FASCISM: Connect two current threads from kpete and The Vinyl Ripper

[blm]

Good to know that the Dubai money folks behind BCCI - the granddaddy of terrorist banks - is buying control of NASDAQ. You know, the same Dubai to whom Bush was going to turn over our ports and their security.

People need to stop pretending that BCCI is over - it is CONTINUING.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1854542

Dubai to Buy Large Stake in Nasdaq

By JOSEPH B. TREASTER
Published: September 20, 2007

The government-controlled stock exchange in Dubai, the fast-growing Middle East business center, is expected to announce today in Stockholm that it plans to take significant ownership in the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York and the London Stock Exchange, people who have been briefed on the transaction said last night.

If the deal is completed, Dubai would become the first Middle East government to own a large stake in an American stock exchange. It also is expected to become the largest single investor in Nasdaq.

The deal by the Borse Dubai would give Dubai a stake of 20 percent to 30 percent in Nasdaq, the largest electronic stock market in America, and about 30 percent in the London Stock Exchange, according to people who have been briefed.

In exchange, Dubai would hand over to Nasdaq the OMX Group, a stock exchange based in Stockholm that also operates in Helsinki, Copenhagen and several other countries in Scandinavia and the Baltic States.
>>>>>>>>


and this post from The Vinyl Ripper:

The Vinyl Ripper (1000+ posts)
HERE IS EXACTLY HOW AMERICA GOT TO THIS POINT

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/511928.html

An excerpt from
They Thought They Were Free
The Germans, 1933-45
Milton Mayer

But Then It Was Too Late

"What no one seemed to notice," said a colleague of mine, a philologist, "was the ever widening gap, after 1933, between the government and the people. Just think how very wide this gap was to begin with, here in Germany. And it became always wider. You know, it doesn’t make people close to their government to be told that this is a people’s government, a true democracy, or to be enrolled in civilian defense, or even to vote. All this has little, really nothing, to do with knowing one is governing.

"What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could not understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it.

"This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter.

"You will understand me when I say that my Middle High German was my life. It was all I cared about. I was a scholar, a specialist. Then, suddenly, I was plunged into all the new activity, as the university was drawn into the new situation; meetings, conferences, interviews, ceremonies, and, above all, papers to be filled out, reports, bibliographies, lists, questionnaires. And on top of that were the demands in the community, the things in which one had to, was ‘expected to’ participate that had not been there or had not been important before. It was all rigmarole, of course, but it consumed all one’s energies, coming on top of the work one really wanted to do. You can see how easy it was, then, not to think about fundamental things. One had no time."

"Those," I said, "are the words of my friend the baker. ‘One had no time to think. There was so much going on.’"

"Your friend the baker was right," said my colleague. "The dictatorship, and the whole process of its coming into being, was above all diverting. It provided an excuse not to think for people who did not want to think anyway. I do not speak of your ‘little men,’ your baker and so on; I speak of my colleagues and myself, learned men, mind you. Most of us did not want to think about fundamental things and never had. There was no need to. Nazism gave us some dreadful, fundamental things to think about—we were decent people—and kept us so busy with continuous changes and ‘crises’ and so fascinated, yes, fascinated, by the machinations of the ‘national enemies,’ without and within, that we had no time to think about these dreadful things that were growing, little by little, all around us. Unconsciously, I suppose, we were grateful. Who wants to think?

"To live in this process is absolutely not to be able to notice it—please try to believe me—unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us had ever had occasion to develop. Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, ‘regretted,’ that, unless one were detached from the whole process from the beginning, unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these ‘little measures’ that no ‘patriotic German’ could resent must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head.
>>>>>>>>

[groovedaddy]

1. Yeah, that pretty much lays it out there

And, yes, it is happening here. The people behind BCCI never went away and their plans have never really changed, only the tactics and those haven't changed too much. They have no interest in Democracy and individual rights. In fact them view these as an impediment to their plans.
It's sad that our country has come to this.

[blm]

3. This has been playing out for decades.

Someone on kos mentioned that Kerry has bad karma for all the extraordinarily frequent run of bad luck he seems to get via the media hype of absurd incidents and no coverage of his important work.

