James R Bath, SuperTurd of the BFEE

[Octafish]

James R Bath is George W Bush's buddy from the Texas Air National Guard. They got grounded together for refusing to take a physical (read: drug test) in 1972. If you want to see a copy of the actual document, ask and I'll post it for you.

So... later that decade, Bath becomes a bidnessman, Texas-style, and serves as the official business representative of two of the wealthiest Saudi families: the bin Mahfouz (banking, like, um BCCI) and the bin Laden (construction, Mecca and Afghan mountain redoubt).

The Honorable Skip Fox of the DU, made a solid post to chronicle the Little Turd from Crawford's life as a crooked businessman. Behold:


Forum: DCForumID38
Thread Number: 4933
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Original Message
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"HarkenGate, July 9, 2002 file:"
Posted by skip fox on Jul-09-02 at 04:38 PM

HarkenGate readily breaks down into five areas for investigation and discussion:

1.W. possibly built oil company and interests through favoritism or trading off his father's name (esp. Bahrain's naming of Harken as the oil company for the country's off-shore interests).

2. Harken's posted of phony financial statements, claiming incoming assets for a subsidiary it bought from itself. (A mere $8-12 million, a low-rent version of what Enron did a decade later.)

3. W.'s trading of stock based on possible knowledge of potential stock devaluation i.e., insider trading (2 possibilities):
–a. Knowledge of secret State Dept. memo claiming Hussain was ready to attack neighbors.
–b. Knowledge of Harken's dire straits as one member of a three-member "Fairness" (auditing) committee.

4. W.'s late filing of stock sales to SEC and variation in story as to reasons.

5. Possible favoritism shown to Bush's business "indiscretions" by SEC through father's influence and/or the possible reward to SEC investigator(s) by W. himself.

According, this first file breaks into these five areas with hotlinks and clipping of the stories focusing on each issue. The second file provides the base of documents from which the first file was drawn in a manner that the reader might follow the progression of the story. Both files begin with BACKGROUND, citing Joe Conason's thorough and clear overview of the narrative of W.'s fortune. To Joe's credit, he brings up nearly all of the five issues (and sub-issues) listed above. Pizzo's article is also a good background piece.

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BACKGROUND:

--Joe Conason's "Notes on a Native Son," Harper's Magazine, Feb. 2000. (A thorough, given article parameters, overview of George W. Bush's fortune. Harken is covered primarily on pp. 4-6 of item. Due to this article, Conason has been frequently quoted on Bush's corporate dealings):

http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1111/1797_300/59086099/p1/article.html


–Stephen Pizzo, "Bush Family Values," Mother Jones, Sept.-Oct. 1992 (another good example of early reporting on Bush's fortunes):

http://www.motherjones.com/news_wire/bushboys.html


Will Pitt's December 18, 2001 DU article, "King Midas in Reverse," also summarizes the major issues well and is a good read:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/01/12/18_midas.html


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1.THE POSSIBILITY THAT W. BUILT OIL INTERESTS BY TRADING OFF HIS FATHER'S NAME AT THE LEAST, FAVORITISM AT THE MOST:

Read Conason and Pizzi in Background.


Kevin Sack's "George Bush the Son Finds That Oil and Blood Do Mix," NY Times, May 8, 1999 (another excellent background piece concerning W.'s acquisition of a fortune, but Sack's clearly draws the personal and familial connections):

http://www.csus.edu/indiv/f/friedman/spring02/govt1/schedule/j/j1/bush.html


Tom Flocco, Wolrd Net Daily, laid it out clearly:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=16298

<snip>

In October 1991, Time Magazine questioned why the tiny country of Bahrain would stake so much of its financial future on Harken Energy, which it labeled an "obscure, money-losing company with no refineries and no experience in offshore oil exploration." But the magazine also noted that oil-insiders speculated that Bahrain's rulers saw the arrangement as a way to gain influence with the Bush administration.

Mysteriously, primary reporters have also ignored what could point to a nexus regarding foreign policy and personal financial interests. Interestingly, the Village Voice in January 1991 reported that in 1990 the Bush administration signed an agreement with Bahrain that chose the small country as the permanent principal allied base in the Middle East, although it was some 200 miles away from the hostilities in Iraq and Kuwait.

The military-base deal came after Harken announced its Jan. 30, 1990, joint oil-drilling venture with Bahrain. So President Bush's key contributors and his son George W. were carrying on personal financial business with Bahrain at the same time decisions were being made regarding the possibility of a war in the Gulf.

And neither the president nor his adviser, George Jr., let the press know that Bahrain had been permitted to infuse $7.7 million in foreign cash to hire U.S. public relations firm Hill & Knowlton to lobby Congress and the American people; a stunning variety of opinion-forming devices and techniques were employed to inflame U.S. patriotic passions of war while personal financial interests were on the line.

<snip>


And it's even possible that some bin Laden money went to Bush's launching pad in the oil business (Arbusto) as the wealthy Saudi family sought to maintain favor with the Republican administration as Wayne Madsen reports in In These Times:

http://www.inthesetimes.com/issue/25/25/feature3.shtml


<snip>

In 1979, Bush's first business, Arbusto Energy, obtained financing from James Bath, a
Houstonian and close family friend. One of many investors, Bath gave Bush $50,000 for a
5 percent stake in Arbusto. At the time, Bath was the sole U.S. business representative
for Salem bin Laden, head of the wealthy Saudi Arabian family and a brother (one of 17)
to Osama bin Laden. It has long been suspected, but never proven, that the Arbusto
money came directly from Salem bin Laden. In a statement issued shortly after the
September 11 attacks, the White House vehemently denied the connection, insisting
that Bath invested his own money, not Salem bin Laden's, in Arbusto.

In conflicting statements, Bush at first denied ever knowing Bath, then acknowledged
his stake in Arbusto and that he was aware Bath represented Saudi interests. In fact,
Bath has extensive ties, both to the bin Laden family and major players in the
scandal-ridden Bank of Commerce and Credit International (BCCI) who have gone on to
fund Osama bin Laden. BCCI defrauded depositors of $10 billion in the '80s in what has
been called the "largest bank fraud in world financial history" by former Manhattan
District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. During the '80s, BCCI also acted as a main conduit
for laundering money intended for clandestine CIA activities, ranging from financial
support to the Afghan mujahedin to paying intermediaries in the Iran-Contra affair.

<snip>

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2. HARKEN'S POSTING OF PHONY FINANCIAL STATEMENTS CLAIMING ASSETS WITHOUT NOTING DEBITS AND BUSH'S KNOWLEDGE OF THE FRAUDLENT ACCOUNTING.


Paul Krugman's July 7 column spells it out:

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/07/opinion/07KRUG.html

<snip>

That's exactly what happened at Harken. A group of insiders, using money borrowed
from Harken itself, paid an exorbitant price for a Harken subsidiary, Aloha Petroleum.
That created a $10 million phantom profit, which hid three-quarters of the company's
losses in 1989. White House aides have played down the significance of this maneuver,
saying $10 million isn't much, compared with recent scandals. Indeed, it's a small
fraction of the apparent profits Halliburton created through a sudden change in
accounting procedures during Dick Cheney's tenure as chief executive. But for Harken's
stock price — and hence for Mr. Bush's personal wealth — this accounting trickery made
all the difference.

Oh, and Harken's fake profits were several dozen times as large as the Whitewater land
deal — though only about one-seventh the cost of the Whitewater investigation.

Mr. Bush was on the company's audit committee, as well as on a special restructuring
committee; back in 1994, another member of both committees, E. Stuart Watson,
assured reporters that he and Mr. Bush were constantly made aware of the company's
finances. If Mr. Bush didn't know about the Aloha maneuver, he was a very negligent
director.

<snip>

An unattributed editorial in the St. Louis Post Dispach July 7, 2002, puts it succinctly:

http://home.post-dispatch.com/channel%5Cpdweb.nsf/TodaySunday/
86256A0E0068FE5086256BEF002DD29E?OpenDocument&PubWrapper=Editorial

(You'll have to bind http address together to go directly.)


<snip>

...Harken sold a subsidiary to a group of its own insiders. It lent those insiders much of the money to make the purchase. Then Harken claimed a profit from the sale. It was almost as if the company were claiming profits for selling something to itself. Shades of Enron, Qwest and Dynegy, among others. The SEC cried foul. It forced the company to restate its earnings to show a much larger loss.

Did Mr. Bush approve of such accounting sleight of hand? After all, he was on Harken's audit committee. Or was he snoozing while management had fun with figures?

<snip>


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2002/07/08/MN139428.DTL

<snip>

Democrats hope to draw attention to a controversial deal by Harken to sell one of its subsidiaries, Aloha Petroleum, to a group of Harken insiders. The SEC later found that deal might have disguised at least $8 million in losses by Harken and asked the company to restate its 1989 earnings. Bush was on the audit committee of Harken's board at the time.

<snip>

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3. BUSH'S SELLING OF HARKEN STOCK BASED ON POSSIBLE KNOWLEDGE OF POTENTIAL STOCK DEVALUATION, I.E, INSIDER TRADING (2 possibilities):

–a. BUSH'S KNOWLEDGE OF A SECRET STATE DEPARTMENT MEMO CLAIMING HUSSAIN WAS OUT OF CONTROL AND READY TO ATTACK KUWAIT

Pizzo lays out the case:

http://www.motherjones.com/news_wire/bushboys.html

<snip>

In May 1990, the U.S. State Department sent a chilling but still classified report to Scowcroft. The report warned that Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was out of control and was threatening his neighbors:

May 16, 1990
SECRET
Attached is a paper containing a list of options for responding to recent actions and statements by the Government of Iraq. ...We ask that you pass this paper to Robert Gates for his review.

Under "options" the memo suggested: Ban Oil Purchases: The largest benefit Iraq receives from the US is through our oil purchases...
PRO -- A total ban on oil purchases would have some short-term impact.
CON -- Such action might also have an impact on US Oil prices.

Oil companies had learned, during the years of the long Iran-Iraq war, that trouble in the gulf hurts companies with oil interests because, for one thing, at the first sound of a rifle shot in the gulf region, Lloyds of London jacks up insurance rates on oil tankers and company installations. The "wartime" rates are very high and cut deeply into company profits and investor confidence. If things really get out of hand, pipelines are destroyed and waterways are mined.

The secret memo augured ill for Harken's fledgling venture.

<snip>

(Memo is May, Bush sells in June!)

–b. KNOWLEDGE OF HARKEN'S POOR FINANCIAL SITUATION AS A MEMBER OF A THREE-MEMBER "FAIRNESS" (read: AUDIT) COMMITTEE :

Read Conason and Pizzi in Background.

Molly Ivins Feb. 15, 2002 Texas Observer article:

http://www.texasobserver.org/showArticle.asp?ArticleID=562

<snip>

A month before Bush sold his stock, the Harken board appointed Bush and another company director, E. Stuart Watson, to a "fairness committee" determine how restructuring would affect ordinary stockholders.

Smith, Barney, Harris, Upham & Co., the financial consultants hired by Harken, told Bush and Watson only drastic action could save the company. So Bush sold his stock before the news became public. According to U.S. News & World Report, there was "substantial evidence to suggest that Bush knew Harken was in dire straits."

<snip>

Daschle's desire to look into the SEC's 1991 investigation of Bush (mostly on late filings, but also on possible insider trading):

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2002/07/08/MN139428.DTL


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4. BUSH'S LATE FILING OF STOCK SALES TO SEC AND VARIATIONS IN THE STORY

Real problems are brewing in this area. Did you notice that the story changed again in the last 24-36 hours?? The initial story had been that the SEC had misplaced the filings. But that didn't wash (since nobody at SEC was willing to take the heat for W.'s incompetence in a high profile case.) Recently he claimed that the hold up was due to Harken's lawyers. At Bush's Monday (June 8) press conference, he said that they are not clear what happened. Why can't the previous story, that Harken's lawyers filed months late, stand up under scrutiny??

A July 4, 2002, NYTimes story by Elisabeth Bumiller succinctly provides details on W's changed story about late filing:

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/04/politics/04BUSH.html?ex=1026532800
&en=249a29fcb97603b8&ei=5040&partner=MOREOVER

You'll have to paste address together and register to read, but a shortened version without NYTimes registration necessity at:

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/3599668.htm

<snip>

Ari Fleischer, the White House press secretary, said Wednesday. that Bush failed to promptly disclose the sale of stock 12 years. ago because of a ``mix-up'' with his lawyers. In 1994, however,. Bush blamed not his lawyer but the Securities and Exchange Commission for misplacing the proper forms.

Fleischer could not completely explain the inconsistency, and he said he did not know when or why Bush changed his explanation about the reason the sale was disclosed late.

. . .

Bush, who was on Harken's board of directors, has said that he quickly realized that the stock's slide would raise concerns that he had sold based on inside information, a potential crime. The suspicions grew when the SEC said that it did not have a document from Bush, a Form 4, that insiders must file when they sell stock. Bush did not file the Form 4, and officially report the sale, until March 1991.

But Bush had promptly filed another required document, a Form 144, disclosing his intent to sell the stock.

In 1994, when Bush was asked why he had not filed the Form 4, he said he thought he had and that the SEC must have misplaced it. But on Wednesday, Fleischer said the problem was a ``mix-up, a clerical mistake'' by lawyers for Harken.

``The best explanation is the attorneys thought the form hadbeen filed, which is what led George W. Bush to say he thought it had been filed and the SEC had lost it,'' Fleischer said. ``That was not the case.''


<snip>


http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/2002/07/08_Harken.html

<snip>

Ari Fleischer who, if you read the. transcript of July 3, 2002's White House Press Briefing, craftily alleged. that Harken Energy's corporate attorneys were grossly incompetent. No, he didn't "say" they were grossly incompetent, but if you follow Fleischer's logic, you would have to conclude that this is what he meant. Apparently the attorneys neglected to read the deadline and filing instructions printed at the top of SEC Form-4: "This Form must be filed on or before the tenth day after the end of the month in which a change in beneficial ownership has occurred (the term "beneficial owner" is defined in Rule 16a-1(a)(2) and discussed in Instruction 4)." That is the tenth day after the end of the month . . .. Not 34 weeks.

. . .

I have never once worked with what I'd call an "upright" attorney who would dare miss a director's SEC filing deadline. In fact, if I were the assigned secretary to that lawyer, I would have been fired had I failed to note the deadline on my own working calendar.


<snip>

The third change in the story, Chicago Trib:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/
duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=25150&forum=DCForumID5

(You'll have to paste address back together to go direct and then register, but here is the salient paragraph.)

<snip>

Changing his response for a third time, Bush said he did not know why some of the
forms he was required to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission about his
1990 sale of nearly $850,000 in Harken Energy Corp. stock were 34 months late reaching
the SEC. He earlier had blamed the SEC for losing the documents, and then a "mix-up"
by Harken's attorneys.

<snip>

David Scheim, for Campaign Watch, summarizes the SEC's final disposition on Bush's sales:

http://www.campaignwatch.org/more1.htm

<snip>

. . . the SEC had not exonerated Bush. On October 18, 1993, Bruce A. Hiler, the SEC's associate director for enforcement, wrote a letter to Bush's lawyer stating that "the investigation has been terminated as to the conduct of Mr. Bush, and that, at this time, no enforcement action is contemplated with respect to him."7 Bush claimed he had been cleared, and the head of the SEC's enforcement division, William McLucas, went beyond the letter and stated that "there was no case there."8

Yet Hiler's official letter had added that it "must in no way be construed as indicating that the party has been exonerated or that no action may ultimately result from the staff's investigation ."9

<snip>


Knut Royce's report for The Public i stresses the SEC connection:

http://www.public-i.org/story_01_100400.htm
and he follows it up with another:

http://www.public-i.org/story_01_100400.htm


Informational: Nederland posted this in DU July 8, 2002

<snip>

Mr. Bush followed the law by informing regulators of his intention to sell stock in Harken Energy Corp., a Texas oil company, in 1990. But he conceded that because of a "mix-up, a clerical mistake" by Harken lawyers, Mr. Bush had not promptly reported the sale after it took place.

Link: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/07/03/politics/main514190.shtml


As I mentioned before, its the intention to sell (form 144) that is the important document. The document indicating that you actually sold your stock (form 4), is generally regarded as a formality.

<snip>

and Nederland follows up with:

<snip>

This form must be filed with the SEC as notice of the proposed sale of restricted securities or securities held by an affiliate of the issuer in reliance on Rule 144. Notice on the form is only required when the amount to be sold during any three-month period exceeds 500 shares or units or has an aggregate sales price in excess of $10,000. The sale must take place within three months of filing the form and, if the securities have not been sold, an amended notice must be filed.

Link: http://www.sec.gov/answers/form144.htm


As you can see, the form must be filed within three months of the sale, not in the "next couple of years" . . . .

