As I am preparing to go out and vote for Obama Willie Nelson reminds me of the futility and Bush's in your face policies show we are both right! As he prepares the country for a future with him as President!Willie Nelson Fears Election Could Be Cancelled "We could have George in there ten years longer," says the country music star. By Paul Joseph WatsonCountry music legend Willie Nelson fears the 2008 presidential election could be cancelled due to a national state of emergency and that George W. Bush could occupy the White House for another decade. "It's a long time until election day and some sort of national crisis could put off the elections and we could have George in there ten years longer,
" Nelson told the Alex Jones Show today: Asked how the American people should respond in the event of the presidential election being cancelled or postponed, Nelson responded, "I would hope that we'd be smarter than that and I would hope that we'd say no - we're throwing all you guys out and we're starting over - you can stop the elections if you want to but you can't stop the people." Nelson has every right to be concerned, especially considering that President Bush's post-terror attack continuity of government plan is so shocking that even sitting members of Congress and Homeland Security officials are barred from viewing it.
In addition, legislation signed on May 9, 2007 declares that in the event of a "catastrophic event", the President can take total control over the government and the country, bypassing all other levels of government at the state, federal, local, territorial and tribal levels, and thus ensuring total unprecedented dictatorial power. On the subject of the presidential race itself, Nelson said he liked Ron Paul but that the final run off would be between McCain and Hillary or Obama. "I was hoping that Hillary had changed her mind (on the war), I was hoping Obama was all the way against the war - I don't know, maybe public opinion can keep their minds where they need to be," concluded Nelson. During the same explosive interview, Nelson went public with his doubts about the official 9/11 story, saying that he thought the twin towers were deliberately imploded.
I am just stupefied that Nelson or anyone else thinks that what they think do or say matters any longer. Bush will not be stopped and we are all screwed because we saw what was happening but could get no one of consequence to see it and activate, It is now too late to turn this around though we will not stop trying!
*Those of you that converse with me know I absolutely expect Bush to keep his grubby hands in power. There are numerous excuses building most of them created by him. An attack on Iran, Pakistan, various growing environmental crises, any number of election crises, an Obama assassination, the excuses are endless. his latest budget proposal shows me his continuing disdain for average Americans as he again cuts Medicaid and Medicare while increasing funding for his wars present and future! President Bush’s final budget, a $3 trillion plan offered Monday that would continue his tax cuts and sharply reduce domestic spending, has little chance of surviving in a Democratic Congress. But the problems it lays out will survive and grow, presenting tough choices for the next administration. I beg to differ! How, for example, will the next president rein in the cost of retirement and health programs? What will he or she do about tax increases on Americans when Mr. Bush’s tax cuts expire at the end of 2010. I honest to god do not believe they have to worry about it! they think this is bush's final war budget
Meanwhile we're in the middle of super Tuesday and I have already cast my vote for Obama. many are very confused on whether or not to vote Republican or Democrat. Many will be voting for a Democrat but do not know if they should vote for Obama or Hillary. I say vote for Obama! Many are expecting major problems and confusion in the States that are stupid enough to still be using those corruptive electronic machines. That is a given! I absolutely agree with Willie Nelson but believe it is not going to matter what we think about bush cancelling elections and staying in power. We know he has total control when he wants it and those FEMA concentration camps are for us the real enemies of Bush's power grab and new societal and world order. Peace I hope!
James Joiner
Gardner Ma
11 comments:
Sorry I forgot the link to the question could Super Tuesday bring Super Chaos as there are 6 States including NJ and NY at high risk for voter machine malfunctions. Here it is
is he advocating the r word? as in the declaration of independence? that's what i would be advocating- but not necessarily in print. it is what i would do- not lay down and take it- but i won't be one person against a regime either.
I'm with Willie and Betmo, but realistically, if Bush declares martial law to make his Reich permanent, I'm sure I will be picked up the night before and learn the news behind the wire, along with most of you.
betmo
I would say he is but I am afraid he or most everyone else does not realize how much control Bush has over us and how powerless we are. It would take a full country wide action and then?
Hey so what's wrong with a little vacation Gitmo?
We will all be there and finally meeting face to face. That is once they take our hoods off.
I too am extremely worried that he will suspend the Constitution and Declare Martial Law. That's why I believe he's destroying the National Guard by constant redeployment to Iraq.