I believe it is by design, and why the fascists bought control of most media outlets in the 80s and 90s. They can control the perception of them and their enemies - and Kerry has been their biggest enemy of the last 30 years BECAUSE he uncovered BCCI and all its players - Bushes, Bin Ladens, AQ Khan, Marc Rich, Abu Nidal - and all the various armsdealers, drugrunners and nuclear proliferators making deals with global terror networks AND government operatives.

Everything happening today is rooted in BCCI and the fascist agenda. Can we afford to turn a blind eye any longer?

[groovedaddy]

6. I'm a tad leery of Kerry's membership in S&B

It's way to close to many of the principles in this. But it doesn't make sense that he would "out" BCCI - unless he was in that position for damage control.

[blm]

7. No one would touch BCCI - Kerry uncovered it and stayed on it for FIVE YEARS.

And did so against the party bosses.

We wouldn't even KNOW about the links to the terror networks and their funding if Kerry hadn't uncovered all of this.

There would BE NO DAMAGE to control if Kerry were one of them. Not all S&B were in the same clique.

We would be IN a fascist country for the last decade now if Kerry hadn't uncovered their operations.

Think about it - If Kerry were one of them, he'd have been president long ago, and we'd never even heard of BCCI.

[flyarm]

17. please read this article about BCCI it is excellent!! i have posted here:

read the whole article it is excellent..
The missing BCCI money was never found. The Reagan-Bush political agenda kept the Justice Department from cracking down on BCCI early on and preventing the damage that missing cash may have done.
http://thekomisarscoop.com/2007/05/27/politicizing-the-justice-department-bush-takes-a-page-from-his-father/


Politicizing the Justice Department, Bush takes a page from his father
By Lucy Komisar
May 27, 2007

President Bush’s attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, has come under fire for politicizing the U.S. Justice Department for his dismissals of eight U.S. attorneys, apparently because they didn’t target Democrats. But using the Justice Department for political ends isn’t simply an invention of Gonzales or of the President; it’s an old Bush family tradition.



snip:
Jack Blum, special counsel to Senator John Kerry’s Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations, was (after the rumors of Iran-Contra drug trafficking) investigating the relationship of narcotics law enforcement to American foreign policy. He found witnesses who told him about BCCI’s connection to drug money laundering for the Medellín drug cartel and Panama strongman Manuel Noriega.

He also discovered coming arrests for BCCI money-laundering in a Tampa, Florida, drug-trafficking investigation, “Operation C-Chase.” But the Justice Department was uninterested in Blum’s evidence that took the case further, including tapes and meetings with bank insiders talking about the bank’s widespread criminality and its illegal control of First American Bank in Washington D.C.

The bank was a dicey target for Bush for several reasons. One, because of the involvement of Saudi shareholders – some were intelligence officials and another invested in his son George W. Bush’s business interests. And two, because the Reagan-Bush CIA had used it for “black ops,” illegal operations, not only to channel funds to al-Qaeda, but also for Iran-Contra payments and cash to Manuel Noriega.

The U.S. Justice Department sat on the evidence of BCCI’s illegal activities and blocked investigations by others.

Federal attorneys later said that Justice Department officials told them that BCCI was “a political case,” and that Washington decided how to investigate and prosecute it. When Kerry’s investigators tried to find out what the CIA knew, the agency repeatedly lied or withheld information. But Blum discovered the agency’s ties to the bank. He found that during the 1980s, the CIA had prepared hundreds of reports that discussed BCCI’s criminal connections—drug trafficking, money laundering—and its illegal control of First American Bank.

Those in the know, former CIA directors Richard Helms and William Casey, later lied and said that they hadn’t a clue. The CIA blocked investigation of leads in the case. Documents were destroyed, an agent later reported. The CIA provided its reports to Treasury Secretary Donald Regan, who didn’t act on them; the CIA did not provide information to the prosecutors in Tampa.