<snip>

The seriousness of late filings?? Frank Rich's "All the President's Enrons," NY Times (July 6) provides only a brief paragraph on Harken, but includes the sentence, "A Presidential spokesman assured us . . . that this infraction amounted to nothing more than driving 60 in a 55-mile-an-hour zone.")

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/06/opinion/06RICH.html


Daschle's desire to look into the SEC's 1991 investigation of Bush (mostly on late filings, but also on possible insider trading):

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2002/07/08/MN139428.DTL


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CONTINUED. THIS IS ONE IMPORTANT READ. GO TO THE LINK AND GET THE ENTIRE THREAD:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=4933&forum=DCForumID38&archive=

Thanks for the excellent job, Skip! You still rock, wherever you are!



When he learned the language of the birds,
he stayed inside as much as possible.

[papau]

1. The fact that the media buried this in 2000 means it will never see light

in 04

Bush is above the law

Bush is above the press

Media whores are media whores and do not change.

[Octafish]

2. True. But people are seeing Fahrenheit 9-11.

Most don't know who the heck James R Bath is.

What DU and the rest of the progressive online community can do is spread the word about what kind of a turd working for Satan Bath is, using e-mail, say, a sufficient number of people will find out about the true nature of the gangster regime that is the Bush Organized Crime Family. Here's the Bush-Bath-bin Laden story:

Bush meets Bath in Texas ANG. Bath becomes business agent for bin Mahfouz (BCCI) and bin Laden (construction). One of the US companies he invests in is Arbusto Oil, owned and operated by one Smirko McCokespoon.

Iin a nutshell:

For a long time, the Saudis have been investing money in George W Bush because of who his daddy is.

[seemslikeadream]

3. The truth of the matter, yet to be spoken

in words on which everything, everything's riding

[Octafish]

5. Bush doesn't even believe in elections.

Nor does he belive in getting to the TRUTH about 9-11: Bush let it happen, at best. The

And elections? They shouldn't be left to chance or the voters. Kissinger said so:

“Investigative reporter Seymour M. Hersh in his informative book, The Price of Power, quotes Kissinger as saying at the June 27, 1970, secret meeting where these plans were approved: `I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go Communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people'.”
SOURCE:

http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2002/497/497p16.htm

Who'd Bush want in charge of 9-11 investigation? Kissinger.

[seemslikeadream]

6. Henry Kissinger Is Back In Action - In Nth Korea...

Talk about scraping the bottom of the barrel. I guess after they figured he couldn't run the 911 coverup they thought they could send him to Asia to start another war instead.

SCOOP IN KOREA

A Week Of UN-Styled Statesmanship - New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark was the keynote speaker Sunday at the 50th Armistice Anniversary in Panmunjom, South Korea. Celebrations marking the signing of the Armistice were led by the United Nations at the south side of the Joint Security ... See... Clark Keynote Speaker: UN Anniversary at Panmunjom

EARLIER:
Clark And Kissinger Have 45 Minute Closed Door Meeting - Former United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger met with New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark Saturday in Seoul to discuss the North Korea nuclear crisis. See... Kissinger Meets Clark Over North Korea Nuke Crisis
ALSO: - Eve Korean Armistice 50th: Kissinger To Meet NZ PM


http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/features/?s=fc

[Octafish]

13. Surprising! Clark, I thought, was good people.

She caught MOSSAD doing some funny terra-related stuff, just the other day:



Report: Third man in NZ passport affair was Israeli diplomat

By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent

The Austrian Foreign Ministry confirmed Thursday reports by media outlets in Australia and New Zealand that Ze'ev Barkan, the unaccounted for third man in the New Zealand passport affair, served for a number of years as an Israeli diplomat in Vienna.

According to the reports, Barkan was attached to the Israeli diplomatic mission in Austria from 1996 through August, 2001. He also held diplomatic posts in Belgium.
For the New Zealand government, Austria's confirmation strengthens the claim that the incident was part of an Israeli intelligence operation.

The Foreign Ministry has neither confirmed nor denied connections to Barkan. The ministry said it has never made a practice of divulging information on individuals in its foreign service.

Two Israelis, Elisha Cara and Uri Kelman, were convicted by a New Zealand court and sentenced to six months for attempting to illegally obtain a New Zealand passport. The two have appealed their sentence.

CONTINUED (quick before it's canned)...

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/454873.html

[seemslikeadream]

18. Oh Octafish you know Henry

he was just out on the prowl







oops how did that one get a pg

[Octafish]

19. Oh! The humanity!

And I thought "Aliens" was scary. People with faces like that have mostly inflatable friends.

Now that I've had a chance to recover. That picture really says it all, seemslikeadream! Like most people, Henry the Krook just wants to be loved.

From that, um, expression I can understand why he's still looking for it, too, though. At first glance I though it was a kabuki mask.

[seemslikeadream]

22. So any wonder why Ros has such a big smile on her face?

scarier thought, why does Al have such a big smile on HIS face

[Octafish]

27. Great questions, seemslikeadream!

I doubt Ros and Henry were laughing up Jackson Stephens and BCCI. But Henry and Bert Lance sure as heck would.

Anyway, I vaguely remember that party, I'm fairly certain I could not have been there. "Earmuffs."



Lord Melchett challenges Blackadder to a drinking contest on the same night as his puritanical Aunt and Uncle are visiting to discuss his inheritance.So whilst having a total piss up in one room, involving beer, broken furniture and wall-to-wall vomiting he must entertain Lord and Lady Whiteadder in the other room...

Hmmm. Maybe it was the after-party...

[seemslikeadream]

7. THE TRIALS OF HENRY KISSINGER

directed by Eugene Jarecki
YEAR
2002
80 MINS, B&W

Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, one of the most influential statesmen of modern times, Henry Kissinger seems assured of his place in history. Yet, in this controversial and eye-opening documentary from Eugene Jarecki and Alex Gibney, journalist Christopher Hitchens makes the case that Kissinger is nothing less than a war criminal, directly responsible for prolonging the Vietnam War and masterminding the secret bombing of Cambodia and the coup of Chile's President Allende. "An indispensable primer on U.S. foreign policy" - Village Voice. (2002) TVPG (AC, V) (1:20) CCAP/Stereo/Letterbox

http://www.sundancechannel.com/film_finder/index.php

Kissinger - A Wanted War Criminal

http://www.zpub.com/un/wanted-hkiss.html

The February and March 2001 issues of Harper's Magazine feature a series by Christopher Hitchens on the case for charging Kissinger with War Crimes. Part I: The making of a war criminal Part 2 will feature an extensive section on East Timor.

Christopher Hitchens' Trial of Henry Kissinger: A Review By Mike McGlothlin ...

Hitchens presents a rather straightforward argument that establishes two seemingly undeniable propositions: on at least one occasion, Henry K. conspired to commit murder, and that on numerous other occasions, Henry K. was the primary force behind certain acts that could quite plausibly be considered war crimes. The case for Henry K. as murder conspirator is what Hitchens calls a "lay-down" case, i.e., one that stands out for its clear facts and clear law. The murder victim is General Rene Schneider, who was the Commander in Chief of the Chilean Army, whom Hitchens misidentifies as the Chilean "Chief of Staff."; According to Hitchens (and the 09 September, 1970 minutes of the "40" Committee, the Kissinger chaired secret panel that oversaw U.S. covert operations), the Chilean military had a strong tradition of neutrality in political affairs, a rarity on the South American continent. General Schneider was known as an officer committed to upholding the Chilean constitution and therefore opposed to the rumored incipient coup against newly elected Socialist President Salvador Allende by a right wing would-be junta of current and former Chilean military officers. Using U.S. Government communications cables from the CIA and documents from the State Department, and White House, Hitchens relates the facts of Kissinger's direct involvement in the direction, planning, financing, and general support by the organs of the U.S. Government in the plot to remove General Schneider.

---------------------------------------------------

.......

The time was September 11, 1973. The country was Chile. The event was the bloody overthrow of a democratic government. And the criminals were Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon, The CIA, and Chilean Dictator Augusto Pinochet. Pepsico, ITT, and other large U.S. corporations were also guilty parties in these crimes against the State and against The People of Chile. The Pornography of Power

------------------------------------------------------


TOBY HARNDEN, TELEGRAPH, LONDON: Washington reacted furiously to a request by Chilean judges for Henry Kissinger, the former secretary of state, to answer questions about an American journalist killed during the 1973 coup in Chile. A Bush administration official condemned the Chilean supreme court decision to send questions to Dr Kissinger, saying the move increased unease about the proposed International Criminal Court in The Hague. The administration source said: "It is unjust and ridiculous that a distinguished servant of this country should be harassed by foreign courts in this way. The danger of the ICC is that, one day, US citizens might face arrest abroad and prosecution as a result of such politically motivated antics." . . . In its ruling, Chile's supreme court said a list of questions should be sent to the US supreme court with regard to Dr Kissinger's knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the death of Charles Horman, a journalist arrested by troops loyal to General Augusto Pinochet. His body was identified in a mortuary weeks later . . . The Chilean order came less than two months after French detectives delivered a court summons to Dr Kissinger, who was visiting Paris, asking him to testify about the disappearance of French nationals in Chile . . . In another case, a judge in Argentina has ordered Dr Kissinger to testify in a human-rights trial about a 1970s plan by South American governments to kidnap and kill Left-wing critics.


-------------------------------------------------

The US involvement in coup planning began even before Allende's election victory, under the code-name FUBELT, with action plans prepared for Kissinger's consideration. One group of officers working under CIA direction carried out the assassination of General Rene Schneider, a pro-Allende officer, in an unsuccessful attempt to spark a full-scale coup before Allende could take office. Can Henry Kissinger be Extradited?

He serves his consulting firm, Kissinger Associates, serves as a sort of private National Security Adviser and Secretary of State to about 30 major corporations around the world, such as American Express, Freeport-McMoRan Minerals, Chase Manhattan Bank, Volvo ... Walter Isaacson on Booknotes

-------------------------------

According to the new book Kissinger, by Walter Isaacson, published in 1992 by Simon & Schuster, ASEA Brown Boveri (page 733) had a contract or project arrangement with Henry Kissinger’s money-making consulting firm, Kissinger Associates, in 1990. According to this fascinating book, Kissinger started his consultancy in July 1982 with “$350,000 lent to him by Goldman Sachs and a consortium of three other banks.” Some of the people Kissinger hired to work for him were Brent Scowcroft, former national security adviser, and Lawrence Eagleburger “who was lured aboard as president in June 1984 after serving as undersecretary of state”. Both Snowcroft and Eagleburger left Kissinger Associates in 1989 to join President Bush’s administration. Kent Associates is a subsidiary of Kissinger Associates. On pages 733-734 a list of some of Kissinger’s corporate clients include, aside from ABB: Shearson Lehman Hutton, Atlantic Richfield, Banca Nazionale del Lavora (BNL) “a Rome bank that made illegal loans to Iraq”; Fluor; Hunt Oil; Merck & Co.; Union Carbide. http://www.workonwaste.org/wastenots/wn218.htm


http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Kissinger/Take_Him_Aw...
Take Him Away
by Doug Ireland
(snip)
The Trial of Henry Kissinger begins by recounting Kissinger's role as a double agent in the Republican destabilization of Paris peace negotiations on Vietnam-engaged in by the administration of Lyndon Johnson-during Nixon's 1968 presidential campaign. No less an establishment figure than Richard Holbrooke (then a senior LBJ negotiator) says that "Henry was the only person outside of the government we were authorized to discuss the negotiations with.... It is not stretching the truth to say the Nixon campaign had a secret source within the U.S. negotiating team."

At the same time, Dr. K was advising the Nixon camp on how to scuttle the talks, which they did by using a "back channel"-the infamous "Dragon Lady," Anna Chennault-to get the South Vietnamese to "hold on" and refuse the Johnson proposal.

"One has to pause for an instant to comprehend the enormity of this," Hitchens writes. "Kissinger had helped elect a man who had surreptitiously promised the South Vietnamese junta a better deal than they would get from the Democrats. The Saigon authorities then acted, as Johnson advisor William Bundy ruefully confirms, as if they did indeed have a deal. This meant ... four more years of an unwinnable and undeclared and murderous war, which was to spread before it burned out, and was to end on the same terms and conditions as had been on the table in 1968."

Once ensconced in the White House as Nixon's foreign policy right hand (he was, as Hitchens underscores, Nixon's "very first appointment"), Kissinger was deeply involved in micromanaging the war. Hitchens demonstrates by a masterful synthesis of various sources-the work of the respected historian Lawrence Lifschultz, the annotated diaries of Nixon's chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman, (partially) declassified government documents, interviews with surviving witnesses-that Kissinger was directly responsible for deliberate massacres of civilians, from the notorious "pacification" campaigns like Operation Speedy Express (in which at least 10,000 Vietnamese villagers were killed) to the secret bombings of Laos and Cambodia, which were given the repulsive code names "Breakfast," "Lunch," "Snack," "Dinner" and "Dessert."
(snip)

[Octafish]

14. War Criminal Extraordinaire: "The Kissinger of Death"

Sightings from The Catbird Seat
December 4, 2003

KISSINGER-ARGENTINE JUNTA
TALKS DETAILED

By Kevin Gray, Associated Press

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger let verbal support to Argentina's military junta, which had been cracking down on dissidents, according to newly declassified documents obtained by a U.S. watchdog group.

"We would like you to succeed," Kissinger told Argentine Foreign Minister Adm. Cesar Augusto Guzzetti during a meeting in New York Oct. 7, 1976, according to the U.S. government records.

His comments were revealed in papers obtained and released Thursday by the National Security archives, an independent Washington-based group that monitors Freedom of Information Act issues.

Kissinger did not immediately respond to calls for comment from The Associated Press. But he has repeatedly denied ever condoning human rights abuses.

CONTINUED...

http://www.the-catbird-seat.net/Kissinger-of-Death.htm

Henry the Krook and BFEE UltraTurd likes to repress people, the vote, countries -- the world -- in the name of Mammon.

[seemslikeadream]

9. Kissinger & BCCI spells BUSH & 9-11

You said it before, I'll say it again

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.ht...



http://freemasonwatch.freepress-freespeech.com/kissinge...
The Dark Side Of The Moon -

Executive Intelligence Review (EIR) is assembling the evidence that individuals,including Kissinger and Arnaud de Borchgrave,editor-at-large of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon-owned Washington Times and United Press International (UPI)--and another war enthusiast for the obliteration of bin Laden and the Taliban--were, only recently, leading apologists and supporters of the same Taliban. Evidence shows that connections from inside leading U.S. circles to bin Laden did not end with the Soviet Union's pullout from Afghanistan in 1989, and that promotion of the Taliban continued through the Summer of 2001! Other individuals involved will be identified in future issues of EIR.

In Kissinger's case, he has been linked to an effort to keep Afghanistan and the Taliban rulers off the list of countries which are "state sponsors" of terrorism. According to a front-page story in the Nov. 5 Washington Post by Mary Pat Flaherty, David Ottaway, and James Grimaldi, "How Afghanistan Went Unlisted As Terrorist Sponsor," the former Secretary of State was a consultant to the American oil company, Unocal, to lobby the State Department against any sanctions against Afghanistan, in order to protect his client's plans to build a pipeline across the country to access Central Asian oil. The Post reported, "To secure critical financing from agencies such as the World Bank, needed the State Department to formally recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan's government. Unocal hired former State Department insiders: former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, former special U.S. Ambassador John J. Maresca, and Robert Oakley, a former U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan."

Unocal's interest was unequivocally stated before the U.S. Congress on Feb. 12, 1998, when Maresca, then Unocal's vice president for international relations, testified before the House International Relations Committee, Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, pushing Unocal's Afghan pipeline scheme, which aimed to cut Russia and Iran out of the lucrative Central Asian oil and natural gas market. Maresca noted that since an Iranian pipeline was out of the question because of "U.S. sanctions legislation," therefore "the only possible route option is across Afghanistan.... A route through Afghanistan appears to be the best option with the fewest technical obstacles." While he claimed that Unocal "does not favor any group" among the fighting Afghan factions, the company's lobbying efforts centered on getting U.S. government endorsement for the Taliban as the recognized government. Just a few months before Maresca's Congressional testimony, Unocal had brought a delegation of Taliban leaders to Washington, for meetings with members of Congress and the Clinton Administration.

Maresca told Congress that "the construction of our proposed pipeline cannot occur until a recognized government is in place," implying that the United States had better hurry up and recognize the Taliban.
(snip)

[seemslikeadream]

10. And this from bobthedrummer

Misunderstood war criminal that helped many fascists when he was young


helped them to become Americans in American national security positions IMHO.

Kissinger served in Army Counterintelligence Corps {CIC}. At the close of WWII he stayed on in West Germany. After awhile he was assigned to the 970th CIC Detachment, later known as the 66th CIC Detachment "whose functions included support for the recruitment of ex-Nazi intelligence officers for anti-Soviet operations inside the Soviet bloc." {Seymour Hersh;p.26; "The Price of Power:Kissinger in the Nixon White House";Summit Books 1983}.