This way he can put his hired woman and children murders Blackwater on the streets to stop any insurrection by the people. And they will shoot and kill American Citizens who do not comply with there orders to go home.
And if Hillary and the rest of the enabling Democrats wouldn't do anything to stop him by now why should we believe that even if there are elections and say Hillary gets the nomination that she would do anything to effect change.
After all who in power will willing give back the new powers gained under Der Fuhrer Adolph Bush.
God Bless.
tc
I am afraid you are right. I asked my military sons what they would do if I was interned for for action against Bush. We are the enemy. There is no way in hell I can see the awesome power he has amassed allowed in Dem hands or a JFK unifier to be President. I am very concerned as to what underhanded crap is going to go on before the election.
As you read and know the list is long and growing. This is going to be one screwed up year just watch. He has yet to do his greatest damage!
Anon
He is ging to do something you know it. you will know me I will be the one without a hood. I don't think he is burning out the National Guard for that reason. The idiot just thimks they want to fight for him. Remember he can now take control of any or every states NG.
One of my sons goes back 2/25 and another I think in April. Anyway as you know, time is running short and the scum bag will do something underhanded to stay in power. The awesome power he has stolen and amassed will not be allowed in Dem hands. His worst is stil to come!
Willie may be right Jim:
The New New World Order: A First-Strike NATO Über Alles
Written by Chris Floyd
The Lords of the West have called upon their elder chieftains of war to chart a course that will preserve their power and preeminence in the face of an ever-more uncertain future. The answer? A meaner, leaner NATO, openly committed to a nuclear first-strike strategy and stripped of all the "consensus" garbage that has sometimes hampered the organization's American bosses.
Five former military headmen from the United States, Britain, Germany, France and Holland have issued a "radical manifesto" calling for "root-and-branch reform" of NATO and a new "grand strategy" yoking the United States, NATO and the European Union more tightly together in a military behemoth under Washington's dominion, the Guardian reports.
The Mighty Five – who wrote their report "following discussions with active commanders and policymakers, many of whom are unable or unwilling to publicly air their views" – were adamant in their insistence that a "nuke first, ask questions later policy" was "indispensible" in fending off any of the lesser breeds who want a piece of the action. "The first use of nuclear weapons must remain in the quiver of escalation," say the big brass.
(Who show a delightful talent for turning a phrase, by the way. "Quiver of escalation!" Fine stuff indeed, capturing both the minatory image of weapons at the ready – and the psychosexual thrill that all militarists feel at the thought of a good surge.)
In order to "prevail" over the dusky hordes, the brass also call for: "an overhaul of NATO decision-making methods;" eliminating consensus votes and national vetoes; doing away with the right of member nations to restrict how their troops will be used in an operation; "the use of force without UN Security Council authorization," and setting up a "new directorate" of leaders who can bypass "EU obstructions" (i.e., objections to America's will) and "respond rapidly" when Washington whistles.
Our poetic chieftains don't phrase the latter point quite so crudely, of course, but it is obviously one of the main objects of the exercise. A "streamlined" NATO, operating without the need for broad consensus among members – and free of even the pretense of seeking UN approval – will inevitably be an even more pliable instrument for its most overwhelmingly dominant member, the United States. And with "imperial overreach" badly straining U.S. forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world, a "reformed" NATO would be a very handy tool for extending the Pentagon's scope.
The great and good behind the manifesto are Gen. John Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs under Bill Clinton; Lord Inge (Peter Inge, as was), former chief of the UK's general staff; Gen. Klaus Naumann, former chief of staff of the German military; Admiral Jacques Lanxade, former French chief of staff; and Gen. Henk van den Breemen, former Dutch chief of staff (whom the Guardian rather irrelevantly informs us is "an accomplished organist"). They have already handed in their homework to the honchos in the Pentagon; the 150-page "blueprint for urgent reform of Western military strategy and structures" will likely be taken up at the NATO summit in April, the newspaper reports.
And what are the dangers to "the West's values and way of life" that the war chiefs want to aim nuclear missiles at? Well, "political fanaticism and religious fundamentalism," for a start. (Reckon NATO will nuke the next GOP presidential debate?) The "dark side of globalization" is another; this apparently covers organized crime, terrorism and proliferation of WMD. Then there's "climate change and energy security," which will entail "a contest for resources and potential 'environmental' migration on a mass scale," as the Guardian puts it. Another danger worth nuking over is "the weakening of the nation-state, as well as of organizations such as the UN, Nato and the EU."