In October 1988, a month before the U.S. presidential election, Justice won a Tampa indictment of the bank and eight of its employees for laundering millions of dollars for the Medellín cartel. The indictment said nothing about Noriega, still on the CIA payroll, a relationship that Republican candidate Bush had initiated when he headed the agency.



snip:

With Kerry’s support, in 1989 Blum went to New York to see a local county prosecutor, District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. Blum told him about the Justice Department’s refusal to look into BCCI’s involvement in drug money laundering and other crimes. Morgenthau opened an investigation and ran into a wall of obstacles from Justice, which refused to cooperate, grant him access to witnesses or share information.

Then Morgenthau received an insider tip. The chairman of BCCI’s internal review committee in London, Masihur (Arthur) Rahman, told his bosses that the bank’s true finances had been distorted by deception and manipulation, and he resigned. He got phone calls threatening him and his family with death. Rahman contacted Morgenthau’s office and revealed that Price Waterhouse audits had reported that, through a series of phony loans, BCCI had secret ownership of First American Bankshares, by then an $11-billion U.S. interstate bank holding company.

[blm]

20. Thanks - the coverups on BBI have continued, and BCCI's actual agenda lives on

and is becoming institutionalized in our country and around the world.

It will be Mission Accomplished when the next president puts a donkey mask and turns over the rest of our party to the waiting grasp of the fascist agenda.

[MBS]

9. I agree with you on this, blm

it seems pretty obvious that the latest attacks were coordinated. .
And the WW II analogy is chillingly apt. My parents, who witnessed the rise of Hitler at first hand, would also agree, and be heartbroken, by the parallels. They were upset enough by the McCarthy era. . .I am very glad they did not live long enough to witness this period of our history.

Thanks for keeping this in our consciousness.

[blm]

10. Not so much parallel as some went deep and found a way to continue the agenda.

And they did it through American corporations and government officials who shared their goals.

Poppy Bush mentioned the beginning of New World Order over 40 times in his speeches as president. How far along would we be down that road if Poppy and his friends' illegal operations were NEVER uncovered and investigated by Kerry?

Except we had a freer newsmedia at that point. Now we're witnessing what happens when a people lose the right to an honest and independent newsmedia.

Thankyou for staying vigilant, MBS. There are a few dozen of us here that will not let history be revised to protect the secrecy and privilege of the Bushes and their cronies.

[Gabi Hayes]

13. I'd like to think it's not too late

I really would

but, aside from Olbermann, who's in the only media that matters today, is even scratching the surface?

and how big is his audience?

[blm]

15. I know - but then we get a deal like this with the BCCI characters buying our country's

financial icons, and our president trying to give them our ports, and the BFEE dancing along to the global fascist beat, and the next Dem president is certain to continue the protection of secrecy and privilege - and it sure can ache a heart and soul.

[antigop]

2. so what's wrong with globalization of capital?

:sarcasm:

[blm]

8. Heh - that makes it sound so much more benign than global fascism.

.

[Lars39]

4. K&R

Thanks for posting this, blm.

[blm]

5. Thankyou for 'getting it'. AQ Khan is back in news and US sez Syria wants nukes???

U.S.: Syria on Nuclear Watch List


Friday September 14, 2007 4:16 PM

By NICOLE WINFIELD

Associated Press Writer

ROME (AP) - A senior American official said Friday that Syria was on the U.S. nuclear ``watch list,'' asserting that foreign technicians were in the country and that there had been possible contacts with suppliers for nuclear equipment.

Andrew Semmel, acting deputy assistant secretary for nuclear nonproliferation policy, did not name the suppliers, but said there were North Koreans in Syria and that he could not exclude the possiblity that the network run by the disgraced Pakistan nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan was involved.
Semmel was responding to questions about an Israeli airstrike in northern Syria last week. Neither side has explained what exactly happened, but a U.S. government official confirmed that Israeli warplanes were targeting weapons from Iran and destined for Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.

The Washington Post reported Thursday that Israel had gathered satellite imagery showing possible North Korean cooperation with Syria on a nuclear facility.
>>>>>>>



Um....isn't it interesting that this BCCI figure keeps popping up and keeps finding his way back to being a source for weapons to countries that US neocons want to invade?