While 24 and attending Harvard as an undergraduate in 1947 Kissinger kept his military intelligence ties by being a Reserve officer. In 1950 as a grad student Kissinger took a part-time job in the Defense Department as a consultant to DoD Operations Research Office.

"That unit, under the direct control of the JCS, conducted highly classified studies on such topics as the utilization of former German operatives and Nazi partisan supporters in CIA clandestine activities.

In 1952, Kissinger was named a consultant to the director of the Psychological Strategy Board, an operating arm of the NSC for covert psychological and paramilitary operations."
{p.27; "The Price of Power"}.

[seemslikeadream]

11. Too much blood: Kissinger and Pinochet

Kissinger Declassified
by Lucy Komisar


Too much blood: Kissinger and Pinochet

>>> I recently got hold of a declassified memorandum about Henry Kissinger's only meeting with Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. The meeting occurred on June 8, 1976, in Santiago, and the internal State Department memorandum shows how hard Kissinger tried to shield the Chilean general from criticism and assure him that his human rights violations were not a serious problem as far as the U.S. government was concerned.

I had been trying since 1995 to get the memorandum, which was stamped Secret/Nodis (No Distribution). My initial request was refused, but suddenly, to my surprise, the State Department "memorandum of conversation" arrived in the mail in October, shortly after Pinochet's arrest, with a note explaining that, on re-review, it had been opened in full.

The memo describes how Secretary of State Kissinger stroked and bolstered Pinochet, how--with hundreds of political prisoners still being jailed and tortured--Kissinger told Pinochet that the Ford Administration would not hold those human rights violations against him. At a time when Pinochet was the target of international censure for state-sponsored torture, disappearances, and murders, Kis-singer assured him that he was a victim of communist propaganda and urged him not to pay too much attention to American critics.



See scans of the complete Kissinger/Pinochet memo at The Progressive

The meeting occurred at a gathering of the Organization of American States (OAS). Against the advice of most of the State Department's Latin America staff, Kissinger decided to go to Chile for the opening of the OAS general assembly. He and Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs William Rogers flew into Santiago June 7 and met with Pinochet the next day. The site of the meeting was the presidential suite in Diego Portales, an office building used during repairs on La Moneda, the presidential palace Pinochet had bombed on September 11, 1973, when he overthrew Salvador Allende. Chilean Foreign Minister Patricio Carvajal and Ambassador to the United States Manuel Trucco were also there. (I've interviewed Rogers, Carvajal, and Trucco, but not Kissinger, who has refused requests.)

Kissinger was dogged by charges he had promoted the military coup against an elected Allende government, and he sought to maintain a cool public distance from Pinochet. But at his confidential meeting, he promised warm support.

http://www.thememoryhole.org/pol/kissinger-declass.htm

[seemslikeadream]

29. Judge to probe Pinochet finances

A court in Chile has started an investigation into allegations of corruption against the former leader Augusto Pinochet. Two human rights lawyers earlier said they had lodged accusations of fraud, embezzlement and bribery.

The claims were prompted by a US Senate report last week alleging that a US-based bank helped Gen Pinochet hide up to $8m and evade seizure of his assets. A spokesman for Gen Pinochet has denied the allegations.

Gen Pinochet's son, Marco Antonio Pinochet, said the money in the accounts had come from decades of hard work and donations from supporters, and not from state funds. The case is the first legal action in Chile resulting from the Senate report.

Judge Sergio Munoz was appointed to investigate after the lawyers lodged accusations of financial crimes with the Court of Appeals. "Pinochet's actions have to be investigated in Chile because he transferred money up until at least the year 2003 in a lucid manner and in contradiction with all the latest verdicts by Chilean courts that say he is crazy or demented," lawyer Carmen Hertz said.

The Court of Appeals recently stripped Gen Pinochet of immunity from prosecution, a move that paved the way for a trial on charges of human rights abuses during his 1973-1990 rule.

Previous attempts to prosecute him for human rights abuses were dismissed on medical grounds.

Last week it was announced that the bank mentioned in the Senate report, Riggs Bank, would be sold.

The report alleges it set up several accounts for Gen Pinochet while he was under house arrest in the UK on charges of crimes against humanity. He was held in Britain in 1998 after Spain requested his extradition on torture charges, but was allowed home in 2000 after he was adjudged too ill to stand trial.
From:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3912293.stm

Pinochet faces fraud charges

Santiago - Augusto Pinochet faced charges on Tuesday over secret multi-million-dollar US bank accounts, possibly tainting with fraud the Chilean ex-dictator known for human rights abuses but thought to be uncorrupt.

Chilean lawyers Carmen Hertz and Alfonso Insunza laid their charges after a US congressional investigation found that Riggs Bank, in Washington, DC, had ignored banking regulations to launder money between 1994 and 2002. The accounts held between four million and eight million dollars.

"Chilean justice must investigate however many crimes Pinochet has committed," Hertz said after entering the charges at Santiago's Court of Appeals.

"I have no prior indications to establish the origin of these accounts nor of the funds that were deposited in those accounts," lawyer Pablo Rodriguez admitted, after meeting other members of Pinochet's defence team.
more
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1560759,00.html


PINOCHET CHARGED WITH CORRUPTION

Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet is facing charges over secret multi-million-dollar US bank accounts

While Pinochet has allegedly breached human rights, this is the first time charges of corruption have been levelled against him.

The charges were laid by Chilean lawyers Carmen Hertz and Alfonso Insunza after a US congressional investigation found that Washington, DC's Riggs Bank had ignored banking regulations to launder money between 1994 and 2002.
The accounts held between four million and eight million US dollars.

"Chilean justice must investigate however many crimes Pinochet has committed," Mrs Hertz said, after entering the charges at Santiago's Court of Appeals.

"I have no prior indications to establish the origin of these accounts, nor of the funds that were deposited in those accounts," lawyer Pablo Rodriguez admitted, after meeting other members of Pinochet's defence team.
more
http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/region.php?id=89823...

[seemslikeadream]

33. Bush Vows Probe of Riggs Money-Laundering Allegations

July 19 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush said allegations of money-laundering at Riggs National Corp. are being investigated after a U.S. Senate report found the bank helped former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet hide millions of dollars from prosecutors.

``The people of Chile must know there will be a full investigation,'' Bush told reporters while meeting with Chilean President Ricardo Lagos. ``You're seeing a transparent society dealing with allegations. The Riggs Bank is being fully investigated and they'll be investigated in a very open way.''

The Riggs case has led the U.S. government to consider regulatory changes such as giving a single agency greater authority to enforce laws against laundering and terrorist financing, the New York Times reported, citing congressional leaders. PNC Financial Services Group Inc., Pennsylvania's biggest bank, agreed Friday to buy Washington-based Riggs for $779 million.

Bush told reporters that Lagos ``wants to know the truth'' about the Riggs case. The Senate report also cited Riggs for lapses in reporting suspicious transactions involving Saudi diplomats who may have had ties to two Sept. 11 hijackers.

Bush also said that Chile has played a constructive role before Venezuela's planned Aug. 15 referendum over whether to recall the country's president, Hugo Chavez.
Venezuela must hold an ``honest and open'' referendum, and welcome observers, Bush said.
more
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000086&sid=a...

no mention of uncle Jonathan Bush

"And I appreciate that, and we'll make sure that people do know the truth. And that's what you're seeing. You're beginning to see the process of truth-finding."

AP left out "the process of truth-finding." Maybe he can get OJ to track down the real evil-doer money-launderers.

More interesting and less of a laugh, maybe, is his later quote about Venezuela:

"Chile plays a very important role in our neighborhood, and the referendum in Venezuela is an important referendum. And the referendum must be conducted in an honest and open way," he said.

Well, maybe just a Mr. Rogers moment, but he's using the same 3rd grade level terms to describe the coming vote (coup?) there. So, applying some Shrubology 101, he's either simply stuck on "open way" or might be that pea-pod of a beautiful mind roughly equates the two. Like finding a way to not speak publicly about family secrets about the family's bank Riggs and family friend Pinochet creates roughly the same linguistic log-jam as talking about what a great open recall we'll soon be throwing for Chavez.

Here's VOA (same story. longer quotes only)

http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=AD8C17E8-DD18-440C-A7B101AAB3B5F8FA

WH version:

PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, I think the people of Chile must know that there will be a full investigation. It's important for the facts to be en la mesa, as we say -- on the table, and -- so that we know what course of action may or may not be needed. And that's what you're seeing. You're seeing a transparent society dealing with allegations and/or -- and the Riggs Bank is being fully investigated, and they'll be investigated in a very open way.

And the President brought this issue up. Of course, he's concerned about it, as well. He wants to know the truth. And I appreciate that, and we'll make sure that people do know the truth. And that's what you're seeing. You're beginning to see the process of truth-finding.

... and ...

And that's going to require security measures, and as the President mentioned -- I think you said in Spanish, there's a donors conference tomorrow, it's a very important conference, and that we will be attending, along with Chile, to see if we can't set priorities for the people of Chile * so they have a chance to live a good life.

And the second part of the question was?

PRESIDENT LAGOS: Venezuela.

Q About political referendum --

PRESIDENT BUSH: Again, this is a -- Chile plays a very important role in our neighborhood, and the referendum in Venezuela is an important referendum. And the referendum must be conducted in a honest and open way. And the influence of President Lagos is a very important influence, because he has made it clear that for the credibility of the current government, they must welcome observers, they must encourage observers, and they must not interfere with the process, so that the people of Venezuela have a chance to express their opinion without fear of reprisal.

*(Haiti)

(that's their correction, ha! what an asshole)

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/07/20040719-2.html

[Octafish]

38. I. Am. More. Furious. Every. Day.

Den I remember dere are more good people dan bad, eh?

[seemslikeadream]

46. Senators Outraged by Riggs Bank Officials

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=509&e=1...

WASHINGTON - Senators investigating Riggs Bank's operations said Thursday they were outraged by senior bank officials' failure to act while managers helped former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet (news - web sites) conceal his wealth, move funds and evade efforts under court order to seize his assets.

At a Senate hearing, testimony under oath by a Riggs executive concerning Pinochet's accounts conflicted with sworn written statements by federal regulators whom he formerly supervised. Sen. Carl Levin, D- Mich., said he wants the Justice Department (news - web sites) to investigate the discrepancy.

There is "a very direct conflict on a very critical point," Levin told R. Ashley Lee, executive vice president and chief risk officer at Riggs. Lee had been the lead examiner for Riggs at a Treasury Department (news - web sites) agency from 1998 until he retired in October 2002 and went to work for the bank two weeks later.

A former Riggs senior vice president who had managed the Equatorial Guinea accounts, Simon Kareri, invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege against self- incrimination at the hearing and refused to answer questions on the bank's handling of accounts held by officials of Equatorial Guinea.

A new report by the Senate Governmental Affairs investigative subcommittee says that Lee instructed agency staff who had looked into the Pinochet accounts not to put their examination memos or supporting paperwork into the agency's electronic files.

...more...

UIA

[Octafish]

49. Equatorial Guinea has oil... and that means Riggs ... 'n' BFEE.

Kuwait Of Africa?

A 60 Minutes Special Report

Boby Simon, CBS
Jul 18, 2004

NEW YORK (CBS) With gas prices hitting record levels this summer, and violence in the Middle East unabated, America has been scouring the globe searching for new sources of oil.
And one could be Equatorial Guinea, a tiny nation that's been dubbed the Kuwait of Africa because it has so few people and so much oil.

It used to be called the armpit of Africa because it was so desperately poor. But since the discovery of oil 10 years ago, that has started to change.

In fact, as Correspondent Bob Simon reported last fall, African countries like Equatorial Guinea will provide as much as 25 percent of America's oil in the next decade.

And giants like Exxon-Mobile are pumping out more of it all the time.

SNIP...

As first reported by the Los Angeles Times, American oil companies have been depositing hundreds of millions of dollars in oil royalties into an account controlled by President Obiang at a branch of the Riggs Bank in Washington, D.C.

CONTINUED...

http://wcco.com/finance/finance_story_200191241.html

The pieces fit, don't they DU? They spell BFEE.

[seemslikeadream]

50. E Guinea warning after bank probe

By Stephane Mayoux
BBC Africa analyst

President Obiang has ruled his country since 1979
Equatorial Guinea's ministry of information has cautioned local companies offering subscriptions to foreign satellite channels.
It urged them to abstain from broadcasting programmes that could jeopardise national security.

The move comes after the screening of a programme by Spanish television.

It covered an investigation by the US Senate into money the Equatorial Guinean government has allegedly placed in the US-based Riggs bank.
more
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3911855.stm

EQUATORIAL GUINEA:
The Dictator's Achilles' Heel

Tito Drago

Legal action in Spain and the United States taking aim at secret bank accounts of President Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea could become a weapon to help put an end to his 25-year dictatorship, say opposition leaders and activists from the West African nation.

MADRID, Jul 21 (IPS) - Legal action in Spain and the United States taking aim at secret bank accounts of President Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea could become a weapon to help put an end to his 25-year dictatorship, say opposition leaders and activists from the West African nation.

The trials could mark the beginning of the end for a dictatorship ”which has turned the country into one enormous prison,” Celestino Okenve, head of the Madrid-based non-governmental group Equatorial Guinea Solidarity Forum (FSGE), which will be lodging a lawsuit in the Spanish courts, told IPS.

Prisons in Equatorial Guinea hold between 50 and 100 political prisoners to a cell, ”and the entire national territory has been converted into a prison for the rest of the population” of around half a million people, he said.
http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=24731

EG: Spain knew about coup
21/07/2004 21:16 - (SA)

Paris - Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema charged Wednesday that Spanish intelligence knew an alleged coup d'etat against his impoverished west African state was being hatched by mercenaries who were later arrested in the capital Malabo and in Zimbabwe.

"I cannot say that there is any implication at a state level," he said in comments to the press after brief talks with President Jacques Chirac.

"But I believe the fact that the attempt was organised in Spain by an opponent, I think Spanish intelligence was aware of what was happening," he said.

Equatorial Guinea authorities have charged that exiled opposition figure Severo Moto, who heads a so-called government in exile and lives in Madrid, of orchestrating the alleged coup against long-time leader Obiang.
http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1561284,00.html


Mercenary gang goes on trial for plotting revolution
By Peta Thornycroft in Harare and David Blair, Africa Correspondent
(Filed: 22/07/2004)

Africa's largest mercenary trial in recent history began yesterday at a Zimbabwean maximum security prison as hundreds of soldiers patrolled the forbidding walls and razor wire outside.

The 70 accused men struggled into a makeshift courtroom inside Chikurubi jail in leg irons and handcuffs. Their alleged leader, Simon Mann, an old Etonian and former SAS officer, was chained to another prisoner.

All wore thin, tattered shorts and shirts - the regulation uniform of prison khaki that provides scant protection from the winter cold. Mann's hair has grown to his shoulders behind bars.

...

Prosecutors say the aircraft stopped in Harare to collect weapons from Zimbabwe's state-owned defence industry. But instead of receiving their arms, the men were arrested.

Ronnie Kasrils, South Africa's intelligence minister, has confirmed that his agents tipped off their Zimbabwean counterparts before the plane touched down.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/22/wmerc22.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/07/22/ixportal.html
Not sure I was clear on the SA rat-out before. Worth keeping in mind while we try to figure out who is fighting who over EG's oil.

Nothing much new ('cept trial delays continue). But the BBC also has a video segment, which I recommend for US DU'rs who are following this (I suppose this actually makes the news in the rest of the world).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3912051.stm

They also have this:

Profile: Simon Mann

Bespectacled, bearded and bound in chains, Simon Mann looks more like a jailed intellectual than a freelance commando leading a team of coup conspirators.

Simon Mann is a colourful character

But prosecutors in Zimbabwe see this grizzled Englishman and his colleagues as mercenaries, intercepted on their way to allegedly overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea.

If proven, the charges against them could lead to deportation, decades in detention or a possible death sentence.

Mr Mann, a veteran of several wars, is understandably unnerved.

In a letter smuggled out of his prison cell and quoted by British newspapers, the former British soldier says only "major clout" can save him.

He says they would be doomed if they got "into a real trial scenario".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3916465.stm

A Senate staff member shuffles posters involving Riggs Bank accounts held by Equatorial Guinea

Latest: Now EG is going to sue the world's media:

EG recalls ambassador to Spain

Madrid - Equatorial Guinea is to recall its ambassador to Spain for consultations over Madrid's refusal to withdraw the status of political refugee for exiled opposition leader Severo Moto, whom Malabo accuses of a coup plot, the daily El Pais reported on Thursday.

Alfonso Nsye Mokuy, spokesperson for the tiny oil-rich central African country, made the announcement on national television.

Mokuy also said the government would sue any foreign media spreading information about a recent investigation by the US Senate, which indicated that President Teodoro Obiang, his family members and officials had placed hundreds of millions of dollars at the US-based Riggs bank.