But how do the manifesto's "reforms" actually address these problems? For example, as we have seen over the years, unilateral, unsanctioned military action by the West only exacerbates "political fanaticism and religious fundamentalism." What's more, the mass slaughter of innocent civilians in these interventions – not to mention the repression, chaos and corruption they inevitably leave in their wake – only discredit the "values of the West" in the eyes of the world, which sees the assaults, quite rightly, as brutal grabs for loot and domination behind a smokescreen of pious, hypocritical blather.
And if NATO unlimbers its nukes and tanks on the "dark side of globalization" –mafias, terrorists, weapons-peddlers, etc. – it will certainly hit many of the prized assets of the West's own security and military forces, who have long created, coopted, penetrated and manipulated these darkmaterials. (A tale we have oft told here: see this and this for examples). So this is not a serious objective either.
As for the weakening of the nation-state, it is hard to see how creating a super-NATO that can override a member nation's wishes on how their troops should be used – and even override a nation's rejection of a given foreign adventure decided upon in Washington – will somehow strengthen the role of the nation-state. (Well, it might strengthen one nation-state.) And the idea that openly championing the right to launch military actions without UN Security Council approval bolsters the effectiveness of the United Nations is also a pretty good joke.
But when the Manifesters come to "energy security," and the "contest for resources" on an overwarmed, overpopulated globe, they are getting down to the heart of the matter. They know that the "values" that NATO has actually promoted over the years – not democracy, law or freedom, but keeping the Lords of the West in clover – are indeed under threat by the vast, crushing and ever-increasing economic and social disparities (at home and abroad) engendered by rapacious elites. And they aim to defend those values to the last drop of someone else's blood.
What is envisioned here is a gated community writ large; or perhaps more accurately a feudal castle bristling with modern technology: a Fortress West, where a priviliged few (supported by loyal courtiers and a cowed and distracted local peasantry) enjoy the bounty of the earth and leave the rest squabbling for scraps outside. If the others come too close or try to grab too much from the master's table – well then, it's the "quiver of escalation" for them.
The new type of war Jim:
The Bomb in the Shadows: Proliferation, Corruption and the Way of the World
Written by Chris Floyd
This week, the Sunday Times lifted the lid on one of the most important stories of the last quarter-century: how American officials sold nuclear arms technology to illegal proliferators -- including ideological allies of al Qaeda -- in return for bribes and other inducements. This widespread corruption has been protected from exposure by the highest levels of the U.S. government, which has gone to enormous lengths to protect the truth from coming out. The entire planet has been put at grave risk by the greed -- and geopolitical gamesmanship -- that lies behind this criminal enterprise, which actually is even more extensive, and goes back further in time, than the newspaper's remarkable revelations.
The Sunday Times story is based on the evidence provided by former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds, who has been subjected to an unprecedented campaign of state-enforced muzzling by the Bush Administration since she first tried to speak out about the corrupt connections between American officials and foreign agents she discovered when reviewing transcripts associated with the 9/11 investigation. As even the leaders of the whitewashing 9/11 Commission themselves now admit, that investigation was deliberately sabotaged by the Bush Administration – in part to cover up the nuclear proliferation network that has directly or indirectly enriched so many in the American elite over the past decades – including the sitting president of the United States, George W. Bush.
I.
Edmonds' revelations should be seen in their larger historical context, as an outgrowth of the activities of BCCI, the "Bank of Credit and Commercial International," a supposed financial group that a U.S. Senate investigation called "one of the largest criminal enterprises in history." BCCI was a prime vehicle for clandestine nuclear proliferation, among many other illegal activities, and was also used by the CIA and the White House for various covert operations, including secret military and financial support for Saddam Hussein. It also paid numerous grandees of the Democratic and Republican parties to front its operations – and gave George W. Bush $25 million to rescue one of his many business failures.
Although BCCI as a "bank" eventually failed, spectacularly, costing its unsuspecting customers more than $10 billion, almost no one was punished for its myriad crimes, and the full extent of the organization's activities continue to be shielded by the many national governments that became entangled in its operations, including the United States and Great Britain, where the Labour government has made extraordinary interventions in court cases to protect BCCI's secrets, invoking the most draconian state secret laws to quash a lawsuit against the Bank of England for the blind but knowing eye that the regulator turned toward BCCI's deadly fraud.