Isn't it past time the newsmedia starts talking STRAIGHT about AQ Khan for a change?

Let's refresh for the newsmedia and see if they can figure out WHY these 20 outstanding matters, listed in the Dec 1992 BCCI report as matters that needed further investigation, why they can't be discussed as part of the background to the overall terrorism debate and to our foreign policy decisions?

It's past time the newsmedia do what it SHOULD have done on Sept. 12, 2001 - REVISIT the entire BCCI operation and press for answers.

Start with the Outstanding Matters and questions left on the table in Dec 1992 report:


Matters For Further Investigation

There have been a number of matters which the Subcommittee has received some information on, but has not been able to investigate adequately, due such factors as lack of resources, lack of time, documents being withheld by foreign governments, and limited evidentiary sources or witnesses. Some of the main areas which deserve further investigation include:


1. The extent of BCCI's involvement in Pakistan's nuclear program. As set forth in the chapter on BCCI in foreign countries, there is good reason to conclude that BCCI did finance Pakistan's nuclear program through the BCCI Foundation in Pakistan, as well as through BCCI-Canada in the Parvez case. However, details on BCCI's involvement remain unavailable. Further investigation is needed to understand the extent to which BCCI and Pakistan were able to evade U.S. and international nuclear non-proliferation regimes to acquire nuclear technologies.


2. BCCI's manipulation of commodities and securities markets in Europe and Canada. The Subcommittee has received information that remains not fully substantiated that BCCI defrauded investors, as well as some major U.S. and European financial firms, through manipulating commodities and securities markets, especially in Canada, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. This alleged fraud requires further investigation in those countries.


3. BCCI's activities in India, including its relationship with the business empire of the Hinduja family. The Subcommittee has not had access to BCCI records regarding India. The substantial lending by BCCI to the Indian industrialist family, the Hindujas, reported in press accounts, deserves further scrutiny, as do the press reports concerning alleged kick-backs and bribes to Indian officials.


4. BCCI's relationships with convicted Iraqi arms dealer Sarkis Soghanalian, Syrian drug trafficker, terrorist, and arms trafficker Monzer Al-Kassar, and other major arms dealers. Sarkenalian was a principal seller of arms to Iraq. Monzer Al-Kassar has been implicated in terrorist bombings in connection with terrorist organizations such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Other arms dealers, including some who provided machine guns and trained Medellin cartel death squads, also used BCCI. Tracing their assets through the bank would likely lead to important information concerning international terrorist and arms trafficker networks.


5. The use of BCCI by central figures in arms sales to Iran during the 1980's. The late Cyrus Hashemi, a key figure in allegations concerning an alleged deal involving the return of U.S. hostages from Iran in 1980, banked at BCCI London. His records have been withheld from disclosure to the Subcommittee by a British judge. Their release might aid in reaching judgments concerning Hashemi's activities in 1980, with the CIA under President Carter and allegedly with William Casey.


6. BCCI's activities with the Central Bank of Syria and with the Foreign Trade Mission of the Soviet Union in London. BCCI was used by both the Syrian and Soviet governments in the period in which each was involved in supporting activities hostile to the United States. Obtaining the records of those financial transactions would be critical to understanding what the Soviet Union under Brezhnev, Chernenko, and Andropov was doing in the West; and might document the nature and extent of Syria's support for international terrorism.


7. BCCI's involvement with foreign intelligence agencies. A British source has told the Bank of England and British investigators that BCCI was used by numerous foreign intelligence agencies in the United Kingdom. The British intelligence service, the MI-5, has sealed documents from BCCI's records in the UK which could shed light on this allegation.


8. The financial dealings of BCCI directors with Charles Keating and several Keating affiliates and front-companies, including the possibility that BCCI related entities may have laundered funds for Keating to move them outside the United States. The Subcommittee found numerous connections among Keating and BCCI-related persons and entities, such as BCCI director Alfred Hartman; CenTrust chief David Paul and CenTrust itself; Capcom front-man Lawrence Romrell; BCCI shipping affiliate, the Gokal group and the Gokal family; and possibly Ghaith Pharaon. The ties between BCCI and Keating's financial empire require further investigation.


