BCCI, THE CIA AND FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE
Introduction
EXCERPT...
As President Carter's former Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Bert Lance, testified,
There was an opportunity there for Kamal Adham to have done the kind of work he did with regard to Sadat's visit to Jerusalem and that sort of thing, and subsequently playing a role in regards to satisfying some of the Arab countries with regard to the action that Sadat had taken, both in going to Jerusalem and also in Camp David.(42)
The key role played by Adham in Camp David was apparently to encourage other Arab political figures not to repudiate Sadat for agreeing to peace with Israel. Although such attempts may have appeared unsuccessful in terms of public statements by Gulf rulers, it is clear that many of the Gulf rulers in private provided some support for Sadat, including then-Crown Prince and now King Faud of Saudi Arabia, who sought to strengthen ties with the United States as a means of defending the Saud family from a variety of possible instabilities.
The actual intent of BCCI and its Arab shareholders in participating with BCCI in the takeover of First American remains a matter of speculation. One article, appearing in the Washington Post on December 18, 1977, at the very beginning of the takeover efforts regarding First American and the National Bank of Georgia, described the intent of BCCI and the Arabs as gaining "access to the administration" through Lance.(43) The involvement of Gulf leaders in the takeover in Washington at the same time as the Camp David accords were put into place, would have been recognized within the Middle East at the time as an important symbolic gesture by each of them to strengthen ties with Israel's superpower sponsor, the United States. Their ownership of First American also would have providing a direct means to gain influence in the U.S. through the ownership of the bank.
To recapitulate: Adham was at the same time in business with a retired CIA station chief whose activities caused people in the U.S. and Saudi governments to question whether he was truly "retired," acting as an intermediary for the U.S. in negotiations regarding Camp David, and acting as a phony "lead shareholder" in a take-over of the largest bank in the nation's capital on behalf of BCCI. The simultaneity was thus either part of a larger political plan of Adham, BCCI, and people within the Carter Administration and the CIA, or merely a coincidence.
Questioned about the concurrence of these events, Adham has told U.S. investigators that they were unrelated, and thus, BCCI's purchase of First American was not a quid pro quo for Camp David. Instead, Adham has suggested that his involvement in these events, and BCCI's later involvement in financing the Presidential library, charities, and travel of President Jimmy Carter, for whom Camp David was the major achievement of his presidency, were in fact coincidence.(44)
Clark Clifford, in sworn interrogatories, stated that he, too, believed Adham's roles in Camp David and in the simultaneous takeover of Financial General were coincidence. Clifford stated that while Adham had told him of his friendship with Sadat, he had not advised Clifford of having any role in Camp David.(45)
CONTINUED...
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/11intel.htm
PS: Welcome to DU, frog64! Love your attitude toward the South and our fellow Democrats!
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