Before exploring these deeper connections further, let's review the tip of the iceberg that Edmonds has courageously exposed, despite the very real threat of retaliation from the U.S. government. From the Times:
"Edmonds described how foreign intelligence agents had enlisted the support of US officials to acquire a network of moles in sensitive military and nuclear institutions. Among the hours of covert tape recordings, she says she heard evidence that one well-known senior official in the US State Department was being paid by Turkish agents in Washington who were selling the information on to black market buyers, including Pakistan.
"The name of the official – who has held a series of top government posts – is known to The Sunday Times. He strongly denies the claims. However, Edmonds said: 'He was aiding foreign operatives against US interests by passing them highly classified information, not only from the State Department but also from the Pentagon, in exchange for money, position and political objectives.'
"She claims that the FBI was also gathering evidence against senior Pentagon officials – including household names – who were aiding foreign agents. 'If you made public all the information that the FBI have on this case, you will see very high-level people going through criminal trials,' she said."
Edmonds goes on to provide details of the operation, which "appeared to be obtaining information from every nuclear agency in the United States," under the protection of Pentagon and State Department officials. Turkish and Israeli cut-outs were used to get nuclear info to the ultimate recipient, Pakistan's intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and Abdul Qadeer Khan, "father" of Pakistan's nuclear bomb. As the Times notes:
"The Pakistani operation was led by General Mahmoud Ahmad, then the ISI chief…Intelligence analysts say that members of the ISI were close to Al-Qaeda before and after 9/11. Indeed, Ahmad was accused of sanctioning a $100,000 wire payment to Mohammed Atta, one of the 9/11 hijackers, immediately before the attacks.
"The results of the espionage were almost certainly passed to Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani nuclear scientist. Khan was close to Ahmad and the ISI. While running Pakistan's nuclear programme, he became a millionaire by selling atomic secrets to Libya, Iran and North Korea. He also used a network of companies in America and Britain to obtain components for a nuclear programme. Khan caused an alert among western intelligence agencies when his aides met Osama Bin Laden."
While the Times declined to name the top State Department official cited by Edmonds, elsewhere she has said it was Mark Grossman, "former #3 at the State Department, former ambassador to Turkey, and current Vice President at The Cohen Group, the lobbying company run by former Secretary of Defense William Cohen," notes the blogger Lukery, who has long done sterling service in publicizing Edmonds' plight and her revelations – which, as Lukery notes, are not confined to the nuclear proliferation angle featured in the Sunday Times.
Lukery goes on to note that the other "household names" mentioned by Edmonds include "Richard Perle and Douglas Feith and possibly Paul Wolfowitz. Less familiar names include Eric Edelman, Feith's replacement at the Pentagon, and former Congressman Stephen Solarz."
Lukery also zeroes in on this telling revelation:
"The Times article then notes something that I reported 18 months ago. Immediately after 911, the FBI arrested a bunch of people suspected of being involved with the attacks -- including four associates of key targets of FBI's counterintelligence operations. Sibel heard the targets tell Marc Grossman: 'We need to get them out of the US because we can't afford for them to spill the beans.' Grossman duly facilitated their release from jail and the suspects immediately left the country without further investigation or interrogation.
"Let me repeat that for emphasis: The #3 guy at the State Dept facilitated the immediate release of 9/11 suspects at the request of targets of the FBI's investigation."
(Grossman has denied all of Edmonds' allegations, telling the Sunday Times: "If you are calling me to say somebody said that I took money, that’s outrageous . . . I do not have anything to say about such stupid ridiculous things as this.")
The nuclear proliferation-for-profit ring is just one of the criminal operations that a genuine investigation of the 9/11 attacks would bring to light. Because once you start exploring any part of the dark nexus where so much of the world's business is really conducted – the shadowlands where covert operations, criminal networks, terrorism, high finance and state policy mingle, and battle, in profitable murk – all manner of chicanery is bound to emerge. And so, much as the probe into the assassination of John Kennedy was short-circuited in part to prevent exposure of a wide range of "black ops" involving the U.S. government, the Mob and other unsavoury players, so too the 9/11 attacks will never receive a full, unfettered investigation, but will remain forever – and deliberately – a matter of dispute, breeding arrant crankery and disturbing truth in equal measure, with the latter always tarred and obscured by the former.
II.
