Congressman Ron Paul: What if?

From Sheila Casey's blog:

Those who are still trapped in the false left-right political spectrum don't know quite what to make of me. Leftists who disagree with me think I must be a secret right-winger, and right-wingers of course think I'm a leftist.

Truth is, our enemy right now is authoritarianism, and that can come in the guise of fascism, communism, or a combination of the two. Republicans are big on defense, so the justification for expanding government in the Bush years was the wars in the middle east. Liberals are supposedly big on government programs to help the needy at home, so in the Obama administration we will see government expanded under that pretext. But the political spectrum is not a line, it's a circle. If you go all the way to the left (communism) you are not at all far from the extreme right (fascism).

What we need now is for this massive conglomeration of power at the federal level to break up, with some power redistributed to the states and counties, and governmental power overall reduced enormously. Both communism and fascism have the power to enslave us equally.

That said, one of the very few whom I admire in Congress is Texas Republican Ron Paul. This great speech of his has been set to music by Metallica and written out in a creative way that adds oomph. Once you start it, you will watch to the end. Guaranteed.

The International - The BCCI Banking Scam Redux

I highly recommend this movie to everyone, called "The International", unless you are part of the banking fanclub and are one of the few receiving some portion of the bailout. Its based on the BCCI bank of fame and money laundering fortune for anyone old enough to remember and live through it. See the links below.

You'll even get to learn of our wonderful new pick for Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, and his ties to BCCI - part of the new Hope for some leftover Change in this new administration after this obvious run on banks with this transfer of wealth outside of the US. Kind of like NAFTA in how it took our jobs and manufacturing base out of the country, now its the bank's version of the same game. The US Presidency - New CEO, same corrupt corporation.

The International (2009)

In The International, Interpol Agent Louis Salinger and Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Eleanor Whitman are determined to bring to justice one of the world's most powerful banks. Uncovering illegal activities including money laundering, arms trading, and the destabilization of governments, Salinger and Whitman's investigation takes them from Berlin to Milan to New York and to Istanbul. Finding themselves in a high-stakes chase across the globe, their relentless tenacity puts their own lives at risk as the bank will stop at nothing - even murder - to continue financing terror and war.




This film is not hosted on this site. It is hosted on a free European hosting site. If it states that the video is no longer available as they are pulled quite often, try this link here, but copy and paste it into a new window as it seems to block from my site: http://www.megavideo.com/?v=6KJW99YC. The next step would be to go to surfthechannel.com to look for this hi-res film which I find over and over before it is taken down.

SCAM: BEAR STEARNS - TIMOTHY GEITHNER AND THE BLACKSTONE-BCCI SET UP

Saturday, February 7, 2009
Source - http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14995

SUMMARY

The Blackstone Group, a major private equity firm tied to foreign policy influence lobbying groups such as Kissinger Associates, Scowcroft Advisors, and the Madeline Albright Group, had an affiliated spinoff company, BlackRock, a Caymans Island foreign bank associate, evaluate the “fairness” to shareholders of the JP Morgan Acquisition of Bear Stearns. The deal involved a bailout of Bear Stearns creditors directly, and indirectly through cash infusions via the Fed’s open window of lending, including lending billions to Citibank in exchange for mortgage collateral. The lead negotiator of the deal, the President of the NY Fed, Geithner, is a former employee of Kissinger Associates, a Saudi-China lobbying firm, and was appointed to the Fed by Peter Peterson of Blackstone. He also worked for Secretary Rubin at the Clinton Treasury Department. Secretary Rubin is now an executive with Citibank a major beneficiary of the bailout. Citibank has major Saudi shareholders, and as such is not an American bank, per se. Citibank has been investigated for illegal terrorist money laundering activities in the Middle East, and Geithner was an employee at Kissinger Associates when it was engaged in discussions of mergers with BCCI, which was later indicted for drug money laundering.

