let’s can the Little Turd from Crawford, ASAFP!

[Minstrel Boy]

26. The BCCI-bin Mahfouz-bin Laden Intelligence Nexus

From Peter Dale Scott:

It is clearer than ever before that the nexus of connections made by BCCI in Washington -- to US banks, law firms, politicians, and the CIA -- as well as of connections to top Saudi intelligence officials and members of the Saudi royal family, was preserved after the closure of BCCI in 1991, and was utilized later to fund Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda.

...

Two aspects of the BCCI-bin Mahfouz-bin Laden nexus that throw more light on its scope and power, and have been unreported in the US press:

I. The personal indebtedness to Khalid bin Mahfouz's millions of the family of James Baker, close personal confidant and Treasury Secretary to the first President Bush, and later an officer with him of the Carlyle Group, in which the bin Laden family also invested. In 1985 bin Mahfouz was one of the Saudi financiers who purchased the Bank Tower in Houston of the Baker family Texas Commerce Bank, for $200 million. This was $60 million more than it had cost to build the Bank Tower four years earlier; and the sale was made "in the depth of Texas' real estate crash... at a time when it was difficult to give away office space in Houston" (Beaty and Gwynne, The Outlaw Bank, 355).

II. The involvement of both a bin Laden family affiliate, the Saudi Investment Company (SICO), and of the bin Mahfouz family National Commercial Bank, with the Bank of New York - Inter Maritime Bank of Geneva, owned and managed by Bruce Rappaport. The Kerry-Brown Report gave details of the involvement in the 1980s of Rappaport, and of his bank's Vice President, Alfred Hartmann, with BCCI, with former CIA Director William Casey, and with the National Bank of Oman which forwarded Arab money to the Afghan mujahedin (Beaty and Gwynne, The Outlaw Bank, 311-12; Kerry-Brown Report, 318-20; cf. 69).

The bin Laden family have tried to depict Osama as a renegade, and more recently the bin Mahfouz family have tried to say the same of Khalid. The details of this nexus make both claims highly unlikely. It would appear that the main reason we do not get the whole truth about this nexus is the involvement of Saudi, British, and US intelligence, not just before 1991, but today.

http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~pdscott/q4b.html

[Octafish]

31. When it comes to Nixon's "Texans," Peter Dale Scott is the man.

The professor has been on the case of the BFEE for decades. His work has helped keep America free.

Anyone interested in remembering how — oops! I mean WHO helped — all those Bin Ladens get away when all the planes were grounded after 9-11 might want to check out Scott's archives, including:

http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~pdscott/q4c.html

EXCERPT...

The Press on the BCCI-bin Mahfouz-bin Laden Intelligence Nexus

Boston Herald , December 11, 2001

A powerful Washington, D.C., law firm with unusually close ties to the White House has earned hefty fees representing controversial Saudi billionaires as well as a Texas-based Islamic charity fingered last week as a terrorist front.

The influential law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld has represented three wealthy Saudi businessmen - Khalid bin Mahfouz, Mohammed Hussein Al-Amoudi and Salah Idris - who have been scrutinized by U.S. authorities for possible involvement in financing Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network.

In addition, Akin, Gump currently represents the largest Islamic charity in the United States, Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development in Richmond, Texas.

Holy Land's assets were frozen by the Treasury Department last week as government investigators probe its ties to Hamas, the militant Palestinian group blamed for suicide attacks against Israelis. Partners at Akin, Gump include one of President Bush's closest Texas friends, James C. Langdon, and George R. Salem, a Bush fund-raiser who chaired his 2000 campaign's outreach to Arab-Americans.

In addition to the royal family, the firm's Saudi clients have included bin Mahfouz, who hired Akin, Gump when he was indicted in the BCCI banking scandal in the early 1990s. In 1999, the Saudi's placed bin Mahfouz under house arrest after reportedly discovering that the bank he controlled, National Commercial Bank in Saudi Arabia, funneled millions to charities believed to be serving as bin Laden fronts.

CONTINUED...

[bobthedrummer]

27. Tentacles: BAe and BCCI affiliate First National Bank of Washington

This goes back to Reagan/Bush Administration and Margaret Thatcher but shows how Saudi financing and dealing for arms helped fund OBL terrorism too-this is a long and intriguing whistleblower article sent to cryptome but priceless for connecting the dots to BFEE culpability today.

http://cryptome.org/soil/soiled-dove2.htm

[Octafish]

32. UK-US Sphere of Influence

No wonder the French hate our freedom. We've got "their" weapons contracts. The reason why is because "we" get to where the money is faster. Al Yamamah is an enormous Saudi arms buy under contract with the UK. — Octafish

I. Why Margaret Thatcher is on the wall at Rules

Rules is the oldest restaurant in continuous operation in London. At the same spot for over two centuries, it was a favorite haunt of Samuel Johnson and Boswell. If one is seated in the proper table today, one notices a mural of Margaret Thatcher painted in a corner on the overhang of the slanted ceiling. She is depicted in shining armor, her stylized hair flowing like a lion’s mane, with the white and red banners of St. Stephen billowing behind her. This remarkable woman is at the center of the Al Yamamah story. Her keen insight and single-minded pursuit of the Al Yamamah deal on behalf of her country was never far from her thoughts in 1985 and early 1986.

According to Anthony Harris, who had been seconded to the MOD from the Foreign Office at the time, and who was one of those present at the famous meeting at the Swiss villa where Al Yamamah’s “Structure” was hammered out, the British can place the exact time and date of the British victory at 2:00 PM on 22 February 1986. The Prime Minister was at the time visiting President Reagan at the White House. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the Middle East situation. Upon leaving the Oval Office and exiting onto the South Lawn for the usual confrontation with the press, Mrs. Thatcher was asked what she and the President had talked about. Thatcher’s answer was, “We have been discussing the wise advice of King Fahd.”

As luck would have it, this event was broadcast live around the world, and none other than the King was watching. Reportedly, upon hearing Mrs. Thatcher’s statement, the King said he was giving Al Yamamah to the Brits.

This underscores once again the central role played by the “Iron Lady” in securing Al Yamamah for the UK. Her determination to win the deal from the French and in so doing solidify even further her collaboration with U.S. President Reagan to retain Saudi Arabia as a U.S. – UK “zone of influence” was conveyed clearly to members of her government who were given the task of finalizing the “structure.” Our exclusive sources with direct access to “insider” information at BAe have confirmed that the choice of the British over the French was a very close call for the Saudis. While charming stories like the one above have become fond anecdotes for the British, there can be little doubt that from the Prime Minister on down the UK Government was willing to go to considerable lengths to win the deal and, in the process, save one of the crown jewels of the British defense industry – BAe. Key to this was not only the counterintuitive British willingness to accept barter in the form of “Prince’s oil” as a means of payment, but also their apparent lack of scruples in acceding to the well-known Saudi penchant for side deals and commissions, i.e. “corruption.”

CONTINUED...

http://cryptome.org/soil/soiled-dove2.htm

[frank frankly]

30. marvelous, octafish

very scary, very important info! and lots of links with which to go a'digging...

[Octafish]

33. It's a "Free" university course, like Eloriel said...

... about DU, when she put together a mega-linked thread about the Secret US History.

The Founding Fathers would be so proud of the Internet! They knew the free exchange of ideas must be paramount for Democracy — our Republic — to survive. That's why freedom of the press is the only business mentioned in the Constitution — the First Amendment.

Gee. Having a table-top "printing press" in every American home, with near-instantaneous access around the globe, would seem a miracle to Ben Franklin. To us today, it's do-able. And if we want to beat the Octopus, we better get crackin'!

PS: Thanks for the kind words, frank frankly! Much obliged!