This is also true, in some respects, of the 1992 U.S. Senate investigation into what was known as "the BCCI Affair," which left several stones unturned and many questions unanswered. There are two main differences, however. First, the Senate investigation – although it operated within fairly circumscribed limits, pulled many punches, and shied away from some evidence that clearly led to the highest echelons of government -- was actually much more thorough than the official probes of the Kennedy assassination and 9/11. And second, unlike those two investigations, which continue to generate heated interest year after year, the BCCI Affair has been almost completely erased from public memory. Yet a grasp of BCCI's operations – many of which simply continued in other guises when the "bank" itself disappeared – is essential to understanding much of what is happening in the political world today, including Edmonds' revelations.
(The amnesia surrounding BCCI is even more remarkable when you consider that the man who led the 1992 probe – which turned up so much dirt involving the first Bush administration – was none other than Senator John Kerry. Yet Kerry – who knew where so many Bush bones were buried, and who had once displayed genuine moral courage in denouncing the Vietnam War after his service there – used none of this knowledge, and showed none of this courage, when seeking to oust the second Bush Administration, which retained many tainted figures from the first reign, and was headed by a man who had taken millions of dollars from BCCI. Instead Kerry spent the campaign – as he had spent much of his Senate career – trying to prove to the corporate and militarist elite that he was a "safe pair of hands," someone who wouldn't really rock the boat or kill the elite's flock of golden geese. Having thus disarmed himself, he failed to generate the landslide he would have needed to overcome the Bush Faction's election-skewing machinery – although it is very likely that Kerry would have won the election anyway had Ohio's votes been counted fairly. But here too he folded and refused to fight, choosing, like Al Gore before him, not to risk his insider status with a serious, genuine challenge to the system.)
The full details of BCCI's origins and activities – and its bipartisan corruption of American politics – can be found in the Senate report of its investigation, which is available in full at the website of the Federation of American Scientists. It is a long report, but repays reading. The extent of the criminality and moral corruption it documents is truly mind-boggling. Below is a very brief précis of the Senate's findings.
BCCI was founded by Pakistan tycoon Agha Hasan Abedi, who used what Senate investigators called his "extraordinary personal charisma" to charm his way into friendships with the world's global elite, including U.S. President Jimmy Carter and, more crucially for the operation's development, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahayan, the illiterate ruler of Abu Dhabi, who had been installed as leader of the oil-rich state in 1966, after the British engineered a coup against his brother. Abedi became in effect the personal manager of Sheik Zayed's money – and the vast wealth of Abu Dhabi – which he used to fund the creation of BCCI.
As described by the Senate, BCCI's organization set-up sounds remarkably like the one set up later by Bush Family paymaster Ken Lay with his Enron Corporation:
"BCCI was from its earliest days made up of multiplying layers of entities, related to one another through an impenetrable series of holding companies, affiliates, subsidiaries, banks-within-banks, insider dealings and nominee relationships. By fracturing corporate structure, record keeping, regulatory review, and audits, the complex BCCI family of entities created by Abedi was able to evade ordinary legal restrictions on the movement of capital and goods as a matter of daily practice and routine. In creating BCCI as a vehicle fundamentally free of government control, Abedi developed in BCCI an ideal mechanism for facilitating illicit activity by others, including such activity by officials of many of the governments whose laws BCCI was breaking."
And what were the illicit activities that BCCI facilitated for its entangled crime gangs and government agents? The Senate report:
"BCCI's criminality included fraud by BCCI and BCCI customers involving billions of dollars; money laundering in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas; BCCI's bribery of officials in most of those locations; support of terrorism, arms trafficking, and the sale of nuclear technologies; management of prostitution; the commission and facilitation of income tax evasion, smuggling, and illegal immigration; illicit purchases of banks and real estate; and a panoply of financial crimes limited only by the imagination of its officers and customers."
The Senate investigators found that the CIA lied about is extensive, long-term contacts with BCCI, although the Kerry panel often couched this flagrant falsehood in more decorous tones, e.g., "the CIA inadvertently failed" to tell the proper federal officials about BCCI's criminal activities (emphasis added). Still, much of the findings are straightforward on this point: "After the CIA knew that BCCI was as an institution a fundamentally corrupt criminal enterprise, it continued to use both BCCI and First American, BCCI's secretly held U.S. subsidiary, for CIA operations."