9. BCCI's financing of commodities and other business dealings of international criminal financier Marc Rich. Marc Rich remains the most important figure in the international commodities markets, and remains a fugitive from the United States following his indictment on securities fraud. BCCI lending to Rich in the 1980's amounted to tens of millions of dollars. Moreover, Rich's commodities firms were used by BCCI in connection with BCCI's involving in U.S. guarantee programs through the Department of Agriculture. The nature and extent of Rich's relationship with BCCI requires further investigation.


10. The nature, extent and meaning of the ownership of shares of other U.S. financial institutions by Middle Eastern political figures. Political figures and members of the ruling family of various Middle Eastern countries have very substantial investments in the United States, in some cases, owning substantial shares of major U.S. banks. Given BCCI's routine use of nominees from the Middle East, and the pervasive practice of using nominees within the Middle East, further investigation may be warranted of Middle Eastern ownership of domestic U.S. financial institutions.


11. The nature, extent, and meaning of real estate and financial investments in the United States by major shareholders of BCCI. BCCI's shareholders and front-men have made substantial investments in real estate throughout the United States, owning major office buildings in such key cities as New York and Washington, D.C. Given BCCI's pervasiveness criminality, and the role of these shareholders and front-men in the BCCI affair, a complete review of their holdings in the United States is warranted.


12. BCCI's collusion in Savings & Loan fraud in the U.S. The Subcommittee found ties between BCCI and two failed Savings and Loan institutions, CenTrust, which BCCI came to have a controlling interest in, and Caprock Savings and Loan in Texas, and as noted above, the involvement of BCCI figures with Charles Keating and his business empire. In each case, BCCI's involvement cost the U. S. taxpayers money. A comprehensive review of BCCI's account holders in the U.S. and globally might well reveal additional such cases. In addition, the issue of whether David Paul and CenTrust's political relationships were used by Paul on behalf of BCCI merits further investigation.


13. The sale of BCCI affiliate Banque de Commerce et de Placements (BCP) in Geneva, to the Cukorova Group of Turkey, which owned an entity involved in the BNL Iraqi arms sales, among others. Given BNL's links to BCCI, and Cukorova Groups' involvement through its subsidiary, Entrade, with BNL in the sales to Iraq, the swift sale of BCP to Cukorova just weeks after BCCI's closure -- prior to due diligence being conducted -- raises questions as to whether a prior relationship existed between BCCI and Cukorova, and Cukorova's intentions in making the purchase. Within the past year, Cukorova also applied to purchase a New York bank. Cukorova's actions pertaining to BCP require further investigation in Switzerland by Swiss authorities, and by the Federal Reserve New York.


14. BCCI's role in China. As noted in the chapter on BCCI's activities in foreign countries, BCCI had extensive activity in China, and the Chinese government allegedly lost $500 million when BCCI closed, mostly from government accounts. While there have been allegations that bribes and pay-offs were involved, these allegations require further investigation and detail to determine what actually happened, and who was involved.


15. The relationship between Capcom and BCCI, between Capcom and the intelligence community, and between Capcom's shareholders and U.S. telecommunications industry figures. The Subcommittee was able to interview people and review documents concerning Capcom that no other investigators had to date interviewed or reviewed. Much more needs to be done to understand what Capcom was doing in the United States, the United Kingdom, Egypt, Oman, and the Middle East, including whether the firm was, as has been alleged but not proven, used by the intelligence community to move funds for intelligence operations; and whether any person involved with Capcom was seeking secretly to acquire interests in the U.S. telecommunications industry.


16. The relationship of important BCCI figures and important intelligence figures to the collapse of the Hong Kong Deposit and Guaranty Bank and Tetra Finance (HK) in 1983. The circumstances surrounding the collpase of these two Hong Kong banks; the Hong Kong banks' practices of using nominees, front-companies, and back-to-back financial transactions; the Hong Banks' directors having included several important BCCI figures, including Ghanim Al Mazrui, and a close associate of then CIA director William Casey; all raise the question of whether there was a relationship between these two institutions and BCCI-Hong Kong, and whether the two Hong Kong institutions were used for domestic or foreign intelligence operations.