The Obiang regime is believed to be angry over a Spanish television report about the investigation, which was watched by many residents in the former Spanish colony.
http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,6119,2-11-1447_1561681,00.html

[seemslikeadream]

59. Equatorial Guinea also involved in the Riggs bank scandal

but laundering money for the government (Obiang) and likely paying out the bribes from the oil companies.

LA Times story (somewhere odd) has good details:
http://www.ocnus.net/cgi-bin/exec/view.cgi?archive=43&num=11319&printer=1
That's the Jonathan Bush linked company that there were other stories about today and recently--funneling money from Saudi's to the West Coast 9/11 terrorist cell.

I don't yet get if or how the coup money would be related. Greg Wales doesn't google very well, for one. But naturally we have a Bush linked company doing something hokey with oil rich EG, so there's got to be more to it. From some reading today, I think the International arm of Riggs is based in Miami--maybe throw in some Jeb, Cubans, drugs or other crazy Florida stuff that always makes up a nice BFEE crime conspiracy. I'm catching a strong wiff of BCCI.


Business
Bank and African Oil State Ties Probed
By Ken Silverstein, LA Times 9/4/04
Apr 11, 2004, 07:50

A federal grand jury and a Senate subcommittee are investigating the relationship between a prominent Washington bank and a tiny, oil-rich West African state.

Investigators are scrutinizing hundreds of millions of dollars in accounts held at Riggs Bank by the government of Equatorial Guinea and its ruler, Brig. Gen. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. Sources familiar with the probes said investigators were trying to determine whether any deposits into Obiang's personal accounts were the fruits of corruption and whether funds from a state account were diverted to the president or his family members.

The Times first reported on Riggs' relationship with Equatorial Guinea last year, which prompted the bank to conduct an internal investigation. Riggs subsequently dismissed Simon Kareri, a senior executive overseeing the Equatorial Guinea accounts.

In February, Riggs ordered Equatorial Guinea's government to withdraw all of its assets from the bank. U.S. government and banking sources said Equatorial Guinea has had difficulty finding another U.S. bank to take its money, and most, if not all, of its deposits are still held at Riggs.

"Riggs' security procedures detected questionable activities on the part of Simon Kareri," said Mark Hendrix, a bank spokesman. "Riggs turned the matter over to U.S. criminal authorities. Riggs is cooperating with authorities and, in light of the investigations, views it as inappropriate to comment further on these matters."

Interesting but not surprising that whatever congressional inquiry is flying under the radar. The $25 million is nothing but a slap (Riggs has $6.4 billion in assets), as someone here pointed out. But the fact that Allbritton stepped down, and they are shutting down Miami and some of the other money laundering capabilities, suggests the shit has hit the fan.

Here's the guy who runs the London Riggs: Steve Pfeiffer (who googles better).

Bio: http://www.fulbright.com/site_map/FindAttorney/371.htm

I'd guess his operation would the point for paying out the British mercs. He's some sort of Africa specialist, former assistant to Sec of the Navy (and assistant CINC Europe and NATO muckty-muck) sometime around Regan. (Yale Law too).

Here's the Riggs 2002 annual report:
http://www.riggsbank.com/Discover_Riggs/annualreport2002.pdf

Lots of names worth checking out--I'm going to see what comes up with Juan Luis Toro, who ran the Miami international operation. I'll bet there's some connection to Haiti, Columbia/Venezuela and/or something more with 9/11.

Saudi-ization of African oil

Same plan, different country. Take oil rich nation, find dictator who can be educated on siphoning off oil profits for his own personal wealth (to the further impoverishment of his people) and in exchange for preferential treatment of us companies.

Were they about to double-cross Obiang? His money was initially frozen in DC--it has now left. Was he just exiting to his Maryland mansion? Dunno, but this Riggs bank connection sure seems to be the follow-the-money thread to pull on Bushco for several different plots. Enough material here for a book.

For one, I'd like to ask someone who knows WTF, say an economist (can we get Krugman?), how an "Edge Act" bank functions, and what's up in Miami with international banking in general. How does that tie in with the export/import bank in DC and Riggs? The Edge Act is something about a bank that can only lend to foreign banks--that Jonathan Bush and Riggs in general could control such an entity while also engaging in other business like investments and domestic lending apparently violates the "Edge Act" (and a bunch of other regulations) and is partly why Riggs is dumping that portion of the business. I wonder whether there have been changes under Jeb that had led to Miami expanding the definitions of what's allowable into money laundering for oil and terror. The answer is: of course he did, just need to find that.

A complicated thread to pull--18 browser windows open so far! Like I found this great Newsweek Isikoff piece from April that I missed:

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


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

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

(Another browser window has the odd factoid that the former head of Riggs international lending (Paul Cushman III) died with Ron Brown in '96. Wild. Kareri succeeded him.)

Plenty to run down here, although a tangent (or the opposite side of the coin) to the original news story in this post. Haven't come across anything that links Riggs to funding of the coup. Maybe it's more like switch dictators and get to keep the Riggs money.

In June, Hess plans to submit plans for a project off the coast of Equatorial Guinea to the local government. Hess has estimated it will take two years to start production at the West African project after the government approves the company's plans for an area known as Northern Block G.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/25759...

Was thinking this whole thing could be two companies fighting over the oil. Or US Brits group vs France.

I also noticed that Logo Logistics (the company that bought the plane, maybe hired the mercs) is in the Channel Islands (Jersey), same as Riggs--but all kinds of squirrelly crap goes on there...

[Octafish]

60. Nugan Hand - BNL - BCCI - Riggs

Those Bushes know how to BANK! "Very active, very active manager(s)," indeed.

A Shift in Strategy for Riggs
Bank Struggles to Find Focus for Investment Advisory Business

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

EXCERPT...

A former Riggs executive knowledgeable about the J. Bush & Co. purchase, speaking on the condition he remain anonymous, said the company was exactly what Riggs was looking for at the time. Small enough for Riggs to buy outright, J. Bush & Co. had an investment focus -- on large, fast-growing companies -- that complemented Riggs's existing expertise in investing in undervalued stocks. The Bush name was a bonus, the former executive said, but not the main reason why Riggs bought the company.

Mark N. Hendrix, a Riggs spokesman, said an investment bank brought the company to Riggs's attention in 1997, at a time when Riggs was beefing up its private banking services for rich people. Others familiar with Riggs say Allbritton also was attracted by the politically famous name that Bush brought to the bank.

Hendrix, saying Bill Clinton was in the White House when Riggs bought J. Bush & Co. and that back then few envisioned George W. Bush as the next president, said, "It would be preposterous and wrong to ascribe any political motives to our purchase of the J. Bush & Co. As we stated in 1997, this acquisition expanded the scope of services we could provide."

And, though Jonathan Bush briefly ran Riggs's investment advisory business during a management shakeup at the division in 2000, for the most part he has run his company as a distinct, wholly owned subsidiary of the bank, responsible for generating his own business and having limited interactions with select Riggs clients, Hendrix said.

"Jonathan Bush is very active, a very active manager," Hendrix said. He would not comment on details of Bush's business, but sources familiar with the company say J. Bush & Co. employs eight people and has about $200 million in assets under management. When Riggs acquired the company it had approximately $250 million under management. Riggs manages client assets of more than $6 billion, including trust accounts.

CONTINUED ...

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

BTW: Are you in the railroad business?

[seemslikeadream]

63. Guinea opposition leader may be plotting coup

Guinea opposition leader may be plotting coup
By Peter Fabricius
Severo Moto, the exiled opposition leader of Equatorial Guinea, is plotting another coup on the island state, this time using Chilean mercenaries, security sources believe.

Moto, who is living in Spain, was widely believed to have been behind the alleged coup attempt in the country which was aborted in March.

Security sources say that Moto and several of his allies met in London last weekend and agreed that another operation to overthrow Equatorial Guinean president Nguema Mbasogo had to be launched a urgently.

Moto is believed to be considering recruiting former commandos from Chile's military era to conduct the coup. They speak Spanish, the lingua franca of Equatorial Guinea, sources say.
more
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=87&art_id=vn200... ...


Weapons trafficker 'protected' - News24
London - Britain has bowed to US pressure to keep the name of a notorious arms trafficker, allegedly involved in supplying coalition forces in Iraq, off a list of those subject to planned United Nations sanctions, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

"London had originally supported moves to freeze Mr (Victor) Bout's assets, but appeared to have reversed its view under pressure from Washington" the financial daily said, citing evidence from several western diplomats.

In 2000, Peter Hain, then British foreign office minister responsible for Africa, described Victor Bout as "the chief sanctions-buster and... a merchant of death who owns air companies that ferry in arms" rebel and government forces in several African conflicts, including Liberia, Angola and Sierra Leone.

In a March resolution, the UN Security Council agreed to freeze the assets of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, now in exile.
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1528038,00.html


Victor Bout, Africa's merchant of death !!!!!!
UN names former KGB officer as millionaire gun-runner
The Guardian - December 23, 2000
Owen Bowcott and Richard Norton-Taylor
Saturday December 23, 2000

A Russian arms dealer and former KGB officer who is undermining international sanctions by supplying arms for diamonds to rebel forces in Africa is named and shamed in a ground-breaking report published by the UN yesterday.
Victor Anatoliyevich Bout, who holds at least five passports and uses as many as seven aliases, is identified as the businessman responsible for fuelling civil wars across Africa, including conflicts in Sierra Leone, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. He is accused of ferrying heavy weapons, automatic rifles and ammunition from eastern Europe to rebel groups that control diamond mines.

Mr Bout's arms-dealing record in Africa was highlighted by the Guardian in January. Now, in extraordinarily detailed dossiers, the UN has exposed the use of forged end-user arms certificates by a secretive, commer cial network at the heart of some of the most protracted and destabilising conflicts in Africa. A UN report focusing on Angola alleges that Mr Bout sent 38 flights carrying heavy military equipment to the rebel movement Unita.

Mr Bout's network of companies has, allegedly, worked with a Briton, named in the report as Michael Harridine. He, it is said, was able to "obtain or change aircraft registration to certain 'less scrupulous' countries". Such "flags of convenience" allow paperwork to be circumvented, according to the UN.

At one stage Mr Harridine, along with Mr Bout's partner, a Belgian pilot by the name of Ronald De Smet, allegedly held the authority to conduct business in the UK on behalf of the Liberian aircraft register. Mr Harridine, who is said to work through a UK company based in Kent, Aircraft Registration Bureau, could not be contacted yesterday.

more
http://www.ruudleeuw.com/vbout2.htm

"Victor B watched for Taliban ties"
from The Washington Times,
22 July 2002
by Steve Park, The Washington Times

Prior to September 11, his name surfaced in reports by the United Nations and U.S. State Department as the key supplier of arms to guerrilla armies involved in nearly a dozen wars in Africa.

Viktor Vasilevich Butt, known more commonly as Viktor Bout, is often referred to in law enforcement circles as Victor B because he uses at least five aliases and different versions of his last name, said one U.N. Security Council report. The report finds Mr. Bout in violation of international arms embargoes, calling him a supplier of arms to guerrillas in Africa and claiming that he delivers the goods using his own fleet of more than 50 planes.

A State Department report says Mr. Bout also recruits East European mercenaries for African clients.

Mr. Bout's profile soared after September 11 with dozens of newspaper, magazine and television reports naming Mr. Bout as a supplier of arms to Afghanistan's Taliban rulers and possibly al Qaeda terrorists.

The Seattle Times reported in February that U.S. and European officials had gathered intelligence in Afghanistan and elsewhere suggesting that Mr. Bout was flying weapons into Afghanistan in the months before September 11.

more
http://www.fundforpeace.org/media/inthenews/itn20020722...

On the Trail of the Elusive Victor Bout

Hunted by Interpol, the Russian 'merchant of death' who helped arm the Taliban and al-Qaida is alive and well in Moscow

by Stephen Smith, Additional reporting by Afsane Bassir Pour in New York, Natalie Nougayrede in Moscow, Jean-Philippe Remy in Nairobi and Jean-Pierre Stroobants in Brussels
The Guardian Weekly
April 17, 2002

A 35-year-old Russian, Victor Anatolyevich Bout, is believed to be the main supplier of arms to the Taliban and the al-Qaida network. According to United States and British intelligence, he was delivering weapons -- and even toxic gas -- to Kabul until just before September 11. With the global war against terrorism at its height, one would imagine him to be a desperate and hunted man.

Not so. Despite being on Interpol's wanted list since February at the request of the Belgian police, he has revealed his whereabouts: he is alive and well -- and apparently under no risk of arrest -- in Moscow. His aim seems to be to trigger counter-investigations, of which he would be both the instigator and the subject. The shadowy Bout is looking for media exposure.

Peter Hain, the British minister for Europe, said in February that Bout was a "merchant of death" who supplied rebel or terrorist forces with arms in exchange for diamonds, and that he had also been the arms supplier of the Taliban and al-Qaida. "We are determined to put him out of business," Hain added. The United Nations has been trying to do just that for years, but with little success. In several reports detailing investigations into "blood diamonds" and into the violation of sanctions imposed on countries or armed factions in Africa, the UN has denounced Bout as a global mafioso who has ignored national borders and played cat and mouse with governments and their laws.

In December 2000 the UN revealed various well-financed and well-connected international networks that were capable of carrying illicit cargo all around the world without arousing suspicion. An organisation headed, or at least apparently controlled from outside, by an eastern European, Victor Bout, fell into that category.

The "eastern European" was in fact born in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, on January 13, 1967. An army officer of Russian nationality, Bout graduated from Moscow's prestigious Military Institute of Foreign Languages. In addition to Russian and his native Farsi, he speaks fluent English, French and Portuguese.

more
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/index.jsp


On the Bin Laden arms trail
Diamond trade

"His regiment was disbanded and essentially they went private," a Western intelligence official said recently. "It started with gun running to Afghanistan and then they discovered Africa."

The arrest warrant follows the capture in Belgium earlier this month of Sanjivan Ruprah who has been charged with criminal association and using a false passport.

Mr Ruprah is a potentially valuable informant because UN reports tie him to the illicit diamond trade in West Africa and to arrangements for Mr Bout's alleged weapons deliveries to be paid for with diamonds from Sierra Leone and Angola.

In particular, they will be looking to confirm previous reports linking al-Qaeda to an underground network stretching across Africa and trading in diamonds, weapons and other precious commodities.

more

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1847578.stm
Key figures on UN list
Victor Bout
A Ukrainian-born arms dealer.

Belgium issued a warrant for his arrest earlier this year, for allegedly selling weapons to the al-Qaeda network.

The United Nations has also accused him of breaking arms embargoes on Angola's Unita rebels and Liberia's President Charles Taylor.

British Minister for Europe, Peter Hain, called Mr Bout a "merchant of death".

Other key figures named are:


Zimbabwean Businessman John Bredenkamp
DR Congo Minister Mwenze Kongolo
Retired Zimbabwean General Sibusio Moyo
Retired Ugandan General Salim Saleh
Zimbabwean General Vitalis Zvinavashe
Director of DR Congo's National Intelligence Didier Kazadi Nyembwe
DR Congo's ambassador to Zimbabwe Mwana Mawapanga
Ugandan Colonel Dan Munyuza
Ugandan military intelligence chief Nobel Mayombo.
more
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2346707.stm


Suspected Mercenaries Seek South Africa Trial
Tue May 18, 2004 12:27 PM ET

By Ben Harding
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - Lawyers for 70 South African suspected mercenaries held in Zimbabwe threatened on Tuesday to take Pretoria to court if it does not try to extradite them to prevent them being sent to Equatorial Guinea.

...

But since they all have South African citizenship, their lawyers said they should be sent there to be charged under the Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act, designed to curb a tradition of mercenary involvement.

"They (the South African government) must speak to the Zimbabwean government and get an undertaking that they will not extradite our clients to Equatorial Guinea," defense lawyer Alwyn Griebenow told Reuters.

"If they go to Equatorial Guinea they will be killed, there's no doubt in my mind. The justice system there is non-existent," he said.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews...

KR:Iraq a land of opportunity for South Africa's apartheid-era troops

Has a tie in--intertesting.
---

Iraq a land of opportunity for South Africa's apartheid-era troops

Knight Ridder - Sunday, May 16, 2004

By Sudarsan Raghavan

PRETORIA, South Africa _ A decade after the end of white rule, the war in Iraq is reminding South Africans of yet another uncomfortable legacy from the brutal days of apartheid _ South Africa's role in providing mercenaries to a wide range of military causes throughout the world.

Hundreds of former South African soldiers and police officers are serving in Iraq now as private security contractors. South Africans are among the private soldiers who guard L. Paul Bremer, the chief U.S. envoy to Iraq, and patrol the heavily fortified Green Zone, where the U.S. command is headquartered.

...

In March, 70 suspected mercenaries _ South Africans, Angolans and other nationalities _ flew from South Africa en route to allegedly overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, the dictator of Equatorial Guinea.