The criminals of BCCI were intimately involved in the execution of U.S. foreign policy during the Reagan-Bush administrations, including the Iran-Contra scandal, in which Reagan officials shipped weapons to American hostage-takers in Iran in exchange for clandestine cash for the terrorist army it was using to wage proxy war against Nicaragua. When George Bush Sr. became president, BCCI became a primary conduit for funneling secret aid to Saddam Hussein. The organization also received extraordinary protection from the White House when lower-level federal prosecutors began indicting BCCI associates for laundering drug cartel money and running guns and money to Iraq.
As I have noted elsewhere, the Italian bank BNL was one of BCCI's main tentacles. BNL's Atlanta branch was the primary conduit used to send millions of secret dollars to Saddam for arms purchases, including deadly chemicals and other WMD materials supplied by the Chilean arms dealer Cardoen and various politically-connected operators in the United States like, weapons merchant Matrix Churchill.
When three BNL officials were indicted in 1991 for a fraud scam used to mask payments to Saddam, Bush I moved to throttle the investigation. He appointed lawyers from both Cardoen and Matrix to top Justice Department posts – where they supervised the officials investigating their old companies. The overall probe was directed by Justice Department investigator Robert Mueller. Meanwhile, White House aides applied heavy pressure on other prosecutors to restrict the range of the probe – especially the fact that Bush cabinet officials Brent Scowcroft and Lawrence Eagleburger had served as consultants for BNL during their pre-White House days as partners in Henry Kissinger's lobbying outfit, Kissinger Associates.
[In addition to these connections with the criminal network, another of Kissinger's partners, retired Brazilian diplomat Sergio da Costa "served as the front-man" for the BCCI takeover of a Brazilian bank, Senate investigators found. Tellingly, the Senate report's chapter on Kissinger Associates' contacts with BCCI was deleted from the final, published version – reportedly after pressure from Kissinger himself – although it can still be found in the FAS version noted above. Kissinger, of course, would later turn down an appointment from Bush II to direct the official investigation into the 9/11 attacks – in order to avoid public scrutiny of his business affairs.]
The Kerry report found that the 1991 BNL probe had been unaccountably "botched" – witnesses went missing, CIA records got "lost," all sorts of bad luck. Most of the big BCCI players went unpunished or got off with wrist-slap fines and sanctions.
One of the White House aides who unlawfully intervened in the BNL prosecution was a certain factotum named Jay S. ByBee. In 1994, ByBee was appointed by George W. Bush to a place on the federal appeals court – a lifetime sinecure of perks and power. Mueller, meanwhile wound up as head of the FBI, appointed to the post in by George W. in July 2001, where directed the FBI's response – or lack of response – to the torrent of terrorism alerts during that fateful summer.
III.
Bush II had good reason to reward those who helped his father provide cover for BCCI. In addition to the continuing "shadowland" relationships between U.S. intelligence and key players in BCCI operations (especially the ISI connections which had used BCCI to fund Pakistan's secret nuclear arms program), George Walker Bush had benefited materially from his own connection to BCCI. As Kevin Phillips points out in his devastating – and woefully ignored – book on the Bushes, American Dynasty, Bush II's first large-scale business enterprise, the Arbusto oil company, was almost certainly financed in part with investments from American frontmen for BCCI-connected Saudi grandees Salem bin Laden, older brother of Osama bin Laden and then the head of the family, and Khalid bin Mahfouz, a major stockholder in BCCI.
The failing Arbusto was later bought out by Harken Energy in a sweetheart deal that landed business failure Bush a plum spot on the Harken board and plenty of stock to play with. Bush soon worked his magic touch on Harken: the company began to tank. It was saved by an unusual infusion of $25 million from the Union Bank of Switzerland, one of BCCI's associates. The deal was brokered by long-time Bush family contributor Jackson Stephens – who, curiously enough, was also a major paymaster for Bill Clinton's political rise. In fact, in 1992, Stephens was the largest individual contributor to both Bush I and Clinton in their presidential contest.
Phillips quotes a 1991 Wall Street Journal story on young Bush's myriad ties to the criminal organization: "The mosaic of BCCI connections surrounding Harken Energy may prove nothing more than how ubiquitous the rogue bank's ties were," the paper wrote. "But the number of BCCI-connected people who had dealings with Harken – all since George W. Bush came on board – likewise raises the question of whether they mask an effort to cozy up to a presidential son."