CHRONOLOGY

Geithner

1988 Blackstone forms BlackRock as mortgage investment subsidiary. Its CEO is Peter Peterson, also CEO of the Council on Foreign Relations, for which Henry Kissinger, Brent Scowcroft, and Robert Rubin are officers.
1986 East Asian International economic specialist, Timothy Geithner joins Kissinger and Associates, a major Chinese Financial lobbying firm with strong ties to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. At the time both Kissinger and Brent Scowcroft are partners, as well as international economist Alan Stoga. It is not clear whether Geitner worked with Stoga at this time, but his expertise in China would be welcome in its China Joint Venture.

1986-1989 Kissinger Associates, Stoga and consultant ambassador Sergio Correa discuss a merger between BCCI and Kissinger Associates. Correa acts as a front man for BCCI in acquisition explorations as a paid retained consultant to both BCCI, and separately to Kissinger Associates. toga arranges contacts between BCCI Saudi linked executives Gaith Pharaon and Abol Helmy. It is not known whether Geithner worked on these transactions.

c. 1989 BCCI is indicted and Kissinger Associates ends discussions.
Geithner leaves Kissinger Associates and begins work as a civil servant in the Treasury Department. He is confirmed as Asst. Sec. for International Affairs in Treasury working for Secretary Rubin of the Clinton Administration.[Senior executive at Goldman Sachs and later Citibank a Saudi controlled foreign bank]. Rubin also serves as an officer of the CFR managed by Peter Peterson CEO of Blackstone.
1992 BlackRock is spinoff Blackstone and becomes independent.

2001 Geithner joins International Monetary Fund IMF.

2003 Blackstone CEO Peter Peterson names Geithner as President of the New York Federal Reserve Bank. 
2007 Peterson’s Blackstone sells 3 Billion dollar stake in Blackstone to the People’s Republic of China. 
2007 Rubin ‘s Citibank receives billions in bailout loans in exchange for mortgage collateral. 
March 2008 Blackrock creates firm to buy distressed mortgage securities 
April 3, 2008 Blackstone mentioned as advisor to Bear Stearns valuation, later amended to be Blackrock, founded by Blackstone.

REFERENCES
Bernanke Defends Fed's Role in Bear Stearns Deal http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/business/jan-june08/fed_04-03.html
BCCI AND KISSINGER ASSOCIATES, Congressional Report, 1992, http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/20kiss.htm
Blackstone?

BlackRock? Whoever

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2008/04/03/blackstone-blackrock-whoever/?mod=WSJBlog
BlackRock set to profit from Mortgage Distress Bailout, The new company has been formed by BlackRock, Highfields, and a management team of mortgage industry led by Stanford Kurland, Private National Mortgage Acceptance Company's (PennyMac) chairman and CEO. PennyMac will raise capital from private investors, acquire loans from financial institutions seeking to reduce its mortgage exposures, and seek to create value for both borrowers and investors through distinctive loan servicing. http://www.banking-business-review.com/article_news.asp?guid=17D0DB88-3917-44F6-AFF3-1D1AECC10E77
New York Fed Names Timothy F. Geithner President

http://aconstantineblacklist.blogspot.com/2009/02/project-anthrax-cover-up.html

Essay; Breaking the Underworld Bank

By WILLIAM SAFIRE
Published: Thursday, July 11, 1991

The BCCI Affair

CARTER, REAGAN, BUSH,
CLINTON, BUSH, AND BCCI

THE GREATEST FINANCIAL scandal in history -- the BCCI affair -- left American participants virtually untouched. The media covered the scandal poorly even though, according to one investigative journalist, up to a hundred Washington politicians and lawyers might have been criminally liable.

As a result -- much like Clinton and the Dixie Mafia -- Americans have but the vaguest notion of what happened. In fact, the two stories overlap. And like many contemporary sagas of corruption, the two stories reached deep into both the major parties. In fact, if George W. Bush is elected, we will be entering our fifth consecutive presidential administration (two Democratic and three Republican) with direct ties to leading figures in the biggest financial scandal of all time.

This time line suggests some of the interplay of individuals and parties:

1975
National Bank of Georgia president Bert Lance, whom former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter described as being like a brother and was Carter's chosen but defeated successor, meets with Jackson Stephens, a Naval Academy classmate of Carter. Stephens Inc. arranges public offering of NBG stock. Stephens would later be described by the New York Post as the man who was to "Clinton what Bert Lance was to candidate Jimmy Carter."