...

Many were ex-members of the 32 Battalion and were allegedly going to be paid $1.9 million and given oil concessions. They were charged with conspiring to commit a coup, which they have denied.

...

One security guard killed in Iraq confessed to South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission that he was part of an apartheid death squad that committed human rights atrocities.
http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story.asp?StoryId=CqkBNqeicu09vveHbrLjjq0eTsvjbuq

Here the Washington Post story: US Ready to Fine Riggs Bank

Strangely enough, I don't think they mention the Bush connection. But, Tony Pierce does: Jonathan Bush not only works for Riggs, he is President and CEO of Riggs Investment Management.

According to Pierce:

Uncle Jonathan works for Riggs Investment Management, a "major" arm of Riggs Bank, who was fined Thursday for a record $25 million for violating anti-money laundering laws when it failed to report millions of dollars of cash withdrawls from Saudi accounts.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=artic...

Those withdrawls: funding Junior's 2004 campaign? Poppy in
London chinwagging with Saudi ambassador to UK prince Turki, to smooth things over about borther Jonathan's involvement in this peccadillo????


U.S. Ready To Fine Riggs Bank
Saudi Embassy Money Reports Scrutinized
By Kathleen Day and Terence O'Hara
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, April 18, 2004; Page A01


Federal bank regulators are preparing to impose fines on Riggs Bank as soon as this week for not reporting millions of dollars in suspicious transactions at its embassy banking division, and have notified bank officers and directors that they may be sanctioned individually, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Those notified include Chairman Robert L. Allbritton; his mother, Barbara B. Allbritton, a director; and the nine other members of the bank's board, according to the sources.

The penalties would come as the FBI, bank regulators and three congressional committees continue to delve into Riggs's international banking relationships, particularly its two-decade role as chief banker for the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington.

Investigators are looking at the Saudi accounts for evidence of money laundering, which is the use of complex transactions to hide the origin or destination of funds related to illegal activities such as drug smuggling or terrorist acts. The investigators have reached no conclusions about the reasons for the transactions in the embassy accounts, including the personal accounts of the Saudi ambassador, Prince Bandar bin Sultan.
more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A20942-2004Apr17¬Found=true

SAUDIS DON'T NEED KID GLOVES

New revelations regarding the Saudi Embassy's relationship with Riggs Bank should intensify our skepticism. Reports indicate that Riggs allowed Saudi nationals to engage in puzzling patterns of deposits, withdrawals and transfers without vetting or reporting the transactions as required by law. Reports further show that Saudi accounts were used to fund known supporters of terrorism and others who are currently being investigated for terror links.

The Saudis quickly absolved themselves of responsibility for any problems at Riggs and advised us that "it's not fair to apply American standards to this." Nevertheless, the reports of freewheeling cash transfers are troublesome, especially considering allegations that the Saudi embassy has been used to launder money for terrorists in the past, and that nearly 70 Saudi diplomats were expelled from the U.S. just this year due to their deep involvement in extremist activities.

Dealing as we are with a government perched atop a tinderbox of its own making, our actions should continue to reflect delicate political realities. But our delicacy must not convert to diffidence, and therefore we must challenge the Saudi belief that our demands for action can be subdued with thin facades of responsiveness.

A good next step would be establishing a clear expectation of near-term action in corralling their terror-linked charities. We also must fully explore the Riggs case and Saudi cash transfers occurring under our own nose. Finally, we must not waver in our determination to consistently refine our abilities to analyze and fracture terror funding networks. The PATRIOT Act has been a critical tool in this effort, and we must not dawdle in renewing the law and updating its capabilities to reflect ever-changing funding techniques
more
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/24197.htm

Corporate Art Lovers Who Hate That Big Tax Bill

This hush-hush world, its boundaries defined by handsome East Side avenues and Chelsea and SoHo side streets, is far removed from the gavels, cellphones and hubbub of the major auction houses. It is frequented by major art collectors like Joe L. Allbritton, the biggest shareholder of the Riggs National Corporation and that bank's former chief executive.
more
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/09/business/yourmoney/09...




Funny you should ask,
meet me in the club car this evening and we'll talk about it.

[seemslikeadream]

64. From your post with spelling correction

when Riggs was BFEEING up its private banking services for rich people.

[seemslikeadream]

48. Senate Panel Report Deplores Riggs Dealings

By TIMOTHY L. O'BRIEN

Published: July 15, 2004

A Senate report scheduled to be released today draws a scathing portrait of money-laundering controls at the Riggs National Corporation, taking the banking company's management to task for failing to monitor suspect financial dealings involving Gen. Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean dictator, and senior officials of Equatorial Guinea, a West African country in the midst of an oil boom.

The report, prepared by the Senate subcommittee on investigations, offers an unusually detailed account of banking dealings since the mid-1990's that included suitcases stuffed with shrink-wrapped cash being walked through Riggs Bank's front door in Washington; offshore accounts set up to avoid regulatory scrutiny; millions of dollars wired worldwide with few questions asked about the money's origin; and questionable transactions involving three major oil companies.

The report said there had been an overly cozy relationship between Riggs and its federal regulators, and asserted that the bank's management was enamored of courting questionable clients and openly resistant to regulatory entreaties to close those clients' accounts.

...

"These two cases involving Obiang and Pinochet cry out for criminal prosecution," said Charles Intriago, publisher of the newsletter Money Laundering Alert. "It's not just regulatory violations; it's violations of the criminal laws of the United States. Where are the prosecutors?"

....

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/15/business/15bank.html

[seemslikeadream]

65. “There’s no way a General can accumulate that money” & September 11, 2002

Investigations into Pinochet unnerve British institutions


While under arrest in a small house by a golf course at Virginia Water in Surrey, he was able to shuffle millions of dollars of his personal fortune through Riggs, a Washington-based bank with a branch at 60 St. James Street in London's West End.

Over the past 10 days, Riggs, which held accounts for other Pinochet family members, the Chilean army and the secret police, has been sold off for US$779 million, a fraction of its former worth.

It reports that it "opened at least six accounts and issued several certificates of deposit for Augusto Pinochet, former President of Chile, while he was un-der house arrest in the United Kingdom and his assets were the subject of court proceedings ... altered the names of his personal accounts to disguise their ownership; transferred from London to the United States while Pinochet was in detention and the subject of a court order to attach his bank accounts ... and delivered over in cashiers' checks to Pinochet in Chile to enable him to obtain substantial cash payments from banks in that country."

In 1996 and 1998, the sub-committee said, Riggs helped Pinochet set up two offshore shell corporations in the Bahamas, Ashburton Company and Althorp Investment. Neither company had any employees or offices, but were listed as the nominal owners of Riggs' bank accounts and certificates of deposit that benefited Pinochet and his family.

The former dictator had up to US$8 million in Riggs accounts, though his pay as army head in 1998 was a mere US$10,057.
more
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/07/26/2003180534
“There’s no way a General can accumulate that money”


Mercosur
Monday, 26 July

Mr. Augusto Pinochet
Two special magistrates Sergio Muñoz and Juan Guzmán are currently
“There’s no way a General can accumulate that money”investigating the alleged non declared funds of Mr. Pinochet, a fact that was first revealed by The Washington Post a few weeks ago following an investigation by the US Congress into American banks involved in money laundering.
An internal memorandum from the Riggs Bank,


dated September 11, 2002,


specifies details of funds transfers at the time when United States federal authorities were checking into Mr. Pinochet bank accounts and movements.

Apparently and according to the memorandum, Mr. Pinochet and wife Mrs. Luica Hiriart Pinochet between August 2000 and April 2002 withdrew 38 checks totaling two million US dollars. Riggs Bank insists the checks were deposited in a Chilean bank.

However the magistrates have warned that it’s the Chilean Internal Taxing Office that must begin judicial actions to determine whether the alleged funds, between 4 and 8 million US dollars deposited in the Riggs Bank were effectively declared.

Apparently the Chilean Internal Taxing Office has requested the Foreign Affairs Ministry information about the alleged funds deposited in Washington. However it was pointed out that all of Mr. Pinochet’s income and earnings in public office are in order.
more
http://www.falkland-malvinas.com/Detalle.asp?NUM=3997

[seemslikeadream]

35. TORTURE AND THE NAVAL TRAINING SHIP THE "ESMERALDA"

(snip) CHILE
TORTURE AND THE NAVAL TRAINING SHIP THE "ESMERALDA"

Background

Following the military coup on 11 September 1973, the military junta which seized power immediately embarked on a program of systematic and large-scale repression, exerting absolute control over the resources of the State and using these to commit human rights violations. Constitutional guarantees were suspended through more than 3,500 decree laws and four "constitutional laws" passed over several years. Congress was dissolved and a country-wide state of siege declared, under which hundreds of people were detained and countless more extrajudicially executed, a state policy of "disappearance" put in place and torture was used systematically.

With the return to civilian rule in 1990, two bodies were created in different periods to gather information leading to the clarification of the truth about "disappearances", extrajudicial executions and deaths resulting from torture by state agents. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (know as the Rettig Commission) (Comisión Nacional de Verdad y Reconciliación) was set up by the administration of President Patricio Aylwin, and published its report in March 1991. The National Reparation and Reconciliation Corporation, (Corporación Nacional de Reparación y Reconciliación) was established in 1992 as a successor to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Rettig Commission) and published its final report, when its mandate came to an end in 1996. The combined findings of the two commissions officially documented 3,197 cases of victims of "disappearances", extrajudicial execution and death resulting from torture. This figure did not include the victims of torture who survived their ordeal.

The report by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Rettig Report) registers a number of navy vessels used as detention and torture centres by the Chilean navy at the time of the coup lead by General Augusto Pinochet. The Chilean naval training ship "Esmeralda" is listed together with the "Lebu" and the "Maipo". According to the Rettig Report, in the "Esmeralda", a special group of Navy officials "installed a unit for the interrogation of detainees. Such interrogation included, as a general rule, ill-treatment and torture".(1)

In September 1999, following denials on national television by Navy Commander-in-Chief-(Comandante en Jefe de la Armada) Admiral Jorge Patricio Arancibia Reyes, that naval ships or installations were used as torture centres, two former prisoners, Antonio Leal, a deputy for the Party for Democracy in 1973, and Ivan Aldoney Vargas, publicly stated that political prisoners were tortured on board the "Esmeralda" and other naval vessels and installations. In a September 1999 press conference Antonio Leal described the type of torture carried out on the "Esmeralda" including the use of electric prods, high-voltage electric charges applied to the testicles, hanging by the feet and dumping in a bucket of water or excrement (Santiago Times, 7 September 1999).
(snip/...)
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR220062003?op...

GENERAL MAYHEM:



(snip) After sabotaging Allende’s electoral endeavor in 1964, and failing to do so in 1970, despite their best efforts, the CIA and the rest of the American foreign policy machine left no stone unturned in their attempt to destabilize the Allende government over the next three years, paying particular attention to building up military hostility. Finally, in September 1973, the military overthrew the government, Allende dying in the process.

They closed the country to the outside world for a week, while the tanks rolled and the soldiers broke down doors; the stadiums rang with the sounds of execution and the bodies piled up along the streets and floated in the river; the torture centers opened for business; the subversive books were thrown into bonfires; soldiers slit the trouser legs of women, shouting that “In Chile women wear dresses!”; the poor returned to their natural state; and the men of the world in Washington and in the halls of international finance opened up their check-books. In the end, more than 3,000 had been executed, thousands more tortured or disappeared.
(End of Killing Hope excerpt)

In the bloody coup of September 11, 1973, Henry Kissinger and the CIA helped General Augusto Pinochet overthrow the democratically elected leftist government of President Salvador Allende.

The Fascist puppet-regime of Pinochet then embarked on a 17-year terror campaign against the people of Chile, which included mass arrests and executions, death squads, torture and disappearances.

Many of the victims were fingered as “radicals” by lists provided by the CIA.

Santiago’s national stadium was used as a mass execution site. Robert Saldias, the first army officer to come forward publicly without concealing his identity, said prisoners entering the stadium were identified by yellow, black, and red discs. “Whoever received a red disc had no chance,” Saldias said.

Many of the professional torturers and assassins in the Chilean military (and in every other Fascist country of Central and South America) were trained at the “School of the Americas”, in Fort Benning, Georgia.
(snip/...)

http://free.freespeech.org/americanstateterrorism/usgenocide/CrbnCnSthAmrc.html#Chile73

[Octafish]

39. September 11 means EVERYTHING to Chileans, as well.

From the film The Battle of Chile(First Run/Icarus Films)

Chile and the United States:
Declassified Documents Relating to the Military Coup, September 11, 1973

by Peter Kornbluh

September 11, 1998 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet. The violent overthrow of the democratically-elected Popular Unity government of Salvador Allende changed the course of the country that Chilean poet Pablo Neruda described as "a long petal of sea, wine and snow"; because of CIA covert intervention in Chile, and the repressive character of General Pinochet's rule, the coup became the most notorious military takeover in the annals of Latin American history.

Revelations that President Richard Nixon had ordered the CIA to "make the economy scream" in Chile to "prevent Allende from coming to power or to unseat him," prompted a major scandal in the mid-1970s, and a major investigation by the U.S. Senate. Since the coup, however, few U.S. documents relating to Chile have been actually declassified- -until recently. Through Freedom of Information Act requests, and other avenues of declassification, the National Security Archive has been able to compile a collection of declassified records that shed light on events in Chile between 1970 and 1976. These documents include:

** Cables written by U.S. Ambassador Edward Korry after Allende's election, detailing conversations with President Eduardo Frei on how to block the president-elect from being inaugurated. The cables contain detailed descriptions and opinions on the various political forces in Chile, including the Chilean military, the Christian Democrat Party, and the U.S. business community.
** CIA memoranda and reports on "Project FUBELT"--the codename for covert operations to promote a military coup and undermine Allende's government. The documents, including minutes of meetings between Henry Kissinger and CIA officials, CIA cables to its Santiago station, and summaries of covert action in 1970, provide a clear paper trail to the decisions and operations against Allende's government
** National Security Council strategy papers which record efforts to "destabilize" Chile economically, and isolate Allende's government diplomatically, between 1970 and 1973.
** State Department and NSC memoranda and cables after the coup, providing evidence of human rights atrocities under the new military regime led by General Pinochet.
** FBI documents on Operation Condor--the state-sponsored terrorism of the Chilean secret police, DINA. The documents, including summaries of prison letters written by DINA agent Michael Townley, provide evidence on the carbombing assassination of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt in Washington D.C., and the murder of Chilean General Carlos Prats and his wife in Buenos Aires, among other operations.

CONTINUED...

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/nsaebb8i.htm

BTW: This guy's got the BFEE PEGGED!



http://www.mnartists.org/work.do?rid=32953

[seemslikeadream]

40. Rehabilitation Project for Survivors

This site was established by AMIGOS de los SOBREVIVIENTES (Friends of the Survivors), a non-profit volunteer community Rehabilitation Project for Survivors of Torture from Latin America and the Caribbean. We hoped it would facilitate the exchange of professional papers, but most important, we hoped it would help the survivors to give "testimonio" in the healing sense of the word. This will not happen unless therapists guide them through the process! We get many phone calls from survivors who wish to talk and to whom we give referrals of centers and therapists, but we do not think it appropriate to gude them through the process of writing their stories. So, we do hope therapists will take advantage of this avenue. For those interested in our unique residential approach, check in the listings for our center or in the section on "Starting a Center."

http://www.pacinfo.com/eugene/tsnet/index.html

[seemslikeadream]

41. 'Track II'

1970 - In September, following Salvador Allende's victory in the Chilean presidential vote, United States President Richard M. Nixon orders the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to do all it can to prevent Allende from being inaugurated.

Under the supervision of national security adviser Henry Kissinger, the CIA will develop the so-called 'Track II' plan to oust Allende, allocating US$10 million while formally insulating the US embassy in Chile from any involvement.

The agency attempts to bribe key Chilean legislators and funds a group of military officers plotting a coup, providing them with a further payment following the assassination on 22 October of General Rene Schneider, the commander-in-chief of the army, who had refused to approve the coup plan.