Given the copious documentation by the Senate and media investigations of Bush I's extensive use of BCCI to fund his and Reagan's illegal dealings with Saddam, Iran, drug cartels and the Contras, and Bush's strenuous efforts to block investigations of BCCI, the latter's huge payoffs to Bush II look more like payments for services rendered by the Bush Family, rather than just attempts to curry presidential favor.
IV.
Many of the same interests that employed BCCI for various black ops turn up again in Sibel Edmond's revelations: the ISI and Abdul Qadeer Khan, and Turkish and Israeli criminals/covert operators. Indeed, the latter played a key role in one of the Senate report's more chilling segments: "Training of Cartel Death Squads." From the report:
"In April 1989, a network of Israeli arms traffickers, operating out of Miami, made a shipment of 500 Israeli manufactured machine guns through the Caribbean island of Antigua for the use of members of the Medellin cartel. Later, one of these weapons was used in the assassination of Colombian presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan, and several other of the weapons were found in the possession of cartel kingpin Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha after his death in a gunfight with Colombian drug agents.
"The principals in the arms trafficking included Yair Klein, who had previously been identified in Colombian drug enforcement documents as involved in training paramilitary squads for the cocaine cartel in Medellin; Pinchas Shahar, an Israeli intelligence operative, and Maurice Sarfati, an Israeli "businessman" operating out of Miami and Paris.
"The scandal broke after a broadcast by NBC News on August 21, 1989 about Klein's activities, and a Colombian judge charged Klein with having engaged in criminal conspiracy in training the private armies for the cartel. In the months that followed, the scandal extended to Antigua as well, an island with no substantial military force and no need for the 500 machine guns its foreign minister ordered from Israeli military industries."
Oddly enough, the arming and training of death squads in Antiqua grew out of yet another corruption of Reagan-Bush policy by BCCI: a U.S. government loan of $2 million to Sarfati, supposedly for a melon farm he was to establish in Antiqua. The money was funneled through the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), a prime channel of crony pork – and cover for covert operations – for decades. The loan was obtained after BCCI officials vouched for Sarfati's worthiness to OPIC. The Senate report says:
"Ultimately, OPIC lost its entire investment in the melon farm and concluded that it had been defrauded by Sarfati. After filing suit against Sarfati, OPIC sold its remaining interest in the melon farm, at a loss of 50 cent on the dollar, to an Israeli businessman, Bruce Rappaport, and an entity owned by him called the Swiss American Bank. Rappaport, a confidante of former CIA director William Casey, was in this period also in frequent contact with BCCI's original U.S. contact, Bert Lance [who had been forced to resign as Jimmy Carter's budget chief during a corruption scandal. Lance was also a major partner with Jackson Stephens and others in BCCI-related deals.] Coincidentally, one of BCCI's principal board members, Alfred Hartmann, who was also chairman of BCCI's secretly-owned Swiss affiliate BCP, also sat on the board of another of Rappaport's banks."
This is the way the world works. Behind the glitz and gossip of presidential campaigns, behind all the earnest "policy debates" on Capitol Hill, behind all the "position papers" and "vision statements" of think tanks and political parties, behind all the great panoply of state and our august Establishment institutions, thieves and murderers have their way, in league with the great and good.
Anyone who ascends to national power has to make a deal with the devil: either directly to plunge their hands into filth and blood, or else swaddle themselves in "plausible deniability," looking away from the grubby details but knowing full well that their minions, agents and backers are doing "whatever it takes" to keep the machine of power and money rolling on.
This doesn't mean that leaders can't also try to do good things as well, and occasionally accomplish them. After all, Al Capone was famous for his acts of benevolence. Indeed, some leaders pursue idealistic or ameliorative policies in order to "justify" the crimes and lies that sustain the system which has raised them on high. But the devil will have his due, and the price of power must always be paid – and it is ordinary people, especially the most innocent and vulnerable among us, who always end up paying it.
Larry
Perle and Feith, where is the surprise I ask? You know all those underhanded SOB's are passing on all kinds of WMD to those they think will aid their cause.
The entire world will pay for their clandestine proliferation. It blows me away that they get away with it and simply deny it. We talk about it often but when all is said and done someone has to be able to live on this planet they are preparing to make unliveable unless mutual destruction and the end of days is the Goal!
larry
You know Willie is dead on! We have said it numerous times but what is it worth? It has been under way for years and we are powerless to stop it or get anyone to realize it. It will happen and to the demise of the entire world and our future
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