1976
Both Stephens and Lance help Carter in his race for the White House. Carter uses the NBG corporate plane without disclosing it. Campaign is later fined.

Two Indonesian billionaires come to Arkansas. Mochtar Riady and Liem Sioe Liong are close to Suharto. Riady is looking for an American bank to buy. Riady's agent is Jackson Stephens.

1977
Lance comes to Washington as director of the Office of Management and Budget. He quickly comes under investigation for his past financial dealings and in September resigns. His lawyer is Clark Clifford, later embroiled in the BCCI case.

1978
Hillary Clinton, the Arkansas governor's wife, is getting considerable business from Stephens Inc.

George W. Bush begins operations of his oil firm, Arbusto Energy. He assembles several dozen investors in a limited partnership including Dorothy Bush (a friend of BCCI figure Robert Altman), Lewis Lehrman, William Draper, and James Bath, a Houston aircraft broker who bought several planes from Air America, a CIA front. Bath's firm appears to be owned by Saudi investors. He also was a part-owner of a Houston's Main Bank, along with a couple of BCCI figures.

Stephens brokers the arrival of BCCI to this country, and steers BCCI's founder, Hassan Abedi to Bert Lance.

Stephens Inc tries to sell Riady stock in the National Bank of Georgia. The Washington Post quotes a US banker suggesting that Riady is working for Suharto, who is trying to butter up Carter: "They think of this country like a 'regime' similar to their own and they just don't realize that such a ploy wouldn't work." There's no deal. Lance's bank will eventually be taken over by a BCCI front man -- Ghaith Pharaon. Pharaon later sells his bank to First American. Pharaon will be fined $37 million by the Federal Reserve Board and become a fugitive.

Abedi moves to secretly take over First American Bankshares -- later the subject of the only BCCI-connected scandal to be prosecuted in the US.

1979
Mochtar Riady and Stephens Inc set up Stephens Finance Ltd. In Hong Kong.

Lance is indicted on charges of violating federal banking laws. Clifford's partner, Robert Altman, represents Lance who eventually achieves a hung jury.

During this same period, Stephens is, according to Peter Truell and Larry Gurwin in "False Profits," playing "a crucial role in BCCI's penetration of the US market."

1984
Mochtar Riady buys a stake in the Worthen holding company whose assets include the Stephens-controlled Worthen Bank. Price: $16 million. Other Worthen co-owners will eventually include BCCI investor Abdullah Taha Bakhish. Deal handled by C. Joseph Giroir II. Giroir is the Rose law firm chair who hired Hillary Clinton. Giroir will continue to be a deal-maker for the Riadys.

1985
Arkansas state pension funds -- deposited in Worthen by Governor Bill Clinton -- suddenly lose 15% of their value because of the failure of high risk, short-term investments and the brokerage firm that bought them. The $52 million loss is covered by a Worthen check written by Jack Stephens in the middle of the night, an insurance policy, and the subsequent purchase over the next few months of 40% of the bank by Mochtar Riady. Clinton and Worthen escape a major scandal. Mochtar's son James comes back to Arkansas to manage Worthen as president.

Worthen is investigated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for improper loans to companies owned by the Riadys and Stephenses.

1986
George W. Bush and partners receive more than $2 million of Harken Energy stock in exchange for a failing oil well operation, which has lost $400,000 in the prior six months. After Bush joins Harken, the largest stock position and a seat on its board is acquired by Harvard Management Company. The Harken board gives Bush $600,000 worth of the company's publicly traded stock, plus a seat on the board plus a consultancy that pays him up to $120,000 a year. When Harken runs short of cash it hooks up with Jackson Stephens, who arranges a $25 million stock purchase by Union Bank of Switzerland. Sheik Abdullah Bakhsh, who joins the board as a part of the deal, is connected to BCCI.

1988
Stephens' wife Mary Ann runs George Bush's campaign in Arkansas. He is a member of Team 100 -- individuals who have given $100,000 to the Republican party.

A few days before the supposedly surprise arrest of five BCCI officials, some of the world's most powerful drug dealers quietly withdraw millions of dollars from the bank. Some government investigators believe the dealers were tipped off by sources within the Reagan administration.