One CIA document from October states, "It is firm and continuing policy that Allende be overthrown by a coup. ... It is imperative that these actions be implemented clandestinely and securely so that the USG (US Government) and American hand be well hidden."


http://www.moreorless.au.com/killers/pinochet.htm

[seemslikeadream]

44. They dance alone

Why are there women here dancing on their own?
Why is there this sadness in their eyes?
Why are the soldiers here
Their faces fixed like stone?
I can't see what it is that they dispise
They're dancing with the missing
They're dancing with the dead
They dance with the invisible ones
Their anguish is unsaid
They're dancing with their fathers
They're dancing with their sons
They're dancing with their husbands
They dance alone They dance alone

It's the only form of protest they're allowed
I've seen their silent faces scream so loud
If they were to speak these words they'd go missing too
Another woman on a torture table what else can they do
They're dancing with the missing
They're dancing with the dead
They dance with the invisible ones
Their anguish is unsaid
They're dancing with their fathers
They're dancing with their sons
They're dancing with their husbands
They dance alone They dance alone

One day we'll dance on their graves
One day we'll sing our freedom
One day we'll laugh in our joy
And we'll dance
One day we'll dance on their graves
One day we'll sing our freedom
One day we'll laugh in our joy
And we'll dance

Ellas danzan con los desaparecidos
Ellas danzan con los muertos
Ellas danzan con amores invisibles
Ellas danzan con silenciosa angustia
Danzan con sus pardres
Danzan con sus hijos
Danzan con sus esposos
Ellas danzan solas
Danzan solas

Hey Mr. Pinochet
You've sown a bitter crop
It's foreign money that supports you
One day the money's going to stop
No wages for your torturers
No budget for your guns
Can you think of your own mother
Dancin' with her invisible son
They're dancing with the missing
They're dancing with the dead
They dance with the invisible ones
They're anguish is unsaid
They're dancing with their fathers
They're dancing with their sons
They're dancing with their husbands
They dance alone

sting

[Octafish]

45. Poppy ties directly to Pinochet and murder.

Clouds Over George Bush

by Robert Parry

iF magazine, January / February 1999

The night of Sept. 21, 1978, was a grim one in Washington.

That morning, one of the worst terrorist incidents in the capital's history had shaken the stately buildings along Embassy Row. A bomb had ripped apart the car carrying Chile's former foreign minister Orlando Letelier and two American co-workers.

Letelier and a woman, Ronni Moffitt, died from the blast. Moffitt's husband was wounded.

That evening at a dinner at the Jordanian Embassy, Rep. James Abourezk was distraught. Letelier had been a personal friend, and his violent death in the heart of Washington was weighing heavily on Abourezk's mind

In the room, the congressman spotted the gangly, preppy figure of George Bush, director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Abourezk thought he might enlist Bush's help in solving the murder.

CONTINUED...

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/History/CloudsOverGeorgeBush.html



We in Operation CONDOR stand united in the fight against Communism.

[seemslikeadream]

47. The men I met in Santiago were basically decent and humane

A shared mission

Long before the burnings, Helms had established himself as one of Pinochet's chief advocates in the United States. Helms became a senator in 1973, the same year Pinochet led a military coup against President Salvador Allende. A Socialist who had been democratically elected in 1970, Allende had been targeted by a massive CIA destabilization campaign.


As several members of Congress accused the Chilean government of complicity, Helms vehemently objected. "The men I met in Santiago were basically decent and humane, and I would find it hard to believe that they would sanction anything of the sort," he told his Senate colleagues. "I found them to be men of impressive ability, motivated by high religious and philosophical principles and concern for their people." Helms suggested a "far more plausible" hypothesis for the bombing: that Letelier was a victim of left-wing assassins intent on making him a "symbolic martyr."

Members of the army squad, dressed in fatigues and wearing black face paint, beat the pair with rifle butts until they were immobile. At one point, a soldier pulled Quintana's pants down and sodomized her with a rifle barrel. The soldiers then doused Rojas and Quintana in a flammable liquid, probably gasoline, stepped back and tossed a Molotov cocktail to set them afire.

"When Rodrigo was killed, I was not able to mourn, to grieve--not because I didn't want to, but because I had to keep fighting, fighting the lies," De Negri says. "Pinochet denied that the army was involved in the crime and Jesse Helms was supporting that, even after there was so much evidence they couldn't deny it."
more
http://indyweek.com/durham/2001-05-23/

[Stephanie]

4. Did we get Bath's payroll records this week?

Might shed some light.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/08/11/1447218#transcript

AMY GOODMAN: And what is Bath’s connection to the Bushes?

J. H. HATFIELD: Well he was also in the National Guard with George W. back in the 70’s which is interesting too because in 1972 in August, my publisher was able not too long ago to get hold of Bush’s national guard records. And in 1972, at the same time we alleged he was doing community service for cocaine arrest James Bath who was in the unit with him. Both of them were grounded for failing to show up for medical exam. 14:19

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.texasobserver.org/showArticle.asp?ArticleID=480

After the death of Mohammed bin Laden, control of the company passed to Salem bin Laden, Osama’s half brother. The roots of the first known Bush-bin Laden convergence date back to the mid-1970s, when the two clans were linked by a Houston businessman named James R. Bath. Bath had befriended George W. Bush in the late 1960s, when they both served in the Texas Air National Guard. By 1976, when Gerald Ford appointed the elder George Bush as CIA director, Bath was acting as a business agent for Salem bin Laden’s interests in Texas. (Texas and Saudi Arabia were well-connected by this point through U.S. oil companies and related industries with operations in both locations.) In 1991 Time magazine and later other publications reported on allegations by Bath’s former business partner that the Bush CIA hired Bath in 1976 to create offshore companies to move CIA funds and aircraft between Texas and Saudi Arabia.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Octafish]

15. Sorry. I've not seen hide nor hair of Mr. Bath's service records.

Until we get them, this nice Canadian Broadcasting Service interview with his ex-business partner makes a good read for generating questions a real journalist might ask:


"I put the arm on bin Laden.
For my country."

BILL WHITE
Interview by: Bob McKeown

LET’S GO BACK TO THE BEGINNING. WHEN DID YOU FIRST MEET JAMES BATH? I met him when I graduated from Business School in nineteen seventy-eight. I came down to Houston for an interview.

AND WHAT KIND OF PERSON WAS HE? I was actually recruited from Harvard Business School by Lan Bentsen, Senator Bentsen’s son. When he found that I was a Navy Fighter Pilot, he said that there was an Air Force Fighter Pilot in Houston that I should meet – a pilot who the Bentsen family and the Bush families were already in business with. And he said that this fellow James R. Bath needed someone to run a series of real estate companies that would be grub staked by not only the political families, but also by some foreign Nationals - the Saudis. And so I came down for an interview and met Jim Bath.

SO, THE INTRODUCTION WAS MADE BECAUSE YOU HAD THE COMMON GROUND OF HAVING HAD BOTH BEEN PILOTS? Exactly. We’re both fighter pilots.

AND AT THE TIME BATH WAS IN BUSINESS IN HOUSTON DOING WHAT? He was in Business primarily operating an Aircraft Brokerage Company called JB&A which stands for Jim Bath and Associates. He also ran a company in the same building called Bin Laden & Associates which Jim explained was a procurement company for the Saudis.

SNIP…

HOW HAD JIM BATH BEEN ANNOINTED TO BE THIS INTERMEDIARY BETWEEN THE SAUDIS ON ONE HAND AND FAMILIES LIKE THE BUSHES ON THE OTHER? Well, Jim explained that in the early seventies George Bush Junior, our current President, came on boardthe Texas Air National Guard where Bath was stationed along with some other Politicians’ children. This is during the Vietnam War era when Bush and Bath became drinking buddies and good friends. And then in 1976, when Dubya’s Father became CIA Director, the CIA was trying to privatize it’s air affiliate subsidiaries. Jim was actually recommended to the CIA Director, George Senior, by Dubya - that’s when the relationship was established.

CONTINUED (html file, there’s a link at the top to PDF of the entire interview.) ...

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:JkjMbciHAlgJ:www.cbc.ca/fifth/conspiracytheories/white.pdf+bill-white+james-bath+cbc&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

Great timeline on all this for those new to the subject:

http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/conspiracytheories/saudi.html

[blm]

36. THAT'S what we've been pushing for, Stef....

seems noone in the media is making the connection. If they can't get Bush's complete records, then try getting James Bath's. Cuz the two of them are a matched set when it comes to scandals.

[Karenina]

58. Where IS that Bath guy anyway?

:shrug:

[oasis]

8. As usual, Octafish, you're on top of things. Aaaaand kick.

[Octafish]

25. You and the USPS should know.

Like you, our carriers care, too. Hey! Didya hear about

The Nests of Osama bin Laden

( ... and some of the rich and famous birds who have flocked with him!)

Sightings from the Catbird Seat

EXCERPT...

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a division of the Justice Department, reviewed allegations by Bill White in 1992 that James Bath funneled money from wealthy Middle Eastern businessmen to American companies to influence the policies of the Reagan and Bush administrations. Robert Mueller, the new FBI chief, was in a senior position at the Justice Department at the time of the review.

White told a Texas court in 1992 that Bath and the Justice Department had "blackballed" him professionally and financially because he refused to keep quiet about his knowledge of an Arabic conspiracy to launder Middle Eastern money into the bank accounts of American businesses and politicians.

In sworn depositions, Bath admitted he represented four wealthy Saudi Arabian businessmen as a trustee. He also admitted he used his name on their investments and received, in return, a five- percent stake in their business deals.

Indeed, Texas tax documents revealed that Bath owned five percent of Arbusto '79 Ltd., and Arbusto '80 Ltd. Bush Exploration Company controlled the limited partnerships, the general partnership firm owned by young George W. Bush.

Although George W. Bush's Texas oil ventures were financial failures, his financial backers recovered their investments through a series of mergers and stock swaps. He changed Arbusto's name to Bush Exploration, then merged the new firm into Spectrum 7 Energy Corporation in 1984.

CONTINUED...

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

[blm]

12. BIG KICK.

Kudos to Super Patriots Skip Fox and Octafish.

[Octafish]

57. Kick to the oily pants of the BFEE!

Can't forget the money men:



Bad Lay
Chickens coming home to roost.

by Alan Bisbort - July 15, 2004

It was an image that was almost worth the two-year wait: the worst corporate criminal since the Robber Barons of the 1890s, his arms handcuffed behind his back, slouching into court with his Marie Antoinette wife shadowing him from a safe distance.

Kenneth L. Lay, chairman and CEO of Enron, has been brought to justice. In Texas, no less. Kenneth L. "Kenny Boy" Lay, the main benefactor for George W. Bush's political career and the veritable poster boy for the Republican Party in the last election. The same man who flew Bush and Cheney around the campaign trail in his company jet. The same man who was co-chairman of George H.W. Bush's 1992 re-election campaign. In short, the same man who is so intimately and obviously linked to the Bushes that even the Democrats have figured it out.

As Greg Palast put it, "Ken Lay and his Enron team are the Number One political career donors to George W. Bush. Mr. Lay and his Mrs., with no money to pay back bilked creditors, still managed to personally put up $100,000 for George's inaugural Ball plus $793,110 for personal donations to Republicans. Lay's Enron team dropped $4.2 million into the party."

For all this dough, Lay gained instant access to the White House. He almost certainly sat on Dick Cheney's national energy policy-making panel, though for now we don't have the proof because the Supreme Court ruled that Cheney could keep those public records buried in his bunker.

CONTINUED...

http://valleyadvocate.com/gbase/News/content?oid=oid:74149

blm: Ever since you knew something was not right, you stood up and you've been there. And the BFEE is scared.

[Joanne98]

16. Namebase.org

Walter, Ingo. The Secret Money Market: Inside the Dark World of Tax Evasion, Financial Fraud, Insider Trading, Money Laundering, and Capital Flight. 2nd edition. New York: HarperBusiness, 1990. 377 pages.
This scholarly work is replete with numerous examples of slime that floated to the surface from the underground world of high-finance and illicit wheeling-dealing, which is why we put it in NameBase. It is well- written, tightly-argued, and very informative, alternating between statistics on the dimensions of the secret money market, descriptions of escapades that ended in prosecutions, discussions of how accounts are opened in places like the Cayman Islands, and matter-of-fact observations about the effectiveness of SEC monitoring and regulation.
One suspects, however, that if this book sells well off campus it's because readers want to know how NOT to get caught. Off-shore banking, tax shelters, insider trading, and the arcane world of Swiss financial privacy are treated in rich detail, while more difficult scams such as fraud and organized crime within the savings and loan industry are not treated at all. But then Ingo Walter, professor of business administration, probably finds it difficult to keep on top of the high-capital crime curve from his office at New York University.

Here are the names most frequently mentioned in the above books:

ABEDI AGHA HASAN ABREU EMIR ADHAM KAMAL AGCA MEHMET ALI AHMED SANI AKBAR SYED ZIAUDDIN ALI ALCAINO ROBERTO BAEZ ALFONSIN RAUL ALI ASAF ALTMAN ROBERT A ALVAREZ ALBERTO INOCENTE ANDERSON ROBERT BERNERD ANDONIAN NAZARETH ANDONIAN VAHE ANGELL WAYNE D ARMBRECHT RUDOLF ASLAM RIAZ SALEEM ATTINGER JOELLE AUSTRALIA CIA IN AWAN AMJAD BAILEY SIDNEY BAKER HOWARD H JR (R-TN) BAKER JAMES A III BALLADUR EDOUARD BANCA NAZIONALE DEL LAVORO BANCO AMBROSIANO BANK AMERICA BANK CREDIT COMMERCE INTERNATIONAL BANK INTERNATIONAL SETTLEMENTS BANK NOVA SCOTIA BANNISTER EVERETTE BANOUN RAYMOND BANZER HUGO BARBIE KLAUS BARCELLA E LAWRENCE BATH JAMES R BEATTY FRANK G BEATY JONATHAN BEAZLEY DONALD E BECHER KURT BELLI MELVIN M BENCH ROBERT R BETANCUR BELISARIO BHUTTO BENAZIR BHUTTO ZULFIKAR ALI BILBEISI MUNTHER ISMAEL BILGRAMI AKBAR ALI BIN MAHFOUZ KHALID BLACK EDWIN F (GEN) BLANDON JOSE I BLUM JACK A BLUNDEN GEORGE BOESKY IVAN FREDERICK BRADFIELD MICHAEL BRADY NICHOLAS F BRANSON WILLIAM H BRITISH PETROLEUM PLC BRUNEI SULTAN OF (MUDA HASSANAL BOLKIAH) BUHL C HENRY III BURGESS WILLIAM H BURNS ARTHUR F BURRIS DAVID H BUSH GEORGE H.W. BUTLER ALLAN C CALLAGHAN JAMES (LORD) CALVI ROBERTO CANTOR ALLEN CAPCOM FINANCIAL SERVICES CARLSON ROY P.M. CARTER JIMMY E (PRES) CARTER LYNDA CASEY WILLIAM JOSEPH CASTLE BANK CENTRUST SAVINGS BANK CERNY HOWARD F CHAMIDES EUGENE CHASE MANHATTAN BANK CHICHIBU YASUHITO CHINOY NAZIR CITIBANK CLAY RICHARD EVANS CLIFFORD CLARK MCADAMS CLINE RAY STEINER CLINES THOMAS G COCKE ERLE JR COLBY WILLIAM EGAN COLLINGS CLIVE (LES) CONTINENTAL ILLINOIS NATIONAL BANK COOK G.BRADFORD CORNFELD BERNIE CORREA FELIX CORRIGAN E GERALD COWETT EDWARD M CREDIT SUISSE BANK CURTIS ROBERT DARWAISH ABDULLAH DE LA MADRID MIGUEL DEAK COMPANY DELLE CHIAIE STEFANO DOUGHERTY JAMES F II DULLES ALLEN WELSH DUQUE ALBERTO DURRANI ARIF EICHMANN ADOLF ESCOBAR GAVIRIA PABLO EMILIO EVANS NEIL FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM FERRIS RICHARD (RONEL INDUSTRIES) FIGUERES JOSE (DON PEPE) FINANCIAL GENERAL BANKSHARES FIRST AMERICAN BANKSHARES FULAIJ FAISAL SAUD AL- FUNK WALTHER GARCIA PEREZ ALAN GEHRING ROBERT WALLACE GELLI LICIO GEORGE EDDIE GHORBANIFAR MANUCHER GOKAL ABBAS GOKAL FAMILY GOKAL MUSTAPHA GOULD GEORGE D GRAY ROBERT KEITH GRAZE STANLEY GREEN PINCUS (PINKY) GREENSPAN ALAN J GREGORY WILFRED P GUTH WILFRIED GWYNNE SAM C GYOHTEN TOYOO HAMMERMAN RICHARD M HAMMOUD MOHAMMED MAHMOUD HAND MICHAEL JON HAQ FAZLE HATCH ORRIN G (R-UT) HELLIWELL PAUL LIONEL EDWARD HERNANDEZ CARTAYA GUILLERMO HIMMLER HEINRICH HOCHMAN SERGIO HOFFMAN MARVIN HOUGHTON BERNARD MAURICE HOWARD IAN HUSSAIN SYED AFTAB INTER SERVICES INTELLIGENCE (ISI) INTERNATIONAL CREDIT INVESTMENT COMPANY INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND INVESTORS OVERSEAS SERVICES IQBAL ZAFAR JACKOWSKI MARK V JAWHARY SAYED JOHN PAUL II (POPE) JOHNSON MANUEL H JONES CHARLES (HINESVILLE GA) JONSSON OLOF KALISH STEVEN MICHAEL KANTER BURTON WALLACE KASHIWAGI YUSUKE KASZTNER REZSO KERR RICHARD J KERRY JOHN FORBES (D-MA) KHALIL ABDUL RAOUF KHAN ABDUL QADER KHASHOGGI ADNAN KING JOHN MCCANDISH KODAMA YOSHIO KOPP ELIZABETH IKLE KOPP HANS KOYOMEJIAN WANIS LAKE RESOURCES LAMFALUSSY ALEXANDRE LANCE BERT LANSDALE EDWARD GEARY LANSKY MEYER LAWSON NIGEL LEBLANC NORMAN P LEFFERDINK ALLEN JONES LEHDER RIVAS CARLOS ENRIQUE LEIGH-PEMBERTON ROBIN LEUTWILER FRITZ LEVINE DENNIS B LEWIS GERALD E LODHI AMER LOPEZ PORTILLO JOSE (PRES) LOPEZ REGA JOSE (MINISTER OF SOCIAL WELFARE) LUTZ CHARLES MACARTHUR DOUGLAS (GEN) MAGHARIAN BARKEV MAGHARIAN JEAN MAGNESS BOB JOHN MANKIEWICZ FRANK MANOR LEROY J (GEN) MARCINKUS PAUL CASIMIR MARCOS FERDINAND (PRES) MARCOS IMELDA MARTINEZ ROMERO EDUARDO (MONEY LAUNDERER) MASRI SAMI MASSERA EMILIO EDUARDO MASSON ROGER MASUROVSKY MARC MATTINGLY J VIRGIL JR MAYER SALY MAZRUI GHANEM FARIS AL- MAZRUI KHALFAN AL- MAZUR ROBERT MCALPIN CLOVIS WILLIAM MCALPIN MALCOLM EVANS MCDONALD WALTER JOSEPH MCKEAN DAVID MCKITTRICK THOMAS HARRINGTON MCNAMAR R TIM MEISSNER MILTON F MERCANTILE BANK TRUST LTD MIENO YASUSHI MITCHELL JOHN N MIYAZAWA KIICHI MONCADA GERARDO (DON CHEPE) MOON SUN MYUNG MORA GONZALO JR MORGENTHAU HENRY M JR MORGENTHAU ROBERT MORRIS MOSCOW JOHN W NAKASONE YASUHIRO NAQVI SWALEH NATIONAL BANK GEORGIA NIDAL ABU NIPPON STAR COMPANY NIXON DONALD A JR (DON-DON) NIXON RICHARD MILHOUS NORIEGA MANUEL ANTONIO NOTTAGE KENDAL W NUGAN FRANK JOHN NUGAN HAND BANK OCHOA VASQUEZ JORGE LUIS OLMSTED GEORGE H OPERATION SAFEHAVEN OPUS DEI ORTOLANI UMBERTO OWEN JOHN (NUGAN HAND) PAGAN ROBERT PAUKER GUY J PAUL DAVID L PELL CLAIBORNE (D-RI) PERON JUAN DOMINGO PHARAON GHAITH RASHAD PINDLING LYNDEN OSCAR PISTELL RICHARD CHADWICK POEHL KARL-OTTO PRESTON LEWIS T PRICE WATERHOUSE PROPAGANDA DUE (P2) PUHL EMIL QASIM GHASSAN AHMAD QUESADA ELWOOD R (GEN) QUINN BRIAN RAHMAN MASIHUR RAMBANO LUZ REED JOHN SHEPARD REGAN DONALD T REHMAN AZIZ REWALD RONALD RAY RHODES WILLIAM R RICH MARC DAVID RICHARDSON GORDON RICHARDSON LAURENCE B JR RILEY MURRAY STEWART RITCH LEIGH BRUCE RODRIGUEZ CESAR RODRIGUEZ GACHA JOSE GONZALO RODRIGUEZ TARCIANA ROMRELL LARRY ROOSEVELT JAMES ROSS BRIAN ROXAS ROGER RUBINSTEIN MICHAEL RUIZ MATEOS JOSE MARIA RYBACK WILLIAM A SAKHIA ABDUR RAZZAK SAMI ABDUS SANTA ROMANA SEVERINO GARCIA DIAZ SAPHOS CHARLES S SASAKAWA RYOICHI SCHELLENBERG WALTER SCHLACHTER DOUGLAS M JR SCHLEI NORBERT A SCHLESINGER HELMUT SCHMIDT HELMUT SCHUMER CHARLES E (D-NY) SEARS HARRY L SECORD RICHARD V SHACKLEY THEODORE GEORGE SHAKARCHI MOHAMMED SHOAIB KEMAL SILES ZUAZO HERNAN SILVA HERZOG JESUS SINDONA MICHELE SINGLAUB JOHN K SKINNER TRUMAN A SNIPES WILBERT SOMOZA DEBAYLE ANASTASIO SPORKIN STANLEY SPRINKEL BERYL W STACKS JOHN STANS MAURICE H STEPHENS JACKSON THOMAS STOLTENBERG GERHARD STRAUB GILBERT R.J. STRICKLER ULRICH JACOB SUMITA SATOSHI SWISS NATIONAL BANK SYMINGTON STUART W (D-MO) TAKEDA TSUNEYOSHI TAKESHITA NOBORU TAN GEORGE TANAKA KAKUEI TAYLOR WILLIAM (FEDERAL RESERVE) TELE-COMMUNICATIONS INC (TCI) THATCHER MARGARET TISCHLER BONNI G TREPP GIAN UNIFICATION CHURCH UNION BANK SWITZERLAND VALMORES BEN VATICAN BANK (INSTITUTE RELIGIOUS WORKS) VESCO ROBERT LEE VILLACRUSIS FLORENTINO VIVAS RAOUL SILVIO VOLCKER PAUL ADOLPH VON RAAB WILLIAM WERBELL MITCHELL LIVINGSTON III WEYMAR FREDERIC J WHITLAM GOUGH WILLOUGHBY CHARLES A WILSON EDWIN PAUL WILSON PHIL WINER JONATHAN M WORLD FINANCE CORPORATION WORLD JEWISH CONGRESS WRISTON WALTER BIGELOW YAMASHITA TOMOYUKI YATES EARL P YOUNG ANDREW ZAYED BIN SULTAN AL-NAHYAN SHEIK ZELMANOWITZ GERALD ZIA UL-HAQ

Names most mentioned with global banking scandals. Bath makes the list.

http://www.namebase.org/books55.html

You could spend forever in here. :)

[Joanne98]

17. More......

BATH JAMES R
Bainerman,J. The Crimes of a President. 1992 (295-6)
Beaty,J. Gwynne,S.C. The Outlaw Bank. 1993 (227-30)
Brewton,P. The Mafia, CIA, and George Bush. 1992 (75, 172, 208, 218-29)
Covert Action Information Bulletin 1992-#41 (51-2)
Executive Intelligence Review 2000-02-25 (50-1)
Hatfield,J.H. Fortunate Son. 2000 (54-6, 99)
Houston Post 1991-10-22 (A23)
Palast,G. The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. 2003 (104)
Stich,R. Drugging America: A Trojan Horse. 1999 (40)
Time 1991-10-28 (80)
Truell,P. Gurwin,L. False Profits. 1992 (364-5, 369)
Wall Street Journal 1991-12-06 (A4)


http://www.namebase.org/main2/James-R-Bath.html

[Joanne98]

20. Don't forget Poppy

http://www.namebase.org/main2/George-H_2Ew_2E-Bush.html

[Octafish]

24. NEVER forget Poppy.

George W Bush isn't just stupid, or "stupider" as Bush might describe himself, Bush is Evil. Consider from where he comes and you can see the Source:

Daddy was a CIA agent working Dallas when President Kennedy was shot.

Daddy was a Big-Time Congressman from Houston during Vietnam and kept his son's AWOL ass out of Vietnam.

Daddy was a Big Time Consul to Red China and now his Uncle is head of the China-US Chamber of Commerce.

Daddy headed the Republican Party and still avoided getting his pants stained by Watergate, the DUI Things, or Jennifer Fitzgerald.

Daddy was head of CIA and all the assassinations of the Liberal leadership, secret treasons and sundry murders and dirty tricks are forgotten by the captive Press.

Daddy has his buddies talk to the Ayatollah and becomes Vice President for about two months when his boss survived an assassination attempt — blamed on the son of a longtime political supporter from the old neighborhood in Houston.

Daddy was Vice President for eight years during which the largest corruptions in the nation’s history were exposed, only to go unpunished. Among them are INSLAW/Promis, Iraq-gate / Banca Nazionale del Lavoro arms for Iraq, BCCI International Money Laundering for Terrorists & Intelligence Community, Savings & Loan scandal in general and Silverado in particular, Iran-contra Guns/Drugs/Martial Law Plan, Glaspie Gives Go-Ahead and Gulf War I.

So, is it any wonder the Dim Son would fall from the Treason Tree?

He’s trying! He’s trying! say the dim-witted supporters, completely ignoring the facts in front of their hypnotized, drugged, deceived eyes. Junior’s treason and corruptions only begin publicly with Selection 2000 and the shredding of the US Constitution by the Supreme Court, the Secret ENRON Energy Policy, Criminal Negligence or Treason that resulted in 9-11 (take your pick), and the phony and illegal and incompetent and immoral Invasion of Iraq.

Thus, I say: “Bush is Eviler”. That’s not short for “Evil-Doer.” It’s how he shows he’s trying to out-do his Daddy.
— Octafish

As you said, Joanne98, Never forget Poppy. It's nothing personal, heh heh heh. It's business. There are a few documents and links I'm working on gathering at:

Bush is Eviler

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2039070

[Joanne98]

26. Poppy and the communists/capitalists Chinese

Daddy was a Big Time Consul to Red China and now his Uncle is head of the China-US Chamber of Commerce.

What's the deal? I wonder it the BFEE could be using the state owned Chinese banks to launder money? It would be the perfect hiding place.

[Octafish]

28. Absolutely. Poppy sent Scowcroft to Peking days after Tiananmen Square.

There's always more money to be made, even those who have all they can spend in a million lifetimes. What the BFEE wants, and they can use in the here-and-now, is power... which explains why they hate free thinkers, especially brave free thinkers, and most of all BFTs who ask embarrassing questions.



The Tiananmen Papers

New Documents Reveal U.S. Perceptions
of 1989 Chinese Political Crisis

A National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book
Edited by Michael L. Evans
June 4, 2001

In June 1999 the National Security Archive published Tiananmen Square, 1989: The Declassified History, an online collection of declassified State Department documents pertaining to the events surrounding the June 1989 massacre by the Chinese military of demonstrators gathered in and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square. The National Security Archive's continuing efforts have unearthed more documents from this episode, including CIA reports on the potential for political crisis in China as well as candid cables from the U.S. ambassadors in Beijing both before and after the crackdown describing their frustrations with the U.S. response to the crisis.

Analysis of these new documents was aided considerably by the publication, in January 2001, of The Tiananmen Papers (New York: PublicAffairs, 2001), an extraordinary collection of hundreds of documents depicting the deliberations of China’s paramount leadership during this tense period. Smuggled out of Chinese Communist Party archives, the documents offer an unprecedented look at the decision-making processes of the Politburo’s Standing Committee, China’s premier political body, and the crucial role of the Communist Party’s elder statesmen, led by Deng Xiaoping, in the decision to use deadly force against the demonstrators. Most significantly, the documents show that the five-man Standing Committee was deadlocked over whether to impose martial law in Beijing, and that the issue was finally decided by the Party elders, led by Deng Xiaoping, who called on the People’s Liberation Army to restore order.1

The Bush administration was similarly concerned with maintaining stability during the crisis, and was faced with a series of crucial policy decisions at a time when many questioned whether the strategic underpinnings of the U.S.-China relationship were still relevant. Even before the crisis erupted, the newly-inaugurated president – himself an old China hand from his days in the U.S. Liaison Office2 – tried to reaffirm the Cold War moorings of the U.S.-China relationship at a time when the common enemy of the past, the Soviet Union, was steadily moderating its international behavior and consciously improving its relations with both the U.S. and China. Indeed, improving Sino-Soviet relations complicated the ability of the Bush administration to devise an appropriate response to the Tiananmen crackdown—one that would both condemn the actions of the Chinese leadership, but not unduly strain an important bilateral relationship.  Moreover, improving East-West relations had, in the eyes of many in the U.S. Congress, markedly undermined the importance of the U.S.-China strategic partnership, making it increasingly difficult to gloss over China’s shoddy human rights record.

Bush administration officials were also concerned with the issue of Chinese leadership succession. Even before the demonstrations began, policy documents highlighted the importance of nurturing close relationships with the PRC military leadership, noting that Party General Secretary Zhao Ziyang did not appear to have the full support of this crucial element of the Chinese power structure – a weakness that would prove to be his undoing. Other documents predicted that Zhao might fall if economic and social problems continued to grow. Zhao was indeed removed from power after breaking ranks with Party elders over how to handle the student protests that were a direct result of these problems and frustrations. The power of the Chinese military was never more evident than on the night of June 3-4, when troops were deployed in Beijing against their own citizens. As Andrew Nathan points out in the Introduction to The Tiananmen Papers, the Party “learned from Tiananmen that democratization is not an irresistible force. . . he lesson of Tiananmen is that at its core, politics is about force.”3 For the Bush administration, the importance of cultivating good relations with Beijing’s military leaders had become more important than ever.

SOURCE and RESOURCES:

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB47/

[Joanne98]

30. Neil Bush and the Chinese

Neil Bush, the third of George H.W. Bush's four sons (George W., Jeb, Neil and Marvin), is the latest family member to hitch his fortunes to China.

In 1974, President Nixon named George H.W. Bush as his ambassador to China, a position he held for two years. In the 1980s, George H.W. Bush's brother, Prescott Bush Jr., began pursuing business opportunities on the mainland. In 1988, he teamed up with Japanese businessmen to build China's first golf course in Shanghai. He struck up a long friendship with former President Jiang, whose son is now a business partner of Neil Bush.

Prescott Bush Jr.'s Chinese ties generated their own share of controversy. He was criticized for meeting with Chinese business and government leaders just three months after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.

The Shanghai golf venture became an embarrassment when allegations surfaced that his Japanese partners were trying to get business contracts by bribing Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega. Prescott Bush Jr.'s ties to an American firm, Asset Management, were scrutinized in 1989 because it was the only U.S. firm able to skirt sanctions and import communications satellites into China.

When Asset Management later went bankrupt, Prescott Bush Jr. arranged a bailout through a Japanese investment firm later accused of having ties to organized crime. There was no evidence he was aware of the alleged mob connection

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=9231

[Octafish]

56. Even Marvin's a turd, when it comes to making money off Totalitarians

...Fascist, Communist, neo-Conservative, Mafia, KKK. It doesn't matter who they do business with, who they kill, what they steal, who they penure, or who they enslave -- as long as they get their price and power.

Now, one would think with all these boys, at least one would be a contributor to society. But no. Not even Marvin the Forgotten seems clean.

Chinese mega-bucks for Bush brothers

By Margie Burns
Online Journal Contributing Writer

December 16, 2003—Many observers were surprised last week when George W. Bush came down in favor of the People's Republic of China, against a democratic referendum in Taiwan. His weighing in on behalf of mainland China becomes more questionable at a time when well-connected Chinese companies are funneling large sums of money to Bush's brothers.

News reports reveal that Shanghai-based Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing, a multi-billion-dollar company co-founded by a son of China's former president, has presidential brother Neil Bush under a $2 million contract.

With no background in semiconductors, Neil Mallon Bush, third brother in the family, got a five-year contract from Grace, involving an annual retainer of $400,000 in stock. The arrangement is disclosed in court papers in Mr. Bush's scandal-ridden divorce. The business press has conjectured that Grace hoped to influence US limits on exporting sensitive technology to China.

An even bigger Chinese company recently moved in ways that benefit youngest Bush brother Marvin P. Bush. The company is Hong Kong-based Cheung Kong Holdings, a gargantuan real estate and investment conglomerate now branching into biotechs. According to the company, "combined market capitalization of the Cheung Kong Group amounts to HK$515 billion," or "approximately 11.5 percent of the total market capitalization of the Hong Kong stock market."

CONTINUED...

http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/121603Burns/121603burns.html

PS: Thankyouveddymuch for the heads-up on Corpwatch! Truly great reads there, wot?

[loudsue]

21. Dynamite work, Octafish!!! Thanks!!

Great thread!

Kissinger is, without a doubt, the global "follow the money" end game. He is a blight on the peace-loving, family-loving people of the world, in favor of all that is greedy, slimy, obscenely rich and drunk with power.

This world would be A FAR BETTER PLACE if Kissinger got Wellstoned, or just moved on of natural causes. He and his helpers are the power brokers for globalization, and impending enslavement of honest workers around the world, being subordinated by a capitalist/corporatist oligarchy.

There is no dictator repugnant enough that Kissinger won't put him in office, for the goal of privatizing governments. He's far more than a war criminal. He's Satan's right hand.

:kick::kick::kick:

[Octafish]

23. Thanks, loudsue! Hey, didya see "The Corporation?"

"I am not a number! I am a free man!"

The Corporation - the next Fahrenheit 9/11?
23.07.2004 By CATHERINE HARRIS (hah! The irony!)

EXCERPT...

(Mark Achbar) laughs when asked why he chose big business as his topic. "I thought, 'What would make a really commercial feature documentary? Let me think now'."

Yet the movie has enjoyed critical and Canadian box-office success. Tracing the history of the corporation, Achbar and his co-creators Joel Bakan and Jennifer Abbott take the viewer on a journey that tackles privatisation, pollution, free trade, patents and sweatshops.

The film interviews 42 chief executives, business professors, marketers, industry heads and even a corporate spy.

It contends that the corporation has replaced the church and monarchy as society's dominant institution; reveals that a corporation is legally regarded as a "person" in the US; and uses a psychiatric checklist to conclude corporate behaviour is the same as a psychopath's.

CONTINUED...

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/entertainmentstorydisplay.cfm?storyID=3579962&thesection=entertainment&thesubsection=film&thesecondsubsection=general

"The Corporation" isn't just a must-see. It's a must-own.

[loudsue]

31. No, I haven't seen the film yet...

I'll have to find out when/if it's coming to Raleigh, North Carolina.

But I'd love to check it out!

:kick:

[Joanne98]

32. Do you believe the blatant corruption in just this one thread.

Anybody who thinks we have a free press is an idiot.

[Octafish]

55. It goes back generations. Seems the profit motive trumps the rule of law.

... even the Constitution. Treason is nothing to the BFEE.

BUSH-NAZI LINK CONFIRMED

Documents in National Archives Prove George W. Bush's Grandfather Traded with Nazis - Even After Pearl Harbor
by John Buchanan (Exclusive to the New Hampshire Gazette)

WASHINGTON - After 60 years of inattention and even denial by the U.S. media, newly-uncovered government documents in The National Archives and Library of Congress reveal that Prescott Bush, the grandfather of President George W. Bush, served as a business partner of and U.S. banking operative for the financial architect of the Nazi war machine from 1926 until 1942, when Congress took aggressive action against Bush and his "enemy national" partners.

The documents also show that Bush and his colleagues, according to reports from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, tried to conceal their financial alliance with German industrialist Fritz Thyssen, a steel and coal baron who, beginning in the mid-1920s, personally funded Adolf Hitler's rise to power by the subversion of democratic principle and German law.

Furthermore, the declassified records demonstrate that Bush and his associates, who included E. Roland Harriman, younger brother of American icon W. Averell Harriman, and George Herbert Walker, President Bush's maternal great-grandfather, continued their dealings with the German industrial tycoon for nearly a year after the U.S. entered the war.

No Story?

For six decades these historical facts have gone unreported by the mainstream U.S. media. The essential facts have appeared on the Internet and in relatively obscure books, but were dismissed by the media and Bush family as undocumented diatribes. This story has also escaped the attention of "official" Bush biographers, Presidential historians and publishers of U.S. history books covering World War II and its aftermath.

CONTINUED...

http://www.takebackthemedia.com/com-buchanan.html

[bobthedrummer]

34. Really a supernice job by all in this thread, Octafish!

Kick.
:dem::kick:

[Octafish]

37. Democratic Unity...music to my ears.

And that's also what DU means.

Remember Aesop's Fable about the Brothers?

The Father and His Sons

A father had a family of sons who were perpetually quarreling among themselves. When he failed to heal their disputes by his exhortations, he determined to give them a practical illustration of the evils of disunion; and for this purpose he one day told them to bring him a bundle of sticks. When they had done so, he placed the bundle into the hands of each of them in succession, and ordered them to break it in pieces. They tried with all their strength, and were not able to do it. He next opened the bundle, took the sticks separately, one by one, and again put them into his sons' hands, upon which they broke them easily. He then addressed them in these words: "My sons, if you are of one mind, and unite to assist each other, you will be as this bundle, uninjured by all the attempts of your enemies; but if you are divided among yourselves, you will be broken as easily as these sticks." And they understood.

The moral: In Unity is Strength

Source (with a little editing from Octafish): http://www.webterrace.com/aesop/section1.htm

[starroute]

42. A couple of earlier DU threads on James Bath

From last February:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1124963#1125591

And from April:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1480644#1481464


And to repeat what I posted on one of them:

After leaving the National Guard, Bath was introduced into Houston business circles by Jack Trotter (a business partner of Houston real estate developer and Bush crony Walt Mischer.) Bath then became a partner in various real estate deals with Lan Bentsen (son of Senator Lloyd Bentsen, who was also a close friend of Mischer's.)

These three names -- Trotter, Mischer, and Bentsen -- show up over and over in accounts of Houston business dealings. Googling them in various combinations leads in a number of interesting directions. (For example, in the late 90's, Trotter and Mischer were working together to destroy the progressive income tax.)

A resume of Bath's from this period includes as references both Trotter and Sidney A. Adger. Adger, a Houston businessman and friend of Bush Sr.'s, was the man who pulled the strings that got Bush Jr. into the Air National Guard.

Another figure of interest is Robert Corson, who was the business partner of one of Adger's sons and was also Walt Mischer's son-in-law. Corson was eventually indicted in the savings-and-loan scandals and died of a supposed drug overdose in 1992 while on his way to Houston to testify. It has been claimed that he was involved in CIA drug smuggling and money laundering and had inside knowledge of Iran-Contra which he was about to reveal.

It seems as though Bath's CIA and Saudi connections were part of a larger picture involving all these other factors as well. Although Bath himself is a mysterious and shadowy figure, people like Trotter and Mischer are far better documented, and their doings may shed light on just what is so problematic about Bath.

See:
http://www.webcom.com/~pinknoiz/covert/brewton.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/campaigns/wh2000/stories/barnes092199.htm
http://www.krigskronikan.com/arkiv/bcci/Time%20Magazine%20-%20b28%20-%20A%20Mysterious%20Mover%20of%20Money%20and%20Planes--Bath%20-%20October%2028,%201991.html
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0208/S00148.htm
http://sanderhicks.com/billwhite.html
http://mediameyhem.blogspot.com/2004_01_25_mediameyhem_archive.html
(This last has a Trotter/Mischer/Bentsen story just below the Bath info.)

And for Trotter and Mischer's latest doings:
http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/stories/1997/01/20/story8.html
http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/page1/98/04/06/salestax.html
http://www.tucsonweekly.com/tw/2000-07-27/curr.html

[Octafish]

43. Lots of good stuf there... Brewton: Bush + CIA + Mafia = BFEE

Thanks for the postings, starroute. Excellent information.

Now talk about turnabout is fair play, from our friends at freeptown comes the Introdution to:

The Mafia, CIA and George Bush

Pete Brewton

(New York: S.P.I. Books, 1992)

Something very significant happened during our country's savings-and-loan crisis, the greatest financial disaster since the Great Depression. It happened quietly, secretly, without any fanfare and attention. It happened before our very eyes, yet we knew it not.

What we all missed was the massive transfer of wealth from the American taxpayers to a select group of extremely rich, powerful people. What these people had in common -- unknown to the American public -- were their symbiotic relationships to the Mafia and the CIA, and to the two most prominent, powerful politicians from Texas, President George Bush and Senator Lloyd Bentsen.

This small cabal of businessmen realized that the S&Ls were going the way of the dinosaurs. They recognized that S&Ls couldn't survive under rapid inflation and high interest rates. So they decided to exploit the situation for their own purposes, with help from, and rewards for, the Mafia, the CIA and their favorite politicians. They probably figured that the insulation and protection these powerful institutions and individuals conferred upon them, in addition to all the endemic protections with the financial, judicial, political and journalistic systems, made them invulnerable. They were probably right.

For unlike Watergate and Iran-Contra, this was a bipartisan scandal. There was no opposition party to push for an independent investigation. In fact, the same group of wealthy, powerful businessmen, centered in Houston, that encircle Republicans like George Bush and James A. Baker III, also encircle Democrats like Jim Wright and Lloyd Bentsen.

This information enables one to view the 1988 elections, in which not one cross word was ever spoken about the savings-and-loan debacle, in a whole new perspective. It was not merely a fortuitous coincidence that both Bush, the Republican nominee for President, and Bentsen, the Democratic nominee for Vice President, were part of, and beholden to, the same group of Houston businessmen. Even if the Democrats lost that presidential election, as they did, Bentsen could still win re-election to his Senate seat under the so-called "LBJ rule." The Houston boys, as usual, had their bets covered.

CONTINUED CRIMINALITY of the BFEE...

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a389b6a173e33.htm

More from Brewton... (different link)...

One of Mischer's business partners, Jack Trotter, is listed as a reference on Bath's resume. A source close to Bath said that Trotter was one of the Houstonians most responsible for introducing Bath around Houston and getting him wired into the right business circles. Bath and Lan Bentsen brokered a number of multi-thousand-acre tracts to syndications formed by Trotter, who was trustee for Senator Lloyd Bentsen's blind trust.

Another reference on Bath's resume is Sidney A. Adger, the father of John Adger, Robert Corson's former partner, and of Stephen Adger, Kappa Sigma brother of Walt Mischer, Jr.

A small Houston accounting firm, Weatherford Kinton& Associates, which allegedly did work for a Mischer company, also did the accounting, according to White, for Bath's most interesting company, Skyways Aircraft Leasing. However, when Mischer was asked about Weatherford Kinton, which offices itself in the headquarters building of Mischer's umbrella corporation, he replied, "I don't know them."

Skyways Aircraft Leasing began on July 2, 1980, as a company callled Cotopax Investments, registered in the Cayman Islands. Then, 29 days later, Cotopax changed its name to Skyways Aircraft Leasing Limited. On July 24, 1980, the directors of Skyways Aircraft Leasing met in George Town, Grand Cayman Island. (Interestingly, the meeting was a week before the name change was registered with the Cayman Islands authorities.) The directors named Bath as president and director and then resigned. All of the stock was made into bearer stock, which meant that it belonged to whoever possessed it. In his sworn deposition in the lawsuit against White, Bath refused to name the owners of the Skyway's stock. (Documents filed in another lawsuit indicate that Sheikh Khalid owned Skyways. White said Skyways had at least one airplane, a Gulfstream, that was on a long-term lease to an Abu Dhabi oil company.)

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.

CONTINUED TREACHERY...

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

[starroute]

51. That's Sheikh Khalid bin Mahfouz, of course

Principal (20%) shareholder in BCCI; involved in various other scandals in the 90's (banking, fake passports); Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law; client of Baker and Botts; client of Akin, Gump. A director of several of his banks, Sami M. Baarama, is said to be on the advisory board of the Carlyle Group.

"Perhaps Mahfouz’s most interesting Houston investment through his agent, CIA-linked Jim Bath, was Skyways Aircraft Leasing. Skyways began on July 2, 1980 as a company called Cotopax Investments, registered in the Cayman Islands, according to Pete Brewton’s The Mafia, CIA & George Bush.

<snip>

"One of the original subscribers to the renamed Cotopax Investments, Cayhaven Corporate Services, Ltd., was also a subscriber to I.C., Inc. -- incorporated in 1985 -- but curiously found in the very center of a chart drawn by Oliver North, found by investigators in North’s White House safe. The chart showed the private network that provided support and money to the Iran-Contras -- another story with multiple legs.

"White told Jonathan Beaty that he believed Bath was using Skyways’ money, which may have belonged to the CIA, to speculate in Houston real estate. When the real estate market tanked, Bath turned on White for the money rather than tell Mahfouz and the CIA that he had lost it."

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0208/S00148.htm

[Spygame]

52. Your right . He is a super turd

[bobthedrummer]

53. Welcome to DU, Spygame. Octafish has the goods on the BFEE criminals.

You can take that to the bank.
:hi:

[Octafish]

54. You're no slouch, yourself, bobthedrummer!

Same goes for ALL good DUers!

And a hearty welcome to DU, Spygame! Dig the moniker!



BTW: Found this pic of Bob home on a Saturday night.

[bobthedrummer]

61. lol!

:dem::kick:

[President Jesus]

62. James R. Bath's campaign contributions

http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?st=TX&last=Bath&first=Jim

What Moore doesn't tell you is that Bath was even more in bed with Lloyd Bentsen.

I think the appropriate message to get from this is that ALL Texas politicians are creepy as hell.

[Octafish]

68. Pete Brewton said if Dukakis had won, his book'd be called:

"The Mafia, the CIA & Lloyd Bentsen."

As you indicated, newsmeat.com, these Texas so-and-sos are creepy as all get out. Walter Mischer is a good place to start GOOGLING to see how there are really only a limited number of players listed in the playbook. The team, unfortunately, is filled with walk-ons.

Either way, the book is crammed full of the skullduggery that brought the Bush Organized Crime Family lots of money through the rip-off of the nation's Savings and Loans, as well as helping fund the illegal war in Central America.

http://www.famoustexans.com/georgebush.htm

Quick question: Any information available on James R Bath's political campaign contributions?

[opihimoimoi]

66. and this is Bushies Partner??? How telling

The Kerrys will bring class and integrity to the white house. Bush promised but it was EMPTY, he lied....

[Octafish]

67. Bath is just the tip of the iceberg, opihimoimoi!

His aircraft company got him in with bin Mahfouz and bin Laden and later seemed to serve as agency cover. Hmm. Airplanes and offshore bank accounts spell Iran-contra moneymaking opportunies. The guy was even on some BCCI board, giving his resume a boost, along with the politicians he "serviced" on behalf of the crooked bank.

Now this is just a sketch of what we know about the big turdy fellah. We don't know what else is there under the surface. What's worse, we don't know how many iceberg turds of the BFEE there are. I'd bet a heck of a lot of them.



Oh well. Like the king in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail,"
they're easy to spot. They're the only ones running around
who think they don't have shit on them.

[Karenina]

69. He gots some 'splainin to do...

Where IS that guy anyway?

[Octafish]

70. Sure does! Bath had ample opportunity to salt away quite a bit of cash!

Gee, Karenina. I wonder how he keeps track of all the numbered Swiss and Cayman bank accounts he seems to be associated with? Memory? Computers? Phone books? Heinz 57 bottles? It must be a tough life he leads, hiding on different continents, a new jungle-mountain-desert-underwater redoubt each night. One night he's with Rev. Moon, the next he's with Chairman Pootie-toot. Perhaps Bath grows tired of running and yachting and vacationing all the time. Does he have anyone he can really trust? Perhaps he would consider going into the US Marshall's Witness Protection Program under Crisco Aschan's successor? It's never to late to confess and beg forgiveness, as long as he turns state's evidence. Let's convene a Citizens Grand Jury and help give him an out. Then, again, would the Bush Organized Crime Family let him leave?



Questionable Ties:
Tracking bin Laden's Money Flow
leads back to Midland, Texas

by Wayne Madsen
In these Times, 12 November 2001
Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG), globalresearch.ca, 28 February 2002

On September 24, President George W. Bush appeared at a press conference in the White House Rose Garden to announce a crackdown on the financial networks of terrorists and those who support them. "U.S. banks that have assets of these groups or individuals must freeze their accounts," Bush declared. "And U.S. citizens or businesses are prohibited from doing business with them."

But the president, who is now enjoying an astounding 92 percent approval rating, hasn't always practiced what he is now preaching: Bush's own businesses were once tied to financial figures in Saudi Arabia who currently support bin Laden.

In 1979, Bush's first business, Arbusto Energy, obtained financing from James Bath, a Houstonian and close family friend. One of many investors, Bath gave Bush $ 50,000 for a 5 percent stake in Arbusto. At the time, Bath was the sole U.S. business representative for Salem bin Laden, head of the wealthy Saudi Arabian family and a brother (one of 17) to Osama bin Laden. It has long been suspected, but never proven, that the Arbusto money came directly from Salem bin Laden. In a statement issued shortly after the September 11 attacks, the White House vehemently denied the connection, insisting that Bath invested his own money, not Salem bin Laden's, in Arbusto.

In conflicting statements, Bush at first denied ever knowing Bath, then acknowledged his stake in Arbusto and that he was aware Bath represented Saudi interests. In fact, Bath has extensive ties, both to the bin Laden family and major players in the scandal-ridden Bank of Commerce and Credit International (BCCI) who have gone on to fund Osama bin Laden. BCCI defrauded depositors of $ 10 billion in the '80s in what has been called the "largest bank fraud in world financial history" by former Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. During the '80s, BCCI also acted as a main conduit for laundering money intended for clandestine CIA activities, ranging from financial support to the Afghan mujahedin to paying intermediaries in the Iran-Contra affair.

CONTINUED TREACHERY...

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/MAD202B.html

BTW: Thank Goodness for Wayne Madsen, a real journalist.