17. BCCI's activities in Atlanta and its acquisition of the National Bank of Georgia through First American. Although the Justice Department indictments of Clark Clifford and Robert Altman cover portions of how BCCI acquired National Bank of Georgia, other important allegations regarding the possible involvement of political figures in Georgia in BCCI's activities there remain outside the indictment. These allegations, as well as the underlying facts regarding BCCI's activities in Georgia, require further investigation.


18. The relationship between BCCI and the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro. BCCI and the Atlanta Branch of BNL had an extensive relationship in the United States, with the Atlanta Branch of BNL having a substantial number of accounts in BCCI's Miami offices. BNL was, according to federal indictments, a significant financial conduit for weapons to Iraq. BCCI also made loans to Iraq, although of a substantially smaller nature. Given the criminality of both institutions, and their interlocking activities, further investigation of the relationship could produce further understanding of Saddam Hussein's international network for acquiring weapons, and how Iraq evaded governmental restrictions on such weapons acquisitions.


19. The alleged relationship between the late CIA director William Casey and BCCI. As set forth in the chapter on intelligence, numerous trails lead from BCCI to Casey, and from Casey to BCCI, and the investigation has been unable to follow any of them to the end to determine whether there was indeed a relationship, and if there was, its nature and extent. If any such relationship existed, it could have a significant impact on the findings and conclusions concerning the CIA and BCCI's role in U.S. foreign policy and intelligence operations during the Casey era. The investigation's work detailing the ties of BCCI to the intelligence community generally also remains far from complete, and much about these ties remains obscure and in need of further investigation.


20. Money laundering by other major international banks. Numerous BCCI officials told the Subcommittee that BCCI's money laundering was no different from activities they observed at other international banks, and provided the names of a number of prominent U.S. and European banks which they alleged engaged in money laundering. There is no question that BCCI's laundering of drug money, while pervading the institution, constituted a small component of the total money laundering taking place in international banking. Further investigation to determine which international banks are soliciting and handling drug money should be undertaken.

[Lars39]

11. Good article !

Lays it out well.

[blm]

12. Yeah - but too few are paying attention to all this.

I think this is one of the reasons the GOPs have been hyping MoveOn incident.

Look how it keeps the left and the Dems in a tizzy and not paying attention.

The only thing that could top that for attention-grabbing and news saturation would be if OJ could find some trouble to get into.

[kineneb]

16. wasn't there also

a conspiracy theory around about a connection between BCCI, the Banco Ambroisano (sp?) and the death of Pope John Paul I?

seems I remember someone wrote either an article on it or a book. The whole matter seemed to disappear rather rapidly. Given all the other shady dealings of BCCI and its supporters, almost anything might have been possible.

[glitch]

14. This deserves a lot more K & Rs than this one :) nt

[stillcool]

18. If it were only one country...

one government, one family, one crime. The names, the countries of origin, the businesses, the black ops, the constant tangents that send me off on separate paths leave me utterly confused. Plus there is so much written that is only partial truth. It's very much like looking at a corporation. The M&A's, the subsidiaries, the partnerships, the trusts, the sell-offs that retain board members and executives...it goes back, back, back,..and it never ends. The only thing that stays the same is the vast amounts of money that swirl around ending up in the right pockets. The webs we weave when we practice to deceive.

[blm]

21. Enron Accounting - that practice was in play for decades before to escape

detection and to thwart investigations.

The layering would guarantee that most citizens wouldn't understand and their eyes would glaze over.

[progressoid]

19. Dang, Cali's right.`

Put Fascism in the title and it off to the greatest page.

[AntiFascist]

22. K & I would have R'd, if seen earlier...

Excellent reporting in the OP and posts to the thread.

[blm]

23. thanks for getting it -

.

[Lars39]

24. Kick before I go...

:kick: