Should George Bush pardon Marc Rich's attorney Scooter Libby?

[Joanne98]

It a small world, isn't it?

Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff testified Thursday he believes prosecutors of billionaire financier Marc Rich "misconstrued the facts and the law" when they went after Rich on tax evasion charges.

The testimony from Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who represented Rich dating back to 1985 but stopped working for him in the spring of 2000, came during a contentious, hours-long House committee hearing into former President Bill Clinton's eleventh-hour pardons.

Earlier in the day, three former White House advisers all said they recommended that the Rich pardon be denied, but that they supported Clinton's decision-making process.

Facing intense questioning from Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pennsylvania, Libby hedged on whether he thought Clinton's pardon was justified, infuriating the congressman.
http://archives.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/03/02/clinton.library/

"Did you represent a crook who stole money from the United States government, was a fugitive and should never have been given or granted a pardon by the facts that you know?" snapped Kanjorski.

"No, sir," Libby responded. "There are no facts that I know of that support the criminality of the client based on the tax returns."

Libby then said prosecutors from the Southern District of New York "misconstrued the facts and the law" when they prosecuted Rich.

"(Rich) had not violated the tax laws," said Libby.

At a later point, Libby said he thought Rich was a traitor for his company engaging in trades with Iran at a time when that country was holding U.S. hostages. "I did not condone it, I didn't advise it, I don't admire it," he said.

Marc Rich Biography....
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0510/S00322.htm
Steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king.

- Bob Dylan, “Sweetheart Like You,” Infidels, 1983

Amidst rumors that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is close to indicting White House officials in the Plame leak case are reports that Scooter Libby was Judith Miller’s source of information. Part One of this series explored Libby’s “handler,” Leonard Garment, a Brooklyn attorney who ushered Libby into three different law firms. As an attorney in one of those firms, Libby represented his wealthiest and most mysterious client—Marc Rich. As only one of a myriad of Rich’s attorneys, Libby, nevertheless, worked for the metal and oil trader for a period of eighteen years. Understanding Marc Rich is essential in understanding Scooter Libby and the financial network which invaded Iraq.

Strategic Metals

Craig Copetas, Marc Rich’s biographer, labels his subject one of the “Metal Men,”<1> and attempts to trace Rich’s mysterious background. The Belgian Reich family fled Europe during World War II, assisted by a Jewish placement agency, and changed their surname to Rich. Marc’s father, David Rich, seems to have engaged in an assortment of secretive businesses—jewelry distribution in Kansas City, Missouri; importing burlap at Melrose Bag in the Bronx, New York; expanding into Sidec Overseas, S.A. and a diversified agricultural import company trading with Bolivia. All of this industry centers around the metal trade, Bolivia being a prime source of silver, zinc, antimony, lead, cadmium, tungsten, gold, and tin since the sixteenth century. In 1976 Bolivia added lithium, a necessary ingredient in nuclear weapons, to its stock of strategic minerals.

While his father was busy trading, young Marc was quietly attending school and going to summer camp. He graduated from the private “Rhodes School” in mid-town Manhattan in 1952, just ten years before a future commerce secretary, Ron Brown, would receive his diploma there.<2> An advertisement for the school in 1917 (see insert) sported photographs of selected members of its illustrious faculty, which included former Harvard and Columbia professor Adolphe Cohn; Alexis I. du Pont Coleman, a scion of the gunpowder and chemicals family that owned Dupont; and Dr. Jose F. de Fernandez, recruited from New York’s Jesuit St. Francis Xavier College. Those years at Rhodes constitute the sum total of Marc Rich’s formal education, apart from a year or so of study at New York University. He dropped out of college in 1954 to begin his trading career at Hamburg-based Philipp Brothers.

Philipp’s London office first opened in 1908. A New York branch appeared in 1927, just nine years before Rich’s boss, Ludwig Jesselson, arrived there from Germany. Philipps Brothers also had close connections to Spain and to Bolivia. David Rich—allegedly in connection with his burlap bag business—traveled frequently to La Paz and even set up a bank there, the American Bolivian Bank. The physical commodities business, according to John K. Castle, “tends to be based… in Brazil, Colombia and the Ivory Coast.”<3> It is difficult to trade physical commodities without arranging for their transportation from one place to another at a certain time.

Marc’s twenty years at Philipp Brothers was spent “buccaneering between North and South America, Africa and Europe…Copper was king at the time, and Rich was one of the metal’s crown princes…He went on to learn tungsten under the direction of Henry Rothschild and Steven Dale, a former British commando who was the tungsten expert….”<4> Rich’s reward was a posting to the Philipp Brothers office in Madrid as manager in 1967. He used this outpost as a base through West Africa and the Middle East, and he gained contacts through his seat on the European management committee in Zug, Switzerland.

Scooter Libby fits that same mold, and he is working for the same people. Further research may reveal who hides behind that curtain.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0510/S00322.htm

Who knew Libby and Rich were sooooo interesting!

[Joanne98]

1. Amazon.com Metal Men used from $2.47

http://www.amazon.com/Metal-Men-Defrauded-Sought-After-Corporate/dp/006097060X
fascinating look below the surface of events, June 27, 2001
Reviewer: A reader

The brevity of Copetas' book allows it to be mercifully readable. On the other hand, Metal Men is so condensed that federal prosecution of Marc Rich (who managed to become a Spaniard in order to avoid extradition) and Pincus Green (who became a Bolivian for the same reason) is difficult to follow. The best sections of the book are the juicy nuggets that leave the reader whetted for more information. This is especially true when Marc Rich's relationship with Henry Kissinger and Kissinger Associates is discussed. Marc refers to the good doctor as "K", perhaps an allusion to Franz Kafka's narrator in the book Schloss. How appropriate. Clearly there was, and perhaps still is, much mutual benefit in the relationship between two master players who operate at the same level in their respective games. Copetas would not be faulted if he enlarged on this particular topic. One might wish for more background on the peculiar relationship the wholesome country of Switzerland has had with mobsters, white collar crime of a certain calibre, and kleptocratic despots over the past decades, if not centuries. The enchanting Canton of Zug emerges as an especially infested banana republic within a national governmental system that sees all money as created equal, and equally welcome into its banking system, regardless of provenance. This is a far cry from the Switzerland of alpine cheeses, pure air, teutonic ski bums, and clinics for the super rich. More the Gnome Switzerland of secrets and Croesus grade wealth and grey teflon coated bureaucrats. Then there hints at generally unreported connections, such as a strong, if not well known, presence Swedes in Thailand. Swedes in Thailand ? We would like to know more. Perhaps additional insight into the underworld of international arms trade, which figured in some of Rich's dealings, as with the Ayotallah Khomeni. Somewhere in here we expect to find the thread of Iran-Contra, but that subject, too, is left to mere suggestion. Considering what Mr. Copetas appears to know, but has edited out for the sake of brevity or marketability, there is a much larger and more enlightening book waiting to be composed from his files. One doubts that such a work would be welcomed with open arms by much of the political establishment, but by golly it would make eye opening tome.
http://www.amazon.com/Metal-Men-Defrauded-Sought-After-Corporate/dp/006097060X

[durrrty libby]

2. You can not copy and paste more than 4 paragraphs

It is copyright infringement

[blm]

3. Gee - why was another IranContra-BCCI figure pardoned by a Democrat who

won office BECAUSE of all the work other Democrats did to investigate and expose Poppy Bush's crimes of office - pummeling him relentlessly for his entire term?

Doesn't make sense does it? Especially when Clinton mentions NOT ONE WORD about BCCI or Rich's connections to IranContra and BCCI in his book.

Curious, eh?

[Gabi Hayes]

4. and THAT, in a nutshell, describes how totally fffffed we are with these

"two" parties

from the complete lack of Clinton interest in all things Bush/BCCI/Iran-Contra/Iraqgate

to the current pending legislation with hidden clauses supporting war against Iran/privatization of Iraq oil

it becomes OBVIOUS how the Democratic party, controlled as it seems to be by the same interests that run the Pugparty, is inimical to the best interests of the vast majority of US citizens

hate to say it, but Nader is/was mostly right. the question is: what can be done about it?

the obvious first step is complete public financing of elections

beyond that, I don't begin to have an idea, because that first change is revolutionary, and probably will never happen

[blm]

5. This is why I throw all support to anti-corruption Democrats and want the

Dems who side with secrecy and privilege to lose support within the party.

Difficult task when corpmedia definitely pushes those who side with privilege and the Bushes far more than they even discuss corruption and its watchdogs in the party.