1989
Bahrain officials suddenly break off offshore drilling negotiations with Amoco and decide to deal with Harken Energy, George W. Bush's firm. Harken has had a series of failed ventures and no cash, so the Bass brothers are brought in to finance Harken's efforts at a cost of $50 million. Harken's investment banker is the same firm that helped in BCCI's acquisition of First American. Among the other BCCI-connected figures that help the deal: Bahrain's prime minister.

1990
Bush's attorney general, Richard Thornberg, is warned about BCCI but does nothing.

1991
Stephens Inc gives $100,000 to a Bush dinner committee.

With Stephens, Mochtar Riady buys BCCI's former Hong Kong subsidiary from its liquidators.

A former top aide to White House Chief of Staff John Sununu goes to work for a prominent figure in the BCCI scandal less than a month after leaving the Bush administration. Edward Rogers Jr. signs a $600,000 contract to give legal advice to Sheik Kamal Adham, an ex-Saudi intelligence officer who is being investigated for his role in BCCI's takeover of First American Bankshares.

The Miami acting US Attorney is reportedly rebuffed by the Justice Department in his efforts to indict BCCI and some of its principal officers on tax fraud charges. Justice Department later denies this occurred.

1992
Ronald Reagan is introduced at the GOP convention by former senator Paul Laxalt, whose law firm represented BCCI in a drug money case. The chair of the convention, Craig Fuller, has been the number two official of Hill & Knowlton which was involved in the BCCI-First American case. Bush's campaign press representatives has done PR for a Saudi sheik accused of involvement in the BCCI affair, earning $200,000 in fees in just two months.

Employees of Stephens Inc. give more money to the Clinton campaign than those of any other firm except Goldman, Sachs and the NY law firm of Wilke, Farr & Gallagher.

Stephens' Worthen Bank gives Clinton a $3.5 million line of credit allowing the cash-strapped candidate to finish the primaries. Little Rock Worldwide Travel provides Clinton with $1 million in deferred billing for his campaign trips. Without the Worthen and Worldwide largess, it is unlikely that the cash-strapped candidate could have survived through the later primaries.

1995
Webster Hubbell, a former Rose law firm partner -- although not known for skill in Asian trade matters -- goes to work for a Lippo Group affiliate after being forced out of the Clinton administration and before going to jail. Hubbell represented both Worthen and James Riady during the 1980s.

1998
With the settlement of civil fraud charges against Clark Clifford and Robert Altman, the puny and often diverted investigation into the American branch of the BCCI scandal effectively comes to an end. Under the deal, the pair will have to surrender $5 million in stock in First American Bankshares, which had been illegally controlled by BCCI. They will, however, get to keep $10-15 million in proceeds obtained during their tenure as First American attorneys.

*****

The BCCI scandal cheated depositors out of over $10 billion worldwide. Many of these were lower income people now being paid off at 15 and 25 cents on the dollar for damage done by a illegal operation willingly used not only by hundreds of drug dealers and other criminals from various countries but by the intelligence services of five nations (including the CIA) and at least one government, Pakistan, seeking to finance its nuclear weapons development.
Things always moved a little too smoothly in the BCCI investigation, leaving scores of unanswered questions and, so far as can be determined, hardly anyone to blame. One exception, Swaleh Naqvi, BCCI's number two man, was given a mild sentence -- over the objections of Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. He later told prosecutors that he had never explained to Altman and Clifford who really owned First American.

Naqvi's plea bargain with Justice appeared to have been what the Wall Street Journal called "sweetheart justice." Said the Journal: "When drugs and money laundering arrive, political corruption cannot be far behind. If we had an explanation of how BCCI got away with its illegal purchase of First American, we could afford to dismiss such ambiguous connections as lawyer-client relationships. But we have no such answer, and are left to speculate why, in the Naqvi plea-bargain, the Justice Department does not seem to be pressing for one."

The American media has studiously downplayed the story to the end. The New York Times, for example, put the Altman-Clifford settlement on its business page.

But while the story has disappeared not all the characters connected to this saga have. One, for example, is still president and another is ahead in the polls.

[The best book on the BCCI scandal is False Profits]